I Needed Some Thrift Store Love…and I Got It!

I have a morning routine. Most of us do. After enjoying coffee (several cups) while reading emails, I either start writing or listing stuff for my online stores. Then I pull myself together to head to the post office to drop off orders. Once I’m already out and about I usually pop into my neighborhood thrift store…naturally! (My car practically turns into the parking lot on its own accord.)

But I haven’t bought anything in my last few visits to the store. Nada. That’s how it is sometimes. You go and look and look (and look) and honestly nothing is good enough or it has an insane price–like this Hartstone Bacchus wine cooler. Goodwill has a very dirty one priced at $20, but it turns out this cooler doesn’t resell for much so it’s still sitting there. Eventually it will be there so long that it will get irreparably damaged and tossed out.

But today I left the store ebullient!

First I found two OOAK hand-pieced, machine-quilted throws. I adore quilts and the artistry that goes into them. My maternal grandmother made many quilts in her lifetime and we treasure them. Nowadays many people sew the pieces together and take it to someone with a special quilting machine to finish the time-consuming decorative top stitching. That’s how these were done.

The green and blue one is striking.

And this red one has a sweet valentine’s motif with little “Be Mine” kewpies.

Wouldn’t this be fun to give a young girl or a beloved grandmother on Valentine’s Day? The backside is very different giving it a whole separate look!

Both are pristine and it’s obvious they have never been used as the cotton fabric is still crisp and unfaded! I do wonder how they ended up at Goodwill. I’m guessing the the woman who made them (and I am presumptuous assuming it was a woman) made many similar quilts before her death. (Yes, she’s dead.) And now her family, who have received many as gifts over the years (because this was her passion), are happy to let these remaining ones go to new homes.

Well, that’s one possible scenario! (I’ll list them each for $65.)

Then I spotted something in the misc. glassware aisle that made me pause. Could this be Italian? Indeed, it was!! It’s an Alessi coffee plunger designed by Michael Graves, circa 1980s. Even used these can sell for over $100. (There is another one listed on Etsy for $181.) Mine needs a good cleaning, but it’s otherwise in fine shape. As a coffee lover and someone who appreciates good design, this find was a delight.

I almost bought a vintage Coach black leather purse for $31, but didn’t because my purse sales have been so slow this year. I think that could have been a mistake on my part. Coach is Coach. Quality and a name that is still sought after.

Still finding three great things in my tiny Goodwill felt great. Those quilts just touch my heart. I don’t think they’ll fly “off my shelves,” but I do think they’ll find homes.

And I’ve been spending more time on downsizing–focusing this past week on “excess” books. A few I added to my Etsy store, but most I offered to neighbors. Sadly only a few got taken and the rest I took to Goodwill where they were unceremoniously dumped into a huge bin. (I felt like I was abandoning some good friends!) Rather wish I would have taken them to the Friends of the Library group.

Here’s one that made it to my store…a 1951 French cookery book that comes with the sweetest gift inscription pasted inside.

This 1962 poetry book (“…I Never Saw Another Butterfly…”) is one of my most poignant, written and illustrated by children 1942 to 1944 who lived in the Terezin concentration camp

Well I’ll close for now, wishing you happy hunting and your own thrift store love,

Karen