It has begun.

When Abby was about 3 she loved all things frilly and poofy. Ruffles? check. Sparkles? check. Plastic jewels? check. Ready for the day.


At the same time, my most-fun sister was living half a continent away. Boo! We still kept in touch, but it wasn't the same as having her right here. One of the ways that she kept in contact was by finding fun stuff on ebay that she thought we needed. Raincoats, clothing, flying batman monkeys...you know--the necessities!



(Really. Two of them. My first response was, "Holy Flying Monkeys, Batman!" They're actually pretty fun, and when another sister found out that Lara had bought them for only the younger cousins, she was kinda jealous.)


So when Auntie Ebay found out that Abby loved frills and ruffles, she set to work and found something wonderful. (I've looked all over & can't find a picture of her in it, or one of a friend's daughter lying in a toddler bed wearing it, while Alex, dressed in Superman jammies, was leaning over to give her a Sleeping Beauty kiss. So priceless, and so elusive.)


Anyhow--Abby was thrilled to open the package that came in the mail. Before it was even all the way out of the padded envelope, she happy exclaimed, "A ballet!!!" Alas, it stank of cigarette smoke, so it hung on the back porch for about a week. (The previously mentioned friend's mom thought it was a mid-pregnancy announcement that Lee was a girl.)


Abby loved her 'ballet', and it was a great dress-up dress until she grew out of it.


And now--

--it fits. Enough.

Cora has started being picky about what she wears, but it's no surprise that she loves this dress. It doesn't match her jeweled sandals (I kind of have shoe envy over these), but who cares? When she's dressed like a princess and elicits admiring smiles wherever she goes, batting her beautiful dark lashes at smiling strangers, all I've got to say is, "Bring on the floof!"

The Thrill of the Kill

I need to take a triumphant moment to celebrate and brag.

Last Christmas I was given two gifts that didn't quite work. One was a purse from my wonderful husband that was cool, but I couldn't imagine myself actually using. The other was a fun fleece jammie set from his mother in a Junior's size small...which I was, but am no longer. Boo x2.

So today I set about to exchange.

Stop 1--Kohl's to get bigger sized jammies. Alas, it was a seasonal gift set & there were none. So instead I hit the clearance racks because paying full price seems like a waste to me. I found a few things I liked, tried on plenty that didn't work, and came out with this:

Funky patterned shirt that does a fair job of being stylish and as flattering it can get with what it's got to work with (4 pregnancies and lots of Christmas goodies). Regular price $36.00--I paid $7.20. The bracelet was a cool find that goes really well with the shirt. Reg $18.00-->$3.60.

I always adore cool jewelry, clothes and shoes on other people kristenandaubrey, but don't even imagine wearing the same sort of stuff myself. I'm just a jeans & t-shirt sort of a girl. But I've decided that it's time to start stepping out of the Frumpy Zone.

This will help, I think. $18.00-->$3.60.

This one's the best. Not because it'll be my favorite to wear or get the most compliments, but for sheer value. Up close they look like shimmery little lip glosses or eyeshadows. $16.00-->$1.60. Oh yes, you read that right 90% OFF!!!!!

And the super crazy part is that the returned jammies in all their warm coziness came to the EXACT SAME AMOUNT as the shirt, necklace and bracelets. I could not have planned that any better! The Type A voice in my head is still giggling about that.

(Please excuse the lack of spaces between paragraphs here. I've got about a dozen in the html, but they don't show up. Pooh.)

I took my awesomeness right past the Lotto stand (where maybe I should have stopped) to Dress Barn to exchange the purse. I'd never been in there before, but have always wondered why on earth any woman would want to shop for clothes in a place with the word 'barn' in the name? mooooo. They must have amazing clothes, because the name is terrible!!

Anyway.

The selection was way smaller that I'd hoped, but I did pretty good, I think.

The skirt is fun (my boldly-fashioned sister really likes it), the pants are boring, but a sensible choice and came up at $9.00, about 1/2 of what I thought! BONUS! Thanks to the discounted pants, I had a little left on the you-can-only-get-in-store-credit-for-this-return-even-though-your-husband-paid-cash-for-the-purse card, so I headed over for the jewelry department. Fun there, too.

The matching earrings are sort of tempting me to finally get my ears pierced. We'll see...

Pants: $29.99 -->$9.00

Skirt: $29.99-->$12.00

Necklace/Earring set: $16.99-->$6.80

Total value: $164.97

Total 'paid': $43.80

Actual out-of-pocket expense: $3.09

Now is when I would normally invite you to bow down and worship the Bargain Queen, but my sister (who became engaged yes.ter.day) dropped by unexpectedly this evening to show me the GORGEOUS, modest, only a little too small plus-sized wedding dress that she found on Craigslist and picked up today for $150 PLUS found the exact same one at the Deseret Industries thrift store in Federal Way just a little smaller so if they need to alter the bigger one it can be from the same fabric/beading/etc for $60. 2 identical wedding dresses for $210. The day after she was proposed to. You can all bow to my toes & butt, 'cause I'm on the floor in front of HER!

Huh?

I like to take amusing pictures. Well, I like to take pictures of things that I find amusing. They've been collecting, so I just now decided to put them all in one blog post.


(See? I can be spontaneous!)





This one isn't funny until you realize that this WAS a photo studio and was almost done being renovated into a pizza joint. The sign states, "NO CONSTRUCTION PARKING"



I was passing through over a year ago & did a triple-take of this sign, then had to turn around to get a picture. "The economy stinks, housing prices are falling and you can have this lot + house for only $1.3 million!!!" It wasn't even a great location!

I could use a cherry pitter, so this caught my eye. Until I noticed that the descriptive sentences under the three smaller circles read:

"Taller Trays to Fit Larger Gourmet Frosted Cupcakes" (for the berry colander)

"Removable Cupcake Trays are Perfect for Presentation"

"Features Finger Indents for Easier Cupcake Removal

oops.

This one's dark, so look closely at the arrow sign on the left.

Psst! Beef, Bacon and Turkey aren't technically vegetarian.