Weekend Thrift Finds

It is a beautiful fall day, top of 22 deg C and I have the clothes hanging on the line. A great opportunity for photos! Only my camera is playing up and does not seem to focus well, so I have had to do a lot of sharpening in Photoshop. Sorry that my pictures are grainy for this reason.

I have not been to a thrift store for a while because no one enjoys it as much as I do and usually I have to drag the whole family out with me. My boys hate it so they sit in the car, waiting for me while I rush through the store, looking for bargains. On Friday (the boys had a day off school) I stopped by Nami Thrift Store in Rockville - a reader asked me where I shopped. I usually like the thrift stores near Bethesda, Potomac and Rockville because a more affluent demographic lives in these areas. (Kennedy family, diplomats etc..you get the picture) So the donated items are usually pretty good finds.

I found this leather jacket in the store and there was a 10% mark down on it. It was a tad too big for me but I held on to it, thinking that if I didn't wear it, I could sell it. The tag said, 100% leather and the lining 100% polyester.

I am wearing it here today with another thrifted sweater I got from Goodwill in Rockville for $4.98 (yes, it is funny how they price them) You can see even though it is a size S, it is too big for me.

Here I am standing in my back yard. My neigbour, who is a farmer, was out in his tractor and I was hurriedly taking my picture and hoping he would not see me.

I am wearing a pair of jeans I found at the NAMI thrift store and because it was a size 2, I snapped it up at once, as size 0 and 2 are rare finds in thrift stores. It was a bit loose but I thought a belt would be fine. It was only after I took this photo below that I realized how baggy it looks on me. I don't have a lot of jeans, maybe 3 in my closet so I am holding on to these to wear to things like the boys' school and for wearing around the house.

Other things I am wearing:
Pink Sweater: Thrifted $4.98
DKNY jeans: Thrifted $2
Boots: My own, a 70% markdown from Macy's. They have lasted me 2 years.

Nude Drawing

Just practicing some figure drawing. I don't have charcoal so I used pencils.

Red Challenge

I joined a challenge on Aqua Seventy Six blog and they featured me on their blog.This is the first time I have done anything like this so it was really fun, I had to go into my closet, look through what I owned and tried to match them. I tend to just grab what is tried and tested, wear it over and over again. I am also not very good at accessorizing and lately, I have been reading some fashion blogs just to get a better idea of how to match things.

At first, I put on this red dress, which is new - remember I talked about finding a couple of stores that fit me? This red dress is from Alloy and although it is a site for teens, I thought this would be a nice dress for me to wear on a date night with my husband. I read the reviews and everyone said that it ran small. I am a size XS for their clothes and I decided to order one size up. When it arrived, I tried it out and it was very tight. I did not like the way it stretched over my top and it was so tight that it hitched up everytime I walked. I am returning it and exchanging it for a size M. Fortunately for me - everything is free to return it via mail. This is why shopping can be a trap here if I am not careful. They make it so easy!

Excuse the blurriness of the picture and the mess in my bathroom.

In the next picture, I was trying to see if I could put on a jacket - this was a thrifted Steve Madden that I got for $10 and the belt is vintage, it belonged to my mother. She threw out a whole stack of belts and I grabbed them all. My husband did not like the combination because he said it didn't seem to go together. I kind of agree but I don't have anything right now in my closet that would be suitable for the colder weather. I also lack accessories! However, I am going to take it slow with my acquisitions because I want to be thrifty about it all and not just buy blindly. In the end, I abandoned this idea for the red challenge because the dress was new (the rules are the clothes have to be thrifted or something we already own) so I submitted another one that made it to the Aqua Seventy Six blog.

Red dress: Alloy $36, get it here
Boots: Ann Klein, Zappos $49 (on sale) not sure if you can still get them.
Jacket: Steve Madden, thrifted $10
Belt: Vintage, my mother's.

I have recently started following Aqua Seventy Six, so go check them out and join in their fun challenges!

Doing Dangerous Things

Living in the USA can be very dangerous. Dangerous on my purse, that is. I have only been to retail stores again and again, only to walk away disgusted at how everytime, I can't fit into anything. I am a size 0 here and usually stores do not stock these sizes. I started going to thrift stores and buying clothes on the cheap and sewing them up to make them fit me but sometimes pulling a whole shirt or a coat apart is best left to the professionals. Sometimes I would botch up my alterations but the plus point is that I did not pay a lot for them to begin with.

I started following some blogs written by women who were considered "petite" here in the USA. In Asia, they would be normal sizes, but I read Extra Petite and Really Petite.  Through them, I discovered H&M here in the USA. Their prices are unbelievably affordable. I am a size 4 in their store! Eeeks! Forever 21 is also quite reasonably priced. Double eeeks!

Then I discovered online shopping - there are more options online than there are in the retail shops. I discovered a "Junior's" store - I am a bit embarrassed that they are for teenagers but the fit is great. Check out Alloy.  Triple eeks. Oh well, you get the idea about the eeks.  My husband has not lost his cool yet which is good.

Shopping can be incredibly cheap in the USA. For example, on Monday, I was at Forever 21 and at the back of the shop, there were these tribal sweaters reduced to 50%. The label was "I Love H81" and it must be a label from Forever 21.  It was made of cotton but it was quite thick, and would keep me warm for the Fall weather.

Not bad. I tried them on, they were a little loose but I figured I was going to wear layers underneath, so I needed it to be that. I took it to the counter and holy moley, they took off 50% off $18.99, bringing the total to about $9.00. It's almost like stealing!

Here is a picture of me wearing it.  Sorry about my stance. I need to work on how to pose, obviously. You can see how they are a little loose on the sides but I put it on outside without looking at the mirror. It is a tie around so I can tuck it in a bit more securely to get it at a better fit.

Boots: Ferragamo $40 (garage sale)
Jeans SG$20 (some HDB shop in Woodlands, Singapore)
White top: MNG RM50 (Mall in Malaysia it roughly translates to about $20)
Sweater: Forever 21 $9.00!!!  (I can't find the link to it but you might find it in the shops)

Later I will post about the other "dangerous" stuff I have been doing. purchasing.
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Designer Love

I am in a very long process of trying to decorate my house on my own and looking online for inspiration. One designer that caught my eye for her clever use of colour as well as ethnic pieces is Angela Hranowsky.  I am so inspired looking at her work and how I wish she was closer to me, I would love to hire her!

Look at this divine living room. I love everything about this room. From the colour on the wall to the beautiful bold Weinrib rug (which I covet), oh and the lighting. The brown couch is perfect for the space.

Here is another room - I love how you can seek a peek of purple on the back of the curtains.

 

And this dining room leaves me speechless. The only things I can say are "Wow" and "Oh my!" - yep, I am that eloquent when it comes to describing things. I love the fabric (David Hicks?) on the bamboo chairs, contrasting with the lovely wood of the table. I want to have a dining room like this.

 

Plum colour (look at the pendant light!)

 Drool...

Oh Ms Hranowsky, would you please come to MD for a visit??? :) 

***All pictures are from her website - please go visit it for a real feast for the eyes.

Union Jack Bed For Boy's Room

Since I am on a painting blitz, I bought these two maple twin beds at a garage sale in the spring. They sat in my garage for months, waiting to be transformed.

 I dismantled the bed, sanded all the parts. Here, I have only taken photos of the headboard, which is where most of the work is done.

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I found this really useful website teaching you how to draw a British flag accurately.

I placed it against the bed and marked out the lines. 

 It is almost finished, I just need to get some super fine brushes to paint in the lines where the bleeding from paint came through. Then I am off to sell it on Craiglist. I hope to do it before next week. Wish me luck.

Finding My Voice

I have enjoyed art as a subject in high school and we had very good teachers. I just never did it very much after high school and that was back in 1987!

With our empty walls, I thought I'd buy some art but I went to several places like West Elm. Nice art work in frames but I was shocked at the prices for merely prints. I decided that I would buy original art work there and then.

How naive I was. I contacted several artists and one whose work I loved but he lived in Australia and did not want the hassle with the shipping and insurance. I could not have afforded his art anyway, he wanted AUD$6,000 for his beautiful piece of work. Which is worth every penny, except that I didn't have those sort of pennies. :)

I thought of reproducing his work. I struggled with this for months because I was not sure of the legal implications so I talked to a lawyer who is also a friend and he said that if I did not pass on the work as the artist's or try to sell it, it was fine. Also, I trawled through websites and found that there were websites selling reproductions from masters of art - and selling them online! What is with that anyway, I cannot understand it. Is it ok to resell art from artists who are dead? If someone explained this to me, I would be grateful.


A few weeks later I bid for a piece of art on Ebay but bidding was fierce and as I was not watching it closely, at the very last moment, the art went to someone else. I was gutted. So I decided to reproduce this one. Not too happy with my version because it is too bright - the artist was Charles Levier and his colours are stark and empty but mine was a bit too pink.

Then I was inspired by Matisse. This took me 2 hours to do and it was completely FUN! It is now hanging in our powder room. Not a great picture, sorry - it is time to upgrade my iPhone!

I put them on my Facebook and I had so many positive comments that I am thinking seriously of finding my own voice so that I don't have to copy other people's work. I am planning on putting aside a time each day to paint, to find my style. Hopefully I won't have to charge so much money so that people can enjoy it and also I can get some happy returns from painting! It is something I totally enjoy, which took me by surprise.

Thanks for looking - I know copying people's work is a sensitive topic and please drop me a comment, I would be interested to hear what others think.