Yellow There!

So, it's taken me a while to get into Colour Lovers, but now that I have I can honestly say that I love it almost as much as I love the color yellow.  What an underrated color with occasionally negative connotations (yellow fever, yellow journalism, mellow yellow)!!  Here's my palette of yellow and violet.  Adding violet to the mix tones down the intensity of the yellow in the same way that black does without being so bee-like.

I recently got this scarf from Target and I love it.  It's very soft and warm, and it brightens up my darker winter clothes with an autumnal pop of color.  At the same time it's not too overtly feminine and I really like that. 

These are some great yellow flats from Urban Outfitters, but I actually got this pair at Gabriel Brothers for $6.99.  They are a great departure from my everyday black flats.  And finally, the coup de grace of my yellow collection:

I found this gem at Blue Ridge Hospice in Purcellville, and it appears to be handmade in the early '60s (I would guess).  It fits like a dream and it only cost $12!  After some minor repairs it is ready to hit the bar tonight.   Here's a close up on the bow detail:

What's your favorite color to wear in fall accessories?  Is there one hue that makes you feel like a million bucks?  Any great vintage finds?  Let us know!

Fashion For Less :: Long & Short of it

There are 4 main things I collect (alongside 200 other things I also collect) - bags, shoes, art supplies, jewelry.  I am thinking about doing posts on collections here & over on Five Sixteenths so I thought I'd start off with the Long & Short of it.

My bag collections is pretty large & by large I mean super large.  In fact, these aren't even all of my bags just my favorites.  Constantly I buy purses.


Here are the P's I look for when shopping for bags:

Professional - is this for work? or is this for the weekend?
Pattern - Is it a solid color? Is the print too loud? Can I pull it off?
Pockets - Is it big enough for my laptop? Will things get lost in it?
Practical - Does it hang where I want it too? Can I successfully navigate through a crowd with out smacking people?

The Long of It

These bags are my go to bags.  I can sling them over my shoulder, wear them cross body, & grab them in a dash.  My everyday purse is one that I can get out of the way by slinging it around to the back.  I love cross body bags because they can get the heck out of the way when I am hunched over a table at the thrift store!  I can store a lot in the big ones & just shove things in it.  The smaller ones are for nights out or small weekend trips.  I like that I can just put all the essentials in & be done.  I choose a small bag for my everyday work bag that way I don't bring everything I own with me everyday.  The only down side to these bags is when you take them off the strap is so long you have no where to put it! It either hangs too long that it touches the floor when hung on the back of the chair or the strap gets caught in you rolling desk chair at work.

Where I got them -
Back row - Target (best $5 bucks I ever spent!) :: Thrifted :: Thrifted
Middle row - Thrifted :: DIY :: Thrifted
Front row - Wal-Mart :: Claire's

The Short of It

These bags are bags I really would like to turn into camera bags.  I want to take some foam, fabric, & velcro and whip up a great little insert to switch between bags.  These bags are also the ones I consider my 'most professional'.  Well at least the two on the left.  These bags add color & look a little bit more professional than having a bag slung across your body.  They all fit my laptop too so they are great to take to coffee shops or work.  These have enough pockets for all the little bitties but sometimes things get lost in the bottom.  I really hate having to dig & dig & DIG to find anything in my purse (sometimes it makes me impatient to see others do it to!).

Where I got them - Claire's :: Charlotte Russe (I think) :: Cato :: Thrifted

What are your favorite kinds of bags? Do you buy a certain color or style over another?

The Best for Less

Ahh, fall is on the horizon.  The air is getting a little more crisp, Starbucks has busted out the pumpkin spice flavoring, and the stores are all tempting me with their fresh fall items.  It’s hard resisting the desire I have to blow my last paycheck of August on trendy fall accessories, but thanks to my devoted research I won’t have to.  And neither will you!  In this post I have found some popular summer to fall transitional pieces and have found similar but much less expensive alternatives. 

uo   target

This fancy floppy hat is $90.00 from Urban Outfitters, but Target’s take on it is a cool $16.99.

asos  ae

This awesome Aztec bag from ASOS was originally $64.03, but American Eagle offers a comparable option for only $29.50.

nastygal    target

These badass leopard wedges by Steve Madden via NASTY GAL break the bank at $158.00, but Target once again flatteringly imitates them at a much more manageable price of $29.99.

I hope that this guide has helped fuel your own desire to find fall trends on the cheap!  What other autumn accessories have you been able to find at seriously low prices?

Happy Hunting!

What We Wore: White Hot Colors.

While searching for inspiration on Vogue, I ran across a feature about fall’s bright and bold color palette. I had just bought these J Brand pants three days before and I must say I felt pretty fashion forward about the purchase.  

source

Because the pants had a rip right above the knee they were only $3 (I bought them at Gabriel Brothers).  That’s right….three smackaroos!  You can’t get a soda at the movies for that! Clearly I’m still thrilled about it.  But it was a little but of an outfit-building challenge, since it required a relatively neutral colored top and the pants themselves were so funky to begin with. I was confident in buying them though because they took something that I already love (corduroys) and mixed in an upcoming trend.  This is a really good way to attempt to pull of something edgy, because it won’t take you too far out of your comfort zone.  At the same time, there's a certain undeniably bad ass feeling to wearing an atypical color on something that's typically neutral (such as cords).

Here’s the outfit I put together with the bright pants as the star of the show. Unfortunately my photo doesn’t do justice to their deep teal velvetiness, but I think you will get the gist of it.  The subtle leopard print top was a go-to for me all summer, and the gold studded suede shoes have just recently been recruited to the multitudes of my shoe army.

How do you pull off trends while remaining true to your personal style?

What fall trends are you excited about?

Color me rad,

 

Fashion for Less: Go Pluck Yourself!

Occasionally I consider small ways in which I can cut back my spending, and so far my tactics of not buying coffee on my way to work and trimming my own hair in between cuts have saved me a lot of cash.  Doing your own eyebrows is another way to cut back on routine beauty spending.  Although it’s affordable enough to get them waxed once and then tidy them up around the edges, it is also very simple to do it yourself from square one!

messy hair but good brows....

When I was younger my mom used to coerce me to go get my eyebrows waxed and I begrudgingly obliged.  Then I would just let them get all teen-wolf until she would drag me back to the salon.  I just really did not care.  But as I got older I realized the appeal of having lovely arched brows.  It was an important component to the vintage style I was slowly adopting.  So, I read up on the subject (I think in Seventeen sometime in high school and the beauty section of Border’s) and that knowledge plus my few years of experience is what I offer to you today. 

The most important thing about having beautiful brows is the shape.  This should be determined by the amount of plucking you do to the bottom of the brow.  Generally, I would say to avoid plucking the top other than to tidy it up, or else you’ll end up with a pencil thin line that looks cartoonish.  So how do you determine where to arch, the length, or the width? Well, if you hold up your tweezers (or in my illustration a red crayon) to your eye right at your tear duct and follow the line up, that’s a good place for them to start.  If yours are naturally a little more or less, that’s fine. This is a rough guideline and as long as you’re not into unibrow territory you have some leeway.

 

For the ending point hold the tweezers up to the angle of your lower eyelid like this:

That’s about where they should end. 

Now’s the part you’ve all been waiting for, the arch.  Do a similar move by putting the tweezers at the lower curve of your iris (the colored part of your eye) and that’s where the arch should begin.  Like so:

(Now, if you have a pretty straight across brow with little thinned out hairs on top it is helpful to take some powder and an angled brush and fill in those spaced out hairs to help create the angle you want before the next step.) 

Then carve out a triangle from the bottom to make the arch.  The idea is that the first part should be the thickest and then gradually thin out to the point at the end.  

What I like about this method is that it works on all different types of brows and on all different types of faces.  It doesn't create a uniform shape like some of the at-home waxing kit templates do, rather it allows the unique nature of the brows to remain in a more polished form.  

Soon, I'll post some photos of me putting this plan into action on people other than myself.

pleasant plucking!

Fashion for Less : Icing on the Cake

If you've ever checked out Five Sixteenths (or the now archived blog Cross My Hooks) you'll know my love affair with Claire's & Icing stems from a long time commitment to working for a girl-conscious business.  I loved working there not only because of this discount *wink* but because of the kids who came in to discover their style.  Now this may sound lame, but I loved how girls would come in & mix and match our styles.  We had loads of inspiration around the store & tons of helpful staff ready & willing to help the girls by earrings, necklaces, & bags to accentuate a style they loved.

It is no surprise then that eventually a post on est. 1839 would feature these stores.  Recently I applied to work back at an Icing store in the new city I moved to.  I am hoping to reschedule an interview soon so I can get back to being on top of the hippest trends this side of awesome.

When I went in the other day, unaware that I wouldn't interview, I have on a super fly 80s inspired outfit complete with biker short leggings & blazer!  I do have a thing for Molly Ringwald-esque fashion.  My hair was doing the perfect hair flip thing & I felt super confident:

I am growing my hair out (if I keep saying it, I'll keep doing it!) & I really want it to have more texture.

My mother has given me her old hot rollers set & I tried it Wednesday,

the curls fell out before lunch :(

So speaking of 80s I am in love with the neon color (or how about Day Glow?) pallet for this summer.  I can't wait to translate it into fall too.  It's weird, but to mean, sometimes neon colors go into jewel tones so I don't feel there is a complete lack of color in the fall.  I've already talked about my love affair with Gray Tights for Fall on Five Sixteenths & neon goes great with gray especially citron & hot pink.  These color pallet I found sum it all up:

citron, hot pink, & gray

black, hot pink, citron, guacamole

The point of this post is to showcase some Fashion for Less right?  Two of these things aren't so on the less side (unless you are payin $8+ for yours) & one is on the alright side.  What are they? Nail Polish! I took a cue from miss Megan & decided to pick up a few to add to my own collection!

Icing Chip Resistant Neon Yellow & Crackle in Hot Pink, $4.50 each

NYC Gray, ~$2

I know summer is on it's way out but I really want to keep the neon trend into the fall so I thought about purchasing some knock-out neon nail color & a bottle of a gorgeous gray.  

the neon pink is crackle & the neon yellow is chip resistant.  I have to say it stays true to its word too!  I few coats are required to get the grand neon pop, (and make sure you wait long enough for it to dry!) but otherwise you will be totally satisfied with no chip nails. I wore this for about a week & goodness gracious no chips!

When using the crackle, make sure you have a top coat! It feels kinda weird to the touch, like it will just rub off.  I didn't test it!  If you want a lot of cracks, use a thin coat.  More thicker cracks? A thick coat is your friend.  For fun, blow on it right after you've applied the crackle, you'll see it break!

Did you dig this summer trend?

How will you carry it on into the fall?

ps. did you know you can follow us on twitter? Est. 1839 tweets all the time!!

follow @est1839blog

We love today: A Taste of Your Own Medicine.

pepto nicki emma

It may seem like I’m talking about the sweet taste of revenge, but actually I’m referring to a trendy summer color palette for makeup and accessories that I have nicknamed “medicinal mod”.  Recently I have been noticing starlets sporting mint green, pepto-bismol pink, and bright yellow in subtle spots such as nails, lip color, and eyeshadow.  I think this is a pretty, yet daring trend and thanks to the popularity of this look it’s easy to find these beauty products for pennies at the drugstore.

source

What thematic color palettes are you drawn to?  And whose styles inspire you?

Until next time, friends!

Fashion for Less: Stunna Shades

Sunglasses....you need them.  Or at least I do.  Pretty much year-round I sport some crazy shades, but I never pay over five bucks for them. When you're as dedicated to frugal and eye-catching eye-wear as I am, you begin acquire a hit-list of places for cheap lenses.  My top three are Charlotte Russe, Big Lots, and Gabriel Brothers (or Rugged Wearhouse for those of you in the south). All of these places carry interesting frames that won't cost you more than the change that you can scrounge up from the floor of your car.  These are some of my current favorite styles, including classic wayfarers, bright colors and prints, architectural frames, and Jenni's favorite nudes.  

shades by est1839 featuring dark sunglasses

Fashion For Less: Watch Out!

Hello!  This week has just flown by.  Lately I've been unpacking, working, & haven't found time to blog.  These past weeks have been all about pining to Pinterest, collecting fun images, & plain 'ol relaxing in my down time.

So now that I have a whole collection of things I want to share, I thought I'd start by sharing an image that has two styles/accessories I love: scarves & watches.

source

I love the double watch look & often sported it during college.

I still have some of my accessories stashed away that need to be unpacked 

so I can't wait to get back to this trend!

I also have a rack full of scarves & I remember when I fell in love with them.

This one in a cute little bow is to die for!

I like to say I collect scarves, but the truth is, I pretty much collect everything!

I love the unique finds from thrift shops & other second hand stores.

Since I love polyvore, I decided to look through a few pages of watches to find some 

that I'd love to sport double.

Polyvore Set

My fave place to find unique watches? The thrift store!

All of the watches in this set are $10 & up.  The top right one is over $2,000! (wwwhhhaaatttt!?!?!?)

But you can totally DIY one of them with an old watch face & leather/fabric from the craft store.

I am working on making a really cool watch DIY to share here! 

(keep a look out!)

What are your fave accessories? I'd love to know!

ps. I am linking to this great Friday Fancies link party over at Long Distance Loving!

Check out the other awesome entries & vote!

DIY: Getting in the Skein of Things- Knitted Summer Accessories for the Scarf Lover

Hi, my name is Amy and my favorite season is winter. This is a fact about me that seems to illicit strange looks from most people.  I just can't help but to love being able to completely cover my body in as much fabric as possible, and sadly this is just not practical in the summer months.  Especially not this week, with highs in the mid-nineties.  Despite this, I was suddenly inspired this weekend to pick back up one of my most beloved winter pastimes: knitting! This came about because one of my good friends (who happens to be studying fibers at JMU) made an awesome electric blue crocheted necklace that somehow beautifully and gracefully captured her refined DIY aesthetic.  She made a long single strand (I’m talking really long) and then wound it around her neck to create a many-layered necklace.  It has all the soft cuddliness of a scarf with none of the heat.  It looked something like this, although this is a version my mom and I recreated for you guys out of some olive drab yarn I had laying around.

I also decided to make my own design for a necklace by knitting instead of crocheting (because for some reason that’s easier for me).  I made it 6 stitches across and just kept on going until I could wrap it around my neck a few times.  In the photograph I twisted it a few times and tied it into place to give it the swirled look.  The haphazard nature of these projects is so attractive to me because they can be as simple or as complex as I (or you!)  want.   They could be used as a necklace, headband, belt, or bracelet. You could sew buttons on them or weave beads into them, and best of all, you can pretty much quit as soon as you get tired of doing it and still have a wearable item.  They make great projects for beginning crafters, and immensely gratifying ones for those who are more experienced. 

Needless to say, this is a great use for that weird leftover half-skein that’s taking up space in your life.  Even if you bought yarn to make them you could easily make 4 with one skein (which costs between 2 and 5 dollars usually).  So cheap.  

Beginners can easily replicate my design and my friend’s design with these directions from Lion yarn.


For those experienced with knitting and crocheting, this pattern from Aromy’s Originals will give you a more challenging and lovely necklace from your leftovers.

Anyone else have creative and fashionable uses for leftover craft goodies or yarn?  We’d love to hear about them!

Happy Crafting!

Amy

 

Fashion For Less Friday

One of the many perks of being an artist/writer/musician/printmaker/blogger is that we have equally (if not more) talented friends. Our friend Jared is a gifted photographer, and today he snapped pics of me in some of my frugalest finds. I'll share them with you, plus outfit ideas and shopping tips.


I found this funky safari-inspired romper ($8) at Forever 21, and although rompers pose slightly more wardrobe malfunction (add a few minutes when powdering your nose) risk, they're definitely worth it for the daring. Since it's summer and so hot, I wore a locket ($4) and a bag, but ordinarily I would wear tights and a cardigan and maybe a scarf. Yes, you should be totes jeal of my ($12) Chanel bag, and yes, any major city Goodwill has troves of fashion treasures. If that's not an option, those denim espadrilles were just $12 at Roses in Farmville.



This adorable girl is Molly, who is a food and culture junkie, not to mention an amazing singer. We went to my favorite Vietnamese place, then she agreed to be photographed for this article because that beautiful maxi dress with its violet-hued paisley came from Kohl's ($15).



I guess I felt extra jetset today, so I put on another thrifty ($3) find from another Goodwill, albeit not from a major city. This dress is super versatile, which is helpful when establishing a style. Here I wore it with those amazing lime-green suede pumps ($8 at Gabriel Brothers), but ordinarily I would wear an embellished sandal, sunglasses, and maybe a hat with a large floppy brim. It's a classic shape, but it definitely needs a belt ($15 Betsey Johnson at Marshalls), and the wider your belt is, the littler your waist looks. I also recommend a chunky bangle and dangling earrings, or a standout pendant. Whichever you prefer - make it your own.



This is one of my favorite looks - the idea that you can throw on a chic little dress with a few interesting details and look great everywhere. I found this adorable ($5) dress at Rugged Wearhouse in Lynchburg, and I've nicknamed it my "Parisian bistro dress", because I can put it on and all I need is my bicycle and a baguette. I paired it with ($10) pop-art flats from Urban Outfitters, a picnic-basket-shaped necklace by Betsey Johnson ($25 at Nordstrom Rack), and a wonderful Marc Jacobs bag ($58 - pricy, I know, but I love it, at Saks Off Fifth).  I call it my "Inception bag", because it's a handbag with a sketch of a handbag on it. Or a dream within a dream.

Which finds are you most proud of? Let us know right here, right now.

XOXO,
Jenni

What We Wore

A few weeks ago during a free magazine reading session at the Longwood bookstore (this anecdote is making me nostalgic already), I handed a copy of Nylon magazine to my friend.  He looked at me skeptically, but having just looked over everything of real interest to him he had nothing to lose.  After a few moments of quiet contemplation he looked up and exclaimed “I wish more girls dressed like this!” 

dailystab.com

 One of the things I love about Nylon is the way that they pick a character (often from an older film, but sometimes from pop culture in general) and outline interesting modern variants on their style.  They also tell you new ways to construct outfits and transform blasé looks to blazing ones (à la Nicki Minaj).  I love their ability to make weirdness work, and they always introduce me to styles I want to emulate.  In addition to this they always include really interesting color schemes, which I particularly love because I have a tendency to dress in the same colors all the time (primarily blacks, grays, and blues).

So in the true sense of their experimental attitude, I often choose a theme and base my outfit for the day around it.  It helps me utilize the funkier pieces in my wardrobe and it also makes that certain weirdness blend in a little better. This particular outfit was M.I.A. inspired, and I wore it on my Friday off to run errands on a hot day made even hotter by my A.C. being broken in my car.

  Often in the summer light colors and floral patterns rule.  While this is a pretty and classic look, I like to break out of the ordinary, and this outfit does that without being too strange for everyday.  I like to sub out the traditional summer sun dress for a high-waisted skirt paired with an African batik print top.  The top and the skirt are both from Gabriel Brothers for about $6 a piece.  It takes a little hunting to find something amazing there, but it’s completely worth it. You could also pair a similar skirt with a striped shirt for a nautical style (my other favorite thematic twist to a summer outfit).  More on that later.