Thursday, September 27, 2012

Local Love - Rewind Vintage

Another week, another favorite store. I'm always reluctant to share my favorite vintage/thrift stores on here in case someone might swoop in and take all of the good stuff.  Probably unfounded but it's there nonetheless. However, Rewind is too cool not to share.  They really have a good selection of clothing, shoes, belts and jewelry   The clothes tend to be more towards the 80's and 90's but I always manage to find a couple of cool items each time I go in.  My main reasons for shopping here are the jewelry, shoes and location. I don't know if you can tell from my blurry iPhone photos but their jewelry is really great. I always find about 30 things I like and have to try to narrow it down to one or two favorites. They also have a great selection of shoes and boots and they have lots of different styles and sizes to choose from.  The location is great because it is only about 10 mins from my house and right next to another favorite store of mine called Craft Planet (I'm sure I'll be featuring that store soon).

The ladies and gents that work there are always helpful and nice.  If you remember my post here about picking out jewelry for Crash the Ball, I couldn't have found the great pieces without the woman working.  One of the women I talked to had even heard about my blog before :) Here is another outfit post featuring a dress I got at Rewind.  They have one location in Northeast (my hood) and one in South Minneapolis. If you are in the area, go check out them out!

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Here are links to their website and Facebook page

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Thrift that Trend - Polka Dot Pants

Welcome to a new feature here on the ol blog. I have been accumulating lots of ideas on my pinboard over the past couple of months and I finally decided to do something about it. In the next couple of weeks (and hopefully longer), I will be showing you ways to get the trendy items you want without having to spend a lot. I'm sure not all of my ideas will turn out as well as I planned but hopefully some will!

2eatsleepwearLight-brown-backpack-forever21-bag-brick-red-polka-dot-jeans-ag-pants_400

First up, polka dot pants.  I've been seeing these pop up around the blogosphere lately and I thought to myself, "These are so cute! Let's look at how much money we're talking here."  Here are the ones I liked:
AG Stevie Polka Dot Ankle Big Product
      $99                                              $189

True Religion Brand Jeans, TRUE-6978 WOMENS PRINT POLKA DOT JEANS - Slim Fit (Cherry), truereligionbrandjeans.com
$198

Really? Just have jeans with dots on them, I have to spend at least $100? No way. They might not even be cool in 6 months.

So, I headed to the thrift store.  I found these jeans at Savers for a mere $7.99.  Somewhat high for jeans but I was looking for colored jeans that were a slimmer fit so I sucked up the extra cost. Then I headed to Joann. I picked up the fabric paint and brushes for about 8 bucks. Instead of $99, I'm out only about $16. If you already have fabric paint or made your own brushes, you could do this for even cheaper.

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WHAT YOU NEED:
1 pair of jeans (any color you want)
1 bottle of fabric paint (I went with white)
1 sponge brush, easier if it is already round
1 paintbrush
Paper plate and newspaper

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Stuff newspaper or any other paper in between the two layers of the pants

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Dip the dobber/brush into the paint and make sure to knock off the extra paint before making a dot

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Proceed with dotting the entire front of the pants

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Then I took a regular paintbrush and filled in all of the dots where the circle wasn't quite filled in

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Yay!  Do the same thing on the back and you have a cute pair of polka dot pants for mere dollars!

Stay tuned for an outfit post with these babies!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Sale Away

Usually when companies have sales, I try to avoid looking at their websites. I end up buying things I don't need solely because they are cheaper than they were before.  However, this time Modcloth had a sale, I gave in and looked around. I ended up with 4 different items which I'm sure you'll be seeing soon. Another reason I don't buy sale items is because you can't return them if they don't fit. However, I lucked out and all of my purchases fit! Huzzah! I was wearing this with a cardigan but since the mornings are cool and the days are still warm, I had to shed the cardigan. I'm sure I'll get lots of layering miles with this dress when it stays cool all day.

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FYI, I just pre-ordered the iPhone 5 and I can't wait for it to get here! Also, if you couldn't tell, my new lens is finally back!!

Outfit Details:
Dress - Modcloth
Tights, sunglasses - Target
Belt - Thrifted
Shoes - Old Navy
Necklace - Styled Life (a gift from my parents)

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Local Love - Hymie's Vintage Records


I'm back with another local shop you need to check out!

I found Hymie's Vintage Records completely by accident. When I had my 20's themed birthday party, I knew I wanted to play jazz and big band records instead of something from the computer. So I googled record stores in Minneapolis and Hymie's was one the only ones and came highly recommended.  I wandered into the store and tried to find things by myself but was having a hard time. Not only did the lady working there show me where to go, she also told me about what was popular back then and helped me pick out a couple of records. They even have a listening station where you can sit and listen to the record before you buy it. This really helped when I was listening to the 20's records. I put back some of the records I had picked out because they weren't the sound I was looking for.

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I've gone back a couple of times to get records for my new collection. I've found some fun 50's hits records, Abbey Road, Beach Boys greatest hits and a couple of more. Such a fun store to explore and I can't wait to go back and look more. PS ignore my terrible iPhone photos. I was the creeper in the back of the store taking these... :)


**I didn't receive anything for this review, just wanted to share the love!**

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The Long and Short of It

New shorts that came with a matching coat that I wasn't brave enough to wear at the same time. I found these at a thrift store in St. Cloud which held a ton of great stuff. I think there aren't as many vintage lovers up there. I'm going back again for sure! Not much to say today so I hope you enjoy the pictures!

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Outfit Details:
Shirt - Two Birds via B. a Resale Shop
Shorts - Thrifted
Necklace - Forever 21 (old)
Sunglasses - Target

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Local Love - Primp Boutique

As I mentioned before, I want to feature some local stores with all of you. Hopefully in the future, I can compile a list of posts so a potential visitor can know all of the best spots in the Twin Cities (according to me) :)

First up is a local boutique called Primp. This store really gives you the boutique feel but is much easier on the wallet than most. I've gotten a couple things from here and they were all less than $60. Remember this dress and belt I wore on my DC trip? Even though they were inexpensive items, they are not cheap. This is no Forever 21. These are quality items at a lower price point.  In addition, I can go there to find unique items that one can't find for a similar price at chain stores. These are just a couple of iPhone pictures I snapped while I was in the store.

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They have 2 locations: one in St. Louis Park and one in St. Paul. I've only been to the St. Louis Park location because it's the closest to me but I bet the one in St. Paul is just as nice! Plus, they are having a birthday party tomorrow at the St. Paul location so stop by if you are in town! I might pop over there after work. They currently don't sell online but it sounded like that might be coming up in the future. They do have a great blog that shows their new items and even how to style them! If you see something on there you can't live without, let me know :)


**I didn't receive anything for doing this post. I just like the shop and want to share the love!**





Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Photography - Megan, Chris, Henry and Eva

I was so excited to take these pictures because this is one of my favorite families.  I met Megan through blogging and we have become good friends. She is funny, sweet and a good listener.  She writes the funniest emails that always make my day.  What makes this friendship even better is that she has a really cool fiance and super cute kids. Nothing worse than having a friend whose significant other isn't that friendly or their kids really bug you :) Megan and Chris just recently got engaged (yay!) so we headed over to the Lake Harriet Rose Garden to snap a few family pics/engagement shots.  I'm sure you will see these two again because we have plans to do an engagement shoot with just the two of them sometime soon.

Megan is the DIY queen and we both did lots of pinning before the pictures.  I wanted to make sure we had a couple of different ideas on what we wanted to do so we weren't just standing around. They brought blankets, the chalkboard Megan made and great attitudes. I thought the kids did a great job. As you can tell, it was really sunny so they took a lot pictures looking directly into the sun but they were troopers. We employed a little trick of mine where they can keep their eyes closed until you count to three and then open them. It worked pretty well!  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

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This is an idea we saw on Pintrest. I thought it was pretty cute

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This is my favorite! Eva did such a great job giving grossed out face :)

Monday, September 10, 2012

MN State Fair

I love the state fair. We have one of the country's largest fairs and it runs for 2 weeks.  So much food, fun and people. I didn't get to do as much at the fair this year as I would have liked but oh well. There's always next year.  Here is a photo recap of my day at the fair!

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