Finding Colorful Glass Cups On Sale: a house log

Many of you know that I have a giant binder full of clear plastic sleeves where I shove a ton of tear sheets from magazines, catalogs and other places that inspire me (read more about how I organize that magical binder right here).

And one ripped corner of a magazine that has been in my binder fairly much since its inception has been an image from Elle Decor with vivid vintage looking glasses in green, yellow, blue and pink with recessed designs on them that create a light and nearly sea-glass-ish effect. They are credited as being from this especially swanky store (which does not happen to have a shot of them on their site- boo) and they are listed as being $13 a pop there. Kind of pricey for drinking glasses but they are simply so lovely I have kept the torn magazine corner around for years. I guess I have eye candy abandonment issues.

Then something serendipitous happened this weekend.

I found insanely similar looking glasses at World Market. For simply… wait for it… $2.99 a pop! They were available in clear, green, blue, and pink- but you know we grabbed the green and blue ones (three of each, six in total) since they feel the most like “us.” I cannot wait for our next gathering so I can break out these babies and liven up the table. I enjoy that it’ll be a subtly mixed and matched tableau thanks to the two layered tones that we went for. Because there is nothing like green and blue glass goblets (with fleur-de-lis on them, no less) to make you feel oh so luxe whenever you sip from them.

And sip from them I must. John in fact has a large rule that I am not allowed to purchase anything that we will not use regularly (which is strong because we do not have cabinets full of “special occasion only” servingware and china). So whenever a craving for lemonade or chocolate milk has hit in the past few days I have simply reached for one of these babies. And let me tell you, I feel quite posh indeed. Much more so than I used to with my clear Ikea glasses of yore. I have even been thinking of going back for more since they’d also make adorable votive holders or even pencil cups on my desk. Gotta enjoy something that multitasks (and looks so good doing it).

Of course we enjoy that we spent $18 for six (as opposed to nearly that amount for ONE of the designer ones). In fact six of the designer ones would have set us back $78! And I even laughed to myself when we later came across another similar version of them (in green and blue only) at Anthropologie- which incidentally is charging $6 a pop. It is certainly a break from the $13 designer price, but our $2.99 World Market finds are still the lowest that we have seen for anything even remotely similar. So there you have our recent drinking glass victory. Cheers to hunting down deals! And speaking of sleuthing out the look for less, have any of you found dead ringers for something a lot pricier and could not believe your luck? Share and share alike.