Wishlist of Sorts

My siblings and I have decided to shop at only thrift stores and consignment stores for each other this year. I have a really hard time describing what I want so I looked through my inspiration board on Pintrest to compile a list. I realized I have been pinning a bunch of outfits that contain a few items that could be found thrifting.

Here is my thrift store inspiration boards for them to keep in mind while shopping :)

Simple dresses to wear with cardigans

Basic skirts that I can pair with lots of tops. I own too many pencil skirts and only 1 of this style

Love this tights with shorts look. I have black but I'm looking for jean or a pattern as well.

I like the casual versatility of these shrunken grey sweatshirt.

Fingers crossed that they can find some of these! Oh and all of the links can be found on my board.

Polka Dots and Orange Chicken

Hi all! How was your weekend? Mine was pretty swell. Ace and I slept in on Saturday and pretty much were huge bums. I POWER cleaned my place because it was embarrassing to be honest. Now it is much tidier and ready for some decorations! Sunday, I headed over to my parents to work on my desk from the Junk Love sale. It is so cute! I painted it a really fun green and then did a faux bois finish on it. I can't wait to show you it when it's dry! I'm so happy to finally have a place to put my computer, keys and some little knick knacks. Who wants to come over and help me decorate?

I wore this to work the other day and then headed out thrifting with Emma, Megan and Megan's kids. I had never been to that particular thrift store before and I found a couple of good things! In particular, a blue button up with polka dots. I've worn it twice but haven't taken a picture yet. Don't worry, though I'm sure it will turn up on here soon! I just remembered that I wore this to the midnight showing of the new Twilight movie. I won't get into details but the movie was not my favorite and was actually quite odd in parts. You could tell that they were adding weird bits to make it into 2 movies. Oh well.

Sorry for the blurry pictures but I can't seem to find my remote so my self timer and I have been getting reaquainted. Also, I bought this sweater from a very lovely blogger named Bonnie. She has a little blog store and I've admired this cardigan for a while ever since I saw it on her blog. I hope I did the sweater justice. She has a very enviable style so go check out her blog if you haven't already!

Outfit Details:

Sweater - Flashes of Style blog shop

Shirt, skirt - Thrifted

Tights, shoes - Target

Purse - ASOS (isn't it so CUTE!)

The other part of my title is that I made some delicious orange chicken over quinoa and brown rice. YUM!

Cyber Monday

I hope you are all having a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate and having a great night if you don't!

Just wanted to share a coupon code with you for my Etsy shop that is good until Monday! Just enter GIVETHANKS at checkout to get 25% off any item!

Thankful

This is just a random outfit because I don't feel like sorting through all the pictures from the wedding today :) I was hanging out with Maila yesterday and helping her make signs for her sale on Friday. Needless to say, I didn't have much time to sort...

I just wanted to write a quick blurb because tomorrow is a day full of family and/or friends and I'm just really thankful. Even though this year has been really shitty at times, I am so happy that I have great people in my life. I am also really thankful for this blog and all of you. Thank you for reading my sometimes meaningless and stupid thoughts. Your comments always make me smile and feel like what I'm saying isn't completely worthless. I'm also so thankful for all the new friends I've gotten through blogging. Tonight, I'm going to do karaoke with Nora and Megan from Two Birds and Alli from Dot(Luv). So excited!! I've had a great time getting to know all of these fun and funny women and I'm so grateful for that! The whole point of starting my blog almost a year ago was to meet more people in this town who have similar interests for me and didn't go to my high school (that last one is a big plus). Now I have friends to thrift with, go out with and just be goofy with. Makes writing posts totally worth it. So thank you! If you are a friend online or in real life, you are such a treasure to me!

Sorry to get all mushy! On to the outfit! I wore this before it snowed but this would probably work now with a bit thicker tights and a warmer jacket!

Outfit Details:

Coat - Old Navy

Skirt and shirt - Thrifted

Necklace and tights - Target

Have a great Thanksgiving if you are in America and have a great Thursday if you aren't!

Upcoming Local Events

For all you Minneapolis/St. Paul readers, I've got some fun events to share with you!

First up, my friend Malia is having another Junk Love sale!

We had lots of fun last time! Annie from Tipsy Kitty and Malia of Junk Love

There are going to be TONS of vendors there this time including Maria, Amanda and John who all sell vintage clothes (and are super cool too!). You can check out the list of all the vendors on the Junk Love facebook invite. Plus, I will be there selling my jewelry and prints. I'm making a TON of new stuff this week so stop on by! You can check out my Etsy shop to get an idea of the kind of prints I will have for sale. I have to work at my real job so if you want to say hi to me come after 5!

The other event I want to tell you about is the Two Birds *vintage* workshop. They've had some great sales in the past with Amanda from Salvaged Strawberry but now they are flying solo (cough, cough) and have tons of great stuff to choose from! You can read some of my previous posts about the shop here and here!

If you stop by to shop, come and introduce yourself! I'd love to meet you :)

East Coast Trip - Outfit Post

Things I learned (or re-learned) this week.

-I probably would have fit in back in the 40's and 50's. Love the music, clothes, etc.

-I don't do well on little sleep. Midnight showing + waking up at 6 = crabby Erin

-The caffeine in Coke Zero has little to no effect on making me more awake. Or Pepsi. See previous statement.

- I get annoyed pretty easily. I don't know how I ever forget this fact.

-Love my cousin, catching up with her is always so nice. We are so similar in a lot of ways. Genetics is funny sometimes.

-I am terrible at keeping good news a secret. I haven't told you guys yet so that's something :)

- This may be TMI but I really like to make out. It has been 3 months and I feel like calling every guy I know or heading to the nearest bar and throwing myself at someone. Yeah, try that last one and then tell them you only want to make out. I think it makes guys really happy when you do that.

-I love having varied interests and that I have at least one friend that shares most of them. Case in point. My lovely friend Brooke took me on a date to see Breaking Dawn last night. Yeah, we are pretty cool. Other than the moms, we were some of the oldest people there. Don't judge me.

-Sometimes you just have to look around your pigsty of a condo, throw up your hands and say fuck it. I'm not going to clean, I'm going to watch 5 episodes of Supernatural followed by 2 episodes of Merlin. So what. I'm 28. I do what I want. Ace doesn't complain about the mess so who cares right?

-I really love when Friday rolls around. Don't know how I ever forget that either.

-I'm super siked when I'm tired enough for a nap. I am a pro at napping. So is Ace. By our powers combined!

-Ace is still into destroying my underwear. And only the nice ones. At least he has good taste.

-I'm really glad I'm not a guy sometimes. I could not imagine walking into a bathroom, pulling down my pants and then having the guy who sits next to me in my cube walk in. He might glance at my junk but bad enough we have to stand next to each other a pee. Thanks for making me a girl mom and dad. It does have SOME perks.

This is what I wore while tooling around DC with my sister. Nothing more exciting to say than that!

Outfit Details:

Sweater - Thrifted

Dress - Old, I want to say Loehmans

Tights - Target

Shoes - Forever 21

Photos by my sister. PS sorry for the originality of the poses. I felt kind of silly in front of a person and not a tripod and then this mail truck was trying to pull into this driveway. Awkward...

Winner winner

Chicken dinner. Or, deer necklace.

Random number generator has picked Nora from Two Birds!

Congrats, Nora! One deer head plus weird body necklace coming right up!

xo,

Erin

PS This is extra cool because it is her birthday this weekend. Happy early birthday!

East Coast Trip - Washington DC

Day two was a very low key day. My sister and I slept in and then headed over to Georgetown to see her new office. Then the heavens opened up, smiled upon us and shown their light on this place.

Oh yes. It was worth the price and the hype. I had a pumpkin cupcake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. SO GOOD! I even flew home with it. However, Ace got to enjoy the rest of it because I forgot it in my bag and that little jerk ate it. I convinced myself that it was probably stale and gross. However, I'm sure it was delicious as ever. Le sigh.

Cute Georgetown street.

Then, we did some thrift shopping. My sister just came over to the dark side and wanted to show off all of her favorite places. I realized that I have either less patience or more skill than her because she was SLOW! Jeez. Maybe I'm just used to thrifting alone or with pros... I'll give her the benefit of the doubt because if you knew her, you would know that it was amazing we were in a thrift/consignment store to begin with. I'm also not big into labels; they don't really blow my dress up. So, one of the places seemed too expensive for my taste but it was a VERY nice looking, well put together store.

Then it was off to Baltimore to stay with my lovely friend Laura. She took me out to dinner in Little Italy and they made me a delish fettuccine alfredo off menu (because I'm that cool. Or picky. Probably the later). We got to catch up on all of life's happenings which was so nice. Love her.

Pictures from Baltimore and the wedding coming soon!

Sweet Musings

I totally forgot to post this!!

After I saw this post on Amanda's blog, I had to run right over to Etsy and contact Michelle. I haven't gotten the bag yet but she just sent me the drawing and I LOVE it. Love. it. Ace looks so cute and just like the real version. So, head over to Sweet Musings and get your own tote. Like now! I think you can just get a drawing too.

Here is the inspiration picture...

Here is the drawing she came up with. I LOVE it!

The cute box it came in and the finished product!

Michelle was super nice and told me that you could contact her on Etsy and mention my blog and get a discount. How nice is that? Go over there right now!

East Coast Trip - Philly

The first day of my trip I flew in, jumped in my rental car and went to get a cheesesteak. :) It wasn't quite as good as I was expecting. Next time I will get more whiz. However, how can cheese and meat on a bun be bad, right?

Then I headed over to get my ticket to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. I'm sure a lot of you have been there but just to be in the room where all that important stuff took place was pretty neat. I'm glad it was free though, seemed too short. You really only went into 3 rooms but I thought our Park Ranger was pretty good! Very informative.

I was driving to try to find the Love sculpture and I wandered by the capital and I also found this market. So cute! Knowing me, it's probably famous and I just convinced myself I found this cool unknown spot ha! However, I got all the way to DC though and realized they gave me the wrong sandwich :( I really don't like sauerkraut and thousand island dressing but my brother-in law loved it! Oh well, I will give it a second chance if I'm ever there again! Part of my reason for heading up to Philly was to hang for a bit with Veronika but she had a last minute work function and wasn't getting out until late. I was so bummed! But, I was so exhausted by the end of the sight seeing and I still had a LONG drive down to DC to stay with my sister that night so it wasn't in the cards. On top of that, I got really lost leaving the city and added a nice 45 mins onto my trip. Sweet. The neighborhood I was driving in wasn't the kind where you get out of the car to ask for directions either. But, I figured it out and made it to DC safe and sound. Stayed tuned for DC pictures tomorrow!

I can't find my LOVE pictures so I will add those in a bit!

Sorry, I put this off for too long so my commentary is not very intriguing :)

Last Day

Hey! I totally forgot to pick a winner for the giveaway so I'm extending it until the end of today. Please get your comments in and don't forget to use all of your extra chances to win!

Make sure to comment on this post!

xo,

Erin

I'm back

I'm finally done travelling. I have LOTS of pictures and posts that I have yet to write from all of my other trips. I'm excited to share everything with you all, I just have to sort through it all. The winter weather seems to be on it's way so I'm sure I'll be snuggling up with my computer and cranking out the posts! For now, enjoy this video/song about the coolest city around! (Thanks to Kimi for sharing the video!) I've heard this song a bunch on our local radio station. Maybe it won't be as cool to you all but a song about a city that no one ever sings about? COOL!

Bring Back 1996

I was browsing my blog reel today and saw that my outfit I wore last night looked a lot like the Inspiration Monday post over at Two Birds yesterday. You can also head over there to read Megan's story about seeing the Thunder From Down Under on Saturday. Oh yes, we did that. And it was hilariously tacky and awesome. Pirates and gangsters and cowboys oh my. I'm not really sure who is turned on by terrible dance moves and guys pulling thongs down but it wasn't any of us! Go over and check out how everyone else was inspired too!

Last night, while wearing this dress, I saw the Wombats. Pretty much awesome. I haven't seen live music in about a year and a half and this was a GREAT show to break my fast with. They were terrific live and had great energy. You may or may not have heard of them but go check them out. You're welcome. I felt really cool and yet comfortable in this outfit. I think this new "leather" jacket will be making quite a few appearances on the ol blog.

Going to head on over to the grocery store and try to pick up some healthy stuff. I am going through my pins and some recipes in between typing. Can't wait to try some new stuff!

I try new poses and end up looking like a fool. :)

Outfit Details:

Dress, jacket, tights - Target (imagine that!)

Boots - Thrifted

Scarf - H&M (old)

Happy (belated) Halloween

I'm a week late on this but Happy Halloween. Or, happy November 7th everyone! I just took down all my Halloween decorations and it made me a bit sad. I feel like I didn't make the most of the fall this year because I never got around to it. Plus, everything is more fun with friends. I will have to be more organized. Last year I had a SUPER fun party at my place so I'll have to get in gear and do it again next year. Also need to go the apple orchard. That was a tradition with a certain someone so I feel like next year I will be rid of the sad feelings associated with it and have a blast going there again.

On to the pictures! I am not finding the pictures from my pumpkin carving mini party on Friday so I will add those when I find them. Megan and her adorable kiddos came over and my cousin brought her lovely self and her two fur kiddos. We carved pumpkins, survived a broken vase and a meltdown. Then Megan took her kids home and Sarah and I (plus fur babies) watched New Moon. She just finished the books and wanted to watch it. She didn't think Jacob was hot but was easily convinced otherwise once he became a wolf, cut his hair and got crazy buff. Ah good times.

Saturday, I went over to Allison's party and had a blast with her and Emma and all of their friends. Then, I headed out to karaoke it up with the birds aka ABBA. So fun! I was I Love Lucy which I think I will have to recreate again because it was so fun!

This is what I look like with foundation and lipstick. Totally different!

He had some 'splainin to do!

Allison (baton twirler), me and Emma (Team Zizzou)

eShakti

I just realized that I took these pictures a while ago but never got around to posting them. A month or so ago, I was contacted by eShakti to review one of their products. I read through their information and previewed their items. I found a couple of things that I liked, so I thought, "Let's do it!"

I think the concept behind their website is pretty unique and it appealed to me since I don't have a typical body type.

eShakti is a unique women’s apparel store online that allows custom changes in the style of the garment – sleeve, neckline, length can all be changed by the customer to her preference. We also offer the full size selection from size 0-26W and custom size too. Even custom clothes are shipped in 3 business days. The special appeal of our designs are the embellishments we give via print, embroidery and fabric texturing. So its designer-wear that is not readily seen in stores. Unlike other stores, we are never stocked out. All the hottest colors of the season in every product and style and in every size is always available.

Sounds pretty great right?

Well, here is my experience. Their head of marketing, Jennifer, was very nice and professional. I was surprised that they let me pick whatever item I wanted. There was really no limit. Since I am no pro at these product requests, this really was a shock to me. They want to give my little 'ol blog a chance? Add one to the plus column. The dress I received was well made and a high quality material. The only downside, it didn't fit quite right. I took all my measurements to get a custom sized item but even after all that, it was too big. It fits really well in the waist but the bust is baggy on me. I still like the pattern and color so I'm willing to keep it around. However, come summer, it won't get much use unless my boobs about double in size.

Maybe next time I will just pick a size and change the sleeves or neckline to more fit my taste.

Here is the top of the dress with the sweater unbuttoned... See what I mean?

Outfit Details:

Dress - c/o eShakati

Sweater -Thrifted

Boots, socks - Target

Earrings - Patina

To recap: pros would be quality materials, helpful and nice marketing team, well made item, great website concept. Cons would be giving all of your measurements for a custom size and still not getting a great fit. All in all, this was a good experience, I just wish I ended up with an item that fit everywhere.