Happy Cinco de Mayo

Unfortunately this isn't a food post because I'm not sure if I'm cooking for the celebrations tonight or if we're going out to celebrate! I was thinking about doing a Mexican style bbq with Mexican spiced flank steak or london broil, homemade salsa, beans, rice, tortillas, Mexican soda and margaritas. However, the weather decided not to cooperate since its 55 and rainy out. Boo! Oh well, may make the meal anyway and say screw it to the weather. I'll post pics and recipes later if I decide to cook.

I have to warn this is a really random post, this next section has nothing to do with food. It's my tips for having the most successful trip to a consignment shop (especially a high end consignment shop). My first word of advice is to be discriminating in what you take, most high end consignment shops can be very picky in what they decide to take, especially if it's your first time taking stuff to a particular shop (trust me, the consignment shop I go to here in NC has a quite snobby staff the first time you take stuff in). By being discriminating I mean that you should only take items that are (1) in season - this is very important; (2) higher in quality -- think Banana Republic or better, I'll explain why in a minute; and (3) in really good shape -- make sure it's clean and that you make any minor repairs. What I mean by this is take spring/summer things in spring. Also, take your more expensive items because you'll end up making more money on these things. For example, the consignment shop I use takes a 50/50 cut which means that I make $40 if a pair of my citizens jeans are sold but I would only make $6 if one of my gap t-shirts sold.

My second word of advice is to make sure your clothing looks as new as possible. The individuals who look over your stuff at the consignment shop are looking for items that look as new and expensive as possible and first impressions are important. Take the extra time to dry clean (even if its Dryel in your dryer), wash, and iron your clothing. Place dresses, jackets and suits on hangers to make sure they don't wrinkle. Clean shoes and purses as well and fold shirts, and jeans so that they stay as wrinkle free as possible. Trust me, taking the extra hour to do all of this will be worth it in the end since more of your clothing will be chosen and it will be priced a little bit higher as well.

Also, which consignment shop you choose is also important. Do some research before you take your stuff. Ask friends which shops they go to and check them out yourself. Find one that you would shop at and take your stuff there. I say this for two reasons (1) a lot of the time shops will allow you to use the money in your account as trade on items at the store that you would like to purchase and most importantly (2) if it is a store you'd shop at, odds are your stuff will sell well at this store because people with tastes similar to yours will also be shopping there.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!