Gridding a Picture
Gridding is not cheating. It’s an accepted practice in the field of art. To copy a picture, pencil a grid over it and then (LIGHTLY) pencil a grid on the surface you are transferring the picture to. Copy the shape within each square on the original into the corresponding square on the copy. More explanation and instructions: The Grid Method.
So, why am I thinking (out loud, in writing, on the internet) about this today? A friend is planning a wall mural in a children’s bedroom. While I’ve mainly heard of the grid method being used to replicate a picture in the same size or somewhat bigger, going from 8 x 10 to an 8 foot high wall is easy math. 
Rare sentimental moment: the season of having little children at home can be a lovely time for creative home artistic expression. Any fun projects to share?
Related Posts:
Month of Sundays: August 2009
What do you do when it’s the final day on a $10 off a $10 purchase coupon, 50% off clearance prices, AND another 15% off for using the right card? Get shopping! The truly frugal will hope to find something with a final price of just over $10, making it “so cheap it’s almost free” (a favorite phrase of mine).
I thought I had really done it with this tunic top in my best bright and my favorite fabric. Marked down from $46 to $23, half off, plus the extra 15%, I expected it to be just about $10, but the thing rang up like $5 and something! So I had to go back and get more stuff.
(Last year when I blogged about wearing a dress over shorts, you guys made fun of me. I still like the idea. So this year I’ve been looking for some mid-thigh dresses, but I haven’t found any. While this is way too short to be a dress on me - it’s 30″ long - it’s a similar look.)
What I went back for was this fun top and basic pair of khaki shorts, which coincidentally make an outfit. They weren’t quite as great a deal, HOWEVER, the grand total for all three pieces was - drumroll, please - $13.74 American. Which I can afford (this month and last I have been spending from my “walking around money” for clothing, since I have spent quite a bit already this year).
In filling out what I’ll be wearing to church this August, I found that I can fit into this dress, previously purchased for $1 at Value Village. 
Towards the end of August, it may be cool enough for me to break out my new trouser jeans. That would be good, because I don’t wear jeans with heels all that often. And I’m still shooting for at most 25 cents cost per wear.
What are you wearing to church this August?
Related Posts:
Spokane Thrift Stores: Corbin Senior Center
I may have a new favorite thrift store in Spokane. Did you know that the Corbin Senior Center has one? The Senior Center is where I am going for my drawing class this summer; every Tuesday at 11, the drawing ladies take a break and go shopping. This week I bought something - a pair of nearly new, made in Italy, Classiques Entier, brown patent “croc” (as in reptile) loafers - for $2! Sorry, no camera today.
Just to review, my favorite Spokane thrift stores:
- Value Village on Boone (9 am on Mondays for the real bargains)
- Bobbi’s (formerly BJs), in the Goodwill on Third
- Salvation Army, both the one on Division and the new one out in the Valley
Apparently, this past intense winter, the Volunteers of America thrift store experienced a roof collapse. No word on re-opening.
Any thrifting tips or finds you’d like to share?
Related Posts:
The Wisdom in Identifying Underlying Trends
Reader Sarah left this excellent comment on my post Choose Flattering Over Fads , in response to the idea that “if you only buy clothes that flatter you, you probably won’t look dated. It’s the extreme in clothes that date us” (emphasis added):
I don’t think this is quite as true as I wish it were. Perhaps it’s just me, but I have noticed, at least in regard to skirt lengths, that whether something seems to flatter me depends in part on what is in fashion. I have in my closet a number of skirts from different times that, when I bought them, seemed to me and to stylish individuals I know, to be very flattering. The only trouble is, now they look dreadful and I can’t imagine how I thought they looked good. And it is not that I have put on weight: I weigh the same as I did at the age of 15. This puzzled me greatly until I read something about skirt lengths. Not sure if I read it here or somewhere else, but the point made was that even ‘classic’ clothes can’t be relied upon to be timeless, and that if you keep wearing the same skirt length (or tapered jeans or shoulder pads that seemed to look so good in the ’80s) decade in, decade out, you will end up looking dated, and at least to other people, your clothes will not continue to seem flattering.
When I read this, the light bulb went on: without consciously thinking in terms of current fashions, we can be influenced by what is current, and view our appearance in the light of what is current, such that it was possible in the ’80s to be genuinely convinced that a hugely shoulder-padded straight down upper thigh length jacket over a slim skirt hitting a few inches above the knee (like some of the illustrations in my copy of a book mentioned here, Always In Style) was flattering. Similarly, I cannot imagine how I could have thought that my shoulder-padded double-breasted suits with insufficient waist highlighting and mid-calf length long straight skirts flattering, and yet, at the time I worse those suits, not just I, but many others also thought they looked good on me. I am sure I would have thought those suits timeless classics at the time but they are quite dreadful now!
So I personally think it is important, if you don’t want to look very dated and, more importantly, as though your clothes are extremely unflattering, there is no getting around the need to pay at least a little attention to the underlying trends. What I mean by underlying trends is that although things come in and go out season by season, if you take a longer view, there are more slow-moving trends too, that make up the context in which the fast-moving trends come in and go out. If you ignore the fast-moving trends, there is no problem, but if you also ignore the slow-moving trends THAT is what makes you look horribly dated and NOT FLATTERED by your clothes.
There is of course a wider variety of options one can wear now, compared to in previous generations, but I still think that there ARE underlying slow-moving trends that can’t be ignored unless you don’t care in the slightest how you look.
When I was a child, at some point, my mother was still wearing her ’60s short dresses, and I had to take her aside and tell her that it was completely inappropriate to wear those dresses at that time, because at the time of our conversation, the only people wearing such short skirts were … well… let’s just say that my really quite conservative mother did not want to be giving out the message her short dresses were giving out, once I pointed it out to her. Like women who wear what we now call granny pants now, my mother was wearing something that was completely out at the time she was wearing it. It is not that her figure had changed: we have good genes in that respect. It is ONLY that she had failed to notice the change in the underlying skirt length trend at that time.
Comments? Criticisms?
Thanks, Sarah! I think you did a great job explaining what could seem like conflicting principles: choosing what looks good and sticking with it versus watching fashion trends.
My best advice to avoid this dilemma? Don’t own more clothes than you can wear out in seven years. 
Related Posts:
July is Jeans Month
July is jeans month if, like me, you want to get the most for your budget by shopping thrift. After all, shoppers are working on their summer wardrobes and won’t start really thinking about jeans until August. (Hey, moms, is this a good time for general back-to-school thrifting too?) Take the time now to inventory your wardrobe of jeans and begin looking for what you need. If you don’t find it thrift, you can take advantage of the fall sales around the corner.
So, how many pairs of jeans do you need? Some of my most glamorous friends have only one, and maybe a back-up pair for laundry day. On the other hand, if your children are still in the spit-up stage, you may need a drawer full (like my friend from the post How Many Jeans Does One Mom Need).
My needs:
- straight-leg jeans for with flats (everyday jeans)
- trouser jeans for with heels (I got both of these first two thrift this week for a total of $13.25)
- a pair to tuck into knee boots (I don’t always need these, but I did this past winter!)
- a back-up pair
In my idiom, all jeans are dark.
Statistically, I’ve heard, most women own 8 - 13 pairs of jeans (and the numbers of pairs owned decreases as the one’s size increases). True confessions: How many jeans do you have? How many do you need?
Related Posts:
Recent Wardrobe Additions (Spring/Summer 2009)
Bringing my 2009 wardrobe spending to a grand total of $474.76, I added the following entries today:
- cashmere polo, grass green tipped navy, Old Navy $10.86. Pictured below with my new - ish navy trousers and my vintage “asparagus shoes”, I bought this after Duchesse suggested that 50 and raining is cashmere.
- 2 pairs of shorts from Goodwill (the boutique side): khaki linen bermudas and short (unfortunately, as opposed to knee-length) swim shorts. Total $9.78.
- paisley cotton dress and brown crochet type cardigan, both from Value Village. $17.35. Somebody told me that was expensive, but I think not - compared to the likelihood I would throw up my hands in despair and skip somebody’s wedding because I have nothing to wear!
- another shirt like this one pictured back here, only this one is a lovely lilac color. Target, $6.24.
- “like new” Levi 505s. Salvation Army, $2.38.
- “like new” Eddie Bauer dark wash trouser jeans and Lifestride paisley pumps. Goodwill Boutique $18.47.
Critics of my simple wardrobe color system, or just proponents of a larger wardrobe than I aspire to, will be happy to see a little more color here. I am happy to see paisley! I’ve asked this before: what print defines your personality?
Related Posts:
Save Money on Alterations
I’m not so brilliant that I figured this out myself, but it worked so well I wanted to share it with you.
In selecting which size dress to order, the normal procedure is this: take measurements, compare to manufacturer’s sizing, and if measurements correspond to two different sizes, order the larger size and have the rest taken in. But the brilliant owner of the bridal shop where we ordered the dress for the maid of honor noticed that, because the hips are loose in this style, we could order the size down and avoid alterations altogether! The same trick worked for the bride.
Typically, alterations are expected. In this wedding, only one of the bridesmaids had to have her dress shortened; the rest of the dresses fit “off the rack”. (Well, as with the bridal gown, I did hooks, etc, myself.) Choosing to have the bridesmaids in floor-length gowns, in this case, also saved money, simply because those were the dresses they found.
Related Posts:
An Elegant and Affordable Bridal Gown
Where would you look for bridal gowns if the consignment shops, thrift stores, and craigslist all turned up nothing?
My daughter, who had every intention of buying her own wedding dress for around $200, thought to head to David’s Bridal. When asked the upper limit of her budget, she truthfully told the consultant that she would not go over $400. And look what she got!
Now a word on modesty. See the little cap sleeves? This dress came with them, but it’s good to know they can be added to any strapless dress!
Related Posts:
Do the Bustle
I’m back! Now I can begin sharing, in random order, all this stuff we learned about doing a wedding. Oh my!
Starting with this: I saved us at least $60 by being willing to sew on three sets of hooks and eyes myself. How hard could it be? Thankfully, my daughter’s dress was an easy style, requiring an under-bustle, but that didn’t stop me from sewing on several of the pieces upside down, oh wait, no that was right, uh … you get the idea. Still confused? Maybe, like my husband, you aren’t quite certain what a bustle is: it’s where you hook the train of the wedding dress up to get it out of the way for the reception. (He kept trying to make it some dance from the 1970s.)
The caveat: before you take your dress home to bustle it yourself, make certain the bridal shop will take it back to steam it. We nearly had a disaster.
Related Posts:
What’s Peace of Mind Worth?
I am re-running this post today, because
- I’m beyond ready to get back into the swing of blogging, but not to tackle writing an entirely new post.
- Sadly, when I dropped by the most awesome eyewear shop to get my glasses adjusted, I discovered they are gone. A victim of the economy, supposedly. Yet, in the back of my little know-it-all mind, I wonder if there’s a connection with the fact that they had no online presence. Nor interest in obtaining one. Had they taken me up on my offer to blog them, at least when someone googled, “________, Spokane” something positive would have come up.
- On a happier note, the first retailer I mentioned in this post has sold their shop to someone who is planning on offering even more classes, etc.
I’ll be back next week.
Freshly off my hunt for the new (reading/computer) glasses, I had lunch with a friend, a small retail shop operator. If her shop didn’t exist, people would have no one local to help them understand what to buy or to teach them skills in this particular arena.
Similarly, there is no eyewear shop locally that surpasses the one I ordered through in both stylish selection and the knowledge necessary to fit a pair of glasses on a person’s face and into their lifestyle.
When I found the frames I wanted, I made my buying decision without asking the price. Price wasn’t the point. I had received help that is almost unheard of these days, with a level of expertise that has virtually disappeared. What is the peace of mind of being done shopping and the confidence that my choice supports my goals worth to me?
I suppose I may be stepping on some well-manicured toes when I say that it would not only be unethical but absolutely foolish of me to have written down the style number of those frames and gone home and bought them online more cheaply. If our local retailers provide a service, we should be compensating them for that service. If we don’t, we may come to find that service unavailable at any price. Or we will be forced to replace their service with highly paid consultants.
Thinking about what I value enough to pay for above the lowest possible price reminds me of the idea, from the 1993 book The Overworked American by Juliet Schor,
So my question to you is this: for you, what values trump frugality?
