Treasure Hunting Again

Oh crud... I did it again.

I went to the grocery store for a "quick trip".  I got the shopping done and was heading back home, thinking... "Ah... so nice to be alone.  No kids in the car, and another hour and a half till the first kid comes home."  

Now granted, I love being HOME alone, too... but I can feel that feeling after 9:30 at night when all four kids are asleep.  I can't shop at super-dee-duper cute stores at 9:30 at night!  Am I right?

So, as I drove past one of my favorite stores in town... you know, the one with the "moving sale" in progress... I just had to peek in to see if the sale prices went down any more.  

Sure enough...

they had!!

75% off almost everything.  ('cept Yankee Candles and other namebrand items... but that was okay... I wasn't looking for Vera Bradley, Christopher Radko or Yankee Candles today... even at 75% off, they wouldn't prove to be true *bargains*.  Am I right?)

The last time I "popped in", I chose not to grab a cart.  Big mistake.  A third-of-the-way through the store, and my arms were loaded.  So THIS time, I grabbed a cart!

Here are some of the treasures I came across.....

What a cute little glass jar.  Perfect season, too.... how on earth was this not sold yet?

It was Department 56, too! See?  (Whoops... forgot to turn it!)

I paid... $7.  It's about 14" tall... no small thing, either!  The tag said it was a "jelly bean" jar.  Now, we like jelly beans, but in this house, the most requested Easter candy is... 

M&Ms!

Seven bucks.  Seriously?  (The M&Ms inside cost more than that... seriously!)

Last time I was there, I almost snagged this cutie, but since it was Christmasy, I bypassed it till the price went down.  Well, it did... $3.75.  

And the cool thing... on the reverse, there is no Christmas design... so I can use it year-round!

I never thought of myself as a tchotchke sort of person, but a few little seasonal items tucked in here and there can be cute!  I found this little silver guy for $3

I gave him a cute hiding place by the window.  (Look... here's a plant I haven't killed yet!)

 Well, since the prices went down, I grabbed a few Christmas items.  These are metal snowflakes, about 7" tall... great for a 9' Christmas tree.  Oh, and they were 75 cents each.

I know a lot of bloggers are on a bird-kick these days.  I'm not BIG on birds, but a cute little birdie here and there isn't bad.  These little resin guys (about 4" tall) were $1.50 each.

Every year, we get our kids a new ornament.  Usually I aim to get something personalized or something unique to their tastes (i.e. Soccer ball for the soccer players, a kid with braces for my son who got braces that year, a Chinese ornament for the year we adopted our youngest, etc.)  But these little guys were so doggone cute at $3.50 each, I had to grab them.  Ha!  Ornaments done for 2011!  YES!!  Oh, maybe I'll iron on a little letter-applique or something to make them "personalized".  

 For the fall season, I couldn't bypass these little squirrels.  Too cute on a mantle or Thanksgiving centerpiece, right?  $3 each (and the size is about 7" tall).

Now this one, I was hesitant.  I saw it two weeks ago and passed it up.  I had seen someone spraypaint a cross off-white before (man... canNOT remember where I saw that...).  However, I was hesitant to get this with the words on it.  Then after seeing the $2.50 price-tag, I realized... ha!  It includes my daughter's name, and this song was playing when we made a video montage of her adoption trip.  So... the song is fitting to us.  This is big and only $2.50... c'mon!  I had to buy it now.

These little milk bottles were only $2 each.  I got two for Mother's Day gifts for our moms.  Now, what to put in them?  Any ideas?  Maybe if I'm energetic enough, I'll drag out the Cricut and add a few names and words to the bottle before putting something in there.  Hmmmm.....

I was a little worried to post this since it's a potential gift... BUT, I have come to the conclusion that my dear mother ...who keeps up on Facebook statuses several times a day, emails me a dozen times a day, calls nearly daily, knows my schedule almost by heart, spoils my kids rotten and plays Webkinz for them to keep their characters alive and well... all from 5 hours away... just NEVER reads my blog.  I'll have local friends bring up blog topics to me all the time, but when I mention something to my mom about something I wrote, she "hasn't read it yet".

So, Mom, if you are reading this... congratulations... you now know a little secret about your gift... and thank you for reading my blog.  Yay!

But, I'm still convinced she won't read this.  Ha!  (Shhh.... don't tell her about my deal.)

 Halloween is a holiday that we're never crazy about decorating for.  It just has never been our thing.  I'll set out carved pumpkins and ceramic pumpkin jars and burn pumpkin candles and buy cute costumes for the kids, 

...but hanging scary witches and ghosts and putting creepy bloody zombies in my yard never gave us a thrill.  I'll let the neighbors go hog wild setting up scary haunted houses and fake cemetaries and blast smoke across their yards on Trick-or-Treat night (because I do like seeing that!)  I particularly love the ones that go crazy with Halloween and serve "special drinks" to the adults that go alone with the kiddos.  (oh... but I digress, huh....)

However, if it can be creepy in a natural way... like ravens and black cats and bats.... now, THAT I like. I just don't own very much.  I found this little guy today for $3.  So, he came home for me... ready to sit on my shelf come October.

Well, that's it for my shopping trip today.  It's Spring Break beginning at 4:15 today when the last child trickles in off the school bus.  So, chances are pretty good that I won't be out treasure hunting till the next school day in 10 days.  :-)

If you're heading to Spring Break, too.... ENJOY!  Hopefully you'll have a slightly better break than us.  No vacations, no special day-trips (other than a funeral)... but that's what happens when you buy a new house, eh?