99 Cent Jewelry Junkie

I like shopping for jewelry. But I really like shopping for 99 cent jewelry at NBC. The other weekend they had two large tables filled with Rubbermaid bins that were stuffed with jewelry. And everything was 99 cents. Be still my heart.

Now, most of the jewelry was in sad shape - broken clasps, only one earring, cracked stones, you get the idea. But there were some wearable or workable pieces and I snatched those up.

I got two of these Chico's necklaces. One for Sister and one for me.


There were a lot of these in the bins. Some had broken strands so all the beads off of one strand would be missing. Or the clasp would be wonky. I found two that were in pretty good shape. They each were missing only the outermost strand which is hardly noticeable and I think another strand might be overkill anyway.


I really like the bronze color of the beads. I think they'll go well with lots of different colors. The tag said $48.


Heavy bib necklaces have been catching my eye for the past few seasons, but they seemed so trendy that I haven't bought one. I had decided that I was going to get one anyway and then I was so pleased to find two bib necklaces in great shape.



I'm keeping one and sending the other to my sister.

The beads on this next necklace are really pretty in person.


There were sooo many of these. They had a neat magnetic clasp.



The problem with the clasp is that the magnets were falling out of the clasp. I found one that had a working clasp, but one strand was missing. I ended up buying a second one, too, planning on reworking it somehow.

I got home and removed the clasp from the broken necklace and restrung all the beads onto fishing line and a clasp I had left over from my days of making bead necklaces.


Uh, this took a lot longer than I anticipated. I was hoping that the teeny, tiny gold beads were attached to the larger beads, but they were not. I'm going to give this necklace to my mom which makes the work worth it because I think she'll really like it and it will look good on her.

Since the original necklace had all three strands, this single strand is now really long. She'll be able to wear it doubled:


or tripled:


I also bought my mom this Kenneth Cole necklace. She loves green.


It was in a Ziploc bag and the center stone was detached. When I got home I just reattached it with some floral wire.


The Kenneth Cole tag said $38.

I bought this necklace for myself.


The clasp was broken so I cut it off with wire cutters and replaced it with a clasp I had left over from a Goodwill necklace I restrung.


Seven necklaces for $6.93. I'm sure glad I stopped in that day!

Saturday

I can't believe it's already Tuesday and I'm just now posting about Saturday. I'm going to need to figure out some sort of schedule for myself or this blog is going to quickly head south and my two followers will stop checking in.

Saturday involved two key outfits. You don't need to see Outfit #1 when I was eating this.

Let's just say they were "at-home clothes". My most inner circle knows about these favorite indoor T-shirts: Casady (about to be retired), I Survived the Y2K Bug, We Be Jammin and my beloved, black Coca-Cola T-shirt with silver writing (that's not really silver anymore) that I got in fifth grade after saving up Coke can tabs.

Anyway, back to the real clothes.

We went to a 4-year-old tee ball game to support this guy.


How cute is he?! Wade and Sarah deserve the credit for this little guy and Sarah is the talented photographer behind the camera.

Since the Gators' team color is blue we HAD to wear blue to support #8. Um, navy is a form of blue.


I don't have much true blue so I settled on this navy Ralph Lauren skinny fit polo.


You can get it for $75 here,


but I scored this one for $19.99 at the Ralph Lauren outlet in Gilroy, CA.

Anyone else been to Gilroy? I could not get over how much the entire town smelled like garlic! It was SO strong! I kept searching for validation, begging someone to confirm that, indeed, IT SMELLED LIKE GARLIC EVERYWHERE.

I finally had my moment when we learned that Gilroy is the Garlic Capital of the World, home to the annual Garlic Festival and there is even a Miss Gilroy Garlic Queen & Court. Meet 2009's Royalty:

I paired the RL polo with some Gap Curvy Jeans.

These are $59.50 at Gap or online, but I got them on sale for $19.99.

Saturday night we met our friends Brent, Abbey, and Luke for some Tex-Mex.

Wait. Luke's little face didn't make that one and you don't want to miss out on this:

There. Much better.

I wore the Gap jeans, but paired them with a white tank top (not pictured) that I got for 99 cents at NBC and a drapey, short sleeved cardigan with cute pockets.

It's not much to look at on the hanger, but I really like it and get compliments whenever I wear it (and not just from my mom). A woman even stopped me once to ask where I got it. Don't you just LOVE it when that happens?! I told her it was from NBC, but I didn't tell her I only paid $3 for it and it had the Kensie tag on it for $98!

I wore it with this bracelet.


I've had this for a few years but you can still get it here at Express.com

I'm usually not a fan of the clothes at Express, but I do like some of their jewelry. For some reason I got a $10 off coupon in the mail from them so I thought it might be worth a visit. This bracelet was on sale for $10 so it was FREE. Totally worth the visit.

I've got one last picture from Saturday.

This is Brent and he is showing off a brand new pair of Salomon ski/snowboard pants I got at Goodwill for $4.50! I should have taken some pictures showing the cool pockets and ways you can adjust the fit of these pants. I was going to ask him to model the pants, but when I asked Tim to help me remember to get a picture of "Brent in his new Salomon pants" Tim said, "Don't do that." So here's Brent holding the pants.

Speaking of Goodwill, I went to Goodwill last night and I even took my camera with me so that I could share some fabulous finds out there for you. I was so disappointed to discover that my battery was dead! There was a cute, ruffled top from Ann Taylor Loft, a dark denim skirt that looked brand new and a plum, silk wrap dress that even had its matching belt. Matching belt is a major Goodwill plus. Matching belts seem to get separated from their garments at Goodwill.

Oh well. There's always a next time. And then the time after that and after that ...

Question: Goodwill. You WILL Goodwill or you WON'T Goodwill?

Friday's Fabulous Finds

Last Friday I had the chance to spend three glorious hours combing through my favorite store, Half of Half, or NBC, as it used to be called. I get in some sort of time warp when I go there. The minutes quickly turn into hours as I browse, dig, and sometimes scrounge for my fabulous finds.

Friday was the start of a 99 cent sale. Thankfully I had gotten the NBC email in time to switch cars with Tim. I don't take my car there (anymore) since the after-market Pioneer stereo/faceplate was stolen out of my car in the NBC parking lot. I stayed away for a few weeks after *the incident* but I decided not to let those losers get the best of me. Tim wouldn't call them losers. He actually said that he felt sorry for whoever broke into my car because they must have been pretty desperate. Staring at the wires hanging out of my dash I can't say I felt the same. That ended up being my most expensive trip to NBC yet. But I'm still ahead in the long run.

There wasn't anything too terribly exciting that I had to have. I ended up with a basic, black cardigan that I'm sure will come in handy. I had a couple that I gave my sister because I thought I never wore them, but I've found myself wishing I had one to grab on my way out the door.
It has some cute details. It's very fitted and looks good open or buttoned. I really like these little pleats or tucks at the shoulder.

I'd say the price was right. It was regularly $59, but since it was a green tag (half off the marked price last week) it was $6.

The system at NBC can take a little getting used to. They price everything at 75% off the retail price, or half of half, get it? So ... this cardigan was $59 retail (at Macy's, actually), so when it was new merchandise at NBC they priced it at $12. They actually priced it lower than half of half. It had a green tag. Once green tags have been in the store a while they will run specials like 25% off the marked price or, in this case, 50% off the marked price. So my $59 INC cardigan from Macy's was only $6. Oooh, I love combining colors and math and clothes.

I LOVE this next cardigan. It is super soft and a great, neutral color. I am on a ruffle kick lately. I love how versatile this sweater is. I can wear it with jeans or with slacks. (I don't really care for the word slacks, but what else would you call them?)

And this was $6, too. It's also INC by Macy's.

I only got one 99 cent item this trip. A nice pair of semi-matte, gold earrings.

They will get lots of wear, I'm sure, and they will look great with my bangles from the Banana Republic outlet that I picked up for about $13.

We'll see how long I can last before I have to go back. I got an email yesterday about a big $19 designer sale at NBC. I wanted to go this afternoon, but I decided to give it another week. I can quit anytime. I promise.

Question: Is there a store that calls out to you?

Feel free to leave your answer in the comments so that all the fabulous and classy girls can learn from you!