Thanksgiving

WHAT: Prepare a Thanksgiving Feast: Cookware & Gadgets Online Sample Sale @ Ruelala.com

WHY: Prepare a Thanksgiving Feast: Cookware & Gadgets up to 60% off!

WHEN: 11/6 11am – 11/8 11am

WHERE: RueLaLa.com

*To sign up & access the sales, please click here.

RueLaLa.com

WHAT: Set the Stage: Chic Thanksgiving Dish Sets & More Online Sample Sale @ Ruelala.com

WHY: Chic Thanksgiving Dish Sets & More up to 60% off!

WHEN: 11/6 11am – 11/8 11am

WHERE: RueLaLa.com

*To sign up & access the sales, please click here.

RueLaLa.com

Can you believe it’s that time again? It’s Thanksgiving week! In the coming days, most minds will be locked in on preparing the turkey, baking delicious pies, fixing the stuffing, and tidying up for company, rather than shopping and fashion. As we said last year, this is the time of year to love, cherish, and simply be with friends and family. But beyond that, it is also the time to prep your resources for the overwhelming “shop till you drop” season, also known as the holidays. Come Thursday, connect with friends and laugh with family, and be thankful for what you have.

Monday – Wednesday: Sample Sale Alert: Code Yellow

In the coming weeks you’ll take notice our use of an alert system in order to notify readers of the level of importance to that week’s line up of sample sales. If there are some huge, no brainer sales taking place (think deeply discounted Chanel!) we will implement a Code Red to urge you to get to the sale early on the first day in order to brave the line, no matter the weather! You want to be there as doors open!

Good deals, high fashion, and worth a visit on the first day? Code Orange. Sales going on, but nothing that will send you over the moon? Code Yellow. And then the blank slate: Code White, for the weeks when no events are taking place.

This week, we are flashing a Code Yellow. Sales are wrapping up from last week, stretching out discounts until a shopping shut down on Thanksgiving. If you can escape Turkey Day preparations, try to take a last minute trip to the Bulgari Sample Sale before their sale ends at 6:30PM on Tuesday. Here, you’ll be able to snag some decent deals on jewelry, watches, handbags, accessories, and fragrances, a.k.a. potential stocking stuffers.

Also ending Tuesday is the Christopher Fischer Cashmere Sample Sale. Visit SoHo for up to 80% off snug and cozy scarves and accessories, and possibly a last minute Thanksgiving Day sweater.

If you still haven’t had your shopping fill, check out the final days of edgy and upcoming designer Heike Jarick’s Sample Sale, who is holding a Fall/Winter 2012 sale of up to 60% off at her 38^th Street studio.

Thanksgiving Day

In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, make sure to take the time help others, even if it’s the simple gesture of donating the cost of this year’s turkey to the Red Cross’ Sandy Relief Fund. Don’t forget to think of those who aren’t fortunate to have a family to celebrate Thanksgiving with (The Stylish City’s Editor and Founder Mirela Gluck was lucky enough to have wonderful friends who invited her into their homes during her first years here in the states) and most importantly, accept your family, as crazy as they might be, because at the end of the day, nobody’s perfect.

Black Friday

When you think of Black Friday, big screen TVs, video game consoles, home appliances, and various big ticket electronics more typically than not pop into your mind. While that fact remains true this year, let’s not forget about our favorite department stores that will be opening their doors at the crack of dawn for deal hungry fashion lovers. Bloomingdale’s will be opening at 7AM this Friday to offer steals and deals, such as 25% off all women’s denim, but only until 1PM.  Macy’s, who recently released a whopping 35-page Black Friday ad, will be opening at midnight to present such deals as 50% off cashmere scarves and an extra 15% off already heavily discounted clearance and sale apparel with your “Wow! Pass,” as well as $10 off your purchase of $25 or more, until 1PM. Keep your eyes peeled for more deals to be announced around the Internet as Friday inches closer!

Small Business Saturday

Last year, over one hundred people went shopping within their local communities in order to support Small Business Saturday. As Obama continues to urge, small businesses are crucial to not only our economy, but for our unemployed friends, family, and neighbors, as they help to create jobs. This year, be sure to take a stroll down the street to work off those Thanksgiving calories and take a gander at what your local shops and boutiques have to offer! If shopping for a good cause isn’t reason enough to get out there, American Express is offering a special deal for card members: If you enroll in their “Small Business Saturday” program now, they will credit your card $25 when you spend $25 or more at a qualifying small businesses.

The Stylish City wishes you and your loved ones a very Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, gobble!

By Caitlin Colford

It is within our nature as humans to disagree on general topics; politics, religion, war, capital punishment, etc. Suffice it to say, there is hardly an issue you can’t make into an argument. On Thursday, November 24th, 2011, all Americans alike will gather around the dinner table to give thanks and finally reach common ground, agreeing on one simple notion – family can be a huge pain in the ass. Despite whom you may place under the title of “family,” whether it is close friends, in-laws, or blood relatives, these people have the natural, inexplicable ability to grate your nerves to the umph degree.

There are good days and bad, times where you couldn’t love your family more and times where you can’t seem to get far enough away from them, therefore where your feelings are on November 24th is a real crap shoot.  The thought passes through my realm of consideration some years, namely this one – should I just skip Thanksgiving? I start to believe my own prepared lie that I can tell my family on the phone, an hour or two before dinner: “I think I’m coming down with something and don’t want to get the baby sick.” Ordering greasy Chinese food and snuggling up on the couch with my dog while watching RomComs in my pajamas, begins to sound simply too good to pass up. Cough, Cough – see, I am getting sick! I then justify that spending Thanksgiving isn’t pathetic because my dog is family, and at times the only living being I can tolerate all while receiving unconditional love. I follow this with a sigh of relief when I realize that if I do skip Thanksgiving I don’t have to put on foundation and blush, and force a smile while I answer the same obnoxiously condescending question – “Where is your boyfriend?” That’s a good question Aunt Elba, maybe you can help me find him? There is simply no other inquisition that can make my blood boil as much as this. I have to fight the urge to not snap back with, “Why don’t you have a mirror Aunt Elba? Because that certainly is the only rational explanation for those three inch chin whiskers of yours.”

What am I thinking!? It takes a cold shower and some deep breathing to jolt myself back to logical thinking. In reality, skipping Thanksgiving is just not an option. These fantasies exist in the majority with some variation, and in the end is just a dreamlike tool utilized to make you appreciate crossing the Thanksgiving finish line to tomorrow. Friday can go one of two ways. The first being, a day of pure, unadulterated nothingness, where it’s acceptable to sleep late, nosh on leftovers and indulge in being lazy. Or the second option: diving in head first to Black Friday mania. Shopping can be a great form of stress release. If Aunt Elda got way too far under your skin then take it out on your credit card! Stimulate the economy and buy yourself something fabulous.

Don’t think you’re flying solo when you sit twiddling your thumbs, considering the Chinese food alternative to Thanksgiving – we’ve all been there. Thanksgiving is no day to spend alone; you’ll only make yourself feel worse. Put on your best smile and take everything said with a grain of salt, at the end of the night you’ll be glad you forced yourself to go. On Wednesday, get yourself a new outfit and a fresh shade of lipstick and knock your family’s socks off as you walk through the door on Thanksgiving Day. You’ll look good and feel good as you’re wowing the crowd – and hey, it’s only one night, you have a day of bliss tomorrow to look forward to.

By Caitlin Colford