Gymboree Has The Best Sales

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I am in love with Gymboree!  If you've been reading with me for awhile, you know that I love clearance shopping and one of my best shopping trips ever was my marathon DI shopping trip.  I very rarely shop at any of the stores at the mall, and especially not for kid clothes.  But a while back I found myself there with no tiny hands tugging on my arms and ventured into shopping heaven!  It couldn't have been better timing.

I was shopping at closing time when I wandered into Gymboree and found one pair of pants my small budget could afford.  Then I found out there was a "Circle of Friends" customer appreciation sale going on that included giving 30% off of every purchase.  I really mean EVERY purchase.  There were no buying limits or "with our store credit card."  Every single person shopping received the friends and family discount.  What store have you been in recently doing that?  In addition, anyone with a rewards card (which was free) was getting an additional 5% off. My one pair of pants ended up costing under $5.00.



I could not stop thinking about either the store or that incredible sale!  I had to go back. Knowing that I only shop the clearance racks when I do go to the mall, I was positive I would walk out with an incredible deal.  And knowing that I now have four boys to clothe, I definitely justified spending the money.  My sweet husband let me take an hour out of his Saturday to go and see what I could find.

It was absolutely the best shopping day! My arms were piled neck high-that never happens to me!  I watched the discounts falling off and couldn't contain the grin spreading across my face.  My husband and I took bets to see how much we would save and I'm happy to say I was closer, but still came nowhere close to the total savings printed on the bottom of my receipt.

Now remember, I only shopped the clearance racks and I did save a good amount of money off of the clearance prices.  But this time it seems entirely appropriate to consider the savings I made off of the original pricing.  When all was said and done, shopping at Gymboree on their 30% off purchase sale, I saved $439.55!!!!!!!  It's not used clothing, it's not cheap quality threadbare clothing.  It is adorable outfits that last long enough for kids to grow out of them.

I still haven't stopped talking about it!  The thrill of finding such an incredible deal unexpectedly has my adrenaline pumping.  Gymboree will never know it, but this one sale made me their newest loyal customer.

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My (P)interesting Family

My husband, kids, and I have recently packed up and made a big move from Utah where we've been for the past 10 years to Iowa where I spent my childhood.  All the ups and downs that have come with that are stories for other days, but one really positive thing to share is how much fun it is to be living close to my family again.  This week I joined my mom and 3 of my 5 sisters in our very first family Pinterest crafting night. Here's a look at the finished product...

...and here's a look at how we made it...

First, I feel the need to  leave a disclaimer that the photo above looking all polished and nice is a far cry from our actual lives and crafting.  Everything I've shared with you on this blog has been honest and real; I see no reason to change it up here.  We were 5 women in a somewhat messy house juggling scissors, t-shirts, and 10 kids ages 0-6.  It looked a lot like this...

Since it was our first night of crafting all together, and we hadn't yet thought about putting it up for all the world to see, I don't have photos of each step for you to see, but the project is really easy and adding photos might actually be insulting to your abilities.  So for now, let's do it this way...

You need:

• 3 old adult-size t-shirts in the colors you'd like your scarf to be
• Good scissors

You need to:

• For each t-shirt, fold in half and stretch out flat and smooth
• First, cut off the hem and discard
• Then, going straight across the bottom of your folded shirt, cut 3/4"-1" strips so you end up with a large loop of material
• Continue doing this as far up the shirt as you can (if you're lucky you'll make it all the way up to the sleeves, but if your shirt has printing on it, you'll need to stop when you come to that).
• Between your 3 shirts, you want to end up with approximately 32 strips cut out.

• To form your loops, first stretch your strips out as far as you can, causing the material to curl up around itself
• Then hold in one hand and wrap around until you have something that looks like one of these...

• Decide on the pattern you want your colors to be

• Then using your t-shirt remnants, decide which color you want to use for your ties, and cut out 30 3"-4" strips.
• Stretch these to curl in the same way you did your large strips.
• Start tying your loops together.  A double-knot will work, but I triple-tied mine for added security
• It's up to you whether you trim the ties after they're knotted or leave them long. 

This is a project we thought would take about an hour, but in the end it took us a little over two to get past our indecisiveness in color choices and wrangling babies.  And a short break to play a game of cat's cradle, of course,,,

Tell me you can resist when you've got your loops laying out in front of you!

The last step, of course, is to wrap your new scarf around your neck and wear it!  We all decided to tie ours into a long loop, but you can choose to leave your ends untied as well.  Here are our finished products...

Our first family Pinterest craft night was a lot of fun with only a little bit of stress.  Since none of us would really call ourselves scarf wearers, we left knowing we needed to be brave and wear them really soon or they'd end up in a drawer.  I'm proud to say I wore mine on my son's field trip today and totally rocked it on the playground.  It's been keeping me warm (and looking cute) all day.  Now, I think I'm in charge of next month's project...that promises to be (P)interesting...

Want to Win One?

Because it ended up being easy and so much fun, 

I'm going to make a Looped T-Shirt Scarf to giveaway.

Link over to the giveaway post to enter!

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