Thrift Style Thursday: White-Out

This week's challenge, courtesy of Megan from Eclecticity, was Winter White-Out. Not surprisingly, Texas decided not to cooperate with the "winter" part. It was a brutal 60F/15C this afternoon. So in lieu of shooting in the snow, per Megan's request, we've got white rocks used for ballast around the train tracks downtown.

I found several lessons hidden in this little adventure. First off, all-white is not necessarily as unflattering as I expected it to be. Unfortunately, for someone as accident-prone as myself - and someone who has a mostly black dog with a proclivity for jumping up on people - I can't guarantee how long those white pants will stay white. They may find themselves in a dye-pot somewhere down the road, if I'm not careful.

I also discovered the only pair of white shoes I own are sandals. I'm not so cruel as to be that blatant about the mild weather, so I went with my pale pink Converse One Stars.

I learned that it is very difficult to photograph a pale person in all white clothing when there is even a single ray of direct sunlight. After two different sunny or partially sunny locations, I ended up on the shady side of an old warehouse.

I figured out what that little hook is for on the bottom of my tripod. It was incredibly windy today, and after a minor heart attack when my tripod blew over, I hung my purse on that little hook to prevent a second incident. Luckily, my camera only sustained minor damage - a couple little scrapes on the plastic casing. The lens, screen, and all other important bits are just fine.

Tank: $1 thrifted // Blouse: $0.77 clothing swap // Pants: $6.50 thrifted
Sneakers: $15 Target clearance // Bracelet (necklace): inherited from Granma

Now how about you go see if any of the other ladies found a beautiful snowy backdrop for their Winter White-Out outfits?

Sunday Sew-Day: Restoration

My father-in-law has had this corduroy jacket for years now. It's been very well-loved, and as a result, its lining was worn and tattered, coming apart at the seams and the edges. My mother-in-law asked if I could possibly repair it for his birthday last month.

Thrift Style Thursday: Pinspired

This week, Andrea of Little Did You Know challenged us to recreate an outfit found on Pinterest. My taste runs toward casual and comfortable, so I chose this outfit to mimic, though I couldn't track down the original post: Scratch that! The lovely Janet was able to identify the blogger in my pinspiration. Thanks, Janet!

I'm not so keen on leggings as a replacement for actual pants (under a skirt or dress, sure, but it has to at least cover my bum). So I went with black denim skinnies instead. Other than that, I had everything I needed already in my closet.

Unfortunately, I noticed as I was putting on my favorite boots that the faux leather is starting to peel on the back of one heel. I guess I can add that to my short term resolutions: new brown leather boots.

It actually got up to 70F/21C this afternoon, so the cardigan was a bit much. But it wouldn't have been a proper Pinterest recreation without it.

In other news, I've been working on one of my resolutions for this year. I've been reading up on photography lately. I made the first big leap and turned the dial on my camera from Auto to Manual. I still used the auto-focus, but I did play around with the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. It's exciting stuff!

Jeans: $7 thrifted & skinnified // Chambray shirt: FREE // Tank: $1 thrifted

Cardigan: $4 thrifted // Scarf: refashioned // Boots: $20 DSW clearance

Now I'd love it if you go see what these other pinspired ladies have put together this week. Just click on their icons to be whisked away to their blogs!

Sunday Sew-Day: The Trouble with Tribbles

As you may remember, I have a little thing going with my brother where I make him something nerdy every year for his birthday and for Christmas. This year was no different. After much thought, I decided to make him a tribble. If you're not familiar with the classic episode of the original Star Trek series entitled "The Trouble with Tribbles," then I ask - nay, beg - you to remedy that, lest today's post will hold no humor for you at all. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Fantastic, right? Cheesy sci-fi is the best sci-fi.

So anywho, I went to Joann's and bought three different colors of faux fur - black, brown, and cream. I decided a football shape would be best, so I freehanded a pattern piece on a paper bag and cut out as many pieces as I could from each color. I needed four pattern pieces for each tribble, and I ended up with 16 cream (so 4 tribbles) and 12 each of the black and brown (3 tribbles each). A word of advice: if you ever work with faux fur, I recommend cutting it little snips at a time. If you use your biggest shears and make long chops, you're going to lose a lot of fur length around the edges and also leave bits of fur everywhere, and that crap sticks to everything. Oh, and I also cut up all the scraps so I could use the leftover bits to stuff my tribbles.



I attached two pieces along one side with right sides together, brushing the fur away the seam beforehand. Then I took two pairs and put them together in the same manner. I left a hole, maybe 3 or 4 inches long, for turning the tribble right side out.



Next I stuffed the tribble, first with the fur scraps, then finishing up with some poly-fill. And finally, I hand-stitched the hole closed. The best part? No one's going to see how messy your stitches are through the fur! Now assemble the rest of the tribbles!



And since this is for my brother, I couldn't resist the opportunity to mess with him a little with the packaging. Part of my plan was to pretend I only got him one tribble and it had somehow multiplied in the box. So I found a box that would fit all the tribbles, but just barely. I closed up the top of the box and wrapped it, leaving the bottom open. Then I used a ice pick to punch air holes in the top through the wrapping - you know, so the tribble could breathe.



Once all the tribbles were stuffed in there, I closed and wrapped the bottom of the box. And of course, whenever my brother opened the box on Christmas, I gasped, "Oh my god! I am so sorry. The guy at the pet store told me it was spayed."



And there you have it. A nerdy Christmas miracle!

Thrift Style Thursday: Sweater Weather

This week's challenge came from Beth, who wanted to see how we all dress for sweater weather. I feel I should put a little disclaimer here: Texas sweater weather is not quite on par with Minnesota sweater weather.

The "winter" end of my closet consists of a series of light-weight pullovers, such as this one, which I typically wear layered with tank tops, or maybe a long-sleeved tee on a particularly chilly day.

To be fair, I was wearing a jacket today as well, but I removed it for these photos. The fact that I could do that, coupled with the visibly green grass in this park, is a testament to the relative mildness of our winters.

There are those among us (me for one) who pine for snow, but sadly, no one down here is prepared for it or knows how to drive in it, so most schools and businesses just shut down on those rare occasions. Yep, everything grinds to a halt just because of a little powder.

Gap sweater: $4 thrifted // Tank: $1 thrifted // Skinny jeans: refashioned // Boots: $4 thrifted // Scarf: $2 thrifted

So there you have it, winter wear in the south. Laughable, isn't it? Now, go see what the other TST ladies don to keep warm in their climates.