burnt toast life

  • home
  • about
  • the story of burnt toast
  • the timeline
  • contact

Nov 01

little red riding hood & the princess paradise bear

Nov 01

I like to think of myself as a semi-savvy shopper.

And while I don’t do any extreme couponing (because I have neither the time nor the storage space for 700 free tubes of toothpaste), I do participate in my fair share of discount shopping. Some things I don’t mind paying full price for. Some things I am vehemently opposed to paying full price for.

Example: Halloween costumes. Those chintzy polyester outfits that children wear for approximately 2 hours for one day of the year. I hate the exorbitant expense of Halloween costumes, especially since most of them are terrible quality and have a ridiculously high markup because, of course, parents neeeeed them.

I’m happy that Molly doesn’t fully grasp the concept of Halloween yet, and that I was still able to choose her costume for her (next year, I imagine I won’t be so lucky). A coworker actually came up with the idea for this year’s theme. She told me about a cute costume duo she saw for sale on one of those Facebook online yard sale sites: little red riding hood and the big bad wolf. I said, “Yes! Yes! I want them!” but of course they had already sold.

Even though I missed out on that deal, I still forged on with the LRRH/BBW theme in mind. Determined not to pay full price, I turned to my favorite of all discount sites… eBay! I found plenty of reasonably priced LRRH outfits but they were all made from that shiny, cheapo polyester, and many were missing vital components (like…THE RED HOOD). I scrolled and scrolled until I hit the jackpot – a handmade, beautiful costume with the dress, bloomers, hood, and a coordinating little basket, all for $14.99 (+$6.80 shipping). UM, HOW ABOUT YES PLEASE? I literally sent the woman a thank you note for offering such a beautiful item. It was the score of all Halloween costume scores.

Next up – BBW, which was a little trickier. Those fuzzy, cuddly baby costumes don’t come cheap, even on eBay. Most were in the $40-$50 range, and as much as I loved and needed the costume, I couldn’t quite justify that price on something he’d wear for one stinkin’ night. Just as I was about to give up and order one of the expensive options, I noticed something interesting in the “People Who Viewed This Also Viewed” section. The description said “Princess Paradise Bear Costume Size 12/18 Months” BUT the photo was exactly the same as the other wolf costumes I was looking at. The best part? It was $4.88 (+ $6.45 shipping). I was so excited! I figured it was worth the $11 gamble to see if it really was named incorrectly. (And since I was shopping in September, uncharacteristically ahead of deadline, I had time to buy a new costume if it did turn out to be a princess bear).

The week it took to ship the costume was excruciating. I kept wondering… would it be a wolf? Would it be a bear? Would it be the exact thing I was looking for and somehow only cost $11? I knew it sounded too good to be true, but I still held out hope. When the package arrived, I ripped it open and… hallelujah! It was the wolf costume I wanted! (Further research uncovered that Princess Paradise is actually a brand name, but the whole “bear” part still confuses me because it’s clearly a wolf).

little red riding hood & the big bad wolf (a.k.a. princess paradise bear)

little red riding hood & the big bad wolf (a.k.a. princess paradise bear)

So all told, I got a handmade/non-chintzy little red riding hood costume and a cute furry big bad wolf costume for a combined total of $33.12 – less than some people spend on just ONE costume. I was feeling good.

But don’t think it’s all sunshine and roses over here, because my next eBay shopping experience didn’t go nearly so well.

Last year I found this awesomeness right here:

(source)

(source)

My husband is a Star Wars fan, and I am a let’s-coordinate-a-super-cute-family-photo-Christmas-card fan, so I figured we could combine our loves and get some matching Christmas jammies. WELL. Hanna Andersson makes high quality apparel and it is (justifiably) pricey. To order the organic cotton, Star Wars themed, matching Christmas pajama sets for my family (not including the dogs) would have cost $244. YIKES. Then we also would have needed to pay for a photo session, order cards, and pay to mail all the cards. So no, we didn’t do that.

This year I figured I’d keep up my winning eBay streak and search for those same Star Wars pajamas from last year. I thought that since it was a year ago, maybe I could find them for much cheaper. And I did! The first results that populated were those exact same pajama sets that I saw last year, same photos and everything, only this time ranging in price from $6.99 to $15.99. I happily purchased four pj sets for under $50.

Now, one important fact to mention: I did notice that they were shipping from China. But in my little eBay fantasy daydreams, I imagined that the factories who made the Hanna Andersson sets from last Christmas were simply unloading their excess inventory at a low, direct-to-consumer cost. Or that they had done some extra runs on the sly to sell for themselves. I used to work in the apparel industry but I’m still quite naive as to how it all works. Those two scenarios both sounded plausible. High on my Halloween costume success, I imagined receiving perfect organic cotton Christmas jammies with Hanna Andersson quality and China-low prices.

As I said, this story doesn’t have happy ending. The first two pajama sets arrived 3 weeks after I ordered them and they were terrible. The fabric was very low quality (basically the opposite of organic cotton). They smelled like chemicals. And worst of all, the sizes were completely off. The pants were narrow and tight while the shirts were comically short and wide. It reminded me of this amazingly hilarious post from a couple years ago about the perils of ordering cheap clothing from overseas.

I went back to the listing to check out the return policy and noticed that the vendor claimed to have shipped all four sets, yet I had only received two of the four. So not only did I need to figure out how to return the horrendous short & wide pjs, but I was also stuck disputing the shipping claim and hoping for a refund on the two missing sets. Oh, and while the seller does accept returns, the customer (ME) is stuck paying for the return shipping. To China.

The moral of this story is that you win some and you lose some. Your amazing, too-good-to-be-true eBay deal might be a crazy cheap and awesome mislabeled wolf costume, or it might be a crappy pair of wide & smelly pajamas.

Hope you all had a lovely Halloween, and happy discount shopping to all!

trick or treat night with the fam

trick or treat night with the fam

ALL THE CANDY!

ALL THE CANDY!

Posted by amanda 2 Comments
Filed Under: miscellany, parenting mishaps, the little things Tagged: discount shopping, halloween

Nov 02

oh, hello, november…

Nov 02

YOU GUYS.

I’m having a baby this month.

This month!

My poor, poor second child. My nesting instincts are… intact, but like 1,000 times less agressive than they were with Molly. In my defense, mostly everything is set up already. The changing table, the bassinett, the random stuff. I know what to expect when I bring him home. I’m ready(ish).

I have been vacuuming a lot. But I wouldn’t say that’s abnormal for me.

We put his dresser in place but I’ve yet to put away his clothes. I have two batches of hand-me-downs – one from my sister, and one from Eric’s sister. Since I know Eric’s sister wants hers back, I need to sit down with a fabric marker and label all of the clothes from my sister so I can sort them out later (cause ain’t no way I’ll remember which outfits came from which person). A daunting task, to be sure. Hence my procrastination.

The other thing I need to do is pack my bag for the hospital. This task I remember putting off with Molly, mostly because it felt like once I did it, she would come (this idea turned out to be inaccurate). It’s just sort of annoying because many of the items, like my toothbrush, pillow, and favorite yoga pants, can’t be packed right now anyway because I’ll need them for the next couple weeks. But still, I guess I can throw in some nursing tanks and nipple cream. Gah, I seriously haven’t thought about needing those things in so long! I think I’m partially in denial. But still, I feel a lot better prepared this time around. At least I’m not TOTALLY clueless.

My last check at the OB/GYN was on Friday – and it was an actual “check,” if you know what I mean. Right now I’m 1 cm dilated, 50% effaced, and to quote my doctor, “Oh, yes that’s the head right there!” I know you can be 1 cm or even 2 cm forever, but just hearing that, and knowing that his head is *right there* makes me more convinced than ever that he’s coming sooner rather than later. As much as I’d love for him to stay put… ehhhhh, I don’t think so.

My doctor also discussed induction if he chooses not to make an appearance (which gave me a little hope for being late, at least), and she said that 11/27 works well for her since she’ll be at the hospital all day anyway and she likes to keep a close eye on her VBACs. This is the doctor who I really like and hope to have around for my delivery, so I agreed to that date. Why not? Like I said, I don’t think I’m going to make it until then anyway. But it’s nice to dream. It’s not like I have any big shopping plans for Black Friday. Ha!

Last Friday afternoon Molly came to work for trick-or-treating, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that she legit won Halloween. I can’t tell you how many people said to me that she had the best costume of the day.

#twinning

#twinning

I’ll admit, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of my beautiful little girl dressed up as an ewok… because they’re a little frightening and not really cute, plus as I’ve said, the whole Star Wars thing is all Eric and not me. Eric ordered the costume pieces after he saw the tutorial last year and had it tucked away for that long, so obviously I had to allow it, plus I didn’t have any other great ideas. I did not know how freaking popular Star Wars everything was going to be this year – I’m sure that helped.

One of the creative departments at work put together a whole Star Wars themed section that was so over the top – I’m talking flashing strobe lights, full size cut outs, movie projections, music, the works. Of course we brought Molly there first and within seconds she started dancing with the music! We all just about died from the cuteness overload. Especially since her “dancing” is more like twerking with a lot of booty shaking, which will probably be concerning in like 15 years but for now is pretty much the best thing ever. My only complaint with the costume is that about half the people thought she was a little boy. But I mean, whatever, she would make a very cute little boy.

Saturday was trick-or-treat in our town and it was pretty fun. This is a great age when she doesn’t really get what’s going on and Eric and I get to eat all her candy. Seriously, the amount of candy in my house is obscene. But I did ask at the OB/GYN how much I gained with this pregnancy and it’s only 32 lbs so… yay me! That’s more than I wanted to but still only HALF of how much I gained with Molly. I’m calling it a win. Because I want more candy.

November. It’s November!

I’m starting to get really excited.

And that’s not just the candy talking.

Posted by amanda 4 Comments
Filed Under: monthly updates, pregnancy Tagged: halloween, November, trick or treat

hello, my name is deeda


sister, daughter, wife, and mama to 5 sweet children on earth, 4 in heaven. self-conscious writer. voracious reader. sarcasm enthusiast. dependable Taurus. lover of broken things. reluctant adult. FOMO sufferer. drinker of coffee. burner of toast.

get post updates by email

Instagram

…

tweet with toast

My Tweets

Categories

  • all the lists (9)
  • dog things (10)
  • IVF (75)
  • milestones (34)
  • miscarriage (27)
  • miscellany (108)
  • monthly updates (51)
  • parenting mishaps (34)
  • pregnancy (67)
  • the big things (44)
  • the little things (66)
  • Whole30 (4)

search the site

Archives

Theme by 17th Avenue · Powered by WordPress & Genesis