Guest Post: {Shop Highlight}: noon stationary, San Diego - Lovely handmade jewelry, hair candy and letterpress stationary

Pink Argyle is one of my first and dearest blogger buddies.  She is the sweetest lady and also has great style, a love for cupcakes, and an eye for lovely finds (check out her invitations and the mini bamboo steamers  and other details from her Chinese banquet - so cute!)  I'm glad to have her here and happy to meet her in September!

♥ ♡

Hello Chic n’ Cheap readers! I’m so pleased to be guest blogging here, as Chic n’ Cheap has been a great blog buddy and avid supporter of my blog, Pink Argyle. I hope you enjoy my guest post about a local favorite shop of mine, noon designs, where I purchased all of my bridesmaids’ gifts.

[The interior of noon designs. noon designs is located in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego, California. If you look close enough, you can see that the entire wall is covered in unfinished cootie-catchers. It’s amazing in person!]

I married my partner in crime of 8 years this summer on July 3rd in a colorful Southern California vineyard wedding. Planning my wedding was at times stressful, but quite honestly one of the happiest times of my life because of the constant influx of creative energy from myself, my blogger buddies, and from the talented vendors and artisans I met along my journey.

One of my favorite finds was noon designs, a local shop in San Diego that sells handmade jewelry and letterpress stationery, run by two talented artists: Nora Farrell (the jewelry designer) and Maie Liis Webb (the graphic designer).

[Maie was on site when I was shopping, and gladly showed me her letterpress printer, which is right in the shop next to the cash register!]

[She designs everything from wedding stationery to business cards. You can view more of her work here.]

I picked up a lot of fun goodies for my bridesmaids and our friends who were making toasts at the wedding, including pearl earrings, pink swarovski crystal earrings, and handmade fragrant soaps.  The ladies at noon designs packaged them up in cute tissue paper and brown twine, and labeled the copious pairs of earrings I bought so I would know which package was which! It was hard to choose what to buy, because the shop is chock full of cute, affordable (earrings were an average of $32,) stuff from independent artists in San Diego.

[They had a plethora of colors and pieces to pick. All jewelry from noon designs]

[These smell sooo good! Soap from naiad soap arts]

Super cute hair candy, hair pins from Acute Designs]

[All photos by Mo of Pink Argyle]

[A note about pricing: prices you see in these photos may be different if purchased in the online store, because noon designs gives a small discount in its San Diego shop.]

I was really happy to have found this local gem and give my bridesmaids and friends something special they could wear at the wedding and in the future.

What’s your favorite shop to purchase gifts?

{Shop Highlight}: Burberry Outlet in London (29 Chatham Place) and my newest Burberry Prorsum crossbody bag

A somewhat accessible outlet of a quintessential British brand in London?  I'm there and sneaking you pictures too because I'm a rebel like that.  And if you're in London and ever wondered about this outlet - now you know!

Ok so I'm intrigued by Burberry.  I mean I have lusted after this jacket kinda forever.

Of course owning it would also mean spending a month of rent on a jacket.  Not. there.
Not unless the coat was also a 2 bedroom with a pool and gym inside.

But I was stalking a Burberry bag at the Regent St. (retail) store and found out it went on sale and then got shipped off to the Burberry outlet in East London.  I've never been awed by Burberry but heard they may have the bag I sought as well as some Burberry Prorsum (the highest end line at Burberry) items so I figured it was worth a trip.


The Burberry outlet at 29 Chatham Place, Hackney, isn't close, but is accessible by Bus 30 (which I transferred to around Islington/Highbury tube stop).  It's (Chatham Place) practically across the street from a big Tesco on Morning Lane if you're a landmark oriented person like me.

Handbags
If you just missed something at the retail stores, come here because it'll show up here before it gets to the other Burberry outlets.  Of course they'll have quite a few other bags that didn't make it to Regent Street including factory seconds. 
There were quite a few bags that were just in the stores (like 1-2 months ago), including Burberry Prorsum.
Prices range from £50 - £800 with the mode in the £299 - £499 range.  Oh yes I just used some math on ya!

This snakeskin clutch with a chain was hot, originally £2000, marked down to £50 because there was scratches on the corners.  I definitely thought about it but didn't love that it had leather missing though I should have considered it as a wallet.  Sigh too late now.  I also really liked the details on the tan ruched bag.  I think it was £499.

This was £299.

There were also a few exclusive clutches kept behind glass here ( £599).

Clothing
The classic trenches for females were £349 and up, less for the windbreakers.  Quilted jackets were £99 - £129. Polos were £39 or £49 for the puffed polo.  I also saw a few Burberry Prorsum trenches (not the knotted ruched one in the first picture) for £550.

This was the clearance rack.  Those white jackets at the back were £99 from £995.  Sigh of course they weren't my size.

Men's shirts were £29-£79 though sizes were random.


Accessories
Scarves started from £79 for cashmere and I saw a £19 small silk scarf as well.  Umbrellas were marked down to £49 (cute but I would never spend this much on something I lose so easily).

Ties were mostly £25 or £35.

Shoes
A decent selection from the past season.  Heels were popular with few flats and usually smaller sizes (European 36-38).   Some sale heels were £79 though flats I liked were still £115.

My buys
I ended up getting this Burberry Prorsum bag.  It was about 38% off (I originally got another bag at a bigger discount) but I loved the chain, glazed leather, and cross body strap (as well as satchel straps).  I don't like logos on my accessories, but felt this was subtle enough.  It was £350.  Obviously would have loved to pay less, but I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of this and it's classy with that sassy checked chain.

I also got a copper skirt (side seam was loose so I got a small damage discount) for my mom for £20 (£290 Retail, marked down to £29).  I hope she can wear it during the holidays!  I debated this for a while because I'm trying not to be bought in by price (hence not buying that snakeskin-esque clutch), but by function and I think my mom or I would wear this skirt.

Note: Remember to ask for a VAT/tax refund if you're not a UK resident!  They will print this when you are paying at the cash register.  You'll get back about 10% after administrative fees are taken into account and you send it in at customs at the airport. Have your items in your carry-on luggage because customs will ask!


Verdict
It's not really that far and worth a trip for handbags and some clothing because there are some random deals here.  There is a Primark on Mare Street as well so you have a cheap clothing shopping option.  The store is bright, clean, and organized.  There have been other reviews stating this is or was a rough neighborhood.  No. The only thing of note was that there were probably more South Asian and some African immigrants here and that is not my definition of a rough neighborhood (btw, there is a Tom's Euro Afro fusion restaurant on Morning Lane that had good food, including spicy yams and fish).  A friendly guy helped direct me when he saw me referring to my hand drawn map (nope, no smart phone yet) and even paid NYC a compliment (so obviously he was cool).  Check it out if you can!