Well...I lost the ebay auction for the black boots HOWEVER...

I totally scored some awesome items (at bargain prices!) for fall at my new favorite store: Burlington Coat Factory. It used to be an awful, cheesy store with terrible policies( no returns, awful dressing rooms, etc.) and then last year they did a total remodel of the store, brought in a new manager (and apparently new buyers) and now the store is gorgeous, clean, organized, has normal returns, decent dressing rooms, and AMAZING selection of better department store (Macy's Bloomingdales, etc.) type of merchandise - not to mention their prices just cannot be beat.

Examples:

First bargain of the day was a super-soft chocolate brown cashmere v-neck sweater (something that was on my radar for a few weeks as brown is my new fave color!) for $24.99!

I then snagged an adorable and flattering fitted dark brown cord jacket (blazer?) to pop on over tanks, tees, etc. as a dressier option to a cardigan. Its the first jacket I've found that fit really well - most are too wide in the shoulder or too long in the sleeve. It was reduced to a mere $12.99.

To my shopping bag, I added some kickass-cool costume jewlery: (again, all brands/quality that you see at dept. stores) some cute silvertone dangly earrings for $3.99, awesome multi-hued (bronze, teal, gold) stretchy beaded bracelets for 4.99 for a dozen, and a pretty glass bead multistrand necklace in teal and brown and matching earrings for $7.99.

Then I also picked up a cute below-the-knee tiered/full/prairie-style soft babywhale corduroy skirt in a luscious teal color for $9.99. I matched it up with a sleeveless brown ribbed turtleneck top for $12.99 and even got a purse to match.

This is the best of the bunch: a medium-size, teal with sliver hardware structured hobo/half-moon shape bag made of good leather (NOT pleather!) that had the original tags on it for $125.00 - I paid $14.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently it was last year's model but WHO CARES! It is a great fall style and I dig that its not black but something more unique. I think the teal looks so gorgeous with brown - thus it will hook up well with my new sweater, jacket, etc.

CHOCOLATE BROWN seems to be a dominant theme for my closet for Fall '06...well now I know I made the right choice when I ordered some water-resistant perfect-for-Chicago-weather dark brown scrunch boots from, of all places, QVC. I happened to see these when I was channel surfing and I swear I NEVER order crap on TV but somehow these spoke to me. I just got them, slipped em' on  and WOW - they are comfortable AND totally hook up with my new outfits for fall. Check it out: