Vintage + Studs

Summer is right around the corner! Here in LA it's already 95 degrees during the day, so it already feels like summer. And summer weather means it's shorts season! As I've talked about in my last post I've found most of my wardrobe at thrift stores. As usual I can never bring myself to pay full price for something I could find cheaper or could make myself. Below are a pair of Levi cut offs I made myself and you could too!

What You'll Need:
Patience
A pair of mom jeans
Fabric scissors
Studs
Pliers
Washing machine + dryer

The How To:
1. Shop the racks of mom jeans at a thrift store, find your size and try them on and make sure that they fit your waist and bum.

2. When you go home put the pants on and mark with a pencil a little longer than where you want the length to hit on your leg. (Will explain in #5)

3. Cut the pants using fabric scissors along the lines you've marked. 

4. If you choose to stud the pocket you can purchase a bag of studs online for under $10! Putting the studs in is really easy and you can place them in any design you want, be creative! You will also need pliers to lock the backs of the studs. Buy studs here!

5. Wash your shorts and tumble dry! This will fray the bottoms and because of the fray it will shorten the length of the shorts. 

6. Rock your shorts and pair them with a vintage tee and jean jacket!

xx

All articles of clothing are vintage and were found thrifting // Perfume is from Urban Outfitters Pistachio Bruleé and it smells amazing!

You can also add fun pins to a jean jacket for extra flare

The Hunter

I follow a lot of fashion bloggers on Instagram and I love all the cool clothes they have! But what I don't love is that literally everything they wear costs way more than I'm willing to spend. I will only drop a pretty penny if I haven't found what I'm looking for in a thrift store or it's a staple piece. I guess it is cool you can replicate the exact outfit these bloggers are wearing (if you're into that sort of thing) but you can almost always find things in thrift stores similar to what you would find brand new. Sometimes what you come across is even cooler because it is vintage and no one else will have it! Almost everything in my closet is from thrifting and I get bazillion of compliments all the time, it takes lot's of practice and patients to hunt in thrift stores…and lots of allergy medicine if you're allergic to dust bunnies like me, but it's worth it when you find little gems and you spend less than $20.

Be inspired and have fun thrifting my friends! 

xx

Photography // Sarah Grunder Photography
Hat// Forever 21 but I got the western silver band with turquoise I got off another hat I found thrifting
Virgo Necklace// Urban Outfitters
Shirt// H&M
Pants// Acne Studios…that I also found thrifting
Booties// Thrifting…duh! And they were brand new!

Abiding In Christ

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what makes me feel most alive. Sometimes we go days maybe weeks, feeling like life has just turned into this blur. Everything has blended together and it's hard to remember what you even ate for breakfast. I find myself feeling so drained in times like these and I look at the situation and think, "What is it that is making me feel like a zombie?". Yah maybe I wasn't eating the best, sleeping enough or working out because life has been so busy but I know it's more than that, because my spirit feels faint. I've realized that I am so tired because I'm trying to function off my own strength.

There are times we get so busy that we may feel we don't have time to spend with God or we don't give Him enough time and we just try spending time with Him while we are in the midst of doing something else, and we aren't fully focused on Him. Now I think that we should think about God in the busy times of our day and He is always there; but the Bible talks about abiding in Christ, "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." -John 15:5

When we are in a relationship with someone that means we need to spend time with them and talk to them and listen. We need to do the same with God. When we are in relationship with Him, he speaks to us, he renews our hearts and minds to be aligned with His. When we are aligned with God we naturally will start to look more like Him, radiating love, peace, joy, light, hope…all the things God is will reflect in our lives when we set aside time just with Him. In Romans Chapter 8 it says, "Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires."

When we abide in Him we feel his heartbeat, we will love what God loves, we will be angered by what angers God, we will weep over what breaks His heart. It's a beautiful thing, it is life altering and it's life giving, not only to yourself but it then pours out to the others around you.

When going on through life function on your own strength it's only a matter of time when you just can't keep doing it anymore. Washing yourself with the word of God and spending time with Him not only refreshes you but it leads to you functioning off of His strength and power and we can live life actually feeling alive in our spirit no matter the situation!

Happy Friday everyone!

-Grace xo

(This was a post I wrote for Beauty Arise, for more encouragement + stories visit beautyarise.org)

Photography by Sarah Grunder