Say You, Say Me

I love a good deal. I don't like to pay full price for anything if I can help it. In the fall and in the spring several churches in our area hold these mega consignment sales. I didn't really understand all of the hype until I went to one last fall. Lots of stuff. Usually great prices. I went to one a few weeks ago and these are some of my bargains (and the stories that go with them).

This is a Pottery Barn Kids touch on lamp with lampshade. PBK no longer sells this one, but a similar model costs $69 for the touch base and $30 for the lampshade. I was nervous about buying it because it didn't have a light bulb in it for me to test it to see if it worked. But then I thought, "Who would put a broken lamp in a church consignment sale??"

I bought this one for $10. It currently resides in Fletcher's room, but will most likely end up in Luke's room since he has some PBK bedding that matches the lamp.

This backpack and lunchbox are also PBK. They looked like they had barely been used. I washed them and they look brand new. A similar backpack on their website is $29- 39 and the matching lunchbox is $19.

I bought this set for $8 for Luke to take to preschool.

At the last sale I bought Fletcher a raincoat. This time I found Luke a raincoat with all kinds of big machines that he loves. The fabric is more like a waterproof coated cotton instead of vinyl. It was $3.

This little purchase is going to need some TLC. Can you guess what it is? I've been looking for a bookshelf for the kids books that held books at an angle so they wouldn't fall out or over or off the shelf. The only one I could find was $85. I asked Kevin and my brother-in-law if they could make one but they said it would be difficult. So when I spotted this at the sale I had a feeling that most people would not realize what it was and with a little TLC and paint and wood glue, we'd have a cool new bookshelf.

Here it is with books on it so you get a better idea. It was only $8 and it is solid wood!

The last purchase just makes me smile. I don't own an ipod. Kevin has one. I think they are cool, but I just haven't been able to justify purchasing one. I occasionally download songs on itunes and make a cd for the car. So when I saw this box that said "Digital Player", I threw it into my basket. (Blogger is being difficult and I can't get these pictures to rotate correctly).

It was only $3 so I figured it might be a fun toy for the boys or a cool mp3 player for me. I got it home and opened the box. This is how small it is. Yes, that's a post it note and a quarter on each side. But it gets better. I continued to unpack the box with the headphones, USB cable, and charger. I opened the manual for the directions. And....all the directions were in Chinese (or maybe Japanese). See above picture. I laughed outloud. No wonder it was only $3 and looked like it had never been used. I was determined to figure it out anyway. The player already had a few songs loaded on to it. You guessed it. Two or three were in Chinese (or possibly Japanese) and the only English song was "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Ritchie. That took me back to high school prom...

You will be happy to know that I did not learn Chinese (or Japanese) but I did figure it all out and even found some free mp3 downloads of kids songs so our 1 GB mp3 player now has some songs for our listening enjoyment. Now to find more free Lionel Ritchie songs.