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Our (Completely Unofficial) Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge

Psst- We’re bouncing around the West Coast this weekend with a talk and signing in Portland on Saturday at Rejuvenation at noon (for more info call 503-238-1900). Then on Sunday we’ll be in Palo Alto at 11am at the West Elm on 180 University Avenue (RSVP here). Parking isn’t enforced on Sundays so you can park anywhere, or you can purchase a visitors pass at Palo Alto Civic Center and park in any of their lots all day.

There are two irrefutable facts about me. 1) I tend to fall in love with rappers and 2) I’m a fool for a good thrift shop. So when those two passions collided in the form of this Macklemore & Ryan Lewis song called Thrift Shop, the Internet at large was quick to clue me into its awesomeness, which started around the fall of last year and continues well into 2013. So to anyone who commented/tweeted me the link, thank you for giving me my official jam of 2012 and 2013. The clip below is the clean radio edit of the song (if you’re on a smart phone click here to watch it) but here’s a link to the official non-clean video (warning: it’s a bit, um, saltier).

And now that the song is starting to get some radio play (seriously, they’ve started playing it here in Richmond!) it gave us an idea. As J-Boom and I pulled into a thrift store while it played, I was like “Ooh look at this, it’s so meta, a song about thrifting is playing while we’re going thrifting.” And then John turned to me and said “We should do a Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge.” And boom. Just like that I fell more in love with my husband.

Macklemore Challenge

Here’s the deal. This “Challenge” is basically an excuse to all (virtually) go thrift shopping together and share our spoils, plus there’s a scavenger-hunt-ish element tossed in for good measure. So it’s meant to be a nice low pressure Friday fun-fest. And just like our little Pinterest Challenges, if you’d like to partake and blog about it, we’ll do a little linky thing next Friday so everyone can share their favorite finds. There are just THREE things you gotta do to play along (well, four if you count blogging about it later, although of course you can play along even if you don’t have a blog).

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

Macklemore Twenty

Step #2. Spend that $20 any way you’d like and photograph your spoils. They can be home related, fashion oriented, kid focused, anything. And you don’t necessarily need to make them over or repurpose them at all (although that’s totally allowed too!). It’s just an adventure in seeing what people all across the country (the world?) can score with a twenty at a thrift shop. And if you don’t find enough items to spend the whole twenty, there’s no pressure to buy weird things to meet that number, so it’s more of a cap than a you-must-hit-this-exact-number thing. This isn’t The Price Is Right.

Oh yeah, and we’ll reveal our spoils with everyone else next week…

Macklemore Dolls

Step #3. Find one item (or more) referenced in the song and snap a pic. Here’s the scaveger-hunt-ish element that we tossed in because we’re weirdos. And you get bonus points for doing something ridiculous with the item in the photo. After all, Macklemore has some pretty great confidence when he’s rocking those footy pajamas.

Macklemore Keyboad

If you’re like John and have a terrible time deciphering rap lyrics, we’ve listed some of the items you could hunt for here: clothing with fringe, an all pink outfit, moccasins, a velour jumpsuit, house slippers, a brown leather jacket, a keyboard, a kneeboard, shoes with velcro, luggage, a plaid button up shirt, flannel zebra jammies, PJs with built-in socks, a telescope, and of course… a big a$$ coat.

Macklemore Coat

Feel free to interpret the scavenger hunt items as literally or as loosely as you’d like. The point is just to have some good clean thrift shop fun. Happy hunting! We’ll be back next Friday with a rundown of what we found, and we can’t wait to see what you guys score as well.

Viva la thrift shop!

Comments

  2. samantha sue says

    My boyfriend just showed me that music video this weekend! I am from seattle, and it was fun to recognize the locations in the shoot! The Goodwill in South Seattle is HUGE! and that club is CRAZY cool.

    Reply

  5. Terri says

    OK, I did part one of the challenge! Just had tons of fun at my local Salvation Army Thrift Store. I plan on “repurposing” a couple of my finds before I blog about it though so my post will most likely be right on Friday. I just wanted to say thanks for hosting this. I had a great time.

    PS I “found” every single item on the scavenger list too! Whoop Whoop!!!!

    Reply

  6. Jayme says

    Just wanted to let you know, spotted a PINK VELOUR JUMPSUIT yesterday at Michaels. Wanted SO BADLY to take a picture and send it to you. Husband told me to behave myself :(

    Reply

  8. Sheri says

    I love thrift stores, I love y’all, I love that song now, and I love this challenge. Now I got to get $20 in my pocket.
    # theother$herdog

    Reply

  11. B. Hess says

    Found a Mummy when I was working on the Thrift Shop Challenge. A Mummy! Well, actually two very large, very creepy Mummies! Can’t wait to share on Friday!

    Reply

  12. Jodie says

    Seriously L.O.V.E this song. It’s been our nightly fam jam session for awhile now. My hubby and I sing really loud over the explicits, and our kiddos look at us like we’re hella dope. :). Lovin the challenge Sherdog.

    Reply

  15. Gina says

    Yes! This happens to be both my man’s and my favorite song as well. It’s totally on the soundtrack for 2013! We laugh about it all the time. And, being that I’ve been a thrifting junkie for going on 20(+) years, I have to join in!

    Reply

  16. Sophia Chang says

    This is HILARIOUS. I had to click instantly when I read about this on “What if No One’s Watching” blog. I don’t thrift but I sure wish I did!

    My hip-hop class is currently teaching us a dance to this song and Macklemore is my new ear worm so I love everything about this post.

    Lastly, I’m actually in love with a real live rapper (luckily, he’s in love with me too :P). So glad I found your blog!

    Reply

  19. Kerrie says

    So I met you last night at the Atlanta book signing… It was a fun event – a little cold in the beginning, but then again, I probably should have thought to put on socks! :)

    But I was going to tell you (and forgot, of course) that I sent this link to my roommate because she LOVES this song!! AND now we are throwing a Macklemore Thrift Store Scavenger Hunt. I think that your idea has created frenzy!! :)

    Be safe traveling – it was great meeting you!

    Reply

  20. Brittany says

    So we took your $20 challenge, however we went to our local Habitat Re-Store.. which I guess may be cheating. But I just love our Re-Store as much as thrift shopping.

    For $20 we had an awesome trip! We walked away with a new solid wood glass pane door $10 for our closet in our living room. Just needs a light sand and a refresh on the paint color, and I can hang it up this weekend. It’s one of those classy beauties with the detail that we love adding to our home, to give it character and charm.

    In addition as I was skipping through the re-store (yes.. there was lots of weird looks) we also scored a Fluidmaster dual flush conversion kit. My husband has been eyeing it for awhile, and at $10 we figured why not give it a try.

    Excited to try both out this weekend, and start blogging about the adventures of trying your challenge. Thanks for the inspiration.

    Reply

  21. amber rich says

    just thought i would add – my daughter has listen to this song only twice and yesterday at goodwill she said” mommy ive got $20 can we pop some tags?” I nearly peed I was laughing so hard. Now she is walking around saying I look incredible!!

    Reply

  22. MLB says

    Had to drop you guys a quick note. I had no idea what this reference was when I read this post, but the song just came on my Pandora, “Imagine Dragons” station-random. Giggling like a loon at work cuz now I tooootally get it and you guys are hilarious. Excellent challenge.

    Reply

  23. Ashley F says

    I loved the comment about white rappers! haha If I may reccomend another to you, Classified!

    They are from my old stomp’n grounds, Halifax, Nova Scotia. His new song ‘Inner Ninja’ is great :)

    Reply

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