Michael Jackson Wanna-be

I hope the new year is treating everyone well!  So, my friend Jenna called me at 6pm on a Saturday night asking me if I wanted to go out to listen to some band play in a sketchy bar in downtown Manch.  After decent amount of convincing, I finally decided that I'd go.  By the time I got off the phone with her it was 6:30 and I had to be ready to go by 7ish.  Challenge accepted.  I jumped into the shower while of course blasting pump-up music so I can put my game face on for the cold walk to the bar haha.  Luckily it was fairly warm out, 40s-50s, so I decided that my red leather Michael Jackson wanna-be look would do the trick for tonight.  I have always loved leather (real or fake) jackets so when I saw this bad boy hangin on the Goodwill rack, there was no doubt in my mind that it was mine.  I feel that the jacket makes a bit of a bold statement without giving that "look at me, look at me" look.

Thrifty Thursday Outfit of the week:

My casual night out look 

Dolla-Dollar Breakdown:

Before I start, I do want to mention Goodwill's 10% discount card.  You can purchase the discount card for $10 and it will last you a year.  You get 10% off every single item throughout the year - but on your birthday you get 25%!  There has been some controversy in my house as my roommates tell me that the 25% is only on your birthday - but I was able to use mine throughout my birthday month...oops!  Anyway, I ended up spending $100 at Goodwill one time so I "bought" the Goodwill discount card because it paid for itself with that purchase.  Just wanted to put it out there that I use my card all the time and it is definitely worth it - it is all for charity anyway!

K back to the important stuff!  So my Michael Jackson wanna-be faux leather jacket cost me $26.99 at Goodwill.  Next up is my brown and white striped tee.  The picture definitely does not do the shirt any justice but it is a really cute simple H&M shirt which I received for free from my amazing friend Lindsey (whenever my friends get rid of their clothes they know that I will take the "dead weight" off their shoulders haha)!  My dark Blue Asphalt skinny jeans were $4.50 from Goodwill.  Now, I was trying to contain myself when I found these brown boots at, where else but Goodwill!  I wasn't really on the prowl for boots but with Goodwill, you like to take advantage of any deals that they have so when I found these Madden Girl boots for $8.99 - woooeyy, I just prayed that they would fit me!  Yayy baby, almost perfect fit! haha.  They are a lil big for my feet but whatever, for $8.99 I can deal with it!

Thrifty Thursday Grand Total cost: $40.48 (with jacket) and $13.49 without it!  

Job well-freakin-done!!

I'm telling ya, if you are still scared to go into a Goodwill store - take baby steps or something.  Maybe pull into the parking lot and look through the windows or something.  Maybe next time you will be able to get out of your car - or better yet, actually go in!  I will tell you that I was just in the store the other day and I found a pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans for $4.99 - umm, hello!?!? I was going to buy the jeans even tho they were not in my size - but then I remembered what Goodwill is all about...the great treasures for you.  No need to be selfish - let someone else who can fit them buy them!  haha.

Sincerely,

The Fashion Treasure Hunter

Last Minute New Year's Eve Special

Happy New Year!

I decided to post up my New Year's Eve outfit for tonight as I decided last minute (try yesterday) to semi dress up for tonight.  When I say semi dress up - I mean to dress normal compared to most girls.  I'm not exactly the high heel mini skirt type of gal (try sweatpants and tie dye shirt...wearing them as I type right now haha).  So yesterday when I was in Joann Fabric's picking out some ribbon for another project, I decided that I should make better use of my 40% off coupon.  Rather than using the coupon for my $3.79 ribbon, I figured why not splurg it on a sequin fabric of my choosing.  By the way, it took me a solid 2 hours Googling "glitter tops" to remember that it is not glitter, it is sequin.  Grrr.  I bought a yard and a half of the sequin fabric which came to $10.79 but after using my coupon the total was $6.47.  I went home knowing what type of top I wanted to make - but the problem was, I had no idea what the shirt name was called.  I went to pinterest.com and typed in glitter tops...ya, that didn't work.  I did the same on Google...failed.  So, after watching an entire People's Court episode while Googling random words I finally came across what I wanted to make.  I believe it is called a "blanket style cardigan."  I didn't want to have any sleeves because I thought that would require too much effort on my part.  I Youtubed around and found a great tutorial on how to make a "vest cardigan."  Ten minutes later - baboom!  I just made myself a nice lil' sequin vest cardigan (no sewing required!!!).  

My next step was to figure out what the heck I was going to wear with my fancy-dancy "vest cardigan."  What did I do?  Went to Goodwill!  I got completely side tracked there and bought a few other items (you will see them later - I did find a great deal on a pair of rocketdog shoes).  Anyway, I ended up buying a few different simple black or gray tops to try out with my sequin vest top once I got home.  All shirts are $4.50 so it gives me the freedom to buy a few and make decisions later!  

I woke up today with a plan...I needed to figure out what I was going to do for the bottom part of the outfit.  I was very tempted to wear short black shorts with rockin pink tights and my wanna-be Converse sneaks, but after some discussion with one of my "fashion consultants," Lindsey (she is actually a former field hockey player of mine and is a sophomore in college so of course, she knows her style), I decided that the pink may be too much for a small New Hampshire house party - so I opted out and decided to wear skinny jeans instead.  The next problem was that the only pair of skinny jeans I have were the light ones shown in my last blog and then dark blackish denim looking ones...neither would be a great match for my sequin top.  Alrighttyy then.  I asked myself if I should go to Goodwill but I decided that maybe I should try to be more creative, especially considering I have gone to Goodwill 3 days in a row now (what else should a teacher during her school vacation do haha?).   I remembered that I have seen some tutorials on Youtube before, and there really are tons of tutorials about anything - so I decided to see if there were any good tutorials on how to make skinny jeans out of old baggy jeans.  Pshh - yup!  Thanks to Youtube there were tons!  I found two videos in particular that I liked and went at it...within literally 5 minutes max, I turned an old pair of baggy jeans into skinny jeans!  I kinda sewed them a bit too tight for my liking but whatever - this is my first time so I figured I'd let it slide.

My final decision on the outfit for tonight is (please excuse the photos...not the best quality)...

Silver Style

Sparkle Sparkle!

Dolla Dollar Breakdown:

The silver flats are from Nine West and were given to me for free by my cousin Jenna.  Some of the jewels were broken off so I just used some Jewel-It! glue to smack those babies back on the flats.  Next stop, the jeans.  As mentioned, I made these skinny jeans from an old pair that I never really wore because there were too baggy.  They are Mudd jeans originally bought at Kohls for $11 bucks or so if my memory is right (I got so excited that they were only $11 bucks that I just bought them...not realizing that they didn't fit me that well).  Next stop my top - a bought a tag-less/nameless t-shirt at Goodwill for $4.50.  Simple and black did the trick for me.  For the sequin top, as previously mentioned, I bought a yard and a half for $6.47.  The earrings were bought from Kohls awhile back with a $10 gift card that Kohl's randomly gives me.  I have no idea how I got this hook up but every 3 months or so, they send me a $10 gift card on anything in the store.  I know that this is a marketing gimmick to get me to the store and buy more then $10 bucks worth of goods but heck no I'm not falling for that trick.  Instead, I will spend just about $10 so I get free stuff!  Lastly, the hair pieces - the pink flower was $4.99 (two flowers for that price) and was bought from Claire's Accessories, and the sequin band was made from leftover fabric.  And there we have it!

Grand total:  $26.96 for entire outfit or $10.97 for the sequin top fabric and t-shirt (purchased specifically for this outfit)                       

Once again - just some creativity and zero talent and you can have a cute outfit for New Year's Eve!  I'm a complete beginner on the sewing machine so if I can do it - so can you!  

Sincerely,

The Fashion Treasure Hunter

PS.  Here are the links to the tutorial videos I used:  

• Vest Cardigan Top
• Skinny Jeans Video 1: Skinny Jeans Video 1
• I mainly used this tutorial but it abruptly ends so I watched a 2nd video that walked me through the end piece
• Skinny Jeans Video 2: Skinny Jeans Video 2 
• I only started to pay attention to her at the 4:30 mark to see how she finished the jeans

The "Rachel Bilson" inspired look...

"Slouched-hat" look perhaps?

Ya, who is Rachel Bilson?  Good question, I had to actually look her real name up on Google but she is the main character in the CW television series called "The Hart of Dixie."  Still don't know what I am talking about?  Ya, I wish I didn't either but unfortunately one day I was really bored and started watching random shows on Hulu and came across that show...and now I'm hooked.  Since you prolly rather not take the 5 seconds to Google her name, I posted a picture of her above.   During my 5 second Google search I also found out that the hat she is wearing is called the "slouched-hat" look.  Maybe that's true, maybe not - either way I'm just going for the look...not the proper fashion term (like I said, I'm not a fashion diva).

Okay, enough with the rambling.  With the help of Rachel Bilson's picture above (specifically the hat) and also using Pinterest.com - I managed to pull off a pretty darn good outfit I think...and all for just about 20 bucks (well, kinda).  In fact, I came up with the name "treasure hunter" because while I was at my local Goodwill store yesterday one of the workers commented on a pair of boots I found on the rack (sadly they did not fit me) and that he was surprised that no one bought them yet..and then he continued on saying "but hey, a girl like you with fashion sense can see the beauty in those."  Okay okay, I'm totally paraphrasing on that but that got me thinking.  Dressing in fashion is one thing, but dressing in fashion and knowing that you searched and found a sweet deal while rockin the outfit, man what a feeling!

So let's get started.  Here is my Thrifty Thursday Outfit of the day (please excuse the hideous model posing, oh wait, crap, that is me)  haha...

Wanna-be Rachel Bilson's slouched hat look

Dolla-Dollar Breakdown:

I bought the brown faux leather boots made by Candies at Kohls for approx. $40-50 dollars.  I apologize for not remembering the exact price but I do know that I got hooked up with a 30% discount because of my amazing friend Jenna.  I love these boots - they are beyond comfortable!  Next line up - skinny jeans.  I bought these jeans made by Mossimo Supply Co. (a Target brand) from Goodwill.  The jeans still had the original tags on them!  The price on the jeans would have been $19.99 if I bought them at Target but heck no, I waited for my treasure hunt at Goodwill.  These skinny jeans didn't slim down my wallet - they cost me a total of $4.49.  Moving on up to my shirt.  I have no idea what style shirt this is - but I think it accents my body shape well.  The fabric was super soft so when I was moving the shirts along the hanger at Goodwill, I instantly stopped to check it out.  Now, I am not big into name brands and I really don't even know a lot of popular brands, but this is a DKNY shirt and I'm pretty sure that means it is a decent shirt.  Once again, this shirt cost me $4.49.  Next stop, the giant sweater.  After going shopping with my cousin she led me to realize that it is okay to buy tops that are a bigger size and that is apparently a "good look" as she calls it.  This sweater is made by Carolyn Taylor and I bought it for $7.19.  Where do you ask?  Psh - Goodwill baby!  Lastly, the slouched hat I'm wearing was $4.49 and a Goodwill purchase.  I sadly threw out the tag before looking at it - I even went through my trash can to see if I could find.  I was unsuccessful unless you want to know what brand of hot dogs I eat! ha!

Thrifty Thursday Grand Total: $60.66 (including boots).  Without boots: $20.66.

Is your mind pondering yet? Possibly thinking that maybe you should check out your local Goodwill or thrift store?  Go ahead, it is okay - the people there are very nice...

Sincerely,

The Fashion Treasure Hunter

I dare you...

For those who know me, you all know that I am obsessed with finding great deals, whether for clothes or decorations for my house.  I am pretty darn obsessed with my local Goodwill store.  I will be straight up and tell you that fashion is not my thing.  I'm not a fashion diva by any means.  Anything I do know is mostly because of my students and my lovely sister (check out her blog at: theclothingmenu.com).  What I do know are great deals and great finds.  Goodwill rocks my world because whenever you enter the store, you know you are on a treasure hunt!  You get that high of not only finding an awesome product (shirt, shoes, or even dresser or picture frame), but knowing that you walked out of the store with only having spent a few dollars on the product.  For all of you that are shaking your head - don't underestimate Goodwill.  If you have time, you can find so many useful things at the store.

So this all leads me here: starting up a fashion blog.  I never would have thought to write a blog about fashion but times-are-a-changin and I'm deciding to show the world that you can definitely look stylish and save a few bucks while you are at it!

I leave you with a dare...a dare to check out your local Goodwill or thrift store to go on your fashion treasure hunt!

Sincerely,
The Fashion Treasure Hunter

PS.  My first fashion find that I'd like to show you all - my profile picture is me (and a random ol' man) wearing an Arden B dress that I purchased at my local Goodwill store for $9.99 plus a 10% discount leaving me with a total of $8.99.  Yesssahhh!