thrifty thursday

My love for Fisher Price toys was rekindled while shopping at Target this week. Oh my heavens, Fisher Price has started to reproduce some of their most classic toys, and they are glorious.

I promptly put every single reproduction toy in the cart and told my mom we just had to have them. We came home with the record player shown in the picture below. It's one I always wanted as a child and never got. My mom bought it for me now, and I told her it's a good thing she had a second chance to redeem herself!

But I will tell you that after coming across these toys, I was almost paralyzed for the rest of the shopping trip. I couldn't pay attention to simple commands because I was so engrossed in the retro reproduction wonder of Fisher Price.

So, of course, I immediately came home and started looking online for a bunch of actual vintage Fisher Price toys, and I found a whole trove of things I am drooling over.

I don't have a husband, or a house, so it only seems natural that I would want to buy something for a baby. I kid. But isn't this mobile amazing? The shipping charge was almost as much as the mobile itself, so I gave myself a day to think about it. One day later, I was armed and ready to make a purchase, and the item was sold. . . . .to someone else! Oh, the devastation. This mobile had been listed since November 22, 2010 & sold on the same day I fell in love with it. What are the odds?

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This hospital set is so cute.

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And this camping RV? I can't get over the umbrella table.

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Love this house boat. It makes me want to go take a spin on the lake.

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How fun is this airport. The baggage trolley kills me.

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And this school house, with the teeter totter & slide. Yes, please.

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I love swimming and I'm always drawn to water. Too bad this pool doesn't come with a cute lifeguard who can rescue me if I happened to "drown".

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The chatter telephone is one of the most iconic Fisher Price toys.

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This two tune TV plays row, row, row your boat & London bridge.

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This stove top I remember seeing in person as a child. When your turn the knobs, the stove burners change to orange.

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This iron reminds me of my gram - who is the queen, and I mean, Queen of Ironing!

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Lastly, is this little mixer. I definitely remember playing with one of these.

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You may be wondering why on earth I am talking about these on Thrifty Thursday, when I didn't in fact find any of them at the thrift store.

Well, let me just give you the most thrifty advice I know of:

Walk away.

I had to take a deep breath, but I didn't purchase a single thing. As much as every retro bone in my body was breaking for me to buy everything, I walked away.

But that doesn't mean each item isn't listed under my etsy favorites for future reference!

thrifty thursday

My dad took me to the DI over the weekend and look what he found during our excursion. Tupperware!

I have been diligently searching for these classic Tupperware canisters for weeks. I'm sure you've seen them before. Most people think they are atrocious, but I love them. I really hope I find some more.

My parents have them in avocado green. This color was popular during its time. Can you believe my mom wrote on them with a Sharpie? I am horrified! Ha ha.

Remember how I cut out all those felt hearts for my gram? Well, this is what I made.

A felt heart garland.

Easy peasy, and super cute, I think. Too bad my gram spent Valentine's in the ICU needing a bunch of blood products. She is doing a little better now, so hopefully she will continue to be on the mend.

G baby was a great sewing helper. I am his favorite aunt (note the shirt - my aunt rocks). Good thing I didn't go without a handsome valentine this year : g baby was mine!

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's!

thrifty thursday

Plastic letter magnets were pretty much a staple of my youth. So, my thrifty idea for today is to buy some & write messages to the people you love. Thrifty, because a package of all 26 letters is only $1.00. Unthrifty for me, because I drove all over the city for two hours stopping at every store I could think of. (Learn from my experience and go to the dollar bins at Target first!)

Anyway, people can write messages to you:

(thanks, mom).

Or, you can write messages to others:

(like the ones I wrote to gram when I visited)

I may or may not have bought eight packages of these magnets when I finally found them (oh, the search!), so I think I will be writing lots of magnetic messages for years to come!

go team, go

My gram Shirley is a true & loyal Packers fan. She has tons of Packers paraphernalia (see the bear's helmet?) & hoots and hollers during the games. Last time she was in the hospital, I called 57,000 times with no answer, so I finally called her nurse and asked her to go into gram's room and hand her the phone so we could talk. I figured she just couldn't reach the phone, but it turns out she was watching the Packers play and wouldn't even talk to me!!

She also has some Packers clothing & sent one of her shirts home with my mom to give to me. I will always love it.

So today I'm wearing it and saying,

Go Packers! Go Shirley! You kick that cancer where it counts! I love you.

thrifty thursday

Uh oh.

I found something new to collect in addition to Pyrex.

Tupperware!

I used this all the time when I was little and I want my kids to use it, too! My eyes are already trained to spot Pyrex from a mile away & now I'm training them to spot this plastic goodness!

My collection is minimal so far, but hopefully it will grow fast.

big day

Tomorrow is an important day for my gram. It will pretty much be decided how the rest of her treatment will go. Something that starts with a c and ends with an hemo has been wiping her out so my gram & the family needs to decide what's best from this point on. If everyone will keep her in your thoughts and prayers, that would be great! Whatever is decided, I just know deep down that she will come back to Utah and I'll have more good years with her. I really won't be able to handle it any other way, so I need to have faith in that feeling.

I have been cutting out these felt hearts one by one to make a fun valentine thing for her. (I'll post a final pic before I mail it off).

Here's the last "sneak" picture I was able to get while back in Vermont. I love it so much - gram looks so cute in her sassy zebra pants. I have it as the background on my phone and every time I see it, I am beyond grateful it was taken. (Even though looking at it makes me cry half the time, too).

She is just my favorite.