Last Friday, I drove to Denton, Texas (about an hour and 15 minutes away from my house) to donate art supplies to Thistle Creative Reuse. This is a wonderful little store next to the campus of Texas Women’s University. This store is a woman owned and operated craft resale shop which values creativity, beauty and the environment.

They have all kinds of supplies like: scrapbooking paper, fabric, button, stamps, canvases, frames, etc. You name it and they probably have it! It’s a small store but packed with a ton of product- some new and some gently used. The two young women who were working that day were so helpful and friendly.

If you want to donate, you have to make an appointment which you can do online. You can also order merchandise online.

After I left the Reuse shop, I went to the Denton Thrift Store at 708 W University. This is a really nice store and they have a ton of items. I was looking for an iron to use with making mixed media papers and a small crockpot but I wasn’t able to find one. I did find a really cool white blouse, rain jacket and a hot pink jacket and orange pillow covers that I’m going to use to make an art journal cover.

After, I finished shopping in Denton, I decided to go to Michael’s in McKinney which is about 30 minutes away from Denton. This Michael’s is so big and well organized. The drive was easy, just straight down the tollway. When I was making a U-turn to get to the shopping center, the car started sputtering and acting like it wasn’t in gear. Thankfully, I made it to Michaels and was able to park. I decided before I called my husband that I would go on in to Michael’s and shop. Maybe when I came back to the car, everything would be okay!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t. The car once again sputtered and just died. I called my husband around 2:45pm to let him know what was going on with the car and to please come rescue me. Unfortunately he had an important conference call at 4:30 that had been scheduled for a few weeks and he couldn’t get out of the call. So, I went back into Michaels and purchased some watercolors and brushes…don’t buy the Artist Loft watercolor tube paints because they are terrible.

I’m so glad that while I was in Denton, I stopped at the Dollar Tree (of course I did) and purchased some snacks because I didn’t take the time to have lunch. While at Dollar Tree I also purchased a Watercolor tablet which I must tell you that this paper is really thick!

When I got back to the car, I set up a crafting area in the back seat.

After about an hour, I decided that I would walk around the shopping center and check out a few of the other stores like Five Below, Office Depot and Ross For Less. After shopping for while, it was starting to get a little dark and growing colder, so I decided it was time to go back to the car.

Finally, around 6:15pm, I see my husband pulling into the parking lot. I had planned to do a Facebook Live at 5PM on Friday but by the time we got home, I was exhausted both mentally and physically. I must admit that I was not a very happy passenger driving back home. My husband finally asked me if anything was wrong and I replied “No, and then I said, well, actually yes there is. I’m grateful that you have a job but today I was not happy that you had to work and couldn’t come get me sooner.” By the time we made it home, I was over my pity party and just wanted to go to bed!

Even though the day didn’t turn out as I had intended, I enjoyed the morning and I highly encourage you to take a look at Thistle Creative Reuse. What a great concept…to be able to donate supplies that are still good but you don’t use anymore. This allows others to try out new things that they wouldn’t have been able to try out because of the money that it would cost.

I wish that there were more places like Thistle Creative Reuse in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Is there a craft resale shop where you live? If so, please share so that others will be able to donate and shop.

When you day doesn’t go as planned!