When I go shopping

I am either at Superstore, a thrift store, or Home Sense.  Shocker, I know.

I drag two kids with me.

When I'm at Home Sense-- Eme sits in the front of the cart.

Caleb rides in the back-- I tell him he's the "captain of the boat".  Really, I just keep him in there so that he doesn't touch and break all the stuff I like to look at.  He really eats it up though-- he rides in that cart announcing to everyone that he's the captain and randomly exclaims-- "Ooooh... mom... look at that!  It's soooo pretty!!".

After his ride in the boat I reward him with a trip to the toy section where he dismantles the already messy shelves.  He loves it.

And... when I'm at Home Sense I bring my camera phone.  Can I share some of my favorite finds?

I love this chair.  It's a show stopper.  And it's something straight out of Anthropologie.... with a much friendlier price tag... like $349.  Still out of my budget, but not bad. (is it strange that I can remember the prices of things so well?  It's a gift.)

These babies-- they're bright-- and they're cheap-- $199.  You'd have a hard time buying a craiglist chair and some fabric to recover it for that price.  (they also had some grey blue ones if purple and red aren't your cup of tea)

These chairs are hot.  They don't look comfortable (and they're not, I tried) but they look awesome.  So to try and justify these chairs-- I've come up with the following list of why they'd still be a practical purchase in light of their unfortunate uncomfortableness--

• sitting on a cool metal chair would be heavenly on a hot day
• since they already have that industrial worn look-- kids could beat these babies up and it would just make them look cooler
• If you threatened to tie your kids to their chair at dinnertime (if they have trouble remaining seated at dinner and prefer to stand-- we threaten to tie Caleb to his chair regularly) this is the chair that says "I mean business"
• they would up the cool factor of any old boring dining room table.
• your neighbors probably don't have chairs like this

Not sold yet?  Really?

$49.99.  This is great.  I felt a bit sheepish buying this one since I've never been to France... so I convinced my sister to get it.  She's been to over half of these places.

Didn't check the price on this one but I thought it would be perfect for a little girl's room.

And just as I was about to leave my local Home Sense on my last visit I spied these headboards.  They were pretty well made... I was impressed.  But the price tag floored me... $249.  That's pretty unbelievable.  My own DIY headboard was definitely still a better deal-- but this is a great buy if you don't want to make it yourself.

So in conclusion... I like to shop at Home Sense.  I drag my kids with me.  We have fun.  And I usually don't buy anything... just memorize prices and snap pictures :)  Does anyone need me to shop for them?  Shopping with a purpose sounds like it could be fun...