More shopping

   The other day, my aunt and her mother-in-law took my sister and I out for lunch then for a little shopping trip to thank us for taking care of their dogs the last week.  Although I wasn't nearly as lucky on this shopping trip as I was the last one, (we literally went into almost every single store at the outlet mall) I still managed to find this soft and chic yellow pin-striped Ralph Lauren oxford.  Although I set out searching for some more short-sleeved, warmer weather shirts, a girl cannot say no to a nice oxford (I now have one in almost every color...)

   One thing that I have learned from trying to pack for college: you really have no idea how much stuff you have until you have to fit everything in suitcases!  I have spent hours and days organizing and reorganizing my stuff to fit into as little number of  bags as possible... and don't even get me started on going through my computer and trying to transport everything onto my new hard drive! CRAZY!

Back-To-School Shopping

Pea Coat: Forever 21, $5

Rose T-Shirt: Forever 21, free (Buy one, get one)

Floral Blazer: H&M, $5

Gray dress: H&M, $10

Navy Capri Trousers: H&M, $7

Flare Jeans: H&M, $7

Navy Tube Skirt: H&M, $6

White Tank Dress: H&M $5

   Every year, my grandma takes my sister and I shopping for back-to-school clothes.  This year, we went to the mall to Forever 21 and H&M (besides local vintage shops, target, and the occasional TJ Maxx trip, those are the only stores I actually shop in anyway) and I stretched our budget as far as it could go.  In fact, I got everything (besides the gray dress, which I bought with my own money) UNDER my grandmother's $50 budget!  I honestly think that this has definitely been my most successful shopping mission in a long time.

P.S. Sorry for the poor quality, I had to take the pics with my iPod and try to salvage their quality with the free photoshop app... In other words, I really need to fix my old/get a new camera! Especially since I'm going to college in less than a month and will most definitely need to document everything!  Anyone have any suggestions for a girl on a budget?

The Kooks

After a long day at work, I ventured to see The Kooks this weekend: my 15-year-old self's impossible dream!  Although it was insanely hot, it was SPECTACULAR!  I drove down with my friend, and it took a lot shorter than we had expected, which was awesome.  When we arrived, we waited in the quickly growing line for a while, talking to his brother and his bro's girlfriend, before I met a girl that I'll be going to college with next year! I talked to her for a while, met her friends, and then we went inside, and reconnected after a little while.

The openers were (surprisingly) excellent, so the concert started off on a good note.  Plus, it seriously helped that we were just two rows of people away from the front!  After a while, due to the insane amount of people in the small, standing-room-only bar, it got hot and crowded very, very quickly.  Before The Kooks even came on stage, four people had to be carried away because they fainted of heat exhaustion!  Thankfully, they started giving away their $3 waters into the crowd and spraying us with the leftovers to cool us down.  I was pushed, elbowed, and crowded by sweaty people the whole night, but it was fantastic.  I was literally within feet of the beautiful Luke Pritchard, and it was all worth it.

After the concert, we went to the gas station next door and got huge ice-cold water bottles, and sat outside in the cool (finally!!) air to talk for a while.  It was such a fantastic night, I'm so glad I was able to go, meet new people, and listen to AWESOME music!

What I wore:

An old tank from my Grandma that I fitted, my mom's old shorts

What I heard:

Sway The Kooks

Slave Northern Faces (Formerly Around the World and Back)

Wild #2 Royal Teeth

What I saw:

Luke Pritchard from The Kooks my friend's photo

Northern Faces (formerly Around the World and Back) their website

Definitely need to do it again sometime SOON!

{Polyvore} Prints

Prints by heytherehayley featuring Current/Elliott shorts

Lately, I've been all about wearing more colorful and unique prints.  I've always been a sucker for floral, and I've recently jumped on the tribal printed bandwagon.  I haven't gotten confident enough yet to mix different prints, but I can't wait until summer when I'll finally have enough money to go shopping again and try out some new pairings!

DIY: Cut-out Oxford

I have an abundance of plain white large men's oxfords that my dad has kept, but hasn't worn in ages.  I've grown out of simply belting over-sized garments, so I decided to add some life to some of them!  This is the second one that I've refurbished (I haven't photographed the first one yet, but I will soon and share!) and I am really pleased with its turnout.  Since this is the second white oxford I've upcycled (and this one is clearly a lot older, shown by its oldness stains) I think I'll dye it... I just haven't decided what color or if I'm going to just dye it one color, or do sort of an ombre-look.  (I'll have to practice that a lot though- I'm thinking it'll be really difficult, so I might just stick to one color!)

Anyway, this is the find that inspired me this morning, while catching up on cool finds that I've missed out on lately on StyleSays (shirt originally from Lulu's):

Lulu's

I'm really digging the neon mint color as well, but I don't think I'll be able to find a cheap dye in that color!  We'll see what colors I'll be able to find at Joann's or Wal-Mart, and if I decide to attempt the ombre look, here are some pieces I'll be using as inspiration:

topshop

asos

shopbop

Before:

After:

I simply trimmed the front to give the shorter in the front, longer in the back look (which I thought was hideous when I first saw the trend, but have since fallen in love with it and admired its flattery on my frame!)

I then cut the fabric, along the line where the collar buttoned on, creating a diagonal about one-inch wide stripe.  I then just removed the buttons that kept down the collar and sewed them on again, though at a wider angle, outside of the cut-out rather than inside of it.

To add another little touch, I cutout a little trapezoid in the middle of the back, which is a bit awkward shown on camera, and looks kind of stupid in person too, but I can't do anything about it now... haha. On the bright side, though, it'll be easy to cover up if I wear my hair down...

So that's it!  The total cost of creation was $0, since I had the shirt and all of the sewing tools already, but if I decide to dye it, it'll cost me about $3.  3 bucks for a brand new, trendy shirt?  Yes please!

I'll keep you updating with the dying technique I decide to use!

Happy Easter or Passover to you and your families and enjoy the beautiful spring weather!

Fashion Friday

Today was quite the flustering day... I have felt like I have been in the Twilight zone all day... Thankfully though, I was able to finally enjoy the beautiful weather and sit outside by the lake!

Any who, last night I stayed up later than usual because of the opening of a brand new website!  It's from the creators of one of my favorite (and one of the most addicting) sites, StyleSays (as you can see in my sidebar) and it's fabulous!

It's called VogueWriter, and it's an awesome way to discover new stores and styles while seeing others opinions and creating your own.  Basically, it's a way to save pieces of clothing that speak to you- and make them speak to others.  It's a collection of clothing, beauty, and accessory stories!

And to make it even better, you can subscribe to your favorite stores and your friends to get opinions and discover more interesting tidbits.

Not sure? What if I told you that with every ReWrite that you did, item that you liked, person or store that you subscribed to, and time someone ReWrote, liked, or subscribed to you back, you got points, and with those points you could possibly win access to sales from new designers and brands.  Who could say no to new clothes up to 70% off!?

All in all, I've become obsessed (as I figured) and I've been given 25 invitations to share with anyone!

So, if you're interested (I don't know why you wouldn't be...) e-mail me and I'll send you an invitation and you can be one of the very first members (bragging rights included!)

Grocery Fashion

What I'm wearing: Aeropostale sunglasses, Pashmina scarf, vintage jacket, vintage purse, H&M jeans, and Aldo oxfords.

It's a bit blurry since I don't have a proper camera and therefore have to take pictures on my iPod but with all of these awesome apps that I'm discovering, it makes it totally worth it!  I have been rarely putting much effort into how I dress at school since, well, let's face it: I'm now a second semester senior who has been accepted to all (but one) of her colleges.  There really isn't much of anything I put a whole lot of effort into now- especially when that thing requires waking up before the sun does.
Anyway, since I end up wearing comfy jeans and sweaters almost everyday, I've been putting extra fashion effort into doing simpler things, such as grocery shopping, like today.

Now that my workload has plateaued and I have extra time on my hands, I've been getting back into my creative streak.  I've been experimenting with many different knitting patters and DIYs and I can't wait to share some of my creations!  Although I promised myself on New Year's that I would start to get back into reading and writing, I'm content with my returned craftiness!

Hopefully I continue to be inspired and continue to think of cool stuff to make! (I'm even thinking about starting my own Etsy shop!)