Twenty Teeny Dresses

Confession - when we first started trying to have a baby, way back in May, I bought this:

I know, I know.  Buying baby clothes when you're not even pregnant yet is kind of crazy.  Buying gender specific baby clothes when you're not even pregnant yet is REALLY crazy.  However, when I rounded the corner at the Goodwill that day, these were hanging on the end of the rack, right at eye level, beckoning me. Yellow, gingham, and vintage?  I couldn't resist!

I picked up the romper, and then put it back.  I knew I was crazy to consider it.  What would my husband say?  Then I picked it up again.  The tag was blue, and items with blue tags just happened to be on sale 50% off that week.  If I bought it and we had a boy, I'd only be out a buck.  I could live with that.

Then I noticed what had been behind it on the rack.

Y'all know how I feel about yellow seersucker baby dresses.  Daisies are also my favorite flower, so because it too had a blue tag making a dollar, it was coming home with me.  I took the two items, wrapped them snugly in their plastic bag, and tucked them far into a back corner on the bottom shelf of my accessory cabinet.  My husband would never find them there.  I was having my "if you build it, it will come" moment I guess.

Well, two nights ago, after finding out we are having a girl, I finally pulled them out to show him and confessed how long I'd had them stashed.  He thought it was more funny than crazy, thank goodness!  Then he asked the magic question - "Are you going to get more?"

When we went for our second trimester ultrasound with Bubba, we both took the day off work for it.  After the ultrasound, we hit the mall and bought baby stuff.  Lots and lots of blue and green baby stuff.  It was fun, and it was something we did together.  We were both working and had a bit more disposable income than we do now though.  Also, my husband's company is rolling out new software and he's one of the trainers, so taking time off work right now is not an option.  I felt kind of bad that we didn't get to do the same thing for Kelly that we did for Sawyer.

So, yesterday, I grabbed the boy and we went thrifting.

I've watched MANY episodes of Bewitched in the past year, and I've just become enchanted with the little dresses that Tabitha wears in the show.  For little boys, I think it's cute when they're dressed like little men.   I know a lot of people disagree, but I think little baby legs in jeans are adorable!  However, for little girls, I think they should look like little girls for as long as possible.  I don't like clothes with words for either gender, and I think leggings should be worn under dresses when it's cold only.  I don't like leggings with tee shirts, and if it's not cold, I think a nice diaper cover or tights are just right.  That's just me.

That led me to start thinking that I'd really like to have a bunch of vintage baby dresses for this little girl.  She won't wear them every minute (at home I'm sure it will be onesies and footie jammies) but I think they're just the sweetest thing on a little girl.  I looked on eBay and Etsy, but at $15 an outfit, I knew I was going to have to look elsewhere.  Hence, thrifting!  I scored big time at my favorite store, as well as at the Deseret Industries store.  When I got home (after stopping to buy a bottle of Dreft) I realized that I had bought twenty dresses, ranging from 3mo to 24mo.  Not all of them are vintage, but they all have those vintage elements that drew me to this type of dress in the first place.

Pink seersucker.  What's not to love?

Did I mention that smocking is a bit of a weakness too?

Hmm... and apparently Peter Pan collars.  This one is not vintage, but the teeny bows on the sleeves and the matching diaper cover reeled me in.

This one not only KILLED me, but it made the cashier at Goodwill squeal too.  Like, she was waving it in another cashier's face and saying "THIS is why I need to have a little girl.  THIS.  DO YOU SEE???"

I mean, look at the back!  The frills!  The lace!  The bow!  I can't blame her.  I die.

Yellow seersucker with pink ric rac trim.  LOVE.

This one I initially passed by due to the spaghetti straps, but further down the rack I found the matching diaper cover.  They had been priced separately.  Since finding the diaper covers with the dresses is kind of hard, I picked it up and asked the manager if I could get it for the same price as the other sets.  He said yes, and it was sold!

The perfect shade of green.

The trim and the bows on this one are velvet.  My husband actually really liked this one.  The tag read $9.99, but it also said 2 of 3 on it.  I looked, but could not for the life of me find the other two pieces.  I took it to the manager again (different store) and he knocked the price to $2.99.  It never hurts to ask if you have a good reason!

Another impossibly girly number.  You know what's funny?  When I was a kid, my mom used to want to dress me in yellow all the time and I HATED it.  HA!

This one is so sweet, but the diaper cover was what sold it.

More yellow seersucker, smocking, and a Peter Pan collar.  Gotta love that eyelet lace trim too.

This one needs the hem to be ironed.  I'm tempted to use my hair flat iron because I am a bad housekeeper, and besides - who irons baby clothes???

Pink and green and seersucker and eyelet lace.  *sigh*

The pleats and the lovely seafoam green color were the selling points here.

Of course, I have a bunch of coordinating diaper covers too.  Some came with certain dresses (see the one for that blue dress right in the middle???), and a few I bought individually because I figured I could pair them with dresses that didn't have them.  I would like to find some more though.  Ruffled underpants are just too flipping cute to resist.

I did notice that I have a fondness for clothes with this label.  Of the 22 outfits hanging on Kelly's side of the closet right now, seven have this label.  No other label is repeated in there, with the exception of a couple of Carter's items.  The outfit I had admired on Etsy also had this label.

The only other baby item I bought yesterday was this teeny cardigan.  At two dollars, it was too cute to pass up.  It's not vintage, but it's simple and cute.  I love it.  I also picked up a pair of maternity jeans for $6.  My bootleg Target BellaBand knockoff (seriously, last time I bought the real thing and they're a million times better) isn't really wanting to stay put anymore, so they came at just the right time!

Looking at this, one can tell that I love baby pink, pastel yellow, and bright apple green.  I'm okay with blue, but I don't seem to care for purple AT ALL.  I also passed up quite a few white dresses, because while they were pretty, I'm not totally insane.  Also, notice the nice miniature wooden hanger in the last photo?  All of Bubba's clothes are hanging on those.  I went to Ikea to get more yesterday and was informed they discontinued them.  WHY IKEA???  Why keep the ugly multicolored plastic ones and get rid of the tasteful wooden ones?  WHY??? 

Whew.  Rant over.

Today I have gone and stood in front of the closet about five times so far, just admiring everything within.  Sugar and spice and everything nice, indeed!