Monday, March 18, 2013

Homesick/Thrifting Binge

Hey, yinz. So, work has been stressful, wedding planning has been stressful, and life overall has been stressful as of late.

Thrift store shopping has been a longtime outlet of mine. You just never know what you may find. On top of the extra stress, I've been missing home a lot. I miss friends, places, just knowing a place so well. Pittsburgh is truly home and probably always will be.

So lately, I've been doing a ton of thrift store shopping. And I feel like when I miss Pittsburgh and I'm shopping, many random Pittsburgh items just show up out of nowhere that I LOVE. I might have a little bit of a thrift store addiction, but at least the outlet is relatively cheap. When I was in high school, it was the only thing I could really afford, so I made sure to have unique, quirky t-shirts. I guess it stems from that, except now, it's all about pairing the thrift store finds with other tasteful items I paid more than a handful of change for. Here are some gems that I found lately, over the last month or so.



Mark deserves credit for this one. He found this pierogie race t-shirt the other day for 88 cents while we were home over the weekend. The t-shirt is in my size. (Thank God) Being Polish, raised on pierogies, and with Pittsburgh having a strange obsession with the dumplings, it made me happy. It's from the Pittsburgh Pirates 6th inning goofy race they always do.



Mugs are another thing I love to collect. I've been trying to cut back since we don't have room for any more, but I couldn't pass this one up. I found this in Lima when I was particularly down a few weekends ago. It made me smile. I think it cost 72 cents.



Here's a dress I found in Columbus a few weeks ago with a crazy awesome print! 4 bucks! I think it does need a little bit of work, maybe with the neck line and the length. I already cut out the 80's shoulder pads, but I think this will be a great, fun work dress once I fix some tweeks.

This last one isn't a thrift store find, but just a general AWESOME find.



Sugar skulls dress! It's so cute, I love it. I got it from H&M while I was home over the weekend. It was $25... really not much for a dress, but it sounds like a lot compared to what I paid for the rest of this stuff. I think I'll pair it with some cute tights and a cardi. Probably not a great work print, but I don't care!

There are so many other things I've bought that weren't pictured, including a wonderful brown fuzzy sweater, and some nick-knack type stuff.

Sorry I haven't posted more. I'll be sure to do so soon!

PS Thank my new iPhone for the photos. Made this post go so much quicker, instead of carrying around my Nikon and uploading them to the computer. Woo technology.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Look guys, I'm wearing a dress!

Dresses: I love buying them. I feel as though I can never have enough. Unfortunately, as my fiance Mark has repeatedly pointed out to me, don't I have enough of those? The thing is... I don't wear them hardly enough. Why?

I'm not really sure. I think there are many reasons. In the past, I've bought clothes on impulse, not thinking of occasions where I could where things, or what to pair them with. Now it's even tougher finding clothes that are work appropriate, since I pretty much live at work. Woof.

So, I found an awesome, versatile dress at TJ Maxx over the weekend that I loved. Hooray! Despite some problems, I was going to wear this thing, dammit. (and I did wear it to work today!)

Sorry, I have a bad habit of making a goofy face in every photo that's taken of me. 

So the near crisis: I found the LAST dress at the store, which happened to be in my size. I couldn't zip the awkward side zipper in the dressing room, but figured I could buy it and and have Mark help me with it when I got home. After 20 plus minutes of struggling back at the apartment, nope. That sucker would not budge. It wasn't that I was too big for the dress, but the zipper was malfunctioning. So I dusted off my sewing machine (quite literally, it had been in storage at my parents' for awhile) and decided on a complete impulse that I was going to give this awesome dress a functioning zipper. After watching a few video tutes, I used a quilting needle as a seam ripper to take out the existing zipper (NEVER AGAIN) and pinned/sewed in the new one.

The end result isn't perfect or even beautiful by any means, but it works, and that's all I really care about.



I'm just glad it all worked out and I was able to wear it. I think I was particularly inspired to try out dresses again after reading over some frock-friendly style blogs over the weekend... like this one and this one!

I mean, HOW CUTE are these buttons?

Hopefully, I'll be able to bring some of the other dresses I have into rotation. Here's to having more varied style beyond scarves, all black and polka dots! (More on that later. At least I eliminated two out of three of my over played style habits on this outfit.)

Dress: TJ Maxx, Tights: Modcloth, Brown Leather Shoes: Thrifted

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Hello and Welcome

Hi there. I'm Kate. From a young age, I've been a fashion prodigy.

Don't lie. You're jealous of the Minnie Mouse sunglasses.
KIDDING. Although I'd love to dig up those sunglasses and wear them if they still fit on my face.

I am a 20-something living as writer in Lima, Ohio. I was born and raised near Pittsburgh. The town where I currently live, (Lima, pronounced like the bean, not the Peruvian capital), is without any major college population or even a Target nearby, and it's a pretty drastic change for me.

This is more what I look like now:

FYI: I have a scarf addiction.

I can't say small town living the worst possible thing ever for a 20-something, but it's difficult at times. The vast majority of my friends are spread throughout the country. Even the closest ones are at home, nearly 250 miles away. However, I do have some great things going to for me. My fiance, Mark, lives with me. He's my rock and my best friend that gets me through tough days. And of course, I have a killer job, writing general assignment and health stories for the local newspaper. Despite deadline pressure, I meet awesome new people everyday and talk to them and write about them for a living. It's a pretty sweet gig. Oh yeah. I'm also planning a wedding for this fall. :)

So here, I want to expand those positive attributes in my life. With my free time, I want to dedicate this blog to making lemonade from lemons. (In this case, making an awesome project happen, Limanade, despite living in Lima, Ohio. Catchy, right?)

Here's to doing all the things I put off doing because I told myself I didn't have time: scanning old photos for a digital scrapbooking project, getting more inspirational with my cooking (which I already do sometimes via The Pittsburgh Kitchen), and being more creative with my style (something I've been trying to do on and off since high school). My biggest fashion inspirations probably come from Modcloth and thrift stores.

As I progress, I'll post stories and photos to keep myself motivated, and maybe even inspire others, too.