$1 Necklace

Lately, I've been appreciating the Walmart jewelry clearance section. In a recent post, I wrote about a bracelet from Walmart, and then on my last trip I found this necklace (shown below) for $1. 

Happiness!

Top: LOFT, $4 from a consignment store

Pants: Gap, $4 from Goodwill

Cardigan: $11 from Belk

Boots: $20 from Belk

Necklace: $1 from Walmart

Total: $40

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A Professional Outfit

I'm experiencing some camera envy looking at the difference between my home photos and my professional headshot above.

Anyway, I wanted to share how I score professional pieces cheap. The process of finding in-tact, professional clothing at thrift stores can be a chore. Be prepared to spend a long time looking at and trying on clothes. But! You WILL save a lot of money.

Purchasing button-up shirts from Goodwill or GCF is actually a very easy way to save when upgrading your professional wardrobe. Collared shirts are easy to spot on the rack, so you won't have to strain to find them. Look for durable fabric.

Pants are more difficult because you'll probably need to hem them. If you don't know how, google "how to hem pants." There are ways to cheat. I'm not a skilled seamstress by any means and I've figured out ways around the sewing issue.

As stated in my last post, I'm willing to spend more on suit jackets because well-fit ones are difficult to find. You may find this to be the most expensive part of your thrifted professional wardrobe.

Finally, read this. This article will help you focus towards finding the best-looking clothing for your body and how to pair clothing together to make expensive-looking outfits.

Top: East 5th brand, $3 at Goodwill

Jacket: Apt 9 brand, $8 at Hut no. 8

Pants: Twenty one brand, but I've had them for so long I don't even know where I bought them

Shoes: $4 from a thrift store

Total: about $20

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Sparkle Blazer

I bought this jacket because I thought it would be nice to wear around the holidays (Christmas and New Years). I love the gold colored threads in the fabric and the gold buttons. At $22, it was more than I like to spend on one item of clothing. For high quality items such as blazers, however, I remind myself that I'll be hard pressed to find these pieces at a lower price.

What are some items that you are willing to spend more on?

Have you met my garage sale mannequin?

Top: LOFT, $3 at Goodwill

Skirt: BCBG/Max Azria, $0 - $4?

Blazer: Old Navy brand, $22 at a consignment store

Wedges: $7 - $15 at Plato's Closet

Necklace: AEO, $8

Total: $40 - $52

(Sorry, I can't remember some of the prices!!)

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Floral Cardi

I am so happy to have found this floral cardigan at Goodwill. It is 55% silk and it matches my second new oversized grad school handbag. (See my first bag here.)

Cardigan: Madison brand, $4 from Goodwil

Shirt: free, secondhand from a friend

Necklace: $12 from a gift shop

Bracelet: $3 in the Walmart clearance section

Jeans: $8 from A.E.O

Shoes: $20 from A.E.O.

Bag: $10 from Plato's Closet

Total (with purse): $57

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Lacy Ruffles

Cami: free, secondhand from a friend

Necklace: ~$4 from Uptown Cheapskate

Cardigan: $11 from Belk

Crops: ~$18 from A.E.O.

Shoes: ALDO, $5 - $10 from Plato's Closet

Bracelet 1: $3 from A.E.O

Bracelet 2: $3 from Hallmark

Hairclip: family gift

Total: estimated $40 - $49

See how else I paired the cami here.

American Eagle bracelet

Hallmark bracelet

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Pastel Purple Sandals

I once had a dream that I owned a closet full of shoes of every color. For some reason, this dream has since heavily impacted my view of shoe choices. At the time of the dream I owned red, black, white, tan, and brown shoes. I have since sought to purchase shoes of many colors, including these $5 beauties.

What aspects do you consider when purchasing a shoe?

Scarf: $8 from American Eagle Outfitters

Crops: about $18 from A.E.O

Top: LOFT, $3 from Goodwill (probably 90% off retail)

Sandals: C. Wonder, $5 from a local consignment store

Headband: $10 

Total: $44

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Oversized Grad School Handbag

Of course if I'm getting a new bag for grad school, it's going to have enough space to hold a mid-sized filing cabinet.

I purchased this Jaclyn Smith (a Kmart brand, I later discover) from a nearby consignment store for about 50-60% off retail price. This wasn't my most successful purchase, as the bag has been proven to be of low quality. Knowing brands before you purchase second hand is always helpful to give you hints about the kind of bargain you're getting.

Oh well, I'm still learning.

Top: H&M, $3 from Goodwill

Crops: $20 from American Eagle

Flats: $12 at American Eagle

Earrings: $3

Bag: $10 

Total: $48

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Coffee Table and Makeover for $12

Table: $3 at the State Surplus Agency

Sandpaper: $1 at Dollar Tree

Spray Paint: $8 at Lowe's Hardware

A few years ago, we lucked out on finding this hideous, yet ridiculously cheap coffee table. It had a broken leg that I have since glued firmly to the table. Because this table was only $3 and still has hints of having a broken leg, I decided it would be a great project for me to practice my sanding and painting skills. I made a few mistakes, one of which was using too heavy a grain of sandpaper and overly-scratching the table. But overall, I'm so glad I was able to practice!

 Please admire the original, beautiful scratched orange-brown finish below:

I was surprised at the paleness of the fake wood underneath the paint:

The middle of the table, mostly before sanding. We love the pattern of the wood.

 Ta-da! Here is the finished product.

I didn't want the legs to stain the carpet, so that's why there are paper towels under the legs in the picture.

Bonus: The couch pictured here was free from a friend!

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Pinterest Inspired

One of my favorite blogs is J's Everyday Fashion. She usually gets her inspiration from celebrity outfits and sometimes Pinterest. I've never seriously applied this technique to dressing myself, however, until recently. One morning, I was wearing a worse version of this outfit and happened to check Pinterest quickly while eating breakfast. Well, the Pinterest outfit certainly looked better than mine, so I immediately copied it, minus the short skirt.

How often do you copy your whole outfit (or most of it) from Pinterest or magazines?

Pinspiration outfit

 Top: $9 at AEO

Belt: probably about $4 at Uptown Cheapskate

Skirt: free from a friend

Shoes: $12 at AEO (pictured below)

Total: $25

When I worked at American Eagle, I got a couple pairs of these flats in different colors at 60% off and I wear them all the time. Scrunch flats are incredibly comfortable.

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White Lace, Fake Pearls

Oh, hello there, big, daunting, unapproachable world of blogging. I have some great outfits to share with you since I've started GRAD SCHOOL (eek!), but my computer died and I've probably lost all of those pictures. That's the only reason you won't get to see those outfits. It's not like I've been procrastinating starting to blog again or anything like that. Ahem.

Today I found an amazing shirt that I couldn't stand to not share, broken computer or not. Since starting grad school, I told myself I'd only shop at Goodwill, because their shirts are three dollars. But if I can find shirts elsewhere that are cuter and only four dollars, I'm okay with breaking my tacit promise. So here is a shirt not from Goodwill.

Please excuse me while I try to remember how to pose for pictures:

Top: Kenar brand, $4 from a local consignment store

Pants: J.Crew, free from a friend

Shoes: Karen Scott, about $7 from a local pawn shop

Necklace: $12 from Uptown Cheapskate

Total: $22

For some reason, in lace and pearls, I felt like I was going to a State dinner and meeting the first lady. Strangely, this is not the first time I've looked at myself in new clothes and immediately had thoughts of presidency. It happened once before with this dress. Not sure why this happened once, let alone twice. I think the bottom line is that clothes can completely change your perspective about yourself.

I don't have any State dinners coming up, so I'll probably dress it down and wear it to school with jeans, flats, and a bubble necklace:

Have you ever felt like your clothes were Presidential?

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"Mine House is a House of Order"

 

Lately, I've been extremely motivated to organize our house. When you live in a rental, you develop a mindset of: "This place is not permanent. I am only here for a little while. Why bother decorating?" But I think we may stay in this house for a while longer, so I am getting my act together.

As my fellow procrastinators out there may know, if you suddenly feel motivated to do something, you need to act on that motivation immediately before it passes. So this morning as I was struck suddenly and acutely with the inspiration and motivation to primp my laundry sorter, I carried out the revelation and it was completed within the hour.

from walmart.com

I bought a laundry sorter similar to the one above about a year ago. Since then, it has sat with these substandard, makeshift labels:

Time for a makeover! I created these labels in powerpoint, using the Helvetica font of course. The labels were then laminated, cut, and hole-punched. I used zip-ties to attach the labels to the sorter.

How did I ever live without my own laminator?

Handy dandy paper cutter!

Time to hole punch.

Attached with zip-ties.

Here is the finished product! So much better looking. It's a little bit of organization heaven.

If I had another laundry sorter, I would also have labels for reds and pinks, hand wash items, towels, and whites. How do you sort your laundry? Do you or anyone you know dare to sort their laundry in more ways than me?  

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Break from Blogging

If you couldn't tell, I have taken a break from blogging. I no longer work at American Eagle Outfitters, which was the main reason why I began blogging; I wanted to catalog my work outfits so I would not repeat them and I wanted to keep track of how I paired all the new clothes I was buying for work. 

Currently, I am keeping a tight lock on my clothes spending so that I can pay tuition when I begin my graduate studies in the fall. Most likely I will recommence blogging once my classes start. 

I have been doing tons of other crafts, including scrap-booking, designing, and upcycling. Let me show you what I've been up to. 

First, here is a recently completed project, which actually took me over a year to complete out of laziness!

Before I attached the circles together.

Finished: Each circle has the family member's name and date of birth.

Another current creative outlet has been scrap-booking. Here are a couple pages from a new scrapbook:

The white lacy top sheet was actually hand-punched. Each 1-inch square was individually punched out.
Talk about exhausting!

I used wood chips to designate on the map each town we visited and included a map key. 

To finish this post, here are some garage sale finds during my blogging hiatus.

A mannequin for $7 (shirt and necklace not included).

Another mannequin for $3, this one with no legs, but easily transportable and can hang in my closet.

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