Birthday Skirt Take 2

Who: J

When: 12/5/12

Where: Mid-week services at church

What: *Denim jacket- Ross *Black top- Walmart *Houndstooth skirt- Cato's *Boots- Sears *Necklace- The Jewelry Box *Pin- hmmm... maybe Beall's?

It was my birthday this last week! Yay! Happy Birthday to me!! :) I've kind of started this tradition of having a "birthday skirt" that I wear every year on or around my birthday (check out last year's outfit). This year, I wore it to church for midweek services. I'm glad it still fits! ;)

I had a great birthday- you can check out my personal blog, The Ginger Jar, to read more about my gift from my husband, and for pictures of my yummy cake. :)

Thrifted Thursday- Sweeter Sweaters

Good morning everyone! How is your December going so far? I hope it's been great, and most of all, stress free! 

One of the things that I'm really loving "researching" right now (that's my excuse for spending hours on Pinterest) is ways to use things like sweaters and tshirts to make new things. Actually, we did a post a while back about ways to upcycle tshirts. Today, I'm going to share some cool things you can make with old sweaters.

Ok, I have a tiny confession to make- I love some of the patterns on "tacky" sweaters. I love that the Fair Isle and Nordic type prints are coming back into style. But, a lot of times, when I can find sweaters with patterns that I like while out thrifting, the cut and style just aren't doing it for me. But, if it's only $2.... and I really love the colors and pattern.... I sometimes can't help myself ;). So, I need an excuse to bring that beauty home.

Last year, I actually end up making some legwarmers from the sleeves of a crazy sweater- see this post for pictures and instructions. And, for my crazy Christmas party outfit, I used the sleeves off a sweater again. But, since I live in El Paso, I don't really need a ton of legwarmers. But I still had that crazy black, pink, and teal sweater sitting around. What to make, what to make? Pinterest to the rescue!!! I found a blog called Saved By Love Creations that had a list of 50 things to make with old sweaters... what? Awesome!! 

There are several things I want to make from that list, but the thing I tried first was something called "pocket warmers." I've seen them around several times, but the blog I looked at for instructions was Annie Get Your Glue Gun. I decided that I would make mine heart shaped... cute, right? So I cut out my little hearts:

Aren't they just adorable? I just knew they were going to turn out so cute... Then I started sewing.... the hearts were a little  a lot lopsided after I turned them inside out (I put right sides together to sew them up), but I thought I could fix that with some filling. My plan was to fill them with some dry navy beans. So, I filled up my little hearts that looked like deformed roosters (really, they do... I'll show you a picture in a minute) and popped them in the microwave to test them out.... Whew!! The beans apparently started cooking.... nasty! So... I decided to make some larger hearts and fill them with rice... still, a little lopsided but not as bad. Finally, I just gave up, made a rectangle, filled it with stinky beans (I ran out of rice), and called it a day... After all, how many times am I going to need a hand warmer in El Paso?

Even though this experience was a little traumatizing, I'm still planning on trying some of the other projects- I still have a bunch of that sweater material to use! ;)

Please go check out the list on Saved By Love Creations to see if there are any old sweater projects you'd like to try. Let me know how they turn out! Happy thrifting!

                                                                                            -J

Crazy Christmas

Ok, before I show you these pictures, I have to make sure that you are prepared... do you remember last week, I told you about our ladies' Christmas party at church? Well, it was last night, and it was awesome!!! There were lots of great costumes and the ones that won were amazing- I should have taken pictures, but I didn't... I was more worried about not letting my headband fall off my head. You'll see why in a minute. Ok, are you ready?



Are you sure?

Here they are....

Kind of amazing, right? ;)

Who: J
When: 12/3/12
Where: Ladies' Christmas party at church
What: *Shirt- Old Navy pajama top- thrifted *Green tee- thrifted *Denim skirt- thrifted *Necklaces- souvenir gifts from friends *Leg warmers- sleeves from a thrifted sweater *Purse- thrifted *Headband- mishmash of stuff from the Dollar Tree and Walgreens

This outfit was so fun to put together. I already had the shoes (I just added a little bow on them), the green tee, and the denim skirt. My friend Lindsay and I went out thrifting on Friday to find pieces for our outfits, and that's when I found the top, the sweater that I cut up to make leg warmers, and the purse. All in all, I think I spent like $6 for those three things. To make my headband, I used some ribbon I bought in a bag of ribbon for $1 at Goodwill, a bird & pinecone clip I bought at the Dollar Tree, and some battery operated lights I found at Walgreen's.

In the last picture, I made sure to show off my lovely green eyeshadow... awesome, right? I bought an eye shadow palette at the Dollar Tree that had like 5 different shades of green. Do you want to know how nerdy I am? I searched on Pinterest for "smokey green eye" to get ideas on how to do my makeup... I know, that's a little overboard, but I love "researching" things on Pinterest!

Last but not least, I teased the living daylights out of my hair to get some serious "big hair" going on. You can't really see it because of the headband, but I had a huge poof of hair. I'm still trying to get all of the knots out my hair!

Although this is not a look that I'm expecting anyone to want to copy, I hope you can tell that we had lots of fun. And maybe next time you need an outfit that's a little crazy, you can get some ideas from my crazy Christmas outfit!