What We Bought: Goodwill Scores Galore

Something called us to the Goodwill today on "lunch" break... of course that "something" was ostensibly the need for Like A Virgin outfit goods (we're seeking a white lace bustier and corset, crazy 80s belt, etc.), but it turned out to be the.most.perfect. leather jacket in our size, absolutely buttery-soft and in mint condition, crying out from a few blocks down for us to come and claim it!

leather poly-lined blazer, Margaret Godfrey, $7.99

Gasp! It feels like lamb or kid to us, but is labeled only "100% leather" so we're not positive. It's really quite fitted and lovely, so disregard the rather squarish shape of this photo on the hanger (and those to follow). No doubt you will see them all on very soon!

After discovering this lovely approximately 6 seconds into the store, we carried it around searching for the (elusive) Halloween items and also any pretties from the list which might catch our eye.

We tried on a wool pencil skirt (check- warm skirts) but it was a no go for our figure. (Hmm... other pencil skirts have worked alright; not this one though). We tried on a black-and-white floral blouse-type thing, but the banding "under" the bust hit us mid-boob. D'oh. Then we tried on this lovely nubbly (kind of like corduroy, only dots?) skirt, which is on the list as a "warm skirt" option, though not in a print (there really weren't any!)

cotton skirt, mac n jac, $4.99

Pardon the hanger, again. Here, have a closeup of the fabric and the lovely little crochet-lace trim:


(Much more lavender/mauve than this carnation/raspberry showing...)

In our travels through the shoe and housewares section, we also spotted a lovely little handbag; we had already fulfilled our recent wish for a teal purse, but the one we bought was awfully large and didn't have the croc embossing we were really craving, so this perfect little number is a terrific alternative:

croc-embossed faux-leather handbag, no name, $4.99

The man had suggested that we be on the lookout for a raincoat for little money, since we still have (ill-advised) plans to camp one time this Autumn... so we were thrilled to discover, in the Halloween idea racks of all things (? Sherlock Holmes?) a lovely black cotton with polyurethane (sounds gross but waterproof) coating trench by Banana Republic, $7.99. Pictures came out horrible, but trust us, it's cute. It's a black trench. You've seen them before. Our friend suggests adding a contrasting belt-- we're thinking perhaps leopard?

Whilst in the dressing room, we spied a rack of additional items. Some seemed to be tried-on cast-offs, as they were tagged, but among them was a practically brand-new and un-priced 100% silk sweater in a lovely steely blue:

silk sweater, Ann Taylor, $4.99

Perfect fit, nary a snag nor pill (who owned this? An agoraphobic?) and did we mention 100% silk?? The slate is not a color we'd normally wear, although it bears a strong resemblance to some blue-green sweaters we'd sworn not to further propogate, but here's a strong case for one-in, one-out; surely some inferior acrylic bit can go in its stead. It's not a print, either. But it is fabulous.

While we stood in line waiting to pay, a terribly amusing tourist was being rung up for a sweater and paused to ask "is this used?" And the clerk said "well, yes." And she said with a shudder "is everything here used?" And he said "pretty much." And she said "um, well, no thank you then, sorry," and walked out. And we laughed and laughed with the clerk so as to keep from following her down the street and berating her about the state of the world and her ignorance and stupidity and snobbery. Anyway, once she was done and it was only the crazy lady asking the poor man which section of collectibles she thought she could sell her new crap in, we were able to ask him if we could try on the simply gorgeous purple suede jacket hanging up behind the registers. And oh did it fit. Ours. Thank you.

plum suede jacket, Live a Little, tags still on for $89, $10

Our grand total was just under $40. Easily a tenth of the retail price for these brands (and especially the suede and leather). We love Goodwill!

Happy thrifting!

What We Wore: Embellishment Galore

Today we are sporting our new-ish-to-us silk beaded mac n jac skirt from the consignment shop again. It's going to be another ridiculously humid day, so we tried to find a sleeveless top that wasn't too horribly revealing for the office, and realized (thanks largely to Kasmira and Audi's awesome layering) that we could wear a pretty lacy see-through top with butterfly applique IF we put a colored camisole underneath! Eureka!

Skirt, mac n jac, thrifted: $15
Teal camisole, mossimo @ Target, $10?
Black lace shirt thingy: ??? By a Neiman Marcus label, label looks quite old- clearly thrifted?
Teal satin metal-heel ankle-strap shoes: Fioni via DSW, probably $30 or less?

Detail of top- applique and lace over cami:

Shoes (we think they speak for themselves):


And earrings, not by us, which is pretty unusual, but the shells pick up the iridescent sequin embroidery in the skirt oh so well...


We feel super cute today, so yay! What do you think?

What We Wore Today: Mac n Jac 'n' H&M

If you're like us, the second you buy something new you must.wear.it.

It's probably horribly sketchy to put on used clothes without washing them, but they looked clean enough and at least they don't have nasty factory chemicals all over them like new clothes (which we do wash first, promise). We don't really do dry cleaning unless absolutely necessary (it's not really thrifty).

So, although we had quite a difficult time deciding just which of our new treasures to wear today, we settled on the most "fun" one- the silk shantung skirt with beading and silk chiffon trim at the hem. We almost passed this up, by the way, as it was marked quite larger than our usual skirt size. However, once we tried it on, we discovered that worn on the hips rather than the waist, it's a perfect fit.



It's "Mac n Jac" brand, which we'd never heard of, but is apparently carried at Nordstrom. This fact, along with the beautiful (100% silk) fabric and exquisite beading detail, suggests to us that the $15 we spent (down from $28 originally at Raspberry Beret) is kind of like an obscene steal. We dig it.

We paired it with the new (to us of course) $5 slinky sweater which is from H&M, and some divine turquoise chandelier earrings we made for ourselves during our last craft fair (good to stay busy when absolutely no one is stopping at your table- le sigh). With earrings this big and a fairly interesting neckline to the sweater, we decided against a necklace. We are wearing a beaded bracelet with turquoise cat-eyes which we made long ago, as well as our Norway Silver leaf-print David Anderson bracelet (consignment shop, gift from mum, one of our most treasured pieces) which echoes the leafy sequins in the beading on the skirt (see detail).

Please pardon the lousy cell phone pictures. We promise that one of these days we'll get around to learning how our camera's self-timer works and leaving time in the morning for daylight outfit shots. Our bathroom mirror stinks. Sigh.

What do you think? Are the black boots too boring with it? We considered the purple pumps since the sequins have some purple iridescence to them... Maybe next time!