thrifted thursday / tutorial tuesday: hoop hoop de doop

One of my favorite things about having my own blog and my own platform for talking about my life and such is that that I can literally say whatever I want. I can blab on and on about nail polish or my feeeeeelings or pretty fabric or stuffing food in my face and it's totally fine for me to be a self-obsessed monster. Am I right? Like, it's fine. It's expected.

My blog is only a little bit topical (and only on certain days), and the rest of the time I can just vent my thoughts and ideas and the inner-workings of my addled brain. And as you all know, I have a lot of shit swirling around up in there. A LOT.

Today is one of those days of the week where I'm supposed to focus on something specific - in this particular case, it's my thrifting habit. The random thing I want to talk about today could also technically fall under the "tutorial tuesday" category, though, so I skipped that one this week and am combining the two. BECAUSE I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT. You're not the boss of me!

It is no secret that I love shopping in the linen section of thrift stores and finding funky bedding from days of yore. All of the stuff I make and sell on etsy is produced from these fabrics, my home is decorated in them, my office/sewing room is taken completely over by them; they're a major part of my life. Another item I usually look for when thrifting - embroidery hoops. If I'm going to have eighty gajillion different fabrics around the house, I may as well stick them in hoops and throw them up in arrangements on my walls. It just makes sense.

And it's so painfully easy.

I will never claim that it is art (except the patchwork ones I've sewn, because I'm a creative genius, you know), but home decor is allowed to be a bit cliched from time to time. It shouldn't always be about what's popular or on trend (or AVOIDING that) or in the pages of Dwell or ReadyMade or whatever. Sometimes it should just be about what you like. Personally, I like fabric. I also like shit from Ikea and my flokati rug and funky houseplants and not in some ironic way. Irony gets exhausting.

Just do what you like. I like putting old fabric in embroidery hoops.

If you think you'd like putting old fabric in embroidery hoops, get thee to your local thrift shop and look for some supplies and follow these 10 steps (which really didn't need to be numbered and could have just been a paragraph, but whatever).

1. Make sure that any hoops you buy have both rings intact and that the screw used to tighten them actually works. 
2. Now find some funky floral pillow cases or something.
3. Take them home and lay the fabric down on the counter and lay the hoop on top of it. Cut out the fabric around the hoop, leaving an edge of 3 inches or so.
4. Loosen the screw on the hoop and lay the outer hoop on the counter. Lay the fabric on it, pretty side facing down. Shove the inner hoop onto the fabric and flip the whole thing over.
5. Tighten the screw back up and start tugging the fabric tight in the hoop.
6. Once it feels completely stretched out, tighten the screw as far as it can possibly go.
7. Cut excess fabric off the edges.
8. Put a thumb-tack in the wall.
9. Hang the hoop up.
10. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 Alright then.