May was a pretty busy month for me as there’s mothers day as well as my boyfriend and mom’s birthdays. I’m not sure why but It seems like half the people I know have May birthdays. Anyway I wore this to my boyfriends birthday dinner with his family, he turned the big 2-5. Honestly it wasn’t quite warm enough for this outfit, but I wanted to wear something cute and this was the only thing I liked that day. In my defense the week before had been pretty cold so when it was kinda warm out I may or may not have gone a little overboard. But I like the outfit nonetheless. I only really wear this skirt in the warmer months so it’s fun to break it out.
I would also like to add my deepest condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of those who were violently gunned down in Orlando last weekend. Here are a few links if you’re as mad as I am about the continued gun violence in our country: resources for turning our sadness into action , contact your representative, remember those lost. And finally just remember that love is powerful so if you hear someone saying homophobic, racist, or islamophobic things speak up, Your voice is powerful.
I haven’t done a thrift haul in a year! Sorry guys I’ve fallen off my blogging game, but I’m coming back I promise! I’m aiming for twice a week. Anyway I have found some awesome stuff in the past year so I figured I’d get my butt in gear and show you what I’ve found!
1. Vintage Green Coat with fur collar
One thing I’ve been searching the thrift stores for since forever is a nice vintage coat that fits me well. I’ve found a good number of coats that meet this description but all of them have been way too long. I’m a hearty 5’1 so many of the coats are made for taller people and leave me looking like I’m playing dress up. So I was shocked when I tried this bad boy on and it not only fit but it wasn’t too long! It was originally $24.00 but I got it on sale for $12, score!
2. Mid Century Modern Blue lamp
I found this guy at the salvation army during the MLK day sales. I wasn’t sure if they were having a sale or not but it was near another thrift store and I figured I’d check and see what they had. Fortunately they were having a sale and I spotted this lamp. I immediately went into a mini frenzy and wasn’t sure if I should get it. There were two lamps and they were marked 39.99 a piece. WTF salvation army? but the sale made them around 20. I decided to compromise and only get one since I had already spent way too much money. But yeah in hindsight I should have gotten the second one, since it would have been better to have a pair. But you live, you learn right?
3. Mid Century Teak Lamp
I found this guy at Savers for like $7.00 a little before Christmas. I’m always looking for these teak lamps since I don’t see them much at thrift stores. It has a broken end but for 7 bucks I was willing to overlook that. I really like it and it’s almost identical to one I saw at the Junk Bonanza for way more. Now I just need to find a cool lampshade.
4. Red Wing Pottery Capistrano
I found this at the Salvation army in early November. There are a bunch more pieces than those shown but I didn’t feel like digging them all out for the picture. It was in one of those baskets they make up for matching dishes and was pretty expensive, like a $120.00. I think it’s probably the most expensive things I’ve ever bought at a thrift store. But, my mom collects this pattern and It’s Red Wing pottery so it’s very collectible. My mom went to an estate sale once that was selling this pattern and they were selling each piece individually so I figured even if it was expensive It was still a pretty good deal based solely on the sheer number of things in the basket and it would make a good Christmas gift for my mom.
5. Fiestaware creamer
This is another Christmas gift for my mom, she also collects/ uses Fiestaware dishes. I saw this little creamer and knew it was an item she didn’t have. Usually if I see Fiestaware at a thrift store I pick it up for her.
6. Michael Kors Bag
I found this guy for $19.00 and from what I’ve read on the internet it’s a legit Michael Kors bag. It wasn’t in the glass case where you usually see suspected designer purses it was in the small home decor section next to candles and stuff. But I really like the bag and I’ve been using it pretty heavily since. I found it just in time too since my old purse was seconds away from breaking.
7. Stuart Weitzmen studded loafers
I found these the same day at the Michael Kors bag, sometimes you just have those days when you’re on a roll. I haven’t completely broke them in but I like em’ a lot and they were around $14.00.
8. Christmas Pyrex
I found this awhile ago at a Goodwill but never shared it on the blog. It’s one of the odd Pyrex pieces I’ve picked up in the last few years. I’ve mentioned before I’ve pretty much limited myself to only picking up pyrex with patterns I like on them so it weeds out a lot of Pyrex. This one has a very cute and festive design though so I went ahead and picked it up.
9. ASOS loafers
I got these at Savers last year sometime in like new condition and they’ve been in heavy rotation ever since. They’re pretty comfy and I think they look pretty cool.
10. Sole Society Pumps
I’ve been looking for a good solid pair of pumps for more business-y situations and I think these fit the bill. I like that they have a smaller heel, I’m not real confident in heels just yet so they’re kinda the perfect height. They give some height but aren’t so tall I feel wobbly in them. They’re around $69.95 dollars retail but I got them for $9.
11. I heart __ picture frame
This picture frame has been in my ModCloth “loves” list forever so when I saw it at Savers I had to pick it up. I’m either gonna give it to my bf for a present at some point or keep it, we’ll see. If you like it you can get it online here.
It may come as no surprise that this fall I’m still head over heels for the 70’s trend. And thusly have a serious craving to cover those heels in a fine pair of booties. I do have a pair of black fringe booties I got from Target a few years ago that I am still very much in love with. They are part of the reason I’m so into this trend, they’re very cute but also super easy to walk in. As a non-heel wearer, for the most part, that’s key to me actually wearing a heeled shoe. Since I already have a lovely black pair, this season I’m looking for the perfect camel bootie with a stacked wood heel. This would seem easy as booties are everywhere this season, but many of the booties I’ve found I like are pretty pricey. So I’m searching the thrifts hoping to get lucky and if all else fails waiting for a good coupon code to snatch up a pair.
A while ago now I went to a food truck fair with the boy in Blaine, MN. There’s some organization that has different food truck fairs throughout the summer in different locations around the metro area. I had to work the next weekend when it was in Minneapolis so we decided to go the one in Blaine that coincided with my day off.
I’m a semi-terrible food photographer. I never want to wait to take the picture I just want to eat, as you can see above.
We tried food from about five trucks before we were too stuffed for more. The best were probably the taco truck and empanadas.
I wasn’t really sure what to wear and originally had a recently thrifted skirt in mind, but I just wasn’t feeling it that day. When I was almost ready to compromise and go with the skirt I just wasn’t feeling I thought of this one. I’ve had this skirt forever but haven’t worn it much in the last year, It was instantly perfect.
I bought this skirt a couple years ago from ASOS and loved it instantly because it reminds me of the talking Pansy/garden scene from the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. For some reason a lot of that movie has stayed with me. I should watch it again.
close up of the print on the skirt.
Top:ThriftedSkirt: ASOS Shoes: borrowed from mom
Someone told me my whole look was on point, so I’ll take that as a win. It was a good reminder that I really need to go through my closet and take inventory of the good stuff I have in there, especially when I feel like I have nothing to wear.
Also if you’re on Snapchat come and follow me! My username is: blackcatlies. I’ve started to really get into it and am trying to post more on there. Plus I’ll totally follow you back, I’m always looking for new people to follow on snap!
if you didn’t know you can instantly add me by pointing your snapchat camera on my QR code above!
Though I have plenty of spring/summer inspirations (see last post) the weather here has been predictably unpredictable. One day it’s 85 degrees the next it’s 35 with flurries, thus I haven’t broken out the skirts and dresses quite yet. In Fact pretty much all winter and spring when I’m not at work I’ve been rotating the same three shirts pretty heavily, my boyfriend even commented on it which means it’s pretty bad (lol).
Call it laziness, call it normcore, I just can’t be bothered too much with fashion right now. Not really sure why. I do have a lot of clothes but to be honest my shirts, even my work ones, have been pretty sad for awhile. Part of the reason is that I never shop for them. I haven’t been thrifting much lately and when I do I always seem to have a short attention span. Since shirts are generally the largest section it’s hard to force myself to go through them and pick out some good ones. Even when I buy new shirts are the last on my list. But that needs to change. I do actually need shirts now so I guess I’ll suck it up and put them higher on my thrift list.
Either way I do genuinely like the outfits I put together with my three shirts. I will be documenting them and posting for you to see. But be forewarned until the temps stay consistently warm, or I acquire more tops, you may be seeing a lot of outfits similar to the one above. Apologies.
As a single girl I never hated Valentines Day but I never really celebrate it much either. Now that I’m in a relationship I start thinking about what I’m gonna wear on this day pretty soon after the new year, I know it’s silly but that’s just my brain. Last year I had a vague idea of what I wanted to wear, but this year I had nothing. No ideas, no inspiration, nada. The only thing I knew is that I wanted to pander a little to my boyfriend and wear a skirt and/or a Dress, since he’s fond of them and I tend not to wear them much during the winter months. So I went thrifting, I looked online, I went to the mall, I scoured pinterest and fashion blogs and … nothing. I did find a couple dresses I liked but one wasn’t in my size and the other was too expensive. So what’s a girl to do? Look in her closet, duh! I don’t know why but whenever I have an event/ occasion to dress for I rarely look at my wardrobe and pick something from there right off the bat. No, my first instinct is to declare I have nothing appropriate and look anywhere but the most convenient location. So finally last week after coming up empty handed yet again I went through my closet and found no less than 15 pieces that I could possibly wear, 15! silly, silly, silly me. I finally tried them all on in various combinations and decided on this lovely ensemble oh a few hours before dinner on valentines day…
This outfit wasn’t too exciting and I had plans for a different pair of incredibly valentines day appropriate earrings to add a pop but, of course, I couldn’t find them. So I went with these green ones that I “made” from a broken pair of my mom’s. I decided to wear the skirt since I’ve only really worn it once even though I really like it. I just find it hard to style mini skirts casually, I should probably work on that. It has a lovely mesh band on the bottom that looks really good when you’re not wearing black tights, but it’s Minnesota, it’s February, and it’s cold so those are the breaks. The shirt was a recent thrift find that I’m kind of obsessed with it, it’s stretchy and soft and I love it. Overall I really like it, it doesn’t scream Valentines day date outfit but it’s significantly more dressed up then I get for most of our dates (especially in the winter) so that’s a win.
Anyway the boyfriend and I went to Chino Latino a latin/Asian Fusion restaurant in Minneapolis that I seriously always wanted to try, 80% of which was because of its shiny gold sign (I’m dead serious). We had a kind of early reservation since we didn’t end up making concrete plans until 11 days prior (procrastinators unite!). Dinner was really good and dessert was kind of amazing, we had fried bananas and coconut ice cream, yum . After dinner we just hung out and did our normal date stuff, which was cool.
Didn’t take a picture of my presents but here’s a “in the process of” picture of my Zine. The finished one is on the bottom and my first draft is on the top.
If you were wondering about gifts, this year I got hella crafty and did some serious DIY. I saw a really cool tutorial on Design sponge about making your own mini Valentine’s Day Zine so I got really excited, ran to Michael’s and made one awesome Zine! For the actual gift I made (yes made, as in got all the ingredients and mixed them together) my boyfriend one of his favorite snacks, Trail Mix. Oh yeah I bought an ungodly amount of nuts, dried fruit, M&M’s and chocolate chips and filled two pretty large canisters full of my concoction. Then I gussied them up with some left over craft supplies. I have to admit I had the most fun making these gifts this year and think I may have to incorporate some DIY every year, if I can. I also gave him the lovely cold I’d been fighting that week, ooops.
My boyfriend isn’t big on the whole flowers and chocolate thing on valentines day, I’m pretty sure he’s convinced it’s some sort of trap and I wouldn’t like them if he got them for me. I keep telling him I would be down but I don’t think he believes me. Anyway that means I always end up getting the sweetest homemade gifts. Which are better than flowers in that it means he actually puts in some time and effort into thinking up a sweet and thoughtful gift. Last year he gave me a jump drive with all the texts messages we had sent back and forth for the entire first year of our relationship, which is oh 99% of our phone conversations as I’d rather text than talk on the phone most days. It was incredibly sweet and unexpected but a totally appreciated gift since I only just got an iPhone last year and all those texts etc. had to be regularly deleted from my old phone. This year he ended up giving me his version of “Cooper Coupons” from The Big Bang theory, though he called them Cooley coupons (because last names n’ such). Basically they’re coupons I can redeem to make him do things he may otherwise not want to do or at least would bitch about a bit. Go somewhere on date he wouldn’t necessarily want to go, not bitch at me for talking during a TV show, etc. It’s very cute as they’re very tailored to our relationship, I’m already planning a time to redeem my first coupon.
Anyway In honor of V-day I’ll leave you with this adorable video I saw in the New York Times the other day. I think it may be the most adorable love themed YouTube video I’ve seen in awhile. Enjoy. And whether you’re single or in relationship I hope you had a very Happy Valentine’s Day, or at least go some sweet deals on chocolate the day after.
I’ve seen a bunch of bloggers do these posts and always liked them but never actually tried them. So no time like the present right? If I can I may make this a recurring series on the dear old blog. I actually saw the skirt I’m wearing on ASOS before I ever saw the inspiration picture on pinterest and as soon as I saw It I knew I had to get it. All the stars seemed to aline in my favor as I got an ASOS voucher as a gift around the same time. I love the easy yet chic look in the inspiration look and decided to go for that this time around. I switched out the turtle neck for my scoop neck crop top since i’m not a big fan of turtlenecks and I wore this outfit in the summer when turtlenecks were out of the question. I wore this skirt a bunch this summer although I’m not sure if I’ll be transitioning this skirt to fall ( it’s more of a spring/summer look to me), but we’ll see maybe some fall/winter inspiration for this skirt will hit me.
The highlights of my summer wardrobe consisted of some key monochromatic looks. There’s just something about black and white that’s been really attractive to me this year. That compulsion has only grown as we enter the new season. This fall/winter I’m really into black and white with graphic prints and pops of oxblood, mustard, emerald, nude, blush and navy. This revelation occurred from, of all places, a forever 21 look book. I was just really into the sleek downtown look of one of their collections and that inspiration has propelled my style inspiration this season. Of course everything I wear this season won’t fit the inspiration but a lot of it probably will. Anyway here’s a mood board for my fall/winter 2014 style inspiration.
This outfit was pretty much my go-to last summer and it’s been in pretty heavy rotation this year too. It’s a cute easy outfit, it’s pretty perfect. I’ve worn this a million times but most recently I wore it to go to a flea market with my boyfriend. The boy is not into the whole thrift/vintage/flea market thing but he knows I am so he sucked it up an went with. It ended up being only a few miles from where we went apple picking last fall, apparently all of our excursions are about an hour NW of Minneapolis. Anyway I was a horrible blogger and only got one picture (see above) but the flea market was fun. There were lots of different people and a good amount of vintage stuff as well as new stuff, vegetables, food, DVDs, videos games, the works. We got there around 9, I read a yelp review that you should get there by 7 (!) to get the best deals/stuff but I just couldn’t make myself (or the boy) get up at 5 in the morning on Saturday, it’s just wrong. I didn’t end up getting anything as I didn’t find anything I couldn’t live without, but it was fun to go.
Crop top & Sunglasses:ASOSSkirt:River Island (via Asos) Shoes:Target (old)
Last Sunday the boy and I went to Artist-Designed Mini-Golf at the walker. Basically it’s a whole mini-golf course full of quirky holes. Unfortunately there was a two hour wait! But we decided to suck it up and wait it out. So we walked around the sculpture garden, Loring Park and saw an exhibit at the Walker. You get free admission to the walker with your mini-golf tickets, unfortunately all of their exhibits were under construction so the only one we could see was an exhibit on Edward Hopper, which was really interesting. I’ve never been to the walker’s normal collection though so that was a bit dissapointing. Guess I’ll have to go back another day to tour the museum. Anyway this season I’ve really been into the ladylike midi skirt trend. This is the first of a few that you’ll be seeing on the blog as the summer rumbles by. I really like the outfit and thought it worked well for the day. The only thing I would change is the shoes. I like my old target flats but sandals would have been better, I really need to invest/ find at the thirft store some good flats and a comfy pair of sandals. I didn’t relaize until this summer just how few summer shoes I really have.
