Rhea Lana's Spring 2013--The BEST Sale Yet!

If you've followed this blog for long, you now know I am a huge fan of Rhea Lana's of Jonesboro.

Today I'd like to share some of the awesome deals I've scored through consignment shopping! I used to check deal sites daily and now, I just delete my daily reminder emails because I know I can get better deals at Rhea Lana's. I also subscribe to several name brand and boutique children's email newsletters...which also end up deleted. Even at "70% off," I can usually do better at RL! :)

Last year, I found these awesome deals:

Ezra's deals, including dress shirts, several long sleeve shirts,
'pirate' holiday pajamas, and a short sleeve tee that said "Who you callin' short?"
(of course he needed that, lol)

Most of the shirts looked new (some were)

Kidorable Pirate Raincoat!!!
I have wished for one of these for him for soooo long!!!
It was $10 instead of the $25 most stores wanted!

Part 1 of Eliana's awesome finds, including a Brand NEW
Mud Pie Christmas outfit!!!

Part 2 of Eliana's stash--that brown dress with striped sleeves
is a $70 dress!! I paid $7 and it was like new!
Note that some of these items still had tags as well.

I also got several NEW Melissa and Doug toys for a great price that I put up and gave to Ezra for Christmas! There will be even more of these items at this year's sale!

I went to drop of my items for consignment at the new location (the old Rowsey Furniture building) last night. I was very impressed with the new location. At first it looked like there was less merchandise than the last sale, but then I realized there was just tons more room! AND there is still one more day of consignor drop off (today).

I'm looking forward to shopping early (more info on how to shop early here) Saturday and looking forward to the best sale yet--it just keeps getting better each time!

Consigning and dropping off your items today? Make sure to read my "Tips & Tricks" in this post!

Here are a few of the other RL-related posts I've written:
5 Ways to Help Out Your Community at 1 Event!
Yard Sale? No sell--I've found a better way!

Are you consigning, volunteering, or shopping with Rhea Lana's of Jonesboro this sale?

What are you looking forward to most?

A Special Valentine From Rhea Lana's of Jonesboro--with tips & tricks for consignors!

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, but Rhea Lana's is giving you an early Valentine--TWO extra days to enter your items! The original deadline of midnight Tuesday has been extended to Thursday (Valentine's Day) at midnight!

This gives you two more days to enter your items. If you hadn't gotten started or had more items that you wanted to add but didn't think you'd have time (inevitably I find a few extra items once I think I'm done), now is the time to do it! Sign up here now!

Signing up to consign is quick and easy, you make 70% off your items, and you can use the Unsold Items Guarantee (Rhea Lana's exclusive guarantee--why I only consign with them)!
Items must be tagged with labels printed by RL at check-in in order to receive the unsold item guarantee.

Still don't have time or items to consign? Consider volunteering to get into the sale early and nab some of the best deals! See the different ways you can volunteer here. Sign up for a shift here!

Don't worry, even if you don't have time to consign or volunteer, there will still be TONS of fantastic items for you to buy during the public sale!

For those of you who are already consignors or have now decided to consign, The Adventures of The Davis' Blog has a special treat for you! I'm going to share some of my personal consignment tips! The Jonesboro Rhea Lana's website also has a section for tips on merchandise prep here.

Being a visual person, I have included plenty of pictures to go along with my tips! The clothing guidelines are very well illustrated on the Rhea Lana's site, so I will pay attention to accessories, such as toys, diaper bags, and nursing pillows.

Toys and Accessories: Tips & Tricks!

1. Make sure they are CLEAN. No one wants to buy a toy that is dirty or has yellowed with age. These will not sell--especially since there are often multiples of the same toys or baby gear products at the sale. When you think of the cleanliness of your item, consider the fact that it could be placed right next to an item just like it that is in pristine condition. (Also consider this point when you are pricing your items.)

2. Your main goal once your toys and accessories are clean and ready to sell is to keep the tag on! It is disappointing for the shopper who wants to purchase your item but can't and it is disappointing for you, the consignor, when your items don't sell because the tag is lost and there is no way to know who the item belonged to, so the sale can't be credited to the correct person!

The following tips will help you keep your tags stay ON so you can sell your items!

Basic Supplies

Ziploc Big Bags (I used the XL size), Zip Ties (I used medium),
Hang Tags (the same you use for your clothing items),
and Safety Pins (the large ones tend to work better for toys and
accessories), not pictured: clear packing tape and a Sharpie marker 

Toys
If you have warranties or any other papers that go along with your toys, use a standard sandwich or quart size Ziploc bag to contain them and then attach them to your items using tape or zip ties. I also use the smaller bags to contain accessories to the toys (small cars, etc.) so that they don't get lost during the sale. If I do this, I also make sure to put the hang tag inside the small bag and loop it through the zip tie!
Another tip I use is to add an extra piece of clear packing tape somewhere else on the item with my consignor number, the item number from my inventory sheet, and the price. This way if the hang tag does get removed, the item can still be sold because they can find the information in the computer system!

Fur Real Tiger with warranty and bottle accessories attached with
zip ties. Since it has a soft ear, I attached the hang tag with a safety pin,
but then I added clear packing tape to keep the hanging tag close to the
tiger so that it would be less likely to be removed.

Note the extra piece of packing tape with the information listed above.
I also added a zip tie to the warranty and looped it around the center wheel.
It is also taped down, and I taped down the hang tag on the top and wrote
the above information there as well.

Using zip ties and small plastic bags to contain warranties and accessories,
and I wrote the info mentioned above onto each bag.
I also put the hang tags inside the bags, making sure to loop them
through the zip ties--those tags aren't going anywhere!

Consignor info & price on the tape holding down the hang tag.
Notice how I always try to put the top of the hang tag under the tape
so it won't be pulled from the string easily.

Sometimes toy sets work better if they are all bagged together. My Fisher Price farm set would have likely lost some accessories if I hadn't used an XL bag...

I used the writing section to put my consignor info and the price,
then used clear packing tape to tape the hang tag to the bag.

It's a little difficult to see, but I wrapped the top of the bag around to fit
the toy set, then sealed it with clear packing tape to keep it from being
opened and losing accessories!

You can still see all the accessories just fine and now they will all
stay together and nothing will be lost!

Diaper Bags
You will want to hang these on a hanger, but I didn't worry so much about attaching them to the hanger since I wanted shoppers to be able to get a good look at them. I looped the straps around the strap sections of the hangers (the hangers with the little loops for straps work better than those that are just straight along the top).
I didn't want to put a pin through my bags because of the material, so I put the pin through the loops on the side straps and then taped down the string and top section of the hang tag onto the right side of the bag (right side, since that's how people will browse through them, just like clothes).
Like my toys, I also put an extra piece of packing tape with my consignor info, item number, and the price on each bag, just in case the hang tag was accidentally pulled off.
If your bag has long straps, like a messenger style bag, be sure to shorten the straps enough so that your bag isn't dragging the floor or getting lost beneath a row of other bags.

Straps looped through the strap slots on the hanger.
You could still add large safety pins to keep the bag on the
 hanger. I would suggest further down on the straps so that
shoppers can still open and see inside the bag.

Hang tag pinned to loop on side strap and then taped by the string
and top of the hang tag.

Nursing Pillows

I tagged these so many different ways. I wanted to be sure that people could look at them without my information being lost.
First, I used a safety pin to pin a hang tag with my consignor info, item number to the pillow itself.

Then, I used clear packing tape with the same information on the tag of the pillow.

I placed the pillow into an XL Ziploc bag and wrote all that info on the writing section with a Sharpie.

Finally, I taped the hang tag onto the front of the bag by the writing section.
Overkill? Probably...but there is NO way my info will be lost now! :)

These guidelines could also be applied to other large items that need to be bagged.

Hang tag pinned to pillow w/ info.

Info on clear packing tape on tag of pillow

Pillow placed into an XL Ziploc bag;
hang tag taped to the front, by the writing section,
which contains all the info listed above

I hope these tips and tricks help you with your consigning! If you have any questions about the items in this post or prepping other items, please leave a comment here or on my Facebook page. The Rhea Lana's Facebook page is always there to help too!
Happy consigning and shopping!!

So far...

So far today, I have been snotted on, peed on, pooped on, and thrown up on. Ellie is teething and though she doesn't seem to be in pain, it's causing lots of mucus. Lots of mucus = lots of fun lots of grossness.

Ezra and I have learned about the month of December and the season of winter and changed out our classroom decor accordingly (a few days late, but oh well). We dug out all the Christmas books and have read 3 or 4 out of 30 something so far (can you tell I'm addicted to children's books, particularly Christmas ones?).

He loves to put the window clings on all by himself
(hence the upside down snowman, ha)!

We also made (Melissa and Doug) cookies in his kitchen and made a 'mailbox' out of an old cereal box and some tissue paper (the only wrapping paper I had had Santa all over it, and that was a bit much for a mailbox). He's been writing 'cards' and putting them in some old envelopes I had left over from last year's Christmas cards, adding 'stamps' (stickers), and 'sending' them to everyone he can think of. :) We mailed some things at the post office the other day and a very friendly mailman gave Ezra a USPS coloring book, so we looked through it and did the activities that were on his level together.

So the back had a spot where the tissue paper didn't cover...
thankfully, my 3 year old isn't a big art critic. ;)

Telling me how to send the mail...

I just cut some construction paper to size and he used those as his 'notes.'
The square stickers worked great for stamps, but any stickers will do!
We also used some stars for some of our letters.

Ellie has been playing in her seat, nursing plenty, and sleeping the day away (slightly jealous of her there, it's a great rainy-weather, sleep-in-all-day kind of day). She's been sure to get lots of cuddles too.

A small selection of Christmas books on our coffee table--
I like to keep the recordable books and pop-up books within sight
since Ezra can get a bit crazy sometimes and I don't want them to get damaged.

Christmas book explosion! (I left the room and he knocked down the stack.)
I thought about wrapping them and opening one each day, but we have more
than 25, and that would be a lot of paper...plus, I have to keep him occupied
long enough to get them all wrapped.

I've also managed to shower and get Ezra halfway dressed (this is a major achievement for a SAHM, especially on a day when I know no one will see him so it doesn't matter if he gets dressed, ha).

Oh yeah, sent out the Preschool Christmas party invites for church this morning (running late due to very sick baby girl, but at least it's been in the bulletin for a while). That's what got us on that impromptu mailbox and letters kick this morning. Thankfully, Ellie seems to be on the upward swing now and should hopefully be her usual happy-go-lucky self by the party Friday.

Well, Ezra just skipped into the living room singing, "You're my friennnnnd, You're my friennnnnd," and I have no willpower against that kind of awesomeness, so I'll get going. :)

Hope everyone else is having a great rainy day. Before kids, I might have spent it reading all day, and I'd like to get around to reading again someday, but this is pretty good for the interim. ;)

~Deidre

You Are What You Eat Giveaway Hop: The Fresh 20 Meal Plan

Californians are going to the polls to vote on Prop 37, also known as the food labeling law. The Green Moms Network supports Americans right to know if their food contains genetically engineered ingredients and is committed to showcasing natural and organic eating. So, welcome to the You Are What You Eat Giveaway Hop, hosted by Happy Mothering and Marlie and Me . A team of 20 + green mom bloggers are giving away prizes valued at $20 minimum related to eating healthy. You'll find giveaways for healthful, natural or organic foods, cookbooks, kitchen gadgets and more! In addition, the hosts are featuring 3 fabulous grand prize packages from Kombucha Kamp, Cultures for Health, Green Pasture, Real Salt, Sante Bakery, Newman's Own Organics, Lucy's, Learning Resources, Green Kid Crafts and Mary's Gone Crackers! You’ll get bonus entries into the Grand Prize Giveaway for each giveaway you enter in the You Are What You Eat Hop! Click here to enter the grand prize. I'm giving away an annual subscription to The Fresh 20 meal planning service and one of their 6 week lunch books! For more information, see my review post here. A few quick facts about the program: - Offers classic, gluten-free, and vegetarian plus a lunch plan - Dinner plans will serve a family of 4, weekly grocery estimate if $75 for the whole weekly menu - 3 month subscription is $15, annual is $49 - We have gift certificates, an affiliate program - The Fresh 20 Cookbook is publishing in 2013 from Harper-Collins - Featured in The New York Times, InStyle Magazine, Prevention Magazine - Annual subscribers have access to the archives which contain over 100 recipes - At any given time, monthly subscribers have access to 3 weeks of recipes. - An email every Friday to announce the new menu and with any giveaways or other news to share Enter via the Rafflecopter form below: a Rafflecopter giveaway Be sure to check out the other giveaways as well!

"The Fresh 20" Review

I'm extremely pleased to give you my review of The Fresh 20, an amazing and affordable meal-planning service that I recently began.

As part of my "job" as a stay-at-home mom, it was very important to me to start cooking healthy homemade meals for my family. I thought that not working full time would mean I became an amazing chef overnight, but no such luck. With a toddler and a newborn to take care of and a house to (constantly) clean, I had little to no time to come up with culinary masterpiece recipes. Sure, Pinterest had plenty of enticing finds, but let's face it, I'm probably only going to end up making the desserts because they are simpler and only have a few ingredients. I even bought ingredients for a few recipes and never ended up making them.

I was tired of wasting food and time trying to figure out what to make for supper. I wanted to cook healthily and with fresh ingredients, but the fresh ingredients usually went bad before I even got to use them. Maybe you don't have this problem. Maybe you cook up amazing dishes from scratch without recipes and everyone thinks you are a cooking god/goddess. Awesome for you, but I'm just not a natural cook. Baker, yes. Cook, no. I can make some chocolate chip cookies or cookie dough brownies so good your mama will taste them when you take a bite, but I tend to flop when it comes to preparing meals. We typically end up in the "What's for dinner? Grilled chicken and canned vegetables." camp way too often.

Enter The Fresh 20. I gave a brief preview of this amazing service here. With simple shopping lists, detailed recipes, and even nutrition information for each dish, this meal planning tool does all the hard work for me. Not only do I not waste any ingredients, I also have occasional leftovers for lunch and many times part of the work you do for one recipe helps you with another later in the week. For example, I made braised vegetable lentils (which I wasn't sure about, but turned out wonderful) to go along with my oven roasted chicken on Tuesday and put some back to help make the Creamy Lentil Soup we enjoyed Sunday. It's nice to see your hard work pay off more than one night!

The Fresh 20 uses 20 staple ingredients from your pantry, 20 weekly ingredients (this may sound like a lot, but it's not for a week's worth of recipes), and 20 kitchen essentials (you probably already have most of these and can substitute some) and  to create fabulous, healthful dishes for you and your family each week.

Here is a picture of one of the fabulous organic roasted chickens I made last week (they were used for 3 different meals)!

It's nice to have all that preparation pay off not only the night you make it,
but also in subsequent meals throughout the week!
(Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes in the background--YUM!)

Here is a list of pros and cons that I've found so far.

Pros

• No more wasting of ingredients
• Makes grocery shopping so simple and easy--the list is even organized by category and gives you details such as where to find some ingredients in your grocery store (Grocery shopping had become a major ordeal with an antsy toddler, and this helps me get in and get out before he gets too wild!)
• I feel like a real, accomplished cook after making these recipes.
• The recipes are delicious! Even my picky toddler has gobbled it all up!
• The recipes are healthy--I feel so good about what I am putting into my family's bodies and am confident there aren't any 'mystery ingredients' since I add all the ingredients myself!
• Cost--I have been under budget on my groceries! The grocery list has an estimate of the price of each item and so far, I've come out under the total estimate two weeks in a row, even when I needed to stock up on some of the 'fresh 20' ingredients for my pantry in the beginning.

Cons

• The recipes do take a bit more time than grilled chicken and canned vegetables. However, the difference in taste and quality is more than worth it to me.
• You will be chopping lots of vegetables. If you're great at this, it's not a concern. I've never been a huge fan of chopping veggies, but I think I'm getting better at it, and I have to admit they look so pretty and colorful all chopped up on my cutting board (yeah, I'm a bit odd, I suppose, but they do). I think I'll be adding 'awesome vegetable knives' to my Christmas list!
• The serving sizes are sometimes less accurate than I'd like. The plan is designed for a family of four. Our family consists of myself, my husband, and our toddler. Most nights we do have leftovers, which we use for lunches, but others we clean the pan. If we went with just the serving sizes, we would be good, but sometimes those just aren't big enough (I think this can be true of lots of recipes, though, not just the ones in this meal plan). Also, you could avoid any problems with this by looking at the serving sizes ahead of time. If it doesn't sound like they will be large enough, you could just double up the recipe ingredients as you shop and cook.

There are 3 options for recipe subscriptions--Classic, Vegetarian, and Gluten Free. My family chose the Classic plan.

The following is a breakdown of the Estimated Cost of the grocery items and what I actually paid.

Item and Estimated Cost --- Actual Cost
2 whole organic chickens (about 3 1/2 lbs. each)  Estimated Cost: $24     Actual Cost: $14.74
(note: these were actually bigger than suggested because I couldn't find smaller ones)

4 Salmon Fillets (about 1 1/4 lbs.) Estimated Cost: $16     Actual Cost: $19.96
I attribute the price to my not being near an ocean. If you live closer to the coast, I'm sure it would be cheaper.

4 Sweet Potatoes/Yams (8 ounce potatoes) Estimated Cost: $3.50     Actual Cost: $1.25
I could only find larger potatoes, so I got 2 larger ones that equaled the same weight.

1 onion Estimated Cost: $1     Actual Cost: $0.43

Carrots (7) Estimated Cost: $2.50     Actual Cost: $0.78
I got a bag of carrots that had a few more than 7, but no worries--the recipes for the next week called for carrots too, so they won't be wasted! If the recipes for the next week didn't, you could always use them for snacks.

Celery (6 stalks) Estimated Cost: $2     Actual Cost: $1.24
Same story as with the carrots, but I knew I could use them as a snack if I had extras.

1 Lemon Estimated Cost: $1     Actual Cost: $0.39
I'm sure the $1 estimate is just done to make a round number. Most items in the produce section will run you less than $1.

1 bunch of Rosemary (to yield 1 tbsp chopped) Estimated Cost: $1.50     Actual Cost: $1.98
I ended up with plenty leftover from the package available at my grocery store.

Spinach (6 cups) Estimated Cost: $3     Actual Cost: $2.18
I bought a bag of salad spinach and checked the back for serving size to make sure I had enough. My husband made the extra into a salad for lunch. Again, no wasting!

Milk (1 cup) Estimated Cost: $1 (they are going by the portion you'll use) Actual Cost: $3.98 (for a gallon of milk)
I'd say the overall cost of the gallon of milk would mean the cup costs less than that. As mom of a milk-guzzling toddler, I always have this on hand and didn't even need to pick it up when I did my grocery shopping.

White Cheddar Cheese (1 1/2 cups, shredded) Estimated Cost: $4     Actual Cost: $2.08
My grocery store only had one option and it was a block, so I shredded it before supper. My son ate the leftovers as a snack.

Baking Soda (1 tbsp) Estimated Cost: $1 (see note on milk)    Actual Cost: ?
I already had some so I didn't buy any, but I'd say you can get an off-brand package for around $1.

Lentils (2 cups) Estimated Cost: $3     Actual Cost: $1.08
I admit I was not thrilled about trying lentils. They just didn't sound appetizing. Turns out, they were fabulous!

Chili Powder (2 tbsp) Estimated Cost: $4 (estimated for entire container)     Actual Cost: ?
I already had some chili powder on hand, but I believe you can buy it for cheaper than $4 here.

Corn Tortillas (16) Estimated Cost: $3     Actual Cost: $1.88 (for package of 30)
I usually use flour tortillas, and wasn't sure about the corn ones, but now I definitely prefer them!

Total Cost Estimate: $70.50
Cost Per Dinner: $14.10
Cost Per Serving: $3.525

Actual Cost: $51.97 (!!!)

I did have to add a few items to my pantry that I didn't already have (these are listed at the bottom of your shopping list, under the total estimate), but they only totaled $16.15, bringing the grand total to $68.12--still under budget!

Stay tuned, tomorrow is the beginning of the "You Are What You Eat" Giveaway Hop, where I'll be giving away an annual subscription to The Fresh 20, as well as one of their cookbooks! One lucky winner will get both prizes!

If you simply can't wait for the giveaway, you can go ahead and get your own plan here. You can do a 3 month trial for just $5 per month! If you get an annual plan, you get access to the archives of recipes, plus you save money--annual subscriptions figure out to $4.08 per month! Remember, there are 3 options--Classic, Vegetarian, and Gluten Free. Choose the one that best meets your family's needs!

Happy Saving,
Deidre :)

Wordless Wednesday: Halloween Truth

I've spent the majority of my day sewing a Peter Pan costume. I've completely disassembled and reassembled my sewing machine numerous times. This thing had better turn out awesome. Pics tomorrow. In the meantime, some Halloween truth:

Gotta do this now while they don't know it's wrong of me, right? ;)

Happy Halloween! :)

Totally Shaken Tuesday

I was going to have a cute post today about funny toddler sayings and moments.

One of my best friends contacted me last night to tell me they were being admitted to St. Jude's because her 3 year old son, Ethan, had been diagnosed with leukemia.

We were pregnant together. Our boys are weeks apart in age. My heart is breaking for their family! Thankfully they seem to have caught this soon and there is a 90% cure rate for his type of leukemia.

I still can't imagine...or maybe I can because it hits so close to home. That could just as easily be my son.

Please take time today to squeeze your little loves extra tight and thank the Lord for their health and the blessing of them...and if you feel led, please say a prayer for the Melikians! Thanks in advance.