Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Turtle Necks Are Still Cool Right?


I love shopping. I Also love saving money and sometimes the two seem difficult to mix. This is why I love thrift stores. You are doing yourself and the world a big favour by shopping thrift. First of all, you save a tonne of money, second, you are reusing instead of throwing out and item, and third, Almost every thrift store  uses some or all of the money to give back to a community. 

At least once per week before I leave my work, I browse through the dresses. I love dresses. And brooches. I don't love every dress, but if it is knee length, a-line, and has a great neck line and has some sort of shape to it, I'll love it.

So today as I browsed through the dresses, I found this interesting brown plaid dress. It looked wearable on the hanger, but it did look a little out dated. So I took it with me to the change rooms. I've had some luck with out dated looking dresses in the past. 
Anyways I tried it on. sleeves were a bit tight but as Stacy and Clinton  from TLC's What Not To Wear, you can always tailor an outfit to make it fit to your body. 
I also had to resew the hem just to make it a little sturdier as it looked hand stitched...but loosely hand-stitched
It may need a second layer of fabric in the skirt since it might be slightly see-through...not too sure about that yet. 
The dress is made by designer Jonathan Logan. I had no idea who this was, but then I looked him up and I still didn't know who he was but his dresses are all really beautiful! I do know now that J.L was a company formed in the 1940's and designed classy dresses geared towards young ladies.   Also if you look up his dresses on ebay, they sell anywhere between $150 and $250 these days.
I paid: $4.00. Sweet. 
My Jonathan Logan dress. 




I also made some other purchases somewhat recently. 

I bought this great turtle neck. Those are still cool right?  I think this one belonged to a very hip grandma. I only assume that because someone had sewn in shoulder pads and I don't think those have made a definite come back yet. So I removed them...but I will hold on to them in case that style does return, that way I can claim that I had them long before anyone else. 
granny's turtle neck.
cost: $ 4.00. Not bad. 

And then I purchased, this AMAZING sweater dress thing. It's by tna, and its a mix of a bunch of different wools. Plus it has that great big collar on it and it's super warm because of all the sheep and llamas that donated their wool to make it. . 
my warm sweater dress.
Cost: $4.50 Steal.  Original retail price: $180. Yup...I got a good bargain here. 



I don't really like knick knacks, but I love this little teal bird.
cost: $1

Sunday, November 4, 2012

DIY Beauty


This is a very quick post. Something that I just HAVE to share with people. I don't take credit for this as I found it online about a year ago so I give credit to whoever/whomever discovered this.  This is mostly for girls, but my husband does it too, and I totally recommend it for guys too.

You know those Biore strips you buy at the drug store or the beauty section of your local grocery store? You know how they cost and arm and a leg to buy but you really want beautiful pores and so you would willingly sacrifice that limb...sometimes?

Well I'm going to share with you a VERY cheap solution that allows you to keep all limbs.

Buy one box, or two or one million, whatever your heart desires of Knox Gelatin, (Or whatever brand, but this seems to be a fairly basic and popular brand)









Here are the steps to follow:
  • Mix 1 tbsp of gelatin with 1 1/2 tbsp of milk. (you can use any type of milk...but I would stick to the basics; skim, 1%, 2%, whole. Try to avoid butter milk or chocolate milk you can try it if you'd like though but don't say I told you to do that.  
  • Stir it so that it's kinda thick and then microwave it for 10 seconds...no more than 15 seconds.
  • Now put it on your face, not too thin. I recommend NOT putting it on sensitive areas like around the eyes, and I would also avoid areas that have very fine hairs...it hurts to pull it off afterwords and you don't want to damage the sensitive skin around your eyes. I usually just apply it on my cheeks, nose and T-zone
  • Let it dry. This takes about 15 minutes. When it is dry your face will feel really tight. Have someone tell you something funny. If you can only laugh on the inside and not on the outside...then it's dry. 
  • Start peeling. take a look at the strips of gelatin you pull off ( you can wash off the tiny bits that get stuck since water just turns it back into squishy gelatin). You will see a forest of pore stuff. Gross. 
  • Never buy the expensive stuff again.
You will also have bought enough to do this over and over again...and how much did you spend? Maybe $3 or so.