Vacation Thrift Shopping

We just returned from a wonderful vacation in New England. Whenever we travel, I always try to find local thrift shops to search out bargains. On our way to Woodstock, Vermont, we stopped in Plymouth, New Hampshire to eat lunch at Six Burner Bistro. As we were getting in the car to leave, I noticed Ladders Thrift Shop across the street.

We had just spent four days in North Conway where I visited a thrift store and a consignment store. Neither were worth the effort to find them.

But Ladders was all together different. It reminded me of a cross between our local church thrift shop and the local consignment store. What I didn’t know about Ladders is that it supports the Bridge House. What a great ministry!

According to the website: the Bridge House provides information and referral, emergency shelter, food, job training, and transitional living support, and aftercare. The 20+ bed facility is located on the Whole Village Family Resource Center campus in Plymouth, NH and serves both single adults (male and female) and families with one or two parents.  Services are statewide and beyond with the strongest concentration in the North Country, Grafton County, and Lakes Region.  Due to the VA’s commitment to end veteran homelessness, Bridge House is able to offer specialized services for this population, and also provides financial assistance through our fund “NH Funds 4 Our Vets.” The Bridge House’s goal is to end homelessness, one family at a time.

What I found in this thrift store was lots of good stuff and great prices. I am always on the lookout for fabric and sewing stuff, so I couldn’t believe when I saw that they had a whole area dedicated to crafts.

On the left there were bins and bins of goodies. Those wood drawers hold yarn, but not just a bunch of mixed up yarn. They have labeled each drawer with a color. So if you are looking for blue yarn, you go to the blue drawer! Then on the right, on the shelving  the fabric was folded and stacked by color. What a find.

And what did I get? Well, I grabbed a large piece of white jean fabric for $2, a Fiskars shape stencil for $1, and two skeins of yarns for 75 cents each.

The white fabric has been washed and it’s about 3 yards! And you know I’ll be dyeing it.  I was just thinking I’d like to make more Ethel totes, but with heavier fabric that I could dye. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the yarn or the stencil right now, but I’ve got some ideas.

So if you are near Plymouth, New Hampshire be sure and stop in. Ladders is located at 16 S Main Street. And while you’re there, have lunch at Six Burner Bistro across the street. This is what I had on that cool day – a half grilled chicken sandwich with mushroom barley soup. Yum!

While I’m on the subject of thrift shops, before we left for our New England vacation, I stopped in Feather Your Nest, our local consignment store here in Newburgh, Indiana. Again I found more stuff to dye.

These napkins are beautiful and will be even prettier when they hit the dye pot.

Then I found these coasters.

And lastly more of that Fringy yarn. I can add the ones I bought in New Hampshire to this collection.

Lots more to talk about, but I’ll leave that to another post. Have you found any bargains lately? I’d love to hear about your finds. Have a great week!