I know School is back in session soon, and for many of us, we are deeply engaged in finding great deals on great gear for our little ones.  I have two girls that will be going back to school this year, and I have found some excellent deals and wanted to share some good ideas and tips with you, on just where to find your own great deals.

If your looking for some good deals on kids clothing for Back-to-School…sizes 5t-12, JC Penney has a good selection of items for $3.99 and up.  I bought my girls a bunch of long plaid shorts, with matching shirts.  Costing me a total of $8.00 for the whole outfit….which, in my book, is so great!!  If your child gets to wear a school uniform, JC Penney has them available as well.  There are (HUGE lots=many pieces)of clothes on Craigslist and E-bay where you can purchase 100 pieces of clothing, in your childs size for $200.  That’s $2.00 per clothing article, which is absolutely remarkable.  Keep in mind, these clothes may be new or used, so make sure you check the quality of the items prior to paying for them.  Also, consignment shops like “Once upon a Child” and others, will take your last year clothes (in good condition) and give you store credit to buy school clothes for this year.  They also take baby gear and toys in trade of store credit, which you can also use on clothing, or more gear.  I have lots of friends who are purchasing their childrens clothes at thrift stores and Good Will.  In fact, I just heard that Good Will has half off Saturdays, so all the $2 shirts are then $1.  You may think I am a cheapo when it comes to new school clothes, but why spend a ton when there are great deals out there??? Also, “The Children’s Place“  has really adorable jeans for $4.99, and school uniforms as well.    I have recently been to “Burlington Coat Factory” this week, where we purchased my daughters new back-pack for $5.99, not to mention a ton of really cute clothing at great prices.  Then there is  “Ross” which I am generally pleased with and can get complete outfit sets (shirt/bottom) for less than $10.  If you live close to a “K-Mart,” they have slashed back their prices for “Back-to-School” and if your budget is tight, I believe they still have lay-a-way.  I could go on and on, and add more stores like Wal-Mart with their $3.00 shirts or .25 cent crayons, or Target and Kohl’s who are both having Back-to-School sales, but the main goal is to ****shop around*** and maybe jump on line checking out the {clearance section} of clothing websites before spending your pennies.  Now most of these stores have great deals on shoes and accessories as well.

ANYWAYS>>>>>>HAPPY BACK TO SCHOOL SHOPPING and if you have any great deals, please share share share!!!  P.S. …Look Forward to my post on making hair bows that match your girls new clothes, coming soon.

Well, just as the title of this blog states, it’s true, I do have some explaining to do.  I have been absent as far as my presence on the web goes since late March, and I want to explain why.  Not, that it changes my absence, but just for your knowledge.   My husband and I were expecting our fourth child and we were nearly half way through, when we found out we were going to have a still born.  We had already heard the baby’s heart beat a week or so earlier and were so very sad to hear the news of our sweet baby’s passing.   We stared at the monitor, waiting to hear if it was a boy or a girl,  looking at our baby’s perfect little body and we couldn’t understand what went wrong.  So as you can imagine, the following days were excruciating.  Those days turned into weeks, and then slowly into months, and now here I am.  It has been difficult, and I feel like I may have stepped out mentally for a short while, but I am back now, and am ready to roll.  I want to briefly thank those of you who sent caring words, thoughts, and prayers.  I know they helped us through our troubled time.  I also want to apologize for being all over the board and impersonal at times, but I have more direction and am very excited to share with you what I’ve been working on.    So look forward to some good ideas and tips coming your way very soon!!!

I received this in an e-mail and I know that every time we had coughs as children, my mother used this same technique on  us.  CHECK OUT THIS GREAT TIP to Kick your cough.

Some of us have used Vicks VapoRub for years . But I’ve never heard of this. And don’t laugh, it works 100% of the time, although the scientists who discovered it aren’t sure why. To stop night time coughing in a child (or adult as we found out personally), put Vicks VapoRub generously on the soles of your feet, cover with socks, and the heavy, deep coughing will stop in about 5 minutes and stay stopped for many, many hours of relief. Works 100% of the time and is more effective in children than even very strong prescription cough medicines. In addition it is extremely soothing and comforting and they will sleep soundly…

How To Make Donald Duck Orange Juice Taste Better is the Good Idea topic for today!  We recently purchased some of this juice (in a large can) remembering  it was a child-hood favorite. We quickly realized, only after taking a nice big swig, that it was seriously way too potent too drink.  My cheeks puckered so tight that I wasn’t sure I would ever smile or laugh again.  IT HURT!  I don’t know what it was, maybe the twitching of the eye, or the stinging tongue, but I knew right then and there that Donald Duck Orange Juice did not taste like I had remembered.  So, I devised a plan to experiment with the juice until I could make it taste a bit better.  Here are the best two solutions I came up with…

Today, for our Feature Friday, I have chosen to Feature an incredible woman named Jenny Buttler and she owns Simply Delightful Designs.

She had a good idea and created an amazing site where many small business owners have donated items to be raffled off and all proceeds donated from the raffles will be divided in half and donated to The Red Cross and to http://www.compassion.com/ for and in behalf of the recent victims of the earthquake in Haiti.  The site is incredible and the items to be raffled are beautiful, creative, and so generous.  I am so proud to be part of a world where people like Jenny exist and all of these contributing business owners as well.  There is a Facebook Profile for her site called Hope For Haiti.  Definitly check it out and if you have a little extra, purchase a raffle ticket and donate!

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