What I did NOT buy this week.

Those who know me, know that I LOVE to second hand shop. I love to hunt for odd items at bargain prices. I have found some wonderful items over the years, many of the items totally useful. (Many not).

Some "most useful" items I have found include the GIANT champagne bottle that currently resides in my home office. An awesome metal candelabra that resides in my dining room. I've purchased some great artwork at bargain prices. A beautiful old steam trunk. A killer travertine dining room table that we currently use in our semi-formal dining room.

I've also bought a few stinkers that seemed like a good idea at the time. A rusty old childs bicycle that I thought might be worth something to someone else. An unidentifiable weapon of mass destruction that I found at a garage sale and thankfully re-sold at the flea market. I am still not sure what that was. At one time I did a lot of re-selling and would buy almost anything if I thought I could turn a buck.

I have no qualms about buying pre-owned. I look at it as the ultimate in recycling and I love re-purposed items.

My sister in Maine is also a second hand shopper and sometimes in our travels I will e-mail photos of some crazy or just fugly items I have discovered but would probably never buy. The uglier the better.

I buy a lot of funky thrift items but this post is about the ones that got away this week.

Creepy Butler

The first is the creepy butler. He was creeping at a re-sale shop in Scottsdale. A bargain at a mere $695. More than my recession-ass budget can handle at present. If he was $50 I may have considered it. I'd be all over having him hold a roll of toilet paper in my bathroom. Pardon me but to you have any grey poop-on?

Praying Hands Poster

Next item I passed on. A hairy armed poster of praying hands at Oral Roberts University. I lived in Tulsa once and would drive by the giant hands a few times a week. I've got to tell you this was hard to pass up except that the hairy arms sort of gave me the creeps. Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those new-americans that hate body hair but for some reason these hairy arms gave me the heebies.

50 Cent's T-shirt

The next item I did not buy was this lucky 7, g-money, hip hop t-shirt. Ick. I didn't buy this because then I would need to buy a gold grill for my teef to go with and I can't afford that either.

Le Glorious Green Orb

And then there was this. Oh glorious giant green southwestern gourd lamp. I must admit that I actually put this in my cart and gave it a ride around the thrift store while I admired it. There were small holes poked throughout and it actually lit up. A bargain at $24. I just could not justify this purchase. It was so weird that I almost fell in love with it. This is one of those items I had to weigh whether or not it would destroy my marriage if I brought it home.

I also did not purchase this Punks Not Dead, Ed Hardy hoodie. I'm so over Ed Hardy but I'm still a punk at heart. I know that if I wore this shirt that any punks still alive might go preppy after seeing me at 50 wearing this baby. I did not buy partly because it should say Punk IS NOT Dead and that error would make me crazy. Also, Punk was way after the era of the real Ed Hardy. I'm sure he would not approve.

What did I buy you ask? Well that is another post. You'll just have to wait for that one.

Tell me, what is your weirdest thrift purchase? I'd love to know.