"Hi! Back Again?"

In an old sketch on MadTV, these 3 girls working at a shoe store talk about they really need to be honest because they say they're going to do things, but it never actually happens. For some odd reason, Howard and I randomly quote bits and pieces of it. We even say, "Back again?" which is what the main character says when the guy she likes returns to the store. Well, yesterday I ended up hanging out with my mom again because I wanted to get a price adjustment on the candles I bought at Bath & Body Works since they went from half price at $11.25 to $10. I thought it was funny that we were there two days in a row, and I just kept thinking that one of them would say, "Back again?" 

We also went back to the Disney Store too since we were there. None of the Vinylmation in the box actually changed though, so I didn't trade. It's entertaining to me when I go so soon after a recent trip because our werewolf Pluto and vampire Goofy Vinylmation figures are usually still in the box!

My mom made the funniest comment when we passed by the stand of plushies! All of a sudden she goes, "Awww!" She said that it was sad how Piglet had such a small space on the stand! Haha, look at those 2 Piglets in that narrow area compared to Eeyore!

As we were leaving the mall via JCPenney, we passed by Claire's. Out of the blue, my mom said she wanted to go in to look around, so after years of not having stepped foot in the store, we were browsing once again! She commented that we used to hit Claire's all the time when I was a teenager. Even when we drove down to Florida and stopped at the outlets, Claire's was at the top of my list! Well, yesterday they were having a sale where EVERY item that was listed as clearance was $2 regardless of the actual price on the sticker. I definitely was excited when browsing, hoping to find a hidden gem. These My Little Pony BFF necklaces weren't THE gem, but I thought it was cute anyway. If we had daughters, I'm sure the little trinkets like this would be super cute in a Christmas stocking if they liked the characters.

These hats, on the other hand, were rather creepy! The images themselves are a little odd to wear atop your head, but the fake hair hanging from the back was a bit much! They were not part of the clearance items.

This Cinderella skirt was though! Again, if we had little girls, I would've scooped that up for just $2! What a cute skirt to wear for dress up with the satin and the tulle!

The clearance stuff required patience though because I had to search every row to actually see everything since there were some items where they only had one. I'm used to just glossing over things really quickly, knowing what I like and don't like. These keychains were things that I bypassed during first and second go around. How cute are they?! I'm sure if you knew how to deal with polymer clay, these things are so easy to make. I admit I've been slightly intrigued by polymer items because of what I've seen on YouTube and Etsy. There are people who would make even cuter versions that the ones found in Claire's! It would definitely mean getting into an entirely different crafting category though. I think it might be fun to try things out when I have kids are they're a little older because they we could have some summer fun!

By the way, recently all I've been saying/thinking is "When I have kids ..." haha. I do realize it. 

I have to say that normally I wouldn't deal with a price adjustment UNLESS it was a big one and I was definitely going to be in the area. However, the BBW price adjustment was TOTALLY worth it since I got $2.72 back, and that ended up paying for the one thing I found at Claire's and grabbed the moment I saw it! I actually mentioned to my mom the day before that I was on the searching for more pillowcases so that I can change them out more often. Plus, I'm not a fan of the cotton ones because they're hot in the summer and not as comfortable. Well, what do I end up finding? A Disney princess pillowcase! It was originally $15, but it was on clearance for just $2!!! Um, I think I might need to check Claire's more often for great finds like this! And in this case, it's a good thing I don't have a daughter yet because I'm happy to have this pillowcase for myself ... hehe.

Clearly, I am still 6 years old although strangely, I never really went through a Disney princess phase! I did, however, like all the Sanrio characters a lot so when I saw this tiny Hello Kitty pail at our next stop, I took a picture of it too. We were at Burlington Coat Factory since I wanted to hit AC Moore, and they're in the same shopping center. 

There are many women out there who have huge collections of designer shoes and handbags. My mom and I are not those women, haha. We do, however, very much enjoy looking at bags even though we don't typically ever purchase designer items. I mean, does it count to say I have two LL Bean tote bags? I mean, that's a good brand, right? Haha. I also have a LeSportsac crossbody (thanks to my students who gave me a check for Christmas one year!) that I use mainly in Disney and usually in the summer. I also have two Disney handbags and one tote too! Uh, do those qualify as designer? Haha, yes, I know that they don't, but we're okay with that! My philosophy is that you can use the same amount of money for ONE designer and get a bunch of different ones for various occasions! I love having options, and I do change my bag out rather often. Howard can attest to that because I have bags EVERYWHERE because I'll change them last minute before I head out, so the previously used one is on the floor. Whoops!

As a sidenote, I used my brown Mickey barrel bag (it basically looks like a Louis Vuitton bag, but it has MM and Mickey heads on it instead) to the 8th grade graduation last week. One of my siblings of a graduate who was one of my students two years ago said, "Of course you have a Mickey bag!" and I replied, "Yup, did you expect anything else?" Haha, my kids know me. 

Anyway, we browsed in the bag section at Burlington, and I spotted this adorable bag. It looks so perfect for summer and has a nautical look to it. At only $14.99 (compared to $30), I was rather tempted, but I recently purchased a bag for the summer months from Kohl's. I haven't used it yet though because I keep forgetting to bring it to my mom's house because I need to use Scotchgard on it since it has a lot of white on it. I don't want it to get dirty! The Scotchgard is supposed to be done outdoors, and when you're in an apartment, there is necessarily an outdoors unless I want to go outside in the parking lot and hang around my car ...

The only downside to the bag above is that it isn't one that you can wear on your shoulder. For me, that would limit the amount of places I would be comfortable using it because it would definitely not be the kind of bag I'd bring when running errands. The Lily Bloom bags below would be though! They're so bright and cheerful! They were only $12.98 (compared to $40). If I didn't have my bag from Kohl's, I definitely would have purchased one of these. It's definitely similar to LeSportsac in terms of the bright patterns, but I think the Lily Bloom ones as a whole are nicer. The construction of the bag also reminds me of all the Relic ones I've seen at Kohl's. There was another one I saw down the aisle that had a bicycle print on it, but I didn't take a picture of it. I found the print on Zulily here. When I did the search for Lily Bloom items, I realized it was Zulily where I originally heard of the brand.

We left the handbag section empty handed. Though there were a bunch of cute finds, we didn't need any of them. I said to my mom that it's okay to have a bunch of different bags as long as there's a use for each one and it's not replacing the use of one you already have. Alas, the ones I saw would've been replacements. But that's why I do take pictures of them because they're pretty there too! 

I wanted to go to the kitchen housewares section because there are always fun finds there if you're patient enough to look. While mom was looking at the snapware-type containers, I had fun with some oven mitts because as I've stated above, I'm apparently 6 years old.

They actually had a ton of lunch box options! Many of them were the Fit & Fresh brand, so along with the actual lunch box, they included the food containers and icepaks inside too. That ended up making them even better deals! My mom was searching for a new one that was a little bigger than the one she's been using since she's actually a healthy lunch packer with the fruit and all that, haha. Instead of doing that, I have a big Pyrex container of carbs or something, haha. But the two in the picture were the ones that we narrowed it down to, and eventually she chose the one on the left to better suit her needs. If I hadn't just purchased my lunch bag two years ago AND if I hadn't just placed a rather large order with Thirty-One, I could easily have been lured into buying a new one myself! I loved how they opened fairly large so that there'd be no need to maneuver the Pyrex container in them. I don't need mine to be fancy with room for ice packs though since I have the benefit of sticking the whole bag into the refrigerator at work.

We moved on to the baby section in the back, and it was like hitting the jackpot! Well, except for the fact that we have no babies on the way ... oh well! There were a TON of diaper bag options, and they were all so nice! I initially thought I'd go with an LL Bean bag as a diaper bag when the time came because of the fact that it could function as a diaper bag but not actually look like one. Then it could be used thereafter as just another bag. But then when I saw these Mickey ones, I totally changed my mind! When else would we be able to use a bag like that? My favorite was definitely the one on the left in the picture below. For $40, it'd make a great diaper bag! Of course, it would make more sense than the Minnie ones since even if you have a daughter first, who knows if the next kid is going to be a boy or girl?

As we walked down that aisle, every few seconds, one of us was picking out a new Disney one! I did love them all, but that first one really was the best. This one looks very much like a LeSportsac tote bag. I think the profile view of Mickey is absolutely adorable!

There was even a "mini diaper bag" that kind of looked like a cooler, but I don't think it was actually thermal-lined. It's probably more so for the quick things on the go.

You can see that it coordinates with this larger diaper bag. Ahhh, the choices! They're all so cute and perfect for a Disney-loving family.

Before we left the baby section and then looked at the dresses really quickly, I got this picture of superhero sheets for a toddler bed. Haha, I liked how the superheroes were made to look cute!

Though we were there for a while, the only purchase that was made was my mom's new lunch bag. We were going to walk over to AC Moore, but a HUGE truck was parked next to my car, so I decided to move it. It was kind of annoying considering I usually park farther from other cars just so I don't have to deal with backing out of tight spots. The fact that the truck parked right next to me was irritating. It didn't help that we had to hop in the car where it showed the temperature to be 100 degrees! And yes, I'm aware the "Check Engine" light is on. It seems to do that with the extreme heat, and then it goes away.

The last stop was AC Moore. My intention was to pick up some 6x6 paper pads because I want to do a sunburst/starburst card where it would look better if all the papers were from the same stack so that it would coordinate. I knew there would be a lot of nice choices there as opposed to Michaels, so I specifically wanted to go there. But as you can see in the picture, each little stack would have been $3.58 whereas the bigger 12x12's were $8.99. It didn't make sense to get the little stacks although I do wish that they had the larger stack of the American Crafts "Summer" stack, which is the second stack from the left of the last full pictured row on the bottom.

I was able to find 2 of the smaller stacks in the 12x12, so that made me happy! As you can see in the pricing underneath, it stated that some were $8.99 and some were $6.88. I couldn't tell what the original price was, so I brought 4 that I liked to the register. I already knew in my mind which ones I'd choose if they all ended up being $8.99. Of course, they all were, so I chose not to buy one stack. I was going to just pick up two, but the last one was one I L-O-V-E-D. 

It's kind of crazy because I have NEVER done that with paper. I buy the value stacks at Michaels because you get so much bang for your buck, but in terms of patterns, it's definitely clear as to why these stacks cost more. I don't remember seeing them at Michaels, so that's why I was okay picking them up at AC Moore. I would have bought the smaller pads anyway, so I might as well get the ones that are more worth it. When I brought it home, I definitely thought that Howard would be like, "More paper?" But thankfully, he doesn't seem to mind it because he knows I'm not the kind of person who buys things on a whim. Even so, I thought it'd be somewhat appropriate to post these things I saw on Scrapbook.com's Instagram!

 

Since I purposely bought those stacks to cut, I know they won't just sit around and remain unused like the few DCWV stacks I purchased on sale from Marshall's and TJ Maxx. However, I think I'll at least wait until the next week starts before I make those first few cuts, haha. Now it's time to stop having adventures in stores and have more adventures at home!