retail thriftiness - brand new bargains

Greetings all,

I love a good bargain.  Even more so when it's an adorable brand new product - i might have paid full price for - with a tiny fault.  Triple awesome when it's marked down to $2!!

 I took this Cotton Candy sweet baking set (pun intended) to the counter to double check the mark down.  "Bug in candle packet" well that's good enough for my children . . . they don't eat the candles & the bug was so incy wincy, hardly a concern on a birthday cake which has dozens of germy children heaving & blowing over it at a party.

 Nice surprise when i got home & opened it up properly, a biscuit stamp, adorable.

 A little while ago i found this mint-in-the-box $150 camera on the "$2 Not Quite Right" table.

 Even as a decorator piece (i sound like Frank & Mike on American Pickers) . . . but it actually works, i still can't find the flaw.  If you were alive in the 1980's the back of this camera will bring back memories.  My children still ask where the 'screen' is??!!  

 Mass manufacture discounts i can understand with huge profit margins covering hiccups, but when you find a handcrafted pear like this beautifully detailed felt one, you wonder who made it & how can it possibly be for sale at only $5.  I appreciate & cherish it. 

 Now i've shown you some Alannah Hill 'damaged stock' bargains before but this frock . . . "$399 broken zip $40" . . . even if you took the bow off the front & made it into a headband you're ahead.  It's much cuter on, with those little tassels shimmying, i buy these dresses on a whim (size 6) for when my girls grow taller & get hips, for future dances, socials & formals.

Now i won't be fighting my daughters for any size 6 clothing, but i have been after some Converse sneakers (for years actually) & boom, found these on the "$50 last sizes" table.  Better yet, they fit my eldest daughter - who already has size 10 (40) feet like her Mama - so we can share.  We will get these shoes down to 5c a wear, i promise you!!

Retail is hurting, lots of businesses are closing down . . . once loved stock - they're glad to get rid of it for a pittance.  You just have to keep your eyes peeled & some gold coins in your purse for those enormous impulse bargains.  I just found a gorgeous Esprit long denim skirt 80% off & i thought, well i'm not seeing my sister these school holidays, $20 is a fraction of the price i'd spent on fuel alone to visit her, so i popped it in with her son's July birthday gift i was posting off, as a little surprise.  

Have you scored yourself some crazy bargains lately, better value than second hand in Op Shops??  Do share, won't you??  Love Posie

wordless Wednesday . . . 'first glasses'

Greetings all,
My littlest girl picked up her reading glasses on the weekend.  

 She's smiling now, my darling quirky one, wearing them at school to read & at home to sew.

I'm so proud she's coping so beautifully with being the only child in the family to need glasses.  She even wore her Converse sneakers to match her new cool frames.  For Wordless Wednesdays, check out Faith Hope & a Whole Lotta Love.  Love Posie 

i'm grateful for . . . 'medical advice'

Greetings all,

Thank you so very much for the kind thoughts & comments about my hand issues over recent months.  Story goes: i was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both hands while pregnant with my son, i used splints instead of surgery & now, 8 years later, with hands getting worse, i sought out a confirmation diagnosis so i could have surgery.  I'm not taking drugs, it's a dull throb not pill-popping-agony.  I saw the neurlogist on Thursday.  I was so excited - reconfirm the CTS & book me in for surgery, end my days of useless, clumsy hands & sleeping in metal hand splints . . . only . . . I don't have CTS.  What??  Seriously?? 
So, back to square one.  I am numb & disappointed.  Was my initial diagnosis wrong??  I probably did have CTS, typical while pregnant, but why all the persistent symptoms since then??  RSI maybe??  Friday my hands were quite good, i started to wonder if i had hysterical CTS or was it psychosomatic??  Trying not to dwell, i'll keep resting my hands in the meantime.  I was frustrated that the neurologist was there to confirm CTS ONLY, nothing else, fine point of the needle specialist attitude, no consultation or advice, just my $275 for 15 minutes in his office, thank you very much. 

This week i took each of my children to the optometrist.  My son gets headaches & last year was squinting, so he had a thorough check (all good) & my 2 eldest girls were fine, then my 3rd girl had her appointment on Friday morning . . . cut a long story short, she is super far sighted & requires low script glasses. 
Just to refresh your memory, this is my sensitive soul, my Nina, who skips through life & curls up on toadstools, she loathes that she has mild asthma & eczema, she likes her fashion style to be left of centre, not her health.  When the sweet optometrist gently said she'll need glasses for 'reading & computer work' my daughter mouthed to me "i'll just stop reading", i could feel her freeze up.  She held it together, we chose some cool blue Converse frames, $598 later (phew $280 back from private health insurance) we left & then the tears started rolling.  I suggested her long distance eye sight was too good & made Six Million Dollar Man sound affects, she was not impressed.

 I distracted her with a mini shopping spree at Seed.  Ok, she won't wear fabulous designer frames which will benefit her eyes, but she'll wear cow glasses??

 So i bought her a plastic gelato fan too, plus mini paint set, piggie bank, headband, sticky notes & bird whistle - you know, stocking fillers!!

My little lamb, or calf, she's certainly made my hand worries melt away.  She's 10 years old, getting glasses is a HUGE deal.  When i took her to school after her appointment i bumped into her cool-young-guitar-playing-gorgeous-maths-teacher who said she had to wear glasses as a child & she tried to forget/ lose/ leave them behind but soon reaslied glasses helped her & there was no escaping them.  Then my son's pro-ice-hockey-teacher said his youngest daughter needs glasses & she can't wait to wear them.  Of course i wear glasses but i don't count!!  I saw all her friends crowd around her, saying how lovely she'll look in glasses, they are beautiful friends & she has many.  Tania McCartney, the fantastic children's author, offered to write her a letter (email) & confessed that she too needed glasses when she was 10, she was nervous, then realised wearing glasses was special, made her feel smart & helped with her work.  Then Tania said cute things like "if anyone can rock a quirky pair of glasses, it's you!!"  She even attached images of celebrities who wear glasses, yay!!
So she's calmer now, still demanding she won't wear her glasses but also asking questions of how she'll care for them between classes.  I smell a breakthrough, absolutely thanks to all the instant positive feedback.  The glasses might only be required for a year, to prevent future eye issues & she has asked if she can bury them in the garden after 364 days (yes, one day shy of a year, that's my girl!!)  She'll have them for the last week of school, then holiday light reading to get used to them.  It's all about how you approach this situation, the atmosphere, the wording - i said "oh reading, & you know, craft, stitching, drawing & art" all the things she holds dear, or i would have lost her!!  Last thing she heard as she fell asleep tonight was "i'm so proud of you".  Bless her heart, i love how she always lets me know how she's feeling, internalise & implode otherwise.
Thanks Maxabella Loves, i'm grateful for medical advice, in all it's forms, love Posie