Thrifty: Tweed Blazer

It’s always so exciting when I find outerwear that fits my frame. I scored this blazer last Saturday when out and about with Penelope. It’s in perfect condition.

I scored this gorgeous blazer for $4! Click here to view outfit details.

My absolute favorite part about the blazer is the triangular leather detail on either side of the pockets. A-dorable! Now I want to put leather triangles on all of my pockets.

So tell me, what have you found recently that you just can’t get enough of? Do share!

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Refashioned: Moccasins

Last Saturday I went up to Salt Lake City to pick up a few goodies (the dining table & chairs set is complete!) and stopped by a local thrift shop with Penelope. We had a great time in there & both of us found some killer scores. P is becoming a real shopper, it’s super duper cute.

I found these Minnetonka moccasins for $2. They’d practically never been worn, based on the wearing of the soles. They’re super cute, but as my friend Amanda pointed out, the soles as they were would only last indoors. I’ve taken my shoes to a cobbler many times with great success, but I thought I would try adding a sole by myself.

I had some extra leather on hand from the bouncy swing I made years ago, so I thought it was worth a shot. Heck, if it doesn’t work out, I can always take them to a cobbler to get fixed. I wouldn’t be out much of anything, except scraps.

I took out my swedish tracing paper, glue & scissors and in less than 15 minutes gave my shoes new soles. I’ll report back once they’ve been worn a few times to tell you how they held up.

So tell me, have you ever taken your shoes to the cobbler before? I’ve taken in my slippery shoes & had the cobbler put treading on the soles. It’s so great for winterizing your boots!

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Redesigned: The Girl Who Wore Everything

During Chris’s two and a half weeks of Christmas vacation, we spent our time redesigning a few blogs. We had a grand time working together & making the interwebs a tiny bit prettier. I’ll be sharing a finished project each week along with a design tip (or two) for a better blog.

M from The Girl Who Wore Everything was another fantastic client to work with. She she wanted her blog to look more professional & convey her love for fashion (and sparkles!). Her blog was a fairly blank slate to work with, she didn’t have any insane templates going on and she didn’t want anything insane, either.

 

I liked the glasses she was wearing in the header the presence of white space in her old design. So I incorporated those two with more fashion-iconic typefaces, glitter and a more grown-up color palette and voila!

For the fonts I used Baskerville semibold italic and Open Sans Condensed Light. For the glitter, I made my own using Pugly Pixel‘s & Scrapbook Bytes photoshop glitter tutorials. I made an animated gif of the bloglovin button so the glitter actually sparkles (FUN!). Check out The Girl Who Wore Everything to see the design in action.

 • DESIGN TIP #4: LEARN MORE, DESIGN LESS •

There are so many fantastic resources for expanding your design knowledge. My favorites are: Nicole’s Classes, Pugly Pixel, Lynda.com. There you can begin or expand on your knowledge of design-based programs like Illustrator & photoshop. All have been a fantastic resource for me as I have been trying to branch out of my very 2-dimensional design box. Go check them out.

I’m definitely speaking out of experience/mistake here, but as you do learn new tools for photo editing and design you don’t need to use all of the tools all at the same time. I remember as I was learning photoshop my freshman year of college, I applied 4-10 filters to my projects and quickly realized that many of the tools offered in these programs are spices, not staples. In illustrator, I typically stick to 2-3 tools. In photoshop, it’s about the same. This same principle applies to blogs as well. Keep it simple.

Do you have any favorite resources for expanding your design knowledge?

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