More Consignment Finds

I'm seriously thinking that Once Around the Block Kids (OABK) might be a contender for my top two favorite consignment sales in Middle Tennessee. I would have formerly said the Encores South and Encores North. Now, I'm bumping the south sale and promoting OABK -- for several reasons. The prices are incredible. I can get so much for my money. The process is less stressful than at the South sale. There is air and there is good lighting -- two things sorely missing from the south sale this year. Now, granted, Encores North is still holding the number one place in my book for quality, selection and location.

Now, on to the "finds" from the OABK sale.

Let me just say the find of the sale almost had me jumping and screaming. I'm not sure how I lucked onto it other than the fact that I worked a shift so I could shop an hour earlier than the consignors. Next year I'm going to try to work two shifts there so I can shop two hours earlier. I needed just a little more time before the consignors hit in full force. Anyway, I digress. Background: Melissa Lewis posted about a Matilda Jane sale a few days ago. While there were a few things I really liked, I couldn't begin to bring myself to think about paying *gasp* retail so I passed. Outfits were still expensive even with the 40% off. I almost fainted when I found the dress and ruffle pants for EIGHT.DOLLARS at the consignment sale.

Now, my mama is going to say this outfit is "frumpy" when she sees the picture. I already know. Honestly, I was less than excited about the colors at first -- thinking them drab. Then I took them home and tried them on Ellie and HOLY.COW they were exquisite and beautiful and she was adorable!!! I was certainly hooked. I'll get a picture of her in this soon. In the meantime, here it is hanging. My feelings aren't hurt if you aren't in love with it -- I wasn't either until I put it on her.





I'm glad I took the chance.

Someone at the football park saw this outfit and asked if I was "really" going to "subject" Ellie to wearing this. Kelly's Kids - $5? Absolutely. She'll probably go see Santa in it with a huge matching hairbow and turtleneck. She can hate me later and talk about it in therapy in years to come. *big smile*



I think this Gap outfit will be her Thanksgiving outfit.


This LeTop dress and matching tights was $7. I like to doggy motif and the blue/brown combination.



I'll admit it. I think I got this shirt more for me than for Ellie. I remember playing with Raggedy Ann/Andy growing up. It was nostalgic for me. It was $1 for the shirt and $2 for the skirt. It pulled me in. I'm a sucker for nostalgia.



Then I found ANOTHER one of those CocoBonBons outfits -- new with tags and was just sucked right back in to that, "I LOVE IT" mode. I think the jacket is too big for Ellie. I'm thinking she either might grow into it this season or it will carry over into next season. Either way.







Apparently someone either hated this dress or just wanted rid of it. Old Navy pink/grey sweater dress -- $1.



Cute little Strasburg jumper and shirt. I like the color.



Another CocoBonBons dress that I paired with a pair of leggings I found. Dress $3, leggings, $1.

I love this little school girl looking outfit with the sweater, shirt and jeans. Sweater and jeans - $4. Shirt - $1. I love the matching details of the sweater and jeans.





This new with tags CocoBonBons dress was $5. Ellie can wear it now and I think she'll be adorable in it.




I got this cute little Christmas dress from Dee'Anna. Addie never wore it. Isn't it cute?


I found this cute little furry Children's Place coat for $7. I think it's sweet. I'm sure it won't stay this color. *sigh*




And finally, how about some shoes. Have you all priced toddler shoes lately in retail stores? Just regular Circo/Target brand shoes are $12.99/$14.99 a pair. At that price, two or three pair is all we get for the season. At $3/$4 a pair, we can have lots more!! Check out these sweet shoes. My Ellie is shoe fanatic. She LOVES her shoes and wears three or four pair a day. We keep them in a drawer she can reach so she can wear them as often as she wants. She is in love with the pink patent penny loafers.



And, I know these are blue (aka boys), but Ellie needed snow boots and I wanted inexpensive. $4 is great. The kids in the neighborhood don't care what color she has -- just that she can come out and play in the snow!



I envied these shoes when Dee'Anna bought them last sale. Since they were too big, I knew Ellie couldn't wear them anyway, but I loved them. I was so excited when they were in the pile of things she let me shop from today.



One more sale and I'm DONE for the winter season. I still need to find a snow suit, another Halloween outfit, maybe one more Christmas outfit that is less dressy and more play wear and that's about it. I am concerned that I've bought clothing too big for Ellie. She's so small and hasn't grown in forever so I'm thinking we should hit a "spurt" soon. She's currently comfortably in 18 months. Most of the clothes I bought were 2T. Of course, it will be three-four months before she'll wear any of it.

Hello New Kitchen!

Ellie got her "new" (to her) kitchen. The kitchen she saw at the sale was $25. I found another one almost just like it for $10. I have found that at age two, they 1) don't remember, and 2) don't care which one they want/have.



When I brought it home, she was SO excited! She got Joshua to help her untape it and they got all (yes, ALL) her dishes, pans, etc. out to play with it. She jumped up and down when she found out that the stove made a "cooking" noise.





She has been "cooking up a storm":







Honestly, it truly is a $10 kitchen set. The front door has some issues staying closed. It's made of a thin type of plastic. But, Ellie could care less. The great part? When she gets tired of it, I can easily sell it for $10 again and get a new one.





The Dora kitchen is on her way to the Encores sale next week.

In addition, I found a bag of musical instruments/toys for $6. It had a tambourine, maracas, bells and some shaking toys and Ellie loves all of them. I knew she would. She is so musical/artistic. At one point she had the bells on her arms and feet and was shaking the tambourine. I think these will be well worth their money.




(Yes, I cleaned them!)

Josh got some collectible comic books -- 3 packs (of 4 in each pack) for $2 each. He sent me back for more. He loves them and says they are "collectibles". I was glad I could find something he would be interested in so he wouldn't feel left out.

For those interested in what Josh looks like after football practice (and after putting together/taking apart her kitchen), here you go:



I got some really cute outfits today from Dee'Anna. We thought it was funny that I kept buying her outfits at consignment (unknown to me until Ellie wore them) so we decided to circumvent the process and just let me buy them directly from her this time.



One more sale and I'm done. I'll post more pix of my find at the Once Around the Block sale in a later post.

Photobucket Error - Help Needed

I don't typically use Photobucket. I remember why now. I have this horrible message scrolling on my blog telling me that a photo has been deleted or moved. I can't figure out WHAT it might be. The only things I had on my blog that were in Photobucket were the Virtual Consignment pictures of Ellie's clothes. I deleted that post in hopes it would get rid of the error message. No go. I know I have linked to a friend's pictures that are on photobucket, but I just did that today and the message was there before.

Anyone have any tips?? Help is certainly appreciated. This message box HAS to go away. It's driving me crazy.

UPDATE: Thanks to Andrea, I now know what was wrong with my blog. Apparently there was an issue with the background I use from over at The Cutest Blog on the Block. I've made a temporary change until I can do a blog overhaul, so bear with me if it's hard to read for a few days. I promise I'll fix it.

Bye Bye Kitchen!

Today as we were dropping our items off for consignment, I had both Ellie and Josh with me. In a perfect world, I would have done that by myself, but fortunately, both were very good and Josh was a big help with getting the stuff in.

I warned Josh on the way in, "She's going to cry when we leave." I knew there would be a lot of toys there and I honestly envisioned the worst.

After checking in our items, we were walking out and that was where all the toys were. I let Ellie go over to look at a few of them and she was drawn to a little kitchen -- something like a Fisher Price/Little Tykes hard plastic all in one kitchen. It had a microwave door that she was fascinated with opening and shutting. Finally, when I told her it was time to leave, I got our standard two-year-old reply, "I NOT WANT IT". Well, I picked her up and we left and she was a little pouty but it wasn't the all out scream festival I had expected.

However, on the way home, she indicated she wanted the kitchen. I told her she already had a Dora kitchen and she said, "I want it." I told her that if she wanted a new kitchen she had to sell her Dora kitchen. I asked her again if she wanted the other kitchen. "Yes." Do you want to get rid of your Dora kitchen? "Yes." Do you know that means that the Dora kitchen will go bye-bye? "Bye-bye Dora kitchen." Hmmmm...

When we got home, she walked over to her Dora kitchen and said, "Bye Bye Dora kitchen" and patted it. When she came home later from Josh's football practice it was the same, "Bye bye Dora kitchen."

I suspect I will have to see if I can find that kitchen tomorrow at the consignment sale. And then, "Bye bye Dora kitchen." Since I only paid $15 for it, I'm sure I can sell it for the same price and not be out anything. Anyone interested in a very slightly used Dora kitchen?

Cute Things from Rory

I love shopping Melissa's Virtual Consignment Sale. I get the cutest things from Rory. The shame is that someone ALWAYS beats me to the punch and gets a lot of the cute stuff first!! Anyway, I'm meeting Melissa later this week to pick up these uber-cute things for Ellie-boo!









Don't you love them?? How about those boots?!

Consignment Sale Finds

I've been wrapped up in consignment the last week or so -- getting things ready, tagged, dropped off, working the sale, shopping and then repeat process as the second sale starts today. There is one more in another week and then I will be D.O.N.E. and Ellie will (hopefully) be set for fall/winter season.

This is what it has looked like at our house for several weeks now. Jordan (our friend) asked me if we had moved Ellie's closet downstairs. *smile*



By working, I managed to snag some really good deals on some really cute things for her. I think, had I not worked, there is no way I would have gotten Gymboree complete outfits for $3 and $4. I think they certainly would have been snagged up!

Here are Ellie's new HOT PINK cowgirl boots. She loves them -- not as much as her hot pink patent penny loafers, but still ... quite a bit. $6




I call this Ellie's "Mink Stole". When I saw it I just KNEW she would be adorable in it, especially around Christmas. $5



In fact, I think it will look lovely with this sweet little find. $7



Honestly, I don't remember what I paid for this sweet little number, but it yelled, "Take Me Home" so loudly that it didn't matter. I think it was $7-$8. Can you just not SEE Ellie in this?? Apparently, there will be quite a bit of animal print in her fall future as you'll see coming up.



Splurged a little on this dress for Christmas. It was certainly worth the $10 I paid for it as it has sweet little red pearls all over it and a lace lattice design at the bottom. ADORABLE!!



Another outfit that just said Ellie all over it -- purses and animal print. I know there is a hairbow to match in the future for this outfit.



This Hanna Andersson sweater dress was such a bargain at $10. It retails for around $52. I found the matching tights on ebay and have those already on the way. This little number was not hurt at all and I was happy to find it!



This was my true splurge for the sale. I fell immediately in love with this outfit and would have left the store with only this and been happy. $25 for the skirt, shirt and matching tights. I LOVE CocoBonBons. I'm sad that the local store at Opry Mills is closed until the mall finishes its clean-up/remodel from the flooding back in May. Projections are the mall won't be open again until next spring -- ARGH!!!



Bargain of the sale? Christmas PJs -- $1. Look like they were never worn.


Another sale bargain is this new with tags Gymboree jumper for $3. Unbelievable!



Perfect for my little "elf-sized" Princess is this outfit from Gymboree. I think it was $3 or $4.



One of my $3 Gymboree finds was this zebra shirt and leggings. I found a matching hairbow for $4 (yes, more than the outfit!) that Ellie LOVES and wants to wear all the time.





Gymboree shirt and jeans - $4


Another Gymboree outfit for $4.



Fun Halloween outfit.


More $1 pjs -- this time Gymboree.


A couple of mix/match Gymboree outfits from their candy line that were really inexpensive:




Found these two pieces separately, but got the shirt for $1 and the leggings for $2. Both were Gymboree and new with tags.


I love how soft the flannel is on Sweet Potatoes dresses. I found two at this sale. This one was $8 and the other one I found was $7. I love them both.




And one last Gymboree outfit. Ellie LOVES cats!


Got this LeTop outfit for $7 and thought it would be really "cute" for Ellie going to "school" this year (aka preschool).