Prom: the Second Time Around

I'm always down for a costume party. If you haven't caught on from my Halloween posts, I'll take any opportunity to dress up for a theme or as a character. So when my friend A texted that her friend was having a 90's Prom themed birthday party, and did I want to be her date, it was an easy yes from me. 

A couple years ago, my friend L had invited me to her daughter's princess-themed birthday party, and I acquired this dress, but didn't end up getting to go to the party. I was thrilled to have another chance to wear it. Somewhere between lilac and dusty rose, this tulle gown is not a color I would typically choose, but it's perfect to be a pretty princess or attend 90's prom.

The dress was new with tags, orignally $45 from Charlotte Russe, but just $15 at Goodwill.

To add to the 90's look, I added frosted lip gloss, fully lined and smudged eyes, and a deep side part with butterfly clips.

Of course, it wasn't the 90's without a choker, and I acquired this beaded choker at House of Vintage (SE Hawthorne, Portland) for $13. 

Not pictured is A's outfit. She went the more goth/grunge 90's route with a black spaghetti strap slip dress (thrifted from House of Vintage) and Doc Martens (borrowed). SE Hawthorne was a great street to make a day of shopping, featuring multiple vintage, thrift, and antique shops, ranging from clothing to furniture to housewares.

Overall, it was super fun to dance the night away, with the nostalgia of classic prom attire and music.

Dress: $15

Necklace: $13

Getting to relive prom: priceless

September Digest

With all my online thrifting during COVID, I've finally hit my limit for clothes shopping. The closet is full and I'll need to be extra purposeful with my shopping list. Whoops! For the next couple months at least, I'm redirecting my focus to other activities, like packaging reduction, food waste reduction, and DIY reuse projects. Here are a few of the things I've been up to this month: 

1) Reuse/upcyle: I did make an exception about thrifting to finish my Halloween costume prep. I got this pile of red, green, and yellow fabric for $8 at Goodwill. No more hints, though. Toby is guarding the surprise until Halloween. :)

2) Sell for reuse: I was happy to get an appointment to sell my book at Half Price Books. Like many businesses, they are moving to appointment-only to reduce exposure. I got a pile of ancient books and DVDs out of my house, into circulation for the next user, and made $3.25.

3) Refill/reduce packaging: Last January, I wrote about a new service called Loop, which is similar to a milkman service but for health and household products like dish soap and shampoo. They were still in limited cities, but you could sign up for their waiting list. This month, I got notified that they are finally in the Seattle area and I could sign up for early access! So I created my account and browsed around through the site. Things seem a little sparse with some products, especially the national brands, not yet available in the area, but I'm hopeful they will get more selection by the time they are available for general sign-up. On the plus side, they seem to have a house brand Puretto with decent selection on staples, ranging from bath bombs to dry pasta to spices.

4) Share: For a while, I've been amused by videos on YouTube of people creating incredible ball pits for their dogs to play in. I went so far at to look at kiddie pools and balls on Amazon, and then stopped myself. Do I want to spend $40 for what may or may not be fun? Do I want to buy a bunch of new plastic? No and no. Well, Buy Nothing saved the day, when I saw a neighbor post a ball pit!

Here, I'm setting it up for Meeko: 

She is confused and tripping over it. Clearly not used to getting into a pit. Are we trying to give her a bath?? 

Finally gets one ball out and leaves.

After this experience, I can say I had my 15 minutes of fun, and now I will pass the ball pit onto its 3rd owner. I've gotta say, borrowing or sharing is the absolute best for novelty items. You can have your fun and pass it on. 

What have you done this month to reduce your waste?

Borrow

This one's for people with small dwellings (calling all you apartment renters or condo owners!), or people who just don't want to own things that they won't use regularly... have you heard of Tool Libraries or Libraries of Things?

These are community resources that allow you to borrow items from hammers and gardening tools to Cuisinarts for a small membership fee or suggested donation. Some of them also have work space and repair classes. In general, there is minimal cost to the borrower; some funds are recouped through late fees or charges for broken items, but otherwise they are funded by city or community groups and run by volunteers. 

(Image borrowed from www.resourcefulpdx.com)

Here are just some of the tool libraries in the Pacific Northwest:

Seattle Metro area
Capitol Hill, Seattle - 420 E. Pike St.
SE Seattle - 4425 MLK Jr. Way S
West Seattle - 4408 Delridge Way SW
NE Seattle - 10228 Fischer Pl NE
Tacoma - 754 S. 38th Street
Vashon Island - 18870 103rd Ave SW

Portland area
NE Portland - 5431 NE 20th Ave
Green Lents, Portland - 9215 SE Ramona St
SE Portland - 1137 SE 20th Ave

Even more libraries can be found at this directory.