Breakfast on Your Facemask

Greetings from my sister's home in Brooklyn, NYC. I'm here for a few weeks anxiously awaiting the arrival of her first baby. While we wait for little Henry to show his face, we decided to pamper our own. My sister whipped us up a batch of her homemade Oatmeal Face Mask.  It's super easy! You probably already have most of the ingredients.  She used old fashioned oats, plain yogurt and honey.  This mask works best after a shower when your pores are all loose and needing a little nourishment.  My skin felt so soft after letting this concoction sit on my face for about 15 minutes.

Gather Ingredients:

Oats

Yogurt

Honey

Grind up about a 1/4 cup of oats in your coffee grinder.

Add a heaping tablespoon of yogurt.

Squirt in about a tablespoon of honey. 

Mix it up and smear it on.

Stephanie says to be creative! If it's good for you to eat, it's probably great to put on your skin as well. Use other things in your kitchen and throw those in (bananas, avocado, egg yolk for moisture, egg white for toning). Just try to use amounts that end up giving you a paste-like consistency that will stay on your face. Have fun with it and remember to pamper yourself before you pamper your baby. 

Pampering (not Pampers) is free and free is cheap.

Brooklyn Thrifting Heaven

How lucky am I to have a sister in Brooklyn? Best place for thrifting in the world!! Today's goal was finding a few things for her home here to make it as comfortable as possible before her baby boy is born in the next couple weeks. We found a large basket for front door shoe storage, a great tea tray that is going to be used for organizing either jewelry or something like that. We also found an amazing panel from a set of drapes. Suddenly we felt like making play clothes for a group of motherless children in Austria, but instead it will hang on a wall in her unfinished basement as we (I) turn it into a livable space for soon to be visiting family members. Now if only this little boy will come while I'm here! Otherwise I'll fill my time with thrifting and spending more than I should...what?

 A Suitable Basket

Brooklyn Tea Party 

Curtain Call

a little patchy re-style goodness

This week I found a skirt for $1 at my local resale shop.  It had a pin on the front that had made a little hole in the fabric and the back had "baby phat" emblazoned on it (sorry not a fan of ass-writing)...but this little black skirt looks like something I could live in during the warmer months so I gave the lovely sales lady my hard earned dollar and walked my un-emblazoned ass to Michael's for some iron on patches.  All the patches were expensive and for little kids so I bought the big square camouflage pattern patches that are sold for clothing repairs and such.  I only ended up using one of the two patches that were about $3.  


Skirt Front Before:

Skirt Back Before:

In Progress:

Skirt Front After:

Skirt Back After:

This little fix took me all of ten minutes once I had the iron heated up and found my sharp scissors.  I hope it inspires you to re-style some things in your closet that you aren't wearing right now.  Think outside the box.  What can you do to update something vs. buying something new?  

Creativity is free and free is cheap.

Thrift Store Tuesday: Little House, Big Find

I walked to a little re-sale shop in my neck of the woods in search of thrifty clothes and found this treasure instead.  I've always wanted the complete set of Little House on the Prairie but could never justify the $50 or $60 price tag on it in the bookstore.  Imagine my (internal) squeal of glee when I saw this gorgeous old set printed in 1971 looking all worn in but not worn out! I probably paid too much for them actually but I know i'll love them for a long long time. $15 well spent...

When I was a little girl, my Mom and Dad read this series to us at bedtime.  I remember lying in bed in the dimly lit room nodding off to the sound of my Dad reading about the "olden days".  Visions of wagon trains and wide open spaces would lull me to sleep.  I still take inspiration and comfort in these books.  It almost feels like I was part of the Wilder Family.  As I got older, the t.v. series came out and it was one of the few shows we were allowed to watch on television.  Someday I hope to own that set too! 

Keep on Thrifting my fellow Scrimpers...

thrift store pirate

Look at all the thrift store goodness I found all for only $7!! Three beautiful scarves (to be used in a great decorating idea i saw) two cassette tapes (Kenny rogers and Cyndi Lauper), the best pair of red and black wayfarer sunglasses and a small gold spoon that was camera shy apparently.  Not only was this a very cheap shopping trip, but I walked to and from the re-sale shop and enjoyed a little free Pandora Radio during the trip (Michael Jackson station highly recommended).