style me: the bootleg diy

the kids went to grandma and grandpa's yesterday for a sleepover. when i got home from work, chris said, "let's do something that we can't do with the kids!" his suggestion was grocery shopping. he clearly hasn't seen me power shop with the kiddos before, so i ix-nayed that idea. instead, we cleaned their rooms. i know, we're wild like that!

normally, when we have the kids clean their rooms, they ask us, "do we have to clean under our beds?" some days we say yes, some days we say no. most days we say no. well not anymore. i don't know why i was so naive, but my six-year old got the best of me. you could have clothed a small village with what i found underneath his bed. i could never figure out why he told me every day that he didn't have any socks. i thought maybe i wasn't doing laundry fast enough. nope, it just turns out that they were all under his bed, along with about 20 books, one dirty tupperware (gross), an empty bag of baked lays that he snuck up there (also gross), and three bath towels. treasures, i tell you. so from now on, yes, they will have to clean under their beds. but i just know that when they get home tonight, they will be so excited to see their "new" rooms.

on to my outfit. i know that in the "style me" posts, we are supposed to take something extremely ugly and make them cute. well, i have to admit that this dress isn't that ugly. i also have to admit that belting it isn't styling, per say. and i also have to admit that tearing the sleeves off isn't a diy project. but cut me some slack, i just cleaned the underside of my son's bed.

the original "ugly" dress

the colors are great, the feel is fun...i knew it had potential.

and my "styling"

i also have to admit that i hate ironing.

i also have to admit that i am not a huge fan of straight-on face photos. can you tell?

dress ~ vintage, thrifted

belt ~ vintage, garage sale

earrings ~ F21

bracelets ~ (silver, F21 beaded, garage sale)

shoes ~ dots

have a great weekend!!

xoxo,

megan bird

style me: "hats, the musical"

when nora and i found this shirt, we looked at each other and knew we had to buy it for the shop. now, i hate to actually say that something we are selling is ugly, but it is. it's one of those pieces of clothing that is so ugly it's cute. and we both happen to love clothing that is so ugly it's cute. i mean, how can you turn down a beautiful silky vintage top that is covered, literally covered, in hats. now, if only we could find a hat that is covered in shirts...a match made in sartorial heaven.

the ugly item to be styled:

it's fabulous, right? it's almost surreal, like if you look at it long enough, a sailboat will pop out. trippy!

i took a close up of the hats, i thought this picture would look amazing framed.

wouldn't it be fantastic if under one of the hats, there was just a creepy lady looking at you?

ok, enough about the hats. i am turning into one of those red hat ladies. when i am old, i shall wear purple...

here's how i styled it. the longer sleeves didn't look great with my broader shoulders, so i bunched them up and tied them with some black ribbon i found at a rummage sale. and the longer length of the shirt would be perfect in the winter with a pair of leggings and knee-high boots, but it's (getting) warmer, so i decided to "summer" it up by knotting it (nora thinks i'm brave for showing a bit of my belly...i don't think you can see enough to actually see the product of two kids, so we cool).

one of my favorite things about this shirt...on the inside, there is a label ironed on that has the name "faith zimmeran" written on it in black marker. i love personal touches like that.

so what do you think? do you like hats? do you like shirts? well then do i have a deal for you!

happy friday, friends!

xoxo,

megan bird

style me: mom jeans

have any of you ever seen the saturday night live skit, mom jeans? it's hilarious, and oh so disgusting. mom jeans to not flatter anyone. sure, they are comfortable, but not stylish....or are they?
nora and i have this idea that we are going to try as hard as we can to bring (so called) ugly pants back. i happen to love ugly pants. i think if they are styled right, they can actually look super cute. so, we bought some for our sale and we will work our styling magic to make people realize that they are in fact stylish and adorable! anyone? anyone? just wait and see, they will be back in style soon!
i bought these jeans for the specific purpose of doing a "style me" post. they were only $1, so i didn't have much to lose. but when i brought  them home, i didn't get a great reaction. my mother-in-law was over, and she is one of the nicest people in the world. not kidding. it is a very rare occasion when she says anything bad about anything or anyone. but when i brought these jeans home and showed her, she just said, "hmm. interesting." that's about as mean as it gets for her. i knew i was in for a challenge.

so, here are the infamous mom jeans:

 the high elastic waist, the front double pockets, no back pockets, tapered leg. it doesn't get any better than this!

and here is how i styled them:

sorry, there was no applique sweater vest to be paired with these!

 

jeans ~ thrifted

tank ~ so old, i'm not sure where it's from

shoes ~ delicious, ebay

necklace/earrings ~ F21

belt ~ Target

what do you think? would you ever wear mom jeans?

xoxo,

megan bird

style me

i admit it, i am one of those people who will sometimes buy something only because it's a good deal. i know that is wrong. i should have a checklist of sorts that i have to go through before i buy anything. something along the lines of, "if this were more than $.99, would you still want it?" because i'm sure more often than not the answer would be no. alas, i do not have this sort of self control. this, among other things, is what causes my closets to bulge at the seems. this and the fact that i love buying ugly clothes, just to see if i can make them look cute.
speaking of, i found these pants the other day for $.99. they are of the "so ugly they're cute" variety. i fell in love immediately...and not just because they were $.99. i imagined them with a plain white tank and some cute strappy heels. maybe a long string of black pearls. so yes, i will be wearing these many times come summer! in the mean time, this is how i styled them. i wanted to go for an old-hollywood sort of look. not much about me screams old hollywood, but hey, i gave it my all.

the ugly item:

 iridescent black/gray crinkle pants

a close up of the ugliness

and here is how i styled them:

 

what do you think? did i do it? would you wear this? you can be honest!

xoxo,

megan bird

style me

i found this amazingly ugly zebra print jacket at a thrift store a couple weeks ago. i actually kind of love it. i love animal print and blazers and over-sized items of clothing. and my grandma totally would have rocked this baby in the 80s.

 wow! try not to stare at that photo for too long. it will make you dizzy! 

i must admit, it is pretty ugly! however, with a belt and some simple black pants and a cute pair of boots, i will actually totally wear this blazer! (belts really work wonders, don't they?). what do you think? would you wear this outfit? be honest!

blazer- vintage, thrifted

pants- F21

boots- alloy

belt- vintage, thrifted

earrings- UO

xoxo, nora bird

style me

i almost didn't post this one. this is one of those items of clothing that is so ugly i love it. i feel that way about a lot of things. like this:

how much do i want to squeeze this dog???

i showed the pictures to a few people, trying to gauge whether or not i should post it. a few said yes, a few said no. i decided that i might as well. after all, this jacket is ugly, but i will be wearing it as a plain ol' jacket come spring. but i can't just post a boring picture of me wearing a golden girls wind coat. i actually had to style it. this is where the blood, sweat and tears came in to play. you be the judges...what do you think? honestly...

the jacket:

 she's a beaut, eh?

and here's my styling. i tried about five different ways to wear it. this is what i liked best.

 

 

threw it on backwards, tanked and belted it and called it a day. tell me, would you wear it?

style me

look out! there's another style me post comin' atcha! this item is actually from the two birds closet and i happen to love it! but it is, admittedly, quite ugly. why did we buy it? because i am a sucker for hideous clothes. why didn't it sell? beats me (ha)! it is a vintage vest type piece. it reminds me of something a clown would wear if he had also been a hippy. or maybe something the brady bunch band would have worn during one of their awesome performances. it's a sunshine day! anyway, here is it...

crazy pattern close-up!

and here is my attempt to make is cute and wearable. did i succeed??? you be the judge! i have no idea...but i promise you this---i will be wearing this out someday soon! and not on the night that i go out with my hippie clown friends. just on a regular old night. like i said, i love it!

vest- two birds

jeans- 15 dollar store

shoes- bamboo, alloy

belt- vintage, thrifted

xoxo, nora bird

style me

nora and i did a ton of shopping for two birds this weekend. it was amazing. i can't wait to show you all of our finds! another thing we shopped for was super ugly items of clothing. we literally were running around thrift stores, trying to find the ugliest pieces we could find. we are so excited about this ugly styling post. it's turning out to be quite a challenge, though. i mean, can you really make anything cute??? well, we'll let you be the judge.
i found this number somewhere among the uniform rack. or maybe it was the super ugly shirt rack. i'm not sure. either way, i can't believe i even spent $1.50 on it. but hey, maybe it can be cute. what do you think?

here's the shirt:

you can't even grasp how ugly it is from this picture. it's wider than it is long, and my thighs would fit in the sleeves. the hideous stars and swirls remind me of a scrapbooking event gone wrong!

and here's my styling:

 

what do you think? would you wear it?

on another note...i cannot wait for spring! my legs haven't seen the sun for about a year now!

xoxo,

megan bird

style me

when megan told me her idea for the "style me" blog post (where we take our ugliest items of clothing and try to style an outfit around them to make them cute) i knew just the item i would start with. i am a huge sucker for buying ugly items of clothing just for this purpose! i bought these pants at a thrift store not too long ago. they are super fugly, but i kind of loved them and had to have them (plus, i was shopping with my mom on senior day when she gets 40% off...and i think the original price was somewhere around $2.99). there are so many things about these pants that are just wrong. the elastic waist? very comfy, but not necessarily stylish. the color? i am not really a khaki kind of gal, but i thought, what the heck? i'll give it a try. the pleating?  really bad in all the wrong places. yet i still bought these pants. that's right! i also bought a similar, even uglier pair that same day (think these pants but in a darker, mahogany brown color, with a drawstring waist and a kind of velvety-cotton material. HOT!). i wasn't quite up to the challenge of styling those quite yet...

anyway, the pants:

 

and here is how i styled them. what do you think? still ugly??? would you wear this outfit? would you have even bought the pants in the first place? to be honest, i think the outfit is kind of cute...and i think i might wear these pants a lot come spring...

also, i made this necklace today out of a super long string of pearls and a vintage necktie...i am kind of proud of it because i am not usually very "crafty". that is megan's forte, not mine!

tank top- H&M

belt- thrifted

shoes- madden girl

necklace- all thrifted

xoxo, nora bird