JCrew Spring Sale: heart shaped picks

Dear Heart Shaped Readers,
Today is a great day! Why? Because it’s Spring Sale day at jcrew.com. Here are my top picks:

I focused on tops, thinking they are so versatile in the summer with just white pants, shorts or jeans:

Joelle blouse: adore alone or under an amazing jacket.

Python-print silk tank: so blousey and cute, but kind of edgy with that snakey pattern. Perfect under a cardigan, or on its own after work.

Travastere paisley boatneck: this is so precious. It looks great with white cafe capris, but also dressed down with jeans.

Any of these shirts would look amazing with a chunky gold bracelet:

Oversize scrolled-link cabochon bracelet

And an ADORE pair of gold flats!

Liv metallic ballet flats: these are the perfect replacement for your horrendous tory burch revas. ADMIT IT, YOU HATE THEM. Well, hobble no more. These are so cute and also comfortable thanks to the butter-soft leather and cute strap. Everyone has them in silver, go for the gold.

Enjoy!

xoxox

Harlow

p.s. Here is a late entry just sent into me from Grier – I can’t believe I missed it!:

Striped Katie Sweater Jacket: I wear these sweater jackets to work almost every day. They are so cute and really dress up a pair of dark jeans. Adorable!!

Thanks, Grier!

 

Grey is in for Spring, at Anthropologie.

In my opinion, Spring is always the best season for Anthropologie. They just always seem to really hit it right. This year it seems like they are all about grey.

These dresses are so cute, and great for brunch and strolling the South End, or to wear to your evil younger sibling’s college graduation.

All Purpose! Snap ‘em up now.

 

Longchamp’s New Effort: Le Heinous.

Shiloh and I agree, this is not okay:

  

For shame, Longchamp. For shame.

We do not like it when a classic, elegant brand turns around and le sells out.

Le horrible!

 

Nordstromsational!

We had the distinct honor of being invited to the Nordstrom Grand Opening Event at their new store in the Burlington Mall on Wednesday night!

The Good: It was fabulous. The evening began at 6:30 with passed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, as well as buffet tables and open bar throughout at the store.

The two full-length fashion shows featured the latest designs by Milly (adore), Vince (snore), Missoni (yuck), Diane Von Fustenberg (yum), and St. John (surprisingly adorable), to list a few. These 20 minute shows gave us ample opportunity to put all our reality TV watching to good use by making snarky comments on the models’ walks and the designers’ designs.

Miss J and Nina Garcia would be so proud!

During the fashion show, the tables were reset for dessert, featuring the most delicious lemon bars, chocolate tarts, glasses of mousse, and even “smores on a stick.” Delectable.

The Bad: Juggling plates of salmon and giant sugar-rimmed peachtinis is relatively dangerous around the pseudo couture. One juggling act resulted in a thai shrimp skipping down my pencil skirt. buffets are dangerous! Also, buffets (like Amtrak stations) bring out the worst in a crowd. They need to pick ONE end of the table to load with plates and silverware. Otherwise people will flow from both ends along the buffet, resulting in a traffic jam in the middle, with all parties feeling self-righteous and impatiently glaring at each other while vying for the salad tongs. Just a suggestion.

The Ugly: Imagine this: you are dressed to the nines, teetering back to the coat check after innumerable glasses of champagne and peachtinis, when you see it: the wall of giant silver boxes. THE GIFT BAG. Your mind swims with the possibilities: tiny pots of La Mer, mini bottles of Laura Mercier liquid liner, a vial of the new Chanel Chance perfume (totally snagging this for summer by the way), maybe even a free makeup gift set. Your smile widens in delight as you struggle into your coat and charge towards the gift box. It is passed into your grip like the Olympic torch and you stumble along until you’re an acceptable distance before, heart pounding, adrenaline coursing through your veins, you rip it open to reveal…a commemorative plate. and a tacky, doodled “girly” plate that looks like an embarassing dailycandy illustration ripoff.

(shudder).

 

Orla Fixation.

Here at heartshapedrocks, we are obsessed with Orla Kiely. This hot brit designer created an amazing collection of laminate zip wallets and purses about 4 years ago. Since then, her skillz and ADORE designs have exploded, to our total glee and delight!

Orla items to check out:

We are fanatical about her Big Zip Wallets. We all have one, and we continue to gift them to our fave friends now. Rowen, Coco, Grier and I have been known to all whip these out post-wine drenched dinner, and are then bestowed with compliments by the waitstaff.

Besides their obvious insane level of aesthetic adorableness, these wallets are super functional. The laminate makes them almost impossible to get dirty, and they are wide enough to fit a passport and the freakish money they have in weird foreign places, like Canada.

Next to the wallets, our fave item is the Holdall. This is virtually the perfect bag. It is ideal for work, as it comfortably fits our Macbooks, chargers, matching Orla wallets and all the random Laura Mercier makeup items that litter the bottoms of our bags. It has amazing interior pockets in different sizes for keys, cell, iPod and random necessities like bobby pins and Tootsie pops.

It’s laminated exterior is awesome when it rains, and also makes it the perfect carry-on. You can cram this thing full of US Weeklys and still have room for all your travel necessities.

We love love love love love this bag. Please buy it.

Orla Kiely has an amazing collection of clothing as well! (check out her sweet Wellies at Weekend, site below.)

To buy:

• Weekend
• Garnet Hill
• Anthropologie
• Orla Kiely

 

Adore Anthropologie!

Now for something completely different.

HOW CUTE ARE THESE DRESSES FROM ANTHROPOLOGIE?

We love.

Spring is here! (almost.)

 

Filene’s Fantasy Land!!!!

From: Harlow

To: Readers, Heartshaped

CC: Your Credit Card

Priority: High!

Subject: FILENE’S FANTASY LAND!!!

ATTN: HEART SHAPED READERS

Filene’s Basement is a circus of awesomeness right now. You must go asap.

Items of note:

Rock and Republic jeans for $129.00 (normally $169 -$300.00)

Diane von Furstenburg vintage print, jersey wrap dresses for $125.00 (normally $325.00)

We snagged a pair of R&R Cosbies, and we are in love.

So grab your Charlie Card and hitch a T-ride to your closest FB!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Harlow

 

Polished and elegant.

Little known fact: Harlow loves polishing silver. It’s true, the more tarnished, the better. I actually enjoyed coming home from college and polishing the Nana’s silverware at Christmas, only to watch her put it back in the drawer on December 26th, wait 365 days and do it again. It is so satisfying, people!

But until recently, I did not own any silver polish myself. Why? Because really the only silver I have that needs polishing is my ancient Elsa Peretti heart (practically part of the dress code in New England boarding schools), and those infuriating places on the Cape Cod bracelet that get black even though you wear it everyday. I will never understand this.

Anyhoo, while replacing a lost earring back (argh), I was pitched the Tiffany & Co. silver polish by the girl in the Express-looking stretchy black suit at Customer Service. We’ll call her “Tiffani,” for simplicities’ sake.

Tiffani: “We stand by our silver polish.”

(She said this in a tone that was at once bored and superior – how do they do that?)

Harlow (eyebrow raised): Really? This is the same polish that you use back there?

“Absolutely.”

Moment of staredown standoff.

Me: “How much?”

It’s only $5! I figured that was worth a try, and snagged the small bottle, no polishing cloth, thanks very much, and set off home to test it out.

Well, it works fabulously! It gets the silver that really bright white look that Tiffany’s silver always has. Even a necklace chain came out very clean-looking and far from the tarnished black creature that it had been only moments before. The cream is very ‘liquid-y,’ (it looks and feels just like calamine lotion). It works gently, so polishing didn’t require a lot of “elbow grease,” and it’s non-abrasive, so it didn’t leave little scratches in the silver. Overall, it was $5 well-spent.

Doing a quick price check, here’s how it stacked out against some other popular silver polishes:

• Cape Cod Silver Polish: $19.99
• Hagerty Silver Polish: $8.99
• Sterling Silver 3M Tarni-Shield Silver Polish: $28.42

I’m impressed that Tiffany didn’t hike up the price because they are Tiffany, and that seems to be their bag, baby.

Bottom Line: I’m a believer. Snap yourself up a bottle and get that 925 looking like a bazillion bucks.

 

tres comf.

Boston winters mean you are forced to sport a lot of heinous footwear. Uggs, Pumas you convince yourself are cute and “sporty” even though they never look exactly right with your jeans, and the odd suede loafer you pick up at an Ann Taylor Loft sale and hate yourself when you wear.

Boston summers, on the other hand, are for tripping down Newbury, clutching an iced coffee and sporting flip-flops, Jack Rogers and cute strappy sandals like these.

But, before that delightful time commeth, there is the dreaded transition season.

Fear not. For there is French Sole. These ballet flats will have you skipping, twirling and pirouetting all over the Hub in comfort and Grace Kellyesque elegance (rumor has it she wore these shoes herself).

Our friend K in NYC turned us on to this amazing brand, and we will never look back. Our favorite styles are the Passport (shown above in black) and the Pax.  These flats come up higher across the toes. This means less toe-cleave (we don’t miss it) and much less rubbing/pain around the big toe knuckle (we really don’t miss it). So toss aside your Tory Burch torture devices and slip into a pair of these beauties.

* Notes:

• if the website does  not have your size, check Saks, Zappos.com and Jildorshoes.com. You can also call the store in NYC (212) 737-2859).
• make sure to check for the FSNY stamp inside the shoe, there are evil imposter brands out there.

 

Leather Trade

I need these.

So as HSR readers know I was in Colorado this weekend. Instantly upon arriving in this state a New Englander like myself becomes enraged with jealousy. Now, I love my Red Sox baseball hat and ballet flats (see Harlows Patently Nessacary post) , I would not trade these for the world, but being in Colorado makes my inner Cowgirl desperately wish she could Cowboy suit up 365 days a year. What made me the most jealous was not necessarily the true rough rides around but the clear out of towners who had done an amazing job of making the key purchases to play the part. How awesome would it be to wear these kickin’ boots instead of traditional NE winter wears like Pumas, Merrills and horrible Uggs.

So, let me tell you a story. My friend “T” arrives at the airport with the most perfect pair of cowboy boots. We are talking, perfect toe, good click of the heel and the perfect amount of leather detail. Where. Did. You. Get. Those. Are the only words my brain can fire out. Luckily, this is the best part of the story, T made her perfect boot purchase in Manhattan and ON SALE. Searle, a NYC boutique, had these amazing hand crafted wonders on sale for $69.99. I could not believe it, especially after an apres ski trip through Vail Village confirmed that these exact boots were being sold at “Bust Out Retail” for around $600.00.

So immediately upon returning to the condo and stripping off ski boots and layers I ran to my laptop to check out the Searle website. T was in fact correct, her perfect boot was found with a simple click on the SALE link. Intriguingly the same boots were now $99.99?!
Alright, totally still affordable and amazing. So today at work, I look at the same link. The boots have been bumped again to $129.99. Excuse me. Is this Ebay!! When were stores allowed to put something on sale and then bump the sale price UP? I understand we are not talking about Banana Republic who puts their $125.00 slacks on sale and then quickly lowers the price to $19.99. But seriously!! Who does that, raises the price after teasing with an amazing sale?!

I know what you are saying….Just buy them already!!! But here is the catch. They do not have my size and I am very doubtful that a size 10 just won’t fit my foot long, size 11 foot.

So the only logical answer is…..spend my entire lunch hour calling every Searle in NYC demanding a stock check on size 11.