Thrifting Finds!

oh.

my.

goodness.

Goodwill in Jamaica Plain, MA =

amazing.
$25 got me 2 skirts and 3 sweaters. um, WHAT.
memo to regular stores: that is what regular clothes should cost, i think. 
memo to grocery stores: $25 should not buy me milk, bread, eggs, and a chicken for dinner.
it should buy a lot more than that.
scammers.

at some point I will figure out how to set up my camera for a

What I Wore 

so you can see my new treasures :)

until then, just a quick linkback to a couple of blogs:
Sally over at Already Pretty (one of my favorites!) posted a lovely link to
Couture Allure Vintage Fashion's article on
Fraudulent Label Switching
!!!
If it hadn't been for reading this fascinating post,
I never would have snapped these shots
as a public service announcement!
First, this 
gorgeous
winter coat:
 
real wool, real fur collar, looked amazing on me!

and this one of "its" label:

if you look closely, you can see how sloppily it was handstitched into the coat.
it was partially ripped out, so i had to hold it on to take the picture.

but when i tried the coat on,i found another label on the side seam! a big one!
(i think) the original label!
(i'm so annoyed... my phone was almost out of battery,
so i couldn't risk taking another picture)

well, anyway, to cut a long story short,
i took the coat up to the front desk and told them that i thought they'd been 
scammed!!!
and they agreed…
but they also pointed out that it seemed like it was 
good quality
and even if it wasn't from saks,
certainly the wool and fur were real,
so it probably was worth $35.99...

anyway.
Moral:

check the labels! all over the coat! 
Second Moral:

lots of people are scammers. especially

grocery stores

and people that decide how much clothes should cost

and people that want to trick people into buying vintage when it's not really. 
Third Moral:

lots more people are nice.

especially

Sally 

and

Couture Allure Vintage Fashion.

also me. i'm pretty nice too.

the end.

By the way,
What are your tips for beginning thrifters?
Do you go for quantity or quality when you thrift?
 Have you encountered fake labels before?

Friday Favorites

… I need a better title than that! anybody find good weekday alternatives to "Things I Love Thursday," for those of us who can't make it to the blog on Thursdays?

this week I love:

my family

this is my Mamãe.

 she was born in Brazil, but her father was German 

and

her mother was American.

so she has a

{beautiful}

Brazilian accent tinted with German.

she is a

social worker

and she works with the Brazilian immigrant community!

she loves reading.

she has lots of freckles.

in our family, we assign Pooh characters.

Mamãe is

  because she likes to write poems

(not because she is a Bear of Very Little Brain.)

next…

this is my Balou.

he is from everywhere because he was a

Navy brat.

  he started growing his hair and beard out when he was in college at MIT

(1 million years ago!)

so even if he did have any freckles 

he has probably forgotten where they are.

he works in computer security and helped to design

Kerberos

which everybody uses for password protection - like Hotmail and stuff!

he is

because he knows a lot of things and is always ready to tell you them.

also, he has many friends and relations.

Next...

this is my Thaïs.

a.k.a. "That Girl" and "Me-Too."

she is rather grown-up compared to here:

she wants to be a 

shoe designer

when she grows up!

she loves 

{Shakespeare}

 she looks just like our Mamãe!

…but with fewer freckles.

and she is

because she is rather small

and worries about things

and we have a picture*

*(lost in the sands of time in the closet behind her chair)

of her as a toddler

with a

BIG BUNCH OF BALLOONS!

she also appreciates Expotitions. 

Then…

 

here is my Tycho.

he is rather grown up too.

he likes reading

and animals

and recreating battle scenes with Playmobil:

he looks like me when i was little…

but he is growing into himself rather nicely.

i don't think he has many freckles. 

he and Thaïs have the same birthday! 3 years apart!

i would argue that he is 

because he has lots of Interesting Anecdotes

and if you ask him a question, you're sure to get an answer.

but Mamãe and Thaïs insist that he is

because he spends an inordinate amount of time saying

look at me!!!

to which i must sigh and agree.

however, until he got his hair cut,

he looked much more like

than anyone else in the 100-Acre Wood.

Finally…

this is me.

I am studying 

{English literature!}

because

I lovelovelove reading.

I also love writing complicated things about what I read.

I love romantic dates

and sparkles

and pink things

and toddlers

and someday I will have a beautiful

{bakery}

image courtesy flickr

where I will sell cookies.cupcakes.baguettes.cakes.croissants

and all kinds of other delicious things.

I am also

because I talk very fast

and I'm rather bouncy

and I am unendingly cheerful

and sometimes I say "worraworra."

The End.

(Fear not, future Favorite Days will not be nearly this long!)

My New Year's Resolution…

…stop procrastinating.

Not really. That's a little too much to ask, I think. Hence the {irony} of the post title.

Here's another {irony}: One of my actual New Year's Resolutions is to

* break my Internet / computer addiction!

The {irony} being that I also want to

* blog more!

and

* read for pleasure!

and

* be more tidy!

So the combination of all of this really adds up to an 

Umbrella

{via flickr}

Resolution:

Use the time I am given wisely.

see, the problem I have is that really, 

I have the 

{via flickr}

for all the things that need doing (playing with nannybaby E., going to class, writing papers, eating, yoga, dating my husband, reading, etc.) but I waste it all online.

For example, I just wasted 2 hours of my Life trying to find out 

how to change the fonts in my Blogger template...

when it turns out (I think?) that I can just write my post

in Word {yuckies}

and then copy/paste.

Meanwhile, my grad school application essays still aren't done.
Neither is the laundry.

See what I mean?

It would be a much smaller deal to declare my intention to blog more

if the rest of my life weren't spent trying to

GET OFF THE COMPUTER

Hence my recent trip…

{my picture}

to the Boston Public Library.

I've decided that it is an absolutely atrocious

state of affairs when an English major, of all things,

should spend her free time doing anything but reading!

So far I have brought home 12 books*

*and yes, classes start next Friday

and have yet to hook up my Goodreads account** so that you can see what I'm reading!

**the {irony} of course being that even to read a paper-in-my-hands book
I still need the computer... pathetic...

What are you procrastinating on?

What were your New Year's Resolutions?

How do you get yourself off the interwebz when real life calls?

Now, about that personal statement…