Welcome to the New and Improved Let's Go Thrifting!



These folks can barely contain their excitement.


Check out the first featured post under the brand spankin' new Collections page, a piece I'd like to call 1000 Words. Take a gander at my gallery of fabulous vintage photos and marvel in the hair styles and wardrobe.  And be excited for future updates all about our weird and wonderful collections!

Also note that we are now licensed under Creative Commons. Share and share alike!  Just give credit where credit is due...and tell a friend of how cool we are.

A spoiler alert just for you: Our next post will likely include ways to creep-out family and friends.

So stay tuned for exciting new posts, pictures, collection galleries and more!

The Incredible Adventures of Kooky and Pooky



Kooky and Pooky roaming the wild.







Okay. So what adventures can two identical purple plush elephants possibly have?

Well it all began a few short months ago...

While thrifting in a nearby Second Ave, a virtual thrift warehouse, I found myself digging through a gigantic bin of affordably priced dolls and stuffed animals.

I am usually hunting for 80’s nostalgic toys from my childhood. Rainbow Brite, Popples, Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake memorabilia frequent my thrift wish list. But more often than not I find an army of teddy bears and knotty haired, naked Barbies.

Now and again, I’ll find a stuffed animal too cute to resist. This particular occasion it was a crazy-eyed purple elephant with big, droopy ears. He was sort of...strange looking. So I decided to adopt him. I paid the 99 cents, took him home and named him Kooky.

A few months later, after we had the wild idea of starting a blog all about thrifting, Joe and I ventured on our first road trip. And wouldn’t you know, sitting on the shelf of a Buck’s County Goodwill in a plastic grab bag was yet another crazy-eyed purple elephant with big droopy ears! So for another 99 cents I nabbed the identical purple pachyderm and two other toys.

I have no doubt that diehard thrifters have experienced thrift déjà vu, where repeat goods seem to appear at every thrift. But this anomaly, like multiple copies of Herb Alpert are often times due to previous popularity. They were popular and now not, so they’re donated en masse. Or perhaps you’ve seen the same kitchen clock, new in box at multiple Goodwill stores? That is typically due to item donations from retailers such as Target or Wal-Mart.  That much makes sense.

But what are the odds that two identical elephants, both of which are in lightly played-with condition, were in two different thrift stores some thirty miles away?

That’s what I like to call thrift karma, folks. A topic which I plan to discuss at length in future blog posts, thrift karma is my personal belief that sometimes we just don’t stumble into good finds. Sometimes those items seem to just find us.

Or in this case, like items find each other.



Kooky (left) and Pooky (right) are reunited and it feels so good.



Maybe some of you would care to share some sort of your thrift déjà vu?

A Few Photos of Funky Finds

Dan here. First post. Howdo?

I'm not much for words, but here's a few snaps of things I thought were noteworthy, but didn't necessarily want in my home. If you come across these items that I've passed up, feel free to pick them up and cherish them forever. Or at least keep it around to make your guests go, "zomgwtf?!1"

Begin with a few creepy clowns.
The first two images here were found at Columbus Farmer's Market in Columbus, NJ. The place is HUUUGE, mostly outdoors, and open year-round. There're vendors of first-hand merchandise, some pretty good food trucks and the like, but the real highlight (for Joe and I at least) is the flea market tables. Go check it out.


This guy doesn't necessarily look violent, but is still probably a child rapist.


He, on the other hand, will bludgeon you to a bubbling bloody mess with that fancy guitar of his. Just look how frightened the little knick-knack girl looks behind him.

I found this guy at 2nd Ave near the Franklin Mills Mall in NE Philly.

His head comes in rings that stack on a pole to teach children just exactly how a clown's head is formed, and to identify weak points, should they need to destroy a clown.


Moving from clowns to dolls and doll-type things:
This first item was found at the Impact Thrift Store in Montgomeryville, PA.
"This Drink & Wet Doll... ok, that's pretty normal. Like a Little Betty Wets-herself.

"...Is A Physically Correct Male"??!?!
You read correctly. This doll has a penis. That it utilizes to simulate urination. Why?!
The only thing worse than a doll with a penis that simulates urination is a doll with a penis that simulates urination that is also Archie Bunker's grandson.


All too creepy. Just look at him in there. Peering out at you. Just waiting to pee all over you and your loved ones.

So is this guy. Just can't wait to get the drawers off. NE Philly 2nd Ave, once again.



And lastly, for the fashionably inclined, a purple Peeps hat. It's only $290.



Have a good however-long-it-is-before-our-next-post, good readers. Hope you enjoyed my snaps. Keep on thrifting.

The Totally 80’s Halloween Cartoon Craftacular!

The crisp air that begs for thrifted argyle sweaters. The horror movie marathons and mountains of miniature candy bars. Fall is my favorite time of year and my annual Halloween party is the highlight of the social calendar.

Now, I don't encourage guests spending big bucks on store-bought costumes. Instead, I encourage thrifty ideas and craft projects. Something like this, for instance.



Straight from the 80’s, it’s Rainbow Brite. Finding this DIY child's costume pattern, among other awesome miscellany to be documented later, was the start to a great day. And scoring this spectacular crafty find for a mere quarter got me thinking about the level of ambition I have reserved for that special night when you get to be someone else…someone who gets free candy.

And that someone I wanted to be for as long as I could remember was none other than Rainbow Brite. And while this thrift score is truly outrageous (Yeah, that was a Jem reference), last year I got my wish.




























That’s right. At 25 years old, I was Rainbow Brite. And it was a heavy workload for a novice crafter. The final product was an estimated 20+ hours of cutting, sewing, gluing and stuffing by hand. My boyfriend and blog co-creator (pictured above) did a lot of the labor too, with both of us working up until the Halloween afternoon just hours before our big bash.

Dan was so involved with the process, in fact, he almost didn’t have time for his own costume. But lo and behold, one day before the party we decided, “Hey, why not stick with the 80’s cartoon theme?”

And so it was. With tattered punk clothes from the nearest Goodwill, a purple mohawk
(yes, a real one), matching shades, chains and a string of ammo…Dan transformed…



…into Bebop, one of the airhead villains of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon!  It should be noted that Dan did have a plastic gun that never make it into the picture. He also fashioned a large metal ring for his nose. But it was too uncomfortable to wear all night.

In the end, our 80’s inspired crafted cartoon costumes were a big hit at the party, and a personal triumph, I think.
This year we have also opted for a DIY couples' costume, something a little more contemporary. But I can’t say anything else until after the big night. Don’t want to ruin the surprise!

Now who else out there has thrifted ‘n’ crafted themselves something special this Halloween?