Halloween costume cheats 101.

Here's my "Mom of the Year" tips on creating a mediocre and mostly reusable Halloween costume for your 4 year old, knowing 13 days previous to the holiday your other child will be sliced from your womb. AKA, preparedness.

Own this movie and watch it 3 times a week, minimum.

Take him to see this movie so it instantly becomes quotable and his favorite and he begs to be a minion for Halloween.

Buy this hat on etsy for $15.

Buy overalls on ebay for $8. (Unless you already own overalls for your toddler, in which case, I'm sorry for your toddler. Listen, it's not personal. I just have a hate/hate relationship with overalls.)

Buy this pin for $3.50 to put on the overalls. Yes, even though you "could" make it yourself out of felt and super glue for like a penny. But this is easier. And you'll swear less.

Buy this shirt for under the overalls.

Put it all together to make an adorable Minion costume that is 50% post-Halloween reusable.

And that, my friends, is how this internet-loving Momma (see also: lazy and crafting-avert) does an easy-peasy Halloween costume for her Minion-loving boy.

On why the Internet is the best.

As noted, Harper's name has nothing to do with the author of "To Kill A Mockingbird." However, on the slight chance she will inherit her Momma's love of  writing and reading words, I thought it might be a cool touch to find a really neat, old copy of the book to put somewhere in her nursery.

While perusing the aisles of resale book stores and library sales might seem very Belle-from-Beauty-&-the-Beast-gliding-across-the-big-screen-on-a-library-ladder-while-deep-in-song to some of you, to me it sounds hot, sweaty and smelly. And probably fruitless. So I turned to my old pal, ebay, who came through like a champ!

I know, right? It's so perfect & I love it.  Perhaps I can convince Joey to assemble the crib this weekend and I can start putting the room together. Because currently? It's a hot mess of Amazon boxes, Target bags and tubs o' clothing. But it's organized chaos, at least.

Treasures.

It's strange to think that a year ago I would have posted a "Hump Day, Bump Day!" picture today. Actually, this would have been the one. Scary!

Back to today's post - recent treasures!

For starters, I won a blog giveaway yesterday! The savvy savers from Cha-Ching on a Shoestring hosted a partner giveaway with Jiffy Lube and its "Go Red for Women" campaign. I won a $35 Jiffy Lube gift card and a coupon book worth over $100, which is simply fab because a) Jiffy Lube is the only place I will take Tessa for her oil changes...for the locals, Andre and his peeps at Dequindre and 14 are the b-o-m-b. and b) my love for coupons is limitless. I can't wait to get it in the mail! Oh, and if you're not a follower of this blog, do it now. I guarantee that every day you'll learn something new about saving, couponing or some other trick of the trade that will put more $$ back in your pockets.

...which leads me to treasure #2. I received a package in the mail yesterday which contained some of my recent ebay purchases. Another small obsession. I found a goldmine of a seller who has impeccable and expensive taste and a closet full of boys' 12-18 month summer clothing being sold for pennies on the dollar. Even with shipping, it was all a steal.

And finally, my favorite treasure of the day - my bracelet! It came yesterday and I couldn't love it more. I like to think of it as a little successory for my "Mommy branding," because from pretty much here on out, I'm no longer Kristi, I'm Alex's Mom. Sorry it's such a craptastic picture. Cell phone + desk ≠ Olan Mills Portrait Studio.