Fashionably Thrifty DIY's [15/31]

Here's a roundup of some of my favorite fashion DIY's you can try with some of your thrifted pieces! Just an FYI (any more acronyms I can use here?), not all of these links have instructions, but they seem easy enough to eyeball:) Happy Making!!

1. Sleeve slit // 2. Heart Flats // 3. Kitty Pocket // 4. Sweater Cardigan // 5. Sequined Elbow Patch

1. Boot Socks // 2. Tee Scarf // 3. Tank Dress // 4. Skinny Jeans Revamp

I am linking up with The Nester every day in October for #write31days. 

You can find a list of all 31 posts as they are published by clicking here. 

On Personal Style [8/31]

I want to preface this post by saying there are entire blogs devoted to the subject of style, but this topic is important in finding what you love thrifing and feeling good about your purchases. Here are a few easy tips to help you define what your style is and hopefully provide some guidance the next time you find yourself sifting through the secondhand racks. This is what has worked for me, anyway.

Assess your style. This sort of introspection can be painful to some, but really getting an idea for what you like in conjunction with what is flattering with your body type is paramount in style success.

One thing I recommend is completing the Stitchfix questionnaire upon sign-up (and you don't actually need to purchase anything to fill it out). You will be asked questions about your dressing habits and view images that will paint a picture of your style leanings.

You can also find answers to this question by looking into your own wardrobe. Take note of the pieces that are in constant rotation. What colors do you keep coming back to? What doesn't look amazing on you?

Create a Pinterest board. This seems like kind of an obvious one, but it's the thing I like to study before taking friends out on their Thriftfix. It's your chance to dream and scheme how to look the way you feel on the inside. The Pinterest style board I've curated was done in a way where I would feel comfortable having somebody else shop for me if that was their only point of reference. The "related pins" feature has really helped me expand on some of those original pins, too.

Become a subscriber. When I'm not seeking out style inspiration, it helps to have it delivered to me. I've joined several mailing lists for some of my favorite stores simply to keep up on trends and for different styling ideas. I'll even look through a catalog before hitting the thrift store (or bring one along) to see if any styles or prints I might not normally gravitate towards are in the mainstream.

Email lists are another way to keep up with the ever-changing fashion landscape. And not just signing up for the auto-blast, chain store emails either. Hilary Rushford of Dean Street Society is a stylist who I have just recently discovered through the Influence Conference. Her style is impeccable and her advice is applicable to women in any stage of life. Basically, I look forward to her Style & Styleability emails because, even if it is a tip I am familiar with, she presents it in a completely fresh way.

Confession: I totally had a fan-girl moment when I met her at Influence. I probably even frightened her a bit (insert blushing emoji here). What is it about meeting admirable bloggers in real life that is so totally awkward?

I want to hear from you! What tips or habits have helped you discover your personal style?

I am linking up with The Nester every day in October for #write31days. 

You can find a list of all 31 posts as they are published by clicking here. 

Headband & Turban Giveaway with J. Lovan!

Hey, friends! I am so excited to be hosting a very special giveaway this week! My friend, Julia, is the lead designer of the lifestyle company, J. Lovan Designs. Her Midwest-based business offers a range of clothing, accessories, & home items made locally from sustainable materials.

The new Fall line & website will launch sometime in September, but some teaser pics will be sprinkled across the web under the hashtag #ProjectLov until then.

I am wearing:

Headband - J. Lovan Red Velvet Headband
Necklace - ViBella Santa Fe Necklace"
Top - J. Crew (thrifted)
Bracelet - Purchased in an Italian market

This girl is ALL ABOUT anything that sparkles so, naturally, she ADORED wearing this headband. If you are interested in purchasing a child-sized headband, J. Lovan will do customized orders upon request.

Ruby is wearing:

Headband - J. Lovan Gold Glitter Headband

Dress - Crewcuts (hand-me-down)

Shoes - Kenneth Cole Reaction (hand-me-down)

Like what you see? Well, YOU could be the lucky winner of this pink polka-dot turban AND red velvet headband! Simply 'Like' LoVan Designs on Facebook & let me know if you did in the comment section here. One winner will be drawn at random. Giveaway closes at Midnight, September 30th. Winner will be announced on September 1st.

Julia is also offering a special discount in her online shop for soZealous readers! Enter coupon code "soZealous25" for an additional 25% off your order. Now go buy some pretty things & enter to win! xx

soZealous for Vi Bella Giveaway!!

Happy Giveaway Day!! I know I've been hyping this up all week, but I'm pretty excited about it! As I mentioned before, the lovely folks from Vi Bella Jewelry provided some beautiful, hand-crafted baubles for me to style in a blog post. With our Black Hills vacation set and cluster of gorgeous ladies at my disposal, I knew the wooded landscapes would provide the perfect backdrop for our shoot.

Vi Bella Jewelry is an organization that seeks to transform the lives at at-risk women in Haiti & Mexico by providing sustainable jobs and share the love of Christ with them. Each piece is assembled by a special woman who otherwise might not be able to earn an income in a safe environment to provide for her & her family. Vi Bella is also making a positive impact on the environment by having their artisans use discarded plastic and glass bottles, metal bottle caps, old paper and even oil drums to craft unique handmade pieces.

I am SO inspired by the work that Vi Bella is doing and am honored to share their products & mission with my readers:) You can read the full Vi Bella story here.

Penelope necklace & earring set. 

Korie Bracelet. 

Vi Bella even has a line for little girls! Here Ruby is wearing the Emery necklace & bracelet.

Kristen, my sister, is wearing the necklace, earrings, & bracelet from the Jennifer Lee collection. 

Kira, my soon to be sister-in-law, is wearing the Olive necklace and Jovie earrings. The Olive necklace, one of Vi Bella's signature recycled pieces, is constructed from old newspaper. 

Mary, my beautiful 89 years young Grandmother, is wearing the Mayla necklace & bracelet. The Mayla necklace is also constructed from recycled newspaper.

My sister, Amy, is wearing the necklace, earrings, & bracelet from the Willow collection. 

Kaliko necklace & earring set.  

You ready for it?? I'm giving away this beautiful Kaliko necklace to one lucky reader! And each person has up to 3 chances to win. To enter, you can do one (or all) of the following:

1) Leave a me a blog comment stating what your favorite piece of jewelry from the Vi Bella website is.

2) Tweet about this giveaway using the hashtag #soZealousforViBella

3) Instagram about this giveaway using the hashtag #soZealousforViBella

Contest ends Wednesday, June 25th, at midnight. Winner will be announced here on Friday, June 27th.

Thanks again to Vi Bella and may the odds be ever in your favor:)

**This is a sponsored post brought to you by Vi Bella. The opinions are completely my own based on my own experience. 

Oh, It's Such A Perfect Day (I'm Glad I Spent It With You)

Birthday weekend is in FULL SWING!! I'm SO thankful to have a Hubby that is SO willing to celebrate all the days leading up to the big day (he's actually in the middle of baking me "almost vegan" chocolate-avocado cupcakes as I blog).

Last night, we went on an actual DATE!! We had sushi, we saw Looper (um...what??), we went out for a drink. And today, he was willing to take a day trip to my hometown for some thrifting & nostalgia. Because birthdays should also be a time for reflecting (and Lord knows, there's been a lot of that with the big THIRTY barreling towards me...).

I kind of can't believe how hard we scored today thrifting. I had been looking for a vintage toy camera for Ruby for awhile now and found this one for $3. I also kind of can't believe that Ruby pretended to be taking a photo with it long enough for me to take a photo of it. One year olds are kind of impossible to pose for pictures, if you didn't already know.

We walked around the downtown area and stumbled upon the most incredible wall covered in leaves. We couldn't NOT do a photo shoot.

On Papa: Flannel button-down (thrifted), army surplus sweater (thrifted), Baldwin Denim Jeans (Badowers), Red Wing boots (thrifted). 

On Mama: The "Saba" scarf (FashionABLE - check out their website!), Cardigan (TJ Maxx), Plaid button-down (thrifted), Jeans (Express - Plato's Closet), Chanel inspired vinyl-tipped ballet flats (Payless).

 Papa looking all dapper in his new vintage motorcycle jacket.

Do you want to see what else we found??

Vintage pillows. I normally have a rule against buying second-hand pillows (I mean, come on...), but these were practically in mint condition. And at $2 each, I mean, COME ON!! So hot right now, too.

 Vintage thermoses to add to the collection ($1 each). Because I don't already have enough collections...

My biggest collection is probably my library of vintage sewing books, which is kind of ironic because I can barely sew. The illustrations are mainly what draw me in. Or in the case of this book, the typography, which is RIDICULOUS (in the best way possible). Can you frame books?

THESE DRESSES. It can be challenging to find previously-loved kids clothes that don't show any evidence of "the love", but these beauties made the cut. Throw on a long undershirt with leggings, and Ruby can wear these through the rest of the season.

My actual birthday is tomorrow, so I'm soaking in these last couple hours of my twenties. [Sigh]. I'm not one to get super hung up on ages but, not gonna lie, this is kind of a hard one.

Thank you, Lord, for the years. For the lessons learned. Even the difficult ones. Shaping me into the woman YOU want me to become.

I've got some big dreams & goals for this next decade, some that I'm already in the process of working towards. Some are a little too big to share on this blog now, but you'll know when I do.

Here's to the next chapter...xx

The Influence Conference

This past weekend (plus a couple days), I attended the much anticipated Influence Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it was the inaugural conference for lady bloggers/ online business owners of the Christian persuasion.

I’ll do my best to share some of what I learned and experienced, but I’m still processing much of it (as most of us are and probably will be for a long time).

Kicking things off with our hosts - Jessi Connelly, Hayley Morgan, Moriah Sunde, & Casey Wiegand. So grateful for each of their open hearts & hard work in making this event happen.

Day 1 outfit - Chambray top (thrifted) $4; pencil skirt (Target) $6; necklace (antique mall) $6.

I sure like dressing up, but what a lot of people didn't know was that the majority of my outfits from the weekend cost under $25. Total. As in for the whole outfit + accessories (ok, minus the shoes - but those weren't very expensive either).

On the topic of fashion, I was heavily encouraged to start incorporating my finds & strategies into future posts, which just might happen. Because I am still trying to figure out which direction to take this blog in...

The conference was divided into a couple different tracks—life sessions & strategy sessions. I tried to keep a healthy balance between two and am so glad that I did. SO MUCH WISDOM ON DISPLAY.

I had the privilege of attending talks from John Saddington, Hayley Morgan, Nish Weiseth, Jessi Connelly, Sarah Matheny, and Jessica Turner.

Of all the sessions I attended, I think Sarah Matheny's (aka Mama Pea) was like a shot to the heart. No PowerPoint. No bullet points. Simply a beautiful woman sharing her even more beautiful heart. Her words have been resonating with me ever since and I would encourage you to stream the audio when it becomes available online.

The She Reads Truth dinner. I wouldn’t have even known about the Influence Conference if it weren’t for learning about it through an Instagram hashtag.

Dinner attire – vintage Oscar de la Renta dress (Dorothea’s Closet) $25.

One thing I was DEFINITELY looking forward to was the Madewell styling session with The No Brainer Wardrobe author, Hayley Morgan. We don’t have Madewell stores in Iowa, so I splurged a little for the occasion. Without spending a whole lot of money, I will add;)

Day 2 outfit – Granny-chic polyester cardigan (thrifted) $4; purple skinny pants (thrifted) $4; necklace (thrifted) $5; tank (F21) $5.

So many lovely things for sale in the Sashes Market. And sooooo easy to justify a purchase when knowing the hearts behind the business owners. Yeah, I left with a couple things: )

Friends & roommates, Nicole & Adri. I also want to point out the lovely scarf I’m wearing in this photo that I purchased from the Sashes Market. It was handmade in Ethiopia through a business called FashionABLE.

Their mission is to provide sustainable jobs to African women who may have otherwise had to make a living through prostitution. I really believe in what they are doing and am crafting up some ideas to stay involved in their endeavors. Stay tuned.

This pile of business cards represents an extraordinary community of women whose common thread is the good & true message of Jesus Christ. If you are able to extract any of their URLs from this photo, I would encourage you to visit their sites—their stories.

I kept hearing the phrase “come tender” throughout the conference, and that I did. I arrived at Influence as a “small potatoes” blogger who doesn’t have sponsors or even an “about me” page. I am working on both. Needless to say, there were times where I felt a little out of place and humbled by my lack of knowledge, experience, and connections.

There were also times where I wrestled with the disillusionment of my expectations vs. reality. My soul got a much needed exfoliating. And that part hurt. I left feeling a little raw. Grace was a huge theme on so many levels throughout the weekend. And once I got over the junk of some of those insecurities, I had a pretty great time.

I want to thank my roommates - Jill, Adri, Amanda, & Nicole for their encouragement and accessibility.

I want to thank the women who engaged in REAL conversations with me. Women who made me feel that their circles weren’t small enough to let one more person in.

I thank God for bringing me to this conference at a time where I needed this kind of experience the most. I am just so immeasurably humbled by His great love for me. Not only that, but for sending along a companion in my journey to help process everything I learned. It's hard to say what my experience at Influence would have been like without my friend, Nicole.

From the bottom of my heart…thank you.

xx

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