Sunday, February 22, 2009

Bargain Hunting

Despite the fact that I married a mega music lover, I have never camped out for concert tickets. Not many huge concerts came to the area where I grew up and the shows that did come one was always guaranteed tickets. These days TicketMaster and the Internet have completely done away with the need for concert-goers to set up camp outside ticket offices.

Yet Saturday I found myself camping out, awaiting for doors to be open.

I was not waiting to purchase some tickets to a potentially sold-out show. Nope. I was waiting to get inside a children's consignment sale.

I guess one can officially say they are a mommy when one lines up two hours before a consignment event begins to make sure they have a prime spot in line. Fortunately I was able to huddle together with a die-hard group of shoppers who had brought their conversion van (and arrived five hours early to get in line) to avoid the wind and cold we experienced here on Saturday morning.

My two hour wait was rewarded as I have successfully secured Evelyn's spring/summer wardrobe for this year, most of it items still bearing their store tags. Unfortunately boys clothes are usually too worn to purchase at these sales, so Isaac was not so lucky. I did manage to find some books he has yet to own (including a Richard Scary one...his new favorite) so he didn't notice the large amount of clothes I carted in to the house last night.

On to the exciting part...the dresses.

Oh how I love little girl dresses.

Here is just a sample of the dresses I purchased for Evelyn yesterday:

There are some Royal Child, Strasburg, Luli & Me, Janie and Jack, and Chocolate Soup dresses in this mix. I might shed a tear or twelve when the day arrives that Evelyn is too big to wear smocked outfits.

Notice the dress on the far left...I was seriously considering not purchasing it. It was priced a bit high for such a sale and I was about to place it back on the rack. It was at that moment a lady stopped me and told me to purchase the dress. She said she was speaking on behalf of my mother (who she does not know) and that I had to buy that dress for my little girl. I figured anyone brave enough to state they were speaking on behalf of someone's mother must be the real deal, so I purchased it. I cannot wait for spring to get here so Miss E. can sport that frock in particular.

Speaking of E., here are her and the brother enjoying an afternoon snack outside.

This little boy informed me before going out on this particular afternoon that, "It is a great day for gardening!" I guess gardening requires one to wear a too small pith helmet...

The proclamations that come out of that boy's mouth on an almost hourly basis keep us laughing. From telling his sister that she needs to compromise to planning a sibling sleepover (not gonna happen considering the sister sleeps in a crib) to deciding that the letter "I" needs three lines as opposed to the standard two, the boy is a riot.


8 comments:

The Speck family said...

Beautiful dresses!!! You definitely did really, really good~ I can't believe some still had the tags on. I am a total sucker for smocking too...KJS

PS: Regarding your mommy guilt post I don't text or FB, so my children will surely think I am the lamest ever; and I quite routinely let Bennett hang out to laugh and play with his mobile each morning for a good 15-45 min. so that I can soak in bed for longer....lovely.

Lisa said...

Oh, those dresses are gorgeous! I HEART smocked dresses!! Evelyn's definitely set for the spring & summer! I hope I'm having another girl so she can wear all of Gabrielle's pretty dresses. Unfortunately now that Gabrielle is out of the toddler sizes & takes a kid's size 6, it's sooooo hard to find age appropriate dresses for her (she'll only be 4 next month!) It makes me so sad!

Stephanie said...

I was there for the half price sale last night and the pretty stuff you got was gone but I definitely still made out with some great things! Got about 15 outfits for both kids for $77!!

Jordan said...

I am positively green with envy here in the panhandle.

Seriously, GREEN!

My sis-in-law always went to the consignment sale I believe you're speaking of and came away with amazing purchases for her two boys...and occasionally Phoebe. :) She said it was unbelievable and now I truly believe.

We do not have consigment sales (or stores) like that around here. I've been to every one advertised and they are full of ho-hum extremely worn pieces and not a smocked dress in sight.

I think it was well worth the wait!

You are my bargain-shopping superhero.

Jennifer Schroeder said...

The dresses are beautiful! Very worth standing in line for. E's hair is getting so long. And the bottom picture of Isaac REALLY reminds me of old pictures of Tobe.

Shanta said...

Go Lynley! I love those dresses, and I love a bargain even better. Please call this new-mom-and-fellow-blogger to tag along with you next time. I would need supervision! The mania reminds me of how we all used to go nuts with the Harolds warehouse sale in town until I realized it was just really not that fun to try on clothes half naked in front of strangers with no dressing room. I also got over the floral pant scene, which tamed my desire for some time.

Jennifer said...

wow, glad you got some good stuff! I consigned this year for the first time there and so far it seems I sold a lot. I wanted to go shop but had a full weekend planned so I didn't get to make it. Bummer.

Margaret K said...

Great finds! I remember shopping at Chocolate Soup when I was a child. I was dissapointed the first time we went to find out there wasn't any chocolate soup there.

On the bottle issue below, Nicholas still takes one in the morning and at night and it has to be chocolate milk. He will be 3 in June! He has some battles not worth fighting. It is like I have broken all the rules with him that I had before with Patrick. Ugh!