Matilda Jane Love

I love Matilda Jane brand clothing for Claire.  I'm glad I just have one girl or I might go broke buying it (just kidding of course).  This season, there were several random pieces that I really liked, but I didn't like any matching piece in the line.  So, I bought the pieces I liked and headed to the fabric store to make matching companion pieces.

I made this cute top (Sarah pattern) to match the MJ aqua shorties (super-cute knit ruffle shorts).  The top ties in the back. 

I made this cute apron skirt to go with the pink ribbon top.  I love all the yellow, pink, red and green together.  (This skirt pattern is from the Little Girls, Big Style book.)

I made another cute skirt (the Easy Peasy skirt pattern from Mod Kid) to go with this cute celery tank top.  This skirt seriously takes about 30 minutes to make from start to finish.

I like doing this because (1) it saves me a little money [a MJ 2-piece outfit can run anywhere from $60+ ... my way, I spend $26-$30 on one piece and about $10 on fabric to make the matching top/bottom] AND (2) Claire has unique outfits [there is a lot of MJ in the area where we live and you see a lot of the same outfits all the time ... this way, at least we are a little different].

Sew What? Edition: it's been a while ...

Will granted me a reprieve from the house one Saturday and I was able to get some "sewing" done on my mom's embroidery machine.  I'll be sharing some good clothing bargain ideas too in this post.

This outfit came from Lolly Wolly Doodle.  They are a flash sale site on Facebook.  I think this outfit was $34.  That is a steal for this high quality tee and cute ruffle pants.  Even though I could easily make these pants, nice fabric would probably cost $12-$15, plus my time to make them (which doesn't come cheap).  This was a Christmas gift for my niece.  

A close up of the stitching on the "e".  This applique came from here.  Lolly Wolly Doodle will add monogramming to their shirts for $5, but I wanted to let my sister choose this one so I did it myself.  (Plus, I didn't want to spend $5 for a single letter ... but for a name or applique, it is totally worth it.)

Here is my cute niece wearing her outfit to school for "red" day.

I did a similar "c" on a shirt for Claire.  This is a nice thick tee that I purchased wholesale from a friend ($4) and a pair of Castles & Crowns pants that I purchased at Zulily (another flash deal site) for $15.  (These would normally run $30.)  You can sign-up for daily emails from Zulily by clicking on this link (and I will receive a $15 credit).  

{On a side note, Zulily has tons of great products from kids and moms ... everything from books, games, clothing, educational products, maternity clothing, shoes, etc..} 

I purchased these two rompers from a friend for $8 each.  They are lined corduroy from Castles & Crowns.  She had her son's initials monogrammed on them.  I covered the monograms with a patch and put Luke's initials on them.  (Also, the brown and green paired with a red turtleneck was a super-cute Christmas outfit for him.) 

I love cute playclothes!  I bought these pants for Claire on clearance at Target for $2.50 each.  The tees were on sale at Target for $5 each.  I added the monograms/initials.

Photobooks ... my new memory-keeping love!

I have been faithfully reading The Mom Creative's 31 days of memory-keeping posts during the month of October. She is a full-time working mother of two who loves to read, craft and SCRAPBOOK! (I think we were separated at birth. Ha!)

Scrapbooking will always be my first crafting love, but I just don't have time for traditional paper scrapbooking at this time in my life. Right now, this blog is my main form of memory keeping, but I like to have current things to hold and look at in real life (i.e., not on a computer screen).

My first photo book was of our most recent trip to Disneyworld. I think I purchased a $10 Shutterfly Groupon and then paid about $8-10 for shipping. So my total cost was about $20 for a $30 book.

Thanks to The Mom Creative's series, I've made two other photo books (for great deals) and a journal over the last few weeks.

The first photo book was another Shutterfly book for 40% off. I think I ended up paying $20 for the $30 book plus shipping. (If I had spent $30, I could have gotten free shipping but I didn't have it in me to make another book and the coupon expiration was fast approaching!) I made a book of Luke's first birthday party.

I am posting this book since I never posted any pics of Luke's birthday party. (FYI ... the first page is blank because it was the invitation, which I've already posted here, and I didn't want all of our personal info on the Internet.)

Click here to view this photo book larger

The second photo book and journal were FREE thanks to special coupon codes from The Mom Creative and they were from a new website called Paper Coterie. (These coupon codes have expired but she currently has a code for a free memory keeper, which is a super nice box for storing mementos.) I received the journal yesterday and I am impressed with the quality. I should receive my photobook today. (This photo book was made of Luke's professional photos at Newborn, 4M, 8M and 12M for a first year sort of book.)

I know the photobooks are pricey, but if you watch for great deals on Snapfish, Shutterfly and other photo sites, you can make them whenever and order them on sale!

Happy memory-keeping!

Romper Redo

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I love a good monogram. Once we found out Luke was a boy, I finally started putting Claire's name on her stuff instead of just a "C" since I knew we wouldn't have any little girls to hand down to. (I do have a younger Claire and C-name girls of friends that get her hand-me-downs.)

For David, I still put his name and initials on a lot of stuff, with plans to either not reuse it or "fix" the monogram so Luke can wear it. I could do that by (1) picking out the old monogram or (2) covering the monogram with a patch. The first option is tedious and sometimes doesn't look all that good after the monogram has been picked out depending on the type of fabric. The second option is much easier and there are lots of cute options.

These two rompers were handed down plain to me from a friend. I put David's monogram on them.

Here is the blue romper with a cute sailboat fabric patch and Luke's monogram.

Here is the seersucker romper with a cute tractor patch. (Luke wears this outfit all the time. I love it.)

If you're keeping score, that's 3 kids who have worn these outfits. Hope this helps keep nice monogrammed items in the clothing rotation!

Some Recent Sewing Projects

Thanks to my bout of insomnia (thank you, pregnancy), I got several embroidery projects finished up when I spent the night with my parents last week.

DISCLAIMER: I know that the lighting in these pictures are horrible. I'm sorry. Just deal with it.

First up, two bib/burp cloth sets for baby gifts.

I hate that the "sam" on the bib doesn't show up better, but that was the only color thread I had that matched. It does show up better in person than in the picture above.

Next, another baby gift ... a bib, burp cloth and onesie set. We actually used these to decorate at a baby shower. Remember this? It was something similar, but on a smaller scale.

And then David got some new shirt/short sets for his summer wardrobe. Since baby #3 is a boy, David will not be getting his name on anything else so we can hand his clothes down to baby brother.

I meant to outline the whale in the lime green, but was a little delirious at this point. It still looks really cute with the yet-to-be-hemmed shorts.

The golf green shirt has matching green/white check shorts. I'm not sure where they were when I took the picture.

I think this is my favorite. The bulldozer. I paired this with red knit shorts from Wal-Mart. Their Garanimals brand clothing is great for kids. Shirt and shorts cost a total of $7. (All of these tees are from Wal-Mart.)

Thursday outing ... not a good idea!

David took what is very likely his last trip to the grocery store today. Since it 87 degrees outside this afternoon, I decided to run by Whole Foods after I picked the kids up from preschool to kill some of what is usually our "play outside" time and take advantage of their tax-free shopping day.

This is why David will not be returning to a grocery store any time soon ... maybe ever.

(1) He refused to get into the seat of the shopping cart. Like wrapped his legs around me as tight as he could and screamed as loud as he could refused. I finally managed to get him into the basket of the cart, which was fine since I was only buying a few groceries.

(2) He proceeded to scream for the next 5 minutes, and it seemed like I was the only person with children inside the store at the time.

(3) He opened the box of frozen waffles I put into the cart. Let me rephrase that ... he tore the box open so that we came home with about 3/4 of the box.

(4) He took a bite out of one of the apples I had put in a produce bag.

(5) He tried to open the yogurt container I put into the cart.

Need I say more? Don't worry. I've got more. I failed to mention that he tried to climb out of the cart about 10 times and he is almost tall enough to do it.

The yogurt was almost my breaking point. But then I looked up and saw this older lady smiling at me when I was jerking the yogurt container from his hands and fussing at him for trying to open it and I smiled back at her. That made me feel better. And it was time to go.

I think I saved like $2 in tax and it was totally not worth the trouble. Who knew the double car shopping carts at Publix were so valuable (or the free cookies)? He gets into those without a fight, we get our free cookies at the bakery and I quickly get my groceries while everyone is happy.

Menu Plan Monday: December 21-27

I skipped menu-planning last week because we had something every single night of the week. Seriously. And then, we spent the weekend at my in-laws' house for our Christmas with them. This week will be kind of crazy too, but I need a little organizational release to help me keep my sanity during this busy time!

On the couponing front, I made my last official trip to the grocery store this year before all of those 12/31/09 coupons expire! Publix had some great deals this week. I got $204.74 worth of groceries for $100.26 (plus tax). That is a savings of 52%. On a side note, I normally do not spend that much money per week at the grocery store. On this trip, I bought groceries for our meals this week, including Christmas breakfast and dinner, and did some major stockpiling since I had not done this since the week before Thanksgiving.

Monday: turkey pot pie

Tuesday: leftover rotisserie chicken, broccoli casserole, rolls

Wednesday: chicken puffs, mixed veggies

Thursday: Christmas Eve at my sister's house ... I have to figure out some kind of appetizer to take. Any suggestions?

Friday -- Christmas breakfast: egg/sausage casserole, cinnamon roll muffins, fruit

Friday -- Christmas dinner: chicken Alfredo, salad, garlic bread, cheesecake

Weekend: more family Christmas stuff so no cooking for me!

Check out other menu plans here.

Make Christmas Cookies ... check.

Claire loves to decorates Christmas cookies. Last year, we had a little cookie party for a few friends, but this year, I just couldn't pull it together. Too much other stuff going on. So, the kids and I had our own little party one afternoon after preschool. They had a blast.

This is David's first year to decorate cookies. He has a mean sprinkle.

Snotty nose that turned into an ear infection the following day and sticky fingers that dirtied up my kitchen! So cute though.

This is what happened when I took the sprinkles away. He was not happy.

This was a super simple and super cheap process. If you have a GFS marketplace near you, they sell pre-cut sugar cookies (in star, bell and tree shapes) that taste just as good as homemade for $9.99. I think you get like 70 cookies and you can pop them in the oven straight from the freezer. I still had a few left over from last year (they have been in my freezer for that long) and they still taste fine. After I baked the cookies, I iced them with this icing and let the kids decorate a few at a time on a paper plate. The small sprinkles came from the dollar bin at Target (5 per pack) so I didn't feel too bad when I threw away those green sprinkles that David covered with icing.

Meal Plan Monday: August 3-16

This is my menu plan for the next two weeks because Publix had a lot of good deals this week and I decided to stock up. Plus, my freezer is getting FULL and we needed to do a little cleaning out.

Here are my sale/coupon results for this week:

Total groceries: $195.78 (This is a lot more than I normally spend, but I was buying for 2 weeks of meals and did a lot of stockpiling.)

Total savings: $68.77 (35% savings)

Total out-of-pocket: $127.01 (plus tax)

Here is the meal plan for Aug. 3-9

Monday: Jambalaya w/shrimp and sausage, salad

Tuesday: grilled salmon, mango couscous

Wednesday: Girls' night out for me; leftovers (or frozen pizza) for Will and the kids.

Thursday: Chicken puffs, mandarin orange salad, mixed vegetables

Friday: Enchilada pie, corn, salad

Saturday: I am hosting a scrapbooking weekend for a few girlfriends. We typically either pick-up lunch and dinner or cook-in, but we haven't finalized the "meal plan" yet.

Here is the meal plan for Aug. 10-16

Sunday (pm): leftover buffet

Monday: BBQ ribs, skillet potatoes, mixed veggies

Tuesday: Polynesian chicken, rice, squash/zucchini blend

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: chicken taco burgers, cantaloupe, chips

Friday: leftovers

Saturday: Kashi frozen pizza, salad

Sunday: leftover buffet

Check out other menu plans here.

Menu Plan Monday: July 27-August 2

Another good week of sticking to the menu plan. First, a quick recipe review from last week. The simple enchiladas were good, but I would suggest adding a package of taco seasoning to the ground beef before you stuff the enchiladas. It needed a little more flavor. Also, the bacon and spinach quiche has A LOT of spinach. I loved it, but my husband who can only eat spinach is very small doses was not a huge fan. I would also suggest placing the pie pan on a cookie sheet to bake just in case a little egg spills over the edge.

In addition to menu-planning, I have also started doing a little couponing to help keep the grocery budget a little lower. I'm not going crazy or anything like driving around to 5 different grocery stores to get pop-tarts for a penny, but I have been watching for sales and coupons on items we use regularly and trying to stockpile those things a little bit. I found this awesome website that lists the weekly sales for local grocery stores and matches them with coupons in the local Sunday paper (and provides links to online coupons that you can print). This week was my first attempt to do a little stockpiling and I only went to the grocery store where I regularly shop, although I was tempted to stop at Harris Teeter too since they were having "super doubles" (doubling coupons up to $1.98).

Here are my sale/coupon results for this week:

Total groceries: $71.63

Total savings: $42.42 (59% savings)

Total out-of-pocket: $29.21

Monday: Leftovers for Will and the kids (I have dinner at my book club meeting).

Tuesday-Friday: out of town

Saturday: dinner out with Will's golf tourney buddies and their spouses.

Sunday: (brunch) Blueberry Sizzle french toast, bacon

Sunday: (dinner) Grilled Fish Tacos, rice pilaf

Check out other menu plans here.

Menu Plan Monday: July 20-26

We did good this week sticking to the menu plan. Will tried to talk me into going out one night and I adamantly refused and we enjoyed leftovers instead. We did end up going out to dinner with some friends on Saturday night, but we were actually having a freezer meal on that night anyway, so I will just save it for later.

So far, some our favorite recipes have been the Greek Chicken (Will told me no less than 5 times how much he liked this chicken), Ham & cheese baked roll-up and Apricot Chicken.

Monday: spaghetti, salad and bread

Tuesday: A-1 pork chops (i.e., pork chops marinated in A-1 marinade and grilled), roasted potatoes, green beans

Wednesday: leftover buffet

Thursday: Dinner out with our Sunday School class supper club group.

Friday: Simple Enchiladas, rice, corn & black bean salad

Saturday: (brunch) bacon and spinach quiche, strawberry salad

Saturday: (dinner) my small group and their spouses are coming to our house for Will's famous Shrimp Boil. I am going to make this for dessert.

Sunday: (lunch) leftover quiche, fruit salad

Sunday: (dinner) other leftovers buffet or something from the freezer.

Check out other menu plans here.

Menu-Plan Monday

Another great week of sticking to the menu plan. We're on a roll! I have gone back and posted a few recipe links on my previous menu-plan posts that were good (because apparently I have nothing better to do).

Anywho ... here's the plan for this week. We are going to have lots of yummy leftovers that my mother-in-law sent home with us.

Monday: Greek chicken, brown rice, garden salad and homemade peach ice cream

Tuesday: leftover rotisserie chicken, corn on the cob, steamed broccoli and Hawaiian rolls

Wednesday: our 9th wedding anniversary. Will and I are either going out to dinner (sans kids) or grilling steaks and popping open a bottle of wine at home after the kids go to bed. We'll fix sandwiches or something easy for the kids.

Thursday: leftover spaghetti, garden salad, bread

Friday: leftover grilled Mexican burgers, black beans & corn salad

Saturday: Polynesian chicken, rice, steamed squash & zucchini

Sunday: (lunch) potluck lunch at church (I am visiting the church I grew up in to celebrate their 50th anniversary. This meal will be a treat for sure!)

Sunday: (dinner) leftover buffet-a Sunday night special

Check out other menu plans here.

Menu Plan Monday: July 7-13

We did a good job of sticking to my menu plan for last week, which meant no extra trips to the grocery store (and no extra money spent on food). And, I had plenty of leftovers to eat for lunch at work. Here is the my menu plan for this week.

Monday: grilled salmon, garlic mashed pototaes, broiled asparagus

Tuesday: leftover hamburger/hot dogs, baked beans, chips.

Wednesday: Ham & cheese baked roll-up, steamed broccoli

Thursday: leftovers for me. Will is taking the kids to Chick-Fil-A while I host a clothing show at our house.

Friday & Saturday: visiting in-laws for the weekend. Lots of eating out and RiRi-cooked meals!

Sunday: (dinner) Grilled Mexican burgers, black beans & corn, salad

Check out other menu plans here.

P.S. If you ever want any recipes, please leave a comment and I will post it the next week.

Date Night

Last night, thanks to "Restaurant Week", we enjoyed a great, inexpensive meal at Jimmy Kelly's (a very old and well-known restaurant in our area). They were running a special on a four-course meal for $20.99 per person. It was a limited menu of course, but it did include filet as an option, which we all chose for our entree. We even got to enjoy the unseasonably cool July evening on their veranda. Lots of nice, local restaurants run specials on price fixed menus, which makes it much more affordable to splurge on a nice meal. You can sign up on these restaurant's websites to get email notification (or by snail mail) about these great deals.

Here is a picture of the four of us (our neighbors, Kevin and Beth) on our child-free evening!

Will and I match! This was not intentional on my part. And, I will go on the record to say that I got dressed first!

Beth and Kevin ... our restaurant buddies.

Menu-Plan Monday ... on Tuesday (June 30-July 6)

I love planning things. Especially when food is involved. I was doing really good about planning our weekly menu, cutting back on our eating out and sticking to our food budget for the first few months of the year. Then we joined the Y and we were getting home later (with less time to cook), we went on two trips within 3 weeks of each other, and we just generally got busy with lots of activities.

I am trying to get back on track and I need some accountability via this blog. So, each Monday, I am going to post our menu plan for the week. (This will work well since I typically grocery shop on Tuesday after work.) I will try to post any recipe worthy of sharing along the way.

My goal with the menu planning is to:

(1) stay within our grocery budget

(2) eat healthier

(3) eat out less

(4) reduce my stress related to feeding my family

(5) try new recipes

Tuesday: Turkey burgers, chips, baked beans

Wednesday: Apricot chicken w/rice and steamed broccoli or asparagus (from E-Mealz)

Thursday: Date night! Will and I are going out and the kids can eat leftover chicken pot pie.

Friday: July 4th cookout with my family. I am responsible for steaks and chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, blackberry cobbler and Sangria.

Saturday: Picnic dinner to watch fireworks at local park ... we will probably pick up sandwiches at Jersey Mike's (we have a BOGO coupon).

Sunday: Lunch-leftover buffet (this is Will's favorite meal ... NOT); Dinner-cookout with friends. I am making hamburgers, hot dogs and banana split brownie for dessert.

Monday: grilled salmon (already marinated from Costco), wild rice and steamed veggies

What's Cooking Wednesday?

Back after a short hiatus. I know all two of you who read this blog have been sitting on the edge of your seat waiting on a new recipe from my culinary genius. If you really like to cook (and eat), you should check out this and this recipe blogs. (I know that was grammatically incorrect, but I needed two spots to add the link and "these" wasn't going to cut it.)

I have a treat for you today ... three meals in one. Sort of. You only really have to cook once. The second and third meals only involve heating and stirring and shaking. Sounds fun, huh!?!

Two of these meals are really healthy. The third, not so healthy.

Meal 1: Alabama Roast

3-lb. top round roast

2T. Worcestershire sauce

2T. soy sauce

1/2t. garlic salt

1/2t. pepper

Place roast in slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over roast. Cover and cook 8-10 hours on low or 6-8 hours on high.

Serves 2 adults. Save leftover meat for meals 2 and 3.

Meal 2: Beef & Bacon Spinach Salad

1-lb. roast, shredded

1 pkg. already cooked bacon, crumbled

1 bag baby spinach

1/2 head lettuce, shredded

1 sweet apples, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

toasted walnuts

Dressing: 1/4c. vinegar, 1/2c. olive oil, 1/2t. salt, 1/2t. dry mustard, 2t. Splenda.

Heat beef in microwave for 2-3 minutes. Toast walnuts on middle rack under broiler. Heat bacon and crumble. Combine dressing ingredients in separate container. (I usually combine in an old jelly jar and shake well.) Toss all ingredients with dressing. Yield: 3-4 servings.

Meal 3: Beef & Rice

Combine leftover beef with can of mushroom gravy. Heat well. Prepare brown or white rice according to package directions. Serve beef & gravy over rice. Fix a green veggie and rolls and voila!

This third meal was my own creation. I'm sure you couldn't tell. I really don't care because it cost me zero dollars and zero cents since I used leftover beef and stuff I keep as staples in my pantry anyway.

Enjoy!!

E-Mealz to the Rescue

With kids, work, etc., I really struggle with meal planning. But, I love to cook and I love sitting down with my family each night for dinner. It is a really good habit I want to form while my kids are young, so that when they are older, we eat dinner together each night and share our day (and the routine is already set).

Anyway, who has time to sit down before you go to the grocery store and pick out recipes, plan meals and make your shopping list? NOT ME! I try to keep a running list of things we need when we run out and then add our family meals to the list. That works just OKAY because I tend to just make the same things over and over again (those recipes being things I can remember all of the ingredients for at the store). Plus, I tend to overspend because I am buying things that aren't necessarily on sale. You know the drill.

What is girl to do? Hire a personal chef. Reality check: not going to happen in this lifetime. Instead, I ran across E-Mealz. I highly recommend that you CHECK-IT-OUT. Now. (this is starting to sound like an info-mercial.)

Each week, you get two sheets: (1) a 7-day meal plan with recipes and sides, and (2) a grocery list (categorized by meal number and listing all the staples you will need for each meal). EVEN BETTER. The meal plan is based on the particular store's sales for that week. So, it is cost effective too. You can choose from several different meal plans (for 2, low-fat, low-carb) and from several different stores (Wal-Mart, Publix, Kroger). Did I mention that it only costs $1.25 per week? That, my friends, is a steal when you think about how much time you would actually spend planning meals for the week. Plus, your family is getting a nutritious meal made by YOU!

I have been doing this plan about 4 weeks now and we have saved money on our grocery bill, gotten to try some new recipes and my whole grocery shopping experience is much less stressful.

I cannot say enough great things about this program. Sign up today! (and list me as a referral.)

Fantastic Finds

Go to Harolds. Don't walk. Run!

Harolds is going out of business and the entire store is 80%. The store is only open for 9 more days. I have never shopped at Harolds before, but my always fashionable friend JJ has shopped there on occasion and always has cute stuff. So, when I ventured by there this morning on my way to Ann Taylor Loft to spend my Christmas gift cards, I had to stop by and check out this AWESOME sale. I got three spring dresses and one top for $70.76. Original total for these items would have been a whopping $584.00.

After that, I floated to Ann Taylor Loft to spend my gift cards. They were having a great sale too. All sale items were an extra 25% off. Sweet! I got two sweaters, two blouses and two pair of dress pants for $85. Minus my $50 gift card, that was only $35 out of pocket.

Halloween Preview

Claire has been talking about her bumblebee costume ALL WEEK LONG. She insisted that we try it on. I also needed to make sure David's was long enough so he put his costume on too. I highly recommend Target for costumes. These were $15 each. (Pardon my messy guest/craft room in the background.)

Claire the Bumblebee! We're still working on our "buzzzzzzz".

David the Dragon! He even has wings and a tail on the back.

Consignment sales

I participated in my first (and probably last) consignment sale this weekend. I was pumped to get rid of some extra kid's clothes that we no longer had a need for. I spent several hours last week retrieving my "gently used" goods from the attic and the spare closet, putting the items on hangers and tagging the items for sale. Plus I made four trips over to the church where the consignment sale was located (about 10-15 minutes away one-way) to pick up my bar code labels, to drop off my consignment items, to shop the consignors pre-sale and to pick up my check and unsold items. All during a week when there was NO GAS in Nashville! So, when I made my fourth trip to the church to pick up my check, I was very disappointed to see that it was a whopping $62.30. That is not even enough to cover my gas for my 4 trips to and fro. Plus, I had to take about 2/3 of the items I brought to sale back home with me. IT WAS SO NOT WORTH IT! Not only did I not sale very much (or make much money), the consignors pre-sale was just not fun. I bought David a fleece jacket by Hartstrings for $10 (new) and a smocked Christmas outfit for $10. Plus, I bought Claire 5 large hairbow for $3 each which was steal.

There was so much stuff, without really having any shopping agenda, I was completely overwhelmed. Plus, Will kept calling me to see when I was coming home since I had to swing by there on my way home from work. Considering what I spent at the pre-sale, I made a net profit of $23.30. Again ... SO NOT WORTH IT. Now, I have to spend more time finding a place to put the stuff I had to bring back home until I can figure out what to do with it. Next time I participate in a consignment sale, I would like to suggest a few rules:

(1) No children under the age of 13 should be at the sale. They just get in the way.

(2) No strollers should be allowed at the sale. This place was packed already without people pushing around their empty strollers loaded with items to buy. Plus, the kids who should be in the stroller are now running loose.

(3) You should not be allowed to grab an armload of clothes from the rack in your child's size and sit over in a corner and sort through it to find what you want. You should have to shuffle through the racks and lose your arm circulation like everyone else.

Over all, I can't complain too much. This sale was expertly run and drop-off and pick-up were a breeze. Plus, all of their profits go to the youth group's summer mission projects. So ... maybe I made a little more money after all with my charitable contribution deduction.