T-Shirt Re-Construction

     Since I've pruned my wardrobe back substantially and with money being tight, I can't exactly go out and buy replacements for what I sold. Instead, I've been doing a lot of t-shirt make overs (I accidentally shrank three of Kris's t-shirts a few months back and now I have ideas for what to do with them!). Most have failed miserably, but I found a few that turned out really well.

    The first is the racer back tank, like this here. I turned two of Kris' shirts into these and they're great for house days, or for when we go jogging. It was a really easy, no-sew way to make shirts that were way too big for me and honestly, looked quite icky on into something that I enjoy wearing. But that's not all folks!

   I also played around with this shirt idea from Sew What's Happening?, but I accidentally cut the skinny strap too skinny and ended up have to cut the whole side off and replace it with a different strip of fabric. It turned out okay, but it doesn't sit properly-I may just have to turn the whole thing into t-shirt yarn.

   My all-time favorite was the one shoulder rendition (the link to which I can't find to save my life). But I basically took a wide collared t-shirt and cut one sleeve off at an angle and then sewed the side back up.  It took forever because I don't have a sewing machine here, but the results are still pretty good. This used to be one of my favorite t-shirts, but I stopped wearing it for the longest time because it simply wasn't fashionable. Now I wear it once a week because it's so cute. I feel like I fit in with all of the super chic twenty-somethings that I see at the grocery store now. Plus, I just love the effortless sexiness of a one shouldered shirt. Once I get a paycheck, I plan on running down to Ross or Old Navy or Goodwill and buying some cheap tees so I can make more. :)

Coaster Craze

Our old coasters

   As you know, while I've been waiting for people to want to give me a job, I've been bored out of my mind. As a break from the endless stream of applications, I like to indulge in some Pinterest crafting. Unfortunately, I was running out of money to make things, so I had to use what I already had. Whilst sitting on the couch one day, I looked down at the coasters on the coffee table and realized how profoundly ugly they were. I had a project!

Our refinished coasters

    I had recently seen a tutorial on how to take scrapbook paper and tile and turn them into coasters. I decided that since the coasters we had were already made of tile, they could stand to be spruced up a bit. I used the leftover scrapbook paper from my helmet to do just that. I cut it to size (I wasn't really worrying about proportions, due to the white border) and did a quick Mod Podge on both sides of the paper and the surface of the coasters. The paper went on quickly and easily and it didn't take too much to position it. After they were dry, I gave them a spray of varnish and was done. It took about 15 minutes without drying time (The full tutorial is here.)
 
    But since it took so little time, I was soon bored again. Soon after, I discovered woven magazine page coasters on Pinterest (I can't possibly explain how to make them, but you can see how the full tutorial on how to here). I still had magazines left over from the bookcase decoupage I did a while ago, and decided this would be the best way to use them up. It took me a few tries to get really good at them. Eventually I ended up clothes pinning the pieces together while I wove them, and that gave me a pretty tight and even weave (it was also easier to fix mistakes without the whole thing falling apart on me).  Here's how they turned out!

     I'm pretty much thrilled with the results. Though Kris insists that we need to add a layer of cork or balsa to the bottoms for stability. I think, though, that since we don't use plastic cups, the glasses+liquid will be heavy enough not to topple over because of the slightly uneven coasters.  I also plan on finishing them off with some varnish spray to keep them from getting water-wrinkly from the condensation on the glasses.

Creative Consigning

    Money has been tight lately, what with me being jobless and Kris doing his internship five days a week. Ergo, I had to get creative when it came to finding money for things like groceries and gas.

     I was always on the lookout for ways to save/earn money and after reading through several articles like this, I found one that suggested selling old clothes to a consignment shop. I'd done this before at a consignment store in my hometown, but in Denver, I didn't know where to start. Then, I remembered Plato's Closet. It's a gently used, name-brand consignment clothing store that I love shopping at due to the great deals on adorable clothes. I'd never considered SELLING my clothes to them though. It turned out to be really easy.

Here's an example of the clothes I would consign

    I ended up weeding through my wardrobe and grabbing anything that I hadn't worn for the last six months, or things that I kept because I thought I would wear them again, but never did. Then I went through those items and found the ones that were in the best condition-Plato's Closet doesn't take anything that is faded, stained, pilled, or holey. I have this nifty de-piller gizmo that my mom found for me, but I've heard that you can use a razor to de-pill clothes (I would be careful about that though, considering that I'd probably put holes where the pills used to be). Anyway, I tried to de-pill as many items as I could in order to make them sellable. I also tried to mend any holes.

   I also went through my jewelry collection. I had at least a hundred different necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that I hadn't worn in years just laying around. I decided to streamline my collection and just keep what I loved and wore (I don't own many expensive pieces, so I didn't have to worry about going through those). This is something that most people don't think about when consigning, but I found it to be really lucrative and I don't miss any of the pieces I sold. In addition, I went through my purse and shoe collection and added four or five of those to the collection. All in all, I had a pretty good sized chunk of my wardrobe to sell.

The PC in Colorado Springs

     Then I went to the Plato's Closet in Colorado Springs. It's the one that I've shopped at and it was on the way back to my hometown (where we go on the weekends so Kris can work). It took them about 40 minutes to go through my things. While they were doing that, I went through the whole store twice (much to Kris' chagrin). I found several pieces I liked, but didn't get end up getting anything. They ended up buying close to $80 worth of my things! I was super stoked, because I honestly didn't expect them to want that much. The great part was that at Plato's Closet, they pay you cash on the spot for your things, so I was able to pay for gas that weekend!

   I took what they didn't want back and brought it to my hometown, where the consignment shop I'd sold at before is located. I took my things in and the owner accepts all but three of the leftover pieces. When I came back two weeks later, I found out that my jewelry and scarves had sold really well, and I had made $40 just off of those things!

     In total, I made $120 off of items I didn't ever wear, AND I made my wardrobe small enough to fit in the closet that Kris and I share. Total success!

   Plato's Closet has a list on their website of the items that they are most actively buying (it's usually seasonal items, but they do take any season all year). The other consignment shop I used only takes items that are in season, but I'm thinking that when I get my winter things out again, I might just do another weeding and take anything I didn't wear often this year in to sell too.

     In addition to seasonal items, consider pieces like:

• Jeans- I had several nice pairs that my butt outgrew this year and I sold every one of them.
•  Accessories like belts, scarves, and hats
• Nice pairs of sweat or yoga pants that you never wear
• Earrings (I found that big, dangly earrings were major sellers)
• Old purses, especially if they're nice (I had this huge, knock-off designer one that was a pain in the butt to use and Plato's Closet LOVED it).
• Wallets
• Shoes (anything from heels to sandals to ballet flats), just make sure they're scuff free and nice

Good luck! 

Motorcylce Musings

     When I was a finishing up my freshman year in college, Kris and I were just beginning to see each other. My best friend couldn't get over the fact that I was seeing someone who rode a motorcycle. One day, whilst we were waiting for some sort of a lunch with an advisor or something, one of our favorite professors stopped to chat with us in the hall. According to my best friend, I'm apparently I'm going to end up being this woman when I grow up, and to test this hypothesis, she if our professor had ever dated anyone who rode a motorcycle.

This is Kris' bike. Damn sexy, eh?

     Our professor's eyes lit up and she smiled brightly before she responded, "Oh yes." When we asked her what happened to the relationship, she rolled her eyes and said, "Well, helmets are horrible for your hair, so I broke up with him," and that was that. She is the sort of lady who looks like she stepped out of a Banana Republic catalog on a daily basis. She's runs on a daily basis, but if you looked at her, it is impossible to imagine what she looks like in a ponytail (her hair is always, always, ALWAYS perfect), so it is completely reasonable that she broke up with the boy because of helmet hair.

     After spending a cumulative 5 hours on the back of a motorcycle this weekend, I must say, I sort of wish I had paid better attention to that part and made Kris get a car ages ago. He could live on a bike if there were a way to get paid for it, but I feel like I'm going to die every time I get on it, and not due to the fact that it's so dangerous.

     Nope, I just hate how limiting it is to your appearance.

     First of all, there is the hair thing. My absolute favorite hairstyle in the whole world is a ballerina bun (now that I know about sock buns, my world has been rocked). But if you try to put a ballerina bun in a helmet, the result is disastrous. The same goes for a twist, a braid, a nice looking pony, anything, due to the fact that when you take the helmet off and put it on a few times, your hairdo literally falls apart. Not only that, but if you leave any of it loose, you end up with a head full of windblown knots that are absolutely killer. The only thing worse than a head full of knots? A head full of knots that have been interwoven with your necklace or dangly earrings. Add that to the fact that things like concealer and blush/bronzer tend to end up wiped off by the inside of your helmet, and your head's a mess.

Me: Pre-Ride.  Note how nice the hair is!

   And it gets worse. You have to, obviously, wear pants on a motorcycle. I've tried to wear a skirt on the back of a bike and it has NOT worked out well (like, flashing the entire parking lot not well). And, if you're going to be on road trip, you should probably wear boots. Yep, even in May when all the cool kids are running around in dressy sandals and heels, you're in knee high black leather boots. And skinny jeans, because you have to have pants that will fit inside the boots, now don't you? Oh! And you'll need your leather jacket. Yep, even in the summer. There's nothing like taking a two hour ride in too-skinny skinny jeans, only to arrive at your destination (where everyone else is in shorts and skirts and sandals) and walk around with your leather boots and jacket. And helmet. Because you can't leave a two hundred dollar helmet with the bike and it's pathetic locks, so you need to carry that too. And your backpack, because you can't carry a purse and you're gonna want a water bottle, gum, a hairbrush, etc...It does wonders for your sense of adventure upon arrival, lemme tell you.
  

Post-ride hair

     And if you can get past all of that, you're still left sitting on the back of bike, going 80 MPH for two hours or so. That in and of itself is excruciating. Even if it's a perfectly windless day (because the Colorado plains are NEVER windy...), you're still getting buffered by 80 MPH winds. It's like the air is trying to rip your clothes off your body WITH your skin and it's trying not just to take off your helmet, but your whole head. After half an hour your sit bones are ready to pop through your butt cheeks. After an hour, your shoulders ache from the weight of the backpack and the pain is shooting down yours arms, into your fingers. By the time you get to your destination, all of you aches and you just want to book yourself a 90 minute massage. It's miserable.

     In spite of all that, I still love going for rides, I really do. There's not much that can beat the feeling of flying on a warm summer evening.

Health and Wellness

     Since I've moved in with my man, we've started a bit of an exercise program. He's the sort that loves working out (though he doesn't usually have the time for it). I, on the other hand, haven't worn tennis shoes since my P.E. class senior year. His goal is that we (I) will eventually be able to jog two full laps around this gorgeous lake/park nearby.

   Right.

Photo Courtesy of Pinterest

   It's not a secret that I keep from him that I'm not big on athletics. I like walking around our neighborhood and making fun of the houses that were built in the 80's (beige brick and tri levels, every single one of them) and I used to love walking around the lake (until the gnats hatched, now I can't go there without swallowing at least three). I love me some good yoga or pilates, though it's been a while since I've done those too. But I SUCK at anything faster than a walk. My lung capacity is below zip and I run between a mix of Jack Sparrow and a duck. Not that it matters too much, considering that I can't sustain the action for more than twenty feet without having a conniption fit.

   The thing is, I was doing okay until last week. I don't know how, but I managed to toast one of my knees. It hurt like hell to straighten it out and would throb when I walked for too long. I couldn't even make it through the grocery store without wanting to cry. Ergo, Kris called off physical action until I healed. I spent three days last week in bed with a makeshift brace (two wide toothed combs and a scarf). When it came time for my interview, I had to suck up wearing heels and walked like a Chinese woman with bound feet in an effort not to screw my knee up any further. 

    Oddly enough, that was my turning points and now it's doing much better. As you know, Kris works in our hometown on the weekends, and we rode his motorcycle down to save on gas. I thought it would be bad for my knee, but we stopped every half hour to stretch it out and I'm pretty sure it's okay. Phew! Hopefully this week I'll be able to start jogging again. It's funny, I hate myself while I'm doing it (I can't stand being sweaty and out of breath), but I love knowing that I'm actually doing something good for myself. I never would have had the motivation to do anything like this without Kris and I'm glad he's willing to push me.

    Now if I could only get him to stop laughing at me when my lungs start collapsing...

More Decoupage!

     Well, I got the job at the step down from where I want to be restaurant. While I'm not excited about the job itself, it will be nice to be able to have a paycheck. And then I will be able to pay of the credit card and then be able to finally go shopping in downtown Denver. I swear, I could forgo eating for a month if I could afford to buy things from 16th street...Sigh. In any case, I feel like now that I've accepted a job, I'll get interviews for every place I've wanted to work. Hopefully it'll happen BEFORE my first day.

     Anyway, whilst I'm waiting for a job I most likely won't get, I'll tell you about my bookcase. I inherited/stole this nasty old bookcase from my parent's when I went to school last year. While I was at school, I didn't mind it, because my whole dorm room was pretty much hideous.

I'm pretty much in love with it.

     When I got that thing to Golden, though, I realized just how icky and plain it was (plus, I still had some Modge Podge left from my helmet) and decided to do something about it. A close by library had magazine's on sale for 25 cents, so I bought a Vogue  and a Harper's Bazaar and went to town on the bookcase. Now, it's pretty enough for me to want to take to my apartment next year. :)

My Motorcycle Helmet

     I have an interview today! It's not anything close to the kind of job I actually want and is actually a step in reverse as far as the food service industry goes, but I have less than $40 in my checking account, so I'm delighted with the prospect of any kind of job. Hopefully I won't screw the interview up like I did at the Dollar Tree...

     The thing that sucks is that I actually just volunteered myself to the English dept. at CSM in hopes that if I told them I was willing to volunteer for them, they might be more willing to pay me than if I just begged for a job. It would be a great resume builder and if I get this job, I won't be able to do the volunteering. Gah.

     While we're waiting to find out whether or not I'll be able to buy gas/groceries next week, here's what I did when I wasn't panicking about jobs and checking accounts...

     I saw a ModCloth blogger use Modge Podge to revamp a bicycle helmet with a map she picked up at a convenience store. Now, my man drives a motorcycle (and only a motorcycle) and last year I bought this nasty blue helmet with gray lightening bolts on it because it was on sale for $75, which is a super steal.

      Except I hated wearing it because it was so masculine and ugly. When I saw the mapped helmet , I nearly died of desire to try the same thing on my motorcycle helmet. It only took me an evening to get the paper on there (I tore scrapbook paper up to accommodate the shape of the helmet.) and then I spent the next couple of days applying layer upon layer of Modge Podge onto it to really seal it up. I finally finished it with a glossy spray sealant, just to make sure that it was super water-proof. And then Kris made me put on four more layers of sealant to make it even more waterproof.


   
    It still reeks of the sealant, even after to baths in Fabreeze. But I'm absolutely in love with it now and I can't wait to wear it on the bike! Plus, Kris is THIS close to letting me decoupage his helmet too. But he won't let me use the pirate skull and crossbones paper I want to. I'm sure he'll change his mind once he sees how people adore my new helmet (because how could they not?)

Pallet Patio Table

    While I'm filling out applications and wracking my brain for more places to apply, I figured I'd share this nifty project.    
    
     My man had about a week's worth of a summer before he started his internship and we used a day of it to try our hand at making a pallet patio table.  Overall, it took about six hours, though it's not finished yet.
 
     Across the street from my house is the backside of a strip mall and there are four different places who regularly toss out pallets. Ergo, I decided to attempt to make a pallet patio table. Well, my man did the actual making. But I totally was the creative inspiration. ;) This is how it turned out!

     I must say, I'm rather impressed with my man's wood working skills. He argues that it wouldn't have been as tough if  I had measured the two pallets we used properly. The top one was 40 inches horizontally and the bottom one was 40 inches vertically...He had to do some extra sawing to make the top fit the right way. :/

      It still needs to be sanded and stained (I'm thinking a deep cherry). BUT I need an electric sander to finish it, and those cost about $40 and then a stain is fairly expensive too (Kris says we'll need a really good primer since the wood is totally untreated). So now I wait until I have a job, which means a paycheck, which means I have purchasing power again. Thankfully, the top pallet is pretty nice already, so we can use it without getting splinters.

     And now I have fifteen other things I want to do with pallets, like a bench, a side table, shelving, lawn chairs, and even a really awesome day bed (though I'm fairly certain it will take a great deal of bribery to get Kris to do my woodworking for me again...). In the mean time, more applications.

Joy.

The Trials of Applications

     I just finished applying for a  summer job at Smashburger...I think it's close to my twentieth application this month and I'm finding it absolutely ridiculous that I have memorized the phone numbers and addresses of my last three employers. I know online applications are supposed to take a while to get through to the potential employers, but I'm going nuts waiting for one to respond.

     My dream summer job would be to work retail somewhere, just because I think that sort of experience would be useful if I wanted to write fashion articles after graduation. Or maybe become a buyer for a company, I don't know. Kris keeps telling me that it would be so much easier if I knew what I wanted to do with my life, and I suppose he's right...I just wish it were as easy to decide as it is to wish I could decide.

     In any case, I think it would wonderfully fun to work at someplace like Forever 21, Old Navy or Icing...I've applied everywhere and (like I said earlier) the only place that's called me in for an interview has been the Dollar Tree. But the interview was two weeks ago and I'm fairly certain that they don't want me. Can you believe it?! The Dollar Tree doesn't want me...! I can't tell whether I want to be depressed about that or grateful, like God's saving me from some major indignity and didn't bother to tell me.

     This week I'm planning on heading to the mall and applying at places that I have no interest whatsoever in working in (like all the food court places and those stores that sell sporting goods). After that, I'll go to another mall that's nearby and see if I can talk someone there into hiring me. And then I'll go to the restaurants close by. I've had a few months of serving experience...It ought to count for something, right?

In Case You Were Wondering...

     I don't have a job. I don't have an internship. I really don't have a lot of motivation. I am twenty-one and on my own for the first time. I'm scared out of my mind and I don't know what I want to do with my life after I graduate next year. So, instead of being productive, I'm eating day-old fried rice and wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do with myself this summer.

     My boyfriend (with whom I'm living) has an internship. It's even a good one, one that he will probably get paid to continue working there even after the internship is up. He's basically rewriting a computer program that took an engineer with a doctoral degree six months of dedicated doctoral-type research to create and write. And my man's going to revamp it in six weeks. He's a legitimate genius and I love him to death. But he's going to be killing himself slaving over this program for the next five week because he's the highest type of over-achiever and a perfectionist.

     What have I done while he's been working with super computers for the National Science Foundation? Well...There's the motorcycle helmet I decoupaged. I learned how to do the much acclaimed Pinterest-sock bun (I must say, it's sort of changed my life). I decoupaged a bookcase. And a computer tower. And I've watched the entire season of Once Upon A Time (22 episodes in 4 days). I've filled out applications. I remade two t-shirts into tank tops and one into a rag-tag one sleeved top. I began planning an exercise program (and even went jogging three days in a row). I did the laundry and the dishes and cleaned the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room. I had an interview at the Dollar Tree (one of the 15 places I've applied at so far.) I hung onto my phone for a week straight before I realized I wasn't going to get the job at the Dollar Tree. I make my boyfriend lunch (braunschweiger sandwiches, by the by. If you know what braunschweiger is, then you know how desperate I am for something to do.) I went the Colorado School of Mines (where my boyfriend's internship is) and begged the public relations librarian for a job (she said no).

      And then I pin. Thank God I resisted the allure of Pinterest while I was still in school for the year, because I would have flat out failed my finals, via rejecting studying for pinning. And now I have my wedding and at least two others planned (who said you have to have only one reception anyway?), about 80 DIY projects begging to be done (too bad I have no materials) and a boyfriend who has to take my computer away from me in order to get attention. It's pathetic, I know, especially since I'll never wear the clothes I pin or try the recipes or obtain enough mason jars to do what all those crafty ladies think I can with them. But I feel like that's okay because I'm at least thinking about being productive. Which helps. I guess.

      I will spend this weekend at my parent's house (a two hour drive from Golden) while my boyfriend drives a fire truck. I will bring him lunch and I will try to hang out at my parent's house like I did when I still lived there. They will pretend I've never left, and be overly peppy in an attempt to make me see that I really don't want to live with my boyfriend, but with them. We will eat dinner at six and at six-thirty my man will be off and I will spend the next five hours curled up on his parent's couch (They, by the way, are not so thrilled that he comes home to work every weekend). I will be home by 12:00 because my parents still think I'm 15. It will repeat.

     This is my semi-adult life.