the stories

As promised, the thrifting story:
DH and I had a dinner dance to go to a little over a week ago for the college he works for, given by the college for the faculty and staff. He's been there 8 years and we hadn't yet gone so this year we were determined to make it. Of course, this cow had nothing to wear that looked decent enough AND fit. As a last minute event, I decided to look for something. In other words go shopping for myself for clothing. This is an event that RARELY happens. So we went to the closest mall and I had intentions of looking at the BonTon for something. DD went with me (she never misses a chance to go shopping and I promised her a little gift for her outstanding parent/student/teacher conference) Once in the mall (if you can call it that) I told her that I wanted to go to the thrift shop first. This particular one is run by VIA and has only been in this location less than a year. So in we go, and I started to look for something I could wear. I took several dresses in but none of them were the right size. Then we went back out to look at slacks. DD ran off to the front of the store (mind you, the store is the about 15'x30') and I was looking at all the beautiful wool slacks from Talbot's and L.L.Bean that were priced unbelievably low. She comes up and says "mommy, come look at the outfit I think you'll like" So she takes me to the front where the shirts are and pulls out a black cotton knit top with a double knit yoke of white polka dots (the inside is white with black polka dots) and an ugly little white bow attached to the white trim of the yoke... I succumb when she tells me she has the perfect slacks to go with it. As we go back to the slacks and she pulls out these black rayon slacks with tiny white polkadots all over... and really it does go. So off to the dressing room, armed with that outfit and some other slacks of my choosing.
Well nothing that I chose suited me. So I tried on her outfit and voila, it really was comfy and worked. I looked at the bow (which I really hated) and saw that it was just tacked on in 4 spots... so placing my hand over the bow, tried to find some reason to not get it. But I couldn't. Then I looked at the tags. The shirt was $5.99 and the pants were $6.99 Now mind you, the shirt wasn't new, but the pants had the original CAROLE LITTLE tags on them along with the original price of $78.00......
How could I pass this perfect little outfit up? So I bought it and hopefully taught my daughter that we don't have to buy at department stores first. This isn't the best picture, but it gives you an idea of the great little shopper I have!

I also finished another chakalaka. I was at the gyno in June when making them for DD's special area teachers and he claimed... "I want one" (I think he really just wanted the contents) so I promised to make him one for my next visit. Well that visit is tmrw at noon so I thought I betetr get cracking!