Thrifted Syle - Classic Fall

This outfit screams autumn to me!!  I could wear this outfit so many places - church, shopping, to the pumpkin patch, or on a date. I love this classic look.

Every item I am wearing is thrifted!  My boots were brand new from Salvation Army!!   My chambray tunic and mustard skinnies are also from Salvation Army.  My cardigan is from a garage sale and my best friend picked up my fun chicken bag!!  My necklace is from Rahab's Rope and my earrings are from Nickel and Suede.

I think next time I wear this outfit, I will roll my pant legs a couple of times to see if I like it any better.  Since I'm tall, the length of my pants are usually an issue for me. I've worn these pants with sandals and tucked them into tall boots, but never like this.

Tell me what you think of the length of my pants in comparison to the shaft of my boot.

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Vintage Skirt Revamp

I picked up this vintage skirt at a bag sale.  I think I paid $4 for the bag and I ended up with about a dozen items, so i paid less than .50 for this beauty!!

The length of this skirt was all wrong, but I'm a sucker for polka dots!!   I compared it to one of my favorite skirts and decided that I would shorten the hem to match.

At first, I was going to take the time to measure for a new hem, cut off the excess and try my hand at "nice" hem.  Then I realized that was way too much work!!  I simply fold up the existing hem twice, iron, pin, and hem.  Sooooooo much simpler!!

I am all for revamps and if they are as simple as this, I could do them all day long!!  Once I got started, this project took only 30 minutes!!

What a difference a hem line makes!!  I also quickly moved the button at the waist band as well, so I could breathe a bit easier!!

Craft Room Project #6- Shelving and A Little More Organization

One morning, my new neighbors had thrown out a pair of shutter doors with their trash.  I immediately knew I need them for some amazing shelves!!

My husband cut them in half and I cleaned them up and touched up the edges with white paint.  I ended up with four beautiful shelves.  Then, they just sat in the garage for about nine months with no place to go!!

After painting and arranging the larger pieces of furniture, we were ready to hang them up.  I asked a neighbor, who loves woodworking if he would make me some custom brackets for my shelves.  I had looked online to see if there were any options for my 15 inch deep shelves and the prices were ridiculous!!  Grandpa Sharp agreed to my request and we were able to use lots of our scrap wood to make the them.  Double win - free and free!!

Once the brackets were made, I simply painted a couple of coats of white paint and we were good to go.  Grandpa Sharp even pre-drilled holes for us to be able to hang them with ease!!

I love, love, love how they turned out!!  The shutters simply lay on top of the brackets and we used screws that are made to hold extra weight!!

Then it was time to fill them up with all my goodies!!  I put the two smaller shelves above my Cricut cart and filled them with scrapbooking tools, photo boxes, and trinkets.

Then on the opposite wall, we hung the two larger shelves with a couple of other storage options.  This spring, I found a vintage milk crate at a garage sale for a mere $4.  It was a perfect shade of blue and I thought it would be work for my fabric.  I also found metal crate for just $1 at an estate sale, that I would work for housing my gift bags.   My shutter shelves on this wall, hold my vinyl, chalkboard tools, and sewing machine.

I couldn't be happier with the end result.  I think I did a little happy dance when I was able to see everything in its place and easily accessible!!

My last entry will be about my finishing touches - stay tuned!!!

You can see my other Craft Room projects here, here, here, here, and here!!

Up, Up, Up, and Away

One of the items on my list to do before turning 40 was to go on a hot air balloon ride.  This is something that have wanted to do for many years.  My husband has a fear of heights and so the told me it was something I would need to do alone!!  Thankfully, I found out, my friend, Karen wanted to go up, up, up, and away too, so we started making plans to make it happen.

My husband graciously did lots of research and found Hot Epectations Balloon Company to be the best option for us.

Bill and Susan were wonderful to work with and they have a true passion for the art of hot air ballooning.  I had no idea the skills involved.

We met up with Bill and Susan at 6 am and they had already been up for awhile, checking wind conditions, wind direction, and weather reports.  We patiently waited until we got the go ahead to launch.  We had to drive north to find an appropriate launch site.   We ended up a school yard.

It was quite a process to blow up the balloon.  It took about 30 minutes to get us up in the air.

The scenery was breathtaking.  For the first 15 minutes, I felt very nervous, but my the end, I felt like the excitement in me beat down the nervous feeling!  We could see all the way to Longview Lake to the east and the KU campus to the west.

Dogs hated us - they don't like the sound the hot air balloon makes, but most people that saw us, just had to stop and stare.  Kids were yelling and screaming with delight.  My favorite reaction, was this one who came out on her deck to see us over her house and she yelled, "How cool is that!!"  She quickly went back in to get her camera.

The ride was so peaceful and just lovely.  I would totally do it again!!  Landing was another process that was pretty wild.  Basically, when a hot air balloon needs to land, you just look for an open space!!  When we were coming in for a landing, I was worried we would run into power lines or a building, but Bill gracefully glided us onto a baseball field at another school.  Bill had to really work to get us to where he wanted to deflate and we just had to stay put.  

Once we got everything packed back up, Bill and Susan prayed over us and "christened" us with a bit of earth and bit of bubbly!!  

Thanks to Bill and Susan at  Hot Expectations for an amazing experience and to Karen for joining me!!

Sunday Style - Comfy Floral

I really wanted to pull out all my sweaters and boots for the fall, but when the thermometer still reads 80, it just won't work!!!

So instead, I pulled out my fun floral capris (see how I wore them here too) that I love to wear in the spring and summer and paired it with a short sleeved sweatshirt!!

I think this combo works!!  The sweatshirt is a fun twist with the sequin short sleeves.  It was a steal at just $2.99 from my local Salvation Army.  It had a little pilling under the sleeves, but I pulled out my little pill buster and got rid of them quickly.

I also decided to play with my hair a bit and I kind of like it!!  I added a fun new necklace I got for my birthday and I love the message on it.

Finally at forty, I can truly say I love my story!!  There have been times, I haven't appreciated and embraced all the parts of my story, but I think the older I get, the more I realize each and every part of my story has made me who I am today!!

This outfit comes in at around $65 - my shoes are the most expensive part of my look, but I have had these for at least eight years!!

Have a wonderful Sunday!!