weekend pickthrough- it’s totally still sunday edition.

i have never seen more truly awful images in my life than i have today google image searching the word "sunday" . this was supposed to be a picture of a pair of "days of the week" underpants. but apparently, THIS IS WHAT YOU GET. good day.

ok. so i posted about my adventures at the mittapheap instead of doing the pickthrough yesterday… i just didn’t want to have 2 pickthroughs back to back. i could have skipped it entirely, but then there were a bunch of hot links that i didn’t want to get cold. also, i was sick. also, daylight saving time… i blame everyone/everything else but me. (and i’m positive that assessment will hold up in a court of law.) (did i mention that i watched 3 seasons of law & order SVU this weekend?)

so yeah, let’s keep this quick and dirty. here are the goods:

yes, auto-europe even has travel guides for vampire slayers.

joseph gordon levitt vs. kittens. NO CONTEST.

48 hours in lewiston auburn. (no really, it’s cool, i promise)

everyone loves an infographic about graveyard symbolism. right?

i never tire of looking at pretty girls in pretty clothes.

oh god. i guess i’ll be buying local honey from here on out…

this sock bun tutorial is going to revolutionize the way i handle my frequently unwashed hair.

i haven’t painted my nails in years, yet i find myself fully obsessed with the supernaturally perfect manicures on this nail polish blog.

a totally weird article about outsourcing fast food drive throughs… (or is it spelled THRU?)

why don’t i find awesome shit like this when i go thrifting?

forcing people to look like they’re shoplifting- for art. sorry lady, i don’t want your damn dirty break-up sweater.

i want to steal all your clothes.

i’ve been busy.

you know it. but this time i’m not writing to apologize for not posting enough (remember that time i was trying to post every day- what happened to that shit?). this time, i’m writing to let y’all know one of the super secret plots i’ve been hatching all these long months. (ok, and maybe to apologize a little bit for not posting)

anyway, me and a stunning assortment of lady fashion blogger friends have been meeting almost weekly (did you know that the armory has a free cheez plate? you really need to go there) to put together our own CITY WIDE CLOTHING SWAP.

if you’ve never been to a swap before (you should be sad for your loss), it’s basically just a big party where you bring all your awesome clothes that don’t fit you or that you’ve become tired of, and swap them with other people who have better fitting clothes that fill you with excitement.  except that this time, instead of haggling over sensible rayon skirts over 7-layer dip at your lame coworker’s house, you get to paw through the cast offs of all the most fashiony people in portland.

well, at least that’s what we hope.

basically, a swap is only as good as the people who show up with their shit. so please, if your dance card is empty for saturday, the 21st of may, please consider penciling us in. if the people who organized the event are any indication of the quality of the swappables that will be there, this shit is gonna be amazing (do people still say “off the chain”?).

ok, i can’t exactly speak for the quality of my own stuff (i am easily always the worst dressed one at our meetings) but the rest of the ladies all have incredible style, and i know you want what they’re swappin. i know do.

and if the promise of recycling your best hipster finery isn’t enough to get you in the door, let me throw down 2 last points:

the jumpsuit chronicles.

so it looks like i’ll be contributing more regularly to the goodwill of northern new england blog with my second hand fashion exploits, and i’m SUPER EXCITED about it. not only is it a chance to write for another cool local blog (especially one attached to such a super worthy cause as goodwill), but it’s also a really fantastic excuse for me to expand my ailing wardrobe.  in case you haven’t already heard the story a thousand times, i gained 30 lbs. 2 years ago, and have been exceptionally reluctant to buy bigger clothes. even when faced with the persistent reality that this is just the size that i am now,  i still  just can’t bring myself to invest in a wardrobe in a size that feels like it belongs to someone else. this is very stupid.

anyway, this new goodwill gig is a great way for me to ditch the unhealthy body image game, support a great cause, and remember why i love clothes shopping in the first place (and still maintain my budgetary goals). basically, it’s a win, win, win (with a side of win) situation (FTW).  i have a new post up today about an legendary sweater shopping weekend (OMG CASHMERE), but instead of just straight up posting links to my goodwill stuff, I thought it would be fun to give you guys some super secret outtakes from my horribly awkward and poorly lit fashion shoots (anyone out there want to take pictures of me- the boyfriend is a willing but unable photographer!).

so this week at goodwill, i  wrote about 3 awesome j crew sweaters that i bought, but what i didn’t mention is that i also found this most amazing 80s jumpsuit for $2.50 (way to go red barb!)! it’s totally ridiculous, and kind of makes me look preggo (or that my just be some post-xmas salt bloat), but i love it anyway. thinking about wearing it this summer with really tall platforms and some sort of giant gold belt. please note the button detailing on the sleeves and pants cuffs.  if only i had an animated gif of me operating the full frontal zipper.

where did this pig come from?

well, my vacation has finally come to an end. it’s sort of sad, but saying goodbye to the steady diet of bread and cheese (not a lot of vegetarian options in piscataquis county) and lifetime network was an absolute necessity. so i finally dock my bloated ass back in portland, and i’m unpacking all of my various jazz… and this pig rolls out. well, this plastic replica of an antique hog shaped  pin cushion, and its accompanying receipt for $8.99.

um… what? was i on pills or something?

nope. no pills, no demon possessions, no being held at gunpoint… no, something far more sinister was at work here: RETAIL AWKWARDNESS.

on the long ride home from greenville, we made multiple stops at antique malls, thrift stores, and junk shops, all of which turned out to be a bust.  we must have done the 2 minute tour of disappointment at least 7 or 8 times, slipping out the side doors while other customers distracted the shopkeepers from our lack of buying. in and out like some sort of dirty double entendre that i’m too tired to make right now. but somewhere near abbot (maine’s #1 town- at least alphabetically), we stopped into a tiny little antique shop and everything changed.

despite what it declared on the exterior signage, it was really more or a junk shop than anything. a combination of crappy reproductions, aging craft projects, and other dusty sub-garage sale knickknacks. about 30 seconds indicated that it was time to leave, but one unfortunate feature of this store was a large rascal-bound elderly proprietor sitting right next to the front door. oh, and no other customers. at one point i heard a door slam and thought that i might be saved by the distraction of other incoming suckers, but it was only the equally elderly husband of the proprietor, coming in to hover in another part of the shop. there was no escape!

maybe it’s just me, but sometimes when i’m in a kind of depressing store that i can tell isn’t weathering the economy very well, i am overcome with horrible guilt for not buying anything. even when the merchandise is utter (often utterly overpriced) garbage, i still somehow find myself looking harder, digging deeper into bins, trying to find anything that might be worthy bringing home. when the sad eyed shopkeeper is there to stare me down (on a rascal, by the front door no less!), i am powerless. it’s almost like i’m paying a price of the trinket to escape the awkward sadness.

when i saw the pig pincushion sitting on the shelf, i saw my ticket to get out of that store sans bad feelings.  am i the only crazy person who does this? furthermore, is anyone out there in the market for a pig pincushion?

and the lord taketh away.

the universe is a messed up place. this weekend initially seemed like an incredible thrift shopping sleepwalk through unbelievable deal after unbelievable deal. like all of my garage sale wishes were finally coming true. and then everything fell apart. in an expensive and heartbreaking way… but first, the dream:

score #1: the boyfriend and i were actually driving out of town to go flea marketing down route one when we stopped short (way short- about 4 blocks from our condo) at a small roadside garage sale. beckoning me from the street was a sunshine yellow solair chair. i have been lusting after one of these bitches for YEARS, and have on several occasions strongly considered stealing them from the poolsides of old orchard beach motels. upon closer examination- a little dirty, a couple of spider eggs, but in otherwise excellent shape. $10 price tag- SOLD. a super deal, even if i did have to carry it up the hill in 4″ platforms.

score #2: the ex husband (who i am mercifully still friends with) texted me early sunday morning to tell me that there was a hot looking garage sale happening on hampshire street next to the sketchy east end rite aid. um, this was no ordinary garage sale. this was a WARY FUCKING MEYERS garage sale. authors of the super-incredible interior design tome tossed & found, i’ve long felt fortunate to share a city with such awesomeness. and on sunday morning, i got to scavenge through that awesomeness with both hands. and by awesomeness, i mean the most gorgeous orange enamel electric fireplace (still working!) that i have ever seen. there was plenty of other cool stuff, but this was the only thing i could see. apparently the original price was $25, but i stood in front of it for long enough (trying to figure out where i would put it, how i would fit it in the car, and how i was going to convince the boyfriend bring this giant thing into our home), that they knocked it down to $10. $10!!! the universe was smiling upon me (save for the part where we had to disassemble the unit in the rite aid parking lot in order to get it in the car).

also rolled up in the best thrift store weekend ever, 2 strawberry patterned mugs, a wall hanging of 2 parakeets, a jeremy brett sherlock holmes feature length episode on DVD (still sealed), and a kathy martin book (juvenile nurse fiction from the 50s) that was missing from my collection.

but don’t forget that part about how much the universe loves to take me down a notch whenever things are going really well. while moving some furniture around to make room for the new toys, an old toy was inadvertently destroyed. a dear friend that i don’t see anymore gave it to me for my 30th birthday. and when i picked it up off the floor to put it back into its rightful place… the head toppled off and smashed into a thousand pieces on the floor. devastated. it had survived multiple moves and was one of my most prized possessions. i can and will replace it at some point (well, the next time that i have $175 rattling around in my budget), but it’s not really the same. 2 glasses of wine and an entire bowl of buttered popcorn later, i’m still bummed out.

like i said, the universe is a messed up place.

flea market feature- montsweag adventure!

as i mentioned yesterday (as i ever so classily begged for you to enter my contest), this weekend i took the first trip of the season to my favorite seasonal flea market in maine. i’ve been compiling and manicuring my list of best maine flea markets since last fall, but i thought it might be worthwhile to do a little profile of some of the superstars as i thrift my way through the summer months.

the montsweag flea market, located on a fairly low-key stretch of route one in woolwich (in between bath and wiscasset), opens on mother’s day weekend (weather permitting), and shuts back down “when the tourists stop coming”. it’s literally nothing more than a vacant lot filled with aging plywood tables and a few summer camp cabin-like shanties, but for some reason, this is where all the A+ people come to set up shop. no, it’s not all faberge eggs and first editions, it’s still a lot of crazy crap just like other flea markets… but it’s the BEST crazy crap in town. the judgment criteria:

1. new stuff is kept to a minimum. (i’m talking about you cascade) how horribly disappointing is it to go to what you think is a cool flea market, only to be assaulted by dollar store tchotchkes and ultra-trashy OOB-worthy t-shirts (ex: “if i wanted to hear what you had to say, i’d take my cock out of your mouth” heartwarming!). nobody wants this shit, sand it’s always uncomfortable to walk by your table, so please cut it out! (montsweag only had one table of this variety- dragon statuettes i think).

2. there’s lots of old stuff. even when it’s not worth anything, old stuff feels sexy, mysterious, exciting. from antique to retro, i wanna dive into boxes of musty old socially irrelevant books, try on enormous vintage cocktail rings, smell the mothballs of long forgotten fabric stashes, and fiddle with exotic examples of outmoded technology. going to the flea market should be like going on an archeological dig. i want to rifle through crumbling cardboard bins of relics feeling like every single thing is going to make me an ebay millionaire.

3. there’s lots of weird stuff. i want to see nightmare inducing creepy old toys, stacks of water damaged low-rent retro porn magazines, and at least a 10% saturation of stuff that elicits the comment “what the fuck is this?”. even if you come home with nothing, your day will never feel wasted if you spent the majority of your time pointing out the hilarity & terror to your fellow flea-marketers (also, this this a great place to work on your prop comedy).

4. prices are reasonable & they’re willing/ready to haggle. there’s a ton of antique stores and flea markets that easily meet the above criteria for awesome stuff, but cruelly price it just out of reach. what’s exciting about a box or a field full of incredible stuff that you want but can’t afford? why not just go browse the cartier? i bet they don’t have a port-a-potty (a minimal downside, but there isn’t a hook on the door and i was forced to wear my purse around my neck like a feedbag to avoid contamination).

if i was going to get in the habit of giving out stars, montsweag would easily gets a 4.5 out of 5. it meets all of the above critera with gusto, and save for the porta-john issues and the dragon statuettes, from vintage toys to scary dolls, they know what i like. plus, if you do so much as breathe near an item- someone will offer you a deal. bring cash (small bills), go early (the dealers get there at the crack of dawn), and prepare to be surprised (make sure you have room in your trunk). the boyfriend offered to buy 3 vintage cameras from a dealer for $15, and ended up with a rubbermaid tote full for $20. you can check out the rest of my montsweag exploration on flickr, or you can get your ass to wiscasset and have your own adventure. this weekend is supposed to be sunny and 70s, where do i go next?

don’t make me beg.

seriously, don’t make me do it. is it really so hard to take a blurry cameraphone photo of your favorite thrift store find and email it to me? is it really so hard to take the $25 gift card prize and go buy more awesome stuff? i’ve received a few more entries to the goodwill giveaway madness contest (as indicated by the AMAZING salty pete lamp in the upper right corner over there that takes you to the contest gallery), but it’s NOT ENOUGH! it’s flea market and garage sale season, so get your asses out there and do it. for example, i hit the montsweag today, and scored the very amazing crazy 60s airplane crossection picture at the left. and don’t be fooled by the pricetag, i only paid $10 for it.  you probably could have talked them down further… but i guess you don’t care about free money AND ultimate victory.  just in case you change your mind, i’m accepting entries until the 31st.

go go gadget contest gallery.

in case you were wondering when i would get my ass in gear and put up the first round of photos from this month’s goodwill giveaway… the time is now. that’s right, as of exactly 1:19 am tonight while watching “sorority boys” and drinking tequila, the gallery is finally fully functional (and semi-permanenty located in the upper right hand corner of this website).  good times. however, though high in awesomeness, the entries are still looking very SCANT. that’s where you come in. it doesn’t have to be an amazing photo (you know about my love for crappy iphone photos), and it doesn’t have to be a recent purchase. seriously, NO PRESSURE! i’ll even pimp your website right there in the gallery. come on, you know you want to! so get your ass out there, and GET THRIFTING!

goodwill giveaway madness!!!

first and foremost, i would like to officially congratulate the fabulous colleen o. for kicking some jolly green ass and winning the april free veggie swag. woot! but that’s all behind us now. it’s may, it’s time for an exciting new giveaway, and i’m beta testing a crazy idea this month.

as you may already know, i am an avid thrifter. i make the rounds at my local goodwills and salvation armys pretty much weekly, and am constantly hunting for crazy vintage crap to put in my crazy vintage crap collections. at the present, i am collecting: 1940s era nancy drews, figures made entirely out of white porcelain, vintage fabrics, mod jewelry, midcentury modern furniture, and pretty much anything that seems just too awesome to leave at the store. many weekends i come home with nothing, but every now and again, i come home with something remarkable.

everyone, meet toot-a-loop (toot-a-loop, everyone).  about two years ago, while perusing the electronics aisle at the forest ave. goodwill, i found this little puppy nestled between the discarded 8-track players and multiple copies of herb alpert and the tijuana brass whipped cream and other delights albums. mostly, it just seemed weird and cool and was only $2.99, so why not. a brief googling, and i found out that not only was the toot-a-loop designed to be an am radio bracelet (that’s right!), but it also that it routinely sold on ebay for $40+. score! not that i sold mine, but it’s nice to know that i have the option.

so you might be wondering, does this seemingly pointless yammering about the toot-a-loop perhaps have a point? or perhaps, when do i get free stuff to entering a stupid contest? well, here we go: i just told you my amazing thrift find story, and i want to hear yours. the prize at stake is a $25 gift card to goodwill (or if your area doesn’t have a goodwill, we can work something out). here are the rules:

1. submit a picture of your hot hot thrift find (garage sales & flea markets are also applicable) to my email.

2. in the above mentioned email, tell me where you got it, how much you paid, and why it’s so freakin’ awesome.

3. i will then post the images on the broke207 flickr page for all to see and enjoy & comment on.

4. on the 31st of the month, i (and possibly a few trusted advisors) will choose the winner, and a great celebration will occur. (also, the aforementioned $25 gift card will be mailed)

i know this requires a little more effort than most blog giveaways, but i think it could be a really fascinating project. a project that i would like to keep ongoing. so please, get your photo on and show me what you got! enter as many times as you like.

squirrel talk

as you’ve probably figured out by now, there are a crapload of frugal websites floating out there on the internet. and let’s be truthful now, not all of them are good.  and frankly, a lot of them are EXACTLY THE SAME. they’re all pretty much crapping out the same deals, it’s really a question if you prefer seeing them on the pink background or the green. no disrespect, those websites provide a great service in doing all the tedious coupon homework so that we don’t have to, but it does seem like it’s getting harder and harder to find really original takes on thriftiness.  so every now and again when i do stumble upon something fresh, i gotta tell everybody in the neighborhood (that’s you) about it.

i love almostfrugal because it has an adorable squirrel mascot and not a sexified cartoon version of the author. i love almostfrugal because it ignores the deals entirely and focuses on starting productive discussions about the pitfalls of personal finance. but mostly, i love almostfrugal because it’s such a good listener. alongside their own daily generated content, they also seek out other money saving/deal seeking/penny pinching blog folks, and ask them what they’re doing. the same 4 questions every time, but always jammed full of new insight from the various participants. a gem from heather @ inexpensively from her turn on the almostfrugal merry-go-round: ” being frugal means we can lower our budget, but it doesn’t have to mean lowering our standards.” simple, honest, and smart as hell.

since it’s incredibly unlikely that they’ll be knocking on my door anytime soon (um, i mean ever), i thought i would try my hand at their little questionnaire:

what does frugality mean to you? (this sounds like a miss america question)
to me, frugality is the end goal. no matter how you make the magic happen (coupons, garage sales, or just learning to do without), frugality is what happens when we are able to assess the balance between our needs and wants and make decisions that will best serve our financial security. i’m not there yet. i feel like right now i’m just learning to pay attention to the fact that i AM spending. i’m hoping that someday in the near future i will learn how to pause before i get to the checkout counter and be able to successfully make those assessments. someday…

what is something that you do that is ‘typically’ frugally?
consignment & thrift shopping! i’m a complete goodwill whore. i generally refuse to pay retail for most stuff (shoes obviously excepted), but i also prefer old things to new. old navy is great and all, but in a town as small as this, you’re likely to end up on a metro bus with at least two other people wearing the same outfit. vintage keeps things interesting and unique. and the dirt cheapness doesn’t hurt either.

what is something frugal that you do that is unusual?
homemade spanx! shit is EXPENSIVE, and i’m sure that real thing works way better… but whenever i get a run in a pair of control top pantyhose or tights, i cut the legs off and wear them under dresses for stomach control and to reduce thigh rub friction. wow, that sounds really really pathetic when i say it out loud.

what are some of your longterm goals that being frugal will help you to accomplish?
well initially, i’d like to be revolving debt free and have at least 2 months of expenses socked away somewhere safe. and then maybe some retirement fundage? but it isn’t really even about that. like i said in question 1, i just want to figure out how to take a breath before i make a purchase big or small and be able to make a smart choice in the best interest of whatever my concrete financial goals might be. although i’d probably settle for being out of hock to bank of america.

i know, kind of lame! now your turn.