New Enterprise: 365 days of Secondhand Clothes

 Stores, especially clothing stores, have a way of tricking people into buying things that they'd be fine without. They'll tell you somethings on sale, when really the price has been jacked up originally and then "reduced" so you'll think your saving money. That's one problem with commercial clothing stores. Another is all the waste, all of the factories, that go into making just one pair of shorts. And when someone buys something, then they're supporting the company to create more waste!
People spend so much on clothes every year, and most of the time it's clothes we don't need.

I've decided to do an experiment to learn more about this topic.
Starting today, which is June 14, I'm going to buy only secondhand clothing for a whole year. The only exception I'll make is underwear and bras-I don't really wanna wear someone else's old underwear, would you?
To kick it off, I bought these vintage shorts at a flea market this morning.



I'll blog about it along the way, giving updates about how it's going, and the ups and downs of it. So check in once in a while if you wanna see how it's going!
I'm excited, and I know my parents will probably appreciate it too, since they spend a lot of money on new clothes for me.

Also the illustration on top is done by me.

Keep it Unreal. (new tofurky collection!!!)

This week didn't exactly have the greatest start, understandably. It's the first week back from winter break, it's freezing and it's snowy. Today, however, it got much better! There was a two hour delay this morning, so I didn't have to go to school until ten. Then, when I got home, the greatest thing ever was waiting for me.

On my front step was a package from my favorite food company ever, which you probably guessed from the title. Yep, you got it: TOFURKY!

They knew I was a huge fan, and sent me some really, really cool stuff! It made my day. Wait, no, my week actually. It was extremely exciting.

Here is the contents of that package in photo form:

 

I think their motto is hilarious. 

Apparently it'd made from organic material. Green is the color I would've picked for the shirt, so that was another plus. 

 This is just everything laid out. There was a pamphlet about tofurky too.  

I loved Tofurky before, but now I love them even more. (Woah that rhymed! I should be a poet!!) I eat their products pretty much on a daily basis, and have been for so long, and I love them. So, not only does their food taste amazing, but they are great in the customer service department as well. 

For anyone who isn't a Tofurky connoisseur or has never even tried it, I would really recommend it! They're a great company, and also their t-shirts are super comfy ✌ʕʘ‿ʘʔ✌. 

Tea house vibes, bath bombs, and mugshots.

Sunday, Jan. 4th.
Sadly, today is my last day of winter break, and I return to school tomorrow. I am not too sad, though, because I got everything I wanted to done, and I had a blast these past two weeks. Yesterday and the day before were especially great. Here's what I did:

Friday: our friends who live two hours away drove down to visit. After a lunch of spring rolls, noodles and Asian salad, we headed to our favorite tea house, Dobra. 

The menu is the size of a novel, filled with flowering teas, lychee tea, black and green, snacks, and of course, bubble tea. 

This is a Polaroid of me and my friend Sierra. It was taken by her brother Morgan.  

We all got bubble tea. It was fantastic.

I'm pretty sure they were both oblivious to the fact that I took this. 

I could spend hours just hanging out in Dobra. It's so cozy and chill. 

Next, we went to a secondhand clothing store, but left soon since we were all full of bubble tea and needed to use the bathroom in a coffee shop next door. That's where this snapchat was taken. Morgan is wearing two pins that I made.

Our final stop was to Lush, and it was really fun, as well as kind of weird. The Lush we went to is inside of a Macy's, and there was hardly any person in the entire store. It felt apocalyptic, but no one was paying attention to us, so we could do whatever we wanted in the store. 

The Lush guys gave us a demo. 

I bought the pink bath bomb. The next picture is from when I actually used it. 

It was great, except for all of the confetti that was stuck in my hair afterwards. 

Blisters and Bowls

August 11, 2014

Right now, it is 9:35 p.m. and I am sitting in a hotel bed, worn out from a long day of ambling along the streets of State College PA. This is the last week of living at my grandparents house until my family will move into our new house finally. My dad had a course to take at Penn State for his new job, so it was a great chance for my mom, brother and I to get to go somewhere new and explore for a few days. So today, day one out of two and a half in the small town outside of Penn State, our first stop was a cute coffee shop called Saint's Cafe.

We hung out there for a little bit, I had some tea and a vegan ginger cookie, which was very good. In my opinion, definitely better vibes than Starbucks.

Above: At Saint's, with my tea and new thrift-store denim vest. 

Next stop, we walked about a thousand blocks to get to this cafe for a little snack/breakfast at a place called Aardvark Kafe. It's an original pizza place with a whole separate vegan menu that features things from shakes to tofu to falafel. I sat right on the first stool on the left and split a tofu sandwich with my mom. 

This was the tofu BBQ sandwich-it was very good, even if it doesn't look that appealing. 

The atmosphere at Aardvark was...interesting. There was random vintage stuff everywhere! Every table had cards or chess sets or other antique game. The picture above is the main seating area. 

There was a few mirrors sitting on the ground, so heres the bottom half of my outfit today. (and these sandals are where the blisters come in.) 

After Aardvark, we walked around for a while, stopped in a bookstore, searched for bubble tea (which we did not find), went to Urban Outfitters, a few other stores, and the above art store called Uncle Eli's. I got a new pen/marker sketchbook and eraser-both I am very excited about!

Quirkier side of Uncle Eli's.

After shopping at the art store, we did much more walking, which I acquired more blisters from, and also got hungry again. We stopped in a restaurant a friend had recommended to us called the Green Bowl (this is where the bowl part comes in) For lunch, it was really cool! So first, there is a whole buffet full of raw vegetables and tofu and noodles and sauces, which you load onto a bowl, then give to a guy who stir-fry's it on a big stove-thing right in front of you, then voila-you have a bowl full of yummy stir fried foods! It was so quick and good, the only thing is that even though it is all you can eat, it is still a rip-off for dinner since the price rises from 9 dollars (lunch) to around 14 for dinner.

(my bowl) 

Plus, the walls in the Green Bowl's bathroom were bright purple!

The next half of the day was less exciting, but we did walk about a hundred more blocks down to a Goodwill, and the walk was definitely worth it, since the Goodwill was full of great stuff! I got a pair of jeans, a notebook, an American Eagle skirt, and a  Free People jacket. The only bad part was after we left the thrift store, when we got lost in a neighborhood we'd never been in before, far from our hotel. Luckily my dad, after driving around for a bit, found us and took us back. So that is the end of day one!