Style and Savings

It's been at least 5 minutes since I've talked about Buy Nothing, so I wanted to brag about my latest "gift". For those who aren't familiar with Buy Nothing, think about the free section of Craigslist but limited to your neighborhood. Since they are closed Facebook groups, you can also put a face to a name and have some community guidelines.

Normally, I use Buy Nothing to give away items, but this week, I was a lucky recipient of a leather Style & Co purse! This would have cost $65 new at Macy's, and the great news is it's in like new condition.

Petite, so it won't weigh me down, but with plenty of pockets, this is perfect for my upcoming vacation. With the classic back and gold, it will function well for day to night. There are spots for cards, sunglasses, and more, with zippers aplenty to keep me from spilling out!

Now to put my $65 in savings into the purse for souvenirs! 

Have you given or recieved from a local gifting group?

Wilted... but not Wasted!

I was gifted a carton of cherry tomatoes, and also received a carton in my produce box, and just couldn't get to all those delicious tomatoes in time. I came back from a business trip to them all wrinkled.

Google to the rescue. Multiple sites said it wasn't too late, and they were recoverable if I roasted them.

Step 1: pierce each tomato. I used a fondue fork.

Step 2: drizzle with olive oil and a little salt and paper or desired seasonings.

Step 3: roast until browned. I did 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Step 4: Enjoy! These came out perfect. You couldn't tell that just 30 minutes earlier they were were all dried out and shriveled. Throw a handful in a pasta dish, or smash into a sandwich.

Travels, and Gearing Up for Halloween

Hi Friends ~

It's been a whirlwind of a last few weeks, so today, this will be a bit of a digest:

First, I've been getting really prepared for Halloween. Halloween? That's a couple of months away! Yes, but when you want to thrift all your components, sometimes you've got to plan ahead. :)

I'm going to be this Klimpt painting, "Adele Bloch-Bauer I". Of course, no one will know who I am, except for art history nerds, but #worthit to get to wear a gold dress.

My base will be a white maxi dress found at Crossroads ($20), and a gold tablecloth ($5) and gold shower curtain ($4) found at Value Village. I'm most excited about the shower curtain, which will give me the eyeball shapes needed for the middle of Adele's dress.

I'll be sure to post the finished product after Halloween, with a step-by-step on how to create the look.

Last week, I went on a business trip to Luxembourg. If you don't know it, it's a small country sandwiched between Germany, France, and Belgium. One cool thing was seeing closed-loop upcycling of our office paper to toilet paper by a Luxembourg company TechnoGreen. Yes, there were jokes about using our last quarter's reports for our personal functions. :) Does your office do anything cool to manage office waste?

Next month, T and I are taking a much needed vacation. After sweating my way through Luxembourg, I decided to bite the bullet and stock up on some capri pants. Value Village delivered again, and I scored three pairs of pants for $13. The biggest win were the Calvin Klein pair, which run $60 new, and I got for $3. 

Here's to the start of great fall!