Thrift Store Re-Do: Floral Dress

This summer, for a grand total of $40, I bought or received enough clothes to create an entirely new wardrobe. Two giant garbage bags of hand-me-downs from friends (Thanks, Cort and Dee!) and a few thrift stores in Colorado I was set. It's now over 6 months later and I'm just getting to some of the alterations and some I've had done for months but haven't posted... until now!

The before photo is pretty awful. I apologize.

I found this "teacher dress" at an ARC in Fort Collins while Kirsten and I were visiting the lovely Molly. When I showed it to one of my most fashionable and brutally honest friends, he tried to chop it up with scissors and threatened to burn it. He said it hurt his eyes. Oh, Mikey, how I love you. When I sent him the after picture, he took it all back.

With Kirsten's "soft cardigan"

The process was shockingly simple and quick. I cut a straight line across the top just below the armpit seem, hemmed it and gathered the fabric for about 2 or 3 inches at the top. That's it!

With a tank top and belt

The only problem I've run in to is keeping it up since it's strapless. I usually either layer a tank top underneath or at a cover so I don't have to deal with constantly pulling it up. A belt makes a big difference, too. I might add straps but I like the flexibility of layering it with different things.

With my favorite cover-up-thing

So, that's all. Just thought I'd share. Tell me your thoughts and I recommend doing this with any "potentially-cute-but-ruined-by-sleeves-and-shoulder-pads" thrift store dress you can find. 

I'll try to post more re-do's soon!

The universe is broken

It is officially three days before valentine's and the universe is broken. In the past week, three different guys have absolutely blown my world and made me feel better than most characters in romantic comedies. Guys that have truly taken notice of who I am and brought out opinions, passions and ideas I almost forgot were central to my being until they asked or illustrated them for me. Three guys with rugged-looking stubble and nice builds and gut-wrenching smiles. Guys with some sort of direction or purpose or hobby that I can get excited about. Sometimes life is like this, apparently. Apparently, sometimes life is like the movies. Or better. But, if you're a rational person, you've prepared for everything but the movie romance. If you're rational, you've been cynical of every guy out there. If you're rational, you've let the romantics fall for you but you haven't let yourself get caught off guard. Ok, there was that one time. And look at how that ended. You wrote your little sonnet or swan song or eulogy or whatever that was and the right amount of beer occasionally brings it back to the surface but basically it just sucked. It sucked then it ended and then it sucked again. But that guy didn't treat you how your friends said you should be treated. But then three, not one but three, different guys show up and talk to you and treat you the way you never let yourself imagine they would. And it's terrifying and liberating and exciting and just plain wrong. The universe is broken, there is a glitch somewhere. This is not how this is supposed to go. I just wanted to get this all down before it's gone and everything goes back to normal. Crappy and comfortable normal. I don't want it to but I know that that's how it works. "This too shall pass." Yes, even this horrifying mistake of the universe itself will end, probably sooner than I would like, and I will go back to my very normal, decently aimless day-to-day life. But this happened and I marked the moment with this message. This happened. The universe broke and gave me a glimpse of what life feels like for a fictional character. Very funny, universe.

I blame the internet. I blame Valentine's Day. I blame Butch Cassidy.

New Year's Revolution- January

So far, so good people.



No pop -
Drinking water -
Smoking - 5 Days