Friday, November 8, 2013

GREat Thrifting Luck

  Last Friday I finally took the GREs, a standardized test required to apply to graduate schools. I did well, which was a huge relief because the test is 3 hours long, and I have ADHD. I'm medicated, which extends my ability to sit still, but my limit is 90 minutes and the entire last hour I was fighting not to get up and run shrieking around the room. I was pretty burnt afterward.

  Therefore in the following days I treated myself by going to three thrift stores. *cackles* I'm afraid I overshot my monthly budget for entertainment, but I will allow it this time for celebratory purposes. (:

  If you want to get in on my thrifting luck, check out my Couturgatory giveaway where the winner gets to choose something for me to go hunting for! This weekend, I knocked off two items on my searching-for list, which I keep on the right side of this blog. On to the treasures!
  I found this beautiful gold and creme crepe duvet cover for $7. It has tassels at the corners and black circles with gold thread patterns on it. My bed looks like it belongs in an old eastern fantasy palace, now. (Especially since I have a mattress! I defied family advice and bought one for my back instead of propping myself up on a wood futon frame with medical pillows left over from deceased relatives. My family is cheap bordering on crazy sometimes. :D) I lounge under my new duvet cover like a sultana. My roommate says it looks like one of the blinged out robes a boxer wears when coming out to the ring, but I ignored him. It is much classier than that. For royalty. Couturgoyalty. Totally a word now.

  Incidentally, did you know you can test for whether something is silk by burning a fiber? You can see a video here. I took a loose thread from the inside of my new cover and tried it. It curled up and hardened, so I knew it was a polymer, a fiber made of repeating subunits via chain chemical reaction. You can see a 1949 documentary here about nylon and rayon. I had to do a project on polyacrylonitrile this summer, also known as acrylic, if you ever see that in your clothing labels. I could chat about it all day.
  First thing crossed off my list: wine skinny jeans, that I will wear as leggings! American Apparel, so made in the US *and* thrifted. Double win. (:
  2nd item from the list: chambray mermaid skirt by Bebe. This is ankle length on me and doesn't require any alterations. This is HUGE. I've been looking for one for over a year, since chopping 5" off a mermaid skirt results in a vague A-line. Believe me, I've done it, and it made me sad.

  Incidentally, I didn't know the difference between denim and chambray before I started reading style blogs. Hooray learning!
  I told myself when buying a new (old) Heart Moon Star sundress that maybe I'll go to grad school somewhere with a summer, so it's not an insane, impractical purchase. The great fit, Japanese-ish florals, and the <$3 price sold me, however impractical it is for SF.
  A Prairie Underground prairie hoodie! I found out about this brand years ago through Already Pretty. They're designed and made in Seattle, and the hoods actually fit human heads, instead of those stupid useless dealies the size of a yarmulke you find attached to so many garments these days. They are thick and warm, perfect for SF weather, which given their city of origin, makes perfect sense. Unfortunately they're way out of my price range. Way way.

  The nice gal at the counter knocked the price down to $5.49(!) when she pointed out some marks on the left sleeve that hadn't come out when the garment was washed. She even told me to bring it back if I had any problems after washing it again! They might be very light bleach stains that got brushed on, but they're almost unnoticeable, and for a garment that's $264 retail, I am way more than happy. Way way. :D
 Honest-to-goodness pinstripe jodhpurs. Jodhpurs! The company, Ariat Pro, does riding gear. I initially picked them up because HAHAHA what will I look like in these? and also $5.49, but I ended up liking them! I shall make them my new pinstripe and suede leggings. They're in brand new condition, and they are oh so comfortable. Rich folks sure know how to live!
   This shirt's asymmetrical ruffles make me look like I'm wearing a shoulder pauldron. Haha! Part of it could be that it is XL and probably doesn't fit the way it was designed. I liked it anyway though, and bought it with the intent of making an outfit that looks like old fashioned armor, but for an everyday look.

  Incidentally, I totally failed at my own thrifting game of Is This Brand Cheap, or Expensive? because the shirt did not even register on my radar. When I looked up the brand when I got home, it turns out one.september is an Anthropologie brand. Why does half the stuff I thrift turn out to be from that store? I am not in their target demographic.
  Lastly, some housewares. The character on the left is Kogepan, my favorite Japanese character of all time. He is a piece of bread that fell off the tray when being taken out of the oven, and as a consequence is burnt and unwanted. Since the entire purpose of a delicious bean bread is to be wanted and eaten, he suffers existential crises, leaving home to discover himself and eventually returning to the bakery he came from to try to lecture the pretty, unburnt bean buns about life. Naturally, they find him morose and scary and listen to nothing he says. I love this character SO MUCH.

  He got discontinued some years ago and it's been increasingly harder to find Kogepan things, so when I found this ashtray for $.99 I nearly squealed aloud. I washed all the gunk off and I think I will use it to hold rings.

  I also picked up this Cutty Sark jug (I used to work for a pirate game so I still have a fondness for nautical things) and two silver-plated salad forks. I use salad forks instead of full sized forks because my jaw is quite small.

  Not pictured is a Lulu Lemon exercise top, which I bought entirely on word-of-mouth. My dearest friends M. and C. swear up and down about the quality of the brand, and my classmates (my major is largely made up of athletic types) have nothing but good things to say about it. I've worn it once for a run and it does seem pretty awesome. We'll see if it stands the test of time. My first exercise tanks, bought in the year 2000 from Target when I started wushu are still going, and seriously, they get washed almost every week. I'm hoping to use them until I pass away and maybe even will them to someone. If they eventually wear out, I will save the fabric and put them in a quilt. They have earned a permanent place in my life. Do you have clothes that just keep going and going beyond any reasonable expectation?

  In addition to all these lovely things for me, I found some nice gifts for my friends that I am looking forward to mailing out. Yahoo! I'm feeling pretty fine. What are your latest treasures, thrifted, gifted, retail, or otherwise?

16 comments:

  1. You must have the best thrifting luck, girl! I need to come shopping with you. :-D I have to say, I wear my hoodie almost all the time when I'm home (too precious to wear to my job).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! I am so, so happy that you like it. I've found finding treasures for other people even more exciting than treasures for me. :D

      Delete
  2. Kudos to you for taking that gawd awful test!

    I haven't had any luck thrifting - but not for lack of trying.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congrats on getting the test behind you! I was 5 months pregnant when I took mine and the baby was not happy about all that sitting still. Kept kicking me internally in the ribs and I tried to discreetly push the foot back into place. Although I was after an English degree, I did better on the math!

    Very interesting to learn about this Kogepan character!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh no! My mother tells me that I was already practicing wushu in the womb. Even 33 years later, I feel sorry for her!

      I was a theatre major to start with and I too found it funny that I always score a bit better on the math section. My two best friends in high school are more polar- one scores extremely high in math and the other in verbal. I score as high as neither in their strong subject.

      Delete
  4. I want to go thrifting with you. That little ashtray is so unique. Now that I know the story behind it I can see why you squealed.

    I haven't taken a written test in years. I'm thankful. I used to have horrible nightmares about them all the time. That I sit down to write it but I can't open my eyes. I just know I'm going to fail because I can't see it. Talk about stress.

    I have worn my Uggs every single day I believe since my husband bought them for me almost 2 years ago. I wear them inside the house like slippers. They are starting to show their wear though, which is surprising since I thought they would last longer. The sole is separating and one of them has a hole in the top. So much for Uggs that were made in Australia that he paid extra to have. That is why I no longer believe that price dictates quality.

    bisous
    Suzanne

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh man, school and test nightmares are the worst!

      I agree that price and quality are correlated, but the relationship is not necessarily causal. And at some point the price skyrockets and the maintenance costs are actually huge- they're for the income bracket that can afford items that are so specialty that there aren't generalized parts/repair systems in place.

      Delete
  5. that dress is so pretty. I'm glad you got it!
    Wishing you the best on the grad school process!
    xo,
    nancy

    www.adoretoadorn.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Nancy! Thanks for the link to your blog, as well. I can't wait to check it out.

      Delete
  6. I had this sweater, not sure from where exactly, but I'm sure it was like Walmart, or somewhere cheap like that, that I had from the time I was 12. I think I finally threw it out when I was 29 or 30 because the hole in the sleeve got just a bit too big to pretend it didn't exist anymore. But I might have it still packed away in the basement with my pre-pregnancy clothes. I loved that sweater. Wore it all the time. It was this huge 80s style thing. My mom swore it stretched every time I washed it, and it almost had to for me to have worn it throughout that particular time span and it still looked big on me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh, what a lovely story. I love clothes or items that last forever. Even when they wear out or break I hold onto them for too long, trying to find another use for them. Maybe a darner or a knitter can patch it, or it can be a baby blanket or quilt patch?

      Delete
  7. My latest best thrifting was finding a beautiful Brown 100% CASHMERE coat, mid calf length, sleeves that fit my long arms, made in Switzerland for Neiman Marcus with all the buttons for $40 !!!!!. And then later that day I found 4 vintage hats in wearable condition at the by the pound Goodwill for probably $2.00. Whoooo Hoooo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My mouth dropped open reading that. Congratulations! That sounds so amazing.

      Delete
  8. Yay for you on doing well on your GRE! :) I think that black floral dress is beautiful - and I wonder whether you could do some creative layering so you can enjoy it now?
    And, KOGEPAN! I always thought his story was so uniquely Japanese. :) Why is the world awash with Hello Kitty stuff while quirky characters like Kogepan are discontinued? There is no justice.
    P.S., I learned a new word - pauldron - from this post. Who said blogs aren't educational?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've found your blog educational as well! I'm contemplating putting up a side page on fashion vocabulary that I've found along the way, as it might be helpful to other folks, too.

      Delete
  9. OH EM GEE THOSE JODPURS! Congrats on taking your big test too. I treated myself to some magical thrifting after a loooong doctor appointment. Had almost as much luck ass you! Thrifting gods are currently pleased!

    ReplyDelete