Anyway, after Peter and I hung our chalkboard in our house we realized that we had a perfectly good cut of mirror glass that we didn’t want to get rid of. At some point we may want to put the mirror back into the frame, so for now we want to keep it safe and accessible.

(Yes, we still need to repaint the walls downstairs. They’ve been like this since Peter moved in.)

My fiance, being the smart man that he is, said the best way to keep mirror glass safe is to lay it down flat. We instantly realized in would make a beautiful base for a centerpiece. A simple vintage tablecloth added to the simple elegance of the vase of peonies that Peter bought me today.

If you look carefully at the peonies you’ll see a tiny bit of blue floral tape painter’s tape helping to keep the arrangement together. Since Peonies are such heavy flowers it helps to add a grid structure to the top of the vase. True florist tape would have blended a million times better but because were not entertainng and I’m trying to use things we have, painter’s tape worked great. Masking tape would have worked as well. Now as our flowers continue to bloom, thy’ll have a little extra support!

I’ll have to admit that I’ve always wished I was better at arranging flowers. It just seems like such a wonderfully hostess-y thing to know how to do. Do you have any great tricks to pass on?

I’ve found various tips and tricks across the internet, but I’d love to hear yours!! Please spill the details so that I can look as fabulously put together as all of you. On that note, I have a friend who swears that women are prettier with chipped nail polish. Thoughts? Does it capture the I don’t give a F*** look or is it just plain tacky?

Who are you? What do you do? Do you have animals? Do you actually cook? Are you just insanely neat cooks who never spill anything on the floor? Do you wash your rug? Does it fit inside your washing machine? Please explain the logistics of this! Let me say that I don’t mean this post in a mean way. Truthfully I want to be you, so please help me. I would love a sweet little rug in our kitchen to liven up the area. I just have a feeling that with our habits the rug would go from sweet to nasty after the course of one meal.

{Young House Love}

{Bower Power}

I’ve read that natural fiber rugs work well in the kitchen, but I can’t help myself from thinking that various drippings would inevitably stain it and cause it to smell. Does anyone want to give us any advice? Has anyone tried this and had a bad experience? Please fill us in.

I remained skeptical until I heard of a clothing swap with free cupcakes and wine. I’m not a girl who turns down a free cupcake, so my friend and I grabbed some old clothes and drove to the event. When we got there we saw racks of clothes divided into categories of t-shirts, tank tops, tops, skirts, purses, jewelry, jeans, shoes, etc. It was heavenly. The girl who was hosting the party gave a quick thanks and we all raided the clothes. She had a dressing room set up but everyone inevitably ended up changing and traded clothes in the bathroom, hallway, and bedroom–basically anywhere that wasn’t in front of the giant wall sized window in the living room.

There was no fighting over who got what, instead all the girls were so supportive. Someone would turn around and say, “Oh I don’t know if this fits,” and everyone would counter saying, “No you look awesome!” Girls would see each other trying on something they’d brought and without even a hint of jealousy exclaim, “OMG that looks so much better on you than it ever did on me!!” It was such an amazing event and I met so many great women and tried on some beautiful things. Free Seven Jeans-uh, yes please. I returned home with number of diferent goodies and a smile on my face.

For those of you who need photos, here is one of my favorite tops that I brought home.

I got a few more, a couple dresses, and a scarf. It was like Christmas all over again.

This weekend Austin hosted its 2nd Annual Women’s Clothing Swap. There were free haircuts, an alteration center, and lots and lots of free clothes. It sounded too good to be true. I went with the same friend that accompanied me to the last event and I have to be honest: we were really disappointed. I really want to say we loved it, but the clothes were more outcasts from Goodwill than great finds from Buffalo Exchange. In addition, the girls in attendance were nowhere near as communal. People were territorial and giving everyone mean looks. It was terrible. I grabbed a few things like an ugly suit that may have a salvageable skirt and another skirt that is literally four sizes too big. I figure its cheaper to learn to sew using free clothes as fabric than it is buying some from the store.

So, what’s the take away from this post? I think clothing swaps are a good idea, but in the future I will probably opt for the small-medium sized ones where I know the girls and people are actually interacting with one another. There’s a lot of fun to be had at these things, I just think it was lost in the masses for the event this weekend.

And just for fun, here are some recommendations on what to wear if you opt to go to one yourself.

• Think of it like being in 7th grade gym class all over again. Save your sexy underwear for another time. You’re going to be changing a lot. I wore tights and a sports bra, but then again I’m pretty shy and modest.
• Wear shoes that you can slip on and off easily. You don’t want to be tying and untying your shoes but you don’t want to abandon them either. People tend to think items that are left alone are free for the taking.
• Choose things that you can layer clothes over and still get an idea of what an outfit looks like. This helps minimizes changing time.
• Don’t wear a dress. Skirts are good, but dresses leave you searching for a top to pair with the bottoms that you’re trying on, which means that you lose valuable time.
• Bring a huge bag to stash your new finds.

If you’re not as modest as I am then a lot of the advice above may not apply. And because I’m an absolute dork, Peter took ridiculous pictures of me wearing a good  ”Clothing Swap Outfit.” I wouldn’t usually recommend a cardigan because its just one more thing to keep track of, but I get cold all the time so I usually don’t leave the house without one.

Okay, yeah I’m officially the biggest dork ever (and no, I don’t follow the no pairing black and navy fashion rule). Anyway, have any of you been to a clothing swap? What was your experience like? Did any other Austinites make it the one this weekend and have a completely different experience?

Iron on patches seemed much easier to use than having to sew patches myself, especially since I’m still so new to my sewing machine .

I had these with the mystery tear.

And a pair that tore a long time ago. (This tear was too massive to not notice when it happened.)

I’m happy to say that the process was quite simple and it worked like a charm. Basically you just turn the clothing inside out and arrange the hole so that the ends of the fabric meet. Press it throughly with a warm iron, taking extra care to press the edges down well.

I think they turned out really well. I was worried about wearing them to work because I was afraid that the patch would fall off and I’d be stuck all day trying to hide my bottom, but everything has worked out OK. I will say that the patch on my Rock & Republics is starting to come off around the edges on the inside os the jeans, but I also had to piece together three separate patches to cover the giant hole. Overall, it has stretched the life of my jeans which is definitely worth the $3 that I spent.

What inexpensive things have you found to facilitate your life?