Thriftanista in the City

I love old clothes. I guess it comes with the thrifting territory. I'm usually wearing vintage in every outfit I put together.  Because I don't want to look like I'm wearing a costume, my retro looks are never all from one decade. 

Last year, I found a Target  maxi dress  at Salvation Army for $1.75. I have a fat arm issue and a sun allergy so I rarely expose my full arm in summer. The price was right and so was the purple and pink color combination. It was also new but the included slip was missing. I wore the dress  last year with one of my thrift store slips. It was too short for the long length and looked a bit off. This time I had the perfect solution -- leggings!

I had another great  thrift haul  at Goodwill.  My $5 birthday gift arrived and I ventured out to a location I hadn't been to since last year. Remember the jumpsuit turned romper ? SN: This was probably the beginning of many photo bombs from Ms. Violet.  My haul this year was small but mighty. I love finding designer brands for basically pennies. Naturally, I spent more than $5 but I did manage to stay under $20. Five bucks at a thrift store can take you far. Am I right?

Since I'm not a photographer and I don't have a DSLR camera, I rely heavily on editing programs to make my pictures look their absolute best. I use  lighting  tricks but sometimes the photos need a few more touches.

Having nice photos is pretty key for fashion bloggers. Since I'm not blessed with a DSLR camera, I make due with a point & shoot and sometimes the camera on my android. Before I start sharing my tricks, let me say, I am not an photographer and I don't always get the perfect shot. If you look through my entire body of blog posts you can see that there have been lots of misses. 

White shorts are complicated. They are not my friend.  Yellow pants ,   pink skirts , and other brights are more my style. Way too much drama with white. I have very few all white clothing and you will never see me at a white party dressed in all white. I bought a $3 pair of white shorts from the thrift because...I don't know. My fashion fickle was probably all over it last year. Perhaps, I was won over by the high waist. The shorter length gives me a faux height boost too.

Even when I'm not thrifting, it's always on my brain. I read a bunch of thrift blogs, I google thrift related news and I have my own completely random thrift stories to share. Now I give it all to you. Enjoy! 1. I found a pair of vintage disco ball earrings at an estate sale. I couldn't look away from all of that light and shine so I paid the $6 for them. I wore them with the  pink pencil skirt  already.

Altering a jeans hem length and keeping the original hem intact is really fast and easy to do. It's one of those projects you can knock out in 10 mins or less. I learned how to do it when I first learned to sew since most of my pants are too long.  My legs are shorter than the average, I suppose. These days, I wear most of my jeans tucked under or over as a temporary solution.   Yesterday, I was hit with the sewing bug and worked on a pair that was already prepped. Normally, you have to try on, pin and measure before making hemline adjustments. I've been folding the bottom of these jeans so long they have a permanent crease so I used it as my guide.

Raise your hand if you have a pencil skirt in your closet? Just like I thought. We all do! Whether thrifted or bought brand new, it's always in style. I haven't really checked for one since I left the workplace because I didn't think they would be functional for my lifestyle. I rediscovered this pink one when I unpacked my summer wardrobe.

I like to mix and mingle with different styles. Even before the days of thrifting, I considered my style pretty eclectic and hodge podge. It's the fashion fickle in me, I guess.  Oxfords  appeal to my miniscule preppy side. They have always been my thing.

As part of a sponsored post for Collective Bias®,  I made delicious smoothies using berries from  Mariano's . It's rummage sale season and V and I have to be up and out of the house pretty early to get first look at the merch. As V is not always into that eating jazz and I'm still functioning on a half liquid diet with the new braces, I make smoothies for us to have before heading out the door. We both like fruit and enjoy eating strawberries and blueberries during the summer.