happy birthday!

it was a crappy day yesterday, what with the rain and overcast bullshit, so I took the kids to ikea for some meatballs and gravy and a few passes down the slide. they had quite a good time save for the loss of elliot's wooby blanket which fucking pissed me off. I knew that was going to happen! but whatever. I did see a rug that interested me. unfortunatly the children were running maniacally around so I could not observe as closely as I would have liked. upon our return home I typed onto ikea's website where I learned that this friday, saturday and sunday they are having a birthday sale. every home item is 15% off. which means everything except those barf balls with gravy is on sale.

sporty

well, I'm not really a title nine shopper but the warehouse is in berkeley and they are having a "blowout sale". to not make mention would be clearly unpatriotic.

you can check out all the sale info here: http://www.titlenine.com/images/berk05.html

they must have shoes. maybe a handy tote. hm.

La Redoute, French for Cheap

My favorite shawl-collared sweater of all time comes from La Redoute. Pretty much 100% navy-grade acrylic, that thing doesn't pil despite contstant wearing. And, it was around $25. It was made in Greece, which I guess is Europe's Mexico.

If you sign up to get emails, you will get coupons for 15%-20% off. And the clearance section is good, too. So far the best buys have been sweaters. The tshirts tend to fall apart in the wash. I got a really cute black mohair blend vest, for 10 dollars!

orange-y red sticker news

I accidentally found out that wednesday is the day target does markdowns. last week after a run with my good pal otto at the albany beach I had a feeling I should stop in at target before heading home. I pulled up and strolled inside to see what it was calling to me from the spiritual sale world. sure, there were a lot of lamps at 50% - 75% off but nothing that was right for 1012. I did pick up a bunch of stuff for oli's birthday party (in december) because all the bratz party crap was clearing out and I really did not want to pay more than $.44 for invitations anyway. naturally I assumed these were the items I was summoned for since she had already decided on the bratz theme and shit, you can't do better than $.44! already pleased I checked out and walked outside without a thought to the garden center. time was not really on my side but I suddenly had the thought to run through and check if any plants had been marked down. I saw some pots that I had had my eye on a few weeks ago but since they were a mere 30% off I did not give them much consideration. and then I saw a fella with a sticker gun at the other end of the center shooting bar codes and pulling out 50% markdowns! I was too bashful (maybe ashamed is more truthful) to speak to him, I simply checked out what he had done. there by the door was a perfect for me pot, white-ish, tall, vase-like with a pedestal and only $19.99! it was magical.

The Childrens Place (on Amazon)

Childrensplace.com is slow and the clearance section is always out of stock. However, I've discovered that if you shop their stuff on Amazon, it's ALL clearance prices, almost everything is in stock and it loads fast. Last night I stocked up on stuff for the kids. Plain red socks: 69 cents. Most of the cute long sleeve tshirts were 4-5 bucks, and the pants averaged 5-7 bucks. Score!

TJMaxx Online

My 2nd favorite is now online. Rejoice!