Indie Haul

For those of you who know me well, you know that I love thrifting. Recently I went on a date with my friend Jenn, who shares my love for thrifting. We combed through racks while chitchatting about our semesters (God did a lot in both of our lives this spring!). I made out like a bandit with three shirts, a dress, a cool thick brown leather belt, and unicorn pop-up book (it wouldn’t be an indie haul without  unicorns and birds) all for about $10.

Promise Tangeman, who is a super-star designer/photographer and lover of God recently posted an entry on thrifting. Here are her rules:

PROMISE’S THRIFT STORE TIPS:
1. ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. Only buy when you absolutely love it.
2. GET PERSPECTIVE. Visualize the piece of clothing out of its context. Would you like it if it was from Urban Outfitters or Anthropologie?? If no, then skip it.
3. PRICE CHECK IT. If you can’t decide how much you love it, say how much you would pay for it (before looking at the price), then look at the price. If its over what you said… then skip it.
4. LOOK OUT FOR FAKERS. Just because the piece looks better then the REST of the clothes THERE, doesn’t mean you need to take it home. Because, it might end up being the WORST piece in your closet, and then you may never wear it.
5. NOTICE THE DETAILS. Never forget to stop by the shoes, jewelry, glasses, ties, scarves, belts. You might find a gem. It’s really easy to skip over these sections, but there are TONS of good stuff.

I agree with number 1 and 5 whole-heartedly. Especially number 1! Even if it’s cheap and fits me I won’t buy it unless I love it. I’m not so much out to get a good deal when I go thrifting as I am trying to find one-of-a-kind items I can’t find anywhere else.

Here are some of my favorite thrifting finds from the past:

1. I got this rainbow striped dress from a thrift store in melrose. The store was having a great $1 sale. Yes, this dress was $1. It was a lot longer before but my mom shortened it. I don’t typically recommend buying clothes too big. It’s one extra step to get something tailored and for the price of thrifted items, most of the time you end up getting lazy and not getting it tailored. I’m just lucky my mom is a sewing whiz!

2. Plaid shirt from the salvation army. I wear this shirt almost every other week. On missions last summer, it was the one relatively nice piece of clothing I brought, so I wore it every Sunday to church. This shirt was at most 2 or 3 dollars. I wore it today! Please ignore my face in this picture. I don’t know why I’m making this sad face. Probably because I’m getting photographed.

3. One shoulder printed dress. I rocked this at homecoming senior year. This dress was also $1 from the Melrose place. I can’t for the life of me remember what the place is called…too bad….seeing as I live in LA majority of the year.

4. Mexican Printed dress from the Salvation army. The general thrifting trend here is I like buying colorful dresses.

5. I find great florals when I go thrifting. This shirt was actually from Buffalo Exchange which I don’t necessarily consider thrifting because it’s more expensive and less of a hunt since the clothes are already sorted.

Hope you all had a good weekend. I’ll be chronicling my finds here this summer.

Happy thrifting!

Two things I like

Glee & Kate Spade!

Rachel wore a Kate Spade bow sweater while dueting Lionel Richie’s Hello in this weeks episode. Cute.

Cameron Diaz

I didn’t actually watch the Oscars, but since Helen posted her favorite dress I thought I should post mine too. Ashley- is there a comma after Oscars?!? I’m sorry, I don’t understand commas.

I guess Helen and I like the strapless numbers.

I would also like to say how is Demi-freaking-Moore 47? She is my new hero. No one should look that hot at 47. And Helen Mirren she makes 64 look a-m-a-z-i-n-g. When I look at her I don’t feel depressed about aging. Ha ha.

(image via: just jared)

Alexa Chung for Madewell

Two looks from Madewell I like. I love Madewell. It makes me want to throw away all my clothes (except for my Madewell items, of course) and only buy from their store. I don’t think I really have a right to talk about fashion…lately I’ve been living in nike tempo shorts.

edit: came across a similar post on ohjoy. we picked similar images

Ban.do owners

My favorite image from Oh Joy’s Ban.do studio tour.

Explore later

I have a folder in my bookmarks labeled explore later. It’s filled with at least 100 links (and counting) of random art, food, photography, and stories that I have stumbled upon. The thing is I never actually get to them. I’m sharing some of the links so maybe you guys can check them out for me:

She has one of the coolest jobs out there.

This is such a sweet tale of one man’s life changing experience in a cab.

50 strange buildings of the world. Building number 27 is definitely on my list.

Lots of this is a bit unoriginal but there’s some cool stuff like the above necklace.

I have so many recipes saved like this one.

There is something incredibly classy about the Times.

Oy. Got to catch some zzz’s. Guess the exploring will have to wait.

(image via: We Dream in Colour)

From the Sartorialist

The best accessory is a good-looking dog. More fashion eye candy here.