Les Nanas - Update

Les Nanas - One of my favorite stores where everything is direct from Paris IS NOT GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. Apparently the owners have found buyers and are planning to keep it running the way it has been run for the 20+ years it's been there - this is great news. And although I am sad to see the original owners skip town for greener pastures (literally), I am very happy that they are leaving their unique mark behind. So happy I spent some moola in there today - major sale action!

Beauty Pros Team Up: Free Pre-Valentine’s Primp and Pamper Event

Valentine's Day is easily one of the more depressing days of the year for most of us. And to add insult to injury, it falls on a Saturday this year. But don't let that get you down! Take the world by storm, Bridget Jones-style!! Or at least get some free beauty advice and cocktails:

To get women looking their sexiest before Valentine’s Day, Three Custom Color Specialists, pioneers in custom-blended makeup, are teaming up with Juara Skin Care and Red Market Salon for a free evening of cocktails, consultations, and one-night-only deep discounts on makeup and skin care products.

The first 150 attendees will score a free goodie bag, including full-sized products from Juara, Three Custom Color Specialists, and a certificate for a free blow-out at Red Market Salon.

WHEN: Wednesday, February 4th, 6PM – 8:30PM

WHERE: Red Market Salon, 32 Gansevoort, 4th Floor

HOW: RSVP’s are recommended. E-mail appt@threecustom.com with your and your guests’ names. Walk-ins welcome as space permits; cash only.

Juara Skin Care Founders will be on-hand pampering each guest with winter skin treatments featuring their line of Indonesian-inspired botanical products. One-night-only deep discounts will be offered. Red Market Salon Pro stylists will meet with guests to discuss the best styles for their hair texture, face shape, and lifestyle. Three Custom Color Specialists will offer makeup-touch ups, applications tips and provide one-night-only deep discounts on picks from their coveted Ready-To-Wear line.

Jan. 29: Housing Works’ Brooklyn Thrift Shop Turns Two

Brooklynites are invited to celebrate the second anniversary of Housing Works Thrift Shop's thriving Brooklyn location at a free and open-to-the-public in-store party on Thursday, January 29 from 7pm to 9pm. (Housing Works members get in at 6pm, a full hour early! Join Housing Works—you’ll do good and save big).

Housing Works' Brooklyn Thrift Shop is located at 122 Montague Street. To mark the occasion of two successful years in Brooklyn, Housing Works is giving party goers first crack at a treasure trove of designer clothing and jazzy house wares, furniture and books. Don’t miss specially discounted items such as:

Michael Kors leather blazer, $145

Tadashi silk and chiffon dress, $140 (see photo)

Vintage mink and leather jacket, $450

Diane von Furstenberg dress, $120

Oscar de la Renta jacket, $110

Brand-new Roberto Cavalli dress, $115

Fenton vintage glass bowl, $45

International Silver Company silver-plated ice bucket, $20

Fred Press Mid-Century Glass Set, including carafe, petite glasses, wood-handled tray, $40

Michelle Obama - Fashion Icon?

I know this will not be a popular statement to make, but Michelle Obama does not display a natural knack for style or fashion. Her hot husband, aka our President? Yes, he surely does. I think the French may really start to like us again soon as a result.

Wrap it Up, I'll Take it: Jan 12-25

RTR Packaging

M-F 12-8p; Sat-Sun 1-6p

RTR Packaging Showroom

27 West 20 Street (5th-6th Avenues) Street Level

Gift Wrap & Gifts

Early spring sale. Save 50% Off. With spring around the corner, RTR Packaging has everything you need for gift wrapping this season. RTR’s gift wrap in 25 foot roils are $8 per roll with tons of prints and patterns to choose from. Also find other spring must haves, including ribbons, gift boxes, gift bags, greeting cards.

And ... Jonathan Adler pillows, teapots by Martine Goron, Handbags and much more. Save 50% off their already low wholesale prices.

Need more than one bag? They have items available by the case (bags, boxes, tissue & ribbon). Buy the case and save more. Free ground shipping for all orders of $150 or more.

Tokidoki Sample Sale: Jan. 22-25

I got word of this sample sale from tokidoki, which apparently means "sometimes" in Japanese. I really have nary a clue as to what it's all about, but check out this page of the site: http://shop.tokidoki.it/ where you can get a FREE blind box cactus pup if you spend $35 until January 21!

A free what when where why who?

Oh, forget it, just go to the sample sale:

tokidoki
January 22nd - 25th

Thursday 12noon -7pm • Friday 8am - 7pm

Saturday 10am - 7pm • Sunday 10am - 7pm

Metropolitan Pavilion

123 West 18th Street (6th-7th Avenues)

4th Floor

212.736.6262 Ext 2007

The first-ever tokidoki sample sale! Come experience the cute and playful yet sexy and sophisticated world that is tokidoki! 60% to 80% off current and past collections. Over 10,000 treasures from the tokidoki accessory collection. Handbags, totes, backpacks, messenger bags, belt bags. Also t-shirts (women's and men's), hats, jewelry and much more.

Cash, Mastercard, Visa & American Express accepted. All sales final. No exchanges or refunds.

Apartment Shopping: The New Bargain?

Hello my monkeys. The Guerilla realizes that she has been relatively quiet on the shopping front. Reasons being: The economy stinks, January and February are not top shopping months, I have bought more stuff than ever in my life during the past year, I need to lose weight from the holidays (which seemed to have started in September this year), and I have been hunting like Dick Cheney for real estate. This has reduced the time I have available for other kinds of shopping and it makes me feel the need to save every penny I earn just in case the perfect pad pops up. I even got pre-approved for a mortgage via Wells Fargo already.

Although I did buy one of those DVD/VCR combo players the other day at Best Buy - it's Samsung and seems to do the trick.

Anyway, I have been spending weekends either going to appointments with real estate brokers or visiting open houses. Today I have a plan to see about 5-6 apartments. So while I have been seeing a better grade of apartment (they are all co-ops, by the way), and the prices are coming down, the cost to own in this town is still outrageous (and all smaller than the place I already live in). So my mental dilemma is: should I bite the bullet and buy something so that I can call myself a homeowner? Or do I continue on the plan I had in mind last year - pimp my rent stabilized apartment as though it were mine? I continue to waiver between these options.

Regardless, I am not buying a thing before March. Winter is a crappy time of year for real estate as it is, so I am hoping that my tenacity, no matter what the weather, will help me to more possibly become a homeowner for less. And in doing her research, Mother Guerilla discovered some articles that remind us that during the last 4-5 years, the real estate market shot up to levels that can't possibly be sustained under the current economic circumstances. I mean just since 2004 the prices of one bedrooms have gone up 60-100 percent! No other investment that I can think of even comes close to that kind of return. So, please, sellers -- either you have to accept a smaller return on your money or you may have to accept the fact that you bought at the top of an unsupportable real estate market and got swindled.

Either way, remember I am a buyer who has a mortgage at the ready. You want my money? Here it is...see it? Snap!

p.s. To sellers and their brokers. If you claim your apartment is in "mint+++ condition," please make sure that it is - for everyone's own good. An apartment with a tiny kitchen that has no dishwasher and only two stove top burners and no oven (save a convection oven-microwave) does not a "mint +++" apartment make. And lower that price! You are never going to sell.

Jan 17: Loden Dager Sample Sale

As reported in PAPER magazine's VIP Newsletter:

SATURDAY, JAN. 17, 2008
Ecco Domani winner and PAPER fave Loden Dager joins the recession-time sample sale bandwagon with a 40 percent off resort wear and 75 percent off everything else free for all. The multi-talented five-person outfit got their start when two of the members met while working at Marc Jacobs. Loden Dager's Americana-inspired menswear designs are typically only available at the likes of Barneys and Opening Ceremony, so jump at the chance to get your hands on the duds of Marc's wunderkind design offspring at steep savings.
147 W. 29th St., 5th Fl.
1-6 p.m.

MLK Day: Lord & Taylor

From Lord & Taylor, the store that can't stop giving you sales - here's more for MLK Day. A day when I will be working at my day job while most of the rest of you will be doing whatever you want! BOO!

Mint: Car Rental That Doesn't Cost One

I read about this Zipcar rival called mint on Urban Daddy NYC, and am thinking I had better check it out because it sounds a ton cheaper. I have yet to scope it out, but will report back once I get a chance.