The 100% Totally Unofficial Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge

Please tell me you've heard the song, Thrift Shop, by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.  If you haven't, go watch the video of it now and just try not to laugh.  Or walk around singing, "I wear your granddad's clothes...  I look incredible..." for the rest of the day.  Just be warned, the unedited version is very... well... unedited.

Anyway, guess what?  YHL two times in one week!  These guys have done it again.  From being totally awesome last week when Ruby shared her slobber germs with John, to this gem: their (Completely Unofficial) Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge.

You can read more about this challenge here, but it basically boiled down to three steps:

Step #1. Go to a thrift shop with – just as the chorus of the song says – “$20 in your pocket”and take a picture. 

Step #2. Spend that $20 any way you’d like and photograph your spoils.

Step #3. Find one item (or more) referenced in the song and snap a pic.

Seeing as how I have been wanting to go to the thrift shop anyway to find an oval (well, actually elliptical) or round frame to make a silhouette of Ruby for Project Finish the Nursery, I was IN.  Monday was rainy and boring, as we had nothing else going on, and Ruby didn't feel like taking a nap, so I chose that day to "pop some tags" and get my thrift shop on.

I should disclaim here that I bent the rules a bit.  I actually went to two thrift shops.  One small one that I'd never been to before, where I found only $1.97 worth of stuff to buy, and the big and bustling Goodwill.  Sadly, not the actual Goodwill from the Thrift Shop video, although that would have been awesome because it is a Goodwill outlet.  But I didn't want to drive all the way into Seattle with an unnapped baby.  All this is to say, that I only took my pictures at Goodwill, because that's where I spent the most of my money.

Oh, and I guess I bent the rules again.  I only had $15 in my pocket.  My total ended up being $16, but Goodwill takes debit cards, so I did that. =)  Moving on!

Step #1. Go to a thrift shop with – just as the chorus of the song says – “$20 in your pocket”and take a picture. 

It's kind of hard to take a selfie, which included the thrift shop, whilst holding a baby, and trying not to get run over in the VERY busy Goodwill parking lot!  I had to stalk out a spot, and got one stolen from me before we managed to park!  Goodwill sure was hopping for a Monday at noon.  No worries, though.  Soon we were ready to get in there and hunt for a come up.

Step #2. Spend that $20 any way you’d like and photograph your spoils.

Ah, how to spend my $20.  Before going to a thrift store, I like to make a list of stuff I'm looking for, because it can get pretty overwhelming in there.  Ruby and I were on the hunt for:

*Little Golden Books
*Picture frames, including one round/elliptical one (to be made over with spray paint)
*A tray for our coffee table (to be made over with spray paint)
*Milk glass
*A piggy bank for the nursery

We found a round frame at the little thrift store, and a nicely shaped skinny rectangular frame there as well.  But as those were the only items on my list at that store, we were off to Goodwill.  We searched for a long time, but we were successful!  Before we get to our successes though, I have to share some things that didn't make the cut.

First, if you are coulrophobic, scroll down really fast.  Because I'm still having nightmares about this:

Why this thing was ever even MADE is beyond me.  And the tape?  Do they really think that someone is going to separate the parts?  "Oh, I'll just take the yellow clown today..."  NO.

Then, while I was checking out a potential winner in the piggy bank category, Ruby honed in on this:

She was obsessed with it.  If she weren't securely strapped into that cart, she would have gone over the side for it.  I'm not kidding, baby girl was reaching out for that thing like her life depended on it.

And that's when I knew, my kid is weird.

I resisted the urge to make her day, and put that nasty rat in the cart.  I photographed our "spoils" when we got home, so first, let's move to step number three.

Step #3. Find one item (or more) referenced in the song and snap a pic.

This was both my favorite, and most fear-inducing part.  Remember how I had to stalk out a spot in the parking lot?  Yeah, there were a LOT of people in the Goodwill.  So we didn't get too crazy with the picture taking.  But we did find some stuff.

I reeeeeeally wanted to find a wolf for our noggin, or some moccasins someone'd been walkin' in, but alas, there were none.

We did find some velcro shoes:

But they were kid's shoes, so I kind of felt like that was cheating.

Then we found it.

I really wish I'd taken a better picture of this...

I don't actually think that keyboard was broken (at least I hope not, they were charging $30 for that thing!), but beggars can't be choosers.  Ruby kind of wanted to try to play it, but it just wasn't quite as appealing as that rat.

In the end, we had a pretty good time wandering around on our scavenger hunt.  My only regret (aside from not finding R. Kelly's sheets) was that I didn't tell Mr. G about this challenge before we went.  He wanted to come!  We spent the rest of the day peppering our text conversations with lyrics from the song.  

Anyway, want to see what we got?

Little Golden Books?  Check.  I found six of them, plus a hard back old-school copy of Amelia Bedelia for Ruby's library.  All the books were 79 cents each.

Picture frames?  Check.  Found those at the first thrift store.  Both were marked $1, but one was 25% off because of the color of its tag.  Woohoo!  I spent a loooooooooooong time in the frame section at the Goodwill, but let me just say, for a thrift store, they weren't so thrifty.  $14 for a janky old frame?  I don't think so.  If I want to pay $14 for a frame, I will go to Ikea!

Milk glass?  Check.  I would have liked to have found more of it, but this goblety thing will make an awesome serving dish for someone's 1st birthday party.  Or I could see it as a vase for fresh flowers.  Either way, it's so pretty.  I wish I'd taken a detail shot of it, it almost kind of looks like an artichoke on the sides.  It was kind of pricey, at $4.

Piggy bank.  I'm not sure if I found something totally awesome, or totally tacky with this one.  I'm kind of hoping that it's so tacky, it's awesome.  That unicorn in the picture?  Yep, that's a piggy bank!  I foresee Ruby loving it in the future, but I'm still on the fence about it.  Maybe I should spray paint it all one color?  I don't know.  I was all about it at the thrift shop, but now I think I'm having thrifter's remorse.  

So there you have it.  One man's trash was our come up.  Oh yeah, and we didn't find a tray.  Whomp whomp.  But this has really gotten me in the mood to do more thrifting, so it's only a matter of time!  Want to see what everybody else got with only $20 in their pockets?  Head on over to YHL and see!  And if you don't want to see, at least tell me what I should do with that unicorn.

UPDATE:

Unicorn detail, wonderfully tacky, or tacky tacky?