No excuses

People often give the excuse that eating healthy is expensive or too time consuming or too much work; myself included. But lately I have found some super yummy recipes that are relatively if not extremely inexpensive and very quick and/or simple.

Tonight, I served baked salmon with jerk-spiced, black bean and mango chutney. The longest part of the recipe was throwing the salmon in the oven and waiting for it to bake!

Here, I include the recipie for the chutney, which can be served over chicken or fish and is delicious, and easy.

Jerk-spiced black bean and mango chutney

1 can low-sodium black beans
1 medium mango, peeled and chopped into small chunks
1 Tbs jerk seasoning
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp red chili pepper flakes
15 mint leaves chopped into fine ribbons

Combine all ingredients, but mint and mango in saucepan, heat on med-high until hot/warm enough to serve, remove from heat, dish over meat, then top with remaining ingredients, portioning the mango and mint on each dish. Recipe will yield 3-4 servings.

Red Sweater Re-Vamp

Have you ever had an article of clothing that just doesn't fit? Whether it was given to you, a thrift-store find or if you simply just bought the wrong size, don't despair.


Before: doesn't really fit.
Kinda' big

Here is the how-to, on altering a sweater.
When I purchased mine, this fabulous cherry-red sweater from Dress Barn, (actually I got mine at Goodwill, no big surprise) it was an XL, which was a stitch too big, so here is the how-to.


Supplies: ruler, scissors, seam ripper, matching thread,
straight pins, fitted sweater and sweater to-be-fitted

 

How to alter sweaters

Supplies needed:

• Sweater needed to be altered

• Well fitting, similar sweater (to use as pattern for sizing)

• Sharp scissors for fabric cutting

• Pins

• Ruler (optional)

• Sewing machine

Sweaters, reversed, seams to the outside,
 and stacked, big on bottom, small on top

Step 1

Reverse/turn inside-out both the fitted and to-be-fitted sweater, make sure the shoulder and side seams are lined up on the folds, and it is buttoned or zipped up.

 

 

Pin, using pins as an outline and a guide for the next step, cutting

Step 2

Lay the fitted sweater on top of the unfitted, the top sweater should be smaller than the larger. Using the upper sweater as a sizing guide, with your long-pins, start pinning at the bottom of the sweater (sharp side facing up), pins about 2” apart, giving ¼” allowance on either side of the pins. Depending on the fit of the pre-fitted sweater, you may want to allow a slightly larger seam allowance, just in case.



Cut it!

Step 3

Once you have pinned both sides, go ahead and cut off the excess fabric, not cutting directly next to the pins, again, giving yourself a ¼” allowance on each side of the pin.

 

 

Step 4



All cut and ready to sew!

After threading the bobbin and threading the sewing machine with matching thread, go ahead and start sewing, not forgetting to back-stitch within the first inch of the beginning and end of the fabric, so the thread doesn't unravel. Then, once finished, cut off any loose thread ends, turn right-side in, and voila'! Done!

So after, it's fabulous and it fits!!!

BEFORE

AFTER

 


 

The Pound Store!!

Today I took Jason to the Tacoma pound store for the first time ever! Walking into the pound store is always a bit of a culture-shock for first timers (myself included).

I gave him these tips to help him keep from getting overwhelmed.

         #1. First thing, get a cart, then find a blanket, park your cart along the wall and cover the cart.

          #2. DO NOT take your cart down the aisles unless there are less than 12 people in the building. Do your digging and treasure-hunting, and take mini-trips back to your cart, and drop stuff off.

          #3. DIG!! Don't be afraid to dig, toss stuff out of the way, don't fixate on sizes of condition of the clothes, but if you like the look of it, grab it, toss it in your cart, then go back later, go through and purge. You want to get through the bins quickly but thoroughly.

          #4. If you are a germaphobe, or just have dust allergies, you can totally bring/wear a dust mask and or gloves. And I recommend headphones to listen to your favorite tunes. If you love the pound store, it just makes it that much more fun!



 

Here are my finds. I spent a grand total
of $4.62 on all 5 items! Score!!!

So, the breakdown of the store layout is..

Half the store is clothing, in rows of long, blue bins; 2x4 per row. The workers will start by taking away the picked-over bins, clearing that row. When they do this, you must clear the entire row, even if you are not standing within the taped area that the new bins will sit over. They will "yell" at you to clear the aisle if you don't get completely out of that space. Don't take it personally, just get out.



Sea foam-teal shirt with flirty elbow bow ties

The other half the stories purses, brick-a-brack, and furniture... all, totally chaotic, all in bins to literally DIG through. This place is NOT for the faint of heart, the germaphobes, or the "casual browsers". This place is awesome, but for the treasure-hunters!

Oh, and by the way, the pound store is aptly named because all items are sold, not individually,  but by weight!!

Grey tie-dye print tee with side gathers.
 Love it!


So, I had a blast! Jason; not so much. He has horrible dust allergies, so he could only handle about 45mins before he had to get some fresh air, and he likes the more established, organized, stores with racks. I, however, love this place!

Each item was pre-marked with Goodwill tags. Each shirt was marked $6.99 and the shoes were marked $7.99, so the in-store cost would have been $35.95.

I looked up certain items online, and the estimated total (since not all were per-item listed), or guestimate was about $250.
Guestimated online cost = $250         Savings $245.38
In-store goodwill cost    = $35.95       Savings $214.05
Price actually paid         = $4.62         Super SCORE!!!

Xhilaration pink/yellow/brown-flecked shrug
Super cute!!

My favorite find. "Life Stride" sandals;
Online $60, I paid $0.75!! Savings: $55.25

"Speigel" beaded blouse;
Online price $115, I paid $0.75, Savings $114.25



The Hunt for Red.. Sweater :)

If you truly think you know me, you'd know that I would rather wait 6+ months to buy something, and save money on it (finding it at a thrift store) than to waste money unnecessarily on something because I can't wait for it. I once waited a years worth of waiting until I finally found a king-size yellow duvet cover. :)

So, that leads into my latest find. I've been searching for a red sweater for 3-4 months, and just the other day, when Jason and I went on our first thrift storing trip together, I found an awesome red sweater that met all my criteria, 

Criteria:

1. Cherry or dark cherry red

2. MUST have one of the following: ruffles, flowers, embellishments or something girly/feminine

3. Long sleeves

4. Good condition

5. Good fit (not a deal-breaker)

The one I found with him met 4/5 of them...and then Jason talked me out of it. True, it was two sizes two sizes too big, but I'm getting pretty good at tailoring/taking in blouses and sweaters. So yeah, I've been kicking myself ever since. So I went back two days later, looking for it, and found this one!

So... now all I have to do is alter it!



It's a miracle!!



Now, all I have to do is to alter it!



 

 

A Long-Awaited Journey; To the Thrift Shop!!!

I had never heard of Macklemore until Christmas Ever 2012, when I sat around a family-members table and watched the music video for the (now) top-hit "Thrift-Shop". Being a long-time hater of rap and lover of thrift shopping, I was pessimistic at best. I figured what does a wealthy, white rapper know about the joy of thrifting? Well it only took me a listen or two to realize that I love this song (despite the profanity), and that brings us to todays blog post.

The first inaugural Unofficial Macklemore Thrift-Shop Challenge!

So Jason and I took on the challenge. We each had $20 in our pockets, and we were off and running!

Unfortunately we didn't set any further ground rules and I didn't explain the proper thrift-store etiquette to him, but he really got into it! I guess the rules were, there were not official rules :)

For the first challenge, we visited the Spanaway Goodwill, one of my favorite, mostly due to it's size and variety. The store is currently under construction, so we unknowingly limited our search to clothes, since the housewares and furniture were in a separate section of the building. I limited my search to a few items that I'm looking for to take to our Hawaii trip in March.

 My list: brown shorts, tan, grey or brown peep-toe semi-fancy flats, swim suits, sun-dresses and cute, printed tank-tops. Since it was still only January they had NONE of my searchable items even out on the sales floor! Grrr, so I stuck to general tops and sweaters, which are my latest obsession. Incidentally I have been looking for a cute red sweater for about 6 months. I found one, but didn't buy it due to some bad advice from a certain someone (why??? sob, sob, sob!!!)

Jason dove into the sports-jackets section, and probably tried on nearly every jacket there! He looks so good in practically everything, that I can hardly blame him.

We had a great time, searching on our own, modeling our finds and making our purchases. I kept my final tab to $22.47, whereas Jason spent about $80, although he tried to convince me that Men's clothes cost more (which in general is true, but he also chose sports jackets! That's like choosing to shop for semi-formal dresses for women!).



People say "dang, that's a cold-a$$ honkey"

His finds: three sports coats; grey, charcoal and dark blue (probably worth about $300 each), one black-leather jacket and two pairs of dress pants, all which looked "incredible" on him :)

So, in conclusion, I don't love thrift store shopping because of Macklemore, but I do love thrift store shopping MORE because of him and his song. And hey, he's a Seattleite and huge Seahawks fan!

My finds: a Romy brand tweed sweater-coat and a dark paisley printed skirt.



Also, a tie-dye-print and studded tee, (which looked fabulous when paired with) a flowy, aquamarine vestie-thing