holiday shopathon begins tonight!

Hosted by The Style Spy and gloss event + design, it's a shopping event held at four shops (Fine Finds, Blubird, Wink Beauty Lounge and Orb) where you can enjoy great discounts, special gifts with purchase and goodie bags as well as complimentary bubbly, great music and yummy appetizers.

First up, is Fine Finds boutique at 5PM, then onto the RW&CO shopping party at 6PM and our last stop at the VIP party at the GAP downtown. I will be wearing flats tonight!

I thought that I could just wander into Fine Finds boutique, pick out a feathered headband for a friend and maybe purchase a bird necklace that I've been eying and that would be the end of it. But, of course, it's never that easy. Ended up dropping over $100 and there was no alcohol to blame this time.

Arrived at Fine Finds at exactly 5:01PM only to find that they were still setting up their sound system and the alcohol had yet to be open. No worries. We breezed on by and started checking out the goods. Silky satin beauty sleep eye masks, feathered headbands galore and lots of things to ohhh and ahhh over. So many cute things to buy, but I was trying to reign it in, remembering my mental check-list of things that need to be bought, wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree (which will be up this coming up weekend!). But I couldn't say no to a gorgeous dark black green feathered Miller headband by A Farmer's Daughter (I can wear it at Christmas parties! Weddings! Birthday parties! Clubbing!), the necklace that I wanted and a lovely Mae headband for Shar. I also won a free pair of sunnies! They had envelopes pinned to the wall and after filling out your contact information, you can grab an envelope, open it up and find additional discounts and prizes inside. I got a free pair of Mercury sunglasses and my friend got a 50% discount off bath items (which she generously gave to me to use to buy some sweet-smelling luxurious hand lotion). Then it was off to the RW&Co shopping party, but not before we picked up our goody bags filled with Vitamin water, gift certificates to Glowbal Restaurant, a sample of Vera Wang's Princess perfume and other little goodies.

RW&Co's shopping party was a bit lackluster, as there was a small crowd just milling around waiting for their name to be called in a draw to win prizes. I didn't find what I was looking for there (is it that hard to find a sweater dress that isn't black?), but I managed to get a free copy of the latest LOULOU magazine (they were sponsoring the event) and a bottle of RW&Co water.

Final stop at the GAP! And what an event! They had some steep discounts for the one night: when you buy one item, you get 50% off the second item (anything in the store), as well as an additional 20% off the first item and an extra 15% off the second item! At first, I thought this applied to clothes only, but I still got a discount on my hats! I bought the light grey herringbone bucket hat and a grey sweater knit beanie. Now, I'm covered for the holiday season (pun intended!).

Sweet white wine and delicious hors d'oeuvres (cubed watermelon with prosciutto anyone?) were being served as we gingerly maneuvered our way around the aisles to avoid dropping our wine glasses while shopping bags and clothes or items that we wanted to buy. After hours of shopping, it was time to call it a night and with our GAP goody bag in hand (hand cream and lipbalm), it was time to head home and study for an exam the following morning. Boo!