Sale alerts

Dresses and skirts are 50% off at anntaylorloft.com.

The Limited is offering free shipping on its website today.

Lands' End Canvas is having a 50% summer merchandise sale online.

Happy shopping!

Happiness is a new skirt

If I haven't told everyone about my love of shopstyle.com enough already, I'm going to reiterate it. I was shopping this weekend at Ann Taylor LOFT, and saw a skirt I had to have. I was in love. LOVE. Even my mom said, "that's so you!" Problem was the $80 price tag. $80 for a basic that will last forever is no problem - a little black v-neck dress, a grey wool cardigan, a pair of leather pumps. But I just couldn't pull the trigger on a shimmery gold animal-print pencil skirt.

That night, I went to shopstyle.com and located the skirt. I set a sale alert; you can have them notify you when the price drops on an item. Two days later - AMAZING. I get an email saying the price is now $25. This, THIS is why I love this website. $25 for a skirt is very palatable.

Being that I'm super busy and managed to not get my mother something for her birthday, I feel like the worst daughter ever. However, I just made a purchase online and I'm having it sent to her house which should improve my status: the adorable cupcake apron from Sex and the City 2. What woman wouldn't want this? I hope she loves it!

Canvas

I've just discovered Lands' End Canvas, Lands' End's attempt at updating itself, thanks to the folks over at J.Crew Aficionada. So far I'm a fan. Some of the stuff definitely reminds me of Martin+Osa (American Eagle's grown up line). A couple of the Canvas models I recognize as former Delia's models from my high school days. Yes, I actually recognize them. Odd.

I'm thinking about adding a blog roll to my Frenetic Studio; I figure if you see where I'm spending my time you might understand my ramblings. Although, I might seem less frenetic then...

I have a William-Sonoma gift card from Christmas that I've been itching to spend. However, I am super cheap and don't want to spend much over the $20 card balance. I've been hunting the sales at all the sites in which the gift card will work - WS Home, Pottery Barn, PB Teen, PB Kids, and West Elm - without finding any sale items I'm in love with. Well, scratch that. Sale items I'm in love with that aren't $699. Like I said, I'm cheap.

Catalogs to Inspire

Right now, money's tight and a subscription to a magazine seems to be both wasteful of money and of paper. However, I LOVE having something in my hands to flip through and get ideas versus searching online.

I've found a way to supplement my lack of magazines without having to pay for subscriptions: catalogs. When I'm in the mood for decor inspiration I'll visit westelm.com or potterybarn.com and request a catalog. If it's fashion I'm itching for I head to bodenusa.com or jcrew.com. I realize I'm still creating paper waste, but it's not nearly the magnitude of my favorite InStyle.

The downside is that often if you're not ordering, you don't continue to receive the catalog. I'm okay with this since I don't need eight J. Crew catalogs with the same photos in them, and I can always reorder one when I'm feeling the flip-through need.

I've also commandeered an old sketch book to keep my ideas in. I cut out what I LOVE from the catalogs and paste them in the book. This way I can always find what I'm looking for without searching through or having to keep loads of back catalogs.

Does anyone else do this sort of thing?

Photo - bodenusa.com