September 30, 2010

Vintage Sale

I would love to not post this and just keep everything for myself, but I'm feeling benevolent today.

Hospice Foundation of The East Bay
VINTAGE SALE!!!!
Vintage Clothing, Jewelry, Linens,
Accessories and Collectibles


We are having our annual Vintage Sale
at all of our Thrift Shoppe locations!

October 8th, 9th, 10th
Hospice Thrift Shoppe - Concord
5350 Clayton Road
Concord (925) 674-9072

Hospice Thrift Shoppe - Danville
444 Diablo Road
Danville (925) 838-7697

October 15th, 16th, 17th
Hospice Thrift Shoppe - Alamo
3162 Danville Boulevard, Suite A
(Stone Valley Plaza)
Alamo (925) 820-6525

Hospice Boutique Thrift Shoppe - Walnut Creek
1345 Newell Avenue - A
Walnut Creek (925) 947-1064

October 22nd, 23rd, 24th
Hospice Thrift Shoppe - Antioch
2742 Delta Fair Boulevard
Antioch (925) 777-0866

Hospice Boutique Thrift Shoppe - Dublin
7381 Amador Valley Boulevard
Dublin (925) 875-9976

Friday and Saturday, 10 - 5 pm
Sunday, 12 - 5 pm


Most items will be reduced by 50%
on the last sale day at each store.

September 14, 2010

Meet Your New Best Friend


I've been wanting to do this post for awhile since it plays such a HUGE part in determining what I thrift-fully buy. But being a perfectionist combined with a procrastinator, I just haven't dug up either the nerve or the drive to do it yet. So I'm going to put my perfectionism on the back burner and be both artfully lazy and innovative at the same time and use pictures that I already have, rather than new ones taken specifically for this post.
On to the point!

Alterations.

They're the key to your thrift store finds. When I shop I look primarily for fabrics that I like and move on from there. It can be size10,000, but if it's made of good fabric (i.e. nothing synthetic) you can make it work specifically for you.
(Before we move on, please note the high-tech photo-shopping program I bought to simulate what the following outfits looked like before. )

Exhibit A:
Shorts. Technically I didn't buy these at a thrift store, but they were on clearance and were hideously ugly before I bought them. Imagine bell-bottoms made for a child that fit my hips, but are so short that they hit me right in the middle of my calves. I'm mentally going "Blechh" just remembering-- and then mentally blocking out the fact that I actually wore them a couple of times like that.
But with the magic of my sewing machine...
BA-ZING!


Exhibit B:

My favorite outfit that I've ever altered. This romper was originally a jumpsuit a la' Katharine Hepburn. Unfortunately, being 30-40 years old, the legs were all stained around the bottom with no hope of ever being removed. Except by scissors! Cut. Roll. Iron. Sew. Done. *PING* Completely new romper.


Next time I'll take some actual before/after pictures, even though I know these recreations were so incredibly accurate it was probably hard to even discern that they had been edited.


And yes, that is the hotel in Runaway Bride.