• budget,  fashion,  spring

    Zebra Print Nine West Thrifted Dress

    This cute zebra print dress needed a blog post of its own, so here we are. I thrifted it at Uptown Cheapskate (a consignment store with several locations around Atlanta) which has been my go to for dresses lately. I have found that they have a nice selection of brand name dresses in a variety of styles and prints. This one is Nine West and I think I spent around 13 dollars for it. The dresses I have bought there are usually between $10 and $20. The cute print caught my eye right away and I was happy to see that it fit the way I thought it would. I…

  • budget,  fashion

    Tips for Successful Thrifting and Shopping your Closet

    The following tips are the guidelines that I have found help me add things to my closet that I will actually wear. Sometimes the thrill of the hunt and the affordable prices might actually tempt you to buy things you shouldn’t. Knowing your style and what you enjoy wearing will keep you from making too many mistakes and buying pieces that will not compliment your wardrobe or fit you . Successful Thrifting Know what you are looking for but be open minded in case you come across something you shouldn’t pass up. Case in point is the shirt below. I was not looking for long sleeves on my last and…

  • outdoors,  travel

    A Field trip to a Local Nature Preserve

    A few weeks ago, I accompanied my son on a school field trip. Of course, I didn’t read the email fully and ended up at the wrong place, but thankfully both locations were in our town so I only wasted a total of 30 minutes. I arrived at the nature preserve 15 minutes late. The children were listening to a presentation about animals that live in the preserve and nearby, about composting and how in the preserve, nothing was touched. Then the fun part of the field trip happened which was a hike of about 1.5 miles. The hike was somewhat hilly and mostly circled a large pond. There were…

  • budget,  fashion,  spring

    Bright Blue for Easter

    I typically wear light colored dresses for Pascha/Easter. I have worn my bright yellow skirt one year (here), and last year I wore this pastel green maxi dress (here) as well as this dress (we have a midnight church service and one midday on Easter/Pascha Sunday). I am not sure which dress I will wear this year, but this one could have been a contender. I actually ended up decided to wear it on Palm Sunday which was yesterday for us in the Orthodox Church. I added a Halftee for coverage and a khaki jacket as well as cowboy boots. I couldn’t believe how perfectly this Target satin crop jacket…

  • decor,  mom

    Room Redo: Creative Space for Me

    This was not technically a room redo, but a portion of my bedroom was redecorated so I guess it is a room refresh! Our house is a large house and our bedroom is quite large. One area is the sleeping area with bed/side table and chest of drawers and then there is a little divider to this area where someone might have a sitting area in front of the fireplace. We do not use the gas fireplace as it is not cost effective but use one side as a prayer area. The other side looked like this: A few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to revamp that area and…

  • outdoors,  travel

    Atlanta Botanical Gardens: the Tulips

    If you missed my last two post about my recent visit to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, you can see the troll exhibit here and read about the orchids in this post. I love how much color you can see at the botanical gardens in the spring and I enjoyed seeing the tulips in bloom. They were in different spots than in the past so it took a little exploring to see all of the areas where they were planted. The origami Pegasus is now a permanent exhibit here and these two tones tulips made for a pretty scene. Bright yellow and red just scream spring! I wish the tulip beds…

  • budget,  fashion,  spring

    A Special Jacket for the April Sunday Showcase

    I wasn’t sure what to title this post and I was tired from a morning long run and a busy week when I wrote this, so I decided to go for simple. Last Saturday was a beautiful day so I took advantage of the sunny blue skies to take a couple sets of pictures. All of these pictures today were taken by my 5 year old who has been itching to earn some more money. I finally figured out how to have him take better pictures as he is short: he stood on a step stool! My momma gave me this beautiful Chinese jacket a month or so ago, and…

  • budget,  fashion,  spring

    How to Wear Scarves in Early Spring

    The challenge to wear scarves with Jodie and I continued (visit part 1 here) and I took the opportunities to wear different scarves in new and old ways. I did take a couple days off so I have only 5 scarf outfits to share with you. I also was pleasantly surprised to find 2 scarves for 10c each at a small local thrift charity shop where items are very inexpensive. I returned the next day with cash and picked up some summer tops which had been lacking in my closet. I am sure most of them will make an appearance soon on the blog. I enjoyed wearing my leopard scarf…

  • outdoors,  travel

    Atlanta Botanical Gardens: Orchid Craze 2023

    On a cold day, the perfect place to be at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens is the orchid pavilion. Even better is during the orchid craze because there is such a variety of orchids displayed. This usually happens during the month of March and April. Today, I am sharing my favorite pictures of this year’s display. There are several ways to enter the area where the orchids are displayed, but my favorite is through the rainforest area because of this newly painted archway. I inadvertently matched it with my yellow sweatshirt and the pink and purples in my scarf. There are many areas perfect for taking pictures! This one mural is…

  • budget,  fashion,  spring

    Casual Tweed Mini Skirt Outfit

    A month or two ago, I shared an outfit with this skirt here and mentioned wanting to come up with a casual look with it. I pulled out my favorite graphic tee to pair with it. I am actually going to see if I can find other graphic tees by Bando because this thrifted one has really stood up to the stand of time and I love the fit. I tend to pack it with me on vacation because I love the bright fun lettering. I was going to wear my old thrifted white denim jacket, but after seeing it in the pictures, I decided it was going to go…