Beltane to Memorial Day Countdown: Better Than a Pillow Case

It appears as though my shaming of mother earth last weekend worked because we have been having 70 degree temps and gorgeous, sunny days! What better way to show my appreciation for this blessing than with my most hippiest of tanks: The Mother Earth Tank.


(front)

(back)

(detail)

I just picked up this baby in Chicago (more amazing finds from that trip to come!) and was thisclose to not being able to get it, as the rather bitchy sales lady didn't see the tag right away and, without even saying anything to me, discarded it as they are apparently very strict about the "no tag, no sale" policy at Family Thrift. Luckily, I was paying attention and caught this, thus saving the day.

It is my belief that everyone should have at least one piece in their wardrobe they can refer to as a "mother earth" piece. I've looked for quite sometime for mine and I am pleased that we have finally found each other. The lace detail and embroidery is fantastic, I love the button-down back, and it is made of this great soft cottony linen that will breath in the summertime. While I do fear it will make me look a bit preggers, as these tiered baby-doll cut tops always do, I think that when I am feeling particularly womanly, I'll be fine with rocking it.

At any rate, it is far cuter than the mother earth tops of my boss Kitty's college days in Lawrence Kansas, when the hippie chicks would make their tops by quilting shit onto pillow cases and tying them to their bodies with string (open backs of course). While I can totally get down with some Birkenstock action and following The Dead, when it comes to DIY open back tanks, no thanks.

BELTANE to MEMORIAL DAY countdown: Baby's First Espirit

My #8 TOP TANK TOP is a nod to Operation Sparkle's #8 thrifting tip: do not discount categories/departments that don't "fit" you. Like, literally, don't fit you. Like this fantastic (literally) little number doesn't; a little girl's multi-colored, multi-funky, plaid Espirit button down tank!


On a little girl, this is actually a full-size, back button top. But on me, it is a shrunken cropped button-front vest! Now howdya like that! With a black tank underneath and a denim skirt or pair of shorts, I mean, how cute. And not a soul will be the wiser that God did not intend it to be worn that way. The people who categorized it at the thrift store didn't even know, as I found it in the women's section, even though the tag says "Espirit kids".

Not to mention this sweet plaid action, with embroidered stripe detail.


It also gets points for reminding me of elementary school, when everyone had to have an Espirit book bag, or you were simply not cool. You know what I'm talking about. Those bags were the be all and end all school yard trend in the early 90's. Now, if Espirit were really smart, they would start making these again, throwback style, because everybody f-ing loves nostalgia. F-ing loves it, more than anything. They'd make a million dollars.

Thrifting Crisis: Controlling the Situation

As Laurie explored the other day, sometimes what we find ourselves thrifting doesn't make any sense. Not that there is always rhyme or reason, or cohesion between the items that we thrift, but usually there is at least the sense that the items we thrift can be viewed as something that "Holly would buy" or "Laurie would buy" or whoever buying the item would buy.

Then there are the times when you find yourself with a cart full of crap that you are, in the deepest darkest depths of your soul, questioning. You may be questioning your cart contents, the items that, out of all the items in the store, you selected as being at least worthy enough to be added to the cart. You may even question your grip on reality and your own self-worth. Sometimes this is result of forcing yourself to go thrifting when you really shouldn't be thrifting. Sometimes it is merely an indicator that your style is shifting, or that you are trying a new look out. Sometimes it is just because the thrifting gods are not on your side.

So why all this ranting and raving about feeling disconnected with one's thrifting flow? Well, it is because the other day, I decided to go to one of my favorite thrift shops in the Twin Cities area, ARC Value Village in Richfield. I have found some amazing finds at ARC, which keeps me going back, despite the fact that it is on the pricier side. Keeping this in mind, I decided that it might be "fun" to limit my spending to $10 ($15 max!) and started conceptualizing the whole trip as a sort of "challenge" to share with all of you.

Once at ARC, I found myself in some what of a tailspin. Determined to spend at least $10, I started adding items to my cart that I normally wouldn't consider, but thought that maybe this challenge would include trying to piece together some random finds to make up this $10 total. As I was not finding any pieces that immediately jumped off the rack at me, I thought that perhaps this was one of those thrifting challenges, sent by the gods of thrift, testing my ability to see the beauty in items that, at first glance, may seem at odds with my personal style, ridiculous, or just plain ugly.



My rejects. Notice the nasty printed top I grabbed due to its key hole back and the "Florida" slip skirt. WTF.

If that wasn't enough to cloud my normally clear thrifting vision, I kept hearing the volunteers talking about how beautiful it was out and how everyone was busy celebrating St. Patricks day, which led to a mounting sense of panic that one can only experience when they have suffered through a Minnesota winter and are faced with one of the first beautiful days of the year. Determined to stay on task, I tried to keep my head in the game by reminding myself to take advantage of the lack of shoppers (due to the holiday).

But the time I reached the dressing room, almost two hours had passed, I had a cart full of junk that I wasn't really excited about AND my panic about how much time I was wasting on a seemingly wasteful excursion was reaching major proportions. That is when I saw it.



An almost perfect vintage, bronze covered-in-sequins cocktail dress.

This was it! The dress was hanging on a rack near the dressing rooms, obviously on its way back out to the floor. It never got there. I yanked it off and ran into one of the rooms, knowing that, no matter what, this dress was going to be something I was leaving with.

It ended up being fabulous. There was a small rip in the seam of the top shoulder, which can be easily fixed for even the most clumsy of sewers (i.e. me). The fabric is amazing and stretchy and while one may consider the dress as "large" on me, the cut is such that it looks boxy in a very good way.



Check out the amazing sequin detail! The entire thing is covered like this, so it weighs about 20 pounds.



Check out the low v-neck back on this number. Totally sexy.

I had found a thrifting gem in a land of duds. At $12.99, I was over my $10 limit. I knew I was going to get the dress, no questions asked. But what about the remaining $2.01 I had left to the $15 maximum? Fast and furiously, I started editing the items I had compiled over the past two hours, should there be some gem that I forgot about, or at least some item that priced low enough to keep under the $15 total.




I only found a couple items priced low enough to not max out my total. But I did resurface this number: a linen embroidered top. Priced at $3.99, it put me over my maximum, but I couldn't question it. Even the color scheme fit with the dress. It was like no other top I have ever seen. It would look great with my new rust colored shorts, my new leather shorts, or, for maximum wackiness, my new vintage plaid skirt.

I left ARC going $1.98 over my "maximum" limit. Despite not meeting this challenge, I felt satisfied, with no regrets. I had found two amazing, unique pieces that I felt one with. And that, my friends, is a thrifting success.

Summer Time Lovin' for Day 23

I am completely cringing over my Grease reference in this post title, but can we all just agree to get over it? You get over it, I'll get over it. Because on this very, very cold, crappy winter day (with a snow storm on the way), summer and love are the only things getting me through—in addition, that is, to the promise of wearing my #11 find, this flowy teal embroidered tank!



As Laurie explored in this past post, one of the best/most difficult things (that is, having to wait to wear the pieces) about thrifting is thrifting out of season. Unlike new retail shops, which only carry items that are "seasonal," (though their dubious conception of "seasons" does not quite line up with Minnesota weather patterns), thrift stores, which do some seasonal swap outs, tend to have a little bit of everything, making conditions ripe for unseasonal goldmines to explode all over the place!

Now, I have some even more stellar summertime pieces to be revealed later in this countdown, but for now, I want to sing the praises of this simple, sweet tank. The color is one of my favorites (I am a sucker for bluish-greenish tones) and I love the slightly boxy shape with the fabric dipping in the center of the back and front. The embroidered flowers near the neck may be a bit grandma-ish but I think that the cut and color make this shirt one you would only see on the coolest grandma. And I am totally, totally down with looking like a cool grandma!

Another side note on this tank—I have been experimenting with layering, which can be a challenge in this erratic climate. Lucky for me, my workplace is rather warm, so I have more options than wearing bulky sweaters at all times.



The other day I took this silk taupe top and wore it with a striped cardigan, jeans and a big blue scarf. I felt very chic, which is rare during this time of year, and I think the secret is layering with these flowy tanks—so maybe this teal one has a place in my wintertime wardrobe after all!

Double success!

Happy Little Surprises

I imagine that working at a resale shop is quite different from working at a "normal" retail shop—not only is the merchandise changing daily, but it is also a complete crapshoot what you can come up with.

I have had a couple of really amazing moments at work when we have gotten in merchandise that I have also found thrifting. I generally find these moments to be mind-blowing, as one of the beauties of thrifting (and resale shopping) is that you tend to feel as though each item you find is one of a kind. These experiences at work break this illusion, but I like to think that they are merely a reflection of some kind of mystical fashion current through which we are all connected.



I found this dark teal silk dress thrifting in Green Bay over a month ago. I believe it was my first shift back at work after this trip that the same one appeared on the Everyday People racks. This dress was one of the most tried on for several weeks before it finally found its current owner, so I take that as a measure of my good taste.



Last week, I was tagging items at work and to my surprise, found myself holding the same shirt as the one in this photo—except it was slightly larger and pink, instead of turquoise. Not only that, but I just happened to choose that very day to debut my top at work! Who would have thought that this button up Honors Juniors top would find its way, not just to my pretty little hands thrifting at the Halloween Bootique, but also to my work?! Fabulous!