We were in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for 5 days. My husband was training for a new job. I decided to go with him because 1) we never go anywhere without the other and 2) there are a lot of antique stores around that area.
I spent 3 of the 5 days driving around to a bunch of antique stores. I also decided to check out some thrift stores since I never have been thrifting before. I spent one whole day coming up with an extensive list of places I wanted to go and the addresses to put into my maps app on my ipad.
Day 3 was spent in the Camp Hill/Lemoyne/Mechanicsburg area.
I loved this antique store. It was huge and they had tons of cool things. My mission when antiquing is to find globes and cameras that are around $10. I know that sounds crazy but everything that I have so far I haven't paid more than $10 for. My day started off great because I found my first globe for $10 here.
Right next door is this fabric outlet.
They had tons and tons of trim and buttons. There isn't stores like this in my area (other than Joann Fabric) so it was interesting to look around at all the different trims.
Then I made my way to some thrift stores and the local mall.
I went to two different Goodwill's. I was quite impressed with the quality of the items. Since I never have been in a thrift store, I didn't know what to expect. I was thoroughly impressed and will be shopping at thrift stores more often in my local area. I bought a crocheted cardigan to deconstruct for a refashion for my new blog, Punky Little DIYer.
Day 4 was spent in Carlisle. I had a list of about 6 or 7 places to go in Carlisle. The rest of the antique stores were an hour away and I decided to wait until the next day to go with my husband.
This day was kind of a dud. Only 2 of the places on my list were open. The others were either closed permanently, closed for remodeling or just closed on a Wednesday, which I thought was weird.
Northgate was really small and really expensive.
My day wrapped up on a better note at Bedford Street Antiques which was a decent size place. I found a Canon Camera for $10 and stumbled upon yard sticks and embroidery hoops for a $1 a piece. I couldn't pass them up since I needed them for two future projects in our office.
I still had a lot of time left before my husband got back from his training, so I decided to walk around Carlisle and look at some of the grand houses there.
Here are some of my favorites.
I am a sucker for an old mansion in a town like this.
Day 5 was our final day in the area. We decided to drive an hour from Carlisle to this area they call the Antiques Capital USA in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. We had to drive home from there, so we had a limited amount of time to spend in Adamstown. We needed to leave the area by 1:00 pm to get home at a reasonable time to pick up our dogs at my parent's house. We were in a hurry, so I didn't take any pictures of the stops, but I did find pictures on this website for Antiques Capital USA. This website also has a list of all the antique stores in that area. We weren't able to go to them all because of the time issue.
These are the stores we did go to:
272 Antiques and Collectibles
I found the most expensive globe that I bought here at $14. I decided to up my budget at the start of the day because I wasn't having much luck at finding globes for $10. $15 is my limit now for globes.
Adamstown Antique Gallery
This place is very high end. If you are looking for cheap antiques, don't go there. This place is for serious antique collectors.
Antiques Showcase & German Trading Post
I found more yard sticks at this place and there is another antique store upstairs called A Step in Time Antiques. I found another globe for $10 there.
Lancaster County Antique Center
Adam's Antiques
Adam's Antiques was probably my favorite. It was huge inside and they had a lot of cool baroque stuff. Granted that stuff was extremely expensive. If I was rich, I would have bought this beautiful chandelier that was $4,500. They had 2 large baroque wrought iron candelabras that were $5,000 for the pair. I wish I had taken pictures inside this place. I did find the cheapest globe that I bought at $6. I highly recommend this place if you are in that area.
Mad Hatter Antiques
We finished the day here at Mad Hatter's. This place is great if you are into Mid Century Modern stuff. I thought that this place was overpriced. They had a lot of globes none under $25.
All in all, I thought the trip was a success antique wise. Here are all the items I bought.
So I ended up with 4 globes, 1 camera, 7 yard sticks, 12 embroidery hoops in various sizes and a crocheted cardigan.
I really enjoy antiquing. I would like to start collecting old musical instruments and sports equipment, but I don't really have the room in our tiny house and that stuff can be really expensive. I think I might buy some red viking glass for our living room as well. So many cool old things out there to collect. My husband thinks I am weird because I collect things. Do any of you guys collect anything? Do you go antiquing? Where are some of your favorite places to find antiques?
Well, that is what I have been up to. I will be posting tutorials on some of the projects I did in the two completed rooms. I am anxious to work some more in our Kitchen, Living Room and Office. Thanks for following along.
PS I have 2 other new blogs. Please check them out. Thanks.
