Salvo Christmas!

I had lunchtime (and after) plans this year on the Wednesday of Christmas break, so I had to make good time. I got to the Salvo at approximately 9:05 (it opens at 9) and was still beaten there by my good friend, the owner of the Snug Bungalow and her husband. I had brought my new Nexus 10 to occupy the husband, while my friend and I got down to business. I knew that if it wasn't a good enough hit, I was going to have to go out to Greece after my afternoon plans, and there was a storm a-brewin'. So we worked hard and fast and made it a good one. Starting with this:

Limited, $2.50

Now, I'm not going to get to wear this until summer, but I can't wait for the moment when I am bringing my summer clothes to the front of the dress closet and find it again. It'll be like it's new (to me) all over! I love that.

BeBop, $3.50

 I love the shape of this. I'm thinking tights and boots, and I'm thinking soon.

Isaac Mizrahi, $5

 This color is not my normal choice, and this type of lace isn't my usual taste either. But there was something about it... I kept saying "it's so different!" And different it is. It's a couple of sizes too big, too, so I had to pin the belt, but I think I'm going to lose the belt and get one of a contrasting color anyway. This needs to happen.

Aeropostale, $2.50

Sometimes a girl just needs a little plaid. In her size, and preferably with cute little buttons to fold up the sleeves.

 So I was trying out a new app on my phone (why doesn't the stock camera come with a timer??) and it had a mind of its own a couple of times and I didn't catch it until it was too late. Oops. Anyway, fun loose top with a sparkly pocket.

Ann Taylor Loft, $3.50

Love the neck, and you can never have too many white tops. Those things go with everything!

Ann Taylor, $3

This has the most wonderful beading and rhinestones with the little flowers on the top... I love it!

Aeropostale, $3

Off-white cardigan! You can never have too many cardigans, either, especially when you live in NY and get cold easily.

NY & Co, $2.50

 Really, really soft gray cardigan. Like I said...

Ann Taylor Loft, $3.50

I couldn't get over how soft this was. I need to look more closely at the fiber content - it doesn't look that soft, but oh, it is.

Ann Taylor Loft, $2.50

Ahhhh! the camera did it again! And this is probably my favorite shirt of them all. Soft, see-through stripes varied with opaque ones, and the little button things to roll up the sleeves...grr. Stupid app.

Old Navy, not sure

The tag seems to have fallen off this sweater, so I can't really tell you how much it was, but suffice it to say that it was under $5. Love the color!

I also got a beautiful new Bill Blass leather bag since I have a tablet to start toting around in addition to all my other tech geekery. And there was one more item, an Express top, that my camera app seems to have refused to save at all. Guess I won't be using that app again. Anyone with suggestions for a good, simple camera app with a timer (for Android), please let me know.

I was definitely happy enough with this lot to decide against driving all the way out to Greece as the snow started falling, so this is it for me until February. Happy New Year to all you thrifting fans!

Dibs.

When I enter a thrift store, there are 2 things that happen immediately. 1, I head straight to the dresses. 2, I scan the room to assess the other shoppers. I do both of these things for the same reason: I call dibs. Dresses are my highest priority, so I need to get to them before anyone else in sight. If someone in the store appears to be my size and have a similar sense of fashion, things go to a whole new level of intensity. I MUST beat them to anything that is, by right of being the thrifting queen, mine. I call dibs on the whole store.

I started in Henrietta as I usually do on my school year Salvo days. I ran into a church friend there - this is the fourth time in a year that I have run into someone from Edgewood at either Henrietta or Greece, so clearly they are wise people who read my blog. :)

Pants - Limited, $3.50

I have been looking desperately for a pair of gray pants to replace the ones I have outgrown (oops) so I was completely thrilled to find these. The shirt is not a thrift store find, but needed to be shared nonetheless. We happened upon a fundraiser for the Pitty Love Rescue last weekend and I was able to support them by buying what is sure to be my favorite tank top next summer! Go to that website and try not to fall in love with the puppies on the homepage, I dare you.

IZ Byer, $3

Soft, purple, buttons. Love it.

Op, $1.50

Not as awesome as my Pitty Love shirt, but still comfy and versatile.

Forever 21, $5

I've been needing a new black jacket forever. I love my houndstooth Bitten jacket, but you can only wear houndstooth so often. Love this one!

Wicked, $1

This was an impulse buy. It caught my eye as I was leaving the dressing rooms, and for a buck, I couldn't resist. I daresay I have a few students who will be very jealous. 

Side note: This is not my shopping cart. It's my church friend's. I am just so proud. 

I then headed up to Greece. That store is very hit or miss for me. Sometimes I make out like a bandit, sometimes there's a fire (that seriously happened) or a power outage (that, too) and I have to leave without buying a thing. I only found a few things today, but was very pleased with the results nonetheless.

daisy fuentes, $2.50

I love wrap sweaters like these. I already have one in black and pink, so obviously I needed one in gray. This one is really soft and warmer than the others, so I am really in love.

Top - Old Navy, $1.50
Pants - Limited, $3

I've also been needing to replace my brown pants, and after finding a perfect pair at Henrietta that weren't my size (but I handed them off to my friend, so I hope she got to time them home instead!), I was pleased to find this perfect pair. The top, if you can't tell, has little fabric flowers and large shimmery doo-dabs (not quite sequins... what do you call those?). Adorable.

Citizens of Humanity, $2.50

This was the coup de grâce. I found these jeans, saw that they were my size and seemed to be of good quality, but didn't recognize the label. I put them in my cart and googled them, and found that they were originally $200 jeans! Yes, those are the exact jeans. I also saw that they didn't have a tag on them. It is usually store policy to refuse to sell any items without tags, but obviously I wasn't letting these go. I asked a manager and she sold them to me for $5... but told the cashier to give me the half-off discount. Dear Greece Salvo manager, there is a special place in heaven for you.

All in all, a satisfying outing! And another one coming up in a month. Consider yourself warned, Rochester area thrift shoppers. I have pointy elbows and I call dibs.

Back to School 2012

So, you see, there were these kids. These kids started being awesome in 7th grade and didn't quit. These kids made an entire school love them, including one choir teacher.

These kids have scattered far and wide, and my room is going to feel a bit empty without their laughter and talented voices. It's going to be a building year, no doubt about it, but yet my numbers are up, I somehow miraculously have just as many boys (!!!), and the remaining kids... those kids are pretty awesome too.

Sing on!!

Final Salvo Wednesday 2012

It has been over a week since my final Salvo Wednesday. A few things prevented me from posting my finds in a timely manner... some fun, like a visit from my college roommate, and some not so fun, like 2 days of meetings about APPRs and SLOs. If you don't know what those are, consider yourself lucky. All you need to know is that they are capable of making someone like me, who very clearly loves her job and her students, rethink teaching as a career.

Anyway, on my final Wednesday of the summer I headed out to Canandaigua. My husband works there, so I met him for lunch at the Canandaigua Wegmans (they have the best dining area of all the Wegmans, I swear - outdoor seating with couches!). Then I had a meeting at FLCC to start offering my theory course as a college level course, and then, finally I made it to the Salvation Army.

Only to be disappointed. I got 2 tank tops and a really scary white blouse (not pictured) to add to my collection of concert-appropriate-but-embarrassing-to-a-teenager clothing (for students who show up to concerts inappropriately dressed). 

American Eagle, $1

Gap, $1.50

And that was it. Since it was my last chance for the summer, I couldn't go out like that... so I drove to Henrietta.

Vingt-trois arrondissements, $3.50

 I don't know what this brand is - I even Googled it in the store and couldn't figure it out - but it was in French, and is made of good quality material, and is pencil-y, so it had to come home with me.

Old Navy, $3

 You can't tell in the picture, but this skirt is built of many layers of gauzy material. Add pockets to that and I was in love!

Kenar, $2

I love necklines like that, but more importantly, I LOVE that color. And it's a soft, stretchy fabric. (sorry, fabric lovers, I'm terrible at identifying fabrics and the tag was removed from this one.)

Old Navy, $3

I have only been able to find black casual skirts this summer for whatever reason, so I was happy to find this comfy tan one.

The only other thing I bought was a Banana Republic pencil skirt... WITH POCKETS... but since it was a size 0 I thought I should probably save everyone I know the trauma of seeing me in it. I texted a former student that I suspected would fit into it and she is now the proud owner of a Banana skirt. I couldn't be expected to leave it behind, now could I? I mean... pockets!

It's back to school on Tuesday... back to the kids I love and the SLOs I decidedly do NOT love... but I think the students will outweigh the SLOs. I hope. See you all next vacation!

New Dress A Day: A Skill I Do Not Have

More than a year ago, I became fascinated by a blog called New Dress A Day. This was being written by a girl who had made it her goal to take an ugly thrift store dress (for $1 or less) and turn it into something fabulous. It was mesmerizing (look at some of the posts and you'll understand). I wanted some of those dresses for myself, and moreover, I was SURE that I could do it myself. I had thrift stores, I had a sewing machine. What more did I need?

Well, it would turn out, a little thing called skill. I bought a dress that seemed to have potential and went at it.

The length of my hair in this photo should give you a pretty good idea how long it took me to go from start to... well, let's call it finish.

First thing I did was remove the sleeves. This made an instantaneous and amazing change.

If I was wise, I would have just chopped a bunch off to shorten it and called it a day. But oh no, I just HAD to have the scalloped bottom. So, I removed the bodice from the skirt to raise the skirt and chopped off a bunch of the extra fabric.

Then I resewed the skirt to the bodice, and things were looking pretty good. Except that the under layer was crooked. Hmm.

I had to take the bodice off the bottom again and redid the whole underpart.

Success! And the most adorable success ever. If only, if only, I could wear this somewhere where I could be guaranteed to be standing in front of a wall the entire time. Because...

Darn. 

I am not going to trouble you with further pictures of my attempts to correct this problem (thus further mutilating the original layer until it is essentially unsalvageable), but suffice it to say that it is now so small that I can only JUST get into it and while the back is actually sewn together, it has a giant bump under the butt that makes me NOT want to hear the jokes my husband would make about it.

So the dress went back into a bag, and if anybody really wants it to try to fix my horrible, horrible blunders (I swear they got worse after that last picture... much worse...), let me know and it's all yours. It could have been so beautiful. But, when you can get things like this for $3.50, why do I really need to go through the exhaustion of hunkering down over a sewing machine (or the stress of ruining something with so much potential?) 

I think I'll stick with things I actually have talent for. Speaking of which... tomorrow is my final Wednesday of the summer. Fingers crossed!

Salvo Wednesday - Lightning Strikes Twice

This week, I was on my way to the Greece Salvation Army via my old pre-Henrietta route - basically 104 from Culver Road all the way to the Salvo, which is on the far side of Greece. For those of you not familiar with the Rochester area, for years this meant braving a lot of traffic lights at best and a lot of construction at worst. It has often times been quite a long trip for such a short distance.

Yesterday, the trip took me a fraction of the time. I didn't hit one light. Not ONE light. It freaked me out, frankly, and I knew something was up. I wasn't sure if it meant good things or bad (like the time there was a fire while I was shopping there and they kicked us all out, clothing unpurchased). As you are about to see, it meant very, very good things.

Limited, $3.50

 This dress is 100% silk and 100% heaven. So soft and breathable and the diagonal stripes just about kill me. It has belt loops, but I don't really think it needs a belt, do you?

Banana Republic, $4

 Banana Republic. Four dollars. Banana. Republic. Four. DOLLARS. I nearly cried for joy when I tried this one on. It was very unassuming and looked a bit shapeless on the hanger, but the fabric caught my eye and when I realized it was Banana, I knew everything was going to come out all right in the end. Aaaahh. Banana is my favorite!!

Forever 21, $3

 The green part is so soft! I am just loving these dresses with the thick stretchy elastic bands at the waist...

Xhilaration, $2.50

...obviously. Sorry it's blurry again, but I am once again far too lazy to go retake the picture. Anyway, this one is red and brown toned floral print. Pretty!

Gap, $3.50

 This material is like jammies. Or what all jammies SHOULD be, anyway. And the color is one of my favorites!

Xhilaration, $1.50

 Cute tank top... not that I'm likely to need these much longer this year. Sigh.

Mossimo, $1

 I saw this as I was walking to the checkout, and almost didn't buy it because I was NOT going back to that crazy fitting room - until I saw it was a buck. I took a chance and I'm glad i did!

Express, $6

I spent the most on anything of this trip on a SWEATER. But, if you have to wear a sweater (which I will be doing all too soon), it should look like this one. I kept almost talking myself out of it (the tag wasn't half off!!), walking away, and then turning back to look at it again... after doing this about 5 times, I gave up and bought it. I doubt that I'll regret it come fall!

One more bargain-related item that is not a Salvo find... my curls in the above pictures were brought to you courtesy of my new $8 curling iron set. It is the Cortex 4 in 1 curling iron set, which I had been keeping my eye on for several weeks, watching the price go up and down, and trying to hold out until I could reasonably afford to spend $60-80 dollars on a curling iron set. One day I checked, and in what I can only assume was a typo, it was listed for $8 instead of $80. I bought it immediately and waited for someone to contact me and tell me they'd made a mistake and I couldn't have the set for that price after all. This never happened, and I am now the happy owner of that set. For EIGHT BUCKS. This might (almost) trump all my finds this summer. Hurrah! Here's to cheap, beautiful curls!

Only one more Wednesday left in my summer, since conference days start before Labor Day this year. After this week's amazing hit, I don't have my hopes up too high... can lightning strike THREE times? I doubt it... but it won't stop me from trying.

Salvo Wednesday - Auburn

Last Wednesday, I drove out to Auburn, NY to spend the day with my mother-in-law and her sister Beth. Beth and her son, Mattia, were visiting from Italy. We did pedis... including Mattie... had lunch, and went to the Salvo, of course. Mattie was very helpful, pointing out all the things that I wouldn't fit into ("I think... your belly is bigger than last time") and announcing that it smelled bad. I have to admit to being very impressed by how good he was at being a pest in a language that was not his native tongue. 

Despite Mattie's "help", I did find a couple of nice items.

Charlotte Russe, $3.50

 The zipper on this is a little fussy, which always frustrates me. But it's cute, so it had better be worth it.

Xhilaration, $5

 I really love the shape of this one.

Wet seal, $2

I'm really feeling all about the ruffles lately. I don't really know what that's about.

I did manage to distract Mattie for a bit by telling him that my husband had his heart set on a rocking chair, and I sent him off in search of such an item. Not only did he find it (after informing me I'm married to an old man because only old men like rocking chairs), it was in beautiful shape and for only $25!

I think Greg approves. And even if Mattie says Greg's an old man, I think he likes him (and the creepy hairless Harry.)

Back to Reality Salvo Wednesday '12

"When I think something nice is going to happen I seem to fly right up on the wings of anticipation; and then the first thing I realize I drop down to earth with a thud. But really, Marilla, the flying part IS glorious as long as it lasts. . .it's like soaring through a sunset. I think it almost pays for the thud." 

"Well, maybe it does," admitted Marilla. "I'd rather walk calmly along and do without both flying and thud. But everybody has her own way of living." (Anne of Avonlea)

I wish I was a Marilla. I do. She was wiser. But I'm an Anne, through and through. And thus went this Wednesday. Last Wednesday was so epic, so amazing, that I KNEW it couldn't last. But, like Anne, I seem to fly up on wings of anticipation... and then... thud.

Translation: I went to the Irondequoit Salvo. And I. Bought. Nothing. Not one blessed thing. Nope. There was a stretchy black thing from Express that seemed promising but it couldn't make its mind up if it was a dress or a skirt and didn't fit right either way. I heaved a sigh and made my way to the city Salvo - also known as the sketchy Salvo - where, believe it or not, I did MARGINALLY better.

H&M, $6

 Black concert dress is something to be happy about. It's nice. I like it. It didn't get me giddy like every single thing last week did, but I like it.

Aeropostale, $4

 I normally don't do halter tops because they pull on my neck, but I couldn't resist the patchwork-iness of this one. Cute.

Merona, $2

Pockets. Obviously, I had to have it.

And that's all she wrote, folks. That's it. Three nice things, which is better than no nice things. I get that. But after last week... thud.