miss heatha: I was raised on the 75% off Rack

Last night I was talking with my older sister Erin about the Halloweens we had as children. We laughed as we thought about all of the crazy costumes we once had. I remember one year my younger sister Tara was the Statue of Liberty. My Dad basically draped a white sheet over her body, rolled up some news paper for her to hold, stuck a burger King Crown on her head, and called it a wrap! We sure had some interesting (to say the least) costumes...

You see, the family I grew up in wasn't one of those families that could afford to go out and buy costumes. Don’t get me wrong, we wunt out on the streets or anythang... but we didn’t exactly “have it like that” either. Certain things weren’t a priority..., (Halloween costumes being one of them) and to be honest... I’m pretty thankful they never were, because one of the greatest skills I learned as child was to be

CREATIVE.

My Dad would always get us soooo excited to go shopping as a family. When we walked in to the store (which seemed to always be JC PENNYs) he would say to us...

" Ok girls I'll get each of you ONE thing, and it can be anything you want from that rack over there....”

... (And of course it would be the 75 percent off rack...)

... in our young non-money making, immature- child minds, we would be thinkin

"YES!!!!" .............

"JACKPOT!!"

We thought it was the like the funnest thing EVER

to GET

to pick

that ONE

thing.

I can remember my sisters, and I grabbing as many clothes as we could carry in our little arms. We would look at every piece of clothing and see if we could make it work somehow... and then of course we would try them on.

... That was the best part...

My sisters and I would do our own little fashion shows up and down the fitting room isles

and just laugh

our little hearts away.

Looking back,

those moments are some of the best childhood memories I have.

I can’t tell you how much growing up on the 75% off clearance rack has benefitted my life. I learned early on that “life” was all about perspective, and in many cases that meant

MIND over Money.

You see...

It’s not really about WHAT we have.

It’s was about

what we can

MAKE

with what we have.

THANK YOU DAD FOR NOT GIVING ME EVERYTHING I WANTED WHEN I WAS CHILD.

I will be forever thankful for that.

Which brings me to now..! Many people have asked how in the world I came up with this year’s Halloween costumes? And well, I can’t really explain how?? All I can say is that

CREATIVITY HAS BEEN ENGRAVED IN ME.

So here you have it.

Ranger Antioni .......