Fun along the way: The Scrap Exchange

I've been in Chapel Hill for the past four days for classes at UNC.  I decided while I was there I would make time to have a little fun.  I spent a couple of hours on Monday wandering around the Scrap Exchange in Durham.  I heard about it a while ago from SweetGumHandbags when I purchased one of her adorable bags on Etsy.  She said it was one of her favorite places in the world and I truly believe it.  The place is every crafter's dream.  Best of all, it's full of reclaimed materials.  Their mission is "to promote creativity, environmental awareness, and community through reuse."  How wonderful is that?

As if the entrance wasn't intriguing enough....

....you come inside to find barrels upon barrels of goodies.  They have a ton of purchase options.  You can buy individually from the barrels or you can purchase the contents by the bag.  The bag cost varies by size, but all of them are remarkably cheap for what you're getting.  Once I started digging and finding tons of good stuff, I decided the bag route was the way to go.

You name it and they probably have it.  From the mudane to the wild.  I walked around gawking with a silly grin on my face.  As crazy as I looked, they were still kind enough to let me take some pictures.

My favorite (of course) was the fabric scraps.  I picked up I don't know how many different patterns, colors, and types of fabric.  Not sure what I'm going to do with it all, but as the lady at the register reminded me, that's the fun part.  :)

More misc stuff including old dress patterns, vintage magazines, etc:

One side of the store was filled with shelves labeled to describe the wares they contained.  For example, one shelf was labeled "scientific."

I laughed when I walked up to this sign (click on the pic to see a larger image):

I had so much fun taking in all the items for sale and imaging what I (or more likely others) could do with it all.  I walked away with two bags of fabric scraps to play with as soon as I have time.

Many thanks to SweetGumHandbags for sharing the find.  I'm already looking forward to my next visit.