Another last, officially over..........

Yesterday, I took the day off and my youngest and I went shopping. Of course we hit Goodwill first, then to the fabric store.

Since my oldest started kindergarten I have been making my kids first day of school outfit, then with the scraps of material I have made the two older ones quilts (with one square representing each year of school) for them to take to college. That would be thirty-eight outfits down, and one to sew!

I gotta tell you......... I am soooooo over the public school system that when my youngest became a Freshman, my motto was "Four More Years!" Now it is "The Last Time I Will Ever Have To _________!" I am just tired of having to fight for my kid's right to a good education. Isn't that part of what I pay taxes for? I WILL NOT START! Change the subject.

She picked out a really nice black and (bright) tourquois small ckecked tweed for me to make a skirt out of. She liked the brightness as she said she wants to be "bold" this year. (She says this every year........ It doesn't last!) We looked for a top with the same tourquois in it, but unable to find a match, settled for a great deal on a high quality black top that she can wear with anything. So the entire outfit (even counting the dollar goodwill pumps that she found last year that will be perfect for the outfit) cost under twenty dollars. Not bad, hu?

Then it was on to lamp replacing........... WHY? You ask.

Well, the night before last, some strange (to the dogs, and honestly, to me as well) people stopped by to see me. The dogs were on their leashes which are looped around the leg of the end table. Normally as soon as whoever gets in the door they settle down, but this time they began to pull in unison and moved the table forward. (They say dogs are great at judging charater.) As they did so, the lamp on the table crashed off the back end.

Valuable lamp? Well, I actually rescued it from someone's basement, but it was hand-made stain-glass and I really liked the colors even if one piece of it was broken off. (I just put that part to the back, I was the only one that could tell it was damaged.) After the fall, it was pretty well mangled, so it had lit it's last dark night. I found a nice replacement that could possibly even pass for mission style like my furniture, for a mere twenty-nine dollars. It had a few nicks on it, ( up high, under the shade) so I got an additional twenty percent off the price.

One more deal........... We found this really cute little vest in the brown tones of my youngest's wardrobe, that was marked down to five dollars and something. Problem was, it was missing a button. Easy to replace the buttons, but it would have cost me more money to buy six new buttons than the cost of the vest, so I ask for further mark down. The manager said it would be more cost effective for them to damage out the item than to further mark it down so she couldn't do that. (Doesn't make sense to me to waste a perfectly good piece of clothing, but I guess they have to make money as well.) What she did do for me though is cut off one of the buttons from a different size and give it to me, and then she damaged out that one. Adding this one piece to things she already owned will give my youngest lots of new looks. Moral of this story............ It never hurts to ask for what you want. So what if someone tells you "no." Would it be the first time? If you practice on the little things, then when you go car shopping you will be all set to save some serious money!

So...... Last school physical for sports, check. Last picture day, check, last school shopping trip, check. Last stop watch for track, check. (Actually last six, as she looses one a month, so when they are on sale at the start of school we lay in a good supply) Fights with the principal/assorted teachers, and calling her in to excuse her for being late............ I am sure I won't be checking those things off until early next June!