Triangle Mamas

Bargain Hunting with the Durham Rescue Mission

By Abby

I have a little secret and I'm not sure I should share. If I share, all you local peeps just might start shopping there too and then I'll have to compete with you for all the good stuff.

All the good stuff, you say. Where?

At Rescued Treasures, the Durham Rescue Mission thrift shoppe -- located on US-70/Glenwood Avenue near Brier Creek.

It's here you can find all sorts of awesome deals. I brought home a whole bag of Linus clothing for only $10. It included some pretty nice pants (some still with tags) for $2 each. Right now, Linus is rocking a pair of Gap jammies that I got for -- $2. That's right, most kids clothes are only $2 each.

You can't beat that price anywhere.

Not even at Goodwill, where kid's clothes are $2.25 each.

But even better than prices that beat Goodwill is that unlike GCF, the Rescue Mission's clothes are sorted by SIZE. It's so easy to find a bargain.

My mom even scored a Peg Perego Pliko stroller for $15. She's gonna clean it up, repair the seat fabric, and then pass it on to my expectant sister-in-law, Kate.

And the furniture. I haven't even mentioned the furniture. I have my eye on a desk, if only I can find a way to get it home AND convince my husband that despite it's imperfections, $25 is NOT too much to pay. We'll see.

The other great score I made at the Rescue Mission -- my mom's Christmas present.

But you'll have to wait until Thursday for that one. Stay tuned.

Almost forgot -- While you're there don't forget to donate all your unwanted, gently used household goods and clothing. You can just drive on up, let them unload the car, and walk away with a tax write-off receipt. Easy-peasy.

 

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This is an original Triangle Mamas post. Abby blogs about local finds, shopping steals, and much more at My Sweet Babboo. You can also find her on Twitter when she's not moving laundry around.

Confession: I Do Love a Jon Jon

We all have our varying opinions on the jon jon. Before Little Bird was born, I imagined him wearing nothing but jon jons, romping across the playground in his little smocked coveralls. I'm not sure what I was drinking at the time, but his entrance into real life complete with poop, pee, drool, dirt, and general stickiness soon changed my mind on the jon jon.

Now, I reserve the jon jon for church on Sunday morning and other occasions where he needs to be a little more dressed up. We don't wear them to Marbles, and he won't be wearing them to Mother's Morning Out, no matter how many other little boys will.

For some reason though, Bird still has way more jon jons hanging in his closet than I have pride to admit. I blame Kelly for this. Kelly runs Divine Consign in Raleigh. Divine Consign hosts trunk shows of overstocks and consignment sales a few times a year. It's not your average consignment sale. You don't have to dig through to find things that aren't stained or that you could buy just as cheaply if you caught them on clearance. Kelly takes only high end, gently worn children's clothes, saving moms like me who only like to shop in front of a computer screen a lot of time and hassle.

If she hadn't made it easy enough for us, now she has also started a blog. This post on how to shop a consignment sale was incredibly helpful, and I thought worth passing along.The next show is August 31 through September 4 at Stonehenge Shopping Center in Raleigh.

What about you? Do you hit consignment sales for your kids' clothing? What other ones are worth a look? Do you sell at consignment sales? Do you have any additional shopping or selling tips?

Let's help each other continue to dress our children way way better than we dress ourselves. That is until What Not to Wear shows up on my doorstep and rescues me from myself.

An original Triangle Mamas post. This post was not sponsored by Divine Consign in any way. We just happen to like moms in business for themselves, especially when they do it so well. In fact, if you have a mom in business here in the Triangle who you think we should feature, please contact us. We don't do reviews, but we share our positive and negative experiences freely here.

When Marty isn't busy ironing jon jons, she writes about everyday things at Don't Take the Repeats and Deep South Moms. When she has less to say, she hangs out on Twitter.

Easter for Boys

 Easter is fast approaching. That means cute (matching, natch) outfits for Bird and Deal. This was an easy task when the boys were gurgling, swaddled infants with rolls galore and delectable chubby cheeks. At 45 and 35 pounds and approaching the limits of the height charts, they no longer look cute in smocked john johns with bunnies and posies embroidered. The whole one piece outfit is no longer an option with the torsos on my kids. Despite their extraordinarily long torsos, there is no way in hell you'd catch me dressing my boys in frou frou garb. They are boys afterall, not babies. And certainly not sissies. ..not that there's anything wrong with that.

There has been a permanent ban on Little Lord Fauntleroy clothing at Chez Dirt & Noise. There comes a time for every mother (I'm not excluding fathers, but let's face it, they would throw the kids in a paper sack with holes cut out for head and arms and call it a day), to come to grips with the fact their boy babies turn into big boys. Rambunctious, rough and tumble, BOYS. Moms need to stop shopping at stores like Mommas Boy Clothing once the kid can feed himself solid food with an utensil of any kind, fingers included. Let's be real, it is highly unlikely that I would ever shop at a store called Mommas Boy Clothing at all. Folks need to quit making this stuff larger than a size 2T, lest those boys get the snot kicked out of them when Momma's watchful eye strays.

Dressing Bird and Deal in traditional Easter attire would just make them look ridiculous, akin to the mother of a high school classmate I recall who wore mini skirts and anklets with spiky heels in 1985 because it was all the rage among teenage girls. She wore such a getup thinking she looked young and hip. In reality, she looked old and dreadful. Costumed, even. I am now as old as she was then, and you wouldn't catch me in any of the crap teenage girls are wearing these days. Another reason I'm glad to have sons! Those of you with daughters have uber fabulous options for Easter attire now, but wait until those girls want bling on their too tight shirts and cutesy words across their bottoms. Will someone please quash this trend?

Now the quandary is how to dress the boys appropriately for Easter photos without knee socks, saddle shoes, and a peter pan collar? Last year was freezing so we made do with madras pants and sweaters...I couldn't wrangle them into the white bucks I bought so those still sit anew in the closet. I'm going to cram their little (or not so little) feet into those shoes for a photo opp this year. At this rate, it might be the only Easter garb they wear.

Why Moms Wear Sweatpants

Crossposted at My Sweet Babboo.  Abby can be found sweatpants and all blogging at My Sweet Babboo.  That is, unless she's out buying new sweats at Old Navy.

Stay tuned for Triangle Mamas' first giveaway this week!

Mamas on Parade

Before I gave birth, I prided myself in my extensive wardrobe.  Now, I certainly wasn’t lucky wealthy enough to wear Chanel or Dior , but I did wear Banana Republi c, Ann Taylor, and J. Crew.  Clothes were important to me.  Clothes were one of the ways I expressed who I was (or at least who the stores thought I was that season).  These days, as a stay at home mom, I find myself wearing White House Black Market less and less and Old Navy more and more.  Not that there is anything wrong with Old Navy, but there is something wrong with the fact that I don’t even wear Old Navy jeans and blouses.  No, I wear Old Navy sweatpants and *gasp* pajama pants most days.

Of course, this leaves me wondering if I’m the only slacker stay-at-home mom out there.  Is it just that I personally don’t put in the effort when other moms do?  Are there really stay-at-home moms that bother with the decent clothes, make up, and earrings everyday?  I mean, I try.  Every morning, I find myself once again in my closet petting my beautiful clothes.  Some mornings I’ll even slip on a favorite Loft top only to find myself quickly hanging it back up and reaching for my sweats thinking to myself that if Linus wiped his booger-y nose on that blouse, it would cost $12 to dry clean.  That’s my excuse anyway… dry cleaning bills.  In truth, I think my wardrobe choice has more to do with my state of mind then laundering costs.  If the only people who are going to see what I have on today are my husband and my one year old, why should I bother getting all gussied up?

Today, though, I bothered.  I had some place to go.   Linus and I were meeting up with some friends for the regular Wednesday morning sing along out at the Southpoint Pottery Barn Kids.  I absolutely couldn’t show up at Southpoint wearing pajama pants and a tank top.  Southpoint is for parading and this time I couldn’t just worry about Linus’s wardrobe, I had to worry about mine.  I can’t even tell you how long I stood there in my closet staring at those clothes wondering what would look good enough but still be comfortable enough to wrestle Linus into his carseat and come out still looking okay.  I eventually settled on one of my favorite Loft tops in black that shows nary a wrinkle and I paired it with my skinny-day (not skinny) jeans from the Buckle.  I hesitated between wearing my usual flip-flops or bothering with another more sophisticated shoe eventually settling on the old stand-by flops since it was pouring rain and whatever shoes I wore would end up saturated. 

I donned my clothes, even bothering with a simple black bracelet, grabbed Linus (always the fashion icon), and headed for the door.  Forgetting that I hadn’t yet restocked the diaper bag, I set Linus down and dashed back to his room for a diaper and a bib and spoon and a sippy cup and a… That’s when the discomfort began.  I was beginning to sweat with all that hurried supply gathering and my jeans began to feel a bit too tight.  Ignoring my discomfort, I grabbed Linus, the diaper bag, and my now tepid Starbucks and headed out the door.  Wrestling my keys out of my too tight pocket, I nearly drop Linus before managing to unlock the door.  I try to toss the bag into the front seat while setting my Starbucks cup on the roof of the car when Linus reaches for my bracelet he’s just noticed, knocking the Starbucks out of my hand, all over the car, and into a waiting puddle.  Sweat begins pooling in the small of my back.  I dump the bag onto the floorboard, wrestle Linus into his carseat, recover my now empty cup, start the car, and crank the air conditioner. 

Arriving at Southpoint, feeling cooler, I slide Linus into my Nest sling and head inside.  As we sit waiting for the sing-along to begin, I look around.  All the moms look lovely with pretty cashmere cardigans, 7 for All Mankind jeans, perfectly coordinated jewelry, and colorful rain boots.  Grateful that I took the time to put on make-up, I can’t help wondering if all the moms in the room look this good every day or if, like me, a trip out to a sing-along amounts to a special occasion.  I’m hoping it’s the former, but either way, I’m thinking I should probably try to make more of an effort on a daily basis if for nothing else than the water weight I’ll lose in sweat while wrestling with Linus.

Crossposted at My Sweet Babboo. In addition to being a fashion disaster, Abby is the mama of a one year old who also blogs at her personal mommy blog, My Sweet Babboo.

To Jon-Jon or Not to Jon-Jon

I would love to have a jon-jon baby. You know? The cute little boys in the shortalls or longalls that have the band of embroidery across the chest? Gingham in all different colors with little buttons on the shoulders? I love those.

I thought I would be a jon-jon mom.

This morning, Christopher and I went by the Divine Consign sale. As a new mom, I had registered to preview the sale early this morning, and I'm glad I did. There were already several moms there with their babies strapped on, ready to find some bargains.

It wasn't your typical consignment sale. There were jon-jon's upon jon-jon's just waiting to go home with me for a fraction of their original prices. Kelly, who started Divine Consign, also gets overstocks from some companies, so some of the items were new with tags. It's a great sale, and is going on today and tomorrow until 2:00 PM (August 28-29).

What I found myself picking up though? Were the striped Zutano rompers in funky colors with matching hats.

I passed up jon-jon after jon-jon, admiring their cuteness, but wondering about their practicality. Plus, did I really want my little boy to always look like he was on the fast track for Prep?

I learned a little bit about myself this morning. My ridiculous boot collection? The funky tights in my drawer? All the quirk that used to make up my wardrobe? I liked it. I like a little quirk.

Looks like Christopher is going to be a little more funky and a little less preppy.

Except for the Christmas picture. Embroidered Santas all the way. I never would have guessed.

An original Triangle Mamas post. Marty blogs about that boot collection at Don't Take the Repeats.