Living on a budget

You may ask: What if I'm living on a budget? Or you just don't want to spend so much on kids clothes. After all, many of them only last one season.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

A few days ago, I was looking for a few cooking pots on Target.com. Once I found the products, I need a filler to reach $50 to get my free shipping. Not surprisingly, I clicked on the clearance section. http://www.target.com/c/clearance/-/N-5q0ga

Last time I visited that section was many years ago. At that time the site just launched and of course there were few items on clearance. This time... WOW! I checked Kids/Girls. There are 458 items! It was overwhelming.

Deals are also sweet. I saw quite some items are 75% or more off. That means $2.48 for a short sleeve shirt. 30-50% off items are plenty. Moreover, the website will still apply other promotions such as free shipping, buy one get second one 50% off if the items are eligible.

I saw a swimsuite at $3.52 with BOGO promotion. If you buy 2, total is $5.28, that is only $2.64 each. I almost got 2 for my girls to have a sister look.

When you click through, you may see some are out of stock. Oh well, good deals go fast. So you will have to be patient to navigate through pages. But eventually your effort will be paid off.

Besides, the Target local stores also have clearance racks.

How to score old Gymboree items from ebay

Dresses in the following pictures were all my ebay scores.

Alice looked a bit sad in the last photo not because she didn't like the dress, but because we arrived too early and couldn't find the bunny to take her Easter photo with.

Oh, this beloved vest also came from ebay:

So how to score old Gymbo items from ebay?

First, you have to know what you're looking for. Thanks to a Gymbo devotee named Amy, you can find all the images and names from past Gymboree lines at this location. Spend some time to browse through the archive, and I'm sure you will identify more than a few have-to-have items.

Second, do the right search on ebay. The key words I usually used were "Gymboree + line name+ size+ nwt". Yes I only look at new-with-tag items. You never know what "EUC (excellent used condition)" or "like new" really means for a specific item.

Third, set your spending limit. For me, I'm willing to pay 15 dollars including shipping for a dress, maybe 20 if I really really want it.

And finally, be patient. Good items with reasonable asking prices aren't always available. So you have to check out ebay pretty often. If I really want something, I will check every other day to see if it's listed. You can sort items by "Time: newly listed" so that it takes only a few minutes for each search.

Now it's your turn to score big on ebay. Good luck!

Guilty pleasure

These days I've bought way too many things for Alice than I should. On my business trip to San Francisco this week, I got four toys, four pairs of tights and one dress for her. Nothing for myself and nothing for dear hubby.

Today, because Gymboree is giving out free shipping and because I have a 20% off coupon, I got the following items:

This is the typical way of how I spend my "fun" money, which amounts to about 100 dollars each week, toys and clothes and more toys and clothes.

Every time my hubby found out a new package sitting on our lounge, he would pick it up and look at me with that helpless and confused look. And I would always say, "That's on sale!" or "It's a great deal!", and I would also promise to throw out some old toys/clothes that Alice doesn't need anymore. Of course most of times I didn't keep my promises.

Cheap alternative

I really like this Crewcuts dress for its flouncy bubble hem. But of course I am not going to swallow the $69.50 price tag. Come on, does it really worth 70 bucks?

So when I was wandering in the children's section of H&M the other day and found this little dress for $12.95, you can imagine how happy I was.

 

The pink bow is a bit cheesy,  but that's easy to fix. It took me only 2 minutes to remove it with scissors. It also comes in two other colors, though none of them looks as good as the cherry one.

And if you want to know, no other H&M dresses worth buying, in my opinion.

Let it snow

Gymboree releases its new snowman theme line "Cozy Cutie" today. Oh my! Too cute!

Anyone has extra Gymbucks to share? Can I have some?

Dress vs. Jumper

A friend of mine asked me the other day what's the difference between a dress and a jumper. In my opinion, a dress is designed to be worn by itself and a jumper is supposed to be threw over something else. Here is how Wiki describes a jumper:

"A jumper (in American English), pinafore dress or pinafore (British English) is a sleeveless, collarless dress intended to be worn over a blouse, shirt or sweater. In British English, the term jumper describes a sweater. Also, in more formal British usage, a distinction is made between a pinafore dress and a pinafore; which, though a related garment, has an open back and is worn as an apron."

Thus, by definition, this is a jumper.

 And this is a dress for having short sleeves.

So the real distinction is that, a dress might look a bit bulky on top of a shirt, whereas a jumper, being sleeveless and collarless, looks just perfect over a long sleeve shirt.

But as I said before, anything you throw on a little girl looks good on her, plus we don't want our little ones to catch a cold during winter, right? So go ahead, let your girl pick her favorite dress and wear it over her favorite white shirt.

Alice in jumpers

Alice has the same Tres Chic Jumper from 2007 as Grace, and she had her school pictures taken last year in it. Those pictures turned out to be my all time favorites.

 

She also has quite a few other jumpers from Gymboree's old collections. Considering that she would wear nothing but dresses nowadays, she could never have too many of them.

Here are my tips for dressing your little one in jumpers:

1. You can never go wrong with white long sleeve shirts.

2. If the jumper itself is in one solid color, you can go crazy in colors and patterns in either the shirt or the tights/leggings.

3. It's also a good idea to pick up a hue from the jumper and use the same color for the shirt or the tights/leggings. For example, the hot pink shirt matches the pink bow and hearts in the Tres Chic jumper and looks so much better than a white shirt in that outfit.

Kindergarten Girl Fall/Winter Dressing Tips 2

More examples of jumpers.

(Gymboree - Pups and Kisses - 2012)

(Gymboree - Petite Mademoiselle - 2008)

Velvet Fabric

(Gymboree - Tres Chic - 2007)

Tres Chic was a beautiful line. Many memorable pieces.

Corduroy Fabric

(Gymboree - Winter Ballerina - 2009)

(Gymboree - Kitty Glamour - 2009)



For bottom, you can pair it with tights, but I personally think it is not easy for them to go to bathroom. So on warmer days, I use legging. Gymboree's Velour leggings are great.

On really cold days, I prefer fleece pants. They are warm enough while walking to the bus stop, and allow room for breathing when girls move around. Gymboree's fleece pants have wide waist. GAP's fits a lot better, and the fabric is thicker and softer.

Instant gratification

Ever since Alice was born, I have become an addict for little girls' fashion. Here are my justifications:

1. You can never go wrong with your purchase. Bright or dark, large or small, loose or tight, as long as you can button them up, they look adorable on little girls.

2. You can look at your purchase directly on real person, instead of through a mirror. And you can take a picture easily, without asking help from dear hubby.

3. You can easily get a fashion fix for less than twenty bucks, or even less than ten bucks. It's hard to get that kind of deals for adults.

4. And finally, when your little girl's face lights up for her new outfit, the moment is priceless.

 

Today I'm grilling myself for whether to get this pair of ballet flats for Alice. They are only 19 bucks. Why not?

Kindergarten Girl Fall/Winter Dressing Tips 1

Grace started Kindergarten this fall. My principles of dressing her are:
I. Protective
II. Functional
III. Pretty

Protective: She will not feel too hot or too cold. Her knees are protected.
Functional: She should be able to move around easily, especially in her favorite class, PE.
Pretty: Her outfit should be coordinated, making her presentable anytime.

The issue of late fall and winter is the big temperature difference between inside and outside. Figuring a layered outfit that makes her comfortable in all three situations has been my challenge:
a. when walking to the bus stop in the chilly morning
b. while staying inside
c. when she has activities(she will feel extra warm)

Jumpers have been my best friend.

(Gymboree - 2009 - Popstar Academy and Little Hearts)

I can't speak enough about how great jumpers are.
1. Jumpers look like dresses. Most girls like them.
2. It is really easy to put jumpers with other pieces. White/cream long sleeve shirt always works. A shirt from the same line always goes well with it.
3. I especially like knit jumpers as they are really comfortable.

(Gymboree - 2009 - New York Girl and Puppy School)

4. They keep our little girls warm.
5. They are not as warm as sweater dresses/sweater cardigan. It prevents little girls from getting overheated during exercise.
6. You can get a few years out of it. When they are long, they look like dresses. When they are shorter, they look like vests. Either way it works.

(Gymboree - 2010 - Fairy Fashionable)

I love this rare crochet piece from Fairy Fashionable line. Very elegant. This line also impressed me by beautiful accessories.

Time to buy:

When you see great pieces like those, don't wait, as they won't last long. I bought all three when the lines just came out, with gymbucks of course. That's the best timing with reasonable price. My friends who waited never saw them again.

Newsboy cap

Newsboy caps, as you can guess from the name, were associated with newspaper boys going all the way back to the late 19th century. Though nowadays only girls wear them. I just love little girls in newsboy caps, and my Alice has quite a few of them.

This one is from Janie & Jack's spring/summer collection three years back.

Gymboree's spin for an autumn version.

This houndstooth cap from Jcrew actually belongs to me. But I have to admit that it looks so much better on Alice's head.

 

And finally, my prized purchase of the season, the cheviot cap from Zara. The small size was sold out, so I ended up getting the M/L for my four years old. That was also an interesting revelation to me: the bigger the cap the cuter it looks. This rule only applies to small heads, of course. For a mere 13 bucks, Alice can get at least ten years' usage out of it. What a steal!