Shavin' my Shirt & Sh-tuff.

Posted by Ethne~

Well, Friends, if any of you live anywhere besides Minnesota, you are probably well into summer.  But we just got a few inches of snow.  I am not making this up.  And I am fed up.  I can hardly even be funny about it.  I’m used up.  The sarcasm is too dark to put in a family-friendly blog.  We’re supposed to have spring-ish weather by Sunday, but even Shaun said he’ll only believe it when he sees it.

I was super glad when the Boston Bomber Suspects were tracked down.  The kids were sick that day, though, so I was at the doc’s office and Target (getting clear liquids) praying they didn’t throw up rather than watching the news unfold.  We watched Men In Black II later and, if you recall, Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace) has a bit part in that and KD said, “that girl looks like a boy”.  Too funny.  Also, Tan Mom has done an impromptu bikini photo shoot, apparently captured by a passerby, and released by TMZ.  I highly recommend it.

Over the weekend, since we’re still wearing winter clothes, I put on a sweater of mine that had pilled up with those little balls.  I remembered something on Pinterest that I didn’t pin (my M.O.), but thought I’d try anyway – shave the pills off with your razor.  (I’ve never purchased one of the clothes shavers.)  Hey what’s the harm?  I’m already in a bad mood because of the weather; it would make no difference if I slashed up a sweater with the triple Venus razorblades.

Of course, I tried this experiment with the sweater on me.  This may have been an advantage because my body helped to hold the sweater taut.  But it also prevented me from shaving the back of the sweater due to my arms being the standard, non-Gumbi issue.  WARNING:  We completely waive any liability if you all go and cut yourselves (or ruin clothing) from shaving your clothes, especially while wearing them.  Take on this task at your own risk, Friends. 

IT DOES WORK, though!  Since my razor had seen better days, I ripped off the remaining gel thingies that came attached to the blades since I thought those might make my sweater nasty.  I suggest that you do this.  Here are pictures to prove that I got pink fuzz all over my bathroom:

See right at my waist is the shave line where I stopped to take a picture of the progress.  No more pills above the line.

The ratty razor.  As with most things, it's pink.

 

This mess was all over the floor at my feet too.  Super fun.  I used the sticky clothes roller to pick it all up, which was awesome.

Boots & Skinny Jeans

Posted by Ethne~

My riding boots arrived in the mail yesterday.  Shaun knew boots were ordered because I explained how URGENT the purchase was considering I had been waitlisted on this particular pair for MONTHS.  But as with (what I suspect are) most husbands, he didn’t really pay much attention and just really saw my lips moving.  When I told him they were RIDING BOOTS yesterday, the following conversation ensued:

Shaun: [one raised eyebrow]

Me: These are my new riding boots.  They are high fashion.  Everyone needs them.

Shaun:  You don’t need them; you don’t go riding.

Me:  No one who wears these actually goes riding.  But of course I need them.

Shaun: [wanders off in bewilderment; dying a little inside, probably]

Then last night we were watching Biggest Loser and our my favorite player, Danni, had her makeover and was put into skinny jeans without boots.  Shaun specifically commented that they did not flatter.  He didn’t say it so nicely.  And he specifically said the words, “skinny jeans”.  This made me very afraid CONSIDERING MY SKINNY JEANS WERE SCHEDULED TO BE DELIVERED VIA MAIL THE NEXT DAY.  What will he have to say when he sees mine?!  I will have to wear a thong in them for sure so my butt looks good.

This is a horrible picture.  Proof I'm wearing a thong - yes.

Anyway, as promised, here are a few outfits I put together, inspired by Pinterest, fashion week on Our Fifth House, and my new style blog find, Hello, Gorgeous!  I've got some learning to do, but this is what I did in 10 minutes of rifling through my closet.

The F21 skinny jeans fit well and are comfortable; still, no excuse for those hips.  I think the socks set things off nicely.

This is an almost exact replica outfit from Hello, Gorgeous! blog.  Clearly I will have to wait till next year for it, even though it did snow like 10" here in the past 24 hours.  Still, it's March.

I feel like I need a necklace with this; pearls or something.  But I wasn't in the mood for playing dress-up all day long, by myself.

This was my own concoction using white and spring colors - since it's March, I want to be springy, but as I said, it also just snowed 10", so we totally still can rock boots and sweaters.  Such a weird place to live; I'm totally over living in MN.  Until the snow melts.

I actually really liked this outfit.  My new chambray shirt - which I did not iron BTW - dress-up for the blog is only considered *medium fashion* since I'm not actually going someplace where someone will make me a cocktail; a pretty & colorful cardigan sweater and black leggings.  I would not actually wear the leggings out of the house because LET'S FACE IT - my butt was hanging out everywhere, especially in the thong.  But in the muted cell phone picture, the effect is good.  So I'm on the hunt for some black "jeggings" or something.  That word makes my skin crawl almost as much as "moist", just so you know - which means if I actually ever wear jeggings, I have completely sacrificed my soul to Satan in the name of fashion.  Just for fun, say it: "moist jeggings".

They Tell Me My Closet Needs These Clothes.

Posted by Ethne~

Friends, I do not consider myself a stylist, but I don’t think I’m matronly either.  My sister tells me I am a school marm.  Maybe I was born in the wrong century.  I am bossy enough to be a marm in any era.

Fashion Icon: Moi; stop laughing Whit

One of Lor’s and my latest fave blogs, Our Fifth House, had fashion week last week – she highlighted 5 of her own favorite stylish bloggers and had them give their 7 top wardrobe essentials.  So fun!  I was affirmed in that I’m not a total matron – I had some of the essentials such as a piece of leopard print (mine’s a belt), nude pumps (mine are from Land's End - love) and a truckload of cardigan sweaters (my sister says this is arguably school-marm-ish).

Land's End, here

I don’t have some of the other essentials, such as skinny jeans (yes, every single style blogger suggested this as a wardrobe must - WTF style peeps?), brown riding boots, a chambray/denim shirt, colorful pumps and a statement necklace.  I take that last one back.  I have plenty of necklaces, even statement ones, but not necessarily purchased this decade.

I took care of that straight away.  One of the bloggers suggested Forever 21 skinny jeans for $10.  DECISION DONE.  I am not planning on wearing these suckers with little teeny sandals.  Let’s face it.  I am a pear shape.  It’s a horrible look for me.  But, I ordered myself a pair of brown riding boots, so they’ll balance these birthing hips out.  (The funny part is the hips failed in their genetic purpose because I had a c-section with the twins.  Ha-ha, Universe, I am so not laughing at your irony.)

Heather boots from Shoemint here

here

I found a denim shirt on sale at Target for $18.  I also found a boyfriend sweater on sale at Target, and a cute spring-y scarf there too.  Half my wardrobe is practically from that store, I swear; darn you, RedCard!

I’ll put a few outfits together and post for you guys once my dreaded F21 skinny jeans arrive in the mail.  I’m afraid.  Even if they look horrible and I return them, I’ll take pictures first.  It’ll surely be funny if nothing else.

In the meantime, check out this new fashion blog I found, Hello, Gorgeous!  This lady is amazing with what she can put together.  She obviously has a great wardrobe, but she mixes and matches it a whole bunch, and she gets a lot of her mixing pieces at places like Old Navy and Forever 21, which are obviously reasonably priced for us commoners.

DRESS RE-STYLE: Dye My Dress!

Posted by Ethne~

 

I’ve been a follower of the blog New Dress a Day for over a year now.  This amazing gal, Marisa, takes $1 thrift store uglies and turns them into amazing clothes.  She does this every.single.day.  So there’s something new and cool to look at.  You can see a few of my attempts here and here and here.  They’re not really as cool as Marisa’s, in my opinion, except the green zebra which I love, but it was super fun to do them.  Even my dresses were total improvements from the originals.

 

Original green zebra

 

My green zebra re-style

 

And another totally-worth-it part of copying Marisa’s attempts at re-styles is that Lori has done a few, but one of her tries was done way to late at night and she eventually had a spazz-out and took her fabric scissors to the dress and cut it to shreds.  I love it.

 

Anyway, Marisa does a lot of work with Rit dye, which I’d never tried before besides tie-dying at Bible Camp as a kid and then with our Wellstock t-shirts in college.  If you look closely at my t-shirt quilt here, you can see my tie-dyed Wellstock shirts in there.

 

Tie-dye, second row, top left

 

So I recently purchased a white Merona brand dress on clearance at Target.  It was pretty cute, and 100% cotton.  I also had a coupon from Target’s website for 30% off a Merona clothing item.  Then with my 5% Target RedCard savings, I think the dress ended up costing me $7.  WOM SAVINGS at their finest, my Friends.

 

It's a light, gauzy fabric with pretty lace detail at the neckline and shoulders

 

I put this dress on for my birthday, Labor Day this year, which was a really nice, warm, big city, Minnesota day.  But it just wasn’t working for me.  I was so washed out that no amount of bronzer helped.  My complexion is just too pale for pure-white-only ensembles.  COLOR REQUIRED.  I ended up with a super cute white maxi skirt and a pink (fave color anyway) tank top.  I looked adorable.  Theodore agreed, as you can clearly tell in the below photo.

 

Baby T-Rex loves his momma

 

If my white cotton dress was to be worn in the future, I knew it needed help.  I had seen this pin on Pinterest as inspiration, and as it turned out, I had navy blue Rit dye in my stash.  Odd, I know, but I had long ago planned to dye a white rug of mine navy since it needed freshening up.  I never ended up doing that, much to my delight now. A box of Rit dye costs about $3 in case you’re wondering.

 

Sometimes my camera thinks I'd like sideways photos

 

The dye box has multiple instructions depending on what method you plan to use.  It’ll work great on cotton.  The liner of the dress was partially polyester, which the box said wasn’t great, and if you remember from here, I had mixed results from trying to dye this dress purple.  I took a chance since it was the lining here. 

 

Will 35% cotton be the saving grace?

 

Also, since we have a fancy load-size-sensing washer, I was skeptical that I’d get the ideal results, so I opted for the stove-top boiling option.  That seemed scary, but I know Marisa had done it before, so I jumped in head-first.  Not really, that’s dangerous.  Feet first is safer, Friends.

 

Follow the box directions, but in essence, you need fill a large pot (I used my giant stew pot) with enough water as you think will fit your clothing item and let it ‘swim around’ a little bit, but not too much as to dilute the dye.  Once you have the dye water ready as instructed, add the clothing item.

 

Dye mixed with water and ready to add to giant pot of water

 

I bubbled it for a little over 30 minutes, then rinsed it in the sink until it was starting to rinse semi-clear water, and then I put it in my washer on the rinse cycle.  I took it out and examined it (for color evenness), then put it through the wash cycle with some navy towels.  I figured that wouldn’t hurt.  I let the dress air dry.

 

At my next opportunity, I wore my new navy dress to work with a tan heather cardigan (I was nervous it would bleed navy onto the tan, but it didn’t!), and my thin brown belt to flatter my figure, paired with my brown wedge sandals. 

 

Self-portrait in my bathroom - keepin' it real, Friends

 

I really liked it.  I consider this a Pinterest Look for Less.  Not sure how much the Pinterest version cost, but I bet it wasn’t $10!!

 

I’ve been pinning a lot of fashion looks on Pinterest lately, Friends, so if you want to see what I find, you should totally follow that Wom-Mom board.  You can link up to our Pinterest site by clicking on the tab up top.  I plan to do more Pinterest looks this fall and winter, so check back!

MINI: THRIFTY $6.99 DRESS!

Posted by Ethne!

I originally purchased this $6.99 dress at Good Will to make a re-style out of, but once I washed and tried it on, that wasn’t necessary.  Still, it was a great find for the money and this WOM loves a good THRIFTY find!

Family get-together

Even though I hope you all are looking at thrift stores for dresses to re-style, cuz they’re fun, also keep your eyes peeled for good stuff that doesn’t require changes at all!  THRIFT-O-RAMA!

WOM-tastic!

BELLA SHIRT!

Posted by Ethne~

I am about to admit something embarrassing.  Except kinda not since not much embarrasses me.

I’ve mentioned in the past how much I love Twilight.  As in I ignored my family and tapped my toe till the girls’ bedtime when I read the books because I couldn’t get enough.

As in I <3 Edward.  Big time.

Oh Edward, wherefore art thou?

I enjoyed the first Twilight movie immensely .  Shaun said it didn’t have enough vampire violence and T&A, but he’s watched all the movies numerous times, so I guess he sacrifices for me.  The bottom line is that Rob Pattinson is a dreamy Edward and that’s what I was in the market for.  There are a few Edward moments in that first movie that make me swoon.

So do you remember in the movie when Edward and Bella see each other for the first time in biology class?  Well, in that scene, Bella is wearing an ivory shirt that has her thumbs sticking through the cuffs which I thought was kinda neat.

After much internet scouring, I found a pic

Well, wouldn’t you know it but two Black Fridays ago Thrifty Nana and I ran into this exact same cuff situation at JCPenney’s.  For no other reason than the Twilight tie-in, I bought myself one of the shirts.  It helped that it was less than $10, being Black Friday and all.

I've got the right cuff, now Edward can't
help but fall in LOVE with me.

I love the cuff deal, but am not a fan of the high crewneck of it.  So I’ve barely worn it for the past 2 years.

Neckline too high!
Notice I'm wearing 2 different slippers...

Don’t you think that’s just dumb?  Not about buying a shirt just because it reminds me of Twilight.  That’s not dumb at all.  What’s dumb is not wearing it cuz I don’t like the neckline.  I say: 'quit complaining'.  Shaun says: ‘sh*t or get off the pot’.  Roger that.

It was pretty simple.  I bought matching burgundy thread at JoAnn’s for $2 (on sale).  Then I researched the appropriate stretchy stitch on my sewing machine so the neckline thread wouldn’t snap when I pull the shirt over my head.  The machine’s book says: ‘Ric-Rac’ stitch.

I tried the shirt on to mark how low the v-neckline to go and marked it with a safety pin.

I cut down the center of the front neckline to the safety pin.

Leap of faith!

I sewed the ric-rac stitch along the raw edges.

Done.

I think it’s much cuter.  Maybe a little too tight of a shirt to wear my Bombshell bra, but at least cleavage is visible now!

Why hello there!

LOVE IT.  I def shouldn’t have waited two years to fix my Bella shirt.

What easy fixes have you done on your clothes lately?  More importantly, will I be seeing you at the theater on November 18th?

WEARABLE WEDNESDAY: Green Zebra!

Posted by Ethne~

This puppy equine dress cost me $3.99 at Salvation Army right by my house.  I loved the fabric and pattern, but the dress was horrific!  You could wear an entire spare tire underneath the midsection of the dress.  What sold me on it was there was enough dress to work with, I liked the green, and I really liked the ¾ sleeves.

BEFORE: Wild Kingdom

I knew right away that it would be shirt city since I saw no way to get around the pouchy gathers and the black sweater band.

WTF: Pouchy band for mom tummy (I have it too, I'm not criticizing)
Pleated skirt - who designed this crap?

So first things first – slash out those stupid shoulder pads.

Are giant shoulder pads really necessary to
top off this mess of a dress?

Next to go was that terrible black band and pleated skirt.  Is it just me, but aren’t pleats and green zebra prints just a no-go?  4 sho.  Anyway, I didn’t want to seam-rip all the way around the band, both the zebra and lining fabrics – what a waste of time!  So I just cut the fabric away at the base of the band.  That worked really well, actually.

A good shot of the waistband AND pleats
PS - don't you love the color of my nailpolish?

I started with pinning for a new seam on the black lining fabric.  Since the zebra was gathered to cover a spare tire, there is a lot more of that than the black liner.  It ends up being shorter than the zebra, but that’s ok, I still want a lining in there.

Stitched that up on my Singer Curvy.

See my teacup pincushion in the background? :)
PS - Emily, we hope you are loving yours.

I needed to do a new seam on the zebra and I was a little worried that it would not cooperate with a smooth seam because of the slippery fabric.  But I pinned it carefully and guess what – it is nice and straight!  That is purely my seamstress talent shining through, I’m sure.

I tried the shirt on with some work slacks and at first put a belt on – but the shirt length and bodice cut didn’t work with that.  I wanted to give it a little shape, though, so I riffled through my jewelry box and found this nice rhinestone brooch.  A little fabric cinch-up with my brooch and I’ve got a perfect new work shirt.

AFTER: Hot Thrifty Mama!

Both munchkins had to get in on the action

Unquestionably an improvement.  Thrifty Nana really liked the pattern on me and even gave the ultimate compliment – she said she’d wear it!  I’d say this is one of my best re-styles to date, Friends!

WEARABLE WEDNESDAY: PART TWO: Purple Jacket!

Posted by Ethne~

Ok, this is the second of this 2-part re-style adventure.  You remember the original:

BEFORE: Pink Mother-of-the-Bride Fiasco

And then the dye-job:

Dye Job

So now I have to make something wearable out of it.  As I said in Part One, I knew what I was going to do with the pink strappies and buttons – what I meant was – get rid of them!

Good-BYE dumb straps

Naturally cutting out those redic shoulder pads was a must, and the next step.

!Adios Estupido Shoulder Pads!

I figured I’d be going shirt/jacket with this, so I began by seam-ripping up the center seam of the dress.  It was serged so there were a lot of threads to take out, and I had to watch the girls like a hawk so they wouldn’t run off with them.  But who did I really have to watch?  Theodore!  Stupid cat tried to eat some thread.

Dramatic reenactment of Theodore eating pink thread

De-licous!

Idiot + Beloved = Theodore

With the center ripped up, I folded down the neckline lapels and made myself some new seams of the center pieces.  It took a few tries since my bobbin got messed up on the first try. 

Easy Mac displaying the seam-ripped center.
KD is Little Red Riding Hood in the background.



KD kept taking out the pins behind me - grrr!



2nd time's the charm



Lastly, I needed to sew a new hem on the bottom of the jacket.  I stood in front of a mirror and decided where on me I wanted the jacket to fall, and I pinned accordingly.  I decided to sew the new bottom seam up 2 inches from the bottom so the stitching line would blend in a little better.

2 inches up - no raw seams
KD also helped by removing pins here

I messed around with the idea of adding a button to the top to hold it together, but I think putting a hook and eye on it will be best.  Need to get one.  I’m also feeling like it could use a flower embellishment, so I’ll report in if I find or make the perfect thing.



AFTER:  for now--I will post a picture when I wear it!

Paired with slacks and a tank top underneath, I’ve got a great jacket for work (in the summer, not yet, seeing as it’s still cold here – we saw a few flakes of snow this morning – are you kidding me?!?).

Honestly, I’m on a purple kick right now (don’t worry, I haven’t forsaken my beloved pink) – could be because my girls’ new fave movie is Tangled and Rapunzel wears purple.  I’m glad to have a THRIFTY new purple piece for my wardrobe.