Sunday Best and All the Rest

   I don't know about any of you, but after Christmas I usually feel the need to clean out my room a bit. My birthday is the week before Christmas, and by the end of December I find that there is a pile of cards and gifts perched precariously on my desk. While I feel blessed to receive such lovely things, it can also be a bit overwhelming trying to figure out where to put them, even if they're small. In any case, I (if somewhat grudgingly) take up the task of putting away the old and making room for the new.   This time around, the job involved rearranging the bedroom furniture to make space for a newer, bigger, bookshelf than the one I had. Though I hadn't intended to go through my closet that very day it was hard to stop cleaning once I had started! That day, I ended up setting aside a few garments to donate to the thrift store.   Earlier this week, I participated in a clothing swap that my best friend held. Somehow, I ended up finding m...

   How can a girl spend a November afternoon in a fun and rewarding way? Go thrift shopping! Today, my mom, grandma and I paid several of our home town's thrift stores a visit. Not only was it a lovely way to spend a girls' day out, but it also produced some cute purchases.   Technically, not all of our shopping was at thrift shops. We also visited consignment stores. The difference has confused me for a while, so here are definitions from thefreedictionary.com and Bing dictionary to help you and I out: * Thrift Shop - A shop that sells used articles, especially clothing, as to benefit a charitable organization. * Consignment Store - special retail outlet: a retail outlet that stocks and sells goods on a sale-or-return basis, or as an agent selling on behalf of others and receiving a percentage So, at a consignment store, the person who gave the items to be sold gets a profit. Typically, consignment stores stick with items tha...

  Where I come from, costumes are a big deal. Since being in my teens, I've gone to way more events in costume than I ever did when I was little! My repertoire includes costume birthday parties, a ball, and a few medieval festivals. It's a good thing that I like fashion so much. ;)   In my area, we are blessed to have several consignment stores that have vintage clothing and costumes. I have never had to order a costume off of the internet. Not everyone has the advantage of great local stores, but with a little ingenuity, you can pull together a marvelous outfit for your next dress up event!           This was my costume for a nineteen twenties party. I searched high and low for a drop-waist dress (that wasn't an eighties prom dress), but couldn't find what I was looking for. Enter this lacy black frock. It is more reminiscent of the thirties, but the handkerchief hemline was definitely popular in the tw...