For this month’s Thrifty Six challenge, Jane chose a fun theme to bring the summer season to a close…Outfits Inspired by Travel. We went traveling on lots of little weekend trips this summer, kicking off the season with a weekend of Festival Camping at Smoked Country Jam in June, followed by a weekend trip at the end of July that included a day in Burlington, Vermont, followed by a day in Lake Placid, New York, where we visited the John Brown Farm and Olympic Stadium. Our final summer trip was a weekend in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in mid-August to deliver a graduation gift and have brunch with my sister. For the…

It was Grace’s turn to choose a style theme for August’s thrifty collaboration where 6 international fashion lovers join together to show you how to be stylish on a budget while also doing something good for our planet. Tossed away clothing drastically contributes to our landfill problem while the overproduction of clothing required to sustain our throw-away culture dramatically impacts our climate change issue. Too many clothes, and too many new clothes in particular, are a real problem. I am just as bad as any other consumer who has fallen prey to the fast fashion monsters. It is an addiction that retailers tapped into a few generations back and they…

It was Emma’s turn to choose this month’s Thrifty Six theme and since July is her birth month (Happy Birthday, Emma!), she decided to have a little garden party with us to celebrate. Whether it’s a birthday, a wedding, an anniversary, or just a beautiful summer’s day, why not get dressed up in a pretty frock and take a stroll, have a picnic, or celebrate something else wonderful in a gorgeous garden somewhere. We headed down the street to the garden at the Jefferson County Historical Society where we spotted one of the gardeners planting flowers throughout this lovely outdoor space. You can even see some her unplanted flowers scattered…

It was Nancy’s turn to choose our thrifty style theme for May and she really threw me for a loop with Ballerinas. Although I do love a good tulle skirt, I have never really been a ballerina type of girl. In fact, I have only allowed myself to start dancing where other people can see me in the last few years. Before that, just the idea of dancing any dance was completely out of my comfort zone. Maybe I would bounce around my house a little here and there, but in public places I would merely sit and watch all the other people having a great time moving their bodies…

We finally had a few reasonably mild days where I could bare some skin for outdoor photos which worked out perfectly for our April Thrifty 6 style theme. Lucy has chosen bold and bright monochrome which is easy to do with a solid colored dress and accessories in the same color family. I realize that I have been styling lots of pink for these thrifted challenges recently, featuring the color in pastel for February’s Tickled Pink theme and a super vibrant shade of pink to Brighten Up January. The trick with these thrifted challenges is that the piece that is meant to satisfy the chosen theme should be preloved. But…

Technology was playing some silly games these past few weeks which resulted in missed communications all around me. It was kind of weird actually. When those sorts of things happen in abundance in a short period of time it usually means Mercury is in retrograde. But the last retrograde period ended on February 3 and Mercury doesn’t go retrograde again until May 10…just in time to really goof with summer planning. In any event, established email contacts were going missing all over the place. I ended up finding a bunch in my spam folder which I still cannot understand. So if you have sent me an email and I never…

Last month, the Thrifty Six brightened up January with some fabulously bold and brilliant styles in a beautiful array of rainbow hues. It was just what my soul needed in the middle of this long, gray winter and I quickly realized that I need to wear more bright colors this time of year for an instant mood boost. I think my Thrifty Six sisters would agree since Grace chose “Tickle Me Pink” as the theme for February…one of the main colors that I wore to brighten up January. It seems that pink is my favorite color these days. And now I cannot get the lyrics to Aerosmith’s “Pink” out of…

Here we are in the deepest, coldest, grayest part of winter in the North Country and I am scrambling to type this post at the last minute hoping I don’t lose internet connection. I can hear this giant ice and snow storm pelting my house. It sounds sort of like someone is throwing rock salt against the windows with an unwavering consistency. I took a peek out into the darkness of 4:30 a.m. and the snow was blowing so wildly at about 40 mph that it looks like there some sort of apocalyptic event going on out there. The weather people are predicting total snow accumulations of 8-12 inches before…

How did we get to the end of the year so quickly? With the New Year fast approaching, Grace has chosen New Year’s Eve outfits for our thrifty theme this month. Before I get to fashion talk, however, first I am going to share a story, a kind of sad story, about my own New Year’s Eve tradition and it came to be. When it comes to New Year’s Eve, I am very much a homebody. I have always been. I remember New Year’s Eve of 1990. I was 16 and it was the first year that I was invited to a party outside of my own home and I…