Bargainista City Style; New Years American Girl Adventure :)

Happy New Years Everyone! 

My husband dropped me and the kids off at American Girl Doll in NYC for their annual celebration to welcome the newest doll of the year. As a doll lover myself, I happily took them while my husband disappeared to brunch with his City friends uptown.

My look from head to toe:

• Hat: Carolina Amato, sample sale, $19
• Coat: H&M, $24
• Bag: Chloe Drew, Nordstrom Rack, $509.98 (retail $2,050!)
• Bracelet: Rebecca Minkoff, sample sale, $10
• Gloves: Carolina Amato, sample sale, $15
• Top: Forever 21, $5.50
• Dress: American Apparel, $7.50 (Yes, I wore this the day before LOL.)
• Jeans: Chip Forster, Nordstrom Rack, $19.98 (retail $220)
• Shoes: Rebecca Minkoff metallic rosegold Carla oxford flats, sample sale, $25 (retail $275)

I forgot to take off my jacket so you could see the rest of the outfit but I have a feeling this top will make another appearance at Fashion Week.

Ella thought it would be funny to shoot me while I was on the phone with my husband.

In what may be my 8 year old's best picture of the year, my Chloe Drew looks pretty darn cute.

I'm linking some of these pieces (and similar) for you to shop my look :)

She was too cool for school to bring her own hat and gloves ("but mom, I don't need them today") so I have her mine after she froze shooting me in the cold. She already told me I'm not getting them back LOL.

We forgot to shoot my shoes so my awesome 10 year old son lay down on the subway platform to get this shot. I really have the best kids ever. But I totally take credit for training them. Who needs an Instagram husband when you have Instagram kids :)

Ella insisted I shoot her footwear too. I thrifted those Sketchers for $3 a while back and she's been waiting for them to finally fit. Always buy ahead! If you're an American Girl fan you'll recognize her Pretty In Plaid dress (also thrifted) that she had to wear to coordinate with her doll and little sister. She matched up the floral tights herself (a 90% off Century find). Both girls have on $1 H&M tops, and Ava has $5 Joe's jeans from the Rack with thrifted Lelli Kellys.

Instead of perfectly accessorizing my kids from head to toe (like I did for the first few years of their lives), I try to encourage them to live colorfully and develop their own sense on style. However, Ella is the mastermind behind most of my girls' looks these days.

This year the AG celebration was far less exciting than previous years. I've been taking them yearly since 2010. They introduced the latest doll of the year, Lea Clark. She reminds me a lot of their popular Kanani doll from 2011 - both gorgeous dolls. Lea has long brown hair with green eyes and it was hard to walk away but only once did I pay retail and I'll never do that again. We have well over 50 American girl dolls but 95% were thrifted. They only had one craft (the turtle) and gave out a coloring poster and doll-sized sarong - that's it. They usually have a performance and multiple crafts, and they used to raffle away free dolls.

My SIL sprung for her girls' dolls to get their hair styled at the doll salon and spent more than I do on my hair LOL.

Figured out how to do the best nine on Instagram. Very pleased with my 39,851 likes this year. Hoping to double that number next year. I think it's funny that my EOS lipgloss picture had the most likes.

And that's all folks! I still owe you a 2015 round up of my favorite finds. Last year was a pretty good year for me - excited to see what comes with 2016!

XOXO
Shoppinggal

Weekly Roundup! Lots of Accessories, a Little Insta Drama, Freebies & Penny Finds...

I love this time of year because everyone hosts holiday giveaways. You know I'm a sucker for a freebie so I'm always entering. This week I won this beautiful Amber Dunes Talisman candle by Illume (retails for $25) from Wickbox. It's a treat because I had to stop buying candles when I got married because they drive my husband crazy for some reason. But when they are free he just has to deal. I photographed it with these Nicholas Kirkwood heels I scored for a penny at the Rack. Very Chloe, right?

I won a couple other giveaways recently and I'm still waiting for my prizes. One was last week but the other was over a month ago. I hate when people have a giveaway and totally flake. Will be sure to share when (and if) my winnings arrive :)

And now for the drama. For some stupid reason Instagram decided to block me from commenting for the week. On Saturday night my Instagram was acting all glitchy and made me create a new password. When I signed back in I got a pop up message that I was blocked FOR THE WEEK??!! Luckily I can still post pics and I can always comment from my closet account, @shoppinggalscloset. I guess I'll be focusing a little more on my Facebook and Twitter this week. I was really pissed because I was signed up to do my first loop giveaway tonight (and had to back out) for a Louis Vuitton bag and Hunter boots which I know you would have loved. Sigh.

Back to the Rack, on Black Friday I picked up this BCBG Max Azria trench for $19.97 from $448! Do people actually pay those retail prices? And before you ask, someone already checked and these are sold out company wide.

I also shared my penny fail on Instagram last week. When I find penny shoes I snap them up and usually don't try them on - I just throw them in my cart. I thought it was funny that somehow I ended up with two left feet LOL.

I'm most excited about these super cute $159 suede Vince Camuto Tecca open toed fringe booties that I got for a penny. Love me some fringe! I usually don't buy an open toed boot because I think they are conceptually stupid - but the price was right :)

Nordstrom Rack happens to be holding a Burberry women's shoe event at several locations - check with your local stores. Prices were only around 40-60% off retail so truthfully you can do better at the department stores end of season sales right now. It's really only worth going if you are looking for a specific older shoe. I took a couple pics of boots that caught my eye. Personally, I've purchased Louboutins for less.

Here's my Carolina Amato sample sale haul from last week. Clockwise from the top center; the pink cashmere headwrap was a sample and $10, the furry leather gloves were $10 because they are damaged by the wrists, the orange hat was free with purchase and the matching gloves were $9, the finger-less fur gloves were $15, the pompom hat was $19, the red leather & cashmere convertible mittens were $15, grey furry finger-less gloves were $15 and the red leather finger-less gloves were $10 samples. Can you tell I'm obsessed with finger-less gloves at the moment?

And a mod-shot of my new Kara Ross for Tory Burch cuff. #LOVE!

I realized I never shared my entire A.V. Max sample sale haul either. Their cuffs are what first brought me to their sale and are what keep me coming back for more. Their leather bracelets are so comfortable. And you now know about my matched cuff fixation so for $5-15 each, I totally stocked up.

Their earrings are seriously the best deal at the sale - they are buy 4 get one free and work out to $4 each! Some of these retail for over $50! The prices you see on the earrings are the wholesale and they said they recommended multiplying it by 2.5 to get the retail. (For example, $14 x 2.5 = $35.) I got the oversized mismatch pair last time as well - I got a second pair this time so I could make a matched set. The big circle on the left is actually a skinny rosegold bracelet that I plan on stacking with the cuffs to add a little sparkle.

Last but not least - the reveal of my Charlotte Olympia gift! It's a super cute scarf! Someone asked about size - it's a 25" square. To get yours click here for more details from when I first shared.

And that's all! I suspect Instagram's gonna keep me quieter than usual but keep on the lookout for my pics (and tweets) so you can stay up to date with my latest steals and adventures.

I'm linking some of these pieces and similar so you can see how well I did :)

Until next Saturday night when I get my voice back...

XOXO
Shoppinggal

It's all about the swag!

Last week I went to the grand opening of both Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx at the Fulton Mall in Brooklyn. I left my house at 6 A.M. in the pouring rain dreaming of cheap designer goods in my Peter Pilotto for Target blazer and my brand new Balenciaga in tow (after I sprayed it 2x the night before with Collonil Waterstop to protect it).

I had a REALLY bad hair day (rain/humidity) so I cropped it out :)

If you saw my Instagram you saw that I shlepped out to the Rack in Brooklyn just for these Laura Mercier glosses. Turns out there was a VIP party the night before and I'm guessing anything good went then.

I actually snapped this pic while I was waiting for 3 hours at the Manolo Blahnik sample sale later that day. And no, I didn't get anything there either :( I would have taken pics but my phone was almost dead and there were more women in that tiny room than shoes. I heard almost everything went at the VIP preview that morning anyway.

Bottom line - it sucks to not be VIP. 

All three together cost less than the retail of one!

I took this shot when I got home so you could see the colors. From L-R I got Wildflower, Daiquiri & Black Cherry. I haven't tried Black Cherry yet but so far my fave is the Wildflower - it's a pretty vibrant rose-y pink. The Daiquiri is too sheer and is a barely there coral on my lips.

I did collect a bunch of fun freebies in Brooklyn. Not sure if it made it worth the trip but here is my stash. TJ Maxx had better swag. They gave out free totes, water, umbrellas and Jelly Bellys (my favorite LOL) in the cutest container. Come to think of it I think that noisemaker was from Nordstrom Rack. TJ Maxx also had red fortune cookies (I passed - they scared me a little) and red T-shirts but I don't need another crappy men's T - and neither does my husband...

Freebies!

How cute?

That's all that made it home LOL.

TJ Maxx was pretty disappointing - I could not believe that I walked out empty handed. Seriously, who walks out of TJ Maxx empty handed? I did spy these beautiful Valentino and Celine bags but they were pretty pricey at $1500 and $2000 respectively. I need another 70% off of those prices for me to even bother. Sadly these two were the only things worth looking at in the entire store.

Nordstrom Rack did have raffles for free gift cards but of course, I didn't win any. They also had a food cart and they passed out some cute water & pastries on-line. I did have a free coffee inside to warm me up.

They were supposed to give out free totes with purchase but for some reason they didn't give me one with my glosses :(

Later that week at my mall, Desigual gave out these much nicer colorful totes for free, so I figure the universe has a way of balancing itself.

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Exciting news - Rebecca Minkoff is having her sample sale this week in NYC, LA and San Fran. I love her but I decided to stop going to the sales as I already have so many and I tend to get better deals on RM at the Rack. I'm heading into the City on Thursday so I may pop in just to see...

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This wouldn't be much of a fashion blog if I didn't share my favorite dress from the Met Gala last night. I think Suki Waterhouse's Burberry gown was amazing. It's so strange to me that I'm drawn to this dress because even when I got married I didn't go for the princess dress. But I want to wear this dress. Maybe I just want to be Suki in that moment, wearing that dress. Probably doesn't hurt that she was escorted by her boyfriend Bradley Cooper. Either way, Suki takes the cake as far as I'm concerned.

Suki Waterhouse in Burberry

After choosing my dream gown I decided to play another game, which outfit would I actually wear (based on my body) had someone magically given me a free ticket...

While it's not my favorite, it would probably have to be Charlize Theron in Dior. It has nice clean tailored lines and I really need that jacket she's sporting to help cover up my upper arms.

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FREEBIE ALERT!
I usually don't bother with the subscription boxes but this one is totally free! I saw on Slickdeals that Beauty Box 5 is giving away a free box (nothing out of your pocket but you do have to put in your credit card info) with the code FREEBOX6 - just be sure to cancel your subscription after your free box arrives. Click here to sign up!

Stay tuned for my City adventures later this week! As always, wishing you happy shopping :)
Shoppinggal