buying secondhand

i noticed recently that all of the knees in alexander's jeans have holes in them. in fact, i sent him to school one day in jeans that were perfectly fine, and when he came home there was a huge hole in 1 knee and a small one in the other. craptastic! now, i shop pretty much exclusively at children's place. not becuz i love their clothes, which i do, but becuz i have a credit card for them & the bill goes to my mom (thanks, nana!). but i'd already gone shopping there this month cuz isabelle's on a dress & skirt kick. all of a sudden, she's a totally girly-girl. headbands & skirts with tights every day. and even though my mom would be cool, i didn't want to do that again. especially since spring is coming (someday!) and i need to go through the totes of stuff i packed up from last year to see what still fits & what needs to be replaced.

so we decided to go to goodwill. i could have gone to kmart, but their quality isn't the best. and i couldn't find the once upon a child in the north hills. i really wanted to go to old navy, but their prices are outrageous unless you catch them on sale. and at goodwill i found a great selection of jeans in his size that are heavier than what i would have found at either old navy or children's place for a fraction of the price. and honestly, in this economy you've got to watch your pennies. i spent as much for 5 pairs of jeans at goodwill as i would have for 2 at old navy or children's place. plus, they had an organ (unplugged, thankfully) that the kids sat and played on while i shopped. i definitely wouldn't have found that elsewhere :)

for some reason, shopping at once upon a child doesn't seem like secondhand. i think it's becuz they're so picky about what they'll accept, while at goodwill you still hafta check. but if i'm looking for special occasion clothes, once upon a child is my first thought. 2 years ago i found this beautiful deep plum velvet dress for isabelle that still had the tags on. originally it was $50 and i got it for $10! of course, they wouldn't take it back once isabelle'd outgrown it when i included it in the piles of stuff i was trying to sell back. oh well. we got awesome Christmas photos that year :)

for myself, my favorite place to shop is my church's rummage sale. i always help with the sorting so i get to shop early. and there's a couple of older ladies with impeccable taste that are tall, so their trousers fit me well :) a couple of years ago i got a black pin striped pants suit for $3! talk about a bargain! :) but i can't always count on the rummage sale for the kids.

when i was a kid, i hated shopping at goodwill. hopefully, my kids won't be as snobby as i was & will just take it in stride. :)

my love of shoes

i love shoes. at one point in time i had over 100 pairs of shoes, most of them black. i've really downsized in recent years, mainly becuz my husband refuses to dedicate as much storage space as i'd really like. and he keeps asking questions like "why do you need all these shoes? you don't even wear them. don't you have a pair of black shoes like those?" clearly he's a man, and will never understand my need for blue reptile print leather pumps *smile*

but i think i've passed my love of shoes (some would say addiction *smile*) on to my children. alexander really only has 1 pair of shoes--tennis shoes--that he wears constantly. but he does have a pair that he wears to church at Easter & Christmas (and whenever we're at grandma's house for mass *smile*) but he needed a new pair cuz they didn't fit. we were at a fabulous resale shop called once upon a child where i take their "gently used" clothing and get cash to buy them "new" clothing. while we were there, i found not 1, not 2, but 3 pairs of stacy adams in his size. anyone who doesn't know who stacy adams is has never bought fabulous mens shoes. they're right up there with florsheims. i didn't even know they made stacy adams for boys! i was so excited. and i found the most adorable pair of rain boots for isabelle. she wanted to carry them home herself.

so today, we're watching lightening mcqueen, and they both want to put on their new shoes. and alexander is tap-dancing in the kitchen on the hardwood floor (i don't know where he got that from *smile*) and asked me if he can wear his new shoes to bed *smile*. a boy after my own heart *smile*