Home Decor Thrift Flips

Fruit Basket (Macrame)

This project took a little while for the idea to come to fruition. I was thrifting one day and came across a simple, wire hanging plant basket that was green. It was a great price and something just told me I shouldn’t pass it up. It sat around for a little while in my studio until I was thinking about how I desperately needed a bigger fruit basket that wouldn’t take up a lot of counter space. I had just seen a video on macrame and decided why not give it a shot! I ordered this set of wooden beads and loops plus a roll of macrame cord from Amazon. While I waited for those to arrive in the mail, I used this flat black spray paint to cover the bright green color. Once it was dried, I cut 16 very long cords of macrame cord, searched how to make a square knot, and made up my own knotting pattern, periodically adding wooden beads. I attached the wooden loops together to make the basket longer and attached it to a hook I already had in my kitchen. The thing I love about this project is that there are a ton of ways you could make this!

Terra Cotta Candles (Spray Paint and candle making)

I always find short, wide, glass, circular vases at the thrift store for super cheap. One day I picked two up for $1 each and decided it was time to try making my own candles. Instead of trying to master candle making, I simply went to the clearance section of Homegoods and purchased 2 candles about the same size as my vases (so that it would fill nicely) that I liked the smell of. The design of the candle doesn’t matter since you will be ‘rehoming’ the wax. The day before repotting my candles, I used this AMAZING terra cotta spray paint and added about 3 thin layers of spray paint on each vase. It’s important to note that before you spray paint anything glossy or glass, it’s important to make sure you clean it off really well with soap or alcohol. If you do thick of a layer it will start clumping or dripping because it is a textured spray paint. You want to make sure everything is covered well. If you are going for a true terra cotta dupe you’ll want to make sure that you do a good amount of coats. As you can see below, I thought it was covered, but it was still a bit transparent when it was dry. I don’t mind this for a candle however because some of the light shines through. After I was done painting, I let them dry overnight.

The next day, I got a big soup pot and filled it about half way with water (making sure it was a couple inches below the top of my candles), let the water come to an almost boil, and put the candles in. I let them melt for about 45 minutes, checking on them every 10 minutes or so. While they were melting, I hot glued the new wicks I purchased onto the bottom of each vessel. Depending on the size of your new vessel, you might have to do multiple (as you can see I did three). Once they are melted you can take them out (I pulled the wicks out to make them easier to pour) and gently using potholders (the candles will be hot), I poured them into the newly wicked candle vases. Once the wax was in, I used some chopsticks to wrap the excess candle wicks around so they would stay standing up as the candle wax hardened.

Coasters (spray paint)

These were easy and left me amazed as always, at how easily a coat of spray paint can change a thrifted item. Using the same flat black spray paint, I sprayed both sides of these wooden coasters and now I have beautiful matte black coasters that match my living room decor so well.

Lamp (Painted base)

Another quick flat matte spray paint save, I found this lamp and actually hated the shade when the base was it’s original, glossy brick red color. I figured I’d spray paint it and get a new shade, but I found that once I sprayed it, I actually liked the shade with the base. When looking for items that are easy to spray paint, try your best to look at textures and shape and NOT the color!

Terra Cotta Hurricane Candle Holder

My last spray paint thrift flip, I had this huge clear glass hurricane glass vase laying around for years, not knowing what to use it for. I decided to try the Terra Cotta spray paint, fill it with coffee beans, and use it as a way to turn a candle into a statement piece for fall. I love that when the candle warms, it makes the coffee beans smell stronger. I’m excited to use this piece from season to season, changing up what’s inside for different holidays!

Which thrift flip is your favorite? Have you been inspired to spray paint something?! haha Let me know in the comments below.

Sending you cozy vibes,

Andrea

January 20x20 Fashion Challenge

When Katie over at @whatkatefinds, first mentioned that she was going to do a 20 x 20 for the first 20 days of January, I was instantly intrigued. After doing my mini capsule for Chicago in September (Click here to read about that), I knew that a true capsule closet was never going to work for me. However, I still love the principal of it and that it forces you to be more creative when putting your outfits together. As Katie encouraged others to join her, I knew that I wanted to try it out and see what happened. So today I’m sharing just that. My thoughts on choosing 20 clothing items only to wear for 20 days.

I am quite the planner, so you better believe I started a list in December, categorizing tops, bottoms, jackets, etc and even going as far to assigning each clothing piece a number. I knew that I wanted to choose some versatile classic pieces like a graphic tee and high waisted denim Levi’s, but I also knew I wanted to have some fun. I didn’t want to just wear a top and a bottom and call it good (although as you’ll see below, sometimes that’s all I had the energy for haha).

Here is the list of 20 items I chose to work with for the 20 days:

1. Sleeveless leopard blouse

2. Mustard cardigan

3. Cream crew neck sweater

4. Tan/Beige crew neck sweater

5. Orchid Redefining Beauty Graphic Tee

6. Gray embroidered floral sweatshirt

7. Black & White striped tee shirt

8. Long sleeved White Redefining Beauty Graphic Tee

9. Light Wash Denim Button Down Shirt

10. Camel Brown Turtleneck

11. Olive Green Short Sleeved Maxi Dress

12. Gold Pleated Velvet Skirt

13. Leopard Skirt

14. Black Paperbag Waist Pants

15. Burgundy Leggings

16. Medium Wash High Waisted Levi’s

17. Black Levi’s

18. Black Adidas Leggings with White stripes

19. Black & White Hounds-tooth Blazer

20. Olive Green Blazer

One thing that I wanted to be really conscience of with this 20 x 20 challenge, was to choose a lot of thrifted items since that’s all I’m purchasing this year and to show you guys how versatile and on trend thrifted pieces can truly be! 11 of the 20 items ended up being thrifted.

There were some exceptions that I wanted to share before I get into the outfits and what I thought about this whole experience…

• Shoes were not included in this because I live in Michigan and during this 20 days we experienced rain, sun, lots of snow, and more.

• While I did include two pairs of workout leggings, I did not wear them to workout and didn’t include my workout clothing. I knew I would need clean workout clothes for most of these days and that would make for a LOT of laundry, so I wore other items to workout in.

• Accessories for me were also not included because this is what I think truly helps you change up a look and style a few items many different ways.

Below are the 20 outfits I created with the 20 pieces of clothing (Scroll to the right):

Overall, I loved this challenge. I created some outfits that I probably NEVER would have put together had it not been for the limited choices I had for the 20 days. I definitely think that if you plan this challenge properly, i.e. plan in advance and think through your items and how you could potentially style them, it makes for a much more successful 20 days. Here are some other pros to this challenge:

• Getting dressed was so much quicker in the morning because I only had a certain amount of clothing laid before me to work with. If I knew I wanted to wear a particular item, I would start with that and quickly build around it.

• I purposely planned this challenge to coincide with a No-Spend month, which was perfect timing because I wasn’t tempted to go thrifting since I knew I couldn’t wear any potential finds until the 20 days were up.

• I can tend to wear a lot of easy outfits like sweaters and leggings in the winters so I like that this challenge forced me to wear more dresses, skirts, pants, etc, during the week.

• I definitely felt a sense of gratitude for the items I have in my closet and really thought about how excessive we can be when it comes to fashion. You don’t need hundreds of items to create a bunch of unique outfits. I love that I did this challenge during January because I think it set a good tone for the rest of the year.

However, I will say that by days 18, 19, & 20 I was starting to be over the challenge. I have to admit that while I did technically style a 20th outfit for day 20, I didn’t wear it because I only left the house to go workout and ended up putting PJ’s on after my workout so that I could be comfortable for the rest of my snowy, work from home day.

I am really happy to be back to creating outfits from my entire closet now, but I will definitely do another 20 x 20 this spring or summer! I am really happy that I chose this as one of my 2020 goals (click here to read the other 19 goals), and I encourage you to try something similar if you want to test out a capsule wardrobe, but don’t know if it’s realistic for you!

Have you ever done a challenge like this? What are your thoughts on the matter? Comment below and let me know!

Have a great day,

Andrea

Mini Windy City Capsule

I have seen capsule closet’s talked about a lot recently and while I have never been tempted to actually convert my closet into one, I wanted to challenge myself with creating a ‘Mini Capsule Wardrobe’ for my trip to Chicago last week. When you take the train to Chicago, you can only bring what you can carry, so I knew I wanted to pack as light as possible, and figured now was the chance to try this.

In case you are unfamiliar with a Capsule closet or wardrobe, it’s essentially a minimalist approach to setting up your closet. There are no set rules, so you are able to customize as it choose, but you basically choose a set number of items (say 30) and only have that many in your closet to choose from when styling yourself every day. Most people change out their capsules every season because of the weather changes.

So here were the rules I determined for myself with this mini capsule challenge:

1. Only pack 5 items to create my outfits with for 3 days, 2 nights.

2. Pajamas don’t count since they are for sleeping (and grabbing donuts in my case haha).

3. Shoes and accessories also don’t count because 5 is a very small number!

4. I allowed myself one light jacket to keep in my suitcase only in case of emergency. I knew that the weather in Chicago this time of year could be very temperamental so the last thing I wanted to do was get too cold and have to buy a jacket. That felt like it was defeating the purpose of the challenge.

Items I chose:

1. Black Levis

2. Black Slip Dress

3. Graphic Tee (bought from my artist friend Jilly Makes

4. Red Blazer

5. Leopard Short-Sleeved Button Down Top

The really cool thing about the items I chose was that 4 out 5 of them were thrifted! I wasn’t planning to do mostly thrifted items, but I ended up loving that I was able to show you how versatile thrifted clothing can really be!

2 Daytime Outfits:

2 Nighttime Outfits:

What I loved about this challenge:

I loved how easy it was to pack for this trip! Since I wanted to make sure that I loved the outfit potential of the pieces together, it forced me to think about it ahead of time. I normally wait until the last second to pack for a trip, so this helped me plan ahead and sped up the process a little. Am I the only one who throws a bunch of stuff in a suitcase when they travel, hoping that they can create an outfit out of it when they get to their destination?

I also loved how easy it was to get dressed during my stay in Chicago. It forced me to be more creative with my outfits overall, but I loved how it took me no longer than a couple of minutes to get dressed every time I wanted to change.

Lastly, I loved how this challenge forced me to play with accessories more. Since I wanted to make each outfit unique, I loved how I was able to transform my vibe with hair clips, scarves, shoes, earrings, etc.

What I hated about this challenge:

The hardest thing for me about this challenge was that I wanted to break free of it the first day! It probably didn’t help that I bought some fun new pieces as soon as I got to Chicago, so I wanted to wear them, but I found myself not being as excited about my outfits. It was fun the first day, but after that, I was wishing I had just one more item to choose from!

I didn’t love that I chose to do the challenge during the unpredictable fall weather. It ended up being really hot the first day and I wish I had had a tank or something to swap out or my tee.

What I learned:

I learned exactly what I thought I would. Capsule closets are not for me. I love getting dressed in the mornings. It’s fun to pair different things together, especially now that I’m doing a lot of thrifting. The challenge was fun in the beginning but as soon as I knew what outfits I could wear, it lost the excitement that I normally have when creating an outfit.

Would I do it again and what would I do differently?

I would totally do this challenge again, but only if it was for another trip or a short period of time at home. I know that I would not enjoy turning my entire closet into a capsule, but I think it’s a fun way to get a little creative on a trip. I just love having options and as long as I’m not buying everything new and contributing too much to fast fashion, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a bigger closet.

If I were to do it again though, I would do it during a season with more consistent weather and I would try 7 or 8 items instead of 5, which is still really good!

Have you ever tried a capsule closet, big or small? What are your thoughts on the matter? Tell me below in the comments.

Have a great day!

Andrea

How I Thrift: Tips & Tricks

I told you this post was coming! haha I have truly fallen in love with thrifting and I am so excited to finally talk more about it with you. I know initially I was going to have my friend Margaret (@margaretellenhess) write this post, but she opened a thrifted/antiqued/new shop (@edgewoodplaceoccasions) within an antique store, and her plate became very full. Instead I’m going to have her talk a little bit about her shop on here soon, so those of you who are local to the Jackson/ surrounding areas, can go visit her shop if you’d like!

Majority of my inspiration and love for thrifting has come from Margaret and also my friend Mercedes (@mercedesrichelle). Thank you ladies for bringing this fun hobby into my life that allows me to re-purpose items that are still good (aka reduce my waste) and tap into a whole new way to express my creativity!

Get a cart the second you walk in the door.

The first time I thrifted with my best friend Margaret, she insisted I get a cart when we walked in. I remember thinking like ‘WTF Margs, we’ve been here for 2 seconds, I haven’t even found anything”. BUT GUYS. It makes perfect sense! If you don’t get a cart, you have to carry things in your hands as you find them. This means you don’t have both hands free for searching through racks and that you’re more likely to get tired and overwhelmed because it will feel like a lot of work. If you have a cart, you can throw in whatever you want and don’t have to hold anything! For this reason I also suggest a cross-body purse so that you don’t have to hold that.

If you are drawn to the fabric, fit, whatever, PUT it in the cart.

This is the other MAJOR tip my friend Margaret taught me. If you gravitate towards a piece for a certain reason, just throw it in the cart. It’s impossible to know exactly how it’s going to fit until you try it on and you might be pleasantly surprised by items you never thought would work. Plus sometimes you can figure out a way to style something a certain way that makes it better than what it looks like on the hanger…but more on this in a little bit.

Go with plenty of time to move slowly. It’s not a race.

One of the worst things you can do is go in a rush. I find myself feeling more anxious and overwhelmed when I am rushing myself through racks. Thrifting is not always quick and there’s no guarantee that you will find anything, so it’s important to give yourself plenty of time to treasure hunt.

Bring a friend.

I love thrifting on my own, but it’s always easier and more fun when I bring a friend. I love weird prints and sometimes it’s hard to tell whether something is cute or too dated. Having a friend to give you a quick yes or no can move the process a long faster. Also it may help you to say yes to certain things and step out of your comfort zone!

Keep a running list of items you are looking for on your phone.

Since you don’t always know what you’re going to find at the thrift store I like to always have a list of the general types of pieces I am looking for, for my wardrobe. This helps me keep ideas in the back of my head so that I’m not trying to search every inch of the store every time I go in. Sometimes I really want graphic tees so I’ll head to that area first. This makes me feel like I have a plan in an environment that can sometimes feel a little unorganized and chaotic.

Don’t expect to find everything in one day. Go often.

Thrifting is definitely a marathon hobby. You cannot expect to walk in every time and find 20 new items for super inexpensive prices. If you have the right mindset and work to appreciate the process. It makes the thrill that much better when you find amazing items. I like to go often but only for about 30-60 minutes so that I’m never reaching the point of getting sick of it, any time I go. Also, depending on your thrift store, they might put new items out frequently. So it’s always in your best interest to go often.

Ignore sizes.

This one is so important because sizing is not a universal thing between clothing lines. The standard of sizing within a brand has also changed over the decades, so it’s impossible to know exactly what your size would be. There will most likely be a mix of vintage and current pieces so don’t only go for racks in your size. Some stores are organized by size and some are by color, so it’s important to make sure that you’re looking at everything! I just found a blouse that I am obsessed with and guess what… it’s a size 22W! While I knew it was going to be too big, I had to try it on because I was obsessed with the pattern of the fabric. Fast forward to the fitting room, and after a tie in the front and slight tuck into my high-waisted, tight Levi’s, it became the most ADORABLE over-sized top for super hot days this summer.

Try things on.

Some people get weirded out by trying things on, but I cannot tell you how crucial it is. There are so many pieces that I probably would have bought had I not tried them on because I thought they’d look great when on the hanger. There’s also so many pieces I would have never bought (i.e. that floral size 22W top) had I not been able to put it on and style or tuck it exactly how I’d want to wear it. I obviously wash everything when I bring it home on a deep wash or sterilize washing machine setting, but I think the trying on process is so key to making sure things fit right and you aren’t wasting money. Remember, just because things are inexpensive DOESN’T mean we want to waste our money. A shirt you never wear is still a waste of money, no matter how much you paid for it.

Some of my favorite pieces to get at the Thrift Store:

1. Blazers

2. Denim

3. Button-Down Blouses

4. Workout Tops

5. Basics

6. Skirts

7. Jackets/Coats

8. Accessories (Belts, bags, scarves, etc.)

I think this is all I’m going to talk about for now because I want to talk about thrifting on a more regular basis on my blog. I have truly fallen in love with every part of it, so I’m excited to share my finds with you all. I asked on Instagram if you’d like to see monthly thrifting hauls and how I style the items with those I already have and got a very postive response. More than half of you wanted to see them as IGTV episodes, but a good amount of you wanted them as blog posts, so I think I’ll still post on here every time I make a video that corresponds for those of you who just want to read!

If you have any additional tricks for thrifting leave them below! Also tell me your favorite thing you’ve EVER thrifted below.

Have a beautiful day,

Andrea