Today's Thrifty Treasures

Today's finds are brought to you by the local Goodwill. We've been looking pretty much every week, just in case someone gives away a gorgeous skirt suit that is not in a "teeny" (seems rare). Didn't find anything in that department today-- although there was ONE petite suit, it had the strangest pants- they zipped in the back (?) and definitely gave us a penguin crotch situation. No good.

But, thankfully, we didn't come away empty-handed, as the jacket rack presented us with a decent find (we're always on the lookout for bright blazers with more than one button and not totally-80s-styling, which are often hard to come by!) in one of our favorite colors:


The buttons are silver-toned with a great funky crest pattern. Love the cut-outs at the bottom! Yay. It's polyester (microfiber) which we kind of hate, but eh, for this color we made an exception. It'll go with tons of stuff we already have and add another bright piece to our awfully-black professional wardrobe for $6.49.

Second score:


Polish cobalt-and-clear bowl, clearly never used, only $5. We have a real thing for cobalt glass and have been starting a wee collection. One can never have too many mixing/fruit/decorative bowls, can one?

The last thing we'd like to discuss today is not exactly thrifted, but bears mentioning. Lately we've been trying to keep the nails painted, but it goes from professional to scary pretty quick since we have nearly no patience for waiting for them to dry and certainly not for a topcoat, so they begin to peel pretty quick. Enter, for our waiting-phobic pleasure, Sally Hansen Insta-Dry polish. Seriously, no kidding, we grabbed some remover and a gorgeous orchid purple called Lovely Lilac and headed into the work bathroom, from which we emerged not five minutes later with dry-enough-to-type, perfectly smooth and even nails. Two coats. Less than five minutes (a lot of that time was taking off the stubborn chips of the last attempt). The longevity is yet to be tested, but it's still going strong after a long day on the computer. Highly, highly worth the sort-of-exorbitant-for-nail-polish price of $6-7.

What We Wore Thursday: Dressing Down

We don't mean casual exactly- we were just trying to take this dress we wore to a wedding a few weeks ago and dress it down enough for the office, since it was one of the only things available in our scant at-the-man's-house-wardrobe!


So we added the jacket from the suit we wore to the interview yesterday, and our beautiful new red stacked heels (see this post if you're not familiar!)

Here's a fairly decent representation of the outfit in its entirety:

Outfit Thursday June 25 by ThriftyStylist featuring Miss Me shoes


The jacket is really much more grey and the dress clearly has a different print, but you get the idea. We would feel a little boring in all of these neutrals if it weren't for the fantastic shoes!

Do you ever wear something that isn't really for the office but make it work with structured layers? We have been dying to do so with our lace-overlay dress from the consignment shop trip with a cardigan or blazer, but with the nude lining we're not so sure. Thoughts?

What we're wearing today: Victorian Edition

Today is a "professional dress" day at work, which means that Houston, we have a major problem. You wouldn't say that "conservative" is a part of our general repertoire, but our boss actually said "wear THE MOST CONSERVATIVE THING in your closet." Technically, this would be an interview suit, but technically we are also NOT a size 8 right now and so technically we'd be busting out of said suit. So, the hunt was on for an outfit to cover up all of our naughty bits but not make us look like one of the Duggar girls (shudder)...


We chose an ankle-length black linen skirt with a drop waist and ruffles at the hem, quite similar to this one from Organic Bouquet (although without the drawstring). We absolutely adore ruffles, especially in black (again, the whole "punkish girly girl" thing is our favorite). They add so much texture and interest to what would otherwise be such a plain and, yes, conservative, look. We got our skirt at either Marshall's or TJ Maxx (oh, the love!) for under $20. If you have the time and patience to pore over the racks, you can find such incredible pieces, especially beautiful fabrics for a fraction of their original cost, like silk, linen and cashmere.

Up top, a plain black long-sleeved crewneck from Mossimo at Target, from the clearance rack, less than $7. We don't understand paying a lot of money for a T-shirt; therefore, we refuse. Our cleavage hasn't been this covered up since it was snowing- we keep checking to make sure it's there!

And over that, a simply divine burgundy velvet blazer with yet more ruffled trim... ours is from Kohl's, Apt. 9 brand, and was deep in the seasonal clearance racks at $17! We are still kicking ourselves for not grabbing the black one, too.

We absolutely adore a nice tailored velvet blazer... especially one with princess seams, "locked and loaded" construction (as Stacey and Clinton would say) and beautiful feminine detailing. We found this beautiful vintage piece on Etsy...

At $44.00, it's a bit of investment to us, but it really does look to be in pristine vintage condition, and look how gorgeously it shows off the model's curves! Yowza!


We also spotted this absolutely incredible equestrian-courtesan-gypsy-inspired corset jacket on a site we'd never seen before, Chinatowner, for $55. It's polyester, which is sad, but still, we're fairly sure we might die if we don't own this soon. Oh, the lace, the satin ribbon, the flared hem and bell sleeves, the *drooooooool*