Challenge Accepted

Challenge Accepted

February 7, 2013 · by Alex · in ,

So this has been making rounds in the blog world. Young House Love called out to everyone to participate in the Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge and then link up your post with your finds. Now I am not a big Link Party person – not sure why considering I scour them all the time and have met some of my favourite bloggers through them – but this, come on. This is made for thrift addict like me.

The bigger challenge for me was trying to keep my finds under $20. Not that I am rolling in cash, but usually if I find something I instantly think “I can totally squeeze this into my basement and keep it for my imaginary yet to be opened vintage store/business” ( that I am being peer pressured into doing – Hi Jen!).

Here are the Rules.

Rule # 1 – Go to a thrift store with $20, take a photo of the store.

Rule # 2 – Spend your $20 anyway you’d like, post about your spoils.

Rule # 3 – Take a photo of something that appeared in the video (the Scavenger Hunt portion – which I totally forgot about it til I got home and re-read it all but I found a nice ride to show you anyway that may just make you forget about the DeLorean in the video)

So I went to hit up two of my local favourite stores that morning and here are some of the fun treats from there.

thrift store

I almost took home that turquoise cabinet. It was $5.

Below you can see the Vintage Bamboo Ski Poles (with a plastic bucket at the bottom – if it was real leather I’d have used them in self defense at anyone who tried to pry them out of my hands). I almost took home if only to hang them along with my imaginary vintage wooden sled that I have been looking for forever.

vintage wooden ski poles

A cute little wooden cake tray. This would fit a 9″ pan cake. I actually found it too expensive.

retro wood cake holder

Vintage typewriter up for silent auction.

vintage typewriter

This was pretty awesome. It was a skyline painting of the City of Toronto on a wooden canvas. If we had any orange in our decor I would taken this home and hung it up to remind us of our life in our old condo. We miss the city sometimes. Sometimes…

painting of the skyline of Toronto

Here’s my contribution to Rule # 3 as a replacement for a great ride because one of the guys in the beginning of the video was riding in a stroller.

Try out this vintage blue baby carriage / pram, totally made for a horror movie set waiting to happen. I’d have way too much fun with that at Halloween. I’m kidding. If someone could restore this, it would look really good. It was also up for a silent auction.

vintage baby carriage

And if you want to iron out all the sexy thrift store clothing you buy, here you go. I’ll bet it will still outlast the irons of today.

vintage iron

But backtracking to Rule # 2 – here’s what I took home. All under $20. Ok I’m lying. $21.75. We have higher taxes in Canada.

The ice cube fanatic finds herself some alphabet ice cube trays. I didn’t even know these existed! There’s a slight crack in them but the letter compartments are totally fine.

alphabet ice cube tray

Embroidery hoops. Otherwise known as mandatory baby crib mobile making contraptions on Pinterest. I see them, I automatically buy them.

Up until last year I had no clue what these were called (because I can’t sew or knit so I never actively looked for them) until I used one on a bird feeder that I made based on the kick ass bird feeder Karen from The Art of Doing Stuff invented and she told me what they were.

Who says blogging isn’t educational? And since then these are used by me for every craft under the sun, except for knitting.

embroidery hoops

A leather belt which I am going to transform into something else. And a whole box of wooden Merry Christmas signs for .25 cents each. I already know what I want to do with that for next Christmas. But first I have to go through the holiday with all the pastels and the bunnies. At least I can drink green beer and Shamrock shakes in between there.

leather belt with wooden merry christmas signs

But this. This is my favourite. I took it home and yes it is in our living room and it actually matches our decor.

I know it seems a bit insane to put a No Cell Phones Allowed sign/wooden plaque in someone’s living room but when I do an upcoming post on the new couch from IKEA we dragged in here during a blizzard later this month, it’ll make more sense. This sign is such an inside joke between me and my husband as we try to have a rule where we do not sit on the couch next to each other at nighttime and scroll through our phones.

Oh don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about. “I swear I’m not on Pinterest. Just bloglovin’…”

no cell phones allowed sign

But at the end of the trip, a really nice twist happened.

My older daughter has a sweater from Old Navy that she lives in that is since long gone from stores. It is absolutely her favourite sweater in her closet. Sadly, as with all kids clothing, they grow out of their favourite items and she has been wearing it to a point where I have asked her if she is comfortable in the sweater because it’s so blatantly small on her.

Now I don’t believe everything happens for a reason but I do believe in serendipity. So when I came across her exact sweater in a size up in almost brand new condition, I thought to myself that if I hadn’t decided to participate in the challenge, I never would have gone out that morning and found it. To say she was thrilled was an understatement. I think I even got a hug. How many years of hugs do I get left before the teenage years take over and she locks herself in her room?

Either way, this alone was worth the trip. And the hearts match all the Valentine’s themed posts. See? Serendipity.

old navy heart sweater

LINKING UP: Young House Love – The Macklemore Thrift Store Challenge

 

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