Thrifty Thursday for August!

This month's edition of Thrifty Thursday might as well be called "The Organization Edition" since I totally lucked out!  Organizational products like plastic drawers and shelves for under the sink can get really expensive, really quick.  However if you're patient enough, you'll luck out and find exactly what you want/need to help keep everything organized!

Like a lot of people, I have all kinds of bottles cluttering underneath my sink.  This little shelf is amazing.  It's basically a drawer that's tall enough for bottles and then you can keep more bottles on top.  I wasn't able to find the exact item, but I found something pretty close that was $24.99 at the Container Store.  I paid $3. 

My office is undergoing some reorganization.  (The fun kind.)  We're purging a lot and reorganizing what we have so it's easier to find.  I found these little drawers and jumped on them since they're the perfect size for pens, highlighters and boxes of staples and paper clips. 

Sterilite 5-drawer mini organizer:  Originally $8.77, paid $2.

ORGANIZE ALL THE THINGS!!!  

This one was perfect for pads of paper and some of the random large envelopes we have.  

Sterilite 3-drawer Organizer:  Originally $24.99, paid $4.

Being the crazy cat lady that I am, I got really excited when I saw this big, white plastic thing.  I had looked at it online recently and knew what it was right away.  It's a cat toy!!!  It's basically a way to encourage cats to work to get treats.  And I totally looked like a crazy cat lady when I tried to explain what it is to the cashier.  It took a little bit of motivation for the fish bowls on the far right, but I hardly had to train him how to use any parts of this since he uses his paws a lot.  (He's a lefty!)

Trixie 5 in 1 Activity Center:  Originally $24.99, paid $3

In the late 90s/early 2000s, Disney made a lot of sequels to movies that didn't really need them and let's be honest...they were generally terrible.  Case in point:  The Little Mermaid 2, Return of Jafar, 101 Dalmatians 2, Pocahontas 2, Atlantis 2, etc.  The only ones that I found worth watching and owning were the Lion King sequels (2 and 1.5 which focused on Timon and Pumbaa's backstories) and Lilo and Stitch 2.  Okay.  And this one.  Beauty and the Beast:  The Enchanted Christmas.  It's so gloriously cheesy that I absolutely love it.  For 99 cents, I could not pass this up!!!  Tim Curry plays the villain of this movie who was the castle's composer named Forte who was turned into a pipe organ and is trying to ruin the Christmas celebration that Belle is organizing.  (And Paul Reubens plays a character that is tricked by Forte into doing some bad things with the promise of getting a solo in Forte's next composition.)  

Originally $22.99, paid 99 cents

I know it doesn't look like it, but I'm super picky about running clothes that I get when I go out thrifting.  If it's a long sleeved top, it must have thumbholes and a pocket.  Doesn't sound like much, but you would be surprised!  I came across this and jumped on it, especially since it has a turtleneck and venting at the mouth.  

UA Qualifier Turtle Neck:  Originally $64.00, paid $7.

Like I said.  Picky.  I found these Athleta pants in my exact size (which is hard since I usually wear one of their specialty sizes thanks to the shorter inseam.)  And once I found out they were from my favorite line of pants (Bettona) I was super excited.  Stretchy, almost sweatpant like pants that I can wear to work and still look a little dressy?  YES, PLEASE!!

Athleta Bettona Classic Pants:  Originally $79, paid $5.

Anybody have any good finds while thrift shopping recently?  Or training for fall races?  (I'm SO ready for the cooler weather!)

Halloween Special Roundup Part 2.7: Halloweentown

Happy Halloween!!!  Hope it's all treats and no tricks.

For the final installment of this round of Halloween specials, it's Halloweentown!  

The movie starts out with the youngest, Sophie, watching trick or treaters, and the oldest child, Marnie, arguing with her mother about going out to a Halloween party.  (Meanwhile the middle child, Dylan, is perfectly happy reading a book.)  

Marnie doesn't understand why their mother won't let them celebrate Halloween, especially since that's when her parents first met.  Suddenly their grandmother comes for a visit and starts inquiring about Marnie being ready to start her witch training.  After a bedtime story about Halloweentown, Marnie eavesdrops on a conversation with her mother and grandmother and finds out that witchcraft runs in her family.  Now Marnie is at the age to start her training to become a witch, and her grandmother needs all the help she can get to figure out why some of her friends have been disappearing.  The kids then follow their grandmother back to Halloweentown and find out the bedtime story and all the creatures in it are real.

Soon after their arrival they are dropped off at their grandmother's house and become determined to help her find out what is going on.  

There are a couple ways to watch this movie.  If you have a cable subscription, you can download the "Watch Disney Channel" app on your smartphone, tablet or Roku, login to your cable company account and the movie is found under the "Disney Channel Original Movie" option.  You can also go here and watch it if you do not have a cable subscription!

Halloween Special Roundup Part 2.6: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Nightmare before Christmas is such a good movie.  Is it a Halloween movie?  Is it a Christmas movie?  In my mind, it's both.  (Although the director recently said it's a Halloween movie.)  I've been known to watch it Halloween through Christmas.  (It can make a nice palate cleanser if you're tired of the sugary sweetness of some Christmas specials out there.)  It's definitely a dark comedy, and I remember when it came out in 1993 (I was almost 11 years old) and thought that I would NEVER watch that movie because it was way too scary looking.  I watched it a few years later in high school with my sister and instantly loved it.  It was the first DVD I ever bought and I remember watching it on my PS2 the day I got the game system because that was our first DVD player.  My sister and I got to finally watch it in theaters together when Disney re-released it as a 3D movie.  (It was fantastic.)  

There are so many beautiful scenes in this movie.

This movie reconfirms my love of claymation.  (If you own the DVD, watch the making of featurettes.  The amount of detail is truly awe inspiring!)

If you don't know the story of this movie, it is based on the idea that every holiday has its own town.  

Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown and one day he finds Christmastown and falls in love with the whole idea of Christmas.  

He then recruits Halloweentown's citizens to help take over Christmas just once but from his one glimpse, he doesn't quite "get" it. 

"And they call him Sandy CLAWWWWSSSSS"

It's Christmas, but a very dark version of Christmas.  The toys end up scaring all of the kids and all the recipients go into high alert.  (Honestly, this kid is my favorite.  The reaction is just priceless.)

Even without audio, I totally hear the kid's screams.

It can be really dark at times, but it really is a great movie if you look at it for its artistic and stylistic value.  (If you're a Tim Burton fan, this one is an absolute must watch.)

Here's the opening number from a post I found on YouTube.  If you like this, definitely track down the whole movie on Netflix or buy it on Amazon!

Halloween Special Roundup Part 2.4: Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

This has to be one of my favorite interpretations of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  For as long as I can remember I've loved the story and found it absolutely fascinating--is the horseman real?  Was it somebody just getting payback on the newcomer who was moving in on his girlfriend?  Were Brom and Ichabod truly in love with Katrina, or were they just interested in her inheritance from her rich father?  The story itself has characters named after actual people--Katrina Van Tassel, Brom Bones and even Ichabod Crane were all real people, and Katrina and Brom are both buried in Tarrytown, New York.  Every year the local running group in Sleepy Hollow has a 10k that takes you past the Old Dutch Church, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and the famous Headless Horseman Bridge and even have someone dressed as the headless horseman riding a horse through the race.  (Naturally, costumes are encouraged and the homes and businesses get in on the fun and decorate for the holiday and the race!)

The Disney version of this tale doesn't have any dialogue since it is narrated and has songs sung by the legendary Bing Crosby and remains the only Disney cartoon where the villain wins in the end.  The story itself follows the same basic outline as the story written by Washington Irving--Ichabod Crane comes to town as the new schoolmaster, meets Katrina and falls head over heels in love with the young heiress.  What he doesn't know is that Brom Bones already has his eye on her, and they become competitors for her attention.  Brom pulls a few pranks on Ichabod, but Ichabod manages to gain Katrina and other women's attention because of his smooth social skills.  The three go to Katrina's family Halloween party and Brom tells the story about the headless horseman who goes after people if they're out after dark and you're only safe after crossing a certain bridge in town.  Ichabod Crane then goes missing after the party (a scene which was SO demanding on animators that many of them quit) and it's suspected that he has become the horseman's latest victim.  

I was unable to find a copy of this video on YouTube, but for now it is available by somebody's upload to DailyMotion.  It is also for sale on DVD and Blu-Ray as part of its original pairing with the Wind in the Willows.

Halloween Special #3: Disney's Halloween Treat

This is one of my all time favorites.  There are actually two versions floating around out there, one of which is hosted by a talking pumpkin, the other by the magic mirror from Snow White.  Both are for the most part the same.  

The special shows clips from different films that have a spooky theme.  The opening itself shows scenes from one of my favorite rides at the Magic Kingdom, the Haunted Mansion, and clips to expect during the show.  It also shows many classic Disney cartoons showing Mickey, Donald and Goofy.  

This is one special that is timeless, and I wish Disney would revive it.  It shows clips from many obscure and recognizable movies (like Sword in the Stone, the Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians to name a few) as well as the cartoon shorts that made the classic Disney characters famous.  The special has yet to find its way to DVD, and old VHS versions can go for quite a bit, assuming you can find it!

As always, I do not own the rights to this movie.  I am simply linking to a version of the special that I found on YouTube.

You can watch the movie HERE!