The 50¢ Birthday Dress

If you read Monday's post you will know that we celebrated Cassia's 3rd Birthday. I posted some pictures of her at 6 months, 1 year, 2 years and now three. I kept it simple - we DID have a busy day after all. What I thought to mention, but didn't, is a topic I decided to write about in this post.

Do you like Cassia's dress? I sure do - I LOVED it from the moment I saw it! It has actually been hanging in her closet or in storage for about 1 1/2 years. I knew it would fit and be perfect one day. 

And why is this a big deal and something to write about? Well - because this well made, soft, beautiful, perfect for a little girl, dress ----

cost 50¢

yup - you read right

50¢

Pretty simple living right? Pretty frugal right?

Cassia is a bit more of a tomboy these days and dresses don't really work to well. But she is happy to dress up once in while - she spent the whole day in this dress and even asked to change back into when we got home from work.

You see, this dress, and almost every item of clothing that Cassia has worn in her three years have not been new, nope - she is our second hand sally. (She did start out with a good set of new clothes I have to say - the village we were living in at the time held a shower for us and I can't let it go unsaid that the ladies 'showered' Cassia with a great wardrobe.)

We all hear how costly it is to raise a child and I don't doubt that is true - but it must be all relative - right? I can't say at the moment that Cassia has cost us much at all. Of course, family & friends, and birthdays have helped immensely. She has A LOT of stuff! I have a feeling that somehow stuffed animals must be able to reproduce at night! I mean HOW did we end up with so many!

But back to clothes.

Cassia, and Derek and I, get almost all of our clothes these days from second hand stores and consignment shops. Well, Derek and I don't get much new at all. Our clothes are our clothes they are not new but they are in good shape, they fit us, why do we need more? Cassia of course is a different story because she is a growing little girl. Thankfully, Derek's mom handles that department. She enjoys seeking out great deals for Cassia and visits a local consignment shop where she lives. Which is great - she also has great taste. Once Cassia grows out of items I box them up and give them back and Derek's mom reconsigns them - it is a great system. She then starts again.

Cassia has a GREAT wardrobe. The great thing about consignment stores is that you can find items for a few dollars that would have originally cost 10x that.  Except for the pink coat on the far right - everything Cassia is wearing is second (or maybe even third) hand.

Prior to our living simple days Derek and I spent much more on clothes. It didn't help that I worked in an office - it is a little more challenging when you need to dress for work. But I know that great clothes can be found in thrift shops/second hand/consignment shops. Similar to Cassia's dress, my favourite pair of jeans get tons of compliments - pretty good for $1. Derek too was a bit of a clothes horse (but don't tell him I said that!). During our 2007/08 USA Tour he went all out and was trying to win some kind of award for the collection of the most t-shirts!!! But no more - we have seen this for the waste of money it is. This last winter we each came home with 1 t-shirt each from Homosassa Springs and only because they were on the discount rack and we got both for $16.

So - if you want a tip on a way to live a life made simple, one place to start is to cut back on spending money on clothes that you probably don't need and visiting your local second hand shops. I KNOW they are not all created equal. We were truly blessed with the thrift shop we had in Keremeos! And it does take time sifting through to find the gem - but that is part of the fun!

Good news! We sold our travel trailer today! It only took a week since we posted the ad on kijiji and the first people to come view it have purchased it. And for the asking price to boot! I'm sure Derek and I will have a couple of tears in our eyes as it leaves next week. 

Sorry to all of you that I haven't gotten back to this last week. Between cleaning the trailer and Cassia's BD I have felt at least 2 steps behind - the list just would not get shorter! 

An exciting night at the park! I was visiting with a nice Australian couple when I got word that there were two brown bears in the park. I suspected they were the same two spotted last week. I found them up at the washroom building and was able to send them on their way with the sound of my truck. So cute - there is a lot of shrubbery where they were so they kept standing up to get a better look at where the noise was coming from. Eventually they ran off. I was glad that I had intercepted them when I did. If someone had come out of the washroom I wondered who would have screamed the loudest, the bears or the camper! The bears are identical looking and young - just a year. 

One of the perks of our job for sure. Did I have the camera? nope.

We DID have the camera on hand the other day though when Derek got this picture as this butterfly sailed through our garden.

Thanks for visiting!

I probably could have used this post to talk about why you DON'T need to spend much money on a birthday party for a three year old! 

A bag of balloons will do!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: LOVE LOVE LOVE this site and really enjoyed this post. 9 easy ways to boost your child's health by Wellness Mama. I was happy to see that we are doing some and the rest we CAN do - in fact sea salt was added to Cassia's bath tonight and we'll need to find her some mud! I also CAN'T WAIT to start making all the items she lists in #9. I hope you will forward this list onto all those you know with little ones in their lives. It is a good list!

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