Every year, my Girl Scout coleader and I take a fun winter weekend retreat with other Girl Scout leaders up in Wisconsin. We all stay up at a GS campground and enjoy fellowship, rest, relaxation and idea sharing. It is really a way for many of us to not only catch up with each other, but also take some time out for ourselves. I look forward to this weekend every year. Lisa and I have so much fun trolling around a nearby small town, browsing antique shops and eating a local Friday night fish fry. Some years we travel to nearby Lake Geneva for the snow festival, but lately we tend to support the small shop owners closer to camp and do more thrifting. One of our funnest stops is the local Goodwill. We both usually pick up some great frocks for a steal. This year, we also were picking up trinkets for Lisa’s new beach themed bedroom.
It is often said that anther man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That is why I love thrifting. What may not fit one person any more (taste or size) may still be awesome for someone else. But some things you will find thrifting may really be there for a reason. Some things will leave you scratching your head and wonder, well, just because you CAN make or manufacture something, doesn’t mean you should. So as we looked around the Goodwill, we found some things that made us laugh out loud.
Here is our “Top Ten WTH?” for this year.
NUMBER 1
We had no idea what this was for. It was ceramic. The bonnet and pacifier was removable. It was the size of a large soup bowl. I use WAS because just after we took a picture of it, giggled and walked off, some other customer picked it up in bewilderment and dropped it. We heard a large crash and the gentleman picked the pieces up and gently put them back on the rack like nothing happened. SO sadly, the baby-pacifier-bonnet-ceramic-soup-mug-bowl-thing is no more.
NUMBER 2
A large chocolate pen the size of your head? Because a squeeze bottle just won’t do the same thing. Just what a kitchen needs, more ridiculous gadgets. Extra large, pastel blue gadget with 30 extra tips to keep track of. Lordie.
NUMBER 3
This at first isn’t so bad. A cute chef holding a wine bottle. Nice. Now envision this poor chef being impaled through the middle of his mid section with a wine bottle. Eww. I’ll pass. Poor chef. Such violence. Also, not really sure it would even balance right and work to actually hold the wine bottle? Laws of physics, a necessary evil.
NUMBER 4
Lisa is modeling the most gauche dress we had ever seen. This picture doesn’t do it justice. Imagine a cheap polyester balloon window shade got into a wrestling match with a neon paintball gun. And there you are.
NUMBER 5
This glittery delight was in the men’s section. We couldn’t tell if it was misplaced or if it was truly a men’s sweater. Either way, tinsel belongs on a tree, not woven on a sweater.
NUMBER 6
Lisa was drawn to this treasure from the clash of pattern you could see from 2 aisles away. It almost looks like someone upcycled an imported rug from World Market. Upon closer look, my eyes widened at the funky buttons on top of the cacophony of patterns, making the whole jacket just a car crash of design and color. Some people may be able to pull this puppy off, but not I. It hurt my eyeballs.
NUMBER 7
Speaking of hurting the eyeballs, these pants baffle the mind. Especially when looking at the label, which made us pretty sure they were designer made. These poor pants look like they rolled around the cutting floor at a fabric store. They are just too much!
NUMBER 8
Imagine your husband/son/boyfriend’s delight when you bring him home these pajama pants with horse/donkey looking creatures all over them. But wait, there’s more. Accompanying these cute little animals is a quippy quote, “PASTURE BEDTIME”. Awww. And the animals are munching on grass. Get it?
NUMBER 9
The men’s section at Goodwill deserves it’s own top ten post. There is so much wrong there, it boggles the mind. The baseball caps/hats alone may amuse you for hours. The tie section has some of the most obnoxious ties you have ever seen. We pulled this one out to share. It looks like an M.C. Escher attempt at a tie. Once you start looking at it, you get drawn into the fun house pattern and can’t get out. Look away…look away…save yourself.
NUMBER 10
What gets an A in effort gets an F in practicality. Lisa assured me this was a crib blanket, and once we figured that out, I was convinced that this crazy pattern/design would freak out a baby. Not only that, but there was glitter-sparkles in the sky, yarn ties and other trinkets sewn into various areas of the blanket. If any of that stuff loosened would cause a choking hazard for the baby. The actual design of this blanket was just crazy. Imagine if someone had some hallucinogens and imagined Noah’s ark or what the Garden of Eden looked like in fabric. Crazy.
*********
That concludes our “Top Ten WTH?” items at Goodwill. Stay tuned when we visit again. Now on the same trip, Lisa found awesome trinkets for her beach themed bedroom, and I found an adorable polka dot dress with bell sleeves that received a ton of compliments last Friday at work. SO in the midst of all the eye rolling and giggles, we bought great stuff for a song. Goodwill; delivers on fun AND deals. Give it a try!
Flora is an award-winning creative director in Chicago turned food and lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. She is also author to the popular BEE NATIVE! gardening book series and various children's books that celebrate the wonder and hard work of bees and butterflies. Her blog and social spaces inspire thousands to create, learn, cook, grow, and craft, making their world lovelier one pixel/petal/seed/bite/stitch/brushstroke at a time. Follow her on all the social spaces, YouTube, and Amazon, and get creative!
Latest posts by Flora Caputo
(see all)
