Black Friday Haul

Team All Over Thrift lined up at the Goodwill at 7:30am. After a Thanksgiving of too much loss and sadness, we needed the distraction of holiday shopping. We got the giggling over the lack of queue out of our system and  joined all 4 fellow shoppers in the count down 'til opening time. 

Black Friday Specials: The first 50 people got $10! All clothing was THREE BUCKS! Plus, there were 200 free items hidden throughout the store. 

Juicy Couture dress 

Old Navy vest 

Isaac Mizrahi for Target cardigan 

Banana Republic green velvet blazer 

Feather top 

Tiered teal skirt 

Mossimo skinny jeans 

Awesome pouch - perfect for travel! $2.99

Straw purse - FREE! (Although I just realized the zipper is broken)

Brand new Cost Plus picture frame $2.99

Leather shoes $5.99

Here's to retail therapy! 

Fluorescent Lights and All

Some stores deploy all sorts of tricks in the dressing room to get you to buy. Soft lighting, skewed mirrors, devoted sales attendants, even refreshments if you're super lucky. Not the Salvation Army! You're lucky if you get a dressing room at all. Still, while champagne would be nice, it's has the wonderful effect of making everything look BETTER at home. 

Take this velvet top. Once I rescued it from the dim surroundings it transformed into a totally lux wardrobe must. Just $6.99 and I'm already planning to wear it from now til February. 

While this trick works on most things, others are ugly to the core. You don't care, you love them anyway! Just like me and this bag. I was in need of a carry on and it was in need of a home. True love is patchwork blind! $2.99 but I would have paid more. 

Laziness Becomes Her (or Lazy Sunday)

An uninspired post for lazy Sunday. 

Southwestern scarf $2.99

Wooden magnets for the babe $2.99 

Stocking stuffers for some of the men in my life $1 each 

Goodwill for Grownups

Admittedly, I usually dress like I'm 12. What can I say? I like jeans. I love flowery dresses. More bows is always a good thing. However, there are moments (as I careen toward 30) in which I start to wonder if I should dress a little more..ahem... mature. With that in mind I hit the Goodwill and walked away with some grownup pieces.

J Crew (ohh you fancy!) yellow scalloped blouse for $5.99. This actually inspired the title for today's post. I looked at myself and thought, I look so grownup! 

ECI New York blouse. Also $5.99. I look like an important business woman. 

A flowery (I know, I know!) dress from Target WITH TAGS. Just $5.99 since dresses were on sale! 

And to prove I haven't lost all my fun, a Thanksgiving inspired blouse for when I want to play Pilgrim. (which is never so I didn't buy it) 

Remember kiddies, grownup is good but Ma'am is never okay! 

Beep Beep

My little man is obsessed with buses. Everything is a bus. A trailer is a bus. A truck is a bus. A fire engine is a bus. And yes, a bus is a bus. He will proudly proclaim at almost every large vehicle, "It's a bus!"

He will also tell you, with the cutest accompanying hand gestures you've ever seen, that  a bus says "Beep Beep!"

Suffice to say we are really loving buses around here so when I stumbled upon this Simpson's bus at a local thrift shop I had to have it.

It was $2.99 and in great shape. I could hardly wait to get it home and show the boy. Then, I googled it and found this:

Originally $84.99. Score one for Mommy! And the best part? He loves it.

Funky Shoe Contest

When I was a little girl my favorite way to spend a Saturday afternoon was shopping with my Grandma. She invented a game called The Funky Shoe Contest where we would each scour the store to find the funkiest shoes possible. We would excitedly share our finds and laugh over who "won." 

In honor of my Grandma, I proudly submit the following: 

BAMBOO SHOES. SUEDE FAUX COWHIDE PIPING. CUTESY BOW.
JUST STOP. 

They wanted $10 for this fiasco.  

Lost Weekends & Manly Things

An atrocious weekend for thrifting but a good weekend for life. Lots of time with grandparents (mine and the little one's) plus an afternoon spent raising money for children in foster care (enough for 70 holiday gifts for children in need.) With that under my belt I can hardly complain of lackluster results. 

Fantastic embroidered skirt from Floreat via Salvation Army. I will let the Anthropologie product description do the talking: Dotty embroidery and pickstitched pathways sprout magically across Floreat's canvas mini. $2.50! You had me at sprout magically

 My man found a perfect denim jacket. Complete with DIY patches that add a sense of adventure to the worn with love denim. $5.00!

My friend from NYC once said, the difference between LA and New York City is that people in LA never met a pair of jeans they didn't like. Amen. Nothing does it for me quite like worn denim. 

On a side note, spell check changes "thrifting" to "thriving" - Coincidence? 

Priceless

$15.99 at the Goodwill
Happy Halloween, Ya'll 

Not Like The Others

One of these things is not like the others. 

A pretty good haul of two tops ($2.50 each), pajama bottoms ($2.00), a cookbook ($1.00), toddler jeans ($1.50), a coloring book (free! It pays to be a regular!) and a kids size "Satan Worshipper" sweatshirt ($2.50 and I bought it for me, not the kid in my life. I still can't quite figure out why...) 

Winter Florals

It's winter in my part of the world, meaning it's about 60 degrees. Break out the sweaters and winter florals. Two head to toe thrifted looks are below. Both heavily floral in an effort to combat the dreary days. 

Look One:

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A (dare I say it?) gothic take on florals. Studded collar top $5.99 from Goodwill under a $3 American Apparel Sweater + Dark, dark denim from Target via Salvation Army paired with Libby Edelman boots ($5 from Goodwill)

Look Two:

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My ugly sweater from Savers Arizona ($3 from Forever 21) over a darling lace floral dress. The gray tights and boots winter it up. The flowers in my hair because I felt like it! 

Just Say No

The trouble with thrifting is everything is such a bargain. You can very easily find yourself purchasing things just because they are so so cheap. If the fit is off, the fabric is scratchy, or the color is wrong you have to learn to just say no. If you're buying pieces that are just okay, you may as well throw your cash down the drain. (A drain that takes the cash and uses it to support social services like job training but still!!)

This week I've had quite a few NO's. I didn't document them all but here are a few that were just on the edge. 

A sweet Cynthia Rowley Tea Dress.
Yes, she's a designer I love. Yes, the colors are good one me. I just didn't love it. So I had to say NO.

 Elephant Blouse.
I'm a sucker for anything with an odd print. Just ask my husband - when we met my favorite shirt had a radish print. However, when I tried this on I was already tugging at it and trying to imagine how I could tie it or cut it. Not a good sign. NOOOO!

 Purple Slip. 

The type of thing I imagine myself swanning around in on a Sunday morning, without a toddler. It was fine. It wasn't great. An easy no.

Mossimo Stretch Dress.

One of my favorite colors but it was a tad too tight. I be up in the gym just working on my fitness, but this dress did nothing to show that. A sad no.

Silk Shirt Dress.

The saddest no of all. This was stunning on the hanger. Again, my favorite color but the fabric was weird and clung in all the wrong places. It actually looks worse in this photo than it did in person- even more reason it's a no. 

Something that was a YES this week... a sneak peek at my Halloween costume. If we're going to be friends then you must know I love dinosaurs. And yes, I'm going to wear this. 

Remember: 

The more times you say NO, the sweeter the YES's will be. 

xx

Stoked

I'm prouder than usual of my most recent second-hand score. Brand new Nike running shoes! I wore them last night and I swear I ran faster, jumped higher and looked cuter. (Ok, maybe just the last one) 

Someone else likes Mama's new shoes too.