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I am obsessed with Young House Love… like, I freak right the heck out if I can’t read it every day. Like, I read it on my phone while I wait for appointments, meetings, and in line at drive thrus.

I am also all about Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” and, well, thrift shops. So needless to say, when I saw John and Sherry’s announcement of the Macklemore Thriftshop Challenge, I knew I had. to. do. it.

I read the post last Friday walking from my office to my car. I remember this because I was so excited reading it that I wanted to skip down the hall. I consciously took a minute to think about whether or not that would be weird. Lucky for the students that filled the hallway, I decided it would in fact be weird and I shouldn’t do it. However, I may or may not have been making that super awkward face where your mouth really wants to giggle, but you know you can’t be giggling while walking alone, so you just end up with a really suspicious, crooked grin. Yup, that’s me.

Anyway, when Kreig got home from work I immediately read him the challenge rules and let him know that he would be accompanying me on this little adventure. He was surprisingly into it, and we went on Sunday when we were both feeling pretty under the weather… but we both agreed that the sheer rediculousness made us temporarily feel better. There’s just something about taking pictures of yourself in public while yelling out things like “R. Kelly’s sheets! Take a picture of me smelling them!” that is arguably as good of a cold remedy as chicken soup.

Before I get into our tag poppin’ let me first give you a little background information about our local Goodwill…. we live in the middle of nowhere, so we don’t really have many cool thrift stores to choose from, and I don’t usually find good stuff at the one that we do have. Stuff also tends to seem a bit overpriced and I usually don’t end up buying much. Also, there is NEVER anyone there. Except last Sunday. Either everyone in our county reads YHL, or there is some thrifting-after-church tradition I don’t know about? So yeah, the day that we would be taking pictures of ourselves violating other people’s trash, everyone decided to be there. You’re welcome people.

Now let’s get down to business…

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

Please excuse the bad hair and awful look on my face. The sun was in my eyes and I felt like there were people looking at me.

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

Like I mentioned, our Goodwill is generally disappointing as far as their inventory of home-stuff goes. Too bad I already scored this little stand for $9.99 last week — it would have been perfect for this little challenge. Nevertheless, I am pretty excited about the tags I popped… and I only spent $14.96 total:

• What’s that hideous thing on the left? It’s a thermometer/barometer/humidity gauge that I got for $3.99. I want to make it over once it is warm enough to spray paint, and I’m thinking it will end up outside somewhere. Until then, I have to put it away because I get depressed when I think about the fact that I can’t spray paint for at least a couple months. That’s why other people get seasonal depression, right?
  
• Then there’s this little tripod that was only $1.99! As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have a “real” camera yet, so I had no clue if this would work with my little Nikon, but it does!
• I am all about this mirrored tray ($5.99). I’m still figuring out where I want to put it… I’ll keep you posted!
• And last but not least, this adorable little box ($2.99). I knew it was fate when I turned it over to see that it was from the Nate Berkus line.

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

Apparently I translated “more” to mean 16. Go big or go home, right?

In case you didn’t study the lyrics on one phone while taking pictures with another, here’s the key:

1. A big … coat
2. Dookie brown leather jacket
3. That luggage
4. That plaid button-up shirt (or how about like 74 of them?)
5. Some house slippers
6. Ski blanket? (Skis + a blanket… Do we get bonus points for creativity here? What the heck is a ski blanket anyway? Apparently there is some dispute over the actual lyrics here.)
7. Rockin’ a wolf on your noggin
8. Flannel zebra … purse, if that counts
9. Velour jumpsuit (er, half of it)
10. It was ninety-nine cents!
11. R. Kelly’s sheets
12. Gator shoes (Yeah, our thrift shop definitely isn’t carrying any actual gator shoes, but they do have Croc knock-offs … see how they actually have a little gator face on them?!)
13. Leopard mink
14. Aw, he got the velcros!
15. All dressed in pink (this counts double because it also has the word “Goodwill” in it)
16. A kneeboard (isn’t Kreig adorable?!)

Is it weird that I was more excited about the scavenger hunt part of the challenge than the actual items that I bought?! How do you like our finds?!