Get Yourself a Halloween Treat: Extra Discount on Bluefly Today!

Click on the pix above to get to the site (which is starting to become my favorite place to shop online besides eBay).

Did You Miss Me?

Happy Halloween, fellow shoppers!

You may have noticed that Material Girl has not been posting much lately. I'm in the middle of Stop-Shopping-So-Much Campaign. Sad, I know. But I have to keep Cheapy from going crazy and/or choking me with my AmEx bill.

I didn't say I was on a No Shopping campaign, however. That would just be silly. And probably impossible. Every time I've tried that, I do really well for a while then I break--and there is a shopping binge. Binges are not pretty. My goal is to not spend more than I have in my discretionary fund.

So what have I gathered of late? My good friend eBay has led me to a few goodies:

• A vintage blond mink stole. Not sure where I will wear such an item, but one day I decided (despite the fact that I'm vegan) that owning one was a great idea. So far I almost wore it to a Hallowedding, and the cat has napped on it. I had previously purchased a chocolate brown mink stole, but it's too big for me (I know--you though they are one-size-fits-all, didn't you?) and will be going back to where it came from (eBay).
• A vintage suede colorblock Kelly bag. Oh it's cute cute cute. And looks like new.
  
• A fuzzy Dolce & Gabbana tank (above). While slightly Muppet-esque, also very cool. Material Girl can pull it off.
• A pair of tall black Frye Villager pull-on boots. I accidentally won this auction--I really thought I would be outbid. The auction ended at $51, which is low for a Frye auction in the fall (whether the boots are new or used). I can't wait to get them as I'm currently unsatisfied with the black boots in my boot wardrobe. The fall and winter will be Material Girl re-booting season!
  

Save the Leather

A while back I bought a cute little red leather frame bag on clearance for 40 bucks-ish. It was Fossil, so nothing to write home about, but it was cute, a great size, I loved the color, and it had a vintage-y kiss-lock closure. I found it as I wandered around at Macy's on Friday night during a stay-open-till-eleven 30%-off-existing-clearance-prices sale. I almost passed it up, however, because it was obviously either old or sadly neglected stock--it was dry. It was a red leather desert.

I can make it better! though Material Girl. I have products.

Well I tried the leather lotion I had in the pantry, and it didn't do much. So I ordered a liquid "leather restorer" from a website. It made the bag look good for about a week, then it was back to it's old, icky self. I even gave it periodic coatings of Rosebud Salve (good for dry skin, good for dry leather, thought I) which smelled nice, but was a little greasy, and added only temporary luster.

Last month I did some more googling and came up with the bomb of leather products: Pecard Leather Dressing. This stuff is some sort of miracle turtle wax for handbags. It's $14 plus shipping for a 16 oz. container of the stuff, which is kind of like an extra dense, butterscotch tub of Vaseline. It also comes in larger and smaller sizes.

If you have nice leather handbags (or even not-so-nice ones that you love) or leather boots or a leather skirt or an old saddle out in your barn or interesting leather accessories of some sort that Material Girl should not mention on her rated-G blog, I can't recommend Pecard Leather Dressing enough. (Save your Rosebud Salve for chapped lips and dry knuckles.)

Style Book Review

Dress Your Best
by Clinton Kelly and Stacy London
(Three Rivers Press)


Rating: Four out of a possible five Jimmy Choo pumps


I've been trying my best not to shop lately--we've just had a vacation and an out-of-town wedding and Cheapy is concerned about this size of our impending credit card bills. I've been doing OK so far--with the exception of the Stuart Weitzman boots below which were un-pass-up-able and a 50% off dress at Macy's the other day. Oh, and a vintage mink wrap from eBay for less than $30, because every woman should have some mink, but I decided a whole coat is rather vulgar, while a stole is elegant and could keep me warm at the movies.

Anyway, in the interest of trying not to shop too much I decided to do some reading about style instead and, of course, share my opinions with you, fellow shoppers, in a new recurring Material Girl feature, the Style Book Review.

The first book on my list is Dress Your Best, by Clinton Kelly and Stacy London of TLC's What Not To Wear. I will here publicly admit that if I was pinned down, I would have to say that What Not to Wear is my favorite show if the definition of favorite show is: 1) The show I spend the most hours each week watching; and 2) The show I generally pick first on the DVR list if I'm home alone, even before Sex and the City reruns and possibly before the latest episode of Gossip Girl. (Material Girl is a sucker for makeovers.)

I didn't have high expectations for this book because often books based on TV shows suck. I was pleasantly surprised, however. It's set up in sections for Women and Men, and features an array of body shapes and three heights under each type (petite, average, and tall). Sections for women include Bigger on Top, Bigger on the Bottom, A Little Extra in the Middle, Curvy, Not Curvy, and Extra Curvy (their way of saying plus size) . Each body type features a model and each model gets three looks--work, weekend, evening. I was a little bummed when I saw the dressing-for-26-body-types set up, because I figured only 7 or so of the 250 plus pages would apply to me. I read my section first (Curvy, Petite) and got a few good tidbits, such as tips on jacket length and that I can wear emerald green (who knew). Each section offers some good tips for everyone, however, in the form of call-out boxes on every page offering Universal Tips. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Don't be afraid to mix patterns like florals and animal prints, but don't let either over power your outfit. (Material Girl loves pattern mixing as long as it's not drunken pattern mixing.)
• For a new twist on an old shoe, add shoe clips. (Material Girl smells an eBay search--that's so my-mom-at-the-prom!)
• Go crazy for evening. Mix your metallics! (Material Girl has been waiting for permission to do this.)

Overall, the book offers that same tell-it-like-it-is voice as the show. The photography is very nice. And it's a bonus that you can get some tips for improving the look of the man in your life. (Cheapy, that means you.) Another bonus is a good 5-page illustrated glossary (which could easily be twice as long, and I wish it was). This is a fabulous book to keep in the bathroom--because why not get some style tips while you're, ehem, sitting there.

How Does This Happen?

I stopped at The Mall at lunchtime to grab some cheap sunglasses and I left with a dress (and squinted on my drive back to the office).

Stuart Weitzman Boots I Love

My best friend Lisa has lived in New York for the past 15 years or so, and last time she was in town she had on the best boots. They were sort of a dirty brown with tiny studs, perfect heel height and they looked great with everything. I've been coveting these boots ever since. I've been searching Zappos for something remotely similar. And of course I found nothing.

I just got back from a trip to New York for Donya's wedding. (My outfit worked out out fabulously by the way--I love the dress and the shoes didn't kill my feet nearly as much as I'd imagined they would.) I managed to sneak in a visit with Lisa and her husband (there was some karaoke) and she had on the same boots. And I still wanted them. She told me she had a spare pair in box at her apartment because she had seen them on sale for $100--and that they were Stuart Weitzman. (#1--that is a super bargain; #2--that's so smart!)

Tonight I've been clicking around on the ol PC and happened to do a little Googling for said SW boots. MSRP on these babies is $425-ish. I found them on Zappos for $272 but not in my size. Then I found them on Bluefly for $170--in 8.5! Had to buy them ladies. I hope Lisa's not mad I copied her. I would never do such a thing if we lived in the same city. I promise I won't ever bring them to NYC with me, Lis. You can't blame me for snapping them up.