52 Days to Go: Wednesday Giveaway

It's the middle of the week and I have something super cute to giveaway today...BRACED-LETS!

Totally read into the name because they're bracelets made out of orthodontic materials!  What a rad way to make statement pieces from something super untradish!  I paired them with my arm stash of silver bracelets just to get an idea.

To win an assortment of five Braced-lets, leave a comment below with a braces story or something else that you had to do as a kid that you maybe weren't thrilled about, and a winner will be randomly chosen next week (9/5)!

I didn't have braces when I was younger, however I was told by my dentist that I had plenty of room for my wisdom teeth and didn't need to have them pulled.  At the time that sounded awesome, however I recall the massive pain of them coming through my gums freshman year of college.  It's no picnic now either...cavities in two of my WT's last year, check.  :(

53 Days to Go: My Neighbor's Mom's Donation Part II

It's round two with this piece!!

The bottom part of the dress was used to create this halter last week...

...and now it's time to use the leftovers!!

Super excited to get crackin!!

I decided to actually keep this intact as a top!  Yay!!  However, I wanted to add a little more flair.  During a recent trip downtown, I picked up some red fringe...

...because I thought it would be fun to trim the edges with it!  I began by pinning the end of the fringe to a place at the bottom of the top.

I kept doing this until the entire raw edged-bottom was fringe attached!

I threaded my sewing machine with some red thread and sewed my new edge in place!

I trimmed the end of the fringe and stitched the ends down.

Because the sleeves were a little too large and felt a bit cumbersome, I decided to remove them both!

I know, I know, the embroidery on the sleeves!!  Fear not, this will still be used down the road!  However for today, we're going sleeveless.  I pinned and stitched down a new sleeve seam...

...paired the top with a fun necklace from a batch of costume jewelry that my grandma gave me along with some grey jeans and was ready for the day!

I have to say, this top totally felt like it should be worn on a beachy vacation!!  I got complimented by the gentleman wearing the Mossimo t-shirt at the fabric store, so I felt I did well.  Unfortunately there was no beachy vacation to go on, however I did channel a vacation of sorts by heading to a girlfriend's house.  A trip away from my apartment to somewhere air conditioned is technically a vacation in my book :)

I had a little birthday house party to attend later in the eve, so I took this top from day to night with the addition of a sparkly cardigan!  Oh, and this shot was taken as I was cutting stray threads...yeah, I carry a mini pair of Fiskars scissors in my purse.  So what, who cares :)

For a festive outdoor birthday, this piece totally worked.  Got to enjoy some BBQ, some delish chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery, and some girl talk.

Yeah, both the musical stylings of Girl Talk and actual chatter!

54 Days to Go: $1 Remake

It's Muumuu Monday!!

I fell in love with this fabric - the red base with blue and green flowers and butterflies?  It's like the print was made with me in mind!  It's still a muumuu though...

...and needs a bit of help before I wear :) If the dinner party I was going to was Three's Company themed, I'd have my Mrs. Roper ensemble ready to go.

Unfortunately, it is not, so I have a date with my sewing machine!

I started off cutting the piece!  I trimmed about 18 inches off from the bottom.

This piece is going to be shorter now!!

I prepped the raw edge to sew a new hem by pinning it in place...

...and then sewed it down!  The body was a bit too big, but I was loving the wider sleeves, so I took in the sleeves starting at the elbows (to maintain the thick cuff) and then tightened up the body.  I also unzipped the piece about five inches and folded the edges under to create a V shape.

Love to hide those drawstrings now!!  With my piece finished, I added my sunnies and Urban Outfitters flats I scored at Buffalo Exchange for $12, and had a dress totally appropriate for dinner!

I still can't get over how fun this print is!!

It's like you can't even tell it started off as a muumuu, aside from the zipper :)

Wearing my new ensemble, I met up with my girls Sonya Nimri and Maegan Tintari for a little dinner action.

The kicker to this delish meal...some decadent sweets from Porto's!  (PS, for those of you who aren't Los Angelenos/familiar with this Cuban café, here's Porto's site to get an idea.  I LOVE this place - it's super reasonable and the pastries/sandwiches/empanadas are simply insane!)

I started off my day working on my Fantasy Football draft and ended it with my girlfriends.

Best way to celebrate the close of the weekend!!  Hope everyone had a great one!