So, do you want to know what I have been up to? Ok I will tell…. I learned to sew! I know….who would have ever thought a girl who loves to shop as much as I do would want to make something instead of shopping for it. Well, I have been planning another trip to Disney World (stay tuned for some wonderful details about our trip and a pre-trip report), and I came across all of these beautiful custom made Disney outfits on Ebay and Etsy. Naturally I wanted to buy my daughter about 20 of them for our trip, but here’s the catch they were nearly $300 a piece. I don’t think my husband would have been happy if I spent $6000 on my daughter’s Disney World apparel. So I decided if I wanted her wearing cute Disney Boutique clothes, I would have to learn how to make them myself.

Now I figured it was a long shot, but when I put my mind to something, I am pretty determined. Now for those of you who don’t know, I am an accountant (not a very creative field). I had never touched a sewing machine before in my life. The things I have been making aren’t perfect, but I am pretty happy with them, and my daughter loves them!

Here are a few of the outfits I have made in the past 4 weeks since I bought a sewing machine and embroidery machine.

Now does this mean I am shopping less? NO WAY….. in fact I have to admit I am shopping MORE! Between buying the machines I wanted and needed to complete these outfits (STAY TUNED: My deal of the week will be my embroidery machine and a great discount I found on it), and shopping for fabric and patterns, I am shopping more then ever. I have only been sewing for a month and I have a full sized dresser full of fabric already and a few bags waiting to be unpacked. I never knew how addictive fabric buying could be. There are just so many prints I adore, and don’t even get me started on applique designs for my embroidery machine.

So stay tuned…. I will be bringing back my shopping deals of the week and sharing all the shopping I am doing for my new hobby!

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There were a lot of long lines, but the express checkout didn’t look too bad. I quickly counted the items in my cart. I had 11 items and the little piece of paper I needed to purchase a package of razors for my husband (I hate that they don’t keep them out in the store anymore, it really is a pain to have to get them upfront). With the razors I would have 12 items, so I jumped in the express checkout lane, that was clearly marked 12 items or less.

As the person in front of me is paying, I start adding my items to the counter. I can hear someone behind me mumbling about not being able to read. At this point I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. Then I hear her start talking loudly about how it is an express lane, I thought she might be talking about the cashier being slow. When I heard her implying I had too many items I started counting my items out loud. Soda-1, apples-2, milk-3, ect.

Either the woman didn’t hear me, or she thinks 12 items is breaking the rules. She turned to my 3 year old daughter and said, “Your mommy is teaching you horrible manners, and she can’t read a sign that says express”. Even if I had 13 items (which I did not), she should not have spoken to my daughter that way. I calmly turned around, pointed at the sign that said 12 and reminded her I only had 12 items. She still insisted I was rude, apparently if I have 12 items and someone behind me has 3, I should let them have my place in line. Honestly I have done that before, but I had my daughter with me and was just concerned with getting her home. It really bothered me that someone would speak to another person like that, and that not even the cashier would speak up about it.

So that quick shopping trip was ruined for me, I guess I will have to shop some more to get the bad taste out of my mouth. Now I just need to decide what I can shop for tonight.

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I may be an expert in a lot of things when it comes to shopping, but I have always been intimidated by the cold medicine aisle. There are so many choices, so how will I know what works? That is also why I like drugstore.com, because I can read user reviews and ratings before I buy. I personally love that I don’t have to go digging through the aisles at my local drug store any more. I can find great prices and research the medicines without driving to the store.

Here are some great values I picked up this week, and remember with the $5-$10 coupon you get an even better value.

First up, I needed something to help prevent colds this year. I have always felt like Airborne has done a good job at keeping me healthy. Airborne was on sale for $4.49 (A $3.00 savings from my local drugstore).

My husband’s favorite cold medicine has always been Dayquil and Nyquil. Drugstore.com’s price is pretty much the same as my local drug store $11.99 for the 2, but the sales tax savings is great, and it helped me get to my minimum order for a discount code or free shipping.

They also had great prices on cold relief supplies I needed like vapor rub and cough drops.

So if like me, you need stock up your cold medicine supply before illness hits this winter, check out drugstore.com and you will save yourself time and money!

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I was having a lot of fun shopping online with her. I didn’t realize the little monster I was creating. She wanted to shop for hour and hours, when we finally checked out I explained it would come in the mail in a few days. She kept asking to check the mail box every 5 minutes the rest of the evening. It was cute at first, but got old after the 10th time. A few days later her box of clothes arrived. She was so excited, and she remembered she picked them out.

Every time I have picked up my laptop around my daughter since then, she begs to shop. I could no longer check my email or work from home in front of her. Oh no, what would I do, I love sitting on the couch with my laptop while she watches cartoons. If I wanted to ever use my computer again I had to find a solution.

Lucky for me she is three and can still be tricked. I bought her, her own laptop. An Elmo laptop that is actually very educational for toddlers. It doesn’t connect to the internet, or discuss shopping, but she is still content. Every night when I sit down with my laptop, she sits down beside me with hers. She often tells me she is shopping for princess dresses, and luckily she hasn’t noticed that none of them have come in the mail. Her Elmo laptop is a great toy (Here is a video review I made of The Elmo Learning Laptop) and it really lets her think she is a big girl like mom. Thank goodness for Elmo! As much as I love shopping with my daughter, I also love shopping for me sometimes too.

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Usually I run my errands alone since she would rather stay home and play with Daddy. I have always purchased her clothes by myself, or ordered them online. On our recent shopping trip we needed to pick her up a new dress for a wedding. I know her size, so I figured I would quickly grab what we needed and get out of the store before she became frustrated. When we reached the section with little girl dresses, she became very interested.

Most of the dresses I saw were pretty, so I figured I’d ask her for her input. Boy was I surprised when she started grabbing dresses and handing them to me. Of coarse she doesn’t know what size to get (or even how to read the tags for that matter), so I switch them for the right sizes and hold a couple up and ask her which one dress she wants to get. Her response, “I think I need to try them on.” I am still not sure where she learned that concept, but we grabbed a few of her favorites and off we went to find a dressing room.

Once we find a dressing room I put the first dress on her. I really expected her to be bored after trying the first dress on, but much to my surprise she tried on all four dresses we had taken to the dressing room. She pranced around in front of the mirror with each dress on. When I asked which one she liked best she grabbed one, held it in front of herself and said, “Maybe this one….but I think I need a hat.” Wow my little girl wants to accessorize already!!!

Back to the little girl’s department we went in search of a hat. We found several pretty little hats, but she insists she can’t choose one without trying it on with the dress. So we head towards the dressing room yet again so she can put the dress back on.

On our way to the dressing room she notices there are purses hanging on a wall. Can you guess where we go? She is very persuasive and she insists that she needs a matching purse (a girl after my heart). So after spending a good 15 minutes while she decides which purse she likes, we finally make it back to the dressing room. She puts her dress on, then her hat, and finally the purse on her arm. It takes another 10 minutes of prancing in front of a mirror before she confirms that she likes her choices.
As we walk towards the cash register and she asks if we can shop again soon, I can’t help but smile. Finally it seems that she did inherit a little more then looks from me, she got her Mommy’s love of shopping! I know we will have a thousand more shopping trips together, but I will always remember the first one.

Stay tuned for The Addiction Continues – Online Shopping to hear about her discovery of online shopping.

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