Thriftanista in the City

After I expressed some  vintage love , I headed out to the Minx & Mingle Mixer event with the goal of meeting new blogger friends and of course taking a peek at Minx Diva's exclusive luxury manicure suite.

In addition to sipping mimosas all day in my custom wine glass , I painted my nails on Mother's Day. As an extra special treat to myself, I played around with my Salon Express  Nail Art Stamping Kit . I've had it for a few months but was quite intimidated by it. When I tried to stamp my nails the first time, it was a big ol' glob of mess. Turns out I was doing it all wrong. The scraping part is a step you don't want to miss. In fact, it would be better to read the instructions. Which I did not. If you have a nail art stamper that isn't quite working out for you or you want to give it a try, let me break it down for you! Obviously you want to start off with a very clean manicured nail. I'm working with freshly washed hands. That's why my hands look like I've been sifting flour.  Next apply a base coat. I used Orly's Bonder because it rocks! It gives the polish something to stick to and hopefully last longer.  Apply two coats o...

I really like J. Crew's mash up of pretty pastel colors on the Spring 2013 runway. I decided to use it as inspiration for the nail art in my latest manicure. I've made several freehand designs. Some work. Yes to dots ! Some not so much. While I heart nail art, hearts on nails proved to be quite challenging. Source: highsnobette.com via Thriftanista in the City on Pinterest I ordered Sally Hansen Nail Art pens from Walgreens online (want to make sure I'm earning those balance rewards ) and I did a little something different for each nail! Just like in the J. Crew collection, I used a mix of shapes and florals in cute spring hues. I applied a base coat and painted my nails with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Twisted Pink. I worked on the flower first. I made a circle a little bit off center with the orange nail art pen and then made short wispy strokes around the circle to create the flower petals. I worked on the middle finger next because I wasn...

Like a lot of my fellow bloggers, I joined Oasap's fashion hunter program *. You sign up, put a banner on your page and accumulate points that can be used toward merchandise. Yippeeee! If you're not a blogger, you can still accumulate points for liking, following, and sharing your purchases on social media.  The zebra patterned pyramid shaped  necklace  was my first purchase. I wore it over the weekend and received so many compliments on it. It's a keeper. Obviously I'm not the only one who loves it. It's sold out. As it was the weekend and I planned to eat large quantities of food, I kept my outfit simple and roomy. I also planned on kicking off my shoes as soon as I stepped in my friend's house so I could manage the the left toe suffocating MIA sandals.  I played around with dots again. Orange / pink is one of my favorite color combos. I applied Sally Hansen Sun Kissed with Twisted Pink dots. I completely forgot to take a picture ...

Friday, I met up with a great group of bloggers for dinner at Zapatistas. Fab Ellis was in town for the weekend and invited her Bloggers Like Me sisters to join her for dinner. I'm always excited to meet other bloggers. Unfortunately, I haven't had many opportunities to do that. Not just being in the same space but actually sitting down, sharing a meal and learning a little bit more about each other. We had great conversation and noshed on Mexican food. (SN: if you go to Zapatistas make sure to try the fish tacos. They were the hit of the table.) My outfit for the evening included a 2 piece self sewn jersey dress. I made it a few years ago. It's from a Dolce & Gabbana pattern. Naturally I had to use leopard print fabric. Last seen here .  I wore a camp shirt over it because I wanted to add some color and have more coverage.  Wedge sandals are 9West and I'm carrying my thrifted Fendi bag. I haven't seen it in a while. Rediscovered it while un...

Last night, I attended Malibu Rum's Music Explosion at Castaways. Complimentary drinks plus apps and a fantastic dj! Since I was headed for the beach, I wanted to go casual but pulled together. I relied on a statement piece, sparkly nails, and heels to crank it up a notch. Otherwise, you're looking at my "in the park mom 'fit". 90's boxy blouse, shorts, and sandals are thrifted. hello giant thigh back porch posin' Orly's Mermaid Tale There's a mom and baby in the building next door. They can see me. The baby is straining her neck to  see out of the window and see what the heck I'm doing. I suspect she'll be photobombing me soon. DJ Reach played Tupac and Biggie -- officially a partay! girlgetalife is feeling good from all the dranks the music diamond stud earrings // unknown / gift necklace //  Wet Seal / mall boxy top // unknown / thrifted shorts // Dockers / thrifted platform wooden sandals // ...

I think shorts are the perfect compromise for dress loving mamas on the playground. Even though walking shorts are pretty casual, you can spice it up with accessories. My "flare" today is bright purple lips, bright nails, a tie front shirt, and a couple of bracelets.  The shorts I'm wearing are from a thrift haul last year. I love the bright color and I especially love the high waist. I saw the length on the zipper and knew they were a winner! My navel is as snug as a bug in the rug. SN: Shorts would probably look better if I took the time to iron the very wrinkly material. One day.....

This dress is one of my favorites. I bought it last year. The cut and color really work for me. Most empire waist dresses don't hit me right. They're great for accentuating the positive *cough* bewbs and flowing away from the trouble areas. This dress is made of a jersey knit material so it has a lot of give but it also has a zipper making it more structured and holds everything in place.  I've only worn it one other time. It had sticky goo from the previous owners bewb tape. I wore it anyway. It wasn't that noticeable. This year, I bought Goof Off and went to work. That stuff works. The goo is gone. Oh and yes that is my bra peeking out. It didn't occur to me until later to adjust the straps to stop this from happening. Duh. Necklace - bought in Kenya Empire waist dress - H&M (thrifted) Gold belt - unknown (thrifted) Leopard platform sandals - Gianni Bini (eBay) The rain took over the photo shoot so I moved inside hoping I could get a better...

My camera is MIA for now so I don't have pics of the fun event I attended last night. All do have is this camera shot of what my nails looked like. These line dots are now my thing. A toothpick dipped in polish. Boom! Done. I love freehand nail art but I'm not very good at replicating the tutorials out there. I finally found something I can do and not mess it up. Almost. My left hand looks great. I accidently mucked up the dots on my right finger when I applied a top coat. Gahh! I will never be perfect. Oh well. Since I don't have any pictures, here are some of my favorite pinned designs that I will probably never replicate. :) Happy Friday!

I am not complaining about the weather at all. I will say there are wardrobe challenges now since it's too hot for tights and wool dresses / skirts. My summer clothes are mostly wrinkled and packed away.  I won tickets to a fashion show and I needed a weather appropriate outfit. I was able to find this dress hanging out in my closet. I bought it during the winter months so it wasn't packed away. It's a pseudo bandage dress (minus the tightness) and it's color blocked. Two  past  passing trends in one! The green jacket -- I didn't put away because I adore the bright green color. The leather clutch is nice and simple. A nice break from my Mama bag. I'm thinking about a DIY for it. Neon paint? Hardware? or just leave it alone? The Stuart Weitzman pumps are growing on me. They're really girly. I smile when I look down at the flowers on my feet. Also, the heel height is really manageable on my "de-conditioned to high heels" feet. Voila! All ...

It's been a minute with this segment. I haven't been keeping up on my manicures and nail polishing. I'm having so much chippage lately that it just doesn't seem worth it. Nails and baby wrangling don't seem to go well together. I have more wrangling now that V is walking and half running and touching everything that isn't one of her toys. I've been wanting to get a little fancy with the nails. I was inspired by Sophistishe  and a whole lot of nail bloggers in my reader. It's extremely free hand. Once I shower away all the paint on my skin, I think it will look pretty good. It looks so much better all fuzzy and soft. Sinful Colors Mint Apple - Sally Hansen Pronto Purple - Clean Color Gold Shimmer How do you fancify (I just made up a new word!) your nails?  The giveaway ends tonight!

Happy Holidays! It's a bit of a delayed greeting. I'm having some connectivity issues and we've been busy enjoying the long weekend. Food and drinks on repeat plus a few gifts. I'm brain purging today. She looks so different. Hard to believe it was only a year ago. We didn't buy gifts for V this year again. She received numerous gifts from family and friend and we thought that was enough. The time sure does fly by. I can't believe we're on V's second Christmas and she's 16 months as of tomorrow. I got a fancy new phone for Christmas and I have been stunting in the house since. I have a pay as you go plan so I will be just pretending I'm doing cool social media stuff with it for now. Ahh velour!! I went in search of the "special" Santa and Santaland at Macy's. I was so curious about it after Quiana mentioned it. V was stressing though so we didn't make it into Santaland this year but next year. I ...