Things You Can Always Find At A Thrift Store #3: Coffee Mugs

Hello! Yes, we who drink coffee (or other hot beverages) probably have too many coffee mugs. But every so often the purchase of another one may be necessary. Mugs break. Or maybe you'd like some seasonal ones for ushering in certain holidays. 

But you may not feel like paying a lot for another mug. It, too, may break at some point. And why spend much on something you may use for just one month out of the year? 

Enter the thrift store - there are always plenty of mugs, in various sizes, colors and designs. You can find a Santa mug for sipping hot chocolate on Christmas Eve. Mugs that honor moms, dads and grandparents. Some mugs are old enough to be considered vintage, while others come from recent sales at department stores. 

You can pretend to be a teacher, a prescription drug sales rep, a golfer, an animal lover, or the member of a church you may have never even heard of. It all depends on the design printed on a mug! 

Or, you can get an almost-free souvenir from a trip - someone else went there, you can get the mug they brought back. 

I recently broke my favorite coffee mug. Although disappointed, I checked out the mug sections at thrift stores to find a suitable replacement. 

I did, for 69c. I went the trip souvenir route:

Why did I buy a mug that had come from the airport that serves the Quebec City area? For one, I liked the colorful design, and two, I have been lobbying for a vacation to Quebec City for a few years now. Besides being a very old, historic city, my reason for wanting to visit is personal: I am 1/2 French Canadian, and have learned that some ancestors of mine lived in the Quebec City area - beginning in 1647! So I'd like to see where the family had lived. 

(From online research, I learned that this airport was renamed in 1993, so this mug obviously predates that year).

But for only 25c, I could have gotten another souvenir mug today; at a different thrift store, I spotted one that had what appeared to be a hand-painted design on it: a body of water surrounded by a few trees. It had a sort of quirky charm about it. The outdoorsy scene was labeled "Merton Millpond". 

That sounded like it was somewhere in Maine, I figured, but no - when I googled the name, I learned that it was a place in Waukesha County, WI (a little west of Milwaukee). As I'd lived in WI for a few years, Merton Millpond didn't seem as "exotic" anymore. But it was still a cute mug. 

So never fear, thrift store mugs are near! And I'm now a bit more prepared for that hoped-for trip to Quebec City: one less souvenir I'll have to buy!