I Heart New York!

Our family vacation trip this year was to New York.  There is actually a story to just the trip alone.  We planned on going to New York the week between Christmas and New Years and we actually made it as far as Houston before we were stuck due to the blizzards in the east.  Needless to say our trip was cut extremely short.  We ended up just flying back home the next day with plans to reschedule this summer sometime.

Well, a couple of weeks ago we finally made it.  It was myself, the hubs, my daughters, their husbands, and my grandbaby.  We rented an apartment in Murray Hill (28th and 3rd) and it was fabulous!  I definitely recommend going the apartment route if you have not done that before.  Check out homeaway.com, we use it almost all the time now for vacations.  We’ve found that renting a house is just better than staying at a hotel.  But, I digress…

This post is actually about my shopping while in New York.  Let me preface the shopping pictures first by saying I LOVE NEW YORK!  I think this was my 5th or 6th time there and it is never enough.  I love that city so much.  The entire atmosphere is just addicting to me.  The shopping…even more so!

Our first shopping experience was at Century 21.  Now if you’ve never been to New York and you get a chance to go, you should check out Century 21.  It is down in the Financial District and it is amazing.  Tons of designer stuff at rock bottom prices.  I tend to get shoes there mostly but I found a couple of dresses this time too.  Check out what all I got:

These were all very inexpensive.  The most expensive ones were the white beaded BCBG sandals and they were a whopping $29.95.  A price you can’t beat for beaded BCBG shoes! 

Then I found these glitter flip flops.  They are incredibly comfortable and super duper cheap ($6.97) so I bought one in every color: silver, blue, black, and brown.

Lastly I got these ruffled shoes.  I actually lucked out finding these.  They were not on display anywhere but I was looking for my size in another shoe and saw this box and was pleasantly surprised.  They are super cute!

Next, we went up to the designer dress department and I found 2 really great dresses.  The one above is a Marc Jacobs.  It was a little pricey for a discount store ($75) but it fits me like it was made for me and looks so classy on.  I had to go for it.

Then I found this super cute casual dress.  It also looks great on and is just so fun!  It was not bad priced either.  I don’t know what designer it was but the price was $35.00 so I had to grab it up.

That about sums up my shopping at Century 21.  The girls all got a bunch of shoes as well and Brandi found Sidney a few things as well…like the cutest gold Juicy Couture shoes ever!

The next time we went shopping we headed north to Bloomingdales and H&M.  H&M stores are amazing, especially for the younger shopper.  They are really geared towards Juniors but I always seem to find something in there for myself too.  This time I found a great dress!

It is super cute and looks great on too.  I especially liked the price too.  It was $35.00.  There was this darling matching jacket too but they didn’t have my size so no jacket for me.  I found quite a bit of jewelry there as well, all very cheap but very cute.  I wish they had an online store but they don’t.  I hear they are getting one in Dallas soon though so maybe I’ll be able to go a little more than once every couple of years! 

After leaving H&M we walked over to Bloomingdales!  OK..I love this store.  Our first stop once inside was the Louis Vuitton store within the store.  I had already decided before we went that I wanted a real Louis Vuitton purse.  It would be my biggest extravagance!  I looked at all the bags, tried them on my shoulder and my arm and picked out this one…

It was difficult for me to cash out that much money for a purse but hey, you only live once right?  You might as well live in style whenever you can. 

So…the point of this post?  Besides showing off my stuff?  Well, this post just reinforces what I’ve said so many times before…be choosey with how you spend your money.  For instance, this time I bought quite a few pairs of shoes but none were very pricey.  I splurged on the purse that will last forever and will never go out of style.  I mean this style has been around for years and I don’t see that changing any time soon.  The dresses will probably go out of style so I didn’t spend that much on them.  The shoes will also go out of style since they are all very trendy, so again not much money was spent on them.  Once again I bought one very expensive thing but it is a classic and I will have it forever! 

So, have you gone on vacation this year yet?  Did you buy anything super cool?  Please share!!!!!