PrettySmart DIY: Hemming pants by hand.

I’m short but I’m healthy, yeah…

I’ve spoken ranted here many a time about the frustrations of shopping for pants when you’re only 5ft and I’ve just about given up finding pants off the rack in the right length. This means that I have to either accept having to pay to have all of my pants hemmed… or do it myself, something I’ve shied away from in the past.

I got to thinking that if I have to have all of my pants hemmed, the it wouldn’t be so unreasonable to find a good seamstress, but I was curious about seeing just how hard it would be on my own before I shell out the extra cash.

As I don’t own a sewing machine (and my encounters with them in the past have been less than favorable) I would have to do them by hand. For this instruction I turn to my sister, Kristin, who is my researching magician. I can always count on Kristin to have posted a youtube video on how to achieve something on my facebook page after I’ve mentioned in passing that I’m curious about something.

Thus I give you:

I found this video extremely helpful and my attempt at a hem came out quite successful! The only thing I didn’t do was finish edge of my pants (because as mentioned I don’t own a sewing machine and to finish it you have to have one), but it worked fine without finishing the edge first.

I have to say that while I don’t know that at some point in the future I might go ahead and find a seamstress anyway, I feel a great sense of satisfaction in knowing I can do it myself if I need/want to. =)

Adventures In Shopping

I would just like to preface this post by saying that I don’t mean for these photos to give you a real sense of what I purchased on this trip, they’re more for decoration of the post than anything else. My plan is to capture the actual outfits while I’m wearing them later on. This post is specifically to mention that at long last I have had a thoroughly successful shopping trip! Hooray!

Dallas is a great place to bargain shop if you know where to go. Having spent the first 28 years of my life in one small metroplex, to say that I still don’t know my way around DFW would be a huge understatement. For this trip I decided to be PrettySmart and enlist the help of a tour guide.  I cannot emphasize enough, this makes a world of difference!

The friend/co-worker I took along with me knew all of the best places to find what I was looking for and that would work for my budget, I was both thrilled and amazed!

We visited Grapevine Mills Mall (an interesting sort of indoor outlet mall) and The Parks Mall. Over the years I’ve learned not to judge a garment based solely on the way it looks on the hanger, but to try things on before I decide on them. Some of the best looking clothes on a curvy body look absurd on a hanger. This same rule can apply to stores as well.

I’m an aesthetics kind of person, in many cases I base where I shop on things like the look of the store, the way it’s organized, the lighting (I’m not kidding, lighting should honestly be the first thing on this list). I have found myself deciding in the first 30 seconds of walking into a store whether or not it has anything to offer me and in most cases turn and walk immediately out. This is detrimental to budget shopping. It would be awesome if all stores made lighting and visual appeal to suit my personal tastes a priority, but this isn’t realistic. And especially not in outlets or discount stores. In an environment where the objective is to get rid of as much product as possible as quickly as possible, ambiance is simply not going to play a major role in the shopping experience.

To successfully shop on a budget a person like myself must determine to move past that initial urge to turn around and walk out, and instead roll up your sleeves and dig. It helped me to think of it as being on a hunt for diamonds. =)

The majority of my time and money was spent in the JC Penny outlet store. Now, JC Penny’s doesn’t even make my list of go-to department stores to begin with and at first glance the outlet would have definitely been a turn-around-and-walk-out situation if it had not been for the gentle prodding of my tour guide. Fortunately, her guidance proved wise and after some hunting I found exactly what I was looking for and for much less than I had been prepared to spend! This method of forgoing the urge to cringe and walk out based on first impressions also has its rewards, I spent so little money on the list I came with that at the end of the day I could afford a splurge item!

In the end I spent right around $150 and got:

• 2 pair of slacks
• 1 pair of jeans
• a blazer
• 3 blouses
• a cotton jacket
• a sweater
• 2 bras
• slim wear
• a necklace
• a watch
• and my splurge item- Marc Jacobs sunglasses from Nordstrom Rack

Breaking in heels: Day 4

 This is really more like day 7 I think, but as I’ve not had anything good to report, I just haven’t been keeping a record, and as you can see from this photo, Day “4″ isn’t turning out to be much of a success in the way of actually wearing the heels.

What have I learned, you ask? I have learned that heels that are uncomfortable from the moment you put them on are NOT going to feel any better after any length of time and forcing yourself to grin and bear it.

What this means is that when you’re shopping for heels, no matter how cute the shoe is, if it isn’t tolerable when you first put them on, don’t buy them.

I’m not saying that breaking in is completely impossible, it’s absolutely possible for shoes that fit reasonably well to begin with (these are the ones that feel alright when you put your foot into them and might rub the wrong way in one spot after several hours of wear).

The greatest lesson I learned through this practice was a simple one- in order to break any pair of shoes in, you must, in fact, wear them. If the shoe is so uncomfortable that you can’t wear it for any length of time, then there’s zero hope of ever breaking them in.

Buy the right size ladies, even when it means forgoing a -really- cute pair, because at the end of the day cute wont matter when it’s sitting in a shoe box in your closet.

PrettySmart Heart

Be careful where you invest your heart and your emotions, because some things you can’t take back, some things you can’t erase and sometimes those things will feel like they will follow you around for the rest of your life.

It’s better to have a broken heart than one that’s trapped.

I know I can’t take one more step towards you
‘Cause all that’s waiting is regret
And don’t you know I’m not your ghost anymore?
You lost the love I loved the most

And I learned to live, half-alive
And now you want me one more time

And who do you think you are?
Runnin’ ’round leaving scars
Collecting your jar of hearts
And tearing love apart

You’re gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul
So don’t come back for me
Who do you think you are?

I hear you’re asking all around
If I am anywhere to be found
But I have grown too strong
To ever fall back in your arms

And I learned to live, half-alive
And now you want me one more time

And who do you think you are?
Runnin’ ’round leaving scars
Collecting your jar of hearts
And tearing love apart

You’re gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul
So don’t come back for me

Who do you think you are?

Dear, it took so long just to feel alright
Remember how to put back the light in my eyes
I wish I had missed the first time that we kissed
Cause you broke all your promises

And now you’re back
You don’t get to get me back

And who do you think you are?
Runnin’ ’round leaving scars
Collecting your jar of hearts
And tearing love apart

You’re gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul
So don’t come back for me
Don’t come back at all

-Christina Perri