Sometimes it doesn't work out like you thought...

Soooo...

I'll admit it - I looked a little matronly the other day.  I dunno... I guess I thought my sweater was longer than it was, and that I'd have earrings to go with this outfit?
What ended up happening was a lot of shades of beige and brown and ick.

 

I liked my "new" belt... but eh.  I'm a teacher, but I'm not a school marm. 

Hello, Jackie O!

I felt very 60s today - like Jackie O minus the pillbox hat.

It is COLD here - a sweater dress and tights were just the thing.  I've been wearing a lot of black and gray lately for reasons I'm not sure of, so excuse the monochrome-thing.  In all fairness, my nails are red.

 

(The spots are on the mirror - not the dress!) 

Get your own!

Dress - vintage, local thrift dive, $4.00

Tights - Walmart

Boots - trusty folded-down knee boots, Herberger's 

 

 

Earrings - local thrift dive, free! 

Ring - Not joking, I got this from a $0.25 vending machine at a bowling alley! 

Style quote of the day: "I like that your nails are red like cherry red, not like harlot red."

Puppy Fashion

I'm not a general proponent of dressing up my dog.  Let me say that first.

But we have city heat, and they haven't decided to turn it on yet... it's been in the 30s and 40s lately, with a big snowstorm coming in a few days ago and dumping 10 inches.

It is very cold in here... poor Pheebs was frozen!

Walmart had these doggy sweaters for only $5.00.  I took pity on her.

This looks like she's posing!  My darling is a budding fashionista.

It's purple with a large cable-knit running down the back.  And, of course, because she is my fashion-conscious offspring, she wears the turtleneck unfolded.

Thrifting successes!

I think my friend Katie is a good luck charm for thrifting - this is the second time I've gone out with her and come back with fabulous pieces!

All of these pieces/things are from one of three local thrifting dives here in my little town.

 

This is an amazing dress - it is nearly a sweater dress, but of a lighter knit.  The amazing part is the neckline:

I hope you can see that!  It's amazing and vintage and wonderful.

ALSO this dress fits like a GLOVE.  Which hardly ever happens because vintage runs small and I'm two different sizes.

Paid: $4.00 (and got two items free!) 

Next!

 

These are Dockers brand, and are a Long!  I see cuffing in my future.

Paid: $1.25

Accessories!  

This great little belt has never been worn.  I love the hexagonal buckle.

Paid: $0.50

 

I got a lot of black pieces today, but I'm finding the versatility of black to be to my benefit.

Paid: $0.50 a pair

Shoes!

 

These are like moccasins, except without the tassels or embroidery.  They are SUPER comfortable!

Paid: $1.00

Other!  I love books... what can I say!

Overall, a VERY successful day of thrifting! 

  

 

It's a Skirt! It's a Dress! It's WAY CUTER THIS WAY!

I have this skirt I picked up for $2.00 from some retail store years ago... I wore it happily for a couple of years before realizing that it hits at a really awkward length and I no longer wanted to be seen in it.

I dusted it off from the back of my closet today to try and give it a second life.

This is what I came up with:

I wore it as a dress - it has no belt loops or zippers, so I just hiked it up as a strapless dress.  It hit right at the knee - perfecto!

Dress/Skirt - old!  $2.00

Cardigan - Goodwill, $1.00

Tights - Target, $4.00

Boots - (secretly knee-high boots that I fold down to look like ankle boots) Herberger's, $25.00

Necklace - local thrift dive, $2.00

Yesterday - Physically Active Fashion

On Wednesdays and Fridays I have a self-defense class in the morning, which dictates jeans and tennis shoes.

I didn't want to "not try" two days in a row, so yesterday I put together this:

I apologize for the tilted/reflection picture.  I should really convince Hubby to take these for me... but first I'd have to teach
him how to take a decent picture.

Jeans - so old it doesn't even matter.
Tank - Walmart several years ago
Sweater - Also from many years ago.  It's pretty sheer, and has a HOOD!  =D

My favorite part of this getup (and the inspiration for the whole look) is these babies:

 (insert obnoxiously large photo of shoes...)
Shoes - Handmade vegan, Goodwill $6.00

Because my neck was cut off in my outfit picture, here's a jewelry shot.  (Ironically the most flattering of today's pictures...)

Bracelet - ULTA $0.50 on clearance
Necklace - local thrift dive, $1.00 

So I don't wear something EPIC every single day.
I'm alright with that!

Today, since my outfit wasn't very inventive/worth posting, I started thinking about some patterns I could follow in my posts.

I'm thinking of working a "LookBook Sunday" because I can gather inspiration for my workweek of clothes.
I think Saturdays will be given over to tips - makeup and hair, organization, thrifting genius... whatever I think I know about.


 ... in retrospect, that's not a whole lot to post about.  "I have plans for my weekends, wooo!"

"You're very color-coordinated today!"

 ... according to the Dean of my college this morning.


 

It was 65 degrees out today!  This is so odd for November in my neck of the woods - but it's not stopping me from wearing a scarf.  Nope.  Not stopping me.


Shirt - Faded Glory from Walmart, years ago

Jeans - Levi's!  19.99

Scarf - a gift from a friend.  She may have bought it at Tuesday Morning.

Shoes - out in the hallway.  I wore brown flats today. 




That is indeed only one scarf.  Hubby was confused this morning.

It's a gradient!

I apologize for some blurriness of the detail pictures - I don't know what my camera was doing this morning and I take all these pictures myself, sooooo...

 

 Bracelets (from top to bottom) - Made myself from leather lacing, gift from my parents while in South Dakota, and purchased at a foreign language teachers' fair, $5.00

Earrings - Local thrift dive, $0.50 

I guess it ended up being a very turquoise and brown kind of day.  Hmm. 

Purple Scholar

Today I wanted to be
1) Comfortable,
2) Fabulous,
and
3) Wearing my new sweater

because today is my marathon class day.  (12 English majors, 1 amazing professor, 4 hours!)

This sweater is really dear to my heart for a single materialistic reason: It's one of the most expensive items I can remember purchasing.  That might become ridiculous to you when you see the price... but I guess I'm more thrifty than I realized.
It is also purple, which made my mother-in-law very happy.  <3

Tank - Hanes mens' undershirt!  Heathery beige/brown?
Button-up - Shopko, years ago
Sweater - ELLE from Kohl's, $19.99
Jeans - St. John's Bay from JCPenney, years ago

 It's a shame you can't really tell from that picture, but this sweater doesn't have any buttons, but is actually structured to nip in at the waist.  Love.

Now, see my ear!

A little better capture of the sweater color... plum?

Earrings - local thrift dive, $1.00

 Sleep now.

Owl Necklace Inspiration

I have a favorite little thrift store in my exceptionally tiny town where I can usually find at least one thing I can't live without!

The other day I came upon an owl necklace that I immediately snatched up.  (I had my mama's original from the 70s when I was a kid, but I lost it.)  It's not the sectioned kind (think F21's owls) but it's enamel with red eyes.

He was only $2.00 and has an AMAZING long chain, to boot. (That strikes me as an outdated phrase...)


Since I wanted to wear this guy IMMEDIATELY, my school outfit revolved around him.


 It's been unseasonably warm here so I'm working bare legs and skirts for as long as I can.

Head cropped off because Mark's talent does not lie in the area of photography.

Top - beige tank from Walmart years ago
Cardigan - Goodwill, $2.00 years ago
Skirt - local thrifting dive, $0.50  (It's not your eyeballs, there are stripes in the skirt fabric.)

Halloween

Halloween is Hubby's favorite holiday, so we do a lot of decorating every year.  We have recently started to have parties, as well... it's almost more of a deal than Christmas.

Every year I insist on a theme (because I force romance into even Halloween costumes) and this year we were Frankenstein's Monster and Bride of Frankenstein.
This was largely because my hair is long this year, and I wanted to poof it all up!

I know, the Monster and Bride didn't really get along.  But we did.

A note about Mark's costume:  His bolts and foil accents are stuck on using toupee tape.  I bought Topstick from Sally's Beauty Supply.
Greeness: regular acrylic craft paint watered down a little.
Suit, shirt, etc: from his closet! 

Makeup closeup! 

Makeup: Regular white Halloween grease paint on highlight areas
Dark green eyeshadow to contour
Lips - Wet'n'Wild Creme Lipliner #715 "Plumberry"
Eyes - Black liner and lots of black mascara
Brows - Masked out my regular brows with glue+liquid concealer. Set with powder. Drew on new eyebrows with e.l.f. black liquid eyeliner 

Hair: LOTS OF HAIRSPRAY + naturally curly hair + streaks of the white facepaint. 
 

My whole costume.  My makeup looks REALLY poorly blended at my hairline!!!

Costume: White full flat sheet, fabric glued together and to "shoulderpads" made of cardboard.
White long-sleeve tee underneath. 


Of course, Phoebe had to have a costume too!
I promise she was pretty happy about it, her face just looks depressed all the time because it's squishy.  =) 

Dog Costume: random green velour from my fabric box, black embroidery floss as stitches.

Overall, a successful and INEXPENSIVE Halloween!  What were you guys dressed up as? 

It's Autumn!

I am lucky enough to live in a part of the world where we have 4 distinct seasons... but autumn is my personal favorite!  A family trip to a corn maze was cause to break out my first hat and scarf of the season.

 (For those of you unfamiliar with corn mazes: some farmers cut a maze out of their corn field and you purposefully get yourself lost.  Corn around here grows to be about 7 feet tall, so you can't see over it.  Sometimes, after dark they "haunt" the maze closer to Halloween.)

It was a beautiful day to be... lost in corn?

 Visiting the family means a roadtrip, so I chose from my 1/2 suitcase of outfits (the rest of the suitcase was for Hubby.)  I threw a denim jacket over a plain tee, grabbed my trusty hat, and a gray pashima wrap/scarf.

This hat is an object of much contention - I've hat totally mixed reviews on it.  Even my longsuffering husband isn't sure he likes it. Let me know what you think!

The "offending" hat.

Hat from Herberger's at the end of last season.
Scarf/wrap from... Walmart?  Last season?
Denim Jacket from JCPenney many years ago - still going strong.  You can't see, but it has mother-of-pearl snap covers and princess seams.


Just for bragging rights, I'm including this final picture...

A beauty shot of my adorable neice!

This child is a large piece of my heart.  She is a curly girl, just like her Aunty!

I haven't said anything particularly witty in this post... I will work on that.