Plaid and Bows

It's Friday! Yay! I'm so excited for this weekend. I've got a lot planned but I'm most looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. Since everyone was in town, we did something every night last week and I'm exhausted!

Plans for the weekend include: garage sale at Two Birds, 90's dance party with some friends (I will be going as Ginger Spice), picking out my tree, cleaning, decorating for Christmas. Lots of fun to be had!  I wore this last weekend which is why it's light out and I took pictures. Man it has been hard to do during the week. As I'm driving home, at 4 mind you, the sun is already setting. I can't wait for it to start getting light earlier...

Outfit Details:

Top - The Loft

Sweater - Heritage 1981

Skirt - Thrifted

Tights - Target (I think)

Shoes you can't see - Forever 21

Jacket - H&M... My only awesome Black Friday deal! $30 down from $99 :)

I hope you all have a great weekend as well!

Poultry and Polka Dots

This is what I wore on Thanksgiving day. I was all prepared with my jeggings and long flow-y shirt. However, I didn't really eat that much at all. I had about 10 bites and felt so full I just couldn't eat anymore. What a shame...

Outfit Details:

Top - Forever 21

Jeggings- Target

Cardigan - so old I can't remember

Shoes - Old Navy

This mural is right by my house and I've always wanted to take pictures in front of it. Thanksgiving meant NO people in my neighborhood which never happens. I was a bit excited about it...

Back to Business

Sorry for the quiet week here on the blog.  My whole family was in town for Thanksgiving so I was over at my parents' house every night since Tuesday. I did manage to take a couple of outfit photos while on my break so hopefully things will pick up around here a bit :)

Here's how I wore my new sweater that I showed you how to make in this post. I think the outfit turned out pretty cute! I might want to shorten this skirt a bit though.

Outfit Details:

Shirt, skirt, sweatshirt - thrifted

Tights - Target

Shoes - Old Navy

I hope all of you Americans had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. I'm excited to start decorating for Christmas and getting in the spirit!

Thrift That Trend - Heart Sweater

Next up on Thrift That Trend, we have this beautiful sweater. More fun with fabric paint!

I've also seen lots of bloggers wearing heart sweaters so there is more variation than just this particular style. Also, lots of stores have sweaters like this so you could really go with any color combination you choose.

(click photos for links)

 How many times have your strolled through the thrift store passing up good quality sweaters because they were too boring. Well, pass up no more my friends! This was so easy and took less than about 10 minutes.  After finding all the pictures above, I decided I may need to make this again but in black and have it centered. So cute!

WHAT YOU NEED:
Flat knit sweater (will make the paint more even)
Fabric paint
A steady hand or a hand made stencil
Newspaper or paper bag
Brush

1. Put the paper bag or newspaper in between the 2 layers of the sweater. You will definitely get bleed through with this project so don't forget this step!

2. Trace the heart using your stencil or free hand a heart shape on the sweater.  My sweater is wool it made it a bit harder to drag the brush across.

3. I stippled on the paint since it was hard to just drag the brush like you normally would. I think this helped make the paint a bit more even as well.  

4. That's it! Keep filling in the shape until it is the size and color saturation that you want. I like that the paint is a bit thicker in some places than others but if you want it perfect, then keep dobbing until you get it how you want it. 

As always, if you attempt this, let me know in the comments and don't forget to link back to this post!

Thrift That Trend - Graphic Sweatshirt

Welcome to another Thrift That Trend!  I've been seeing a lot of this trend of a dressier sweatshirt paired with a collared shirt or dress.



I was thinking of just keeping the sweatshirt plain so it could go with more things but then I thought, "DIY it." I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it however. Do I get a stamp and put multiple images on it like the bike sweatshirt above or should I just do one big image like the sweatshirt below.  I decided to go with option 2. However, narrowing it down to what I actually wanted to do was harder than I thought it would be...

So I decided to combine it with the animal sweater trend and do a sweatshirt like the one below.  I lucked out and found a great shruken sweatshirt at the thrift store. I found it at Valu Thrift when I was there on a holiday (50% off!) so it was only $2. Perfect price for a DIY!

Animal trend by babesinthriftland featuring a hot pink long sleeve shirt

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Sweater or sweatshirt.
Fabric paint in the color of your choice
An image you want printed on sturdy paper
Sponge brush
Smaller brush
Newspaper or paper bag

1. Put the paper bag or newspaper in between the 2 layers of the sweatshirt so you don't get bleed through.

2. Print and cut out your image to use as a stencil.  You want to have a border around your image so it stays together when you cut it out.

3 Stipple on the paint while holding down the pattern quite firmly. You can try to tape it to the fabric but that didn't work that well for me. If you don't hold it down enough, you may get paint going where you don't want it to.

4. Remove the stencil.  Unless you are the best holder downer ever, you will have a some messy parts.

5. Taking a stiff bristled brush, smooth out the lines so they aren't all messy. I also added a couple of extra bits of antler to my stag.

6. Follow the instructions on your fabric paint. Mine said to dry flat overnight and wait 72 hours before washing.  I can't wait to wear this!

If you do try this on your own and post about it, please link back to my tutorial and be sure to send me a link in the comments. I'd love to see what you come up with!

Halfway to 30

Two days ago was my halfway point between 29 and 30. I don't usually think to much of half birthdays but since I have a milestone birthday coming up, I thought it would be a good time to think of things that I want to accomplish before then. I know a lot of people do something like "29 before 30" but I don't have that many :)

1. Take better care of myself.  There are a lot of things I could lump into this but here is what I'm thinking. Keep trying to eat healthy and workout, wash my face every night, floss more, go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. I'm not a spring chicken anymore and I can't just let all of these things slide. I want to be healthy, have good teeth and skin for a long time so I need to start doing more to keep it.

2. Do more adult things. I want to start to save and budget my money, pay all my bills on time, keep my credit cards low, keep my house clean among other things. I'm not in college anymore so I can't keep spending everything I make and letting my house get so messy. I hate to clean and I suck at saving money so these will be hard.

3. Keep doing things I love, even if they aren't "mature". On the other hand, I don't want to stop doing fun things just because I'm older. I still want to go out with my friends until 2 am or watch TV all day because I feel like it. Growing older doesn't have to mean growing up. I need to be a responsible adult but still have fun.

4. Plan and take my big trip to Europe. I mentioned this on the blog before but in case you forgot (or had a mental lapse due to jealousy) my friend and I are going to Europe in May for our birthdays.  I need to start saving and really nailing down plans for this trip. I can't wait!!

5. Learn something new. I've always loved learning but I have a hard time picking new things or keeping at them. My plan right now is to learn some French before my big trip. I would love to be able to converse with the locals a bit so I am not as much of a tourist.

6. Appreciate myself and my life more. I always tend to focus on things about myself that I don't like. I am getting too old to keep putting myself down. Just because I'm not married or don't have kids doesn't mean I haven't accomplished a lot and don't have a lot to be proud of.  I own my own house/condo, I have a dog, I graduated with a doctorate after 8 years of hard work, and I have a lot of friends and family that care about me.

7. If I don't like something (or someone) in my life, change it. Too often I just let things slide because it is easier than making a change. I've wanted to live abroad for a long time but just haven't done it for various reasons.  I really want to start actively pursuing this dream and look for jobs in different countries.  Also, I have a hard time with confrontation. I've been trying to stick up for myself more and the world hasn't crumbled around me (yet). I'm not in high school anymore and I don't need to care so much about what people may think. Or (gasp) that someone may not like me.  You can't please everyone and you aren't meant to be friends with everyone. I just need to get over it!

8. Put myself out there more.  I feel like I sit around too much and feel sorry for myself. No one wants to hang out with me, I'm sad I wasn't invited to this or that thing, I have nothing to do... I need to stop saying these things, take the initiative and do what I want. If I want to have something fun to do, I need to start making more plans myself. If you want people to know you're up for fun, you need to start planning activities yourself. I always felt that I put too much effort into maintaining friendships so I stopped putting the work in. I can't just sit around expecting people to invite me to things anymore. I need to get social, meet new people, try new things and hang out with the people I really want to be around.

I'm sure I'll think of more but this is a pretty good list to start with!

Proud to be Minnesotan

I know that a lot of people are scared or reluctant to talk about politics on their blog. I'm sure it's because of backlash from readers who have different opinions.  However, this is my blog and it's a reflection of my thoughts and ideas. So, I do what I want.  People post about their different beliefs and they have their own collection of bloggers. Yet, if people who are more on the liberal side start posting then there are a million voices trying to knock them down. Can we start a bloggers for Obama or Liberal bloggers group? I don't need to apologize for what I believe and neither should you. Whether you are Mormon, Christian, atheist or something else, you should be able to express your opinion without fear of persecution.

I'm going to start off by saying that I have respect for everyone's point of view. You are entitled to your opinion. However, if you have a certain point of view but have no reasons as to why you believe that way then that's just ignorance. I don't like to discuss politics or religion because when I ask why people believe a certain way they will say "Because that's how it is." No. If you are going to be vocal about your opinion, make sure you educate yourself and be confident in why you made that decision. Not because your religion, husband or neighbor told you that was the right way to think. I want to know why YOU believe it to be true.

I'm proud to be a Minnesotan today because we were able to vote NO to an amendment that would have changed our constitution. The amendment was to state that marriage is between one man and one woman.  No matter what you believe, you have no right to take away the rights of others. I'm proud because the amendment didn't pass!! We are the first state in the nation to defeat this kind of amendment. I waited in line for over 2 hours to vote last night (an hour and a half of them outside) and I'm glad it was worth it!  Just wanted to share part of this press release from Minnesotans United " Today, Minnesotans voted in favor of love, freedom, and fairness – because that’s what this state is about.”  This was an EPIC election for gay rights and I'm so happy that MN could be part of it.

Go Minnesota!!

Getting My Aztec On

I got the chance to work with a company called Sugarlips recently and this is the dress I chose. I originally received a different dress that did not fit and they were nice enough to let me send it back in exchange for something else.  I didn't want tolet the unflattering dress influence my review!  The dress is pretty but really comfortable. It is a thin material but comes with a matching red lining so you don't have to wear it with a slip (yes!). The pattern is unlike anything I have in my closet and I love the cream piping on the top and sleeves. My only negative is that it's a bit short but it does look pretty cute with tight. I think it will be cute to wear with skinny jeans or tucked into a skirt as well. Can't wait to try more ways to style this!

What's great about Sugarlips is how blogger friendly they are. I don't have a huge following but they were more than happy to work with me which is so different from a lot of companies. Also, they use outfit shots from the bloggers they work with and use them in the their product photos. How cool is that? They want to promote you since you promote them. Hopefully, we can work together again!









I also wanted to talk about my new necklace! The necklace is from a shop called Clyde's Rebirth. I really can't recommend this shop enough. My necklace was lost in the mail for a bit and Merl really went above and beyond to correct it. She also uses vintage and recycled materials in her products which is a great thing to get behind.







-Outfit Details-
Dress: Sugarlips
Necklace: Clyde's Rebirth
Jacket, tights: Target
Shoes: Forever 21
Belt: from a different skirt