It was COLD today.  By Atlanta standards.  Take a peek at what I wore, and come back tomorrow for more details and other delicious finds as part of the November Edition of Thrifted Finds!

Mmmmm…

 

Are you wearing coats yet where you are?  Do you thrift your outerwear?  Scroll down to share!

 

Check my Instagram sidebar for today’s super-quick outfit: throw on a dress and wrap a scarf around your neck and you’re suddenly chic, no matter how late you slept in!
Land’s End stretchy knit dress + scarf from a visit to the Tilonia co-op in Rajasthan several years ago.  Check the site for their fall sale on socially responsible, hand-printed gorgeousness!

When you tease your friend for thinking 9:30 is an early coffee date (because your child never lets you sleep past 7:30am), and you and your child proceed to sleep until 9:22am, 8 minutes before said “early” coffee date, the universe is laughing at you.

Ha. Ha.

What do you wear in such circumstances, besides a panicked look on your face?  (Let us pause to enjoy the fact that the past tense of panic is spelled with a k.)

Grab the one-piece closest to hand (hopefully it’s clean…well, not super dirty?), throw on a statement necklace for that no-effort polished effect, add a headpiece (sunglasses, bandana, hat) to hide the head grease (see what I did there?), and rush out the door with said child in tow.  (For your kid, consider ways your child’s pjs can double as real clothes.)

Camouflage for the urban jungle of crepe myrtle trees…


The bandana option.  Pics taken after the fact–clearly no time beforehand! Thrifted onesie, antiqued necklace, gifted sunglasses, earrings, & shoes, bandana from 7th grade.

If you’re not really into onesies, you don’t have to choose a jumper-type garment to milk the benefits of one-pieces; put on a dress if that’s your thing.  But the reason one-pieces work so well in general is the same reason they work on shot notice: you don’t have to find two separate items that match in order to be fully clothed. Or, if we’re setting the bar particularly low, you only have to find one semi-clean item instead of two.

What are your tricks for getting dressed and out the door in a jiffy?  Scroll down to comment!

 

This past weekend we went to Americus, Georgia to visit dear friends.  Amidst many other adventures, we visited local thrift spots to see what gems they held, but alas, came up empty-handed (though I will post some photos of some fab would-be finds this week).

Our friends had invited us to help with hospitality for Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, the 35-member congregation where former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school each week.  You may have heard that crowds have swelled to 800+ since the announcement of his cancer diagnosis, because this is one of the few engagements to which Mr. Jimmy, as he’s known in the 700-person town of Plains, has committed until his death (may it be a long time from now).

Knowing we had to be up early to greet would-be attendees at the overflow location where video feed of the lesson would be simulcast, I threw on the dress I wore Friday to work, traveled in, and spilled coffee on, and forwent (?) a shower in favor of enjoying a cup of coffee with our hosts.  I was going to be handing out graham crackers and bottled water to sleep-deprived visitors in similar, if not worse, shape, so why worry about how I looked?

That was before the crowds turned out much smaller than expected (thank you, Labor Day), we got a seat in the sanctuary, Mr. Jimmy called on me to give the opening prayer, and we took a picture with the Carters after church.

Let’s just say I was thankful for a college mentor who told me that I should never let what I happened to be wearing or how I happened to look stop me from doing anything.

And the pics didn’t turn out half bad, either.

 

Sharagano dress, thrifted; jewelry, heirloom.

 

When have you been caught “unprepared” for a spotlight moment?  How did you make what you were wearing or how you looked work regardless of the circumstances?  Scroll down to comment!

 

This week I’m cleaning out my closet based on what I’ve worn–or not–this summer. I like to edit my clothes at the end of the season so that a realistic view of my repertoire is fresh in my mind and I’m not tempted by pie-in-the-sky possibility: “Well, I didn’t wear that last year but maybe it’ll find new life this year….” Sometimes I do keep an under-used gem to give it a second chance to shine, either because my style has evolved or I’ve just gotten a little more creative. But for the most part, being honest about how often I’ve actually worn something in the very recent past is the surest path to creating a closet of clothes I love to wear.

Check back tomorrow and the rest of the week for what made the cut and what’s getting donated.  Here’s a sneak peek–you tell me if it’s a keeper or not!

 

This weekend we went to the Folk Fest in Norcross, Georgia.  The fest is billed as the biggest of its kind, showing “primitive” art (i.e. from artists with no formal training) and art celebrating the creative and cultural traditions of the South.  It was glorious.

Continue reading “What I Wore: FolkFest!” →