Dirt Cheap Missoni and a 3D date

Happy Friday friends!

Wanted to share a little news bulletin with those of you that are local, AND, even if you're not, you may want to head to the Dirt Cheap nearest you anyway...

are those everywhere? Hudson's Dirt Cheaps? Are they nationwide or just in Southern states? I've been to a few in other cities while on vacation but I wasn't sure...

Anywhoo, I got a text from my SIL last night (thank you MK) that said she'd been to one of the Dirt Cheap's in our town and had spotted lots of Missoni goods. That's right. Missoni. As is 'Missoni for Target'. As in, goods that sold out online and in stores and caused a website crash, not to mention several cat fights. THAT Missoni. Well, evidently not everything sold out, and our Dirt Cheap got a shipment from a Target store somewhere out there of the goods they had left. Of course I was in my car and headed to Dirt Cheap within 2 shakes of a lambs tail.

Here's what I found-

flats in various sizes (children & adults)

heels in various sizes

a couple chevron plates,

as well as a few floral ones (not pictured)

poufs

I grabbed a buggy and pretty much threw anything Missoni inside until I'd picked what I wanted. I also found a notebook and a couple clipboards, as well as the set of platters in my hand and the one in the buggy. Almost bought the big platter too, but in the end,...

this is what came home with me.

The blk/white platters, (nevermind that one's missing from the group- at $5, who cares?) and 2 pairs of little girl flats. E has already worn the fabric off of the toes on the pair that currently fit her, and I bought the next size up at Target already, so I picked up a size 6 for little MM, and a size 9. Now E will have an 8 AND a 9. Ya know, for when she grows.

I also brought home this cricut cartridge for a sweet $12.

Beach party anyone?

Did I find anything else I wanted to bring home, but didn't?

I'm so glad you asked.

Why yes. Yes I did.

I wanted this:

That's right.

A lucite chair on wheels.

Never in a million years (or 31) have I seen anything this cool at a Dirt Cheap. The Zig zag flats come close, but this wins.

(*ahem....attention family...I have a birthday coming up....ahem*)

In other non-dirt-cheapy news....

Hubs and son are stoked to be seeing this in 3D today. Will any of you be heading to the theatre as well??

Happy Weekend to ya!



We now return you to regularly scheduled programming: baby shower planning

But first, a quick update-

Day 2 with the mini:

I don't love it,

but I don't hate it.

And yes, those open-with-the-push-of-a-button doors have already come in handy twice since A) it was pouring rain when O and I got to school yesterday and we were able to hop out and make a run for it while the door shut itself, and B) I took both girls with me to Target last night and not once did I have to let go of E's hand before getting in the car since I had that uppity key fob in my other hand which was also holding a babe and two grocery sacks.

Press button,

help E into mini all the while holding her hand,

throw grocery sacks from other hand into all that empty space back there,

put other babe gently into her car seat,

buckle both girlies,

press button,

go home.

And before I leave the subject of Target completely, I must tell you why we were there in the first place. We went there (for the 4th time this week) solely for the purpose of buying the Wizahd, which in Eliza-speak means,

The Wizard of Oz.

Ever since watching it a couple weeks ago on TBS, she hasn't stopped talking about it, which I don't mind one lil' bit. In fact, I kind of LOVE it. It is a musical, after all. And so, while we were there to buy the Wizahd on DVD, (we only have the VHS and there are currently zero working VCR's at our house) we also just happened to find ourselves in the women's clothing department, and more specifically, at the clearance racks in the women's clothing department.
And do you know what we FOUND there?

Hmmmm?

Tons and tons of Missoni for Target goods which are now 50% off.

Did you hear that?

Clothing items that flew off the racks quicker than turkeys fly out of grocery stores on Thanksgiving were now BACK ON THE RACKS, and I'm wondering-

how?

Where had they been?

The long-sleeved floral blouse was there, along with several black cardigans and long navy dresses and black and white zig-zag dresses along with tons of little girls zig-zaggies as well.

It is a mystery.

But I totally took advantage and brought two more zig-zag numbers home with me. How could I not?

All of this rambling to say- if you're local and you missed out on the Missoni goods, specifically clothes, get thee to Target.

Moving on.

I wanted to share a bit of what I have planned for the shower on Sunday, which is rapidly approaching and yet- my house is no cleaner than it was 2 days ago. At the moment, I'm way more excited about the decor than about the fact that I'll actually have to clean up before I can get to the decor.

Ah well...

I blogged about these cute vintage alphabet cards several months ago and thought this shower would be the perfect opportunity to pull them out-

They're a freebie over on the Handmade Home blog, and while my initial reason for printing them out (which cost $0 since I already had plenty of cardstock on hand) was to use them in the girls room somewhere, I think they'll look fabulous strung up in the dining room where all of the shower food will be.

I'm wanting everything at the party to give off a vintage vibe, which is another reason why those alphabet cards are so perfect. I'm also planning to use lots of chalkboards (which I've also got plenty of) like this:

Source: thesweetestoccasion.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

Pretty sweet, right? I made 4 more mini-to-medium sized chalkboards over the weekend (just like the big one I made for the kitchen) from frames I'd purchased at the thrift store.

 So simple.

Here's both of these ideas tied together in a vintage schoolhouse baby shower I pinned several months ago-

Source: designmom.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

 Love the chalkboard on the buffet,
love the vintage flashcards,
love it all.

I'll be sharing how I made the invites for free in another post, but for now, I have to give you a hint of what was on them just cause they're so stinkin cute...

Itty-bitty chevron onesies which I'm planning to use in other aspects of the decor as well. Can't wait. So excited.
Now if my house would just clean itself like those magic doors on the mini...

HAPPY THURSDAY EVERYONE!

weekend recap

Happy Monday to ya, friends!

Hope you had a fab weekend.

I suffered a bit of heartburn and nausea and diarrhea and I think I may have also developed an ulcer after watching the Tide on Saturday night.

Heartbreaking loss.

Heartbreaking.

But life goes on...

Roll Tide, y'all.

As I've mentioned here before, as the week goes along with me teaching full time and mom-ing full time and sewing full time and making sure something gets into the bellies of my family, I lose more and more sleep. Fridays are the worst. The worst. Sometimes I feel like I could fall over at any moment and I'm sure I would, if not for the huge quantities of coffee I drink throughout the day. On Friday as O and I walked through the door from school, I had a hankering for some rice. Quick rice. Throw-it-in-the-microwave-and-eat-it-90-seconds-later rice. I pulled it out of the pantry, threw it in the microwave, and listened to it explode 60 seconds later.

When the kind people at Uncle Bens tell you to rip the top off of the package before cooking, they mean it. I was too tired to even follow the directions on a bag of rice y'all.

sheesh.

Thank goodness for Saturday, and thank goodness there was nothing on my schedule early in the wee hours. After sleeping as late as the girls would allow, I headed to a craft fair I read about on facebook. It took place in the gym of the church where we are currently holding services and while I didn't take any pics, there were lots of goodies there. I came home with a fabulous scarf and a little girl. Because I'd taken her with me. I didn't steal her.

After MM and I left the craft fair, we headed to- where else....Target.

I have to share one small glance at how crazy-packed-with-people my town was over the weekend.

This was the lot next to Target and the mall-

campers and RV's as far as the eye could see.

They were also packed into several other lots that are now vacant due to the tornado. They were everywhere.

Everywhere.

The 'game of the century' draws quite a large crowd.

Moving on.

I tried desperately to get a decent picture of the kiddos in their church clothes before nap time yesterday, not just because they're pretty darn tootin' cute, but also because the girls were sporting their Missoni for the first time.

If I've said it once, I've said it a gajillion times-

It's flippin hard to get a pic of these 3. Two seconds after I'd snapped these, MM was climbing backwards down the steps, Oliver was running to the backdoor, and E was soprano singing and twirling.

Valiant effort though, right?

Last night, we turned to TBS just in time to see the twister knock Dorothy onto her bed. Once E realized what we were watching, she made a mad dash for her closet and retrieved her Dorothy dress. Because that's the only way to watch The Wizard of Oz. In your Dorothy dress and sparkly shoes and a stuffed dog under your arm. Good gravy she may look just like her Daddy, but that girl is MY child.

The 4 of us sat and watched the movie while we waited for Daddy to get home from his. Several of the men from our church went to see the film Courageous yesterday and hubs raved about it when he got home. So glad he was able to go. Have any of you seen it?

****

I'll be attending 2 more craft fairs in the near future and once I have all the details, I'll share them here for those of you who are local.

And....

Don't forget that you have until Thursday night to enter my current giveaway for a $30 shop credit! I'm celebrating reaching another milestone here at the blog, and as a 'thank you' to YOU, my readers, one of you will win your choice of some goods from my shop. Just go to THIS post and leave a comment telling me something that you're thankful for. That's it! You can come back each day and enter, but all entries must be on THIS post to count. I'll be choosing a winner Thursday night via random.org and will post the winning comment on Friday (11.11.11). For extra entries, you can also tweet or facebook about this giveaway- just be sure to leave another comment telling me which one you did.

Happy Monday!



weekend recap and a new shop item

Hello friends, and happy Monday to ya!

I hope you all had a fabulously mahvelous weekend.

Mine got off to a little bit of a slow start as I was

incredibly, insanely, overwhelmingly tired from the happenings of the week.

Do any of you experience that?

Monday starts off well enough, but if you go to bed the SLIGHTEST bit late, you're in trouble. There's no catching up on Tuesday, for Tuesday has an agenda of its own, and Wednesday? Fuh-get about it. No catching up then, and Thursday and Friday?

They just laugh at you.

"What? You think WE'RE about to give you a break? Cut you some slack? Not only are we NOT going to give you the rest you so desperately need, we're gonna take away even more of your sleepy time/sanity."

That Friday is a booger. Since Saturday is the ONE day of the week that doesn't have an early call, Friday is all like, "Stay up late with me! Drink coffee all night long and read those magazines that you've been piling up because Monday through Thursday don't give you time for such nonsense. I'll give you all the time you WANT for your Elle Decor and Traditional Home and Lucky and InStyle. ALL the TIME YOU WANT."

(Sometimes I just want to punch Friday in the face and go to bed at 6:00pm)

Sorry.

I digress.

As I was saying...

My boys were both up early, the older one went to church to help build a pavilion (more on that in a sec) and the younger one was ready to fly spaceships in a galaxy far, far away. After a bowl of oatmeal of course.

Since our church is running a distribution center now, it was decided that a permanent pavilion-type structure should be built in the parking lot. And for those of you wondering why my church would need a structure in the parking lot with a roof, THIS post will explain why. The needs of the community around my church are still great and so many are still volunteering their time and donating their goods to make sure those needs are met. On Saturday, my hubs was one of several men who made 8 wooden posts sunk into the ground go from this:

to this:

to this:

and if I'm remembering correctly, all that's left to do is to finish out the roof with shingles. Once that's done, the pavilion will serve as a permanent structure under which tables can be set up for the distribution of goods, as well as the occasional meal. Awesomeness.

While hubs was busy with the hammer and nails, I was able to check a whole slew of things of the ole' to-do list. Yes, I totally just said slew.

I fed the girlies breakfast, cleaned out their closet, listed some much-too-small-for-MM clothes on the facebook garage sale, cleaned out the fridge, fed all 3 kiddos lunch, washed the dishes, put the girlies down for a nap, cut some fabric,and took the quickest shower EVAH because the girlies didn't even nap an entire hour. (boo)

I was thankful for enough time, however, to cut these out:

Yes, I do feel like I owe a bit of an apology to Halloween and Thanksgiving for putting my thoughts on Christmas so early, but I jotted "Houndstooth stocking" on a piece of paper at school this week and simply had to make one. I used the same pattern I made for my burlap stockings last year and I'm tickled pink with how they turned out.

Yup.

Pink.

They'll be listed in the shop as soon as I have etsy-worthy photos of them.

And speaking of Houndstooth and Crimson and Roll Tide and whatnot...

these babies, as well as the solid crimson and the houndstooth/crimson hybrid flowers, are totally for sale at Alabama Express on the strip (as well as 3 other locations in town). So, for all you locals, you can totally see and purchase my flowers at an actual store. I mean, they'll be hanging in there. On the wall and stuff. And you can buy them. Did you hear me, internet? My stuff is available at a brick and mortar other than my house.

Thanks go to David for thinking they were cool enough to sell in his shop.

And speaking of my friend David....

he ran lights and sound for Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre's production of Thoroughly Modern Millie this week.

The hubs and I were able to see the show Saturday night and it. was. fab.

Kudos to their director, Drew, and to Rosie and Nick who were absolutely superb as Millie & Jimmy. The entire cast and crew should be extremely proud of their production. Also, kudos to Callie and Tim for their phenomenal cameos. Did you hear that Callie and Tim?

That's a total shout-out.

And now, here's a few more things you might need to know, or might care to know, or might not give a rat's tooty about:

1. I'm currently cooking supper.

In my crock-pot.

This is huge for me since I really don't cook.

(It's in my bio)

Thanks go to Judy for giving me that chili recipe on a blue index card a couple of years ago. It's the only thing I make that hubs will eat.

2. I'm taking the kiddos trick-or-treating on sorority row tonight.

Any of you ever done this?

Taken your kiddos to sorority houses to trick-or-trick?

Most of the fams at my church do it every year-

not quite sure why I've never gone before.

Oh yeah, I was probably in rehearsal for something.

Anywho, I'm pumped.

Should be a good time.

I'll report back tomorrow.

3. Did I hear that Kristen Chenoweth was going to be on DWTS tonight?

Can anyone confirm?

I heart her.

4. All Missoni for Target items that happen to still be in Target stores are now 30% off.

Did you hear that internet?

30% OFF.

Run, don't walk.

5. And is there anything funnier than a babe in a curly gray wig eating a pop-tart?

I think not.



The day Missoni crashed Target

If you shop at Target,

or watch tv ads for Target,

or keep up with the designers who've partnered with Target,

chances are you might have known about a little partnership between the designer label Missoni, and the bullseye.

The collection of this famed fashion house was set to debut yesterday (9.13.11), and debut it did. The launch of the line, which included everything from housewares to clothing to bikes, was SO successful that it not only caused many a stampede of ladies through those big red doors, but also a complete crash of Target's website, causing those who'd chosen to stay home and avoid the crowds by shopping online great distress. There's a great article about the whole shebang in the Chicago Tribune HERE.

What was the big deal, you may ask?

Well I'll tell you.

Just as with other designer partnerships in the past (such as Isaac Mizrahi, Zac Posen, and Liberty of London), Missoni for Target offers up high runway fashion without the hefty pricetag.

For example:

This dress from the Missoni label is sold at Saks Fifth Avenue and retails for $1375.00

This dress & cardigan however, are from the Missoni for Target line and retailed for $49.99-$64.99

This dress at Saks = $1045

But this one at Target = a steal at just $54.99

If you're not a fan of the zig zag variety then you're in luck and won't have to look at any of it since most of the stores sold out of almost every item within the first hour. If you are, however, a fan and weren't able to grab any Missoni goods at your local Target or online, there are currently 16,900 Missoni for Target items listed on ebay. Some are selling with starting bids at or below retail, and some are selling with starting bids of $100 or higher for items which cost only $25-$65 in stores. While I was able to make a quick run to my local Target yesterday and pick up several items (thanks seester for zipping through like a mad woman and throwing the goods into your red buggy), the one item which eluded me was this:

the fabulous signature zig zag throw.

I've heard through the grapevine that most stores were only sent 2 of each of the color choices, and lucky for me, I just happen to have an Aunt in TN who went to her local Target and was able to grab this one for me:

A few items made it home with me, including these cutie-patootie shoes for E:

and a zig zag cardigan for myself.

So...

I'd love to know-

what's your opinion of the zig zags.

Love it or leave it?

Anyone else join in the madness at their local Target today?

Anyone out there cursing Target.com under their breath for failing to handle the demand?

Anyone else out there craving cheesecake?

No?

Just me then?

******

And HOW could I not have mentioned the finale of Design Star??

So glad I was able to watch with my friends Jamie and Tim-

we sat through almost every episode together!

Not gonna lie,

never would have picked Meg to take home the prize when the season began,

and...

anyone else remember her hot mess of a white box?

Or how about the HGTV'd home where she didn't finish her spaces which were the ENTRYWAY and LOFT for goodness sakes! Not even rooms! Just quasi-rooms!

Ah well...

Congrats to her, and -

will YOU be watching her 'Great Rooms' show on HGTV?

Do tell...