Via Sweet Home Style.

With the arrival of the warmer months, often comes an uncontrollable urge for change, especially in surroundings.  Unfortunately, when one is on such a tight budget, this kind of change seems near-impossible.  

But…there is some hope.  As a super-poor design nerd, I’ve racked my brain for cheap & stylish interior design tips these past few years, and have come up with some pretty good ideas!

Firstly, learn to sew.  Even simple machine sewing skills help you enter a new realm of decorating possibilities.  Make curtains, slipcovers, duvet covers, pillows, cushions…the list is endless.  Check thrift stores & clearance sections of fabric stores for cheap cute fabric, and don’t forget to check the remnants pile.  Ikea has a huge selection of reasonably priced fabric for the home, too.  My new favorite fabric store even has some $5/yard fabric!

If you’re able to do so, paint your walls!  Search high and low for store and manufacturer’s coupons and it should be relatively affordable.  If your landlord has sentenced you to a lease of white walls, never fear.  They can look quite chic & minimalist, but if that’s not your style, make yourself some simple wall art, even if you can’t draw.  Find some bold print fabric and embroidery/cross stitch hoops.  Simply put the fabric in the hoop, cut away the excess (leaving a few inches) and then glue down the rest.  This works best if you use multiple different-sized hoops, all with different fabric.  So adorable, and they’re very light so they can be held up with only a tack!  You can also use regular wall frames if the cutesy factor is too much.

Search thrift & antique stores.  Dishes, kitschy art, cookware, furniture…you can find anything you’ll need if you search long & hard enough.  You can repaint or reupholster any furniture you find that needs a little bit of work.  Craiglist is always useful, and for every 40 people trying to sell overpriced IKEA crap, there’s one person with a cute vintage loveseat for a reasonable price.  Of course, IKEA can be a haven for kitchen supplies and storage.  It’s incredibly easy to modify and customize to your liking, too!

Of course, you need to have some sort of theme or inspiration before you start doing all of this.  My favorite blogs which often feature stylish living are:

The Dainty Squid — I love this girl, she’s the cutest tattooed and crafty cat lady ever!

Workspaces

Home Sweet Home

The Architecture Blog

Fix My Room

Even the simple rearranging of a room can make a huge difference.  Move your bed to a different place; practice some light feng shui.

Changing up your place can change your mood.  Try it!

Okay, so, I have a confession to make.  I really like painting my nails.  It’s quite possibly the cheapest & easiest way to add a nice splash of color and style to both your wardrobe and life.

People seem to have trouble with nail polish, though.  It chips too fast, their nails are short/dry/damaged from nail biting, their cuticles are beyond repair.  With the right combination of products, all of these are easily fixed, and you’ll able to do an at-home manicure that’s cheaper, more fun, and safer than one at a salon.

Where to buy:

• Drugstore nail polish is pretty much the same as higher-end brands, and tend to be easily accessible and on sale.  You can find salon brands for about the same price, sometimes less, if you know where to look. Transdesign, Victoria Nail Supply, and Head 2 Toe are the most popular “e-tailers”, selling heavily discounted nail supplies.  Shipping costs tend to be expensive at these places, so they’re not always the best option for a quick polish fix.  Sally Beauty Supply is a good place for buying nail supplies; their FingerPaints line has interesting colors for a decent price.

What to buy:

• Topcoat & basecoat will make or break your manicure.  Quick dry topcoats are the most popular and are pretty much essential.  Seche Vite (found at Sally Beauty Supply and any of the e-tailers), Poshé (also found at Sally Beauty Supply, e-tailers, and drugstores), and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri (found at any drugstore) are the most well-known.  There are many others on the market, but these are, in my experience, the best.  Of course, everyone’s body chemistry is different, so what works perfectly for me, might be chippy and never dry for you.

• Basecoats are much trickier to buy than topcoats; it all depends on the condition of your nails.  Salon Sciences Instant Artificials and Gelous (both found at Sally Beauty Supply) tend to be all-around good basic basecoats.  Once again, it’s all about trial & error.  Barielle also makes fantastic basecoats and nail treatments that can be found for around $4 at Marshalls and TJ Maxx.  Basecoat is extremely important, unless you want to end up with stained nails for 6+ months!

• Nail color…so many options.  My personal favorites are China Glaze, OPI, Sally Hansen, Nfu-Oh, Orly, Color Club, Zoya…the list goes on.  Find finishes you like (a wonderful list is available here), brushes that work for you, and brands that come out with colors you love.  Nailgal is an awesome resource for figuring out what the polish actually looks like on the nail.

• Nail polish remover is a frightening thing.  It all works about the same and you can buy it anywhere.  I’d suggest picking up something with both acetone (removes the polish) and glycerin (moisturizes fingers & nails).
• For cuticles, a regime of CND Solar Oil and CND Cuticle Eraser should get those cutes into shape!  Cuticle Eraser should be rubbed into cuticles before a mani, and then with an orangewood stick (found at beauty supply stores) gently push down the cuticles.  Use this every day, even if you don’t do your nails.  Solar Oil, or any cuticle oil, should be applied once your manicure is dry.  Sally Hansen makes a good cuticle remover, but I’ve never used it so I cannot comment on how well it works.  Just make sure to wash it off after using it!
• A glass nail file is essential!  Throw out your metal and foam files; the $10 or so you spend on a glass nail file will last you a long time.  Glass files are said to last forever with only slight dulling, as long as you don’t break them (which, for klutzes like myself, is easier said than done).  You can find these at drugstores, beauty supply stores, and the lovely e-tailers.
• Nail color. Obviously.  If you’re just starting out, any drugstore’s polish selection should be more than enough.  With the popularity of nail laquer on the rise, companies are getting more adventurous with their collections, so finding colors you like is incredibly easy!

Phew! That’s a lot of text.  Part II is coming up soon.

In my 2+ years of unemployment, I’ve learned quite a bit about keeping myself entertained and (relatively) sane on a nearly non-existent budget.  I’ve got a bit of an impulsive buying problem and consumerism has taught me far too well that spending money will make me happy, so this dry spell of joblessness has been tough on me.

My strategies for a somewhat happy unemployment:

• Get a Netflix account!  The unlimited one-DVD-at-a-time selection is nine dollars a month, but their Watch Instantly selection is awesome.  If you have an Xbox 360, Wii, or Playstation 3, you can use it to watch their streaming videos on your television!  Otherwise, it works just fine on your computer.  Of course, the regular DVD queue is awesome, but I really do find myself using Watch Instantly more than the DVDs.
• Dig out your old video game consoles.  If they still work, you have hours of nostalgia and fun at your fingertips.
• Get a bike! If you’ve got bike-nerd friends, you can skimp and get a cute vintage bike that needs a little bit of work — they’ll do the labor for a case of beer & tell you the cheapest places to get components for it.  Bikes are also a great way to get some exercise while outside.  They’re extremely low-impact and they work out your entire body!
• Take advantage of the generosity of your friends (and let them take advantage of yours!).  If you’ve always wanted to learn how to sew, and you’ve got a stitch-master for a BFF, don’t be afraid to ask her to teach you.
• Learn how to make epic allergen-free food.  Vegan stroganoff & cupcakes, gluten-free scones…there are endless options!  Homemade meals without animal products are usually cheaper and healthier than their meat & dairy counterparts.  Not to mention, it’s pretty damn satisfying to make an ethical meal.
• Explore unvisited local parks.  Use Google Maps to find them, and don’t forget to take photos!

                                                  The Garfield Nature Trail in Oly is beautiful!

• Get off the internet.  Ironic, really, but it’s true.  I don’t know how many times I’ve decided I “need” to go out to eat because I saw some delicious food I couldn’t make myself.  Internet shopping is also a cruel temptress; who doesn’t love getting something in the mail? Now that it’s almost summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, get out & ride your bike, check out some garage sales or free boxes, and step away from the laptop.
• Thrift your little heart out.  See my guide to thrifting.  It’s much more satisfying than buying anything at a big box store, and if you’re going to the right places, you’ll be supporting local food banks!
• If you’re lucky enough to live close to the sea, make day trips to the ocean!  If you’re an evolutionary science nerd like I am, this is even more fun.  Pack a picnic and a few cameras, and check out some of the local tourist traps, you might find something awesome.  My favorite nearby beach town has a toy store with a secret & epic stash of vintage Nintendo games!
• When you start getting down about your lack of cash flow, just remember all the ways it could be worse.

There are tons of opportunities that are easy to overlook when you’re in a jobless depression.  Get out and make yourself happy!  Think of this as a time to explore yourself and the world around you.

Photo via Flickr.

When you’ve got little money to spend, there’s no where better to spend it than a thrift store.  I live for these places! There are few things more satisfying than a truly epic thrift find.  My personal recent thrift scores:

• A Pikachu Nintendo 64 with working controller for $20.  Later in the same day, i found the exact same console in a used game store for $76!
• A seemingly-crappy Yashica point & shoot for $6.  This was actually a find of Collin, my boyfriend.  We looked it up on ebay & this thing’s worth over $100! Not to mention, it’s actually a pretty nifty camera.

However, it can be both very time-consuming and hit-or-miss.  My personal advice for scouring for second-hand treasures:

• Keep coming back.  So the newly-discovered thrift store turned out to be full of hideous (and not even in a kitschy way) ceramic figurines and christmas sweaters.  Wait at least a couple of weeks and revisit it!  
• Get out of the city.  Chances are, if you have a particularly high “hip” population in your town, everything will be picked over.  Take a day-trip to rural towns nearby and hit up thrift stores or garage sales there.  They’ll usually have tons of cool stuff, and chances are, they’ll be cheaper!
• Look beyond the clothing.  As a newbie thrifter, I spent way too much time looking through racks of clothing, only to find nothing.  The electronics (plug ‘em in to make sure they work!) and household sections often hold much more exciting treasures than the clothes section. 
• Question yourself.  Will this actually fit?  Will I ever use/wear this?  Do I even need this?  Just because it’s cheap, doesn’t mean it’s worth buying. It’s entirely possible to overspend while thrifting.  But don’t blame me if it becomes “the one that got away”.
• Don’t forget about antique stores!  Sometimes they can be hideously overpriced, but they can also serve as “thriftspiration”.  That gorgeous $60 set of vintage turquoise Pyrex casserole dishes could be found at a thrift store for 1/10th of the price!  Often, booths at antique markets will be closing & everything will be 20 - 50 percent off.  I purchased a beautiful vintage tooled leather bag for only $12 at an antique market in my hometown.
• Two words: Goodwill Outlets.  So, I’ve never been to these mythical “bins”, but I’ve heard a lot about them.  An adventure in human waste & used items for less than $1.50 per pound.  Not for the weak of heart, but it sounds like the best way to spend a Saturday.  Google it and find a location near you.
• Get crafty.  Keep an eye out for: wallpaper, cool record covers, furniture with unfortunate colors, vintage bedsheets (watch out for stains!) and fabric… Anything that could become a treasure with a little bit of work.  Learn to reupholster!  Become an X-acto Knife master!  The world of thrifting gets much bigger with a little bit of work.
• Learn to sew.  Even the most basic of sewing skills can make a world of difference in what you purchase.  New buttons, shortening dresses & skirts (a must for my 29” inseam), and tailoring are extremely easy to do.  
• Haggle!  These items were donated, so chances are, none of the prices are set in stone.  High Plains Thrifter has an awesome guide on haggling.

Now, get thee to the nearest St. Vincent De Paul!

Oh, and one last word of advice: never be afraid to get dirty, but please wash your hands when you’re done for the day; thrift hands are the worst!

Hello, everyone in internetland!  Welcome to my lovely little blog, The Cosmic Ocean.  My name’s Rikki & my mission on this tumblr is to provide amusing insights and advice to those of us whose minds are full of potential and ideas, but whose wallets and bank accounts are empty.  I know all too well about the struggles of middle-class young people in the craptastic economy.  It’s borderline impossible to find a semi-decent entry level job these days.

This blog is actually meant to be a class project for my Intro to Online Journalism class, but if I like bloggin’ and can keep thinking of decent ideas for posts, I’d like to keep it going.

If you’d like to know more, check out my about me page!

So, why the seemingly irrelevant/unrelated “The Cosmic Ocean”?  Well, the mighty Carl Sagan (one of my personal heroes) created an awe-inspiring show in 1980 entitled Cosmos, the first episode of which is entitled “The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean”.  The 10-part series is, in a word, epic.  It’s both accessible and articulate, and helps put the human race and earth into perspective in terms that non-scientists can comprehend.  It’s available to watch on both Hulu and Netflix Watch Instantly.  It changed the way I think about many things; I’ve become more patient and less judgmental.

Photo via Hubble.