Ring In the New Year In Style...In Outfits Around $100 Each!

Happy Holidays, dear reader!

Before we know it, the end of 2010 will be upon us. What better way to celebrate the end of a year than with friends and family?

While, unfortunately, Princess and I will be unable to spend New Years Eve together, we did celebrate the New Year in our own way by shopping for two fabulous New Years Eve outfits!

Since our days of club hopping until dawn (and then some), paying well over $100 for a night out, and scantily clothing ourselves to ring in the New Year are long behind us, we found two awesome outfits that are good for dinner with friends, hanging out at home with family, going out on the town or doing whatever, wherever for New Years Eve.

So, we took a little sparkle and a lot of style, combined it and came up with two outfits we know you'll love.

In our first outfit, we combined a fabulous winter white (or cream colored for those of you who think of winter white as simply off-white or cream...like I do!) open, long cardigan sweater with an off-white and gold sequin tank top. That was paired with stylish brown leggings and camel colored booties with ruching along the back zipper. To accessorize the outfit, we added a hammered gold and silver disc bracelet. The grand total for this fabulously stylish, super comfortable, super cute outfit? $97.22!

Our second outfit is a little more casual, but certainly no less fabulous or stylish! This outfit pairs a wonderfully festive & adorable sparkly, long, gray V-neck sweater with a white camisole and dark wash skinny jeans. This outfit is topped off by black patent leather ballet flats and a leather & rhinestone studded bracelet. Could this outfit be more amazing? Definitely not...especially when it only cost $101.94!

Enjoy our looks for December! We hope they will inspire you to create your own fabulous New Years Eve look...all without breaking your already strained holiday budget! While you're recovering from your holiday madness, you can relax while looking forward to our January looks--cozy winter outfits to keep you warm and stylish on those cold days!

Happy New Year, dear reader!

Outfit 1:

The Sweater:

The Tank:

The Leggings:

The Bracelet:

The Shoes:

Outfit 2:

The Sweater:

The Camisole:

The Jeans:

The Bracelet:

The Shoes:

A Compliment Can Bring a Smile to your Day!

No, this isn’t a post from Budget about shoes, nor can I rival her amazing and vast shoe collection, but the following is a story that made me smile so I thought I would share:

This year I spent my Thanksgiving with family in North Carolina. Now I don’t normally dress up for the holiday, but with the excitement of a new venue for the holiday and cute dress I got on sale from Ann Taylor Loft for $7.50 (You did not read that wrong... $7.50!!) I decided to dress it up a bit. I also knew exactly what shoes to wear. I bought them with Budget (no shocker there) in Marshalls. They are Madden Girl Black Suede Booties, and let me just say, originally I wasn’t convinced by the revival of the booties, but man oh man do I love these shoes and am now firmly on the bandwagon of the booties!

Before heading up to my Aunt’s house on Thanksgiving, My cousins, parents and I stopped off at the supermarket to pick up some essentials my aunt was needing (her house sits on the top of a Mountain outside of Asheville N.C.) As we were heading back to the car, a 20-something girl was walking toward us, staring at my feet, smiling... as we passed each other, she turned around and yelled “I love your Boots!” I turned around and yelled “Thanks! You’re boots are great too!”

Sometimes a compliment from a stranger is a great way to start the day and add a smile to anyone's day!

When It Rains It Pours

Just a little vignette to share with you, dear reader...

My Wellies

Several years ago, when "Wellies" (or rain boots, but I prefer Wellies) were becoming popular for adults, I bought a pair dirt cheap ($10 to be precise!) at the end of the fall. They are cute--navy blue with light blue stars--but, I never thought of them as anything special.

For years, I was anti skinny jeans. (I know, I know...I'm ashamed of me, too. But, I had no idea how cute they would really look when I tried them on!) Because I was anti skinny jeans, I never wore the rain boots--they looked silly under my boot cut pants and they looked even sillier if I tried to put the rain boots over my boot cut pants.

So, sadly, they were relegated to the back of my closet. I started wearing them again last year in the snow--I put on thick socks and donned the boots to shovel. I figured that if nothing else, I'd get my $10 worth by keeping my feet dry. But, this fall, since I now wear skinny jeans, I have brought these boots into my regular wardrobe.

Yesterday, Princess and I went shopping (I know, what a rarity, right?). The weather in our area of the country was dreadful, so I wore my Wellies. At least three to four people actually stopped me while we were shopping to tell me how cute the boots were. I was surprised--I knew they were cute, but I didn't think they were stop me while I'm shopping to tell me how cute they are cute!

I guess I got my $10 worth with this fabulous find!

The Case of the Mysterious Exploding Shoes

So, I wore this great pair of black boots to work on Wednesday. I've had these boots for about three years. Last winter, the bottom of the heel had worn down to the metal, so, I took the shoes to get re-heeled. I may have worn them last winter after they got re-heeled, but if not, this was the first time I wore them.

I put them on at 7am, and it was at noon that I noticed...

My shoes had exploded. Both shoes exploded on the same day. Weird, right?

You're confused, dear reader. I know. Let me explain.

The Fronts of the Shoes

I was walking down the hallway to go pick up my lunch from the fridge. I looked down at my shoes, and I noticed that the front of both pairs of shoes had ripped--the leather was peeling away from the backing across the front seam. I first noticed it on my left shoe and, upon closer inspection, I saw the right shoe was having the same problem. Since I was walking that was all I noticed at the moment.

The Left Zipper

I returned back to where I was eating my lunch, incredulous that my boots were ripped. I showed a friend and when I looked down, I took note that the seams around the zippers were ripping as well!

Left Zipper Hole

I had no choice but to wear these shoes for the rest of the day, so I just hoped that no one else noticed. After school, when I was sitting at Dance Team practice, I was telling my co-coach about my exploding shoes. I then noticed that the hole on the left zipper had opened so much that you could see right through it. Yes, those are my fingers sticking through that hole in the picture!

I got home and showed the shoes to my husband. It was then that I noticed that the rips didn't stop on the zipper and the fronts. They were ripped in seven places total! The other places I noticed were:


the heels:

the ruching on the right toe:

the side of the right shoe:

and another spot on the side of the right shoe:

I would have been disappointed if even one spot on one of the shoes ripped. However, I'm still incredulous about the fact that BOTH shoes ripped in so many places on the same day! What would cause that to happen?

Sure, these shoes were three years old. Sure I wore them. But, I treat my shoes well. I keep them stored nicely, I don't run through patches of thorns--I just walk on smooth floors.

What happened to my shoes to make them mysteriously explode?

Why do they look like this now?

Can you solve the case of the Mysterious Exploding Shoes?!