Calling all Real Estate Agents

Are you selling a house with little or no furnishings? I have the answer. My store. I have a few real estate agents that come in regularly for finishing touches on the house or condo they are trying to sell. I have a large selection of what nots which include vases, flowers, pictures etc. You name it I probalby have it. I get a huge amount of linens. Things like rugs,curtains, draperies and tableclothes. All at very affordable cost. Stop in today look around you won't be disappointed.

Mary

Does anybody watch Extreme Home Makeover?

My family loves this show and yes I love it. I've noticed a theme running in the last 2 weeks. Nearhomelessness. Last week the couple who has a child with a really rare medical problem and whose medical bills are some $500,000 a year were only several weeks away from being homeless. They lost their house because they couldn't afford to make the payments. They were living in a rental house but because of the childs medical issues they were in danger of loosing that house too.
This sunday featured a family whose house was damaged by flood. The house was razed and their home loan didn't go though. They were living in a rental apartment but it was becoming more and more difficult to make a mortage and a rent payment.

In both case ABC stepped in and WITH the HELP of the COMMUNITY, they built houses for these folks and they are now back to living a normal life. I've seen the application the EHM and they do extensive background checks on these individuals before they agree to help. So my point - here are 2 families near the brink of homelessness and neither case was really their fault. These folks are not criminals nor are they mentally challenged. They are plain folks that needed a helping hand. Just as the vast majority of homeless folks in the United States. The number one cause of homelessness in America is lack of affordable housing. This is fact is according to the National Coalition to end Homelessness. Another scary fact - half of the people living on the street are CHILDERN. This fact also listed on the NCH website.

How can you help? Start asking how you can help. Start talking to your neighbors. Talk with your supervisors, talk to the politician's aks how they intend on helping this year. With the rate of foreclosures looming in Loudoun County prepare yourself for another Katrina like disaster.
Just my 2 cents.
Mary

Harry Potter anyone?

This just came in. The latest installment in the Harry Potter series. This author is truely inspiring. She had nothing before she started writing these books and look at her now. This is a $35 book. I've speically priced it at $10. It's in great shape

Titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows By R. K. Rowling

Somebody's New Years Resolution's went down the tubes

I just priced these and put them up from to sell. Left to right.
-The cindy Crawford Meaningful Beauty Kit. $20
-Dead Sea Nail Treatment Kit - $10
-The Adkins For Life Kit - (it's missing the CD). Price is $5

These types of items always come in middle of January. Somebody made a New Years resolution to take better care of themselves and their life gets too busy and they never use the stuff they buy. Good for us because we get alot of new products this way. Stop by and check out these products they are behind the cash register so you have to ask.
Mary

Ladies with Valentine's Day approaching now is the time to clean out your jewelry box.

Ladies,

We all love jewelry. When's the last time you cleaned out your jewelry box? I have alot of regular customer's that come in looking for jewelry. Everyone thinks about donating clothing and household items but rarely does one think to raid their jewelry box. The thrift store sells a ton of jewelry every month. WE love jewelry because it's small and easy to display. It sells it's self. So check your jewelry box. We love all kinds of jewelry. Costume, fine, designer and vintage are all some the types we take. We ask that you separate from the rest of your donations and hand it to an employee. Tell them it's jewelry and they will either give to me to price or take it to Marilyn or Miriam to price.

With Valentine's Day approaching it gives our customers a better selection for gifts, for those on a budget.

thanks

Mary

GSA Teams with LCPS and Wegmans. A real good thing

Good Shepherd Alliance, LCPS and Wegmans Join Forces to Help ‘Near-Homeless’
The Good Shepherd Alliance (GSA), Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) and the Wegmans grocery chain have announced a combined effort to help people in Loudoun County who are nearing homelessness and are not eligible to receive public assistance.
LCPS schools will issue a voucher to families that school administrators identify as needing assistance. Such identification might come through a child not having the right clothing for the weather as they arrive at school or a teacher noticing weight loss even though the child is already getting a free or reduced-price lunch at school.
The school voucher may be taken to the GSA Thrift Store located in Regal Plaza off Route 7 in Countryside. When the family comes to the GSA Thrift store, they hand the voucher to the cashier as they arrive and the cashier records the items they select as they leave. There are some limitations as GSA still needs to help the homeless. (The Thrift Store may be contacted at 703-444-5956. GSA is located at http://www.loudounhomeless.org/on the Web. This Web site includes a link to the Thrift Store.)
A bonus to the program is that families taking a voucher to the Thrift Store will be given a debit card for $25 worth of groceries at the Wegmans Sterling store at Route 28 and Waxpool Road.
This is a way to help families before they fall into the homeless category. The Good Shepherd Alliance is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that has been providing emergency housing and near-term support for the homeless of Loudoun County since 1983.

Valentine's Day Ideas from "A Greater Gift"

Here are some great ideas for Valentine's Day from "A Greater Gift"
The first pix is a set of Garnet Heartbeat Earrings. It's aheart within a heart. Consists of rich garnet stone suspended from a sterling silver heart. Silver hooks. These are made in Nepal. 1 1/2" long x 7/8" wide.
Price is $28.00










The Heartfelt Locket -pictured below
A meaningful and classic gift. This sterling silver, etched heart locket opens to hold pictures of two loved ones. Hinge on bottom side. Comes with 18 in. sterling silver chain. 1 1 / 2 in. l x 1 in. w x 1 / 4 in. h . Sells for $48.00


















Everyone one loves Chocolate.
Divine Chocolate is made with the best quality fair trade cocoa beans from Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana.
"It's the best guilt free chocolate around" - Mary says







Set of 2 capiz shell heart ornaments. One is three dimensional with black trim and one is flat with silver details. each approx. 2 1 / 2 in. h . These sell for $6 for the pair.

Set of 3. Glass beads in red, purple & pink. 3 1 / 4 in. l x 3 / 4 in. w Set of 3. These sell for $10 for the set of 3.
The Cream colored silk scarf has a delicate flower,vine and heart motif. Fromn India. It's 51"1 x 13"wide. Sells for $15


A unique combarbalite stone to remind someone you love them. Combarbalite is a type of soapstone native to the Combarbalá region in Chile. Natural stone color varies. 3 in. l x 3 1 / 4 in. w x 1 in. h Sells for $8.70

Attention Mothers of young children - look what we got

Hey to all the Mom's out there, this is for those with young children. We just got in about a dozen of the Infantino SAVVY SEAT Jr. These are a must have for shopping anywhere you put your child in a shopping cart. Do you know how many germs there are on those cart. ICK. Here's the solution. I have priced these at 9.99 because they are all brand new in the box. They retail for 16.99 at places like Target. Get them quick because my next post is to Craigs List.

They are behind the register just ask the cashier for one.

Mary

Loudoun Rewards Cards are available for sale

Hey folks,
I just got a fresh shipment of the 2008 Loudoun Rewards Card Program. Not only can you save 10% off almost everything in my store but there are tons of other local merchants to take advantage. Our Books sell for $15 and we get to keep half.
If you're a frequent shopper this card will pay for itself over and over again.
Here's the link to the program http://www.loudounrewards.com/ but don't forget to buy the card from us.
Mary

Children's Clothes

We have just hung a ton of childrens clothes. So much that, I pulled out 3 extra racks out of the back room. All our childrens clothes are now individually tagged. So there's no guessing about the price.It's right there on the tag.
Prices range for .99 up to 4.99 for 2pc sets. You've got to see to believe.
Mary
Store hours are 11 to 7 Mon- Sat
Get there early for best selection

Donations

Hey all,
We're back taking donations. Here's a listing of regular hours.
Mon- Thurs 11am to 6pm
Fri- Sat ONLY FROM 11am to 3pm.
I know it's heart wrenching to show up at 4 pm and find out we've shut down at 3pm.
My suggestion is to call. 703-444-5956 ask for hours.
We have to shut it down at a specific time or we would be taking donations all night and we have to clear out the back and clean up the outside.
And a reminder to all we are still in Sterling.
Ashburn won't be ready for another couple of months.
Please , Please do not leave anything there. It will be lost or stolen because Thrift Store is not operating on this site until after OP has been issued.
Mary

Goodsearch

Folks,
GSA has been set up on Goodsearch as a beneficiary. Just use our org as the beneficiary when you search. Click on the button to the left and it will leave you to Goodsearch.org's website. From there you can get the 411 of how it works.
I have it installed on my browser and use it as my search engine.
Mary

REMINDER - NO DONATIONS MON OR TUESDAY

Just a reminder, we're NOT taking any donations Mon or Tues (that's the 7Th & 8Th). We need a few days to concentrate on cleaning and straightening the store.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
Mary

New Favorite added

Folks,
I just added a link to my favorite computer guy. Ed Williams has fixed several of my printers and helped me tremendously with IT issues. He is very quick and reliable. I would certainly recommend him to anyone with computer needs especially printer issues. I jammed up my own printer which wasn't even a year old. Ed fixed it and had it back to me in a couple of days. Here's the link again to his webpage. I found him very helpful and easy to understand.
http://www.ecwandassociates.com.
Mary

Donation Hours Reminder

Because we have been so overwhelmed by all your generous donations, we've had to cut back on our hours for just a little bit.
Here's the scoop
Friday Jan 4 and Sat Jan 5th we will take donations at our normal time. Which is 11am to 3pm. ( We stop right at 3 because if we took just one more bag, we'd be there all night)
NEXT MONDAY AND TUESDAY JAN 7 & 8 2008 WE WILL NOT BE TAKING ANY DONATIONS. THIS IS SO WE CAN PLAY CATCH UP FROM THE YEAR END.
We'll start taking donations again as normal on Wednesday Jan 9th from 11 am to 6pm.
Thursday Jan 10th hours are the same 11 til 6pm.
Friday and Sat 11- 3pm.
Please honor these times. Staff is really trying hard to clean out the store and get our donations under control. It's coming along nicely and couple of days without focusing on incoming donations will help them turn the store around.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Mary
FYI - on Dec 31st between 11 am and 3 pm. We gave out 114 receipts for donations. And most people had more than one bag. So image what that mountain must look like right now. So have patience and we'll be back to normal in no time

We gone to the dogs

I just found half a dozen of these cute little collars for dogs. They are a size large and fit a 16-20" neck. They were way too cute to just leave sit on a shelf. I had to feature here. We're selling these for $3.

Mary

We now have clothes for bears

We just got in 3 small boxes full of bear clothes. You know the type I'm talking about. You go to the mall to one of those stores and stuff the bear yourself and then buy those outragously priced outfits to make a sharp looking bear.We'll we got a ton of those little outfits. There are many kinds to choose from including:

police officer

military- air force, army, marines

Fire fighter

pj's

There's lots more accessories and such.

Highest prices you will find are for the clothes with shoes and these sets will sell for $5.
Stop in the store and take a look.
Mary

Our main website is down.

Hey folks,
If you've tried getting onto our main webpage at http://www.loudounhomeless.org/ it was down. Our server doesn't know why. It's back up and running now.But since this blog is on a separate website it's up and running.
Sorry to those that tried to donate late on Monday. We got hit early and I had to shut donations down at 3pm. We just got way too much stuff in. Which is a good thing. That's why I recommeneded to everyone calling on Monday to get there early.
We'll be open for donations today (Wednesday) but probably only till 3. Call before you head out. 703-444-5956.
We still have tons and tons of bedspreads and sheets. I'm actually picking up more sheets tommorrow. At 50 cents each, they make great drop cloths.
Drive carefully, school is back in session.
Mary