Aladdin's haberdashery

It's not often you find a real Aladdin's cave, but there really is one in Ramsgate. It is called, rather humbly, The Haberdashery Shop, and is situated next to the car park behind Iceland. This family-run shop has been going for over 30 years, and if you are ever in Ramsgate you should find time to visit and marvel at the treasure trove inside. 

Once inside you can lose yourself looking at the floor-to-ceiling displays of buttons, ribbons, lace, braids, beads, zips, fringes, cords, ric rac, belt buckles, knitting and crochet patterns, scissors, wool, craft accessories and even soft toy noses (with or without whiskers). It is wonderful! If you need anything to do with sewing you will find it here. It's worth the trip just to see the buttons.

When we first discovered the shop my daughter was a baby, and we made our first trip while it was snowing. As my mum always reminds me, I was a bit tired and grumpy that day, and it took us a while to find it (we got lost). Once there, I put my girly in the papoose and she fell asleep nestled up to me, while I spent a couple of hours with my mum searching for ladybird buttons, and all sorts of things we never knew we needed. It cheered me up completely. We usually don't say much when we are having a good rifle apart from "ooohh look at this", "aaahh these are amazing", "have you seen this", and at the end "oh just get it, you'll never see that anywhere else". Now my daughter is old enough to have a look around herself she absolutely loves the shop. On one visit she pretended to sell  buttons to the other customers, which was funny and a bit embarrassing. She also made her first ever purchase here by herself - a silver key ring chain, which she said was a bracelet.

Here are some of treasures we found on a visit yesterday. We went to find five buttons for a jumper my mum is knitting my daughter, but we needed up with a few more things, and we had a great time. The picture is a bit rubbish because it hasn't stopped raining here, but check out the animal noses. I got the ones with whiskers and I have all sorts of plans for them!

When we visited yesterday they were getting ready to move into a bigger premises in the town centre, which will incorporate the haberdashery and the sister shop which sells fabric. The lady in the shop said they would hopefully be moved by Christmas, I cannot wait! If you want to visit The Haberdashery Shop you'll find it at 5a Broad Street, Ramsgate, CT11 8NQ. The sister shop which is similarly called The Fabric Shop is at 34 Kings Street CT11 8NT. You can also visit their website at www.the-haberdashery-shop.co.uk.