Thrifty 15. Maybe.

This is the outfit I figured out for the Thrifty 15 Challenge. But the challenge has been prolonged till April 7th, so I'll probably play a bit more when I come back home - this is a bit bland. It's like the spring we've had so far, and very much what I like wearing, but not much of a "Spring Dream", so if I can figure out something more playful, I'll use that.

(Plus, I've been wearing that skirt for days now, and it needs ironing. And I have no ironing board here at school. In the frontal photo it is fine. In the back it is not.)

Kerchief/headscarf - found by my grandma on the street = free

T-shirt - Esprit, thrifted for 10 CZK

sweater - Dima, clothes exchange = free

skirt - H.H.S. Collection, clothes exchange = free

stockings - a Czech brand or other, 98 CZK

shoes - Freemood, clothes exchange = free (that fits them, doesn't it? :-)

belt (not seen) - thrifted several years ago, most probably 20 or 30 CZK (certainly not more - I bought it in a stage of my life when I rarely bought a thrifted piece of clothing for more, and had I paid more for the belt, I would remember)

chalice necklace - family heirloom

Total: let's take the highest estimation... 138 CZK = 7,98882 US dollars

Pay It Forward 2011

It's time I embarked on making the internet a better place...

A little bit of it, at least.

Oonaballoona is doing the same. She got it from Nette. Who knows where it started.

But it's quite simple, and no one needs to know where it started. Just pay it forward. Make the world a more pleasant place.

So, going with the spirit of the thing: The first five people who comment on this post will eventually get a small handmade gift from me. There's just one catch: you have to pay it forward. Give out small handmade gifts to five of your own readers. It doesn't have to be much. Small. Just to be nice. Just to make someone a little happier.

Spring has come back. I hope it's here to stay.

EDIT: There are still two slots left, so if you're up to it, you can still enter!

On my mind: weird weather and other anomalies

It had been raining since Tuesday; then, today, the rain suddenly turned into snow. And then into rain again.

There's no snow left in the garden now. This photo (bad quality, I know) was taken at around 3 PM when it was already raining again but there still was snow left.

I spent a considerable time outdoors in the rain and snow and cold - and my spring shoes got wet inside, meaning my socks got wet, too, and naturally also my feet.

Good thing I was still wearing my winter jacket.

Also, it is a very good thing in such circumstances to take a good, very warm bath right after you arrive home. Which I did.

This weekend, I wanted to dig out soil from the compost pile and plant herb seeds into pots. If it keeps raining, I'm not sure I can do that. *sigh*

My computer at school is working again - it turns out it was just the switch on the power source! It must have been hit by something accidentally. I didn't know there was a switch on the back of the computer, so I didn't think of this option...

But there wasn't much to blog about. And won't be. I'll most probably be creating things on and off between other things to do, but it most probably won't be very show-worthy.

I'm thinking of participating in the Thrifty 15 Challenge. I got lots of my clothes, and even a pretty pair of shoes, in a clothes exchange my cousin organizes - virtually for free, so I think I can arrive to a point where the most expensive item in my outfit would be my stockings... sounds fun. :-)

Do you wear your clothes till they fall apart?

The percentage of questions among my recent post titles is rising steeply.

But that's not what I wanted to write about.

No, what I wanted to write about is this: a pair of corduroy trousers of mine tore, irredeemably.

They were not of very high quality (not to mention fit) to begin with. Surprisingly, they have lasted for several years. I expected them to fall apart any moment - they were already almost worn through at the thigh, and that's also where they tore.

It's a strangely rewarding feeling when you wear your clothes for years till they fall apart. It's as if you got everything you could out of them.

It would be nicer if they did not tear while I was on a train on my way home from school but, say, when I already arrived home. Still, I got more than I expected out of them, and that's nice enough.

In contrast, there is the pair of winter boots I got last year. They are literally falling apart now. That's not a lifespan I expect from a pair of winter boots (or anything outside of a bee, for that matter). Aaargh.

A very curious puzzle, and other news

For the first time in my life I saw a jigsaw puzzle that had all pieces but could not be finished for completely objective reasons. The two remaining pieces fit together, but they don't fit in with the rest!


It might have something to do with the fact I snatched this particular puzzle on last clothes exchange. Either the previous owner lost the two original pieces and substituted them with similar two from a different puzzle, or it ended up in the exchange because the producer inexplicably managed to make the puzzle that way.
I think I'm keeping this puzzle anyway. As a curio, if nothing else. (Actually, it's a very pretty landscape.)


In other news: My mom's dress is no longer in such a hurry. She happened across a good formal dress on sale. She still wants me to make that dress, but there's no deadline now.

Aaand: Spring has arrived. The same old news are usually the best, aren't they?

Random news

Just so you know, and are not surprised, my computer at school does not work. It simply won't turn on. It's probably the electricity source, or whatever it's called in English. So for a while, you, readers of my blog, will probably only get new posts on weekends, sparsely. Do not despair. It will get better eventually.

In the meantime, you can go and visit Hannah of Sequoia and Me on her new photography blog, Hannah Zimmerman photography. I'm her first, and at this moment only follower. It feels weird, and I hope I won't be the only one for long! Go see; she has some beautiful photos. In my opinion, she has an eye for photographing street life, and I hope we'll get to see a lot from her yet!

Mom asked me to sew her a dress for a special occasion. We settled on a style similar to the beautiful dresses Anna of Pleasant View Schoolhouse made for her daughters. Mom's will be a simpler sheath dress, though. I hope it will be simple and relatively easy and quick to make - it certainly could be compared to my historical hand-sewing recently... Of course, the way things are, it will totally take much longer than I expect and will have some difficult parts I did not foresee. Still, it should be fine. :D

How to knit a stocking instead of a sock?

By casting on 12 more stitches than necessary and being too lazy to unravel it and start again when you figure out it's too big.

It's actually perfect size for an under-the-knee stocking. At least for me, because I'm using my leg to figure out the fit as I go.

It was meant to be warm socks for my sister (part of my "payment" for the green saree). Either it will fit her, and she'll like it as a stocking, too - in that case, it's still for my sister. Or she will not, and I'll keep it and keep warm on cold winter evenings. Either way, not so bad.

Oh, and it's another thing I made from my joyful aqua yarn, which I bought in a thrift store. In retrospect, it probably wasn't so much cheaper than it would be in a normal shop. But it's fun. Maybe too bright for me. But fun. And very soft and pleasant to the touch.

In other news, I received my first ugly anonymous comment. I deleted it.

Very short, too. I wonder why do these people bother. I'd set up the word verification thing on my blog comments. The word verification might have been longer than what that person wrote in the comment. Really, why do they bother? *sigh* (I actually think I know, and it's rather sad.)