Thrift Score Thursday 120 - The Gathered Home

Welcome to another fine Thrift Score Thursday, everyone! How has this week been treating you so far?

I’ve been buckling down and really doing some serious unpacking and organizing. It’s not super fun or glamorous, but it does feel good to find places for everything and get boxes out of our living areas. It took me almost three years to fully unpack in our old house, so I’m determined to do better this time around!

Thrift Score Thursday Features:

When I’m not breaking down boxes, I’ve been perusing the #thriftscorethursday feed on Instagram, thoroughly enjoying all the fabulous finds you guys have been sharing!

Like this gorgeous blue-themed art and pottery pairing from Jen (@greensprucedesigns). I think you guys just might turn me into a lover of pottery and the color blue yet!

via @greensprucedesigns

Cate (@cate_stylemutthome) took advantage of a little stay-cation and snagged this incredible leather and brass chair on Craigslist. Furthermore, can you believe that fantastic plant stand there used to be a lamp before Cate got her hands on it?!

via @cate_stylemutthome

I love the eclectic mix in this vignette from Kim (@_kim_wilson)! Everything from vintage books to brass to rustic wood, hand statues, and a skull to boot – it doesn’t sound like it should work, but it totally does!

via @_kim_wilson

I always love seeing pics of Shavonda (@sgardnerstyle)’s fabulous living room! Those “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” monkeys were a recent flea market find, and she just added this perfect boho fringed tapestry piece to the fireplace mantel for the summer.

via @sgardnerstyle

Now seriously, who would have thought that a group of ashtrays could be so gorgeous? Jessica (@jessicadwolf) shows off her colorful vintage collection in her coffee table shadowbox. Love it!

via @jessicadwolf

Dana (@circadee) shared this sunny and fringe-tastic vintage patio umbrella that is out-of-this-world-awesome! I’d love to find one just like it for our backyard one day.

via @circadee

My love affair with brass hasn’t gone anywhere. I’m totally swooning over this shot from Julie (@jnathome) and the way she’s put that cool circular piece to use holding an air plant!

via @jnathome

Finally, what an incredible find from Christina (@christina_phoenixrestoration) – a “Mr. Chair” by Mid-Century designer George Mulhauser for Plycraft!!! Too good, Christina, too good!

via @christina_phoenixrestoration

Thrift Score Thursday Facts:

So what about YOU? Do you have any awesome recent finds to share with your fellow thrift-lovers?

Simply post a picture of any recent thrifty find on Instagram using #thriftscorethursday!

You can share any thrifty finds with us – whether they hail from a thrift store, Craigslist, estate sale, garage sale, side of the road, or apartment dumpster! The fun, the funny, the awesome, the odd – this hashtag party is open to all!
Feel free to use #thriftscorethursday any day of the week! We’ll be keeping up with the hashtag all week long to find our favorites for the following Thursday.
Each week, Cassie from Primitive and Proper, Corinna from A Designer At Home, Maggie from Maggie Overby Studios and I will pick a few favorite thrift scores to feature! So please understand that by linking up with #thriftscorethursday, you are giving us permission to share your finds via social media or on our blogs.
Please note that we can only see photos shared by public accounts, so if you have a private Instagram account and we haven’t been showering your finds with love, it’s simply because we aren’t able to see them.

My Find:

I saved my find for the end of the post today because I’d like to transition the tone slightly. There’s been so much going on in the world lately and I haven’t known how to respond publicly or what to say.

I worried that I might say the wrong thing, or just fail to say the right thing. And I’ve seen so much ugliness going around online that I just didn’t want to invite any negative engagement.

But my heart has been very heavy lately, with day after day of hearing about shootings and deaths and injustice and pain, including the shooting on my very own doorstep in Dallas. And again, I was worried to speak up, because if I hadn’t said anything earlier, would it look like I only cared about things that hit close to home?

I told myself that I have a decorating blog and you guys come here to see fun vintage finds, not to hear my perspective on what’s going on in the world.

And then I went to the thrift store on Monday and found this, tucked away in a stack of framed art:

You guys know I have a thing for embroidered pieces, so naturally I pulled it out to take a closer look. It’s a huge piece, carefully hand-stitched, and when I flipped it around to check the back, I found a rare treasure trove of historical information: the name of the artist, “Su Schaffer”, her location, “Fort Knox, Kentucky”, the date of its creation, “Dec. 25, 1971”, and her message…

“If people realized love comes in color.”

The price, blithely listed as “Priceless.”

And it tugged at my heartstrings and felt oh-so-very timely and appropriate, but it was such a big piece of art and pragmatism took over – Did I really have any place to display this, any reason to bring it home? Besides being carefully crafted, I didn’t find it particularly beautiful…

I snapped some pictures on my phone and left it behind.

On the way to my next thrift store stop, it kept nagging at me. I couldn’t stop thinking about Su, lovingly stitching away at this massive project 45 years ago.

I imagined she hoped that the unity, love, and peace she willed into the world with her art would have taken root and flourished over the next four decades.

I imagined she dreamed we would not be where we are today… The same pain, a new millennium.

Suddenly, the idea of her hopes and efforts being relegated to a pile of junk in a thrift store became unthinkable. This wasn’t just aesthetics… this was history. Legacy.

Her appeal needed to be heard again, her simple prayer revived.

“U is for Unity. All colors for peace.”

So I turned around.

Because I might not blog about current events, but I do share thrift finds, and I needed to share the hell out of this one.

Be sure to check out the finds and features from Cassie, Corinna & Maggie!

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