Emily is Smiling

My friends and I love shopping at thrift stores.  This might seem strange to some, but it is actually a blast.  You never know what sorts of things you will find.  Every couple of months, my friends and I go thrift store shopping to see if there are any new treasures waiting for us.

For Spirit Week in high school, we visited several different thrift stores while we searched for interesting outfits. 

Nerd day was a huge success.

Rebekah always manages to find adorable outfits that she can actually wear.  She is very talented when it comes to style.  As you see in the picture below, Rebekah found a pair of men's swim shorts from the 80's and a men's white v-neck undershirt from Wal-Mart and turned them into a cute, casual outfit, spending a few dollars on the entire thing.  I was amazed.

Of course, sometimes the clothes we try on are plain silly.  Sometimes the clothes we buy, thinking mistakenly in the store that they're cute, turn out to be too bizarre to ever wear in public.  Buying outlandish clothes can be a bit risky, but it's always a blast to try them on.

A couple of weeks ago, Ali and Rebekah and I decided to go thrift store shopping for the fun of it.  We ended up only going to one store, but it's the biggest thrift store in town, so there were a LOT of clothes racks to go through.  Some cluttered, messy thrift stores bring out the OCD in me and I can't bring myself to stay for long, but this shop was right up my alley.  All of the clothes were color-coordinated, just like my closet.

We ended up choosing more silly outfits to try on than outfits we actually LIKED.  I'm the pickiest out of everyone, probably because I have a very specific style I usually wear, although it's very simple, and I can't find clothes that usually fit within those limits.  However, I am determined to find some very cute thrift store outfits one day.  Rebekah did manage to come away with a few cute outfits, which was good.  Even Ali found a cute shirt.

One of Ali's favorite things to do is find a baggy or unflattering dress and cut it, hem it, and add buttons and bows until it is cute and stylish.  I definitely admire her creativity in this area.  On this particular day, she nearly purchased a cute black and white polka-dotted dress that looked almost like it was from the 50's.  We thought she looked adorable in the dress, but it was quite big on her and would have taken a lot of work to fix it up.  The fabric also felt strange, almost like drapes.  Ali finally decided against purchasing the dress, but now that we've seen the cute pictures, I almost wish we could go back in time so Ali could get the dress.  It looked so cute on her.

One of the best outfits of the day was something that Rebekah found: a pair of cherry red, faux-leather pants.  They were a little big, but they were very entertaining.  In them, Rebekah looked like a rock star from thirty years ago.  That was a near-purchase... definitely something any of us would wear in public. ;) 

I came across another black and white polka-dotted dress, although this one came with an incredibly stylish collar that covered my shoulders and even the tops of my arms.  I could have probably used the fabric of the collar to make a child's dress.  There were even two little pieces of foam for each shoulder to make the giant collar poof out even more than it already was.  I wear that dress daily now.  (Kidding.  I'm kidding.)

The store employees must have thought we were a little crazy since all three of us decided to share the dressing room.  But hey, what good is it to take pictures if you're all in different rooms?  It's also a lot less awkward to take silly pictures when people aren't staring at us, wondering what on earth is going on.  We had some interesting adventures in that dressing room.  It was quite entertaining.

Even though I always have trouble deciding on things to buy at thrift stores, I love shopping there with my friends.  There is never an end to the entertainment and silliness.  When we go thrift store shopping, I know we'll have a good time... and usually a couple of us will come upon a great buy and end up wearing it frequently.

If I ever find an outfit that totally works for me, I'll let you know.  Unfortunately, I don't have the same flair for re-inventing outfits like my talented friends do.  I admire that ability so much. 

I'll miss days like these.