Friday, December 19, 2014

Week 2 Clothing Experiment

Well, this week I got one compliment.  From someone at the library who doesn't know me.  She liked the lavender sweater. 

No one at work as noticed a thing.

The order of sweaters was:

Monday:






















Tuesday:


















 Wednesday   (Note the use of a black t-shirt as the baselayer):
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Thursday  (changed it up with a brown turtleneck rather than last week's cream turtleneck):
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Friday  (note use of brand new thrift Eddie Bauer red turtleneck.  Very Festive):
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Still wish I had black jeans...must get some Rit dye and sort that out.
 This would have been a snazzier outfit with dark pants.

I may try the brown carharrts next week with the lavender sweater though the butt on the carharrts is paper thin and could blow at any moment.

But seriously folks...had I bought these new (one was "new" actually...Friday's sweater is the one that had the tags still on it) and at retail prices we're looking at $ 160 + 330 + 330 + 270 + 250 =$1260 worth of sweaters I wore this week.
I'm estimating my prices from Dale of Norway online stores, and from the tag on the Pendleton.  
How did no one say anything except the woman at the library...who is a knitter?

Next week I will try to see more people.



























FRUGAL FAIL!!!

In the words of a kindergarten student known to my cousin Courtney (Hey Courtney):
Well, she sure f*#ked that up!

Yeah.  So, you know how I try to have a minimum 24 hour waiting period on purchases of non-necessities? 
This is recommended by many many thrifty folks.  Some have much longer waiting periods but I got with 24 hours since I've been living in a town without stores.  Most purchases are out of town so the 24 hours is usually a de facto week waiting period in practice.

Anywhoo....so I sees this great deal on something I've wanted.  A video projector.  We're all familiar with my love of the movies.  I figure a projector I can hook to my laptop would be the way to go.  Small, easily storable, and shouldn't take much electricity.  But, they are usually quite spendy.

Then I look at the Grocery Outlet ad because I'm going to be in a town with one of those.  I see this:





















Now that is a good price. I read a couple of online reviews and see that it's sort of a crap shoot but hey, 40$ right!

I stop in for groceries (which were a fabulous deal!  1lb of organic tahini for 2$, avocados 3 for 2$, etc) and grab the last one of these that is available.

When I get home I go to hook it up.  It won't hook to the computer.  After much hemming and hawing, I go to thrift and pick up a used DVD player with no remote for 10$.  OK, 50$ in to this now.

It does hook to the DVD player just fine.  I pop in a DVD I have from the library and do a quick test.  Yes.  All systems are go.  As I was warned in a couple of reviews, while it will project up to 120" wide (10 feet!!!), it looks like you're watching the movie through a screen door.  BIG PIXELS.  Not a huge deal as all movies used to pretty much look like that, but his is more of a chain link fence than a screen door.  STILL, I figure, cheap and kind of awesome. Even has a speaker.

At this point I notice that I grabbed a the DVD player with play, pause, and eject as the only options.  Damn.  Can't fast forward, go back, or skip between scenes.  There were no players with remotes but some did have "skip forward" and "skip back" buttons.  As it is, I will need to just sit and watch the movie.  If I stop, it will be back to the beginning (pause didn't last long) and just watch all of that again.  So, no problem.  We USED to just sit and watch an entire movie.  It's what the directors want.

I go get a cup of tea and settle in. I move the player to a better location after shutting it down and then plug it in.  It turns on without me touching the "power" button.  Hmmmm...
I try to shut it off.  the button doesn't button anymore.  No clicking.  No effect.   But the movie is starting so I just watch it.

The movie has subtitles which are a bit of a challenge at chain link fence resolution.  I keep going.  I pause it long enough to darken the room a bit more.  I watch the rest of the film.  It's a great film.  Too bad I can't access the menu to see the extras.  Maybe later on the computer.

I try to shut off the projector.  It won't respond to the button.  Those of us who have used these know that the light bulb in there is blazing hot so you need to use the button.  It lets the fan keep running after shutting off the light.  Once the bulb is cool and won't bust, the fan automatically shuts off.

I keep punching the button.  Nothing.  I try unplugging and replugging it in quickly...it just comes entirely back on.  Crap.  I lower the brightness to the least bright possible in hopes the bulb won't be so hot.  I let that run, fan on the whole time, for a bit, then unplug awaiting the "pop" of an exploded bulb.  Nothing.  I got away with it.

But alas, this is not going to be a worthwhile thing.

So, I pack it up as I will be back at Grocery Outlet the next day.
I return it and they do a refund.  Sigh.
Of course I can't return electronics to the thrift store.  So, I'm out 10$ for this little lesson.  Had I thought it through and researched a bit, all of this would have been foreseeable.  Lesson Learned.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Week 1...wee clothing experiment

I didn't take good photos...but I kept the background consistent by using the nice mirror in the employee crapper.

Here is a rundown of this week's sweaters.  Well, every week's sweaters but the order of appearance for this week.

Monday, the "new" used lavender Dale of Norway cardigan:
With a cream turtleneck because I didn't have a better color.  And photo in the home crapper for variety.  The rest are in the work crapper.

Tuesday, the zipneck black Dale of Norway:



Wednesday was my most comfy sweater.  The classic black ski sweater by Dale of Norway from 1992:
 






Thursday I had a more formal meeting so I chose the new thrift Pendleton merino wool cardigan:




 I really liked it and wished I had a dark red or royal blue turtleneck, but the old shabby navy one had to do for now.  I look like I lost weight but it was just the sweater.

And today, Friday, the sweater was another Dale of Norway cardigan.  The black and cream one I've had for a while.
And yes, that's the same cream turtleneck.  I'm short on shirts to wear under these.



 No one said a word but I didn't see many people twice this week.  And I wore a different sweater each day. 





Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Another Wee Clothing Experiment

Been a long time...blah blah blah.

Anyway, I'm settled into winter digs in Moscow, ID.  Froze out of the camper in October.  More on that some other time.  Or not.

So, thanks to some crazy good thrift store finds, I'm doing a clothing experiment.

In the last 2 weeks I've found 2 amazing wool sweaters at thrift stores.  The most recent was on Sunday at the Moscow ID Goodwill Store.  A lavender and cream Dale of Norway brand cardigan with the pewter frogs.

Here's a full shot from the web:


$7.99.  It has a couple of pulled threads that need clipping but that's all.  Lovely and about $150 on ebay.  New they run $200-400 for that style and that brand.

A couple of weeks ago I found a Pendleton brand black and white button down cardigan at a different thrift store in another town.  Basically the same price.  It had the tags and spare button still on it (in fact it still does as I have yet to wear it).  The original tag price is $158.   Not bad again AND it's brand new.  And it's merino wool.  Really soft.   I don't have a photo but it's basically this without the deer:
70s -Charlie Wolf- Womens black, natural white and tan longsleeve wool ski sweater with silver button front, round neckline, reindeer and snowflakes design and box cut bottom hem.
 These two join the 3 I already own (who were formerly joined by one more but I gave that one to Fred).  The 3 I owned already are all Dale of Norway brand.  One similar to the lavender and cream one shown above with pewter clasps, but blue and white mainly.

Similar to this:




 One is a 1992 (the date is knit into the design) crew neck ski sweater in black red like this one:

 
Mine is not as busy as that one but I don't have a photo.

The final one is more modern, black and straight with a standup collar and 1/4 zip at the neck.
It's this model but a different pattern:
dale of norway

And I'm not as hot as that guy.  For the record the sweater in this picture is $318.

I got the sweaters I already own for 15$ each for 2 of them and I think the last one was about 10$. 
So that's $56 for 5 amazing sweaters.

Now for the experiment.  I'm going to wear one of these sweaters to work everyday until someone says something.  I can wear something else on my days off, and I can change into a field shirt if I have to go to a hazmat site or somewhere else that could result in having to wash the sweater.
Like tomorrow I need to go to the clinic and get a wound cleaned on my hand.  I don't want to bleed on a sweater so I may wear something else while I'm in the appointment.

Maybe I'll take photos in the bathroom mirror and make a look book while I do this.  I hear about the young people doing that.

I could use a few more decent turtlenecks to wear under these or mock turtlenecks.  I've only really got 3 and it's going to get to be a bit of a strain.  But, so it goes.

I'll rotate which sweater gets worn on which day.  We'll just see how long it takes.  I did it last year with 3 sweaters and it lasted a long time and no one seemed to notice/care.

This will inform my "how many clothes do I need" inquiry.