Ready, Set…Toe!

I’m sorry if this is gross to some of you.  I spent a year running in a pair of shoes that were a bit on the small side for me.  They didn’t hurt my feet but did eventually result in the loss of a toenail.  A toenail is a terrible thing to lose during the Summer.  I spent the first half of the Summer with a bandaid over my toe.  Then I discovered that Revlon makes some very nice artificial toenails.  Who knew???  They are fench pedicure toenails.  I took my fake big toenail to an inexpensive pedicure place and had them paint all of my other toes to match (which, by the way, is very difficult to explain to a non-English speaker).  Now I’m proudly flipflopping around without a care in the world.  The Revlon Perfect Pedicure kit is available at most drugstores.  Mine was $8.99.

A Lotta Links

Happy long weekend Everyone! It’s nice to be home this weekend, not going anywhere in particular, except maybe the playground.Next to the sale section, the Behind the Curtain section of the Kate Spade is the best. There are a bunch of pictures of KS related events, a free desktop graphic, and an adorable picture of a young Kate Spade standing in front of what looks like an early gift show display of her original black nylon box bags. I found this list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die in the “Things We Love” section. With fall approaching it is nice to have an impossibly long reading list! Continue reading »

Are You Packing?

No, not Sarah Palin style a/k/a packin’ heat. I’m talking about packing for vacation. I’m going away for a short camping weekend for Labor Day which didn’t require a lot of packing but I am in the process of picking out a fancy new rolling suitcase for my upcoming trip to Germany. I really want a hard-sided suitcase. I think they look really nice and I also like to bring back a few bottles of wine when I travel and I really think the bottles would be safer in a hard-sided suitcase. I found Luggage.com to have the best selection and they also seem to offer free shipping on most of their pieces. Obviously, if money were not an issue I would be going with the Zero Halliburton for $2,7500. Its beautiful, durable, probably bullet proof and I’m pretty sure its the one Dick Cheney would want me to pick. Sadly, it is far too rich for blood. The bag I’ve actually chosen seems like a real steal. Is the Traveler’s Choice Rome 24″ Hard-Shell Spinner Upright in Silver for 64.99.

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Granny Gift Guide

We recently received a query from Friend-of-Blog LesMouse, who writes “HelpMe, Prettybourgeois, my Aunt is turning 85 next week and I’m going to her birthday party. What do you get an 85 year old who is pretty hip and doesn’t seem that old?”

Good Question, LesMouse. We love the old folks here at PrettyBourgeois; especially the ones who don’t seem that old. I personally particularly like the ones who DO seem old, we like many of the same things, old ladies and I; like nubbly tweed, brown leather handbags, BBC Pride and Prejudice on VHS, afgans, I could go on and on. It can be difficult though to buy gifts for our elder friends, often they aren’t up to trying new and exotic lotions or potions, and they hate the idea of you spending a lot of money on them, so your gift must be useful and thoughtful, yet unassuming. I also try not to give any older woman a gift that could possibly become a collection, like say, a porcelain lighthouse. They often have many grandchildren and other young relatives just waiting to pounce on a theme like that, and before you know it your friend has an insanely large collection of lighthouses, or what have you. My grandmother, for example, through absolutely no fault of her own, has a sad hobo clown collection. You know the sad clowns whose faces are painted with lead based clown makeup and dirt, who wistfully peer out of freight cars with one tear (sometimes a SEQUIN tear) rolling down their cheek? Is there anything scarier than a sad hobo clown? No.

Anyway, my mind is positively overflowing with gift ideas for a cherished Aunt or Grandmother, so I’ll get started.

Shown above is a group of 4 re-printed vintage books bound in grey with fabric ends from too cute for school bookseller Persephone Books. These books are about £10 each and each manuscript in the collection is a re-discovered 20th Century piece chosen to be worthy of republishing, and most are by female authors and/or concern the lives of women. There is a gift book selection list here, or you could go crazy and buy the entire 78 book collection for £650 .

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5 Things I Love for Under $25

I’ve been in the market for a new hair dryer for a while now. My current dryer doesn’t have a diffuser attachment, which is a must for wavy hair. Then when the new InStyle arrived I learned a proper blowout requires a concentrator, who knew? I didn’t have one of those either! Combine all of that with the fact that my current dryer smells like its about to spontaneously combust and you’ll know why I just ordered the Conair Comfort Touch Tourmaline Ceramic Styling System, Model 225 for $24.99. It has 1875 watts of ionic technology and comes with both a concentrator and a diffuser. Continue reading »

Home to Roost

Velocity  has a nice expanded collection of home items from Roost, one of my favorites. They make those little sea urchin creamers you see at Anthropologie, as well as lots of other rustic yet sophisticated things that are all relatively affordable. I love the slice of wood mirrors, which range from $77 to $150, and there is lots to see on the Roost page, especially the lovely lighting:

Doesn’t It Feel Good

Last year I resisted the ankle boot.   Frankly, I thought they looked a little funny on and they remind me of the time I was in a children’s theater production of The Hobbit.  I spent the Summer hoping this trend would die a natural death and that I could enter Fall safely without having to purchase a pair.  Then my Fall magazines arrived and I see that they are not only still around but they actually seem even more popular than before!  Fine, ankle boots you win.  I will buy you.  But I will not spend 100s of dollars.  I will not even spend $50.  I will instead by this oh so cute and vegan friendly pair from Payless for $27.99.  You may have won the battle ankle boots, but you have not yet won the war!

Is That You, Talbots?

When I was with my Mother this weekend I happened to flip through the latest Talbots catalogue, I swear this woman must receive at least 4 Talbots catalogues per week. She is a very loyal Talbots dresser, so I guess it makes sense. Although I know many women my age do not like Talbots, I am normally willing to at least give them a try because sometimes they have some good in-your-face classic dresses and etc. that I like. Also for some reason I am the exact Talbots sample size, which claim to be the normal sample size but are cut generously in several helpful places (which is nice because most samples are anything but generous, which is why I have on many occassions shed tears over the samples that sometimes end up at Filenes Basement). I know the Talbots samples are friendly because I often stop by the outlet near the corporate headquarters and mom clothes ground zero, a/k/a Hingham, Mass, where they are sold, and they have never made me cry.

Anyway my tiring look through the insane backlog of Talbots Catalogues at my Mother’s house paid off when I finally got to the new Fall 08 one and saw this awesome dress! It is a silk twill, which is that nice textured sheeny fabric, like a men’s tie, and I LOVE the shape and the stand up collar, and especially the print, which is very graphic and yet doesn’t seem like it would be thickening, like so many large prints can be. This dress is $158, and I can tell you like many mom clothes, Talbots dresses are very well made, so not a bad price.

A Lotta Links

Happy Saturday! While CountryMouse is off to the Vineyard I’ll be holding down the fort. I noticed an awesome preview of the Target Fall home collection care of Apartment Therapy. I am really loving the nightstand which is $149 and apparently became available on 8/15. Continue reading »

Thanks Sonia

I am headed off to my parent’s house tonight, because they live halfway to the Wood’s Hole, and we are going to the Vineyard tomorrow! For some reason I can’t take any overnight trip, no matter how short, without making a harried last minute trip to Target for baby wipes, t-shirts, you name it. So of course this afternoon I was rushing through Target picking up things I should have ample supplies of at my house but somehow don’t, when I spied this awesome stacked mineral makeup palette from Sonia Kashuk. It is a mineral concealer, powder foundation, and powder blush, all stacked and screwed together, for $14.99. I got the darkest shade which doesn’t seem to be available online, shown above is the medium, but I tried it this afternoon and LOVE it. I was able to take a Philosophy concealer palette, a compact powder, AND a blush out of my makeup bag for the weekend, and that is valuable real estate. I did have to add a brush (if there were one in the stack it would be perfect). There are a lot of makeup palettes out there I don’t really care about, full of a million lip glosses and eye shadows and etc, I find that when I want to touch up during the day it is my skin that needs perking up, not my (blue) eyeshadow. Just kidding I have been wearing boring brown eyeliner from Clinique for at least 10 years. I Love my eye makeup rut!