Sprinkles, Sales, a Swing, and a Stitch Fix

Today was a pretty good day for Mama Packard.  The TV stayed off most of the day and that's always a good sign.  We woke up with a hankering for pancakes, and I actually had the energy (and arms, Thank you, Anna) to be able to whip some up this morning.  Of course, Penn and Jude insisted on sprinkles in the batter, but if I'm being honest, they are totally better with sprinkles.  We made a pretty good dent on a double batch of 10 grain Bob's Red Mill Pancake Mix, and then we were off to see what treasures our neighbors were parting with today...

Anna got a few pairs of PJ's in the next size up, Penn and Jude got a cup of lemonade for a quarter each, and Pack made out with an old bench for weightlifting and about 100 feet of thick rope for two dollars.  He was stoked.  I thought we were basically paying for their junk.  Little did I know what Pack Daddy had in store.

After about an hour of unsuccessfully trying to sling a string with six or seven washers attached over a very specific spot in the limb of a tree in our yard, he finally headed to Walmart and came back with a sling shot named "The Black Widow."  The sling shot got the washers over the limb in just a couple of tries and then, up went the rope.  I headed inside to make lunch and Pack eventually came in to get me to try out his creation.

Of course I had to try it out...

And spin!

Three's not a crowd on this giant swing!

I know...my husband is super-fun.  He's also super-smart and very conscious of safety issues so I'm really thankful he was able to rig this up for us.  I would have loved this as a kid and truly...I really love it as an adult.  And everything about this swing remind me of why I love my sweet Pack.  He's my most prized possession on this planet!

And as if that wasn't good enough, I had a box waiting on me from Stitch Fix (finally)!  I heard about Stitch Fix through a high school friend (i.e. current awesome mommy blogger/seamstress/teacher/etc) named Jessica who blogged about SF right here.  To summarize what it is, you basically have a personal shopper who sends you five articles of clothing (or accessories) based on your style, size, preferences, and budget (which if you are like me, you don't know, and you figure out by taking their style survey) and you get to try them on, keep what you like, and send back what you don't.  Their fee is $20 (which is well worth it for me to avoid shopping with my three "I-freak-at-the-sight-of-fluorescent-lights" kiddos), but this gets deducted from whatever you decide to keep.  I got some cool stuff, but only decided to keep one thing (or two...no, one...I haven't decided yet).  Anyway, here was what was in my little box:

I loved this shirt, but the asymmetrical hemline made my short torso look shorter.

This black shirt had sheer cutouts in weird places...it wasn't exactly my style.

I loved this oversized sweater, but it was a little TOO oversized for me.

I REALLY REALLY wanted to keep these bangles, but decided to hold out for something more interesting.

I loved everything about this tunic dress and paired with a sweater and leggings, I think it could take me from summer to winter!

Overall, I thought this was a great and unique shopping experience.  Actually picking interesting pieces out is the hardest part of shopping for me and this forced me to try on some styles that I might not normally try.  I definitely plan on getting a second (or third) stitch fix and I think you should too.  It's a win-win for both of us...you get cute clothes and I'll get a $25 credit if you sign up using this link (shameless, I know...):


Oh, and if you do sign up, let me know what you get:)