Visit to a Thrift Store

After our tour in Amish country we headed to spend the night at some friends of our family whom we have known for 29 years. It is always a treat to enjoy Christian hospitality and the fellowship of friends.

Following breakfast the next morning we made our way to the thrift store where our friends, Cecil and Judy, are involved. Cecil manages the building that houses the store and Judy works part-time sorting things for the store (guess which section is her job? -- all the fabric and craft stuff that is donated!!!!! how fun is that?!). We got to start with the backroom tour. It was fascinating to see what goes on behind the scenes at a thrift store like this.

Everything was extremely well organized and neat, all in readiness to go to the shop floor.

The thrift store was a perfect follow-up for our visit to the Mennonite museum since the thrift store is run by the Mennonite Central Committee and proceeds go to their mission work, which involves relief work throughout the world.

It was hard to stop myself wanting to look at everything that was going to be sold......

Clothes that will not be sold at the thrift store are baled up and will eventually find their way overseas. When we lived in Africa we would go to the town market and buy clothes just like this!!!! (That's how we ended up with some beautiful Laura Ashley dresses in the middle of war-torn Uganda.)

There is a room full of electronics and appliances and people volunteer their time to fix them in preparation for selling.

One thing I learned about the Mennonites from our time up north was their heart for relief work, feeding the hungry, and volunteering. This thrift store (which encompasses all these back workrooms and THREE stores) is almost entirely run by volunteers. They even have volunteers who take every puzzle home and put it together so that they only sell puzzles with all the pieces!

Here is the beginning of Judy's craft area, still behind the scenes:

Judy is showing the kids where she works:

And now a glimpse at the first thrift store -- for kitchen items, crafts, and bric-a-brac.

Behind the thrift store is an area where ladies volunteer to weave rugs that are then sold for money to put towards the relief efforts:

There is also a quilting room beyond that.

On our way home we stopped and bought some local produce and enjoyed melon, corn, zucchini fritters and tomato pie for dinner.

It was a great trip!

Birthday Celebrations

This past weekend has been full of birthday celebrations, beginning with Friday night dinner out with Michael and a walk through the Harrison Center as part of their "First Friday" open houses.

Saturday morning found me blissfully occupied at Goodwill, searching for good finds during their 50% sale.

At lunchtime I met up with my two sisters and mom for lunch at The Sanctuary to celebrate Emily's birthday, as well as mine.

We had so much fun! This is why I'm so excited that Rachel is going to have a sister!

The food was delicious -- mom ordered quiche with salad:

Christina had a Caprese salad with roasted potato wedges on the side:

I had a New Orleans sandwich with Cauliflower soup (yum!):

Here we are all together:

The atmosphere at the Sanctuary is beautiful as well as cozy and it was very festive as well:

The chocolates and chocolate desserts on display were incredible. We couldn't resist splitting one between us:

And here is my unloaded "mess" from Goodwill. I found some great shirts and a sweater for Michael, a few maternity items, quite a few sweaters to felt, a stack of clothes for Andrew, baskets for gift-giving, random silver pieces, and some cute shoes too. I called it a success!

Sunday the family was over to say goodbye to our friend Suse who is moving back to North Carolina. We had a taco feast!

And then there were presents all around.

Yesterday, my actual birthday, I was surprised to find snow on the ground when I woke up! That was always a childhood wish and I find it special when is snows on my very birthday. The kids and I wanted to go to the Children's Museum, but it was closed, so we headed to the downtown library instead (where I could read all the cooking magazines and the kids could play). I picked up a new lens for my camera (better for food) and then we headed home for some organizing/sewing and dinner, followed by Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia!!!!! And now onto the holidays......

From Charity Shops to Garage Sales

When we lived in Scotland I LOVED visiting charity shops -- uncovering antique embroidery, finding beautiful china teacups, and shopping for our clothing needs.

My friend Rachel enjoyed the very same thing (except she knew more about fashion than I did). We lived in different places, but we met up in various towns to explore their charity shops.

Here's what our outings looked like with us dressed for the weather and our children buckled into our "vehicles" (neither of us had cars):


Fast forward a few years to this past weekend. Rachel's sister, Rebekah, now lives in the same city we do!!! And, we met up to go garage saleing together this past Saturday. We piled our 6 kids into our cars and set out for 6 hours of fun! (Mind you, the children were graciously watched by a good friend for several hours so they only had to endure 3 hours in the car, and they were very, very good).
I came home with a car full of finds, my favorite being these yellow chairs which I got for $10 each. They've already found their home in Christina's living room. Aren't they adorable!!!

Another favorite find was some china which Rebekah and I split. There were 6 teacups and saucers and all these extra bits. And the design was so lovely and cheerful. In much the same way that Rachel insisted I must buy the Laura Ashley plum tweed suit we found on the day pictured above, Rebekah insisted I must buy the depression glass cake plate for $2, especially since I already had dessert plates at home to go with it. I'm glad, on both occassions, I took their advice!

Ah yes, then there were piles of clothes for Andrew, a few shirts for Michael, a dress to wear to a wedding this summer and at the next sale brand new shoes that went perfectly with the dress. There were lovely gifts which are being saved for holidays, a tiny teacup for Rachel, a skirt from Zara (thanks to Rebekah, I now know that is a good name brand), fabric and craft supplies, a war-time edition of the Woman's Day cookbook for which I paid 50 cents and I see is selling online for around $30, and a number of other lovely and useful things.

We pulled into the driveway around 2:30, exhausted. But, that might be it for the summer (I usually only focus on the particular sales that were on this past Saturday) except for the odd, unplanned stops now and then. It was just way too much fun! Can't wait for next year!