Hi! Thanks for checking out our first ever video blog for Thrift Town’s Thrifty Tween Styles! This week we’re showing you how to do some fab DIY shorts. We hope you enjoy it. We’d love to hear from you and see the shorts you made.

Gianna & Sydney are 11 years old and in 5th grade. They both love sports, the beach, shopping, and antagonizing their siblings (Gianna has little two brothers, Syd has a twin brother and teen sister). Gianna & Syd have been BFF’s for the past 4 years and look forward to doing many more Thrifty Tween Style blogs.

I am going to be an auntie again! This time to a baby girl (I have 7 nephews and 5 pseudo nephews from my BFF)! Suffice it to say I went a little nuts preparing her baby shower gift and couldn’t stop myself from purchasing everything that was any shade of pink, incorporated tulle or bum ruffles which I discovered I have a huge weakness for, and had enough sparkles and bling to make the tooth fairy jealous (and yes, I do glitter spray all my kid’s tooth fairy money; don’t judge).

Repeat after me; babies don’t wear out their clothes, they simply outgrow them. Shopping thrift for baby needs is probably the best savings tip I could give a new mom. So, after practically wiping out Thrift Town’s entire baby department of all things pink (thankfully they restock with 4,000 new to you items every day in every store), I ended up with 75 pieces of clothing for $40! Yes, I used my full super shopper card and received $10 off my purchase, and I looked for items that were on the 50% off color tag of the week rotation (which coincidentally was PINK), maximizing my savings. Here’s a sampling  of the (mostly) pink goodness I got!

Not only is my wish for Lily Sue to be the envy of all pint sized fashionistas, I want her to be an accomplished connoisseur of the written arts. So my next stop was Thrift Town’s book department where I stocked up on none other than as pictured above, Fancy Nancy, Olivia, and Dr. Seuss classics, all for pennies on the dollar. Books are always better when read snuggled in silk and faux fur, so I hit the bins department for cozy blankets, pillows, and of course the perfect bedazzled reading lamp.

Next I had to find something rather large to put Lily Sue’s new to her wardrobe in, and I wanted it to be something that could be used in her room. I found a beautiful basket that was large enough for the mini-diva worthy wardrobe I purchased and could moonlight as toy storage or a laundry basket.

Since I was so impressed with the amount of clothing available for babies at Thrift Town, I decided to base a few Thrifty
Thursday segments on Good Day Sacramento, and Good Things Utah, on the amazing finds and savings you can experience shopping thrift for your baby needs. Check out the segments by clicking on the below links.

http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/8448614-thrifty-thursdays-baby-baske/

http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/7463936-cheap-baby-finds-from-thrift-town/

http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/Expecting-a-Bundle-Doesnt-Have-to-Cost-a-Bundle/VE3zA4DtCkOwQ-RoyGSM1A.cspx

Lily Sue made her entrance with great fanfare, on March 14, 2013. She’s pretty perfect, and pink is definitely her color! Something tells me she’ll never lack for tulle, sparkles, or pink inspired clothing for as long as Auntie Gina is around.

Gina Doglione-Nielsen is featured every week on Good Day Sacramento’s Thrifty Thursdays, and owns GNJ Consulting which handles Public, Social, and Media Relations for Thrift Town Stores. Gina lives in Northern California with her amazing husband Josh, and is constantly on the go with three “very active” and “strong personality” bambinos; aka Team Nielsen, and loves every
minute of it.

Disclaimer, Pinterest frightens me. I have the typical supermom complex that makes me want to bedazzle, scrapbook, and craft my way through my children’s early years. Pinterest has definitely provided me a reality check and humbled me with its never ending photos of DIY projects that can bring Martha Stewart to her knees. However, I saw three frame projects that I felt I could take on and do justice. The first was to put a frame around my family’s wall monogram. I needed something very large in order to fill the space and fit the lettering. I scored this at Thrift Town for $49.99. It has enough character in it to make it shabby chic and fit my home’s vibe perfectly. Retail it would have cost me well over $200, especially considering it’s made of real wood and has beautiful carved embellishments. PS: this pic was taken during Valentine’s Day, thus the sparkly heart at the bottom. One of many the Valentine Bandit left all over our house.

The second project I need framed was a gift I wanted to give to my husband for Father’s Day; each of our children’s hand prints length-wise in “baby order” as my kids refer to themselves from oldest to youngest. I needed something long and masculine looking (LOL, ok, that sounded like something out of a romance novel, sorry!), and again, Thrift Town had a solution for $2.99! I went to the dollar store for some thick black poster board, cut it to fit the frame and had the bambinos dip their hands in paint. I wrote the year at the bottom in white crayon.

I actually liked this one so much I featured it on my Father’s Day Gift segment on Good Day Sacramento. Check out the link here:  http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/7390000-gifts-for-dad-from-thrift-town/

The third project is my all-time favorite and most versatile frame. I have actually used it three different ways since I purchased it originally. I have turned it into a chalkboard by painting the glass that came with it with chalkboard paint, and placed it on the back of a dresser-turned-kitchen-island project I did for Good Day Sacramento. Below is the photo. Here is the link to the live segment: http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/7936304-thrifty-thursday-kitchen-island-part-2/

I have used it as a kid’s coffee table, and it looked fabulous! I simply glued the top down to an existing, and formerly hideous coffee table. Here’s the link to that segment on Good Day Sac too: http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/8162438-thrifty-thursday/

And alas, I used it as a Christmas Card pin board where I removed the glass completely, and replaced it with chicken wire, which I used my beautifully blinged out heavy duty staple gun to attach the chicken wire to the back of the frame. Here’s a link to that segment on Good Day Sac: http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/8013412-thrifty-thursday-diy-holiday-decor-part-2/

Not too bad considering it cost me $5.99!

Mom to mom, moral of the story; hit up thrift stores before hitting up big box retailers for your frame needs be it for a Pinterest project or to show off the bambinos, and go get yourself a mani-pedi with the money you save.

Gina Doglione-Nielsen is featured every week on Good Day Sacramento’s Thrifty Thursdays, and owns GNJ Consulting which handles Public, Social, and Media Relations for Thrift Town Stores. Gina lives in Northern California with her amazing husband Josh, and is constantly on the go with three “very active” and “strong personality” bambinos; aka Team Nielsen, and loves every minute of it.