Modcloth's Stylish Surprise

Ever heard of ModCloth's Stylish Surprise sale?
I hadn't either until about a week ago. Like the photo above says, all you do is pay $15, select your size, and you're sent a random clothing item. After reading up on it a bit I had no choice but to buy myself 3. Four days of stalking the tracking email and one sleepless night later (waiting for them to come in was just like Christmas) the items finally arrived today!
Here's what I received:

First impression: Something floral! *squeel* Abstract print! *yay!* A wad of black something *hmmm*

Well, this is what they turned out to be:

The floral I was super pumped about turned out to be this lovely blouse. It's not something that I would necessarily be drawn to in a store or online, but I actually really like it. My only qualms are that the flowers on it are almost uncomfortably close to looking like a Hawaiian vacation shirt; and there is a weird ribbon on the collar that I'm not sure what to do with. *My boyfriend just told me he thinks the ribbon is cute when we make it into a bow at the very top (but I think it just looks dorky)* :p

I love, love, loved the pattern and colors of this dress. This piece is actually something that I would be drawn to in a store. The length of it is great, but it fits me a little big in the top, even though it's a small. I ended up throwing a fitted sweater on over it with a belt, and it looks fine like that. 

 This black dress is AMAZING. It fits so well and is ridiculously flattering. I only wish I had somewhere fancy to wear it to...


Overall I was really happy with my Stylish Surprises! I was really worried that (being only 5') I would end up with some really awkwardly long dress or skirt, or something a complete 180 from my regular style. It was almost like ModCloth knew me :)
I will definitely purchase from this sale again next time... hopefully I'll get this lucky again.


I couldn't find any of these items on ModCloth or other websites. If anyone knows where a link to them is, or the regular retail price, I would love to know.

Did you purchase a Stylish Surprise? If so, what did you get?!

Polyvore?!

Can you believe I only just discovered this site two days ago? I didn't think much of it at first... but then I came to my senses.

All I've been doing on my down time is creating outfits. My favorite part about this site is that you can build yourself an affordable outfit that you love, and Polyvore gives you the links to the sites where you can purchase the clothes. This is an a.m.a.z.i.n.g. perk, because one thing I need to work on is building outfits. When I go shopping I tend to just purchase individual pieces that I may love, but they never end up going with anything once I get them home. So far Polyvore has made me super pumped to build an actual cohesive wardrobe and think about my purchases instead of being so compulsive.

Successful PLNDR Haul Video!

Hey! So I'm back and with good news! After that miserably awful first attempt at a haul video, I tried some different techniques and actually ended up with something relatively decent. :D Hooray!!!

Still, it being my very first video there is definitely room for improvement. But all in all, I'm really actually very proud of how it turned out.

I'd love to hear what anybody thinks about it. Thanks!





If for some reason you can't view it on here, just click this link and it will take you directly to YouTube.

Also, if my video gets 1000 views, PLNDR may give me $100 to spend in their store. So if you like it, please share, subscribe, help a friend out?

Thrift Haul Video Bust

Last night I attempted to make a haul video using items I recently acquired on a thrifting adventure.
...turns out, I'm beyond awkward on camera. The above picture exemplifies my feelings toward the experience. Hey, it was my first time. How was I supposed to know?

So all of that effort is far too embarrassing to upload; I'm going to have to find a different means of shooting a watchable haul that hopefully doesn't include me stuttering and tripping over various potted plants the whole time.

Since that was a bust though, I'd thought I'd just upload some pics of highlights of the video so the entirety of my effort doesn't go to waste. So here ya go:

    The first items I tried to show were a sunhat and cardigan. The sunhat I actually snagged for new at Goodwill, but I've wanted one f.o.r.e.v.e.r. This particular hat is especially good because instead of being the regular neutral sun-hat color, this one has navy details woven in.
    This cardigan was a really exciting find as well. The material itself honestly isn't very pleasant: it's sort of scratchy and waxy at the same time. But I love the 3/4 sleeves and the nautical vibes it gives off. It even has an anchor embroidered on the cuff of one sleeve.
    I accessorized the outfit with yellow wedges for a pop of color, and going with the nautical theme, wore a coy fish necklace (which isn't visible, sorry).

    The next item was this very hippy floral dress. When I snagged this I intended to hem it to an above-the-knee length, mostly because I'm only 5' tall and maxi's don't usually work on my frame. This one however seems to fit pretty ok; it doesn't drag the ground and the way it flares at the bottom is particularly lovely. Also, I'm pretty sure if I chopped it off it wouldn't flow the same way, seeing as most of the material is kind of draped at the bottom. I don't know. I'm still not sure what to do with it. Thoughts?

    For styling, I just threw on a thin brown belt to cinch my waist, a crochet shawl, and some simple sandals. On my head, which you can't see, I had on a brown leather headband. 

    The next item is a houndstooth dress. I loved this find because it's actually a relatively new item (the tag says it's from Body Central), but the shape of it is really mod. Without the cardigan and belt, the shape of the dress is very a-line and just so flattering. It makes me feel about 10lbs lighter somehow. 

    I styled this one a little simpler because I intended for it to be a work outfit, so I just threw on a jewl-toned cardigan and black belt. For my shoes I'm wearing mustard pumps that I love from plndr. 

     My last outfit is... yes, kind of silly. The thrifted find is the mint cargo pants. I've been wanting a pair of mint skinnies soooooo badly for the longest time, but every time I have the money for a pair I either can't find any in my size or the color isn't the "right" shade of mint, etc etc. Anyway, when I spotted these mint cargo's I though, meh why not? Turns out, because of a lot of reasons.

   I did my best with these. I know that they came from a juniors section of some store, but it seemed like no matter what I did they just kept looking so, so young. In the end I decided to just go with it and paired them with this awesome rainbow bunny T, and attempted to tone the whole thing down a dark grey cardigan. 

    Gotta say, these pants are not my proudest moment, but at least they make good slumming around clothes, because if nothing else, they sure are comfy. :)

Nothing Like a Thrift Find Refashion

Sometimes there will be a thrift find that is too good to pass up, but too bad to wear as-is. One thing I absolutely love is making the unwearable wearable. Here are a few thrift store revamps that I've done in the past. It has been far too long, and I can't wait to do more of these this summer and share what I come up with!

Please try and excuse the horrible angles and focus. One of the many things I hope to improve upon with this blog.

That Stuff That Comes Out of the Ground: Round 1- Cucumber

So I think mentioned before how I wanted to eventually become a vegetarian, however I am afraid to just jump into it because besides corn, green beans, and carrots, my knowledge of veggies isn't very vast. I've kind of made a little pact with myself to purchase a new kind of vegetable or green every time I go grocery shopping. This trip I landed on cucumbers.

I've had cucumbers before on sandwiches or in a salad, but I'm in more of a side-dish frame of mind for them. I found several recipes for cucumber salad and (lacking some key ingredients for each recipe I found) decided to give that a try.

What I used:

• Cucumber
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• couple shakes of dried dill weed
• salt & pepper
• then... a little water to dilute it because the vinegar smell was so strong

Then I just mixed everything together in a big bowl and let it marinade. Perhaps the marination part is where this dish lost me- it all just ended up tasting like regular ol' cucumbers. (I'm pretty sure the marination process is supposed to last longer than 30 minutes) Although it might have been the part where I diluted it. Ooops. 

Anyway, wasn't bad, wasn't great. Hindsight says I should have saved half the cucumber or gotten another one and tried a few different cooking techniques with it. Oh well, this was the first round after all. We'll do better next time! 

To go with the cucumbers we had delicious chicken parm tonight. There's nothing like crispy cheese. Mmmmmmmmm! 

Oh, and notice our tasty beverages. The one in the cutesy pink bottle was my boyfriend's. 

DIY River Stone Planter

I was recently skimming through Pinterest when I came across this link, and though to myself, Hey! I can do that too! And with mother's day just a little while ago and father's day coming up I decided that I had found the perfect DIY gift for each of them.

This was actually a super simple DIY. After slyly convincing my dad to let me have his extra terra cotta pots, and armed with only my glue gun, I set to work. Here's how I did it:

What you'll need:

• River stones (found mine at Dollar Tree, but can also be found at any craft store)
• Hot glue gun
• Plastic or clay planter

This project is pretty much a time consuming exercise in puzzles. All I did was, starting at the base of the pot, glue rocks on one-by-one. I found it really fun trying to find the perfect shapes and sizes to fit into each next place.

And before you know it you'll have a beautiful collection of unique planters. These are awesome to give as gifts or keep all to yourself. Since the first two, I've pretty much been making these constantly. 

Then all that's left to do is find some lovely flowers to compliment your new creation.

I really love these little guys, as my best friend pointed out, they look like little orange caterpillars. :)

Enjoy!