T-Shirt Surgery FTW

I used to be skinny, and now I am not.

Back in my itty-bitty days, I amassed a collection of rock band babydoll tees I haven't worn for years because I'm not an x-small in juniors anymore. Plus, I'm over the babydoll style.

Give me something loose so my pits can breathe and and my muffin top isn't popping out for everyone to see!

Not wanting to see my band tees go to waste (and too cheap to spend money on more), I long ago hatched a plan to repurpose them and finally made good on it this evening.

For my first project, I snipped away at my Ramones "Road to Ruin" babydoll I've had for over 10 years.

Yea, my camera phone sucks a big one.

This picture from January 2008 probably shows one of the last times I comfortably fit the tee. (That skirt, too.)

This outfit was for The Secretions' "That Kind of Girl" video shoot.

I cut the graphic into a patch. My paper slicer was handy for this.

I then hand-stitched the patch on this awesome black cold-shoulder tee I treated myself to for my birthday. At $7.99 on clearance from Delia's, I consider that a score. I got one in teal, too.

 And, voila!

To christen my new favorite tee, I wore it to The Dollyrots show at The Blue Lamp.

Because I'm Awesome!

These semi-skinny jeans were also a birthday present to myself. They have a rhinestone button and were $10 from Ross. Once I got them home, I realized they are a little loose on my legs for skinny jeans. The Ross mirror tricked me, I guess. Still, $10 for Lee jeans I've seen at department stores for $30+? No complaints.

And yes, that's our bathroom trash on a table. It's the only way to keep the dog out of it. Isn't it cute? My mom decorated it with craft foam to match my shower curtain. It looks identical to the one JC Penny sold for a ridiculous amount. The thrifty and crafty genes are strong in my family.

A Mad Men Kind of Birthday

I had given up on maintaining this blog, but Mad Men has brought me back. My Mad Men birthday party, that is.

I love themed parties. I love dressing up. Since I was a kid, I've felt like I was born in the wrong era. I drool over '50s and '60s cars. I have an addiction to vintage-style polka dot dresses. I know it's so trendy to embrace the vintage style, especially with the growing popularity of rockabilly, but I was pretty much born this way.

Planning this party was half the fun.

Wardrobe

Looking in my closet, two dresses jumped out at me. I ultimately decided against this sailor dress because it was more Peggy Olson at the office, and I was going more for Betty Draper hosting a cocktail party. Peggy has brains, but ice-queen Betty has style.

Menu

I would have loved to go all-out with the food, but we had a miniscule budget. We stuck with classic finger foods from the early '60s. Pigs in a blanket was the most hearty appetizer. Deviled eggs, chips and dip, veggies and dip, cheese and crackers, and jello rounded out the menu. I wanted to do fondu, using our awesome fondu set, but the menu was already stretching our budget.

Guests ate on our wedding china -- only the second time it's ever been used! And, of course, we drank from martini glasses and chain smoked. Well, OK, we drank generic 7-Up with maraschino cherries and pineapple chunks, and smoked candy cigarettes from Candy Heaven in Old Sacramento.

Memories

I smoked from my Gramma's rhinestone-encrusted cigarette holder, which was so very Breakfast at Tiffany's. I found the cigarette holder when I was packing up Gramma's apartment after she died. It was fitting because not only did Gramma smoke like a chimney during my childhood, but when she got her smokes and lottery tickets at the 7-11 down the street, she let me pick out candy, and I often picked out candy cigarettes.

Games

We played charades with clues relevant to the Mad Men era. In the excitement and laughter of the game, I forgot to take pictures. Everyone failed pretty miserably at this '60s Ad Slogans and Tagline quiz I adapted from Oprah.com, of all places.
 
Decorations

Speaking of ads, I decorated with print ads from the era, including some used on the show. I focused on Sterling & Cooper accounts, including Lucky Strike, Heineken, Belle Jolie and Kodak.

Much of the decor in my house already suited the era. I covered up anything that didn't with curtains and sheets. I littered the fireplace mantel with literature from the time and played '60s tunes on our record player.

Photo Booth

I used white lace polka dot curtains to turn our Ramones wall into a backdrop for photos.

By the end of the night, we had killed four packs of candy cigarettes and drank way too many mocktails in true Mad Men style.

I Have a Problem

A shoe problem.

When I went to put away my new birthday shoes, I realized I do own a pair of black flats. I had forgotten all about them because I never wear them because they're pretty uncomfortable.

'

That's my shoe closet, minus one shelf for slippers and sandals. 

The bottom right pair be hubby's dress hoes.

They're Steve Maddens from Famous Footwear that I got a killer deal on -- $10, regularly $40.

I know compared to a lot of girls, I don't own that many shoes. But, considering I really only wear a few pairs on a regular basis, most of my shoes just gather dust from sitting so long. I have a couple pairs I've yet to wear out of the house. I just love shoes.

I don't regret my new purchase because the Madden Girl shoes kill my feet, and the studs scrape the tops of my toes, but I can't believe I completely spaced that I did in fact own a similar pair. I think my next shoe-related purchase will be full gel inserts. I really need them. Cute shoes hurt, even Chucks.

Happy Birthday to Me. I'm Old Now.

I'm officially in my late 20s. I'm 27 today. I did not make my weight-loss goal, but with the stress of the last couple weeks, I didn't expect to.

I haven't had time to post as I'm trying to write more for my clients to make up for my husband's unemployment running out. The Sacramento job market sucks, in case you hadn't heard.

We live in a kind of a disaster of house -- a house I love, nonetheless -- and have had some major plumbing problems while husband does a DIY remodel on the master bathroom. Chaos is a good word to describe life lately.

I really wanted to treat myself to a few things for my birthday with my birthday money, but since we're in a crazy tight bind, I really held back and only got two things have been on my list for a long time:

black ballet flats, on sale for $11 at Payless

new sunglasses, because I lost my last pair in the ocean.

Payless has everything buy one, get one half off, so my sunglasses were $5.

I found the most AMAZING 50s cat-eye sunglasses with rhinestones at Icing,

but they were $14, and I couldn't bring myself to spend that much. 

Maybe some day ...

I was at the mall to see Tangled. It was pretty cute. The Regal/UA theater at Sunrise gets movies after they have been out for awhile, so they are only $3.50 during the week and $3.75 on the weekends. They get a lot children's movies. It's a great way for a family to save money.

Hair Tales

It's March 1st. That means I turn 27 in nine days. Ahhhh!

I often change my hair for my birthday, and I'm totally unhappy with my hair now, but not sure what to do with it. I recently cut my bangs, and went against my instincts and snipped-snipped where I shouldn't have. I know the rules of bang-cutting, and I broke them. I'm at a loss. The color is fine. The bangs are horrendous. Much worse than the picture.

Here's my hair on Valentine's Day. 

The bangs a tiny bit longer now. 

Haircuts of past birthdays:

Last year, Great Clips cut my hair, and Aaron helped me dye it.
For the cut, I used a Katy Perry picture for inspiration.
I love her style. I just can't stand her when she opens her mouth.

 

For my 25th birthday, 

I sported bangs I could wear straight or sweep to the side 

with hair tapered in the front. 

I was my go-to blond color.

I celebrated turning 24 with side-swept bangs and a lighter auburn color. 

And struck another dorky pose, apparently.

I didn't get a special haircut for my 23rd birthday 

because I was growing out my hair for my wedding.

My 22nd birthday was the year that started the birthday transformations. 

Up until that year, I had had long, blond hair for a long time.

I dyed my hair a dark auburn, 

Great Clips added layers in front and side-swept bangs.  

Rory Gilmore's new college 'do was my hair inspiration.

Added bonus: Silly artsy photo.

SUGGESTIONS?

If I pin back the sides of my bangs, they look better. It's going to take a long time to grow out the hair that should have never been bangs. I shouldn't cut my bangs in the middle of the night. Lesson learned.

Witherspoon Wins Best Dressed ...

In my book, anyway. I didn't watch the red carpet coverage, so I'm only basing this from the dresses I saw onstage at the Oscars, but she was stunning from head to toe.

She reminded me of one of my favorite vintage Barbie dolls.

See more Reese at the source: Just Jared.

Am I the only one that thought it looked like Halle Berry had sideburns? She was still gorgeous. But I couldn't stop staring at the sideburns when she was onstage.

I don't have a lot to say about the Oscars. It was fairly boring, per usual. The Inception intro was entertaining. I thought Anne Hathaway was charming, while James Franco fell flat. At least my girl Natalie Portman won. I love her career choices.

If you're interested in owning any of the films nominated for Best Picture, you could shop at my store. Just sayin'.

The Thrill of Thrifting

Thrifting:
refers to the act of shopping at a thrift store, flea market, garage sale, or a shop of a charitable organization, usually with the intent of finding interesting items at a cheap price. -Wikipedia.org

Thrifting is like searching for buried treasure. The thrill is in the hunt and the surprises you find along the way. I usually thrift with a specific goal in mind, but it's also fun to thrift for the sake of thrifting. I first got into thrifting with my best friend Nicki when we were around 14 years old. Sometimes our good friend Patrick would join us in the hunt for cheap, cheap treasure. Patrick is no longer with us, but thrifting with him is one of my favorite memories.

Because of the special hunt that comes with thrifting, the things I've collected from thrift stores tend to hold special meaning for me. There's the vinyl copy of London Calling I found at the back of a used hippie store in Old Roseville (the only part of Roseville I find remotely tolerable). It was the first Clash album I ever bought, and there's something special about hearing The Clash in its original raw and pure form. Then there's my collection of bendy fabric flowers. My husband found these flowers in various colors on our first thrifting adventure very early into our relationship and bought them for me as the first flowers of any type he ever bought a girl (and that's not for lack of girls). Throughout the years, my collection has grown as my husband continues to find the flowers at thrift stores. I even have flowers four feet tall!

My husband and I braved the cold, wind and rain on Sunday for a trip down the thrift-strip of Fair Oaks and Manzanita. The thrift stores in Carmichael are great because a lot of really rich people live in the area and donate their clothing, but the stores keep the prices low to serve the varied community. You can usually find the same high-end designer jeans at Thrift Town that you'll find at that overpriced trendy used clothing shop.

I entered through Thrift Town's doors and wiped my feet on the soaked mat with one very specific goal: to find a black jean jacket to replace my beloved one that mysteriously disappeared. My 25th birthday is just around the corner, and that's what I really wanted. After coming up empty-handed at Country Club Mall on Friday, Thrift Town was the next logical step.

I weaved my way through the crowded aisles and headed straight to the wall of women's jackets. I reached my destination and there it was: a black jean jacket appearing to be my size, just waiting for me at the end of the rack. Not only did the tag confirm it was my size, but it was a pink tag, and pink tags were half off for the day. I tried it on and stared at myself in the worn mirror. It wasn't as stylish and not quite as perfect as my first jean jacket had been, but it was in like-new condition, cost just $2 and was very close to what I had envisioned.


I held onto the jacket and searched the racks some more, just in case my original jacket had somehow gone through a vortex and ended up at Thrift Town. I didn't find my old jacket or its doppelganger, but I did find another little black jacket that I had to try on it.

This jacket was lightweight, a crisper black and very stylish, although made out of a polyester blazer-like material. It was only $4. I took both home as early birthday presents and couldn't be happier about my good fortune.

I did have one smaller goal in mind when shopping: finding a sexy formal dress for my "forever young" birthday party where everyone dresses up as what as children they wished to be when they grew up. I had many lofty goals as a child, and the job I chose to dress up for involves such a dress.

I found the perfect dress after sifting through a long, color-coded rack at the Goodwill on Manzanita. When I came across this very formal, backless, slinky, satiny black number with rhinestones filling in the naked space between the breasts, my husband and I thought it would be too big, but I had to try it on just the same.

At first my upper half drowned in the dress, but then I realized that unless the dress had been designed for Anna Nicole, it was missing a clasp to pull in the breast of the dress. Once I held the straps in their proper place, the dress hugged my curves like it was meant to, and the dress fell to the perfect spot resting on my feet. Admittedly, I don't have the flat tummy a celebrity wearing the dress on the red carpet would have, but the dress made me feel like a star even with the extra pudge, and when I coyly stepped out of the dressing room for my husband to see, his eyes lit up and he broke out into his giant "my wife is hot" grin. The ladies at the cash register oohed and awwed over the dress and told me how stunning I will be in it. I can’t wait to unveil my $5 dress at my party.

R.I.P. Dear Jacket

This is an ode to my black jean jacket. I have finally accepted that it is gone and never coming back. I know I shouldn't care so much for an item of clothing, but I do.

I love clothes. My husband can't keep his clothes in our bedroom because my clothes take up the whole closet. And that's just shirts, dresses, skirts and pants. I have a five-drawer dresser full of bed shirts, shorts, more skirts, and my delicates. Then there's the hope chest full of pajama bottoms, sweats, and velour pants. Like I said, I love clothes.

I also love shopping. I relish in getting a great deal. I am the best when it comes to buying quality clothes at the most amazing price. I was recently at Gottschalks and picked out some clothes for my mom to buy me for my upcoming 25th birthday. I found the cutest blue and white polka dot sun dress for only $3. Yes, you read right, $3 at a nice department store. It's a true skill I have, this shopping I do.

I can still picture the day I met my jacket. For some time I had coveted a black Dickies jean jacket, but I wasn't willing to shell out $50 for a little jean jacket. I am thrifty to boot.

Then on a sunny May day in 2004, May 30th, to be exact, I went to the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee with my mother and brother. We've been going ever since I was in a stroller. We always enter the festivities through the Downtown Plaza mall. My mom and I often get distracted by the stores, driving my older brother insane. I stopped in at Copeland because I had $21 credit there. As soon as I walked in, I spotted a clearance rack. And there it was, just waiting for me to find: a Fox Racing brand black woman's jean jacket, size small! I tried it on. It was the perfect fit. In 2004, I was the tiniest little thing and this jacket was just made for my petite Audrey Hepburn like silhouette. Even better, it was marked down from $60 to just $30. With my $21 credit, I only had to shell out $9 for the perfect jacket. I was in love. I could care less that it wasn't Dickies brand.

I wore my jacket on so many cool summer nights. I believe I wore it on my first date with my husband that June. I decorated it with my collection of buttons of my favorite bands, movies, and cute quotes like, "Kiss me, I'm straight edge." Sometimes I safety-pinned patches of my favorite bands on the back, like The Clash and Anti-Flag. My little jean jacket was perfect for shows in the winter. I hate having to hold a heavy jacket when I'm trying to enjoy live music, so my lightweight jacket was ideal for the situation. I was wearing my jacket on June 19, 2005, when my husband proposed on the one year anniversary of our first date. A lot of memories are wrapped up in that jacket.

Whenever it came time to wash my jacket, I'd carefully remove all my buttons before tossing the jacket into the washing machine. After the jacket was again clean, I'd sit on the floor, with all my buttons spread out, making sure to put every button back on in its exact place. I am very particular about these things.

Then, I lost track of the jacket. The last I remember of it, I had set it aside to wash. This was at least a year ago. I remember searching for the jacket in the laundry and on top of the dryer in the garage of my duplex where I sometimes set aside clothes I had sorted. I didn't come across it then, but I figured it would show up soon enough. Then I remember starting the search over again this summer. I looked everywhere and it was still nowhere to be found. We moved in June, so I thought for sure it would show up then. It didn't, but I was too busy setting up a new house and working a relatively new job that I didn't have time to spend too much time worrying about this jacket I love. Last night I went in search, once more, of my little black jean jacket, and also my Adeline Records zip up hoodie. I found my sweatshirt, in a place I'd looked at least twice before. But still, no beloved jacket. I went through my husband's clothes, even searching his dirty laundry. I found my blue socks and red socks, but no black jacket.

It's forever lost. Hope is gone. I'm grieving for a jacket. It doesn't matter that I'm more than 20 pounds heavier than when I first bought the jacket and that it probably would no longer fit. I would have kept that jacket forever, for the memories. The pants or the shirts I wore on my first date or the night my husband proposed? Those aren't special. It was all about the jacket: The jacket I wore when the hot Sacramento days turned into the cool nights I spent at the park with my soul mate enjoying the simple thrill of being pushed on a swing while discussing our love for The Ramones.

I smiled so brightly wearing that jacket once I stopped hyperventilating and said, "Yes" to Aaron's marriage proposal.


The jacket was just right for window shopping at the mall with my best friends.



In college, I'd slip on the jacket to walk my dog outside my apartment complex before heading to bed for the night.


I wore that jacket to so many great shows. I specifically remember taking these pictures after Danny Secretion's birthday show in 2006.

Luckily I still have my buttons. I've lost many of them throughout the years, but I don't think there were any buttons on jacket when it disappeared from my life. But tonight I'm mourning for a jacket. At a time when I should be blogging about how inspired I was to see Barack Obama become the 44th president and what I hope to see accomplished in an Obama administration, I'm thinking about a jacket I found in a sports store on the way to the jazz festival.

Wherever you are little jacket, thanks for the memories. We had some good times together. I'll never forget you.