Moving On Up...

I can now be found at http://www.thriftonista.com which is where I will do my blogging from now on. It's bittersweet to leave this ol' spot, but the times they are a changin'. MUCH MUCH MUCH LOVE to anyone who stops by cuz I know its been forever since I posted. Catch ya later...
Love,
T

AND THE WINNER IS...

Thank you so much, everyone, for your patience! Life got crazy busy there for a minute but I am BACK! And I am pleased to announce that the winners of my contest are
MANON and STASIA!
I chose Manon because I could really feel her love for all things vintage and I could also feel her frustration at living so far away from a city where she can stock her wardrobe with all of the vintage pieces that she desires, so I wanted to give her her very own vintage pieces to enjoy, love Thriftonista!

Manon's Winning Entry:
I read about your fantastic 'Vintage Give Aay Contest' at the blogg Dreamlovely. It's really a great idea to make up such a contest!

I really would like to win your contest, because I'm really addicted to vintage clothing. Unfortunatelly, I live in a Dutch village which is surrounded by farmers. So I am not in the position to do some vintage shopping every now and then. But when I get the chance to go to some cute little vintage stores in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, I stay there untill they have to force me out! Everytime I visit those stores, I'm leaving with almost every little precious thing the store had to offer.

I like vintage clothing so much, because it feels that you are wearing a 'story' instead of just some random piece of clothing. It has some kind of 'glow' on it, because of the story behind the piece.
I feel like a vintage little Goddess when I'm wearing my favourite vintage dress, just because I can feel the beauty of the person who wore the dress before me. I think she must be a natural beauty who loved to dress outstanding, chique and sweet.

Besides that, it is rather great that almost every vintage item is unique in its own way. The fact that no one else in the world ownes a piece like you might have is the most wonderfull feeling in the world. It makes the item special: even the misfits of vintage have this special 'gift'.

So I hope you can understand my 'Vintage Love' a little bit better now, and I'm really hoping that you will think of me when you pick the winner of your 'Vintage Give Away Contest'.

Thank you in anticipation!

Lots of love,

-xxx-

Manon van den Herik
**************************************************
Stasia was the lucky girl who was the random winner of the contest-- meaning that her name was simply picked from amongst all of the applicants. But I also really appreciated what she had to say in her entry, and noticed that she too lives far from opportunities to buy fabulous vintage pieces. So now she will receive some LOVE THRIFTONISTA!

I will keep you guys posted as to the development of their packages and hopefully they will be willing to share pics of themselves wearing their new (old) pieces
OOOOH, and I almost forgot! EVERYONE who took the time to enter my little contest has earned a credit of $10 toward any order over $30-- and when you order, just remind me that you entered the contest and I will throw in an extra little treat, just for you!
Thank you again for your patience!
xoxo forever!
TaRosa

Checking In

My loves... My loves... I am so sorry for the prolonged silence. Things have been pretty hectic-- mostly as regards my having a 20 month old daughter who was quite under the weather for a fairly long stretch there. I have just been focusing on being a mama and working on that pesky language requirement for my Masters Degree. But never fear. I will be contacting the contest's winners before the end of the weekend (I want to contact them personally and let them know FIRST) and I will be back to making regular updates very soon.
Thank you for your patience. Je t'aime!
xoxo 4-eva,
T
PS The pic is of me at my last Prototype show at the Fabric Lab. It is the lovely work of my favorite street style blogger, Renee Mudd of http://the-intersection.blogspot.com.

Mission Accomplished

My show at the Fabric Lab was a total success and so so so so so much fun! I was able to debut a lot of my new designs, which was just so thrilling! Here are some pictures (click on the little collage to see it bigger). Please let me know if anything catches your eye.
For the record, all of my pieces were made with vintage fabric. My designs are the high necked dress and jumpsuit, the one strapped multicolored dress, the one sleeved green dress, the long sleeved shimmery green dress and the harem pants. I modified the yellow dress by dyeing it in turmeric and the maroon dress by shortening it to give it volume and the unitard was another one of my bleach projects. Feedback is loved and appreciated!
xoxo
T
PS The hair was inspired by Maegean at lovemaegean.blogspot.com

ALL PHOTOS BY PAULA CUEVAS EXCEPT FOR THE COLLAGE BY BROOX PULFORD of xrocksthespot.com

Fashion Show at the Fabric Lab

Well, I am up toO late and REALLY tired but feeling super pumped and excited about my fashion show tomorrow night. I will have five models rocking the catwalk for me and they were all cool enough to come over tonight and try on a bunch of new pieces (in case of last minute decisions AND because I just got a few new pieces from my seamstress) and they let me put their hair in sponge rollers so that they will all have lots of bouncy curls to add to the hotness of their strides.
Everyone looks AMAZING in the final outfits that I picked for them and I just can't wait to see them when their hair and make up are also ready to go.
I am so tired that I have to make this an extra short post-- in spite of the fact that I feel like I have not posted in forever. I have just been so BUSY!
Of course I will post lots of pictures very soon, so check back, lovies!
XOXO
T

Current Auctions

http://stores.ebay.com/Thriftonista-Vintage-Desirables

Ebay, you beast.

Having a shop on Ebay is a funny thing. I really feel that I am developing this passive aggressive love hate relationship with a beast that alternately showers me with money or takes it away from me, and I never know which to expect.
It keeps reeling me back in, too. Just as I'll be about to declare that I am absolutely 100% finished messing with Ebay, I will sell a couple of pieces for more than expected and find myself posting again and watching those auctions count down.
Ah, the auctions... I was saying to my fiance, Dan, the other day that watching an auction end on Ebay is like watching "must see TV" where you get money in the end. It's kind of like a game show where you never know if someone is going to bid or not. I remember when I first started selling things on Ebay and I thought that I could gauge whether or not an item would sell by how many people were "watching" it. "Oh," I'd say, "that dress only has 1 watcher. It's not going to sell." And I'd be so disappointed, wondering why no one else could see how amazing that dress was. Then I'd start to question my picture quality and curse my crappy camera, then I'd question how I'd styled the piece, or the angles I'd chosen, and, just as I was railing against the fact that it had snowed on the day of the photo shoot and I'd had to take pictures inside where the light was just not good enough, three bidders would show up out of no where and battle each other to the finish. "Wow!" I'd think, "I love this!" Then I would turn around and have an experience like the one I had just last week where no less than 7 watchers were circling a vintage Oscar De La Renta purse, sending me questions and signing on to watch , then changing their minds and signing off, then coming back (or somesuch)-- and I just KNEW that that amazing purse was finally going to sell, only to get that annoying message in my inbox: "'Amazing Vintage Oscar De La Renta Purse' did not sell." Would I like to repost? NO! I would have liked for just one of those people to have bid!
Or would I? I guess not. Because the next day, one of the watchers emailed me and asked me to sell the purse to them for less than $10 and I just could not go there. I mean, I have to have some pride, right?
Oh, Ebay. Why do you make me feel so confused? I hate you!
Okay, that's all for now. I have to go check on my active listings. That sweet little sheer plaid dress is ending in less than 12 hours. The countdown has begun. I love this part!

Free Personalized Box of Vintage and Retro Cuteness from Thriftonista!

In an effort to express my appreciation for my growing readership and to attract even more regular readers ( and customers!), I am very excited to announce my first giveaway-- a personalized box of goodies specifically tailored to the contest's winners. What the box contains will depend upon who wins it, but I can guarantee you that it will contain multiple pieces and be super fun and fabulous! I have many hundreds of amazing pieces (most of which have not even been photographed yet) and I want to show you guys how awesome I think you are by giving some of my sweet little gems away to you, my beloved readers!
This contest will begin at 12:01 am on January 18th and continue through 12:01 am on February 18th.
The rules of the giveaway are very simple and you can enter the contest in two different ways and win for one of 2 different reasons.
1) Leave me a comment letting me know how you found my blog and why you would like to be considered for a fabulous personalized gift. I would love to hear about your love for vintage clothes and shoes, or your commitment to only wearing recycled goods, or whatever. I may even contact you in the future to see if you'd like to do an interview!
-or-
2) Simply create a link to this post in your blog, on MySpace, etc and then leave me a comment letting me know that you linked this post. If you just link this post, please take the time to say "hello!" anyway!

I will choose 1 random winner from amongst all entrants and 1 winner on the basis of their (fairly brief, please) explanation of why they would like to be chosen.
The winner will be announced by 12:01 am on Saturday February 21st.

I look forward to hearing from all of you and to putting together an amazing and exciting gift box for each winner! By the end of February I will be sending out some very sweet surprises.
I can't wait to hear from you all!
xoxo
T

Free Cuteness!!!

The Lunch Date Blouse GIVEAWAY!!!!
Please check this out. This blouse is lovely and this idea is so cute that I am going to do something very similar very soon. I've been wanting to host a giveaway and now that I know about being able to share links in this manner, I am very inspired! Free super cuteness coming very soon!
xoxo
T

Work With What You've Got

I did a fashion show at the Fabric Lab last year and had this beautiful little black dress I knew that I wanted to put in the show, but for whatever reason I simply was not inspired by it. Each girl had three outfits to wear and her first outfit was fairly conservative, with the styling becoming a little more fun and out there as the show progressed.
This dress as a third outfit was pretty, but certainly not fun or out there. What to do?
Cut to my fiance sending me a gorgeous photo spread of women wearing all sorts of elaborate outfits, one of which involved an Elizabethan ruff. Cut to me eyeing my daughter's lovely little tulle tutu while thinking about that pretty black dress. How's about melding the two...?
Fun? Check! Out there? CHECK! Ready to rock? You know it, baby!
Styling does not always come easily. Sometimes it is agonizingly slow and headache inducing in the process. But if you stick with it, inspiration can and will come. Sometimes it's in a photo spread, sometimes it's part of a toy collection. But it is always already on it's way. Work with what you've got and be prepared to wow yourself with what you can do.
xoxo
T

Hello Out There in the Distance...

Hello, everyone! I just want to stop by and say how exciting it is to be getting so many encouraging comments and emails from current and future friends. It feels good to know that there are actually people out there reading this little blog of mine and I have every intention of keeping you supplied with plenty of interesting things to read.
So, I have a fashion show coming up, on January 31, at the Fabric Lab here in Denver. In anticipation of that exciting event, I have prepared several exciting new designs (with the help of my absolutely fabulous seamstress, the lovely Miss Gabriela), bleached out some hotness all while assembling some absolutely stunning models to show off my fun new and vintage pieces.
Of course, I will post pictures from that show as soon as they are available, but the 31st is just so far down the road that you will most certainly be hearing from me before then so stop by again soon.
Lots of love and infinite kisses to you all!

Featured in the Denver Post!!!

Oh my Gosh, wow! This week I had the honor of being featured in the LifeStyle section of Tuesday's Denver Post. I went thrifting with Claire Martin, one of the Post's reporters, and talked to her about what I look for when I am shopping for vintage and retro clothes. I also talked to her about my vintage redesign, my new designs and my work as a personal stylist and shopper.
Click on this link to check out:
http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_11376058
All I can say is that moments like this make me feel as though I must be on track with what I am supposed to be doing with my life. It has been a long road, and a crazy journey, but 8 (yes, EIGHT) years after graduating from college with degrees in English and African American Studies and 14 (Yes, FOURTEEN!!!) years after graduating from high school, after working in countless coffee shops and offices and after being nearly finished with a Masters degree in English (just that pesky language requirement left to finish and I will be there), I have discovered that my lifelong interest in fashion and styling ultimately led me to a more exciting and interesting career than I ever imagined. And, I can only hope, this is just the beginning!
Thank you for joining me as I work it all out!
xoxo
T

Hard at Work

I am still updating like crazy and have literally hundreds of dresses and shoes and coats and and and... that I will be posting in the days and weeks to come, so please keep an eye on my Etsy shop and my Ebay shop. My website is still being perfected, so for now Ebay and Etsy are the best ways to shop Thriftonista. And you can always drop me a line if you have any questions or requests.
I will definitely be keeping my blog updated with details on all of the fun new stuff that I have available for you. I will also have interviews and style tips and all kinds of fun stuff -- so come back soon! And thank you for stopping by-- you're welcome any time!
xoxo
T

Bleach-- BLECH!

Last night I decided to do something I've been thinking about for a while-- bleaching out faded black articles of clothing to give them (re)new(ed) visual interest. I'm a bleach novice, so the whole enterprise was a pretty fun experiment and I was really happy with how my pieces turned out-- though the reek of bleach did get to be overwhelming. What was not fun was waking up dizzy in the middle of the night and realizing that my "well ventilated space" had not been nearly as ventilated as I'd thought. What you see here is one of the results of my experiment. More bleached black to come-- but next time I will be sure to work outside. Hopefully that will be ventilated enough to protect my brain cells!