Finis

Well, I had a productive lunch hour: I think I’ve finished with my angel shopping, and I finally got the photos mailed to my grandmother. Just to fill you in:

I went to the Burlington Coat Factory outlet at Discover Mills and dug through the pre-teen girls’ section. Fortunately, the pink backpack tips me off that maybe she isn’t a tomboy. (Please thank your mother for including that little detail.) However, since I’ve never met this girl or her mom, I decide to shy away from shirts with slogans like That’s Hot!, Baby Phat and, God forbid, G-Unit. I did find three pretty nice items there, for about $30 total:

• A long-sleeved pink cotton shirt, no slogan
• A white blouse
• A sweater/scarf/knit cap set in blue, white, yellow, and purple stripes.

Not bad, methinks.

I intended to pick up some shoes too, but didn’t get very far with that venture. Dress shoes or tennis shoes? Dunno. Unfortunately, the prices really aren’t that great to sway me one way or the other. But I did go look before deciding to leave this one up to mom. I also got far enough to check the sizes. I’ve had sort of a mental picture of this size 12 girl ever since I started sizing and shopping for clothes, so I’m not at all prepared to pick up the behemoth that is a size 6. DAMN! Sister’s got some clod-hoppers. Maybe she’s part Amazon.

That still left me a little room to shop for a couple more incidentals. Books are out, since I don’t know what she likes to read. Hmm… what kind of stocking stuffers did I get as a kid? Puzzles & brainteasers come to mind. I also thought about some kind of art-related project. I run this idea by my coworker (she has exclusive access to the dark world that is an adolescent female mind, having had such a mind once) and she suggests the art project. Off to my next stop…

Plaid Factory Outlet. I acquired a small, whitewashed birdhouse, a set of outdoor paints, brushes, and three or four stencil sets (girl stuff like purses, shoes, flowers, birds, hearts, etc). I also picked up inkpads -- pink, yellow, blue, black -- and several rubber stamps:

• A sun
• Stars
• Winnie the Pooh with Piglet (and some schmarmy phrase about little friends)
• Winnie the Pooh on his back with Tigger standing on his belly
• A stamp that says “You go, girl!” Couldn’t resist that one.
• A very ornate letter I (her first initial), like you might see in some overly-illuminated medieval manuscript

I stayed in the bargain bin for this stop, but I think I came out like a bandit. The birdhouse was $3. Inkpads & stamps, about $1 each. Paints, $2. Brush set, $2. Stencils, ten cents each.

So how did this stack up against my budget? Well, that depends on how you count it. I fixed an initial budget amount in my head early on, and then I adjusted it when I was struggling with the WalMart-or-expensive-bike debate. After buying the cheap bike, I decided to raise my limit by another $20… and I did OK. By my calculations, I’m about $2 under that amount.

And the mood-o-meter? Well, tomorrow’s Thanksgiving, and I don’t hate anybody right now. And for me, that’s another accomplishment altogether.