Mystery Gift, free with $200 purchase. Ylang 23 carries really fancy jewelry. I got a tiny ruby ring from them once and they included a handwritten thank you note in the box. I can only imagine the mystery gift is whatever that thing was inside the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
Ex Voto Paris Monsoon Tea Room Spray, $43 (was $72) No idea what this smells like but it’s probably safe to bet it smells like a rich person’s house.
GOLD SWIMSUIT, $20 with code FRIDAY (was $118) Mine. Also, this peacoat.
Brenna Slip-On Sneaker, $35.99 with code BRSALE (were $118. Coincidence?) Take an extra 40% off all sale stuff at Banarnar. Just throw them in the back of your closet until spring.
Turtleneck Sweater Dress, $79.95 (was $148) Unlike white jeans, white sweater dresses are always perfect, forever and ever, amen.
Assembly Home Wall Hanging, $29.99 (was $59) DO NOT BUY THIS. However, if for some reason you like it (why!?), you could make it. And if your friends have similar tastes (double-why!?) you could give them as gifts.
Maternity PJs, $54 (were $100) Here’s the link to the bottoms. I know, I know. You’re thinking, “But aren’t maternity PJs just a big shirt and some stretchy pants?,” and it’s like, yes, but do you really want to be that guy? Let us have our fun. 
Hair Removal Laser, $399 (was $449) What is this? WHAT IS THIS!
If that’s a laser which can remove hair I’m not really sure I want to be using it near my eyes without the proper safety training certification, you know.
also cures your myopia
(I don’t think it’s for your face)
(I mean I think it’s for your butthole)
well, that thought made me clench
ohmygoodness
I like how it’s a PINK laser, for Ladies.
RE: the hair removal laser
Unless you ONLY want to laser off hair on a very small area, I suggest getting a laser with a bigger coverage area per zap. Bella Lite makes them. They sell them at Costco (might not be in all stores, but available online), which is good because Costco makes it really easy to return stuff if it doesn’t work for you. But I like my laser. I just need to remember to use it more…my armpits are starting to get prickly again.
The Tria lasers work great for facial hair, but since for a tiny area like chin or upper lip, a year or less of every-other-month treatments can be a permanent fix, there are a LOT of used ones out there that may only have been used 5-6 times total. Try eBay.
My whiskers do not thank you, but I do.
YES. I have a Silk’n SensEpil (which is IPL rather than laser, but works much the same way) and adore it. Got that one specifically because the treatment area is the size of a small matchbox, rather than the size of a dime. Looooooooove it.
Ok, so wee fridog may or may not have made A BILLION of those wallhangy things during craft time in kindergarten. Yarn art just spoke to me, you know? Granted, it was probably less nice yarn and on a ruler, but the idea holds.
Godseyes over here. So glad a flood washed them away and my mother still isn’t saving them.
I was into latch hook rugs. They were A Thing in my youth. I made one like this once, and it was my crowning artistic achievement (non-angst-ridden-baby-poet division.)
Oh man, latch hook! I made one that my mom sewed into a pillow that was a unicorn with a rainbow mane. I need to see if she can take a picture of it for me…
I never finished mine. I bow to your superior latch hooking fortitude.
As a teen I once made the cutest latch hook Eeyore and it must still be floating around my parents house somewhere cause I never did turn it into a cushion
My grandma used to make these! Ma Jinx has Grandma’s latch-hook-on-black-velvet peacock framed and hanging in my folk’s office/guest room and I’ve always loved it. One Xmas a few years back I was being nosy, digging through some crap Ma had stored in the closet in my old bedroom and I found a German Shepherd black velvet latch hook that I NEVER EVEN KNEW EXISTED. Ma let me take it on the condition that I get it properly mounted and framed which, shamefully, I have not yet done. (I priced it and it was really expensive but it’d be worth it so I need to suck it up…)
I may still have my Grover latch hook rug in a box somewhere. I finished it but never actually used it as a rug.
I made all sorts of macrame do-hickies as a youngester, including an incredibly ugly macrame angel Christmas ornament.
why remove hair when you can run through your women’s college dorm halls pantsless and feel your leg hair blowing in the breeze?
Is this a Dr. Horrible reference? Sounds like a Dr. Horrible reference.
I have done this (wearing short-shorts rather than no-pants), on a military base, and it was indeed glorious.
This is also lovely in Manhattan on the first day of Spring, having previously done it at Smith.
there is really nothing like the feel of the wind in your leg hair while riding a scooter, let me tell you
Or a bicycle, in my case.
Longtime lurker, first time poster here. (Hello lovely Toasties!)
…Made an account to say that while I’m pretty sure it can only be worn ironically, that gold bathing suit is actually whispering my name… and there is free shipping today! Goodbye $20, hello shiny things 🙂
PS, has anyone checked out the 2015 WS Hater’s Guide yet? It’s one of the highlights of the season http://adequateman.deadspin.com/the-2015-hater-s-…
Saw the Hater’s Guide yesterday, was blessed for the entire holiday season.
I sincerely love that gold swimsuit, but all I can think is how many people I would flash if I ever wore it.
It says there is a removable halter top, which is the only reason I gave in to the siren call of shiny.
Marketers *really* have my number with the whole “mystery gift” thing. I need to know. I’ve visited Tokyo for the New Year twice, which is when their department stores offer “happy bags,” or fixed-price bags containing a mystery variety of items, and the only thing that keeps me from buying all of them is knowing that I do not fit well in Japanese standard sizes.
Also, being honest here, I don’t understand how strapless swimsuits work. You can’t… dive, right? Or waterski or anything? Or vigorously swim?
I ended up getting two corsets from GoodGoth’s Mystery Bag corset sale (you give them your size, they give you a corset) and ended up with an okay fashion corset and a fantastic steampunky steel-boned corset (similar to this one) for less than half price each.
I go to one event per year where I could wear the thing, but the lure of the Mystery Bag drew me in. Now I just have to assemble the rest of the outfit before February.
I bought one of those Japanese mystery bags from Sanrio! It was like $15 bucks, but the combination of adorable and intriguing got to me. I am now the proud owner of Hello Kitty hand towels and a sparkly Rilakkuma notepad/pencil set (among many other things). Money well spent!
You cannot do ANYTHING in a strapless swimsuit. You cant even swim mildly energetically let alone vigorously. and god forbid you go to a place that has WAVES.
(experience from owning a not-quite-strapless-but-thin-useless-princess-strapped bikini and flashing everyone all the time whenever i wore it)
Also that swimsuit looks like its made of gold lame
I have a bandeau top bikini. I do the sort of swimming that involves splashing around waist deep water, or doing dives deep enough that I can unroll it back up over my boobs by the time I surface.
Why would anyone make a sleeveless sweater dress? “It’s cold enough that I want to wrap my entire body in a cozy knit… except my arms! Leave those suckers bare!”
I would really welcome thoughts on how to wear these things! I have a lovely one that I purchased while Not Thinking This Through, and now the thing just hangs sadly in my closet. Wearing it with a cardigan is too much sweater/bulk.
I would definitely wear it with a long-sleeved shirt underneath, plus fabulous boots.
Oh, good idea!
I have several garments like these, and I usually wear them with thin long-sleeved layer under, leggings, and flat stretchy boots that come up to my knees; I call the look “urban elf” (because everything is either black or gray, of course).
I would wear it with a cute little 3/4 sleeve Eileen Fisher jacket, leggings, cute boots.
Also a bracelet or bracelets, as they look good with a cute 3/4 sleeve jacket. In the 40s, 3/4 sleeves were called “bracelet length” sleeves.
This is how I feel about vests. If it’s cold enough for a vest, it’s cold enough for sleeves.
Same. Those big puffy ones with the furry fringe that the models are always wearing over thin long-sleeved knit shirts? I think I’ve bought 3 in my life since I first saw one in high school and not a single one has ended up being worn out in public, because (a) thin long-sleeved knit shirts have a life expectancy of maybe a month tops before they’re torn/frayed/shrunk/have glaring deodorant stains, so by the time it occurs to me to combine the two, I can’t, and (b) tooooo cold.
Down vest over cashmere pullover with skinny sleeves=perfect combination for when it’s below 50 in the morning and then 62 at lunch (good old SF).
One of my favorite things about living in the Bay Area! Down vests totally make sense here.
Are you me? I said almost exactly the same thing – no, REALLY, down to “leave those suckers bare!”- to my mother in regards to cozy flannel bathrobes that inexplicably end mid thigh.
I will say that I wear short sleeves basically year round (in the northeast) and I would probably wear a sleeveless/short sleeved sweater dress because I would get way too hot with long sleeves, but the lack of sleeves would make it bearable to wear.
these lists bring me so much joy. i’m so glad jane marie is with us here on the toast!
Maternity PJ’s exist for a reason and that reason is to provide belly insulation. It’s annoying and also uncomfortable to have an exposed 3″ of belly in a chilly house, the gap where your big t-shirt and your xl pj pants have failed to reach each other, like two friends separated by a crevasse in the arctic, forever reaching but never meeting.
Gary, this gold swimsuit could really use a little something to hold it up, do you mind if I take a few yarn strands off your wall art?
Warning: That jcrew peacoat has weird boob pockets, so I had to return it. it was not flattering at all, and I’m a tiny person with a b-cup.
YEP. I am busty AF (but love jcrew ughhhh) and those pockets looked hilarious on me.
Boob pockets on anything make me so irrationally angry. I AM NEVER GOING TO PUT ANYTHING IN A BOOB POCKET. PUT POCKETS IN MY PANTS IF YOU’RE SO EXCITED ABOUT POCKETS.
Why do they even bother with boob pockets? I’m probably ALREADY WEARING A BRA – I can carry my phone and a credit card just fine.
I love this from the description of the peacoat: “A timeless peacoat (we’ve been designing this silhouette since 2011)”
2011, you guys. TIMELESS.
They’ve been shit at clothes for years, but their unintentional humor game is A+.
Godseyes over here. So glad a flood washed them away and my mother still isn’t saving them.
I want someone in the world to wear that gold strapless bathing suit and then tell me of their adventures in sparkling detail because I can’t even make my brain process that as anything but a mid-rise brief. Like, I’m looking at it. I know intellectually it’s a swimsuit. I can see that it’s called a swimsuit because after a lifetime of dressing my valkyrie-giantess-with-an-endless-torso frame I have lost the ability to comprehend clothing built for people who don’t have at least three feet of torso between hip and nip.
It’s not just you. I’m like 5’2″ and I’m looking at that thing thinking “where’s the top that goes with these high-waisted briefs?”
So I bought the gold bathing suit in size 8, which is about what dress size I am. (I am 5’3″ and busty.) I literally could not zip up the top. My chest unzipped the zipper. It was kind of impressive.
Anyone need a gold strapless bathing suit, size 8?
I made all sorts of macrame do-hickies as a youngester, including an incredibly ugly macrame angel Christmas ornament.
Boob pockets on anything make me so irrationally angry. I AM NEVER GOING TO PUT ANYTHING IN A BOOB POCKET. PUT POCKETS IN MY PANTS IF YOU'RE SO EXCITED ABOUT POCKETS.
Are you me? I said almost exactly the same thing – no, REALLY, down to "leave those suckers bare!"- to my mother in regards to cozy flannel bathrobes that inexplicably end mid thigh.
Why do they even bother with boob pockets? I'm probably ALREADY WEARING A BRA – I can carry my phone and a credit card just fine.
I will say that I wear short sleeves basically year round (in the northeast) and I would probably wear a sleeveless/short sleeved sweater dress because I would get way too hot with long sleeves, but the lack of sleeves would make it bearable to wear.
Really cool gifts these are indeed! I’ve surprised to find these inspiration and looking forward to grab one of these gifts. That swimsuit is indeed the best one among all. Thanks for the nice contribution.
Really cool gifts these are indeed! I've surprised to find these inspiration and looking forward to grab one of these gifts. That swimsuit is indeed the best one among all. Thanks for the nice contribution.