So historically we’ve been very suspicious about sales in general, and online sales in particular, but we are praying you saw the Hautelook 90% sale that we apparently and literally slept through, because we hope someone we know got the Foley and Corinna bags for $54, or the James Perse tank for $4. $4! It’s mostly too late for that one, but the Rue La La sale started about 15 minutes ago, though it’s not as good as the Hautelook sale. We remember the days when we didn’t turn our collective noses up at 50% off. They are a long time ago now.

Anyhoo: We’d love to hear about the deals everyone’s getting. We will only say that we now own a $60 Diptyque candle for much much less than $60. (About $40 less.) Tragically, it is the Muguet fragrance, which we now know smells more like "candle" than "lilies of the valley." And a J. Crew sweatshirt for $16, which was possibly the least glamorous purchase we could have made in the store. Eh, J. Crew, you know what you’re getting.

If anyone would like an invitation to Rue La La or Hautelook—we’re sure there’s some good MBA-style reason why these sites need to be invite-only, but we do not understand it yet—email us asap!

Above: Kooba bag, was $535, now $199

Honestly, we’re all about January 5 at the moment—or at least the 26th (sales!). (We are feeling a bit of the religious-holidays-should-not-be-turned-into-shopping-extravaganzas-in-efforts-to-prove-affection-for-various-relatives! anger.) Anyway, we offer two extremely various Xmas salutes: above (vaguely, vaguely, vaguely sacred, but mostly secular), and below (mostly secular, but in our opinion, rather lovely and sacred.) We’ll get the balance better next year, maybe. Merry xmas!

We can’t believe we forgot this: The picture below, which we love, is from Joel Tettamanti’s "Qaqortoq" series from Greenland. We saw it in Elle Deco UK and loved it. Definitely check it out!

Here we go!

Hi LB,

What’s your opinion on mid-calf length boots for short people (I’m 5 feet 4 inches)?  I think they look flattering tucked into skinny jeans but I guess some people don’t think so.  I can’t find a picture of the boots I want but they look like these, without the buckle. http://www2.victoriassecret.com/images/prodpri2/V258147.jpg

I’d like to know other people’s opinions to inform my perhaps otherwise delusional style ideas.  Thanks. 

~MJ

Well! We, personally, do not think of 5’4" as terribly short. But we definitely don’t see a reason why boots SHOULDNT be tucked into jeans. We’re not terribly sold on the harness boots that you show – we’d probably go for something flat, that comes a little higher on the leg – we think the mid-shin height is tough for ANYONE.  We like the one from Miz Mooz (honestly, who comes up with these names?) – the taller shaft will make you look a little taller, the buckle is more understated, and the heel gives you  a little lift if you want it, but it’s definitely not like wearing heels.

What does everyone else think?

Miz Mooz Kendra boots, $179.50

-LB

So today’s question is definitely outside of our normal fashion/beauty/what do I buy my boss for Christmas realm. But, we figured, given the state of our economy/businesses closing/thinking we just saw a quartet of men on horses, we thought we’d address. Just please remember, we are not official job coaches, we are not Suze Orman. We do not have a proper savings account and we wear dirty jeans to work. That is, take this as you wish.

Dear Lil Bunny,

I hate my job. Not like sometimes, or I have bad days. I truly, deeply detest and hate my job. It pays the bills and it’s not a harmful work environment – those are the good things. I don’t like what I do, I don’t like the company I work for, I have no friends at work, the commute is awful, and I feel like a faceless, worthless peon in a corporate monster. I’m not learning things, I’m underpaid for what I do – my vice president has come out and told me that – and I do not have a promotion in sight. I cry on my way to work. I know this isn’t your normal kind of question, but, what’s a girl to do?

Please help.

Love,

Sarah

This is such a bummer for us to hear, but instead of being all sad sack about it, we are going to suggest action! Yes, you can dwell on how unhappy you are OR you can assess the situation and figure out what needs to happen. While we are completely not financially brilliant, we read and watch a lot of Suze Orman. Her first question would be, do you have 8 months of emergency money saved. If not, GET ON IT. No excuses. Start saving every penny you can. Stop believing that buying things will make you happy – they won’t, you just end up with neat stuff (trust us on that one). Make a budget (you can find templates all over the internet) and stick with it. Every extra penny goes in the bank. This is your escape route. We know of a close friend who saved enough to buy a car, in cash (and we’re talking Honda or VW, not Kia), by not spending money while she was at work. She brought her lunch every day. When she was finally able to quit her soul sucking job, she had enough cash to survive for a while before she found something.

Next! Start looking for jobs. Finding a job now is like trying to get into Harvard or something – it’s entirely POSSIBLE. It’s just going to be hard. Tell yourself over and over that this is a tough market. Make your resume the best resume it can be. If you think it needs polish, hire someone to polish it. We cannot believe some of the resumes that have come across our desk. Find a proper interview outfit (we got a nice Calvin Klein suit from a discount store for under $200), proper interview shoes, and bag. Tuck them away in the closet so they don’t get wrinkled. Now, the hard part. Schedule time every other night to look for jobs via the internet. It can get frustrating. Disappointing. Discouraging. Do not take it personally. Just keep going. We once interviewed at the same company FIVE TIMES in one year – sometimes with people we used to work for – and had no luck. It’s ok. Keep trying. Reach out to friends, family, old coworkers. Make a LinkedIn profile. Post Facebook statuses about how you are looking for a new opportunity. Just get yourself out there.

After you’ve done that? Well. The hard part. You just wait. Sit tight. And work. While there are days we’d love to quit our job in a b.o.g (blaze of glory, of course), we know better. We know that our smile will not pay our mortgage, or our car payment, or our eBay bill. Basically, suck it up and get through the work day. Do your best, so you have a good reference when you leave. Remind yourself that you are NOT what you do – what you do is how you pay bills. It does not have to correlate to who you are as a person. It does not define you. Clock in, work, eat, work, clock out. Rinse and repeat until something new comes along. It could be days, it could be a year. Make time in the evening to do things that make you happy; see friends, family, pet dogs, eat pizza.  Squirrel away every penny you can. Once you have your Suze Orman fund, you’ll be in better shape to quietly, happily walk away from your unhappy job.

But until then, buckle down, take the suck into your own hands, and do what we do best; make it awesome.

-LB

We saw our skin in the mirror for the first time today without a tan and after a six-hour plane ride, and the combined effects were disturbing, to say the least. Winter skin! We are pretty sure we are suffering from it. This is distinguishable from "plane rage," which we also suffer from, in that it does not make you want to kill the two fur-coated women standing in front of you with matching LV luggage. (Our best alternative, which would have been to say, "Did you get those two for one?" also went not-taken.)

Anyhow: winter skin. Dovetailing fantastically with today’s Reader Mail.

Dear BS:

It’s almost officially winter, and I’m dreading another season of pasty, dry skin. I’m wondering: Do you use a different (heavier) moisturizer in the winter? Do you change your skin care routine at all?

Thanks!
Y.

The quick answer is undoubtedly yes, in that during the summer our skin care routine is to let is look after itself, as we are too busy doing other things. In the winter, we do use a moisturizer: the Ultra Facial Moisturizer—which, to be honest, we only use because we got it free at some point. (We love (and prefer) the Cryste Marine Ultra Riche but—free is free.)

And we will admit: Flying out of SFO this morning, we saw part of what seemed to be a very long and informative televised program about Philosophy, in which the Philosophy founder used the word "efficacious." We hate it when people are all, like, "Big word there, sport!" but … big word, sport! At least in the moisturizer context. Though we read in the new Lucky, to our disturbance, that exfoliators are now suspected of perilously  thinning the skin over time, we still think we’d like to try Philosophy’s Miracle Worker set (warning: it’s currently unavailable online, but we’re hoping to have better luck in-store.) The one time we did stick religiously to a skincare routine was two months we lived in Paris. Apparently we had no one to talk to, so we thought about our skin a lot. Obviously, this means we need to go back to Paris. Hmm. This is frighteningly persuasive logic, we’re thinking. Anyway: We’re fans of Philosophy and though we hated lugging the Purity bottle around, our skin looked great. Ah, nice skin! Ah, Paris! 2009. We must start planning for both.

Above: Philosophy’s Miracle Worker set, $85

Like we said, we’re not buying anything this season we don’t have to unless it’s deeply, deeply discounted—which means, hurrah, we can now buy Tarte! 40% off with discount code FF08 through Monday. We’d use it on the Natural Cheek Stain—was $28, with discount, $16.80

This is a bit of a tricky sale of the day for us, since we couldn’t possibly buy it, given that we eating things that stain too much. However: half off. We were just reading in the Times about how this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy "investment" (cough) pieces—too bad we’re all getting fired! Which tends to impact the purchasing power, etc.

If anyone desperately needs a Foley + Corinna tote, this is $200+ cheaper than the black one. Nothing says "I’m rich!" more than expensive cream handbags, we’re thinking, if that’s what you’re going for. Foley + Corinna handbag, was $444, now $222

We were just describing Rare Device as our favorite store in SF, and it is: It is just ridiculous that the owner (who was very nice! we liked her!) ripped it from the heart of Park Slope. (Well, South Slope.) It has all the books you would want to buy, plus artist shows, and all the housewares and things are like the very best of Etsy. Eh. We could go on. We will not. Except to say that we will be there tomorrow night for the opening of artist Trish Grantham’s show:

Ooh, we love it all. Above: Keep Calm prints, $30

Here is our question: Why do Bay Area yoga teachers insist on playing Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah during shavasana? It is driving us. Fucking. Insane. We will admit we went through our own Jeff Buckley phase, as everyone must, but even then … the only word we have is “lugubrious.” Why must we be so sad! Is there no … Rihanna? T-Pain? Nothing? No? Eternal Om. We would prefer that to the crying-song.

Anyway, in today’s Reader Mail:

So, next week I am part of a White Elephant Christmas giving party. Gift amount $100 max.

Giving to: Group of girls that to say has everything would be a severe understatement. They love to shop and are known for giving Manolo Blahniks as birthday gifts.

Any suggestions?

First off, if we were to find ourselves in a White Elephant situation, or Secret Santa—we’re not hallucinating; these are basically synonymous, right, except Secret Santa goes to a particular person, and a White Elephant just goes under the metaphorical tree?—where the budget was $100, we’re pretty sure we’d kill ourselves, or donate, like, a goat to a poor family in the recipient’s name just to make the point that a $100 Secret Santa is utterly bizarre. Actually, that is definitely the best gift we can think of, and we just got all teary looking at the picture of a young man with a goat at Heifer International. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but we’re doing a massive fundraiser-through-bookselling next year, and Heifer International just jumped to the front of the list.
Beyond that, we’re talking serious fallbacks: a cashmere hat, a Border’s gift certificate. If we were given cash, we would most definitely use it to pay bills (or, er, to buy meatballs at IKEA) but we just generally think that the more control the recipient has over the actual gift, the better.
Now, the super exciting part! Super exciting if you like letterpress business cards, anyway. We are just newly a certified letterpress printer—we know, it’s a lucrative field! just slightly more so than watching TV!—and we are looking for some projects. We’re asking people to comment their budget ($10? $25? Etc?) and just say what they purchased for their Secret Santa. There will be at least one winner. There will be either one or two colors used. And we’ll even throw in the paper (though this means it will have to be a lovely off-white.)
Comment below!
Above: A much better letterpress printer than we are, with a broadside, $20

They’re everywhere! Where do people get the money to buy houses, we wonder. We’re going to have to hope for a pot of gold buried in our backyard (er, the neighbor’s backyard) because we seem to have done a Carrie Bradshaw and spent all of our money on plane tickets.

Anyhoo! This is for gifts for other people—in this case, our friend who is obsessed with his new apartment. He is a composite, we will admit, and not even a very good one, since we actually don’t know any house-obsessed guys. Moving forward: our list continues.

Above: The Home Book from House Beautiful. Cheaper than an actual house, pleasantly, and with lots of swatch-y paint pages. We swear, we’d be happy as a clam staying in this New Year’s painting our walls. And, we will add, running the 5K in Prospect Park. Who’s up for a little group run? The Home Book, $23.97

This is about the only thing we can afford from Design Within Reach. Honestly, we’re not even sure what we think about the concept of “lifestyle notebooks”—our lifestyle should be able to get by without one, we think—but: adorable! And conveniently thematic for anyone looking for a present for a movie-friend, travel-friend, etc. Lifestyle notebooks, $25

So this New Year’s, when we’re skipping all the parties to paint our walls, we’re also going to be stocking our new and amazing home office with all this stuff from Muji, and it’s going to be triply amazing because it’s all going to cost like under $50. For all of it. We are notebook fanatics and we can honestly say this one is tops: Note adorable and handy see-through plastic envelope! Is that what that’s called, an envelope? No idea. But you know what we mean. Muji notebook, $20

IDEO guidebooks are like the only acceptable guidebooks for design-o-philes. Very fancy and smart, if that’s what you’re going for. We’re not saying anyone should be going for that; only that it’s an option. An option these guidebooks are up for. Eh, trust us, they’re really cute inside, even if we haven’t been able to persuasively convey that thought in words yet. IDEO Eyes Open New York, $22.95

We swear, the last time we lost our Moleskine notebook we almost put our hand through a glass window (as opposed, apparently, to a wooden window) because we were so incensed. We have since lost two more, and so begins our epic self-loathing. This, in any case, is the Moleskine we’ll buy if we can ever get through three months without losing one of the basic ones. Moleskine New York notebook, $16.95