My Fall Baking Obsession

Sorry for my lack of presence these past few days! As a result of hurricane weather, I've pretty much been in a sluggish pajama-wearing state of being, which isn't particularly conducive to outfit posts...

However, I did go apple picking last weekend! 

And also made a lot of seasonal desserts...gotta love pumpkin.

I used the following recipes:

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Pumpkin Oatmeal Scones--used different icing

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread--added banana, used half whole wheat flour, substituted applesauce for 1/2 c oil, and replaced sour cream with greek yogurt.

I figured with it being Halloween it'd be an appropriate day to share my excess of pumpkin goods with you all. Have a great day, eat lots of candy! :)

Vintage Love

This dress doesn't look like much on the rack...

But this is why I bought it last weekend:

 Dress: thrifted ($4)

Belt: thrifted ($1)

Shoes: Rack Room ($12)

I think it was a good purchase. Good vintage finds are the best. :) And yet again, an under $20 outfit!

Thoughts?

Costume Hunting Failure

I went to Goodwill with some friends last weekend to find things for Halloween. 

I'm somehow not surprised by the fact that I came home with no Halloween items and just a bunch of nice clothes...

Vintage Diamond Print Dress, $4

Target Maxi Skirt, $3.50

Anthropologie Crepe Top, $3.50

Vintage Polka Dot Dress, $4

Target Print Top, $3.50

Print Gathered Front Dress, $4

NWT Old Navy Brocade Pencil Skirt, $3.50

I bought the long polka dot dress to alter, mainly because I'm sort of obsessed with navy polka dot prints. We'll see how that goes.

Also, along the lines of my failure to actually get anything Halloween related, I still have no idea what to be. Any ideas? What are you dressing up as?

Have a wonderful Friday!

Maxi

 Top: from a friend (free)

Skirt: Target, thrifted ($3.50)

Belt: thrifted ($1)

Shoes: Rack Room ($2.80)

This outfit cost me $7. Automatically fantastic. 

I love this skirt, and I'm really excited about it. I just got it this weekend on my Goodwill trip, so this is a sneak preview of what I got! 

Also, this is me taking advantage of warm weather while it lasts. As much as I love fall, I'm going to miss skirts and dresses, so I'm desperately trying to get some use out of them while I can!

Unconventional Uses for a Dress

I went to Goodwill this past weekend and have quite a few good finds to share! But today I want to focus on one particular item I purchased, because it's a little unconventional. I purchased this boxy, seemingly homemade dress/nightgown type thing:

The first time I spotted this on the racks I didn't even give it a second glance. I loved the print but it was just ridiculous, and the fabric was an odd texture and slightly sheer so it wasn't something I'd invest in as an alteration project. But I went back to it later and came to the realization that it could be used for a rather unconventional DIY project...conversion from a dress to wall decor!

Basically I cut out squares to match the size of some square canvases I had lying around, taped the fabric to the back of the canvas with scotch tape, and was done!

Supplies used? Some scotch tape, a dysfunctional goodwill dress ($4), and 4 square canvases (~$8). 

So only $12 for some super cute interior decor!

I've seen so many cool patterned but awful looking dresses at Goodwill before. Now I know to buy them and make use of them! 

The best part is, I can easily take the fabric off if I ever need the canvas or want to switch it up. I even left some of them still in the plastic packaging underneath the fabric covering. 

Laundry Woes and Musical Adventures

Shirt: Herve Bernard, thrifted ($3.5)
Jeans: TJ Maxx ($7)
Shoes: thrifted ($6)
Scarf: DIY (free)
Belt: thrifted ($1)

This weekend's crazy for me. There's just so much going on, and it's all fantastic so life is good. With the except of the fact that I am rather sleep deprived and could probably go into a state of hibernation right now...

But that aside, I went to a concert last night so I tried to dress the part but keep myself warm considering the temperature drop at night. Ended up going in this outfit, which is almost entirely thrifted! Disregard the fact that my shirt looks wrinkly in the last picture, I promise it was better before I walked out the door. This is what happens when you do laundry and don't have time to fold it soon enough. :)

Also, congrats to Courtney B.  for winning the Shabby Apple giveaway! She will receive a $50 gift card from Shabby Apple. Don't forget that every reader can get 10% off through October with the code 49dresses10off at checkout!

Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

Last Call for Shabby Apple Giveaway!

Just a quick update...today is your last chance to enter the Shabby Apple $50 gift card giveaway, so go enter before 11:59pm EST if you're interested! Here's the link to the post. Happy Friday!

Goodwill Haul

Printed Batwing Top

Colorblocked Dress

Old Navy Knit Dress

Two-Toned Button Down Shirt

Old Navy Print Dress

Ann Taylor Loft Capris

This is what I got two weekends ago when I had a chance to go thrift shopping. Pretty self explanatory post. This is all from Goodwill, and everything was $3.50. 

I'm especially excited about the dress. It's a little big for me but since the top is supposed to be sort of loose fitting I can work with it. :)

Pink Pants

Side note: Click here for the current giveaway if you haven't entered already!

 

 

Top: thrifted ($3.50)

Pants: thrifted ($4)

Blazer: Express, thrifted ($4)

Shoes: Banana Republic, thrifted ($6)

Necklace: Forever 21 ($3)

Essentially all thrifted outfit, aside from the necklace! 

I've had these pink pants for over a year and half and I'm not entire sure why I never pulled them out until now. They're going to get put to use this fall, now that I've discovered how much I like them.

Cupcakes Galore

The other day I did some baking with friends and decided to do an all out experimental cupcake baking session. What this amounted to was basically a ridiculous variety of toppings, flavorings, batter fillings, and whatnot. And a really good basic batter and buttercream frosting recipe.

I used two recipes from Allrecipes.com: 

The Batter: Simple White Cake Recipe

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup milk

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Add vanilla, then combine dry ingredients and add in. Add the milk last, and then spoon into cupcake tins and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

The only thing I changed was adding an extra 1/4 cup of milk, because some of the reviews suggested doing so to get a moist cupcake. To make chocolate cupcakes, I added cocoa powder to the batter. 

We added things like oreos, sprinkles, peanut butter, lemon extract, rum flavoring, and chocolate chips to the batter to  mix things up.

And then for the frosting...

Simple and Delicious Buttercream Frosting

5 tablespoons salted butter

5 tablespoons shortening

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Beat butter and shortening together until fluffy. Add vanilla, then sugar, one cup at a time. Add milk by tablespoon.

This again we jazzed up with different extracts and chocolate and jams and whatnot. 

 These cupcakes are like a light pound cake texture and didn't turn out overwhelmingly sweet, which I liked.

Enjoy!

Pancakes?

Hello lovelies! 

I promise I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I just happen to have a ridiculous amount of work and a horrific, scary exam to study for. So I promise I'll be back soon...like after tomorrow. If I survive tomorrow. I don't think my brain can tolerate any more memorization. College problems...

Thanks for your patience! 

What you have to look forward to: a Goodwill haul, multiple refashions (I got a lot done this weekend), and some amazing cupcakes. 

See you soon!

Oh, and in the meanwhile, I thought I'd share something amazing my friend showed me the other day. I have a new goal in life--make all of these pancakes. 
The Ultimate Guide to Pancakes

Old Pleated Shirt Refashion!

 I got this outdated shirt from a local thrift store a few months ago. It was purchased in a bag sale, so the cost averaged out to be about $0.27. Pretty good deal, I'd say!

I thought this shirt would need a lot of work, but after some quick alterations it already looked much better, so I decided to stop before I got myself into a time-consuming, unnecessary mess.

All I really did was take out the should pads and cut off the sleeves. I hemmed the sleeves, obviously. I also sewed the sides in a little because it ran big. 

I paired it with my pleated Cynthia Rowley skirt and it looked pretty darn cute. :)  

 

 

 Top: thrifted, DIY ($0.27)

Skirt: Cynthia Rowley ($15)

Blazer: Target, thrifted ($4)

Shoes: Banana Republic, thrifted ($8)

I'd like to point out that these kinds of outdated button down shirts are ridiculously easy to find. So go to your nearest thrift store and you'll probably run across one within five minutes of hitting the racks. :)