Consignment Store Review: Clothes Mentor

When I was living in Wilmington, North Carolina, I visited a consignment store in Wilmington called Clothes Mentor a few times.

The store was chock full of all kinds of mid-level designer items.  Mid-level = Ralph Lauren, Lilly Pulitzer, J. Crew, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, etc.  Sorry ladies, no Chanel here that I saw!  They did have a large Lilly section in all sizes that seemed reasonably priced.  A nice selection of petites and womens' were also available.  Clothes were grouped by item and then by size.  I remember skirts around $8-12, pants $15 or so, and shirts were $6-15, depending on material and brand of course.

Personally, I gravitate towards blazers and jackets.  I have many that I wear infrequently, of course!  Maybe that's because it's summer... Anyway, I found this amazingly cute Juicy Couture short sleeved blazer for $32.  Usually I don't spend that much at consignment clothing stores, but it's too adorable, and I wanted to make my friends a tiny bit jealous because I had something other than the standard Juicy sweatpants.  I'm not a big fan in general of the brand, but this jacket has merit other than the brand name!  I wear it with grey pants.

Overall, I would return to Clothes Mentor to purchase clothes, but they seem too picky about buying/consigning clothes.  Here's an example.  I took a Cape Madras mini skirt that was brand new without tags (I hadn't worn it) in one day and they told me it wasn't in style....  They obviously don't go to the beach very often to see everyone and their brother wearing patchwork plaid!

One more thing, if you stop in, be sure to pick up a pen.  They have argyle under the pen grip.  Love it!

Weekend yard sale & thrift store haul

I lucked out this weekend with cheap stuff for my kitchen, craft stash, and wardrobe!  I usually surf craigslist throughout the week looking for estate sales that may have sewing items like fabric on the cheap.  When I get there, if the price is right, I may pick up a few extra items too.  


At garage sale #1 today, I scored two different fabric "remnants" for 25 cents each, a small marble mortar & pestle for 50 cents, and a quiche plate and nice flour sifter for 10 cents each.  Grand total = $1.20.  I only had $1.25 so I let her keep the change.


Moving on to garage sale #2.  This one advertised thread, which I thought was strange, until I arrived and saw a whole table filled with spool after spool of thread!  The owner had been a seamstress and had quite the collection she was getting rid of.  I didn't really want to hoard that much thread, not knowing what colors I'd use, so I grabbed several white spools and a teal that would hopefully match a t-shirt I'd been meaning to redesign.  I also got a bobbin of elastic thread and a wooden spool holder, both of which I'd been contemplating purchasing for awhile now.  I offered $5 for the lot, which would have been around $10, and the lady accepted.  Yay for me!

Carlton checking out the goods

Last stop was the thrift store.  I found a blue Loft t-shirt that was on sale for $2.50, a red pintucked and ruffled shirt from the Gap for $5, and a pair of Talbots chinos (the updated, modern, stylish version!) new with original price tag of $69.95, for a mere $7.  

How patriotic, eh?

Life is good :D

Have I mentioned I love garage sales?

I don't think I've told you this before, but I heart garage sales.  The best kind are church sales where everyone brings all their unwanted goodies into one big place = less driving for me :D  


I found some great stuff for my apartment today: Rubbermaid silverware organizer, pizza cutter, and Intuition razer blades that would have cost $12+ for a grand total of $1.00.  Yeah, a buck for all of that.  Love it!  


Meanwhile, here's a picture of my vintage sheet swap collection that I'm busily crafting from.  Sorry I can't show you any works in progress currently, but they'll be up shortly!  Feel free to send some project ideas my way.

Shopping Adventures at Target

I went to Target after work today to check out the much publicized Liberty of London collection.  I figured it would be outrageously popular, so I was happy that my local store still had a large collection for me to peruse.  


If I had an income other than student loans courtesy of Uncle Sam, I'd have grabbed more!  I did pick up a couple of the shirts to wear to work that are wicked sweet (sorry, New England kind of rubbed off on me!).  I got the Tiered Ruffle Keyhole Tank in Fairford Replacement print and the Ruffle Neck Top in Turquoise Isis print, both for $20 each.  The Kiss Lock Wallet in Jennifer Flowers Blue caught my eye too, but I'm not sure if I'll keep it.  Here are in real life pics that I took to share.  




I wanted to buy the cute ceramic canisters and tea pot, but decided to wait and see if they'll be around long enough to go on clearance.  I also saw a curtain panel on target.com that would be an excellent way for me to get a big piece of fabric to craft with.  I've been searching for Liberty fabric online and it's usually $36 a yard or more!  We'll see what happens.


Tonight when I was showing off my new purchases, my room mate told me I shop more than anyone she knows.  If I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me...