Score!!!!!!

Today after I took Josie to the orthodontist (who, thank GOD said that her retainer is fine for now, no braces until she loses about eight more teeth, come back in six months, PHEW), I did a little shopping.

First, I went to Joanne's Fabric, where I needed to get a pattern for the dress I want to make with that red-with-scottie-dogs fabric I bought for Josie a couple of months ago. I ended up leaving with this:

These ornaments are all unbreakable plastic and soft stuff, able to withstand The Tail of Death, aka Baci, as he flails past in yet another fit of doggie joy. Aren't they cute?! The little sweater and mitten are my favorite. We have to decorate all sides of the tree this year, since it will be in the bay window in the dining room rather than in a corner, and these were half off. Also, note the giant pile of patterns - they're $1 apiece for Veteran's Day week!!! WOOHOO!!!! I think they're McCall's. I got a bunch for Josie, but also a couple for me (I don't usually make things for myself, but I'm going to try), as well as two for my new neices-to-be, because one has a pattern for those things you put over shopping cart seats and the other has patterns for the things you can put over carseats so you don't have to put snowsuits on the babies - there's instructions on how to make them for stroller seats, too. I figure I'll make them for gifts for when the babies are born.

Then, I figured I'd go over to the Pfaltzgraff outlet to look for new plates. The ones I bought at Pier 1 a few years ago are now pretty chipped, and so are the bowls I got to match them from Kohls. After about an hour, I wandered over to Plow and Hearth, and GUESS WHAT?!?! They had two boxes of really pretty, plain plates that had been the 'display plates' on sale:


Get this - I got both boxes, eight complete sets of dinner plates, bowls, lunch plates and mugs, for TWENTY DOLLARS! Whoot!!!! They sell for $40 a set regularly! I tried to take a close-up photo to show how speckly and pretty the stoneware is, but it really doesn't quite show up as well as I had hoped in the picture. I'm planning on driving to another store to try and get one more set, in brown, so we can have enough to easily have a bunch of people over without having to use every dish in the house. I figure, if I get the brown, we'll have four of each in coordinating colors, and it'll be easy to get things like larger bowls and whatnot that will match as well. Score!