Archive for April, 2010
Steals & Deals: Bottoms Up
Many of you know that I have a giant binder full of clear plastic sleeves where I shove a ton of tear sheets from magazines, catalogs and other places that inspire me (read more about how I organize that magical binder right here).
And one ripped corner of a magazine that has been in my binder pretty much since its inception has been an image from Elle Decor with gorgeous vintage looking glasses in green, yellow, blue and pink with recessed designs on them that create a light and almost sea-glass-ish effect. They’re credited as being from this super swanky store (which doesn’t happen to have a shot of them on their site- boo) and they’re listed as being $13 a pop there. Kind of pricey for drinking glasses but they’re just so lovely I’ve kept the torn magazine corner around for years. I guess I have eye candy abandonment issues.
Then something serendipitous happened this weekend.
I found insanely similar looking glasses at World Market. For just… wait for it… $2.99 a pop! They were available in clear, green, blue, and pink- but you know we grabbed the green and blue ones (three of each, six in total) since they feel the most like “us.” I can’t wait for our next gathering so I can break out these babies and liven up the table. I love that it’ll be a subtly mixed and matched tableau thanks to the two layered tones that we went for. Because there’s nothing like green and blue glass goblets (with fleur-de-lis on them, no less) to make you feel oh so luxe whenever you sip from them.
And sip from them I must. John actually has a huge rule that I’m not allowed to purchase anything that we won’t use regularly (which is great because we don’t have cabinets full of “special occasion only” servingware and china). So whenever a craving for lemonade or chocolate milk has hit in the past few days I’ve just reached for one of these babies. And let me tell you, I feel very posh indeed. Much more so than I used to with my clear Ikea glasses of yore. I’ve even been thinking of going back for more since they’d also make adorable votive holders or even pencil cups on my desk. Gotta love something that multitasks (and looks so good doing it).
Of course we love that we spent $18 for six (as opposed to nearly that amount for ONE of the designer ones). In fact six of the designer ones would have set us back $78! And I even laughed to myself when we later came across another similar version of them (in green and blue only) at Anthropologie- which incidentally is charging $6 a pop. It’s definitely a break from the $13 designer price, but our $2.99 World Market finds are still the lowest that we’ve seen for anything even remotely similar. So there you have our recent drinking glass victory. Cheers to hunting down deals! And speaking of sleuthing out the look for less, have any of you found dead ringers for something a lot pricier and couldn’t believe your luck? Share and share alike.
You Pillow Designer, You: Freebie Winners!
You guys had quite a wide range of dream product lines mentioned in this week’s giveaway from InMod.com. It should come as no surprise that when I asked Sherry what she’d love to design, she sheepishly admitted she’d create a line of white ceramic animals. But in reality she’d never sell any and would just end up hoarding them all to herself (and assigning them names and personalities) – so let’s all hope she sticks to blogging.
And since we can only dish out two totally free pillows-designed-by-you this week, InMod.com has generously agreed to help the rest of you get your mitts on some custom pillows of your own for less. Through May 13th, get 10% off your custom pillow or custom duvet order with the code YOUNGHOUSE. So go forth and make pillows!
But back to our two lucky winners. Once we wrangled random.org away from playing with the pillow design tool, it cranked out these names: Christine P (who wants to design purses – lots and lots of purses) and Sara (who has dreamed of her own handmade greeting card line). Congrats to you both! You can now consider yourselves official pillow designers – and we’d love to hear what design, size and materials you’ve chosen.
Oh and don’t fret if your name didn’t come out on top this week. Monday brings another artful giveaway, so you might want to start hunting out a blank wall in your house in preparation…
Find more freebie info on our Giveaway FAQs page. Pics courtesy of InMod.com.
