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Belated Report of Macy's after xmas sale

This is a very belated report of the fabulous buys at Macy's after xmas sale. I got a Fossil watch fob (for hiking 'cause I hate wearing a watch on my wrist when I'm hiking), a sweater, and two "going out" tops from Studio M all for about $40. Patrice got an absolutely gorgeous 9 West brocade coat with faux fur collar ($50, marked down from $160, I think) and black silk top (around $20). Her son, Evan's apt description that she looked like a movie star in this outfit sealed the deal!

I couldn't find any pics online of our buys (except the watch shown below), so I had to get our pictures taken at my birthday get-together (here at Lucky 13) in our purchases. I couldn't seem to take a decent picture that night, but this is the best of them. Patrice photographed great, as always!

H&M Grand Opening!

Well, despite my preparing for Thanksgiving travel the next morning, I couldn't resist the trip to the H&M Grand Opening on Saturday morning. I knew there would be a line to get in, but I was completely overwhelmed by the reality of it. I arrived at 9:00 am, an hour before the doors opened, to find the line snaking down Powell, around the corner and all the way down Ellis, around the corner again and 3/4's of the way up Stockton, practically to O'Farrell. I was feeling a bit dishearten of ever getting in, but I figured that if I gave up my precious Saturday morning sleep-in I had to make it worthwhile.

I got to chatting with my neighbors in line, an Old Navy employee and her boyfriend (who was there quite willingly, by the way) and a couple of Macy's personal shoppers! It seems that the retail world was just as excited as the rest of us to see the new H&M store. We were pretty sure that we wouldn't get the 20% discount or the t-shirt promised to the first 200 hundred people in. My guess is that we were around number 750 in line, which numbered up to 1000, or so I read.

Excited H&M employees came by with candy and swag (which was all gone by the time they got to our end of the line) to try to keep our spirits up. I witnessed a wrestling match over a freebie thrown to the crowd, which turned out to be a set of H&M playing cards. Definitely not worth the broken finger nail the losing wrestler received for her trouble.

Finally at 10:00 the line started moving. Fortunately the wait wasn't too long. I got in a mere 30 minutes after the opening. I headed upstairs pretty quickly to the Stella McCartney section and found the cut-throat crowds that I feared. There wasn't too much left to grab up, but I did manage a silk camisole by Stella. I didn't see much else in my size so I toured through the rest of the store.

I picked up several adorable, and wonderfully affordable pieces, including a pair of tweed pants, a mohair cardigan, and nubby tweed skirt, as well as a few lovely t-shirts. As I was weaving through the girls trying on their booty in the middle of the floor, I spied one of the silk Stella blouses that was only available in size 12 upstairs. My lucky stars, it was my size!!! I really lucked out that someone decided to abandon it among the sweat pants.

Then on to the challenge of the check out line. By that time I was hot, tired and dehydrated... silly me forgot to bring water :-( But I had to press on, so I got to chatting with the girl ahead of me in line. She had been #28 in line to get in the store, arriving at 3:30 am all the way from San Diego! What dedication to shopping, I was truly impressed. After a few delays (the credit card connection went down for a little while) I finally paid for my pile-o-clothes. I won't divulge the total, but I will say that I got everything for an average of $20 per piece :-)

Finally at home I got to try everything on (believe me, I wasn't going to even look at the dressing rooms or try on in the aisles). Yay... everything fits. I think I will return one item because I realize I have something very similar to it already. Otherwise I'm keeping it all. Half of my new purchases ended up in the suitcase for my trip to LA (still H&M-less).

So, a couple of hints about H&M. The sizing is European, so buy everything a size larger than you normally do. I think the sizes are probably more true than many American stores who trick you into buying it just because you are so excited to fit into a small size ;-) The other is buy it when you see it. From all I've heard, and my experience in New York, they produce small lots of everything and are constantly restocking with new stuff. In New York I bought everything too small (before I figured out the sizing) and when I went back the next day to exchange for the next size up the items I bought were all gone.

As for the insanity of the H&M grand opening, I'd say it was worth it. I love my purchases, and am glad to be able to say I was there the first day.

My trip to Old Navy

I had a shopping jones the other night, so I made a trip to Old Navy. I got this fabulous tweed coat. It was marked $88, but for some reason I was only charged $59.50! I guess it was on sale and I didn't even know it... I love it when that happens.













I also got this lovely cashmere sweater in green for $44.50... as marked :-(

I'm so excited....

...that the new H&M is opening in San Francisco on November 19th. I'm leaving town on the 20th, so I might not be able to make it there until I get back after t-day :-(

My laptop was feeling naked....

... so I got it this adorable "skin" from Target. My laptop is very happy with her new outfit and I expect her to get alot of compliments next time I take her out in public. It even matches the laptop bag I got back in March.

I know that you're dying to know about the shoes I ordered, but they haven't arrived yet (I hate to delay gratification!).

Billion Dollar Babes

Sarah & I made an early morning trip to the Billion Dollar Babes sample sale last Saturday. Despite the long lines and huge crowds, people didn't get grabby or nasty. I managed to get a couple of great deals, a pair of Yanuk jeans for only $40 (full price is $150 -$200!) and a sweet satin shell for only $10. I have to take up the jeans a few inches, but they fit great in every other way.

After the sample sale we made a quick trip over to Nordstrom Rack to look at shoes (I'm on a hunt for some brown shoes). No luck on the shoes that day, but I got a great Perlina bag in black leather for $50. I couldn't find a picture of the exact bag, but this one's close:





So, in the hunt for my brown shoes I ordered these online from Nordstrom. We'll see if I like them, they're supposed to be comfy...

Macy's Shoe Diva redux

Macy's had another of their fun Shoe Diva parties. I was joined again by Sarah & Anne. We had a little self control and didn't buy any shoes... can you believe it? Especially surprising since we each had a couple of the Sofia sparkling wine in a can. I have to admit I had a bit of a headache the next day. I'm not sure if wine should be in a can, but it was kind of fun drinking it that way. Well, I may not have bought any shoes that night, but I was inspired to shop (see my next post about my trip to Loehmann's).


Macy's Shoe Diva's

Splendora Brow Event

After the Macy's Shoe Diva event we trotted across the street to Neiman Marcus for the Splendora Brow Event. Anne & I got our brows done by the wonderful ladies from Bella Pelle salon... gratis! Here's a pic of Anne getting her browns done.


Brow Event at Neiman Marcus

My new Duvet & Shams

I love the new duvet & shams that I picked up at West Elm yesterday. It was a lovely day to shop at the Corta Madera shopping center. They go great with everything in my apartment!


Tumbleweed Duvet

My new pumps

I got these cute black pumps at Bandolino the other day. I was looking for something for Fall that was reasonably comfy. They look really cute with pants.


Calla shoe

My trip to the Napa Outlets

What fun! Sarah took Bebe and me to the Napa Outlets this weekend. It was truly a shopping orgy. As you can see from this picture, we found plenty to buy.

Napa Outlet excursion

I got so much good stuff that I have to make a list:
1. DKNY Jeans - Jeans & a cute little smocked t-shirt
2. The Cosmetics Store - Stila lip gloss
3. Banana Republic - Ivory trousers, brown & white patterned sleeveless top, and a brown croco-leather purse
4. 9 West - pointy black pumps
5. Maxstudio - sleeveless v-neck striped top (originally $98 and I got it for $9.70!!!!!)
6. BCBG - Black & white print halter dress
7. Calvin Klein - 2 bras
8. Barney's New York - hair clip (the only thing I could afford there)

All of that for just over $300... can you believe it!!!!! It didn't hurt that I had coupons for almost all the stores that I got online.

After a very full day of shopping we had a lovely early dinner at Bounty Hunter's Wine Bar in downtown Napa.

My new suitcase

Thought I'd post about my new suitcase. I bought the matching overnight bag several months ago and have been coveting the suitcase ever since. I finally broke down and bought it at SmartBargains where it was over half off! I think it's being discontinued, so I just couldn't wait any longer.

I get so many compliments on the overnight bag, I'm sure it will be the same with this one. Plus it will be so much easier finding my suitcase on the luggage carosel than my generic black one that looks like everyone elses. I feel so grown up having matching luggage :-)


Kenneth Cole suitcase

Party at Gumps

Splendora Fresh Event at Gumps

Hi all,
Sorry it's been a while since I've written. Believe me, it's not from lack of shopping. My laptop was out of commission for a little while, but I'm back now. So, here I am with Annie, Denay, and Sarah at the Splendora Fresh Event at the famous Gumps department store in San Francisco. It was a very fun event on Cinco de Mayo, with Margaritas and hand massages. We were too impatient wait in line for the hand massages, but they looked great. The evening finished off with a nice little gift bag (I love the swag).

Shoe Orgy!

Had a fabulous shoe orgy today with the girls. After a wonderful dim sum brunch we all headed over to Nordstrom Rack for shoe shopping. I got two new pairs of shoes... these adorable metallic Etienne Aigner at half off (see pic below) and some casual blue sandals by Italian Shoemakers (whatever that is). Pic of those in the next post in black, they're much cuter in blue though. Then, as if that wasn't enough, I stopped into my favorite Haight Street boutique Ambiance and found these fabulous cork wedges by Chinese Laundry... just what I was looking for (I got them in brown). I think this will do me for sandals for now!


Etienne Aigner shoe

Chinese Laundry shoe

Italian shoemakers sandal 

I'm a personal shopper!

What fun, being a personal shopper today! I took a quick trip to Macy's "Shoes on 2" today to help Jan find some shoes for her brother's wedding. She got these great shoes from Naturalizer (in more of a Bone shade though). Jan's a great turbo shopper.


Jan's Shoes

My new shoes

Here are my new shoes from the Macy's party. They're so girly, I love them. They're by Dani Black (never heard of the brand before, but they had lots of cute shoes). Not on sale, but Sarah did have a $10 off coupon which took out the sting a very little bit.


My new shoes

Macy's "Shoe Diva" party

Hi all,
Here's my report on the Macy's shoe party on Thursday night. Here's a pic of me, Sarah & Anne with the shoe models. What can I say... shoes & wine (not cocktails, after all), what could be wrong with that? I guess we all had just enough wine, and too few appetizers, to loosen our wallets. I got a pair of beautiful pink satin slides (see the next post for the photo and details). Sarah got some Kenneth Cole sandals and a pair of fabulous snakeskin espadrilles by Via Spiga. Anne got a terrific summer sandal by BCBG, they looked perfect on her.

Thanks Sarah for getting us in!


Macy's Shoe Party