Ding! Dong! The wicked witch is dead...

I am not usually a fashion blogger...but what the heck why not?! Pardon the bathroom pic...I took it at my grandparent's house, I have seemed to misplaced my camera in all the moving. When I walked in my mom told me that my shoes reminded her of the Wicked Witch of the West....funny because I had started watching The Wizard of Oz today....not like I haven't seen it a billion times before. When my sister was a toddler she LOOOOVED The Wizard of Oz. She wore our first copy on VHS out(yes VHS' were still around)...so I know every word...to the entire movie...any ways back to my clothes.

Necklace: Yokefellow $3
Cardigan: Merona- thrifted at Value Villiage $4
Strapless Dress: Merona thrifted at Goodwill $4.99 (brand new with tags)
Bangles: assorted from Yokefellow and Walmart $8
Tights: George brand @ Walmart $5?
Booties: Cato $19.99

In the next year I hope to do more "fashion" blogs- mainly to show how thrift store items do not have to look like thrift store items.  Stay tuned! XOXO ~Jess

I never thought I would....

....find a dress form thrifting...but I did yesterday. I was so excited although she doesn't look the best but I see the potential. :) I may keep her in my craft room at home or I might take her to the shop to display outfits...I haven't decided. I will post pics later!    <3 Jess

Ritzy B*tch

Yep that's what Chris called me last night.

We invaded Gastonia to go thrifting at Value Village and Goodwill. Chris usually has good luck when we go to Value Village and boy did he have good luck...he ended up getting 4 pairs of work pants, Haggar no less, we can't even find one pair here in his size because he is so tall much less 4. He was in heaven...I totally turned him into my shopping buddy which is fine by me...he's good company and very honest when it comes to my clothing. He even scored a BRAND NEW pair of loafers. NEVER BEEN WORN, STILL IN THE BOX from Johnston and Murphy..I had never heard of them but we liked them and they were $20...when we got out to the truck I looked them up online...they were still selling those shoes...for $189...SCORE one for Chris! But enough about him...back to me being ritzy. I got a Wilson's Leather rabbit fur coat. I have been lusting after fur coats for awhile and this one just spoke to me..it was calling my name...it would have been a shame to just leave it hanging there...so I grabbed it and took it home with me for $30.

I put it on last night and I just felt so great in it...even if it was only rabbit..made me feel like a million bucks.

I am no tennis shoe girl....I always wear boots, heels, flats or flip flops...never tennis shoes but I picked up a very good looking pair of Nike Shocks....Chris and I have decided to start walking in the evenings and on our days off together and I thought these would work for awhile until I am ready to invest in a really good pair. 

Well until next time XOXOX ~Jess <3

How Much Was My Outfit?

I like to play a game with my mom and ask her to guess how much my outfit cost. Some times she is right sometimes she is wrong but it's all in fun.  As we ALL know I love thrifting. Its like an addiction to find the best deals..its a rush...I love being able to walk away knowing I have several hundred dollars worth of clothing and only paid $50. But I do limit myself. I find great stuff all the time and many times I do not buy it. I ask myself "Is this really me or do I just like it because its here and name brand?" "How many times will I actually wear this?" then I rationalize it like Becky Bloomwood in the Shopaholic Series...if you haven't read it...go read it..like now. I'll wait..anyways I do try to stick with my own personal style( I am so glad to have the full use of my closet now that we have moved), I honestly can not go into a store and feel good about paying retail for something for myself because I know I can get the same thing at a thrift store! People donate gently used BRAND name clothing all the time. Yes there is a lot of junk, stained and hoely items but then you find the gems in the junk and it makes everything oh so much better. I have been told from others that when they go to thriftstores they do not find anything. Well some days it is like that. There have been days I go and I don't buy anything, other days I rack up. Just look. Be patient. Stick to your personal style and buy things you truely love. I do not look through every single rack but I look at the racks and look for things I like such as colors and prints. Sometimes they are great sometimes it not so much.

  The outfit I am wearing today just makes me feel like me and I spent $17 on it. Wish I could take a pic to share but I will describe:

Green Madison 3/4  length swing jacket : $2 -Salvation Army(local)
Black bandage tank: $10 (new at walmart)
Old Navy Jeans: $3- Goodwill (Shelby)
Bitten kitten heels: $3- Goodwill (Shelby)
Total: $17


Is it odd that I remember how much I pay for things and where I got them? I didn't think so!

I have been toying around with the idea to open up an ebay boutique for  year and half but I do not think that is where I need to be...I have thought about opening a store up in the local flea market and I will probably follow through with that soon but for now I have a small resale rack at my mom's cleaners and it does well...just have to get the right people to come in. I always thought the woman picked up and dropped off the dry cleaning but not the case, mostly men come in so this is not the best situation but it costs me no money to have them hang here. But the big dream would to have my own resale shop. Not only dealing with apparel  but home accessories and furniture.   Ah I can dream can't I? I guess I have blabbed on enough...til next time XOXO ~Jess

Home Trends

While we are still moving some things in I do have a few projects up my sleeve. A few months ago we bought a "new" dining room table from Habitat for $75 but it had no chairs. I didn't like the windsor chairs that our previous table included so I knew I wasn't going to reuse them. We discussed using different chairs for  an eclectic feel. I was all on board with that until I went out to our building at our former house. Our landlord had cleaned it out and left what she didn't want, Chris was going to haul off the leftover stash but he hadn't had a chance to do so. I found 4 chairs that were probably from the 70's and have a little modern feel..but they are UGGGGGGGGLLLLYYY. The chrome is rusted, the padding is orange vinyl and the seats were cream. I looked at them and thought...HEYYYY these would be cute with our rustic table (of course remodeled). I knew to get Chris on board I would have to show him a visual so off to Pinterest I go!

Our table <3

I found a few ideas, he agreed, we dug one chair out and brought it to our table and I knew it would be perfect.

inspiration  

 I do not have a picture of our actual chairs but I plan on changing the fabric to gray....painting the plastic white and the legs I am changing to Oil Rubbed Bronze(ORB). I will post pics as soon as I start working on the project.

Speaking of pinterest...I have already done several projects from there and I did another when we started decorating the livingroom. I had two midsize bookcases that I had NO clue where to put them, because of their size, they were awkward to place. While perusing on pinterest I saw something I knew I  could easily do. It was a couch encased with bookshelves!  Here is my version :)

bookcases :)

 

 

Stay tuned for more photos!  XOXO~Jess

PSST: The green sailboat painting is down and replaced with our photo collage.
Table Inspiration link here

Beetlegeuse Beetlegeuse Beetlegeuse

Our new curtains looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie...which makes me super happy! I just realized a few weeks ago that our kitchen color is actually almost identical of The Maitland's kitchen in Beetlejuice. Anyways...I got the idea for our curtains from pinterest- the most awesome site that ever existed. Seriously. First I tried paint...and failed miserably  so this afternoon I bought fresh curtains, two yards of fabric and heat bond. For under $25 I made some uber fabulous curtains...if I do say so myself. Take a look!

I die. I love them so much....and it makes me love this picture even more that Chris is sitting in front of them. <3
Back to the curtains....I only used two narrow panels because the windows are so gorgeous I do not want to hide them and we live off the road so its not like people will be peeping in here. Have you guys made anything from pinterest? Share!! :) Till next time XOXOXO ~Jess :)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

I am working on our curtains for the living room and it is a looong process of painting.. one panel down...one to go *sigh*

Inspiration

Tomorrow I will post photos of what I did. Till then XOXOX ~Jess

Working on no sleep..

Chris and I moved a few more things into the house last night and actually stayed there. I am so glad we are finally able to enjoy the house instead of laboring in it. We had originally planned to move a little more tonight and then Wednesday move the remainder but mama called to tell me it is suppose to rain alll day Wednesday, so her and The Captain will be helping us tonight to get it ALL.. YAY for help! :) 

I did get a little bit done last night...I have the bathroom kinda cleaned up and I have started to decorate it. It is coming along nicely. I was digging in my linens box and came across a shower curtain I had kinda forgot about haha. I had bought it at Goodwill(shocker) and put it up to go into our bathroom...I think it goes nicely in there and it ties everything together. :) 

I am still going to bring in some vintage nautical prints and other things to bring the room together. The bathroom is really my favorite room in the house. 

Till next time XOXOX ~Jess

I'm Moving On....and other ramblings

Reader Beware: This is a long and pointless blog just to let me brag about our new house....hehe

Yep...I'm moving on to our new house! Woohoo! I really should say we're moving on but with Chris working 60+ hours a week he doesn't have time or the energy to move us so I have stepped up and finished doing the touch ups in the house and actually started our moving process Saturday. Let me tell ya...moving alone sucks! Especially since I was driving his F350.....most of you probably know I'm short(5'4")...so when I have to climb up in to the truck bed...I basically have to jump to get up, which makes it super hard to load the truck up. He told me not to get anything I could know pick up over my head which I wouldn't attempt to any ways, but it even though I could pick up the items it was still super hard to get on the truck. Most of you might not know this but I live at the top of a bad neighborhood. They mainly keep to themselves but it's still not the best situation, so I had to keep my front door open and carry my belongings out to our yard and just prayed no crack head came walking up to steal anything(such as our dvd collection) or walk in on me.  Anyways I got everything on to the truck then hauled my butt up in the bed and rearranged so nothing would fly off as I was driving...I am not the best mover I am positive Chris could have gotten tons more on but I was not taking any chances. I got to the new house and started moving our stuff in...not worried a bit about our things being stolen this time....I adore our new neighborhood!  We(together) will be moving more of our stuff in  the upcoming week and hopefully get to take pictures of the train wreck of a house along the way.


I have been posting mobile photos of before and afters on facebook but my favorite room in the entire house is also the room that was almost a deal breaker...the bathroom. The before picture really does not do the bathroom justice on just how bad it was compared to the rest of the house. The house was built in the 1950's and besides painting and some carpet the house had not been updated...at all. But in all fairness the bathroom wasn't THAT horrible, I have seen far worse in houses much newer than ours. I just really had no clue what I was gonna do with powder blue tile. To our relief Chris' dad, uncles and aunt said they would pay to have it updated...whew...I knew they had good tastes and I was not worried one bit about what they would pick for us...they did one better....they left the choices to us! They did pick out the counter and the vinyl flooring because it was cheap but very good quality...neither of which I had a problem with...I had actually seen the flooring(at habitat) and liked it before it was even bought(great minds think alike I suppose). So with the handy men in place the basically tore out the old fake tile and replace it with new(fake..shh that's our secret) tile around the tub and repaired the drywall in the rest of the room so it could be painted. I am avid follower of Younghouselove.com (seriously they are amazing) and they had posted a photo of a photo a while back that just stuck with me...and I decided to take that image and draw inspiration( I really LOVED the color). I talked to Christopher about painting our tiny(but bigger than our current) bathroom a BOLD color....let me tell you he was not on board with this idea AT ALL. I even showed him the photo...he was still not impressed...I talked and talked and talked some more about this awesome bathroom until he was like OK enough...(we have an agreement if we both do not agree it does not go into our house...actually the same one YHL has but I did not know until later..ha!) He finally agreed to look at paint swatches in the space (one small step for jess.....one giant leap for chris..hehe pun was completely intended..). I stole gathered up a bunch of paint chips from Lowes and we both were really attracted to all three colors on one chip...I had first thought lets do the lighter one....he agreed...but I got to thinking....if we want to go bold....lets go BOLD. So we came to the conclusion just go with the second one...the one we really really loved. Which I am SOOOOO glad we did.

The Inspiration

Before

Progress

 

 

 

 

 

I plan on making it vintage nautical themed ...since, you know, I love all things ocean and of course vintage. :)...BTW I know the progress photo it was still unfinished but we are finished with this room...the only room that needs to be worked on is the kitchen .

I think I have rambled on enough I will leave you for now..until next time XOXO ~Jess