Thursday Threads - Summer Days

I'm only a fan of summer when it's winter... and during winter I wish it was summer. But I never wish fall or spring would end! The only thing I love about summer are the belly shirts, flowers and fruits and vegetables are in season!
I really really don't like heat. I've always been sensitive to the it, and I over heat easily or get heat stroke. Being self employed this summer has been awesome, because I get to stay in the house with the swamp cooler all day.. even though the house sometimes gets up to 85 during the day, it's better than sitting in the hot car. I do love to go out in the evenings and explore. The dogs love going on walks and so do I. The river is a favorite location to explore with Sterling, we have yet to take the dogs since they don't like water.

I'm pretty proud to say that my entire outfit was thrifted. The bag cost me 1.50 but with some sewing skills and fabric glue I was able to add all sorts of lace, ribbon fringe and even pom poms. Everything down to the boots and hat are thrifted. Sterling and I are both trying to not buy any brand new clothes. We like the "hunt" for clothes that are out style, and we like being environmentally friendly with buying local. It also makes a huge difference in our spending!
My entire outfit cost about $15.00, which means my money gets to go other places like buying good healthy food! Something I would rather spend money on anyways.

I was also asked to be a part of the Splurge Vs Save  with Credit Card Insider and this outfit is the perfect one to compare. Below is my "style inspiration" for this outfit.. and while everything in this outfit is thrifted, I know the brands where they came from are reasonably cheap, making this quite the save on my part.. even if they were bought in the store!

Summer by talk2thetrees featuring Patagonia

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Thursday Threads - Going Wild

I think the theme of my summer and sprint season is "wild." I just can't shake the wonderful feeling of wildness... of being free. As free as can be, in all aspects of life. Today's post on going wild is mainly on my back yard... take a look at all that green!

When I first moved in here the back yard, where I am standing in these photos was covered in 4-5 inches of dog poop! It smelled disgusting, there were flies everywhere and it was getting tracked into my house. The front yard was just as bad. The people who lived here before me had a large dog who they never cleaned up from, and the down stairs neighbors had 2 large dogs and their 5 puppies. No one cleaned up after their dogs.
When we moved in, we asked the downstairs neighbors to clean up after their dogs. They said they would. They didn't.  It was excuse after excuse. "It's too hot. It's too cold. It's too wet. We are waiting until Saturday. We are too busy." Eventually we put a gate up so they wouldn't be able to access the backyard anymore. (It was in my contract anyways.)
For my birthday last year, Sterling shoveled up the inches and inches of dog poop and put it into their garbage can. He helped me plant grass, wild flowers and water it daily. Finally the smell went away and things became green.
This year we decided to let the backyard become wild. We aren't planning on mowing it anytime soon, and the dogs have created pathways and shelters. They love it. We have little hidden lights in the grass and wildflowers that have sprouted up throughout.
Our plan was to do a huge garden, but the new landlords won't allow it.. so we are leaving it wild.

I also tried to get my curly hair back to help me feel more wild. Unfortunatly I think it did more harm than good as I now have incredibly short patches from curling it. And I'm afraid I will be boring you with this outfit, every aspect of this is thrifted.

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Hidden Treasures

For years I've been doing this thing since my childhood... shoving stuff under my bed and in my closet. I'm a little bit ashamed, but only a little bit because I'm an adult now, and I can clean my room like a ten year old if I want to! But, I kind of don't want to anymore. So, I decided to be a bit more organized. Now that my bed doesn't have "under the bed storage space" I've been using the closet, which has been a total mess up until today.

I went to the thrift store in search of a mini dresser. I wanted something that would match, but was smaller than my larger dresser. Which I found in my shed a year or two ago, no one claimed it, so it was mine!

I went to the thrift stores near me, and found a few dressers that would work, but they were all about $25 or more! Way too much for what I wanted. Sterling and I decided to go into the yard section of Deseret Industries, and we found this. 

It was pretty nasty, but it was only 6 dollars! I was looking for something with 3 drawers too. Once for socks, one for my work out clothes and one for my painting clothes. This was perfect.

First I gave it a bath, then repainted it to an antique white to match my other dresser. I then sanded the edges for a shabby chic look. Sterling was pretty confused when I started sanding the new paint. I had to explain what shabby chic was. boys...... 

I switched out the knobs for a mismatched look, and it was done! 

The whole thing took about an hour to do. (not including waiting for the paint to dry..)

I loved it so much I gave it a hug. I tend to do that. I hug things I like.

Like desks, flowers, and now dressers..

Sterling snagged a picture.

I spent the day today organizing my closet and my dressers. 

It looks so good! 

The two dressers match almost perfectly. 

The larger one had a lot lighter paint then the smaller, so I might need to make a few changes. 

I'm so happy I bought this for 6 bucks and spent 5 bucks on knobs and paint. 

It's better than I imagined, and I'm proud of the work I did on it.

As I told Sterling when we bought it...

Treasures are hidden in plain sight, but under the mask of hard work. 

Sometimes you need to put a little bit of work into things for them to really shine.

This goes with meals, relationships, fashion, art, and home decor. 

It's what makes life good. 

Not being afraid of a little work. 

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Thursday Threads - Dog Days

Sterling and I LOVE thrift stores. It's actually one of our "problems". If we are ever bored, we go to a thrift store. We actually have awesome luck. We both find perfect clothes that match our style completely, and we find perfect accents for our home. We usually end up going once a week and spending under 30.00 each time. We actually talked about how we could budget our monthly spending, and we talked about not going to the thrift store as often. We decided to go once a month, but ended up going back last night.  We lack self control when it comes to thrift stores... but we did end up coming to the compromise that every time we do go, we will bring in a bag of donations. A few weeks ago, Sterling and I went and I was able to snag this amazing dress and hat. 

The dress is a vintage shirt dress, with a dog head print! 

Chihuahuas, yorkies, pugs, and french bull dogs. 

Amm-azing. 

And I found this beautiful burgundy felt hat there too. 

The best part? The dress was 3.99, and the hat was 1.99.

If you are going to have a shopping problem, the thrift store is a good place to have it. 

Dog Dress - Thrifted 

Red Felt Hat - Thrifted 

Cardigan - Nowistyle

Shoes - Forever 21 

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