Clothing Karma

August is "Give it up for Hospice" month.  Instead of taking my preloved treasures to Postie as per the poster below, I delivered my donation directly to the Butterflies shop in Hanover Street.

Although I do buy clothes for my daughter at Postie, nothing there appeals to me.  When I was telling my Dear H about my charitable donation he suggested I do an audit.

So, here is my list of donations:

Green dress polyester bought from Gypsy Fair $10 (no photo of this dress.  To be honest it did not fit me properly, it was about 2cm too small across the shoulders and I could not do all the buttons up. Still I worked out I wore it weekly for about three months so I got my monies worth!!)

Black and white shirt dress from Restore $1 - here it is worn to celebrate NZ winning the Rugby World Cup late last year.

Red floral shirt dress from Salvation Army Milton $4 (I think) Again, I can't find a photo of this dress.  Its lovely fabric, but again it was a smidge too small, and short.

Orange Atmosphere cardi (always worn with Green Gypsy dress and goes with nothing else) Recycle Boutique $4.50

Home made purple peony batik dress - fabric bought off trademe $5 and bias binding from Hospice shop for 20 cents.  The dress was based on a 1960s Simplicity pattern and for some reason it just did not look right.  I think I wore it once.

Modified denim skirt from Presbyterian support $1 fill-a-bag, so probably 20 cents as well.  This started life as a denim maxi which I cut the top 20 centimetres off and made a new waist band, which meant that I could keep the top stitching around the hem and buttons.  When I bought the skirt it was almost brand new.  I have worn it so much that the denim is now soft.  It owes me nothing and has been usurped in my wardrobe by a Levis denim maxi I bought from the same place for 50 cents.

Lastly, a 1970s polyester dress - from Purple Rain.  Originally it had a spectacular frill around the bottom which I cut off and unruffled and then re-attached.  This dress had an annoying stain on the bust which I tried to conceal with a bow made from the leftovers from the frill.  I did not really like this dress, but I wore it because I think I paid $15 for it.  Above I am wearing it with a shirt underneath - dear god what on earth came over me???  It was a pullover style and looked better on a sunny day.  Alas the bow pulled forwards and seemed to be a magnet for biscuit crumbs and chocolate.

So all together I spent $39.90, which I have now donated to Hospice Shop.  Do I dare go in there and see what prices are on my clothes????

Anyway, this all sounds very altruistic and kind, but the truth is, and I am sure that those of you who know me, I need to confess that I acquired 5 dresses in the last two weeks.

Firstly when in the Butterflies shop at the beginning of last week....

Polyester pink "Sarah" dress with huge pink flowers and a big almost circle skirt $4
Polyester dress with pleat skirt and slightly poofy sleeves $4

Dear H who has been my accomplice spied a Johnny Cash DVD, Live in Denmark no less for around $7.

Then in the weekend, I made a mad dash in the continuous and depressing, pouring and drenching rain late on Sunday afternoon to Toffs.  In 2 minutes I found 2 great dresses in the $2 section!!

Polyester Osti dress from 1980s with batwing sleeves and full skirt in a wild pink blue white and purple floral

Poly-Cotton sundress in white with black pattern like amoeba's and dark red buttons up the front.

Finally, today Dear H and I went on a bit of a pilgrimage to South Dunedin.  First up we visited the Salvation Army Shop.  Slightly shocked is the way I felt when I wandered around - the prices seemed too high.  The clothes seemed to average around $10 and there were some charming old paintings and prints but the prices were ridiculous - $20, $25, $65 and $100!!!!!!! The other thing that annoyed me was that there were lots of cute ornaments including an adorable cat with a really long neck, but none of them had prices on them.   I did buy something but I am not going to show you just yet, but it also had no price on it and the assistant had to go and ask someone.  Dear H bought a train book in pristine condition for $20.  About the same as Trademe prices without the hideous postage costs.

Next, we looked in the St Vincent's de Paul....very nice and tidy but nothing appealing.  The two adorable elderly ladies ignored us and chatted non stop while we looked around.  I was tempted by an Elvis record for 50 cents until Dear H told me it was a covers album and not really Elvis.  The first global event that I recall as a child was the death of Elvis.

Lastly, and due to time and parking constraints, we went to Orphan's Aid International.  This is a lovely shop made up of two "rooms", everything is neat and tidy.  Everything was priced.  Reasonably.  With proper stickers like a real shop.  Orphans Aid also sells fair trade chocolate, coffee and some beaded items.  Dear H, the book worm he is, found another book, this time on the Sharemarket, it 50 cents.  I was not holding out much hope that I would find anything, and then I saw it.  An amazing Glamis dress in red and orange and grey and cream that kind of looks like brush strokes.  $6.00, and it was freshly washed!!  The hilarious thing is that when I was paying for the book and dress, something had not been done properly and the amount showing on the EFTPOS machine was $65,000!!!! Laughing I told the nice lady at the counter that would be a rather large donation and could we please cancel the transaction.

In conclusion.  Clothing expenditure on me this fortnight = $18.

Right, Dear H thinks I should start a ledger like an accounting book with all my transactions in it.  I told him that my blog is my ledger!!  Hope you are all having a good week,

xx Penny-Rose