1. 20 Days of Buried Baubles! My favorite lust jewelry site is Bauble Bar. It’s always nice getting a box from them every week with my brand new bauble that I scored for $10 during their Buried Bauble Fridays. Each week along with my brand new bauble, they would always include a personalized thank you note from their founders (handwritten!). That’s what I love about them. They have the best customer service on the planet.
Bauble Bar has become so popular, they are now in every single fashion magazine (including the front pages of Vogue). Celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow to Justin Bieber to Jennifer Lopez are all sporting Bauble Bar’s exclusive jewelry. Even the girls of Gossip Girl are wearing Bauble Bar jewelry.
The popularity of their Buried Bauble Fridays has gone absolutely insane…especially now that they are doing a special 20 days of Buried Baubles during the month of December. Each morning starting at 10AM, go to their BLOG to find the Buried Bauble clues. Somewhere on their site, they’ve hidden their $10 Buried Bauble. Just click on the jewelry and if it’s the Buried Bauble, it will inform you that it is. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Buried Bauble” picture. It will then take you to the special screen where you can order your $10 bauble. Sometimes…you can order it in more than one color!
Now, this is why I LOVE BAUBLE BAR. When you become a regular member, every time you order, you get 1 credit. Every time you refer a friend and they order, you get a credit (and I’m talking about every single time they order, you get a credit and they get a credit). After 5 credits, you can start shopping the vault for free baubles. They have free baubles for 5 credits and 10 credits.
A lot of my favorite pieces have come from the vault…those are also the pieces I get the most compliments on. I always love telling people that I got it for free from Bauble Bar. 🙂
Now, I should mention that Bauble Bar only sells highly qualitative jewelry which just so happens to be very affordable. For those looking to build a new jewelry wardrobe without spending a fortune…Bauble Bar is your answer, especially when you take advantage of their Buried Bauble promotions. Thanks to them, I have amassed an amazing jewelry collection that I get compliments on every single day. Here’s that invite code to buy and earn baubles: BAUBLE BAR.
Enjoy…because the secret is kind of out about Bauble Bar.
{You call follow Bauble Bar on Twitter: @BaubleBar}
2. Gold Glitter Ballet Flats. At first, I didn’t see what all the hype was about. Everyone was doing DIY gold glitter ballet flats on their blogs to lower the costs of owning a pair…I just didn’t get it. Why does everyone want a pair of gold glitter ballet flats?
But then something about the sparkly stuff got to me. I ended up at the Manhattan Mall one day last week where I stopped into Charlotte Russe. I not only found a black pair of glitter ballet flats, but I also scored a pair of gold ones! It’s a buy one, get the second pair for $15.50. Technically, that’s cheaper than most girls’ DIY projects.
Yes, I am in love with these shoes (and they’re very comfy). So now I get it…
3. My First Rebecca Minkoff M.A.B. I blame Gilt Groupe for this splurge. My first fashion show ever was a Rebecca Minkoff show. I was in love with her bags. I wore Karl Lagerfeld to her show and noticed some fashion industry guys remarking on my outfit. {I hope it was good!}
Owning a Rebecca Minkoff bag was a bit of a dream…until Gilt had their big Minkoff sale on their site! I was pondering a $359 splurge on one Morning After Bag (MAB), and then I saw a picture down at the bottom of another MAB that wasn’t listed on the main page. It was $159! That’s almost the same price as my BCBGeneration bag I purchased at full retail. I didn’t contemplate for too long. What were the odds that I’d find a MAB for $159? I quickly headed to my cart and bought my first Rebecca Minkoff MAB.
To me, it was fate to own that bag. I kept scrolling through and looking at the main Minkoff sale page…the bag wasn’t there. It only appeared as a suggestion while looking at the $359 MAB! To me, that’s like finding a buried bauble!
One week later and I’m carrying that bag around with a huge smile on my face.
I noticed this morning on the train another woman looking at my Minkoff MAB. She was looking at it the same way I used to look at other women carrying a Rebecca Minkoff MAB. She noticed that I saw her, so she quickly looked away, then she looked at her big tote that you get for free with purchase with some brand of parfum. Yeah…I know that feeling. That “some day I’ll own a Rebecca Minkoff MAB” kind of feeling.
With luck…it could be yours one day when you find that lucky chance that a bag pops up at the bottom of the page boasting a price tag you can afford.
As a FYI to Christmas shoppers, click on the Gilt links above (if you’ve never tried out their site before). You can get 20% off your first purchase at Gilt. If the girls at Conde Nast are crazy about this site, you should be too if you’re a fashionista (or aspiring to be one). I’ve bought a lot of home stuff from Gilt in the past…as well as shoes and bags. They also fuel my passion for Plenty by Tracy Reese. They actually make Tracy Reese much more affordable (i.e. I’m spending $45-$60 per item rather than $300 per item).
This site has stuff for women, men, children, foodies, social bunnies, and jetsetters. It’s a MUST! I mean…if Sean Avery has procured his own collection for the site, it must have some sort of NHL approval rating for the hockey realm, right?
{You can find Rebecca Minkoff on Twitter: @RebeccaMinkoff (great way to find out about deals and giveaways); and Gilt at @GiltGroupe}
4. A Turkey Roaster Every Home Should Have. I did something I’ve never done before…I baked a turkey (the day after Thanksgiving). Considering I only have a conventional oven, I tried to buy a small turkey at first, but then I saw in the Target flyer that their turkey roasters were on sale…like you could bake an 18 pound turkey in that roaster.
I thought…well, why not? I ordered one from Kmart using Ebates cash back program (you get a percentage of your purchase back by clicking the Kmart link from their page) and my Shopper’s Rewards card from Kmart (probably one of the best shopper loyalty cards out there). After all was said and done, I picked up my turkey roaster for $33. I selected in-store pickup, ran down to Penn Station and picked up the roaster.
You can cook a turkey in half the time it would take to cook a turkey in a regular oven. It turns out moist (even if you overcook it to be safe). Usually you have to defrost a turkey before you cook it so that it will be done in time. I threw a 5 pound frozen turkey in and it was done in 30 minutes. NO JOKE.
Granted, the only downside is that the appliance is pretty huge, but if you’re cooking an 18 pound turkey, it’s a perfect size. Cooking your turkey in a tabletop roaster also allows you to free up your oven to bake other things.
I think this roaster was the smartest kitchen investment I’ve ever made.
{A note on Ebates…I highly recommend using this site when you shop online. You can get a percentage of your money back from your purchases at just about every site you’re probably shopping at already. Every quarter, you get a check with all of your earnings. I started using this site 6 months ago and received $30 back already, plus a $10 gift card to Target (which came in very handy during Thanksgiving). It’s a nice way to save a little extra money. Also, when you refer people, you can make even more extra cash. In this economy…every single penny counts!}
5. Stripes and Sequins. From my favorite Bauble Bar Twitter girl comes her very own blog…that I stalk just as much as I do Bauble Bar. Stripes and Sequins talks about everything a girl loves. Being as she’s from Bauble Bar too, you’ll find DIY ways to create your own jewelry and fashion pieces.
Right now, she’s listing her top gifts for just about everyone that could be on your Christmas list. I think the perfect gifts for me (HINT, HINT) would be from her Jetsetter list (since I’m always traveling). Thanks to her lists, I decided that my boss was getting me the Rebecca Minkoff M.A.C. Laptop Case. Something about sparkly stuff has got me wishing for everything shiny and sparkly for Christmas this year. I also blame Grace for my need to own a pair of gold glitter ballet flats. Scroll through her blog…you’ll understand. She’s a very strong influence on my shopping habits…
What can I say? The girl has superior taste.
{You can follow Grace on Twitter: @gracecatwood}
