The why's, why not's and the forget-me-not's

My boy needed shorts.  I cringe when I see him wearing shorts that outline his shape.  He of course is clueless.  If they fit around his waist he's good...who cares if they creep up because they can always be pulled out...continuously. all. day. long.

So I went to Once Upon a Child...they are a little more expensive than the average thrift store, but its typically clean (the shoe area is always a disaster) and the clothes are in size order so it makes things easy.  When I go thrifting...I overfill the cart.  Then I go to a quiet area of the store and debate.  So I leave with less than 1/2 of what I originally find.

First go around the clothes are cute, second go around I find holes, stains and realize not as cute as originally thought.  Final go around...can I buy this new at similar cost?  Is this pricing the best bargain for this particular brand?  And no matter how much I like it...will my child wear it?  If the item passes those questions...then its a keeper.

I love kid shoes. Specifically girl shoes.  My daughter has a better shoe collection than anyone I know.  Mainly because she has worn the same size shoe for 2 years, and I keep buying.  But this past year, she has added some inches to her height and a few centimeters to her feet...so we can now get new shoes!

Finally, after two fun filled summers...her little red sandals are history, so time for some new ones.

I go to the shoes first... I start off adding shoes to my cart.  I keep going and going...till my basket looks like this.

I then take each one out and contemplate the why...and the why not's. 

Rainboots are a must for Moo Girl...we love our puddles!  Found a cute pair of Tom's at a steal of a deal.  Those blue slip ons...new Land's End...size 11 may fit in the fall/winter.  Toe covered gym sandals...a must for the girl who refuses socks and must run continually throughout the day.  The other ones, may be cute...but unnecessary.

Red Shoes!  Satin fancy dress shoes, cute little sandals, and your basic red gym shoes....so how do you decide?  Maddie has a lot of red in her closet, but she does not need 3 pairs of red shoes.   I am thinking specifically of this cute red dress she has...would look nice with fancy shoes...problem....maddie likes to look fancy, but does not play fancy.  Satin shoes would last one wearing so they are a no.  The cute little red sandals...I debated between them and the gym shoes.  Once Upon wanted $5.50 for those things...I can get Old Navy brand easy, and I can find red sandals similar cheaper...so its a no.  

Why even buy of the generic red gym shoes?  Bottom line they were $1.75 and I have a crafting idea for them, so if it becomes another the good, the bad and the ugly post...I'm out a little under $2 and if it works...they will be super cute!

I also looked at these cute little gymboree sandals...I held onto them for a bit...I liked them, the quality was good, no wear or tear on them.  But decided no.  Why Not?  Because cost was more than I wanted to spend, she didn't have clothes to match these beauties...and I figured the white flower would get dirty and start to look nasty in a few uses.  So no.  

On to the boy sections...Matthew and shoes...gotta buy new.  He has crazy feet that I can never find the correct size, plus at this age and size the shoe selection can be pretty iffy.

But I hit the motherload on shorts and shirts for my son.  My cart was overflowing...10+ prs of shorts with 10+ shirts in the cart...so I had to go find my quiet place and contemplate.  Lots of Gymboree and Nike.  It was hard to narrow it down...but again, it maybe cheaper, but it still all adds up.  I narrowed it down to 5 prs of shorts and 4 tops.  I again used my reduction technique...I'd show you pictures, but my phone battery died...which was a real bummer, because I really wanted to show you my loot. But I was able to re-charge the phone and got a quick picture of my son going to school this morning...how do you resist Einstein?

and lets remember the forget-me-not's...those lime green gymboree shoes that I passed on...

later on in the day I found this dress with blue and lime green stripes would have been a perfect match for those shoes... I kicked myself for not buying those cute sandals!.

So why don't I go back? Well, these sandals will look just as good!

What have you found thrifting lately?  Anything you regret not buying?

These shoes were made for dancing...

and most likely will be taken off in the first 5 minutes of the Daddy Daughter Dance...but that's ok.

if you remember we started with this...

a little big for my girl, but they still worked...put a little cotton in the toes and she'll be fine. My big idea was to clean them up and add a flower...so I got this...

which was very nice, but in my midnight meltdown I turned them into this...

Not good...not good at all.

So back to the drawing board I went.  I stayed away from these shoes, far away, mad because the flower was perfectly fine. You know how I know this...I showed Maddie the new shoes I created...the first thing she says "where's the flower?" my shoulders dropped, a small sigh escaped me...and then she says..."ooohh..look at those" and starts petting the pearls...and all is good again in my crafting world.

But don't think I'm done...shoes need a matching hair accessory.  We also need some clip on earrings or Maddie will be very disappointed.  So this week, and preferably before midnight I will be crafting some matching accessories...the dance is this Saturday and I plan on doing a little photo shoot...and as long a I don't have any crafting breakdowns...all will stay good in the world.

Spring is in the air

Not ready to pull out all my summer time clothes yet...but today my family needed shorts!  Chicago land area was gorgeous today!

One great thing about my Maddie Moo girl...she doesn't grow much...so we get lots of wear out of her clothes.  As I was going through the bins I found these beauties...

2 Laura Ashley floral print spring dresses.  I am such a sucker for a floral print.

I love going through the summer bins...its a stroll through memory lane.








Remembering summer nights catching fireflies...I can't wait for summer!

You show me yours...Wednesday!

Today is...You show me yours, I'll show you mine!

Any picture will do...find something great you want to share...please!  

It can be an old find, or a new one.

If you want to send it to me via email...fkthrifty@gmail.com that would be great, or you can post it on the facebook page, and I can transfer it here...or just leave a link in your comment.  

This is where me being new at this comes into play.  I thought you could insert pic in comments, guess not.  I'll try to figure out what I can do to make this simple until then...link away!!

I found these yesterday when I took a side trip to a second hand store looking for some pearls...

Some great dress up jewelry for Moo girl...we have a slap wrist bracelet, some daisy clip on earrings, and a hot pink stretch bracelet...fun, fun, fun!

I'll have more finds to show later...here's yours...

I saw this...but I didn't buy it...but it was oh so cute!

Here are some of my finds from this week...Here's mine

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Remember the teaser picture from facebook I sent out last night?  

What sweet memories.

Let's start out with the good.   

Started my day by taking a quick run to Hobby Lobby, which always puts me in a great mood.  Still not exactly sure what I was going to do, and knowing I had everything I could possibly need at home, except little pearls...which I found in the bridal section for seventy-five cents.  

I was so excited to start my shoe project, but life happens.  Kids come home from school, gymnastics, and dinner...so at 11pm I gathered some supplies, I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do...I needed a soy candle, needle/thread, satin...why a candle?  Well, to make satin flowers, you use a candle to keep the edges from fraying...why soy?  Because it doesn't leave the black soot from the flame on your flower.

So as I was staring at the shoe with the pearls in hand...I had no idea what to do.  I knew that I needed a strap for these beauties...so, I decided a pearl strap would look great...it would look like little ankle bracelets.  Great idea until I realized that I had no idea what size strap I would need.  So I got out my night vision goggles, and sneaked into Maddies room.

And yes, that is a very large, sharp needle by her foot.  Remember it was after 11pm.

The pearl strap looked and worked great.  I used elastic thread so that it would be an easy on and off.

  So now onto the flowers. 

I was pleased.  Not overly impressed, but at least pleased.  So when Moo woke up in the morning I had her model the one shoe I created...

I was so excited!  I was going to finish my blog post, and I was going to look so crafty.

I started my project again about 11pm tonight...gathered some more supplies, this time I was going to take pictures, and it was going to be so pretty...

Then bad things started to happen. I was not liking my flowers.  They didn't look even too me.  They started to look odd.  I still decided to hot glue them on.  I needed to finish.  I had to finish.  I had to POST my beautiful Pinterest inspired shoes!!!  Before I could even take a picture of the final product...I  tore them off.  They were not right.  When I bought these shoes I knew that there where some small holes from the staples that the smart people at the thrift store used to attach the price, but I thought I could cover them up, with the flower.  I kinda did.

That plastic flower embellishment on the shoe...I again thought I could cover it up nicely...I sorta did.  But because of all the covering I had to do, I made these flowers too big.  And so now...we have the ugly...

But that's okay...tomorrow is a new day, I have another thing of bridal pearls, and I have an entirely new idea...