Altering a Blazer Part II

I decided to by Tippy Hedren from The Birds for Halloween. We went thrifting and I found a giant jacket for $2.06 and a skirt for $.66. Here's my photo journey for refashioning the clothes into being workable. I altered a blazer awhile ago, so I basically did exactly the same thing for this blazer. Also, I'm not in the writing mood, so I'm just going to post pictures. I'm sure you brilliant people can figure out the steps.

Note: I didn't photograph it, but I also hemmed the jacket several inches to make it a normal length, and then sewed the pockets closet to eliminate the bulkiness. After Halloween, I plan to cut the sleeves back off, hem the armholes and wear it for a vest. Super cool, right? :)

Ankle Boots ... At Last!

I finally got my wish of buying ankle boots! (And I didn't even have to accidentally google porn to find them!) Chase and I were shopping at Target and found tons 'o shoes for 50% off, so we each got a pair. One of our rare, but fun!, splurges. I bought these puppies here for $15. I'm still working on incorporating them into outfits, but so far I've been wearing them with skinny jeans. Also, I'm crazy tall when I wear them, which is basically awesome. I always had a goal of being 5'6" to 5'9", but I stopped growing at 5'4". Also, 5'4" is the average height in the U.S. for women, so I never let people call me short.

Okay, so now I need some more ideas for wearing these shoes. I'm planning to wear them with tights and a dress sometime, but I don't know how else to wear them. Can you roll your jeans up? Is it okay if part of your leg shows? Can you wear them with leggings? So many questions for a new pair of shoes. :)

Outfit Details:

Sweater -- Handmedown

Shirt -- H&M $7

Jeans -- JCPenneys $10

Necklace -- Gift

Boots -- Target $15

Total Cost: $32

Pinterest, You are Drunk

Okay. Once upon a time I got fed up with the ridiculous stupid pins and made a Pinterest board called "What the Hell." I pinned stupid stuff on it with plans to make a snarky blog post at some point. The only problem was the my pinterest people repinned the "what the hell" pins waaaay more often than they repinned anything else I had pinned. Which kind of made me feel like nobody would get it if I made a sarcastic pinterest post.

But then I found the blog, Pinterest, You are Drunk. It has already provided me with hours of entertainment.

I actually enjoy Pinterest, but I feel like there's a limit to it. Doing ten jumping jacks before you shower every day will not give you a body that looks like a muscular supermodel. Let's be real. Here are some of the pictures that provide a little bit of reality to combat the excessive crafty joy of Pinterest. :D

SILVER STAPLES ARE FOR PEASANTS.

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HERE’S ONE WAY TO JUSTIFY YOUR HUSBAND’S DRINKING HABIT.

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FOR THE MOTHER WHO’D LIKE HER SON TO BE PERPETUALLY DISAPPOINTED IN HIS FUTURE WIFE.

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I CAN NEVER UNKNOW THAT THIS IS A THING.

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AFTER I FINISH WRAPPING THIS PRESENT I’M GOING TO TIDY UP MY WORKSPACE AND THEN DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN I’M SO LONELY.

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A BOYFRIEND WHO APPRECIATES HOW YOU LOOK IN A SEXY DRESS: GOOD. A BOYFRIEND WHO CHOOSES YOUR SEXY DRESS, WITH ACCESSORIES AND A NOTE IN BETTER CURSIVE THAN YOURS? RED FLAG.

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THAT MOMENT AFTER SAYING “I DO” THAT YOU REALIZE YOUR NEW MOTHER-IN-LAW IS BATSHIT CRAZY.

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Polka Dots are the New Stripes

So... I was thrilled to put my newly refashioned polka dot skirt into an outfit. But I strangely had a difficult time making something to wear. Since the skirt was loose and flowy, I figured I should balance it out with a not-loose top. But all my tank-tops are either red or black for some reason, both of which would look awful with navy, in my opinion. After way too much time staring at my closet, I decided on a Target v-neck. You seriously can't go wrong with Target v-necks. I own four of these shirts. 

Also, all of these pictures were taken by yours truly, which is why they lack the high caliber quality they have when Chase takes them. :) 

I have a story. I've mentioned before that I'm taking a class at Wheaton. Our last assignment was to write a 350 word This I Believe paper that described our fundamental belief about humanity. It was a surprisingly difficult assignment, but I enjoyed writing it, because for some reason I've been blessed (cursed?) with an over-abundance of words. The paper ended up being really personal, and I wrote about stuff I've never talked about with anybody (except Chase, of course). I was ridiculously nervous sharing that much emotion with a room full of strangers, but it was so freeing. 

One of my favorite bloggers, Elizabeth Esther, writes about how freeing it is to be honest with your past, with your problems, and with your emotions--even (especially!) the negative ones. I love her. And she inspired me to be more open about things that I would rather ignore and pretend never happened. 

Sorry if that was overly enigmatic. I'm still riding the high of baring my soul when I so rarely show deep emotions with people other than my husband. 

Plus, I made a 100 on it. That's seriously the icing on the cake. Except I hate cake. Maybe that's the peanut butter on the spoon. I love peanut butter. 

Trying to run into the frame on a 2-second timer is surprisingly difficult.
Either two seconds is shorter than I thought or I'm slower than I thought. 

Outfit Details:

Skirt -- Salvation Army $.66
Sandals -- Payless $4
Shirt -- Target free with giftcard
Belt -- Free

Total Cost: $4.66

High-Low Skirt Refashion

I've been on the lookout for a long skirt at thrift stores, and I finally found one on Tuesday. The skirt was a size large and was missing a button, but it was sixty-six cents, so I couldn't pass this baby up. Here are the too-big before pictures.

I turned the skirt inside out and took in the side seams about an inch on each side to make the skirt a little more narrow. Nobody wants a skirt that falls off. Weird... I also resewed the button that was missing on the top.

After that, I folded the skirt like it is in the picture and cut the front part off, making sure to do a gradual curve as I cut so there wouldn't be any harsh angles. I still need to hem the skirt, but the fabric doesn't ravel very much, so I'll just hem it when I get around to it.

This skirt was so fun and simple to refashion, and now I have a rocking high-low skirt for under a dollar. That's the kind of price I like. :) It blows my mind how people can buy new when there are such great deals to be found at Salvation Army.

Blah to Awesome Nightstand

Once upon a time, I was taking the trash out and found a beautiful nightstand sitting dejectedly beside the dumpster. Our 300 square foot apartment unfortunately didn't have space for it, but my sister recently moved to Indiana, so I dragged the nightstand inside for her. The nightstand wasn't bad looking, but it looked liked it belonged in an old person's house. And since it was going to go in my nine-year-old nephew's room, I decided to repaint it. 

Before

I took everything apart, sanded it down, and used the same two paint colors that I used on this bookshelf. The drawer pulls were horrible looking, so I went to Home Depot and bought the same drawer pulls that we used on our giant turquoise dresser thing.

It started to look great! But I wanted to add something else to give it more visual interest, so I used this silver spray paint and painted only the top. It ended up making the top have a really smooth finish, almost like it was varnished. It was awesome!

After

Here's the finish on the top!

Halloween Costumes

Halloween is in exactly nine days. I haven't completely nailed down what I want to be this year, but I've narrowed it down. I've only dressed up once before, and that was as a pirate, which was a ridiculously fun costume. I've always wanted to be a pirate, and I'm not sure why. :)

Here's my brother Daniel and I when we were in college together. He's supposed to be some guy from a movie called The Clockwork Orange (I think...). His costume was pretty rocking. 

My friend Christina was a ninja turtle (I painted her face!) and Chase was Pancho Villa. He decided on that costume about an hour before we went trick-or-treating. Ha. But he looked awesome.

This Year

Audrey Hepburn or Holly Golightly

A flapper. Awesome! (Kim Kardashian, not so much...)

Jess from New Girl. So cool. I would have to buy hair extensions, though.

Tilly from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. I think this is most likely what I'll end up being. Classic, not slutty, and fake blood. Perfect.

A Freudian Slip. This version of it kind of sucks, but I think this could be a great costume if the slip was actually in your size and you added a beard and a hat. That way it looks a little more original.

So. What are you guys going to be for Halloween?

Of Target and Pearls

So, since I'm taking a temporary cessation from posting daily outfits, I decided to show you my newest thrifting finds. 

During the month of October, my coffee shop is having a breast cancer fundraiser, so we get to wear pink. Which is cool, because I semi like pink, but I own nothing that is pink. However, Goodwill owns many things that are pink, so I went shopping and found this brand new Target top. Awesome. 

Speaking of Target...Is it just me, or does it seem ridiculously popular in BlogLand? I love shopping at Target, and I love clothes, but it irritates me a little bit to see people post about how cheap their clothes were because they were bought at Target rather than J.Crew and Anthropologie. I guess if you're used to spending a stupid amount of money on clothes, than Target would seem like a deal, but money is money is money. Whatever. 

$2.99

I've realized that this fall is going to be a tights fall, as witnessed here and here and here. So I was happy to find cheap tights.

$1.99

And my last buy was this great statement necklace. I'm still not sure how much I like it, so I've had a hard time wearing it often, but I think I like it. It's one of those things that I'll have to make myself wear a few times to get used to it and then I can decide.

$2.00