Thrift Eye

Blame it on all that buzz about the new Great Gatsby movie, or the fact that my haircut had finally reached that really annoying in between phase (doubled when you have an asymmetrical haircut!), I knew it was time to go for it and just get that haircut!

What’s amazing is that because I have had this blog for so long (!) I can go back into my archives and pinpoint the time when my hair was last this short – with reference to this post, it seems to be early 2009. Since my hair is naturally curly, I thought I’d see how it would look with bouncy set of curls. And I actually really like it! I need to figure out how to do these fingerwaves next!

Since I already was channeling the 20′s, I thought dressing up with a nautical touch would also be fun!

Top: Saint James thrifted (a cute short sleeve version here!). Pants: Zara slacks. Shoes: Rachel Comey from Wasteland.

I also got to wear this outfit with my vintage red blazer, but none of those pictures came out for some reason! I only have this close up shot – but glad I was able to capture my cute Sally Hansen salon effects strips manicure :)

I can’t believe that two months ago I had long mermaid hair that would nearly choke me to death every day and now it’s more of a run a brush-through-it-and-go routine! I love it! I want everyone around me to get short haircuts now :)

This past Spring Break was a true break for me. I brought my camera, but just couldn’t find the patience to take photos while I was in Southern California. I spent 99% of it with my family and just wanted to enjoy being with them since now that I’ve finished school, this will probably be the last “Spring Break” I ever get to enjoy! So I leave you with the two photos I did remember to take -

Having a family member who is a nail art addict gives me the chance to play around with a rainbow of colors. Since it was Easter time, I thought I’d dress them up as jelly beans :)

My new favorite boots! Perfect for walking the San Francisco hills or with shorts for the summer (who am I kidding, I probably won’t wear shorts). These are by Sam Edelman.

Now I’m back home getting caught up with the real real world :)

A few months ago when I finally had time to plug in my record player after one long year of no music, nothing came out. The record player would just not work. I had listened to one of those as seen on tv CD compilations from the 70′s and I really wanted to listen to my Carole King album. But the damn thing would not play music! I resisted all temptation to kick it – we even opened up it up to tinker with it, thinking we could somehow magically fix it. If I could show you how incredibly simple the insides of this record player was, you would be just as shocked as we were to see that we wouldn’t be able to fix something that was nothing. So I closed it up and didn’t think about it for a few more months.

Then the other day I tried again, and….it didn’t work again. But in frustration I turned it on and off about 50 times and you know what? It turned on! I think the on knob just wasn’t triggering the switch to connect to power. I don’t know what happened, but I do know that I’m so happy it’s working again. So much that I wanted to take a picture with it before we went out for a few drinks the other night.

My look was very  retro – my makeup was a bit more exaggerated than I typically wear, most notably the eyebrows. I wish I could have thick eyebrows all the time!

Dress: Vintage Guess thrifted. Tights: fleeced lined tights (BEST thing for winter!). Shoes: Banana Republic, thrifted. Headband: American Apparel twist scarf. Blanket: vintage Hudson Bay. And if you’re feeling cool – Tapestry by Carole King :)

I’m starting to feel like I’m meant to be in vintage all the time!

Four years ago when I wrote this post, I shared that I had finally begun working on Master’s degree. It has been a very long journey (mostly because I have had to go to school part time and work full time) and it always took a toll on the blog. It was always me juggling school, work (two jobs at the same time at two different points since I’ve had this blog), blogging, family, and my personal life. Graduate school is a grueling piece of work that I’m not sure I’d wish on anyone. But I just turned in the last final paper I will ever write and I will soon be able to really call myself a librarian (you can’t technically call yourself a librarian unless you have this specialized degree).

Someone recently had asked me what my inspiration behind my Literary take on Fashion series was – and really it was just trying to find a way to integrate my passion for books into this blog. Not really related to thriftyness, so I hope you all don’t mind. But I’ve been dropping some big hints along the way.

Like my side blog where I talk about Multicultural picture books and the racism that prevails in many of them.

Or my other side inspiration blog Beautiful with Books – sharing pictures of all kinds of women reading books.

Then there’s my Goodreads profile where you can see what I’m currently reading.

My passion is for books, bringing literacy to people of all cultures, and now with my degree, I’m excited for whatever the future has in store. Thanks for coming along with me on this roller coaster.

PS. If you are interested in the program I did, click here. It is a completely online Master’s program through a real university. I encourage you to take a look if you’ve ever been curious about working in a library – they really need people who are minorities or can speak languages other than English.

PPS. Thank you to everyone who entered the Splendid giveaway, it is now closed! A winner will be announced very soon :)