Thursday, February 14, 2013

Thrift Shop Valentine

For a person who hates Valentine's Day, I sure got a good one.

It was not red or pink or chocolate. But it was shiny. And floral.

I got butter knives in the mail. 

Yep. You read that right. Butter knives. Yes. I am a weirdo. 


When I scored this green Art Deco cream pitcher that I love, I bought it more out of that love than "I have a use for it." 

But I decided it would hold butter knives in the area of the kitchen where we make toast and sandwiches. With four hungry boys, there is a sandwich being made in my house at any given time. It's like I'm running a deli up in here. My butter knives are always dirty in the dishwasher, and I decided to stock up on extra and have them handy and ready to go. 

Thrift shop finds are the obvious bargain way to go, but I have to share a shameful secret: the thrift shop in my town is lame. It is lame because we are in a university town, so the Goodwill here is 90 percent crapped-out Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirts. In the case of butter knives, all that stuff is institutional flatware that college students cadged from the campus dining room. It's all very depressing. 

Thrift shops in my sister's neck of the woods, the greater Atlanta area, are AWESOME. I would call them "effing" awesome, but I'm trying to pretend that I don't swear that much. I'll leave that for Macklemore and Ryan, the hip-hop artists who have been mentioned by nearly every single blogger on the planet in the last three months for their song "Thrift Shop." The link to the music video is here, and consider yourself warned if you have delicate sensibilities. But the reason it's so popular? It's hilarious. If you thrift, you're part of the biggest inside joke ever with this song. 


There are 12 of these, and they are heavy and good quality. They were a couple of bucks, and Dyan took them home, scrubbed and boiled them and ran them through the dishwasher. She mailed them to me last week. I ran them through the dishwasher again when they came here, not because I don't trust my sister's cleaning but because I don't trust the ookiness that is Other People's Dirt. 

So to review: 
Butter knives: awesome
Atlanta thrift shop scene: awesome
Macklemore and Ryan: f(    )ing awesome
My sister: awesome

This is exactly the sort of Valentine I can stand. 

6 comments:

  1. 1. Those knives are gorgeous and what a great idea to just have knives!
    2. When I posted the Macklemore & Ryan song myself, I did wonder how many people would be offended.
    3. Happy Valentine's Day!

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    1. Thanks! I wondered too about the link, but it's just to grand a song to ignore, despite the language. And I'm liking the song "Can't Hold Us" as well. Thanks for posting the NPR song on your blog. And Happy Valentine's Day, Eartha!

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  2. Happy Valentine's Day my sister! I can't wait for our next thrifting trip together. Love you. :)

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    1. I'm ready when you are! What are we doing first. Are we going to do the flea, or the thrift? :)

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  3. I was going to write: I have those knives!
    But I don't. But I have forks and spoons that are almost like those knives, and I love them!

    Yes, I got them from a thrift store. That's where all our flatware came from. They sell it in bags of mixed stuff, so none of it matches. I like it that way. It doesn't matter when you lose a piece or two here or there.

    Happy Valentine's Day to you too. :-)

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    1. Thanks Rita. Happy Valentine's Day to you! It's great not to be hung up on matchy-matchy, isn't it?

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