Hey, New York Times, Welcome to the Party

Read the dazzling news flash here.

Born again!

It has turned cold and wet in Southern California, which I love because it's a whole different season, like they have in normal places.

The cooler weather always makes my boots and other winter clothes happy because they can finally be useful. This outfit happened because I found these BRAND NEW Born boots in exactly my size for $15 ($10 with the discount from my fave thrift store checker at Out of the Closet, who also offered to father a child for me). The stripey shirt also came from there for about $3, the Max Mara jacket from the lovely Libby at a clothing swap, and the scarf was a gift from Kathlyn from when she spent some time in Abu Dhabi. I made the necklaces.

In fact, the only thing that was not given to me or thrift scored in this outfit are the jeggings, which I have come to depend on heavily in lieu of tights or bare legs or jeans. I know I will look back in agony in a few years when I see pictures of myself in them, but for now, jeggings are the ultimate platform upon which to build a wardrobe. Skirt too short? Jeggings. Sweater too long and baggy? Jeggings. Thanksgiving got you all bloaty ... you guessed it.

But I digress. But do go get yourself some jeggings. These are from Hue, the tights manufacturer, and cost about $25.

A Sustainable Wedding

I must admit, my darling reader(s), that I was in abject horror when I saw that the last time I posted on this blog was so very long ago. There was a ton of wedding planning happening, but I am very happy to report that we did quite a bit of ThriftScoring for our nuptials!

 Here are some things we did to reduce our footprint:

 1. A few weeks before the wedding, Holly and I hit the local Goodwill and bought China, as you saw in the last post. Really nice cake and dinner plates, all a little different but certainly not clashing. The came in around the same price as they would have been to rent them, but now she'll have them on hand for future events.

2. We created a website with ride-share information on it. As a destination wedding, there were a lot of folks who would be arriving and leaving around the same time, so we encouraged people to carpool. It worked! We also hired a shuttle to bring folks to and from the winery from the two main places people stayed in the town of Forest Grove. This had the added benefit of allowing people to celebrate a tiny bit more than they might have if they were driving.

3. We worked really closely with the caterer to ensure we served local, in-season food, including grass-fed beef and wild salmon. And plenty of veggie options, like the mushroom risotto. All the leftovers were boxed up and eaten the next couple days, or given to local guests. Of course, the wine was from the very grounds where we were. Likewise, flowers were from the farmers' market and a roadside sunflower stand.


4. For favors, we didn't want people to end up with junk they didn't care about. So we found a local jam-maker and bought tiny jars for each bag. We also included a wine glass with our wedding logo on it, and a packet of natural Immuni-C (which is like Airborne) -- things they could use immediately or after.

5. As for the dress: I looked on Craigslist, but between Little House on the Prairie and '80s poofy satin numbers, I didn't find anything. I scoured all my regular thrift stores. Finally, I found a wedding dress at a small outlet shop. It was incredibly inexpensive ($300) for such a gorgeous, well-constructed tiered-taffeta number that needed little alteration. The dark side is that it was custom made in Viet Nam for surely a pittance. The sustainable solution? I am wearing my gorgeous dress for every formal occasion here on out until it falls off in shreds, or I hand it over to a step-daughter or daughter.

The dress for the rehearsal dinner I scored for $6 at the Goodwill the day before. Paired with a pair of Tony Lama boots ($3.49 from Salvation Army five years ago), I was dressed perfectly to boss people around on a farm!

Home Plates

I see where I get this now. Not only is my mother, Colleen, a champion ThriftScorer, but my bonus/step mother Holly is too. How could I ever escape this fate?

We are getting married in August at Holly's winery and vineyard. And, in the spirit of being as sustainable and practical as possible, we added to her collection of beautiful restaurant/caterer plates to serve 100. If we'd rented them, they'd cost about 55 cents each. Which is about how much we bought them for. So now she can just keep them there and use them as she needs. I don't ever recall going to an event and noticing if the plates exactly matched ... The other great thing about ThriftScoring plates is that you can bring food over to people's homes and let them keep the plate as a gift.

21 Things You Should Never Buy New

 See #10 on the list

Loving this article in Yahoo Finance today, great info on WHY these particular items are better when you ThriftScore them!

I will add another:

#22. Jeans! Too insane to pay $200 when you could go to Crossroads and pay $20 for a very high-end pair.