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Divine Consign Haul

Monday, August 30, 2010

Hopefully a haul video will soon accompany this post, but until then, I wanted to share with you and brag about a little ol' consignment sale called Divine Consign. This past March, I mentioned it and even had the video from that experience. Anyway, like I mentioned, shortly after attending that sale, I started a box where I began to put things into it that Mari had outgrown and I knew that we weren't going to use again for whatever reason. In it also went several toys that were brand spankin' new that she had already outgrown and deserved to be played with by another kid. She even caught sight of the box and the only thing she lamented from it were her Adidas sneakers. We made the last minute call to keep them since she seemed unnaturally attached to them. That's ok, because I love them too. I put 14 items to sell (far below the average of other sellers which I knew several of them were in the 100s of items listed) and 8 items have sold in the first day and a half of sales. I'm not thinking the remaining 6 will sell at full price, so ho-hum, even if they sell at half price, I will be happy about it.

So on with the goods. First off, here's some background information. As a consignor, I was invited to shop early on Saturday, when the normal sale doesn't open to the public until Sunday. I could go anytime after 5PM and take a friend, but no kids. My sis and her family came over that day to hang out with us and when she found out what I was doing, she asked if she would mind picking up some clothes for her daughter, Z, since she really didn't get to take her school clothes shopping. She asked me to get as much as I could for $50. Also, my other friend's son is getting close to the mobile stage and instead of limiting his movement to a play activity center, she wanted a walker for him. Specifically, she wanted the Chicco DJ Walker for around $20, if they had it. On my list, I needed to get some pants for Mari and maybe some tops. The top thing I wanted were a new raincoat and a pair of rainboots.  I know she's getting dangerously close to outgrowing her current pair and let me tell you, that child would wear rainboots everyday if I let her. I had some anxiety about the walker situation because I hadn't seen any thing like what she had talked about at drop off. Also, I was afraid that IF there was one, I would have just barely missed it. Just like last time, my BFF rolled to my house and off we were to the sale!
TIP: Take along a couple of those ginormous IKEA bags to help with shopping. Most of the shoppers there take a stroller or one of those rolling carts you see at the Farmer's Market. As a shopper, I detest those carts because they take up entirely too much room in the overcrowded aisles. Use the bag! They have bags for you there and you can buy them for $1 (and you will want to buy it, especially if you don't want to have to haul 15 plastic sacks filled with clothes and hangers. 
We arrived, checked in easily, rounded the corner and the first room had all sorts of tummy time play activity sets and bouncers. I sunk lower thinking I wouldn't find the walkers, when Lindz pointed in the general direction of the walkers. I scurried over there and what do you know, they have the walker!!! I firmly planted myself next to it, until I found someone who could give me the tag to mark it as mine. It was priced at $30, but I went ahead to reserve it until my friend called me back to confirm. I took a photo and sent it on. Within minutes, she called me back ecstatic and couldn't believe that we'd found the EXACT one. I was elated.

Next, we headed on out to the courtyard to investigate the umbrella strollers. I'd told Lindsey that I had seen our umbrella stroller (ours is the same brand, just different colors) for $14. Alas, it had long since been gone. The ones that remained didn't seem they would be as functional for what she was looking for, so we passed and went on. Next up, we hit up the costumes. There were some cute ones there, but nothing stuck out at me.

Then we went to the health & safety, plus bags & towels room. While browsing through the other stuff, I happened upon many designer diaper bags that I was blown away by their sticker price. Then, she pointed out one that made me stop in awe. Ok, I don't need another diaper bag. As it is, I have 3 and Don has 1 and who knows when the next little one will come around. But this bag is timeless and classic and ever so versatile that it doesn't HAVE to be used as a diaper bag. It's a red M Street Victora Kate Spade bag with black handles and a black leather bottom with those grippers at the base that don't actually force the bag to sit on the surface where you place it. It has a removable diaper changing pad, so ample pockets for all things galore! There were so many pockets and enough space that it instantly made me think of the Kangaroo Keeper (by the way, I officially am adding this to my Christmas list, in black, please!) I scooped it up and was happy at the thought (because yes folks, it's original price is $250!!) and the resale price is $20.

Finally, we hit up the big room. This is the massive room with all of the clothes, shoes, and smaller toys. I went off to the girls size 12 to see what I could score, followed by a visit to the shoes, and ending up in the 3T/4T section for Mari. Lindz set off to the boys section and followed by shoes. We would meet up by the rockers to show off our findings, vetoing anything that we didn't agree with for the other. We met up about an hour later, where I told her tales of crazy pregnant women gut checking me, nailing me in the arms with their elbows, several bumps to the knees with buggy's and one insane lady who not only shoved 30 items across the rack, which ran over my hand with all those metal hangers, but also shoved her skinny pregnant booty into my rib. I did my best to politely say, "excuse me" when she looked over her shoulder, rolled her eyes, and continued to talk to her mom about how beautiful her darling daughter would look in this hideous green velvet Christmas monstrosity. I did my best to stay clear from her, but there she was again trying to shove her crazy self past everyone. Luckily, a very firm volunteer put her in her place and I quietly gloated at the look her on her face.

For the $50 for my niece Z:
  • Justice tunic (brand new)
  • Limited Too dress
  • The Children's Place skirt
  • Abercrombie Jeans
  • Abercrombie tan capris
  • Abercrombie khaki long shorts
  • The Children's Place shirt
For less than $100 for Mari:
  • The Children's Place purple all weather boots
  • Stride Rite brown suede mocs
  • 9 pairs of leggings from TCP, Gap, Cherokee, Gymboree, etc
  • 5 pairs of pants from TCP, Gymboree, and unknown
  • 5 shirts all from TCP & Gymboree
  • 2 skirts from TCP and Gymboree (my two favorite purchases!)
  • 2 sweaters
  • 1 pair of knee shorts from TCP (waaay cute)
  • 1 purple raincoat
Talk about a serious haul right there. Mari was overjoyed with all of her new clothes, exclaiming "WOW" and "Super Cute!" each time I showed her something new. Her cousin Z loved all of her new clothes too! Needless to say, I'm already pouring through her old stuff to sell in the Spring Consignment sale and I think I might have persuaded my sister to do the same since she normally gives away boxes and boxes of the stuff. Very excited!

Oh, and of the bag, my BFF stole it out of my hands at check-out and bought it for me. She gave me a wink and told me it was for "wishful thinking" and hope for "someday." (talk about choking me up at the thought, especially since it was this time last year that I was coping..) Heck, I told her I was gonna use it regardless of another child because that bag seriously rocks! Shopping with best friends, it's just awesome!

By the way, she scored a near brand new pair of Converse sneakers for her son, a pair of Stride Rite house slippers, and some amazing Stride Rite shoes, all for less than half of what she would have paid for one pair of Stride Rite sneakers. Insanity! If you are local go check it out at the Plano Center.

Elmer's Bag it Forward

Taking a break from conventional randomness to blog about a great cause. Many important and special people in my life are teachers. All of them dip into their own funds to help out their kiddos. Teachers remain to be a continued advocate for children who have no choice or voice when it comes to funds allocated for school supplies. Like them or not, Walmart has some amazing deals for school supplies*. At church, we had an intense, yet amazing discussion about social injustice. I don't like openly discussing such things just because it gets me all riled up and ready to do battle to conquer the world for those less fortunate.Regardless, doing a little bit of blogging can go a long way. So help out kids (and teachers) by raising awareness for this cause. Oh, and if you are a parent of a kid in school and you want to make nice with the teacher, a Starbucks gift card is nice, but even better is a gift card to Target or Walmart where they can maybe recoup some of the hundreds of dollars they have shelled out of their own money to prepare for the year.

ELMER’S VIRTUAL BAG IT FORWARD RULES

  • Copy and paste these rules into your blog post or Facebook note.
  • Create a post giving a “virtual bag of school supplies” to other bloggers or write about your Back to School shopping trip at Walmart.
  • Link back to the person who gave you a bag of school supplies.
  • Let each person you are giving a virtual bag of school supplies know you have given them a bag.
  • Leave your link in the Elmer’s Virtual Bag It Forward comment section. You can also find the official rules of this virtual #bagitforward program there.
  • Elmer’s is donating $10 for each blog participating in the Virtual Bag It Forward Donation to Adopt-A-Classroom (up to total of $10,000 for blog posts written by August 12, 2010).
  • Please note that only one blog post per blog url will count towards the donation.
*Elmer's, nor Walmart paid me anything to write this post. I'm just writing it to help out and donate for a very, very good cause.

Frock by Friday: Day 1

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Well, the downloading of the pattern was easy. Heck, printing it off was pretty simple too! I started cutting away and was quickly reminded of kindergarten and cutting on straight lines. The entire time, I thought to myself, why am I not using my industrial cutting board or even my paper trimmer? 30 pages later, I was finished cutting. I'd managed to tape the first row rather easily, but it was the 4 other rows that gave me fits. Plus, all of that taping reminded me of the time that I broke the vase and attempted to put it all back together with scotch tape. Yes, there was a time that I truly believed that tape could fix anything, just as long as you had enough of it! ;)

Lucky for me, Don came in to save the day. Actually, he was in the middle of folding 100 newsletters and stuffing them in envelopes for the HOA. I begged him to trade me tasks. While he didn't want to really, I think he saw the despair in my eyes and handed over the folding and stuffing. My mind immediately took me over to those "Work from Home" ads where you just stuff mailers. Shortly thereafter, I dispelled that idea when my hand began to cramp around letter 53. No thanks! Just as I finished with 100, he was putting on the final piece of tape. Unfortunately, we didn't have any packing tape, otherwise, I would've used Jacki's idea. Definitely going to get some next time I'm out and about, especially since I have another pattern that I want to make that I downloaded from Burdastyle as well. (Totally excited about that one too, because the pattern was FREE and the gorgeous navy blue linen fabric cost me a whole $1.10 for 1 1/4 yards!) All in all, it took about three hours from start to finish with about a 20 minute break to play on the Internets and stretch out my hands.

This past weekend, we took the Subarbean to a nearby park to have her portrait taken. But Bianca, aren't y'all photographers? Why yes, but we wanted some images from another perspective, an outsider's view of our little one. We were very lucky that she captured her spirit beautifully! Also, she snapped a few of us as a family and the proofs were amazing! I'm unable to post those for another couple of weeks, so you're just gonna have to enjoy these as a teaser!


Now that you've had some cuteness, here's a hefty dose of mommyhood:
I'm back on the insomniac train, so last night when I finally caught my window of sleep at 1:30AM, I stopped by her room to check on her. This is my ritual. Always on the way to bed, I stop by to tuck her in, kiss her goodnight and turn off her night light. This time, when I lifted her blankie to cover her, it was saturated. Then I remembered the three glasses of water she'd inhaled just before bedtime. Of course! She's had a couple of these bed wetting accidents, all of which were preceded by mass amounts liquid intake prior to bedtime. So there we were, Don and I, tag-teaming it. I undressed her and wiped her down with a wet wipe and redressed her. Don took the blankets and sheets to the washer. Instead of remaking the bed, I opted to bring her back to ours to take advantage of some snuggle time. Plus, if I exerted the energy to make the bed, I knew I'd be wired for another hour or so and as it was, I needed rest. I gently placed her next to my pillow and she curled in. I came in behind her, whispering, I love you, cuddlebug, simultaneously tucking her in with my quilt. She nuzzled in the pillow and in her little voice, said, "thank you mommy. coddle, coddle" and let out a sleepy giggle. Seconds later she was fast asleep. Ever since she returned from her vacation, she's been calling me Mommy instead of Mama. I glanced over at the clock, 2AM. I'd have to be up in less than 5 hours, but holding my little one, it didn't matter. To trade sleep for moments like these, well, it's an easy no-brainer trade.

Black Forest Sundae

Monday, August 2, 2010


I had such a craving for some cake that I thought I was going crazy. No really, it was so bad that I knew I was going to get a tiny bump on my tongue if I didn't satisfy the need. I casually went to our pantry and kitchen a few times thinking, hmmm...what could I make work? Because honestly, my waistline does NOT NEED cake. Those of you who read this know that it's hot here. No, it's like the outskirts-of-hell-don't-touch-me-because-I'll-burn-up-as-fast-as-Godric-at-dawn-on-TrueBlood hot. I haven't gone running. I actually launched my cardio trainer when we parked .06 miles from Primo's place just so I could make myself feel better about the gluttony over the weekend.

Anyway, there I sat sulking and planning. Calculating the remaining time I had before having to put Mari down for bed and watching the next episode of Mad Men. The sugarbean had been running around all afternoon changing into various dress up frocks, finally settling on her pink Glinda-inspired costume. It's hard work being a princess, I tell ya. We all set off towards the mecca that is Braum's. It was packed, and I wasn't surprised at all. Even though it was 8:45 at night, the sun was barely settling and it was still a hot, 101 outside. Or at least that's what our car's temp stated. Eeesh! I ordered the Black Forest Sundae and felt entirely guilty when no one else ordered anything. Immediately, I tore into it and devoured half of it before getting home, only sharing one spoonful with Don. I put it down to snap a photo and help with putting Mari down to sleep. We brushed teeth, put on her jammies and fought sleep for the next hour and a half. Ugh!

I was a pig and didn't share any of the rest of it with anyone. :0(  But Don's the best and told me that he was trying to be better about what he ate. I still felt guilty about putting that in my body, but not so bad for not sharing. What is your indulgence?
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