Happy Birthday to Me (with Jcrew Jewelry) - Part 2

As you might have noticed, I have been doing a little bit of shopping therapy lately as a reaction to the dreaded 40th birthday milestone. I have to say that in italian the 40th birthday marks the entrance in what we call the "ANTA" years (the forties, fifties, sixies, seventhies, etc all end in ANTA - as in quaranta - in italian) from which there is no return (unless one makes it to his/her hundredth birthday) and it's a little bit scary. On the other side it's better to be forty now than when parents where my age, as, as everybody knows, forty is the new thirty (I'm just hoping that by the time I'm fifty, being fifty is also going to be re-evalued).

Anyway, I bought a lot of stuff in the last month with the excuse that it was going to be my birthday (it happens every year, as, as you must know by now, I love summer clothes more than winter clothes and I just go crazy with the summer sales), but on the top of that I really wanted to treat myself with some new jewelry. I mean that this is a little (cheap) present that I wanted to buy myself, but my husband got me a big birthday present (I would lie if I told you that he surprised me with a diamond band hidden in my bday cake, because I actually bought it myself. But he was on the phone. And negociated the price).

So, a few weeks ago I was at the Soho store (the one with the "new" accessory-dedicated space) and I tried on two necklaces. One is the Dangling gold-disc necklace that is also sold through the website for $65 (style # 17774); and the other one is a very similar necklace that has dangling pearls instead of the discs. It'a retail-only item and the price was $58. I tried them together and they looked FANTASTIC. But I didn't want to spend that much that day and my birthday was still far away so I decided to wait.
In the meanwhile I got the $25 off $125 card in the July catalog and I spent it on the safary denim jacket that was waitlisted on the website until november and the orange gateau skirt (that I got for a mere $24).

Last week a blog follower who wants to remain anonymous, kindly asked me if I needed her card as she had received one and she wasn't planning to spend it in store. The two necklaces were still on my shopping list so I answered her that I would do a good usage of the card if she really wanted to part from it. Which she did. I received it last Thursday, so as the long 4h of July weekend started I went on a hunt for the two necklaces (as they were both sold-out at the Madison Avenue Collection store).

Sometimes I have a sixth sense, a little voice that tells me where to go to find what I'm looking for. So of all the stores in the city, I went to the Fifth Avenue store, one of my favorite and also one where the PS knows me from the days when I used to work in the neighborhood and I would spend my lunch breaks there (technically I didn't work exactly in the neighborhood but what are 15 blocks for us JCAs? My lunch breaks were unusually long though but I had a work that allowed me to manage my schedule most of the times).
To make a long story short, they had both necklaces and when I went to the register I found out that they were both on sale for $19.99 (the gold-disc one) and $29.99 (the pearls one)!!!
So I decided not to use the card on them but on the croquet cashmere cardigan that was also on my shopping list but I wouldn't have bought had I spent the amount of money that I originally planned to spend on the necklaces (I got the ametysth one, it was the only one in the store, and with the card I paid $104 for it).

I guess that after this river of words, you need some pictures.
I took the pics yesterday morning, the dress is a strapless Ralph Lauren dress that I bought on super-sale last year and I had completely forgot about. It fits me so much better than the Jcrew one, I'm so happy that I have returned that one.
Here I left the dangling pearls one down so you can see the lenght (it's the same than the dangling gold-disc one):




Here is the gold-disc one alone and wrapped three times around the neck:



And here is a combination of the two of them (but the combinations seem to be endless):


For the day, I ended up wearing the pearl one alone, like this (I got tons of compliments):



For the evening my husband and I had a reservation in a fancy restaurant that opened a few weeks ago and really wanted to try (Table 8). I wore a simple BR silk dress and the gold-disc necklace:



When we were ready to leave, literally waiting in my heels at the door, I got a message from the babysitter. The babysitter canceled on me. On my 40th birthday romantic dinner! I was more shocked than mad. I tried to call someone else but it was too late. So we ended up going to a neighborhood pizzeria with our daughter (who was already in bed but not asleep yet). So I changed my heels for my Tory thongs. Here is the outfit that I ended up wearing:



Actually, I was happy to spend the evening with my daughter, she's such a joy and I was feeling for her because she hates being with the babysitter (even if it's bedtime). She had a blast at the pizzeria and eat dinner again! As I said at the beginning of these posts, there isn't much more important in life than being able to spend time with your loved ones.
And anyway, we're going to have a party with friends next Saturday at home so it's not like I won't have the occasion to celebrate properly.
I will show you soon my party dress and, yes, there will be another Jcrew necklace!