"A New Day" Airs Tomorrow at 11 a.m. on Channel 9!

Tomorrow is almost here!

In fact, tomorrow is tomorrow!

If you missed last Thursday's post,
I had the opportunity to put my thrifting knowledge to good use. 

Phylicia of Black Girls Thrift Too and I took part in a five minute segment on thrifting in Cincinnati.

 And yes, she's as fun as she looks.

If you tune in Sunday she'll entertain your thrifted pants off!

"A New Day" airs Sunday morning  at 11 a.m. on WCPO channel 9 Cincinnati.

Don't they have a beautiful set?

 The lovely Jennifer Moore (middle) interviewed us.

Her easy-going nature helped me relax and hopefully made me avoid any deer-in-the-headlights faces.

I do know that at one point I scratched the right side of my face with about four fingers on my left hand.

Pretty sure it was as awkward as it sounds.

I guess we'll find out Sunday!

 

Getting miked on set by one of the crew members.

The same guy operated three cameras at once. Super impressive!

I must admit that I struggeled with outfit selection.

 

After an hour of trying outfits, I decided on a look that would be safe for TV.

Not that I have any real knowledge or experience on the matter....

Zara Blazer, thrifted at St. Vincent de Paul on Glenway, $5.99. 

Purple t-shirt, $3.99 Goodwill

J.Jill Jeans, St. Vincent de Paul on Glenway, $4.99

Purse, St. Vincent de Paul on Glenway, $4.99

Necklace, Blackberry Exchange in Columbia, MO $3

The shoes I bought at Target 10 years ago.

The embellishments are actually vintage clip-on earrings, a gift from my mother.

It's hard to tell from this angle if I made the right outfit call. What do you think?

Whatever the outcome, I had an amazing time! Thanks WCPO!

And thanks to my über supportive fiancé who played the part of entourage/photographer.

He captured all the shots above. Thanks Cory!

Don't forget to tune into Channel 9, ABC tomorrow at 11 a.m.! 

Are you as nervous to watch recorded me as I am?

AH!

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Curtains and all their Drama

We live in a beautiful old house built in 1912.

It has lovely features like a large foyer, high ceilings, and wide windows. They're not only large, they are some of the largest I have ever lived with, and are wonderfully blinds-free. Not since college I have lived without blinds, and my solution back then was buying an entire bolt of blue jersey for a dollar and using fabric ducktape (yes that's a real thing) to get them to stay.  It looked slightly better than it sounds.

So with Cory's blessing, I took the creative freedom reigns and began the hunt for curtains. Of course, I wanted to thrift them. I had previously purchased a brand new Target curtain to spice up my cubicle, so I figured I wouldn't have too much trouble. BOY WAS I WRONG.

The biggest obstacle of thrifting curtains was the need for four matching panels. The windows are very wide: they required 100 inches of fabric to be fully covered. Because of this I couldn't get away with one panel per window.

The stock that I did find was boring and overpriced. $20 for used beige Target curtains?
NO THANK YOU MA'AM.

Weeks of unsuccessful thrifting forced me to move on. Finding fabric and making my own panels came to mind until I discovered how  insanely expensive fabric is these days. For the amount of fabric I would need, the end cost would be $30 in fabric, plus all the time it takes to sew them. I've just recently gotten back into sewing ( formally an 8th grade pillow/purse/jeans-to-skirt maker). My skills are pretty dull and I knew if I was going to spend that kind of money, I wanted them done right.

TJ Maxx and similar stores had great prices ($12-$30 for a pair) but a terrible selection of colors. More beige curtains? THE WORST.  I had the urge to throw paint on them.  Color is a serious need in my life. If you have doubts of this ask anyone in my family about my middle school/highschool bedroom which was modeled after an Indian circus. My family just recently painted over the muti-colored stripes, and thus confessed how hideous they thougtht it was. Even my sweet grandma labled them "very unique," which in kindly South Dakota talk means "the worst color combination I've ever seen." :) Love you grammy!

I finally purchased panels from West Elm, a home furnishing company.

They are more gold than yellow, but look great with our decor so I'm happy.
Also Cory and I were tired of looking. ($39 per panel)
When I first started looking, that felt like an outrageous price
but similar curtains are selling between $50 - $100 per panel.

HERE COMES THE THRIFTY PART

With all this fabric cost, I wanted a super cheap way of tying them back.
Being a renter, I try to be mindful of marking up the walls. 

My solution: Curtain Ties!

Add caption

Remember 2 years ago when arm candy was raging? Well, I found a use for all those bracelets.

I think it's easiest to use bracelets with closures as opposed to ties.
Don't forget to be mindful if you're using delicate fabrics,
you don't want to snag beautiful curtains!

Bon Nuit!

The Cubicle Makeover

I knew I wanted to transform my brown cube

because it looked like this...

 

As you can see, it was very brown. 

Brown walls, brown desk, brown cube walls, brown carpet.

All that fine and dandy for an office setting but

personally, I need color.

 

 

Thrift stores are often a box of puzzle pieces. 

Luckily, I'm a person who enjoys solving problems.

This fun, bright curtain was clearly the answer.

Curtain, $3, Target brand, Goodwill where Beechmont and 275 meet.

 The vertical pattern appealed to me.  

Who doesn't want their space to look taller?

 

Before

 For Christmas, my family gave me a heavy duty sewing machine.

It's sort of magic. However, I am not yet magical at sewing.

 As you can see my cube has panels.
I cut the curtain into four equal pieces and hemmed all the edges.
  I thought this would be an easy project. 
While it wasn't too difficult pinning the hem did take patience, a skill I'm still acquiring.

 After

 

 

Before                        After

 

 

Color energies me and lets the creativity flow.

 

 

The cube walls are a cork-like material.

The ease of attaching anything to the walls was the source of inspiration for this project.

Sliver thumb tacks were used to adhere the fabric and gave it an upholstered look.

Thumb tacks, $2, Michael's

 

 I did visit a fabric store during the search,

and similar prints were 4-10 dollars a yard.

I'm waaaaaaay too thrifty for that. 

While sitting at my desk,  I wanted to feel inspired not think to myself

was it worth the money?

It took about four different thrift stores trips to find the right fabric.  

Of course thrifting is a hobby of mine, so it didn't feel like work.

I suggest making thrift lists so you don't feel like you're finding nothing.

Bonsoir à partir Cincinnati Thrift!