Regular price, four bucks, four bucks.

Twice a year, one of our area thrift stores has an enormous bag sale, where all clothes, shoes, purses, and belts are $4 for a paper grocery sack full. And everytime it comes around, I think, ah, I think I'll skip it this year. We don't need anything, and we have too much crap already...and then somehow I end up there at 9am, waiting in line for the doors to open with the families of immigrants and the people who have cars packed so full of stuff that they can't see out their windows. When V was an infant, I used a baby carrier, tied her to my body, and took her along for the ride. The last few years, I've left her at home with her Daddy or coerced Grandma to come play, because this sale is not for the faint of heart. This year, though, Grandma was spoken for, and it was Daddy's turn to sleep in. So I braved this crazy place with a three year old, giving her strict instructions to stay by me, and if she couldn't see me, she was to call out "Lumpy?" and I'd answer "Bubbles!" until we found each other. We had to do that twice, but there were no tears, we were in and out in an hour and twenty minutes, and scored two bags worth of clothes for us, Grandma Myra, Auntie Jess, and cousins Will and Emmy.

These are the store tags, all removed. V and I added them up, and you wanna guess the regular thrift store prices for all our items? $87. Eighty seven THRIFT STORE dollars. You can imagine our excitement at paying less than 10% of that. (see kids? Math can be fun). The bright orange ones are actually new products Target donates when they can't sell something. I love it when that happens.

Cooler still is this price tag, on a pair of pants I bought that will probably be too big for my sister. You can't tell in the photo, but they are a lovely black cord with a pattern, and apparently the pattern is made of pure gold, because the store tag reads $98. That can't be right, can it? No one on this planet pays $98 for a pair of pants. Do they? At any rate, if they ARE too big, let me know if you want them. I'll sell them for $47. Otherwise, I'm cutting it these up to put in a quilt. A magic quilt made of gold.

Here's the main pile. Across the top and middle there, you'll see sweet plaid pants, some jeans, four sweaters, a turtleneck, and a green corduroy Land's End jumper, all for V to wear within the next year. Across the bottom, a blouse for Jess, a fleece pullover for Will, and the cutest purple flowered corduroy jacket I've ever seen for Emmy. Also, that blue cardigan in the middle has a faux-fur collar. Also for Emmy, I'm pretty sure my sister wouldn't buy her such a garment, but I'm excited to see her in it. Every baby needs some faux fur.

I asked Shaun to take a picture of just the denim skirt, but he refused. So here we are. I like this picture, because it reminds me of a freakshow photo where a regular sized person stands next to a giant for scale. See, here I'm the giant. The apparently unflattering sweater was already mine, but I didn't have a good long denim skirt. Not pictured for me (because the photos came out worse than that one, above) are a short corduroy skirt in burgundy and rose pink slacks for work. I wouldn't normally chose rose pink slacks, and they look a little like scrubs, but they will be a nice change this spring from my black trouser uniform.

But the best part? You knew I'd save the best part for last, didn't you? The best part has to be these two dresses, the first two things I found as we swarmed the store with the rest of the crowd. Both vintage, both just right for V to wear in the next year (though this first one may be a little big). I could not be more excited! First, a cotton number with corduroy trim:
And this? This may be the most glorious dress I could ever have imagined. Except it's polyester. But the skirt? That's embroidery, people. Nobody embroiders on kids clothes anymore. You think you're gonna find something this pretty at Old Navy? Nuh-uh. Old Navy sells thong underwear for five year olds. This dress is the antidote to thong underwear. After she wears it a few times, I may just have to frame it, I like it so much.May all your future polyester dresses be this fancy. May your bags be full of bargains. And may all your underwear offer full, comfortable coverage.