this thrifty weekend

This weekend, I was able to spend a couple days with my parents, and it just happened to be the weekend that my little hometown has their annual garage sale day. Sweet! I walked around town for a couple hours, and scored a bunch of great stuff, all for under $15 (that's all I had in my wallet!)

• a pretty vintage fitted sheet for a double-size bed - $1
  
• a red Pyrex mixing bowl - $3
  
• two mini muffin pans at 50 cents each - one for me, one for my sister-in-law. She also found a great new pair of Teva sandals for just $20.
  
• an antique glass knife - great for cutting tomatoes, and $4
  
• two larger Pyrex yellow square bowls - $2.50
• a vintage Christmas tablecloth - free! from my aunt
  
• a vintage white-on-white tablecloth with lilies of the valley on it - free, from my aunt
  
• a vintage white-on-white tablecloth with polka dots - free, from my mom
• a metal canister with roses on it - 50 cents. This now holds my tea bags that formerly had no home.
  

All this was very happy, especially since I carried it around town in my cute new packable polka dot reusable bag that I got the last time I went thrifting. Hooray!

Later in the day, my mom, sister-in-law, and I went shopping in a nearby city, where there's a great store called Clothes Mentor. I found absolutely no clothes for me this time, but I did get two pairs of Clark's shoes, at only $12 and $14 a pair! Sweet! One pair is the perfect shade of brown, for which I've been searching for a long time now. The other is black, and will work so well for choir this coming year. Hooray!! Thus ended the fabulously thrifty weekend.

epic shoe saga sequel

The world's most subtle torture device: high heeled shoes.
They masquerade as innocent, pretty little things that match cute dresses and play up the shapeliness of one's legs and backside.

Enter: the beautiful, sunny, perfectly warm May wedding day.

Everything was just lovely, with pink and yellow roses here and there, a beautiful blue sky, trees in bloom, and bright green grass everywhere. A gorgeous stone and stained glass church, lace and delicate details, and a beaming bride and groom.

I knew the shoes were going to be painful, but I figured I had planned well enough with my backup shoes (the Nina shoes I mentioned). I didn't even wear the pink peep-toes unless it was absolutely necessary, going barefoot all over the cold-stone-floor church hallways in the hour before the ceremony. I promise that I had a good breakfast, including fiber, tea (no caffeine), milk, orange juice, and a full bottle of water. I even snacked on cherries and cheddar cheese chunks with the bridesmaids. All was well, until about the ten minutes into the (very beautiful and meaningful) service.

I began to feel too warm (in a strapless cotton dress with no nylons and my hair in an updo? give me a break. I've done choir concerts in heavy velvet robes in 90 degree Florida weather. This should be cake). I noticed that the hot-glued ribbon handle of my bouquet was feeling tacky, and my feet really hurt. Grin and bear it, I said to myself. I can't draw attention and ruin my brother's very special first-kiss day. Breathing, bending my knees, shifting my weight, considering taking the shoes off and shrinking four inches...

And then it hit me. I was nauseous, and I do believe it got a little bit darker in the church. No, maybe that was my vision. This is how I feel most mornings on the pill. This is what happens before I faint, if I don't do something to prevent it. So I leaned my left hand on the conveniently placed altar rail, whispered to my sister-in-law that I was dizzy, and I knelt down. Well played, my mind whispered. Very smooth. I then sat down, tucking my knees to the side and looking rather ladylike. I breathed and breathed but couldn't shake the nausea. Then they were praying to bless the exchange of rings and vows. I turned around to the bride's Grandma Lou, who had a water bottle with a sport top. I squeezed three gulps of water into my mouth and began to recover.

I must recover enough to walk back up the aisle with a smile on my face and looking graceful in these dumb shoes on my handsome husband's arm. Be strong, Linnea.

So I continued to sit on the very nice, dark red velvet cushion, which was pleasantly close to the smooth terra-cotta colored, cool-to-the-touch square tiles on the floor. I flipped open the hymnal to join in the final song of the service, singing just one of the four verses. From memory, because I love that song. I looked over at my Grandma, who tried to tell me that I should just take the shoes off. I tried to tell her that I was okay. Ha.

I stood up to join the recessional, and was successful in leaving the church without falling. Hubby didn't even know that I had begun to feel bad, and picked me up in a big bear hug when we got to the back of the church (very sweet).


I actually did feel okay for a while, until we had to stand in the sun for pictures. For one of the casual shots, I had to squat down because I didn't feel good, but the photographer thought that was genius and asked another bridesmaid to do the same thing. I felt slightly less awkward. I downed an entire bottle of water in one shot.

At the first free moment, I took my shoes off and ran to the bathroom. Still not feeling better. We had a couple more pictures after that, and then about 30 minutes of free time. I had more cherries, lots more water, and a comfy seat in the corner of a firm-cushioned tan suede couch. Still dizzy.

I switched to my black Nina shoes, which were much more comfortable. I began to feel better after we ate some food at the reception, and even enjoyed dancing and more pictures. I was very social for a Linnea, for whom it is difficult to be so surrounded by people.

The whole wedding was simply lovely, and my brother and new sister-in-law seem very happy.

But alas, my feet. They beg of you to take away these cute shoes so that I don't ever have to bear the torture again! :o)

free to me!

remember how I mentioned that swap meet in my previous post? The one where everything was free? I donated some of my stuff, and picked up these awesome finds:

1.

Tommy Hilfiger boat shoes in plaid oilcloth, lined with canvas, rubber soles. They're almost ballet flat style - just feminine enough. Love! Can't believe I found my size (5.5). Similar shoes sell for $59 or more!

2. This one was a real surprise - I don't usually like Vera Bradley stuff, but this ID holder in "pinwheel pink" caught my eye. It was originally $12, but is on sale for $8. And for me, free.



3. A light blue wool cable-knit scarf and hat set. Beautiful! The scarf is a snuggly 9" wide and hangs to mid- thigh when I don't wrap it. Unbelievably, I'm actually wearing it comfortably right now because it's in the 40's here. In May. All sadness aside, I love it.
4. A cute red swingy tank top - shirred at the empire waist with wide straps that cross over in the back. It's made of cotton t-shirt material, so it will be super comfy for summer.
5. a wool sweater that I have already shrunk (on purpose!!) to use as a reinforcement for my hubby's wearing-thin boiled wool slippers. He loves those slippers - I'm going to try to extend their life.
6. new-ish cleats for my brother's golf game.

I would've stayed longer and dug for more, but Hubby was with me and was getting antsy. All in all, a total success. Yay!

dyed to match shoes: the epic saga

Possibly the most tedious wedding duty ever.

They are a clever idea and a pretty way to match the dresses, but really, who's going to wear those again?

I did try to convince the bride that we should all wear black shoes, or white shoes, since we all have those, and they definitely would look cute with watermelon pink dresses. But no.

So I initially decided that I would buy these shoes from Payless, and have them dyed at a store in Buffalo that my mother-in-law said was pretty great.

The style is called Jackie, and it's available in a plain white satin that I could have dyed to be the correct color. I love it. However, it's $45, and I wasn't really sure about the cost of taking it somewhere to be dyed (probably another $15 or so). That sounded like a lot to me.

But then I fell for this shoe at David's Bridal, the Marah style:

I really liked this shoe, and figured that I could trust David's to dye their shoe the correct color. It was $59 plus $5 shipping (still expensive) and I ordered my usual size (5.5) because the reviews seemed to indicate that would be fine. Unfortunately, the shoe was at least a whole size too big! My toes didn't even show in the "peep" toe area. At that point, the size 5 was sold out, and would probably have been too big. I was so frustrated! Their return policy is that any items ordered online can't be returned in store, and they don't pay return shipping or refund initial shipping. I was out $10 in shipping, all told.

I didn't have very many options left. I went with my mom to a bigger mall on one of my free weekends, and we stopped in at Payless. I still really liked the shoe, but couldn't guarantee that it would be shipped in time or that it would be the best option price-wise. We called Dyed to Match, and they had just closed for the day - seemed early for a Saturday! I was disappointed to be leaving the mall without ordering the shoes, and felt like I had wasted the day and the gas to get there, except for the pleasant time spent with my mom.

My next week of school was very busy, but I carved out time on Tuesday to get to Dyed to Match. This was it - buy and dye. I had to pick a shoe, purchase it right then, and go home so I could get back for my Tuesday night class. The clerk was very nice, and showed me to the sale room so that I could get the best deal. There was a whole shelf of shoes in my size, but most of them were in a distinctly 80's or 90's style. No thank you. Not for my $40-$50. I did find two shoes there that I thought might work, and sadly, both were 4" heels. Painful! I ended up choosing a $50 size 5 shoe with a peep toe and sling back:Here they are. The color is a little brighter than in the photo, but I didn't want to blow out the contrast. The shoe seems like it's actually a little big, still, even though it's a half size smaller than what I usually wear! The sling back flips off my heel like it's a flip-flop sandal... I think I can manage, though. They do look nice. The funniest thing is that they're actually a part of the Unforgettable Moments line for Payless that I was looking at before.

And this is the saga of the dyeable shoe. I'll wear it once, for less than three hours, and then I'll switch to cute white sandals or flip flops, like these from Old Navy:
Super cute. I already have these metallic flip flops in silver and bronze from last year's sale, and white is always a welcome addition. Besides that, they come in size 5 and are bound to be a comfy switch after the 4" heels. Alternately, I could wear the black Nina heels I already have...

...the saga continues.