Showing posts with label thrifty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thrifty. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

dumpster diving.

yes, literally.

it all started when i was little. my mom & i were living in portland, she’d just severely injured her back, & we were moving. we needed boxes.

and those portland dumpsters had all the boxes we needed. so there i went…dumpster diving at the tender age of 6.

my skills have continued to develop. and despite a short break during the peak of my hormonal-i’m-too-cool-for-my-shorts teenaged years, i’m still pretty good at it.

so good at it, in fact, that during my run on monday afternoon i eagle-eye spotted a neighbors garbage can teeming with magazines. and i really happen to love magazines—just not when i have to buy them. i’ll take ‘em free from the airplane, leftover from the hospital, and yes, even old from my neighbors garbage.

i told jon what i was going to do:

skype conversation 04.05.10

he wasn’t very happy about it. mostly because he thinks i’m kind of weird anyways (doesn’t everybody?). and mostly because my parents live in a nice neighborhood—trash digging isn’t exactly kosher.

{and by the way, that is exactly how our conversations go: type one sentence –> disconnected –> type another sentence –> disconnected –> type to myself –> i am frozen on jon’s screen –> disconnected –> hang up.}

well. i did go. korryn & i went on a stealth mission. we even turned our car lights off. turns out, the garbage can belonged to her friend. and her friend’s mom was looking out the window the whole time. sweet.

but i got what i wanted.

garbage digging magazines little did i know that i’d be learning about rainbow quilts, avacado green, & wood paneling from 1975.

magazinesfromgarbage.001magazinesfromgarbage.004 magazinesfromgarbage.002 magazinesfromgarbage.003

…i suppose i could say the same thing about dumpster diving as they did about smoking back in the day…

it’s only natural.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

thrifty: the embellished sweater

so wayyy back around veteran's day, i took a trip to our friendly Value Village. they were having a 50% of sale (on everything!!) & i just knew there'd be treasures waiting (you know, sort of like you know how eating 5 cupcakes will make your jeans tighter...).


when i go to thrift stores, i always look through the jackets, the blazers, the skirts, the dresses, & the sweaters. and the sweaters were a gold mine :) (well, okay, so were the jackets...& the dresses...more to come on thrifting methods & finds).

we (sister #1 & i) happened upon this plain cream-colored sweater from Ann Taylor. aside from the slightly worn & falling-off buttons, she was perfect.

korryn sweater.001

and at $3.50, the price wasn't too shabby either.

sister #1 just happened to have a birthday shortly after. so i made some flowers using this tutorial, & made some more flowers using this tutorial...

korryn sweater.004


then i reinforced the buttons & washed the sweater...

korryn sweater.002

and ended up with this little treasure.

korryn sweater.003

the flowers are removable for friendly washing--i attached them to a large piece of stiffened linen & sewed on three pins.

korryn sweater.005

and now, thanks to the $3.50 i spent, i'm a bit obsessed with making these.

would you like to see more of them? ...okay

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