It's always like Christmas when my girls bring in bags from a shopping trip filled with Operation Christmas Child shoebox stuff. One day they stopped in several stores and found nothing but hit the local Hospice thrift store and scored some fun stuff at great prices (our local thrift stores are usually priced high and not worth checking--but the Hospice store often has great prices). I also am quite picky as to the items being very "like new" which can be hard to find.
Thrift Store Shoe Box Finds - $4.50 total (paid for with my birthday money from last year)
If you have been around long you know I love dolls. When my daughter walked in carrying two grocery bags with dolls inside I was tickled. A few need a little cleaning up and/or new outfits but some are as if they just came out of the box. UPDATE: I've been making blankets and Elizabeth has been making hats for the babies with matching hats for the girl. You can check them out here:
Crafting Filler for Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes.
They also found these blocks which I'll make a
drawstring bag for and this great game for a quarter (I'll also make a bag for it as it has small parts).
Just look at this expression....I would love to keep this little one she is so cute! I wish you could see her in person -- her eyes are amazing! I can't wait to sew up some fun things for her and the little girl who will receive her.
And this little one is so very cuddly...what a comfort she will be.
Dollar Tree Shoe Box Finds - $3.00 (paid for with birthday money from last year)
I make a lot of drawstring bags and have been wanting to try shoe laces as the drawstrings so I told them if they were in the dollar stores at all to look for multi-packs. These have eight pairs of varying sizes. They should be easy to use and super sturdy for the child.
Sarah also spotted these Jenga like mini games so she grabbed one for each of the 10 to 14 year old age groups.
My husband's cousin lives in the land of retail (which I do not) and she had bought 86 toy cars from the Dollar General buy one get two free sale a while back and delivered them to our
shoe box stockpile this week. She was also able to go to Joann's for their $3 a yard fleece sale. She picked some up for us to make
biti-blanket loveys with her birthday money from last year.
She was tempted by this piece of fleece even tho it wasn't on sale and she couldn't resist as she is
in charge of our 2 to 4 year old boy boxes this year and she is including a few Match Box cars in each. As you can see by the three I laid on the piece they fit perfectly. I am not sure what size we will be cutting this to be sure there are enough race tracks for them to drive on.
Here are the other boy prints she got. I was so glad she was able to make a trip to my house so I didn't have to wait long to see all of these.
And here are the 2 to 4 year old girl prints she got for my
2 to 4 year old girl boxes. I can't wait to get started! I have a new idea as to how to finish the edge of some.
She also brought these two pieces of fabric her mother had sent her. They were from my husband's mom's stash originally. I decided this 1/2 yard heathered blue piece will be perfect for a skirt to go with this penguin shirt--the blue matches the snowflakes perfectly. I'll use this green trim, also from hubby's mom, somehow on it. The other piece is 3 yards and has some polyester in it I think so I will use it for tote bags or pencil cases. I'll figure a way to add a pop of color or fun to jazz it up.
I hope you all got some great things for your shoe boxes this week. I'd love to hear about them and if you are on Facebook you can share images with us at
Simply Shoe Boxes' Facebook Page. If you haven't stopped by and liked our Facebook page I'd love for you to join us there and like the page & follow along our Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing journey.
