When I go shopping, part of the enjoyment is getting a great deal. While I enjoy shopping at Nordstrom’s just like the next girl, I also love hunting for incredible finds at thrift stores.

Last weekend I spent a rainy afternoon at a nearby thrift store and found a fleece jacket ($4), a white shell top ($1.50), a black sleeveless jacquard top ($4) and a GAP flaired skirt ($7). In the past I’ve also found beautiful cashmere sweaters, jackets, wool crepe suits, french cotton shirts, high quality leather goods and a wonderful mix of styles to suit just about any fashionista.

Want to spend the afternoon shopping with your girlfriends, but trying to stay within a tight budget? No problem! You’ll have just as much or probably more fun shopping at thrift stores and spend a fraction of what you’d pay at retail stores. Since most thrift stores are used to fund a charity, you’ll also be contributing to a good cause. Another bonus!

Of course, the bigger the city you’re in (and the better dressed), the better selection you’ll find. To help you find the best thrift stores in your city, check out a great site called TheThriftShopper.com. This handy resource includes listings for almost 9,000 thrift stores across the country, along with their location, store hours and user ratings. Just type in your zip code or city to find the shops closest to you.

Happy hunting!

Related: Clothes Heaven

Now that the rainy season has officially arrived, it’s fun to see the wide array of rain boots women are wearing this season. Some are practical, whimisical, stylish, and after seeing so many styles I was inspired to go online to shop for a new pair.  I found a rainbow of color choices offered by 150-year-veteran Hunter Boots. I also saw boots with eye-catching graphic designs from Chooka, prints from Burberry, UGG and Juicy Couture and even some fun options at Target.

Here are a few of my favorites from ShopStyle and Zappos.

Links: ShopStyle   Zappos

This past Saturday evening a few of us girls met at Union Square in San Francisco to enjoy the holiday scene. Union Square is San Francisco’s prime location for an amazing selection of high-end department stores, shops and luxury hotels.

During the holidays the Square is transformed with a gigantic Christmas tree and holiday displays. It’s almost impossible not to get in the holiday spirit after you’ve stayed awhile, especially when you see a cable car go by, all decked out in Christmas lights!

During our visit we shopped, saw the chef-created sugar castle at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, then sipped hot apple cider at Rulli’s Café as we watched ice skaters skate under the stars. One of my favorite stops was the Macy’s window displays. Their displays drew crowds with several ornately decorated brownstones, each with a real sleeping kitten on its doorstep  (kittens were rotated out every 30 minutes).   Here’s a photo of one of the Macy displays (click to enlarge).

Tip: use the 511.org trip planner to get to Union Square

On cold, rainy days like this, it’s nice to be able sip a hot drink and do my Christmas shopping from the comfort of home. Being able to browse through a seemingly limitless inventory of products for exactly what I want is one of the great benefits of online shopping. Many of the online stores are offering free shipping as well.

Before you check-out with your online shopping cart of selections, be sure to do a quick search for coupon codes. Some of the popular coupon code sites are:

• CouponCabin.com
• RetailMeNot.com
• CurrentCodes.com
• CouponMountain.com

Some of these sites have coupon codes for over 2,000 stores.  Once you find a coupon code, there’s usually a place to enter a coupon or promotional code in your store’s check-out page.

Saving $10 here and $20 there using coupon codes can amount to some significant savings.  Just think – this could be the fun money for your next girls trip!

Places to Eat

During our stay in downtown Chicago, we’d eat a big breakfast and then have an early dinner before the evening events.  Here are some of the restaurants we visited along Michigan Avenue:

- Yolk is located near the south side of Grant Park and serves huge omelets, fritattas, crepes, 5 types of french toast and variety of pancakes.  My avocado, bacon & cheese fritatta with blackberry/banana multigrain pancakes was awesome!  A local favorite.

- The Corner Bakery Café is located at several locations along Michigan Avenue and perfect for a quick meal. The Wacker location has a nice outdoor patio overlooking the Chicago River.  For breakfast they offer simple scrambles, muffins and coffee cake, as well as several types of oatmeal.  For lunch or a light dinner, they have salads and sandwiches with mini-bundtlette cakes for desserts.  (more…)

Here’s a site that will inspire you visually.  Trey Ratcliff’s gorgeous photo blog, called Stuck in Customs, is packed with photos he’s taken during his travels around the world. Here’s one of the Amalfi Coast in Italy. 

Photo blog:
Stuck in Customs

Baggage heaven?

Ever wonder where all the unclaimed airport luggage goes to?  To Scottsboro, Alabama, of course!  You never know what you’ll find at this store where luggage, clothes and accessories are sold for a fraction of their retail price.   

The Unclaimed Baggage Center

Via  sk-rt.com

I’m going on a girls trip in a few weeks and staying in downtown Chicago.  While I’m excited about exploring the city, already I’m asking myself … what am I going to wear?!  Luckily there’s help for those, like me, who occasionally need inspiration in the fashion department.

Just like Expedia searches multiple travel sites for the best travel deal, ShopStyle searches fashion sites for apparel, shoes and accessories.  When I searched for “black sandals” on ShopStyle it returned a list of over 6,500 results.  The level of detail was pretty impressive – each result included a photo, catalog description, available colors and sizes, and a link to the store offering the product.  I found that I could also easily refine the search results to fall within a certain price range, brand, store and sales discount level.

Browsing through the results is actually a breeze.  I used their custom slider to quickly scroll through product photos until I found one of interest.  Hovering over a product photo shows a caption with all the product details and a “Buy this” link.  Talk about power shopping!

One of the things I like most about ShopStyle is a feature called Stylebooks.  It offers a way for women to easily share their personal fashion style.  Any visitor to ShopStyle can create a personal stylebook.  They can then create looks from the products they encounter while shopping. 

Here’s a ‘Look’ from one user’s stylebook:

With stylebooks, it’s easy to share your favorite finds with all the other women using the site.  Others see your stylebook by choosing ‘Browse Looks’, and can even add comments.  Stylebooks are a great source of ideas for pulling off a complete look.  Be sure to check out the celebrity stylebooks which recreate looks from various celebrities. 

Related links:  ShopStyle  |  ShopStyle stylebooks 

This past weekend my three sisters and I met in Santa Barbara for our annual girls trip. I’d heard so many good things about this place and was glad to finally visit it in person. Santa Barbara is an idyllic coastal village, about an hour and a half north of Los Angeles.  It’s a postcard-perfect town, surrounded by mist covered mountains and beaches.  Most buildings have stucco and red tiled roofs with profuse landscaping, including bougainvillea.  It’s the kind of place best discovered on foot.

To encourage visitors to leave their cars at home, Santa Barbara has come up with a clever way to preserve its clean air with its “Car Free” promotion.  During 2007, several hotels, restaurants and transportation services are offering discounts to visitors looking into car free options.  The town has plenty of public and private transportation services and encourages alternatives to driving a car. One of the bargains is a 25 cent electric bus that runs in the shopping district along State Street.

The shopping district has a wonderful selection of stores, movie theaters and restaurants.  We spent many hours shopping, eating and going to the movies on State Street.  We also toured the Mission Santa Barbara, saw the panoramic views from the Courthouse tower and visited neighboring Montecito – all recommended activities. 

For lodging, the four of us stayed in a suite at the Franciscan Inn – a cute place with an ideal location - a block from the beach and two blocks from State Street.  The Inn serves a light breakfast each morning and fresh baked cookies every afternoon.  It also has a large video library with free check-out privileges. Just by mentioning the Car Free promotion we got 20% off our room rate.  Be sure to book early – rooms are reserved well in advance.

There are also lots of outdoor activities to enjoy in Santa Barbara. Walking along the beach we saw surfers heading out to the waves, people playing beach volleyball and kayakers paddling near Stearns Wharf. 

If you want to see the perfect neighborhood market go to Lazy Acres – kind of like a scaled down version of Whole Foods Market and a great place to pick up a bouquet of flowers for the room or a cake to celebrate an event (we celebrated two birthdays).

Stay tuned for Part II…