It’s The Gathered Home’s Birthday!

So this week was an eventful week for The Gathered Home to say the least! I got to deal with some emotion-inducing copyright infringement, I hit 100 blog posts with “Drink This: Apple Rye”, I switched from “blogspot.com” to the domain “www.TheGatheredHome.com”, and July 24th was The Gathered Home’s FIRST BIRTHDAY! Woohoo!

I’m so thankful for all of you guys, making this such a fun year, and those one hundred (!) plus blog posts thus far so worth it!

Just for fun, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite finds and posts from the past year! It’s only fitting to start at the very beginning…

This is the mid century dresser that kick-started The Gathered home:

I found this lovely little dumpster diva while driving around the backside of our apartment complex. I have no idea why I was doing said driving. But I saw her sitting by the side of a dumpster, and flew back home over the speed bumps, potholes, and around broken-down cars (it was a very terrible apartment complex) to get Bryan to come help me load her into the truck and drag her inside. I had no idea what I was doing, but I recognized the tapered legs as midcentury in origin and fell in love with the lovely, albeit chipped and scratched, veneer. I put it up on Craigslist and was astonished at the number of responses I received!

It sold to a sweet middle aged couple who joked with us, as they carried it out, that they had been fans of mid century furniture since the mid century.

Thank you, adorable couple. You unwittingly sparked an entire business for me and helped me discover a true passion.

Hello, Arne Vodder mid century teak desk. Still one of the most lovely mid century pieces I’ve ever acquired.  Definitely the most stressful. Want to know why? Catch up here – Freight Shipping: A Tale of Woe.

My Craigslist/thrifting white whale(s). I really didn’t ever expect to find vintage card catalogs ever, and then I stumbled across not one but two in a single summer! I haven’t run across any [wooden] card catalogs since, so that was pretty darn cool! I NEED some more of these in my life. The Gathered Home Year 2: Card Catalog Edition…?

One of my favorite finds. So very Scarface. So very 80’s – Design Institute of America vintage brass and glass étagère. So much fun to style! (Confession: none of the liquor is actually liquor. We did not have a stocked bar – it’s all water tinted with coffee… Secrets of a stylist, right here!). Sold it for way too little.

This is one of the pieces I regret selling every single time I see it! Shoulda kept it! Grr!

Domino Mobler Teak Desk. This is one of my most viewed blog posts! It really is a super cool desk – the little square button knobs are too cute, and apparently it’s unheard of for these desks to be found with a key for the top drawers, let alone two!

This vintage credenza (or credenzboard, haha) is by far one of my most favorite finds.  I just love(d) it. The softly colored wood grain, the understated brass pulls, the clean, sleek lines. *Sigh*. Second piece I wish I had hung on to!

Here we go. My favorite find ever. My beloved vintage 1970’s leather Chesterfield. Super fun story about it’s acquisition! Such good memories! Spotlighted by Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Fridays, this is my most viewed post of all time, and I sat compulsively refreshing my computer for approximately 4 hours so I could catch the following screenshots…

I got stuck on 996 and had to go to bed. I haven’t caught repeated numbers ever since! But I’m so thrilled to be well past 1500 page views – like, oh my goodness, this makes my life, you guys!

This dining set was so fun! I still can’t get over it’s deliciously ornate carvings! See more here – Found: Vintage Mexican Carved Dining Set. It’s definitely one of the most unique pieces I’ve ever bought/sold.

My very first furniture DIY! Oh how I love this china cabinet. It is nothing special, but I treasure it.

My very first Drink This post: Vieux Carre. One of my absolute favorite cocktails! If you haven’t made this yet, you definitely should. I feel immensely classy every time I drink one.

My soon-to-be photo-journalist prize-winning shot of a “desolate chair”, a casualty of the never-ending “Operation: No More Popcorn.” This post – “More Ceiling Stuff” – contains a color-coded bar chart of my DIY ceiling progress and aspersions on Dante’s creativity as he neglected to mention drywall sanding as a hellish punishment in The Inferno.

And my two-part series on tips and tricks for the best vintage shopping on Craigslist – “Secrets of a Craigslist Addict” – Part 1 & Part 2. Tongue in cheek, perhaps, but very helpful. Do you want to know my secrets? I am literally giving them to you!!! Right here, right now!

All in all, it’s been a good year you guys!

There was a sh*tty apartment situation to begin with (recap here). There was a hiatus – no blog posts for several months. There was the exciting news of the new Gathered Home home!

In the past year we’ve had three different addresses, all of our belongings packed away for 8 months while we lived in a guest bedroom, and then suddenly we became the homeowners of an swimmingly large four bedroom house. With popcorn ceilings 😉

I mean, good gracious, what a year!

Here’s to year two of The Gathered Home and to many many more fabulous finds, crazy Craigslist stories, adventuresome DIY attempts, and yummy cocktails! And hopefully a lot fewer address changes… I’m going to try to keep those to a bare minimum!

Thank you so much for reading – I love you guys!