St. Mary's Church Bazaar

It's almost here....     said with joy and anticipation  :))  It's that most wonderful time of the year...
        
                                                    Saint Mary's Church Bazaar 
                                                        309 South George Street
                                                                     York, PA
                                                  Saturday 11/12/11  8 am - 5 pm
                                                    Sunday 11/13/11  8 am - 1 pm
                                                         

Here are the crafty ladies that are in charge of making wreaths, arrangements, ornaments, painting and decorating all sorts of holiday items; knitting baby blankets, scarves, hats, mittens and more; making jewelry, gift tags, and I could go on - if I remembered everything they make - the list is only limited by your imagination!!

Front to Back - Ginny (my Mom), Joan (Aunt), Ann, June, Ann (cousin)

L to R - Dolores, Virginia (daughter), Jane, Lin, Dale

My daughter Virginia and I love helping out every year.  If we are lucky, when she has off in the summer we will have had the chance to come up and make Christmas 'stuff' when the ladies get together on Thursdays.  We did get one chance this year.  Otherwise, we come up on the Friday before the Bazaar to help them finish pricing and setting up.  Saturday and Sunday we put our business acumen to work and sell, sell, sell.  Then it is all organizing and tearing down - all to be put back in the Craft Room for refurbishing or tearing apart to create something new.  This is one talented group of ladies.  And they are so much fun to spend time with!

Just one shot of the Attic Treasures area.  This area includes all kinds of goodies from the Saint Mary's Thrift Shop.  They bring in household items, jewelry, and lots of Christmas goodies.  One of my favorite ladies in this department is Millie - she is on the left.

This is the Book Nook - boxes and boxes of all kinds of books.  They are all wonderfully organized thanks to the hard working ladies who work in this area.

This is the Crafts area again - showing some of the hand embroidered linens and knitted items.

The front side of the Crafts area showcasing lit glass blocks decorated like packages, and decorated, lit Christmas trees.  Lovely!

The Silent Auction  -  they auctioned off this furnished doll house last year, as well as a quilt that you can see two photos down - it is on the left of the photo.

The Baked Goods area.  Always hard to resist - so why bother!  The ladies bake, bake and bake some more.  I always buy at least one pie and one cake to bring home to my husband Bob.  Delicious.    (The rest we eat there ;] )

On the left - just past the Baked Goods area is the Homemade Candy Table.  YUM!  Behind the Candy Table is the quilt that was auctioned off.  Beyond the Candy Table is the Secret Santa kid's shopping area where they have nice, affordable gifts for kids to buy.

On the far, upper right are round tables set for lunch/dinner.  The ladies in charge of the lunch counter usually have homemade Chicken Corn Soup, as well as Hot Dogs, Hamburg Barbeque, Egg Salad Sandwiches, and other goodies.

There is also a room that has pre-made Gingerbread Houses with all kinds of icing and candy to decorate them.  Fun for the kiddies - but fun for the aspiring adult architects too!!!  

And to finish it off - of course there are Christmas Carols playing, Santa usually makes an appearance, and last year there was this really big Elf that showed up.  I think she'll be there this year too!!


This is a fun bazaar with amazing items to take home at bargain prices - and you are helping a good cause to boot.  All of the money goes to help the church with their various outreach programs and more.


Hope to see you there!!

Ladies Board Rummage Sale

Tractor Trailers being off loaded at Sorting Area #1

 Come with me on the adventure that is the 73rd Annual Ladies Board Rummage Sale.Go ahead, climb on board this is an amazing ride!   This sale is to benefit Inova Loudoun Hospital.  It all starts with people donating a few things to TWICE IS NICE the hospital thrift store...and grows from there!

Tractor Trailers being off loaded at Sorting area #2

I have attended the Rummage Sale since 1989.  At that time it was held at the 4H Fairgrounds just off of Dry Mill Road.  The different departments were all set up in the various animal buildings.  I don't remember what year they moved to Morven Park, but it was because a small tornado came through and destroyed some of the animal barns at the fairgrounds. Need I say they have grown to fill this new space and more!


Years ago - when I was donating items for my neighbors (I had the truck), I took all of my items to the Nichol's barn over in Purcellville.  Then they started having tractor trailers available in the back lot at the hospital - and you would make an appointment to off load your donations into one of the trailers.  

Sorting Area #1

I think volunteering is an important thing to do while we are on this earth.  When my daughter was in Elementary School I helped there in various capacities.  Then came a time when I was so busy with Bittersweet Design Studio that I didn't have much time to give.  I did manage to design a garden and get that established over at St. Francis De Sales Church in Purcellville,  but that was really it for a few years.  Then my friend Lesli asked if I would like to help at the Rummage Sale.  We try and take time to go thrifting together, although we haven't had a chance in some time.  Lesli was going to be working in the LINGERIE Department and they needed people there to help sort and hang everything.  OK - so this might sound a lot more glamorous than it really is.  But that's ok!  It needs to be done - and we do it!  
Lingerie is probably one of the smaller departments - and we have 12 boxes of categorized socks, 8 boxes of sized bras, 6 boxes of girdles, panties, briefs, and specialty items.  Then hanging racks 8 feet long each filled with robes, gowns, pj sets, tops only, bottoms only, swimsuits, cover ups, slips, camisoles, and scrubs.
With all of this - you can imagine if we are one of the smaller departments - what the other departments must be like!  Let's take a look:

Men's wear

Women's Sportswear

Women's Dresses, Suits and Coats

Children's Department

Jewelry
This was just the clothing area - and I didn't even show you Handbags and Scarves!

Crafts 

                                                         Gifts and Accessories Department

Housewares

There are over 500 volunteers that spend 6 days organizing all of this and of course this doesn't include the countless hours spent gathering stuff throughout the year!  And the amazing thing here is that I have yet to include the remaining departments - Furniture; Frames, Pictures an Lamps; Electronics; Shoes; Antiques; Christmas; Toys; or the French Room!  MORE NEXT POST!