I hope you’ve enjoyed the first ever Mystery Thrift-Off! I’m so sad it’s coming to a close. I’ve had so much fun. I can’t wait to share the results with you!

First off, I must thank all of the participants one last time. Huge thanks and uncomfortably long hugs to every single one of you for your pure bravery in signing up for this thing when you had no idea what to expect (nor did I!). Thank you for sharing your time and talents with me and my readers. What would this contest have been without you? I’ll tell you: Me cradling Scabies Bear, sobbing. Not nearly as fun.  So thanks again for being so awesome everyone.

Ok, so the voting process yesterday was a little weird, I apologize for that. I think the categories weren’t different enough from each other, which made voting confusing.  I’m still just making this up as I go! Next time I’ll probably just have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, whattaya think?

Next time I will also not be out of town right in the middle of the contest! I was unexpectedly invited on a blogging trip this week in Indiana, which was super cool and I’ll be sharing some details later, but it left me with hardly any time and even less brainpower to devote to the contest. Hopefully it wasn’t too obvious.

Hmmm … anything else I can talk about to build up suspense before the results??? No? Then let’s have it.

(*prepare the t-shirt cannons and confetti*)

Winner of the Best Case of Using What Ya Got Award, carrying nearly 25% of the total vote was …

… Janet with her genius reinterpretation of the now legendary Scabies Bear!!!  You may recall how she systematically dismantled (smashed with a hammer) the bears and used the chips to create stacked-stone-like artwork. I think she’s simply brilliant and you agreed!

Congrats Janet! You will be receiving a $50 gift-card of your choice and the prize packages from Wildfire Events and Retrofit Baby.

Next up, the Most Creative award, which was a race to the finish between several projects. When the dust cleared, the triumphant winner emerged with 22% of the total vote …

Brittany and the Christmas village that could! Voters were impressed with her creativity in making not one, not two, but THREE entirely different projects out of that thing. She also shared all of the how-to’s on her blog this week, so be sure to check them out right here: chalkboard arrow sign, housewarming gift caddy, little toy playhouse.

Yay Brittany! You will be receiving a $50 gift-card of your choice and the prize packages from Graphic Design Market and The Reclaimed Life.

And finally, the winner of The Better After award, the project that wowed the crowd, your hands-down favorite with a 35% landslide victory …

Naomi and Sage and their ultra hip plastic cactus side table!!! Seriously, be on the lookout for this in stores soon. I’d buy it. Read their hilarious thought-process as they worked out this project on their blog Plaster & Disaster.

Congratulations ladies! You will receive a $100 gift card of your choice and the prize packages from Trish Stitched and FabulashKrash.

Big thanks to the small businesses and etsy shops that offered prizes to our winners, it was a treat partnering with you.

And once again, this wouldn’t have been possible without Goodwill. Thank you, thank you.

And thank YOU dear reader, for reading and voting and playing along with me. What did you think? Did you have a good time? Any constructive feedback for next time? Would you like to see a next time? I’d love to hear from you!

Till next time!

(*credits roll, lights go up, Lindsey shuffles by sweeping up confetti*)

Today is VOTING DAY! Are your button clicking fingers prepped and ready? Best do a couple warm-up stretches. We don’t want to pull anything.

If you need a quick review, you can find all the projects here in rounds ONE, TWO, and THREE.

Ok! So all twelve projects are in the running for three separate categories. This is the first time I’ve ever done this contest, so bear with me as I’m kind of making it up as I go. I hope these categories make sense!

Please vote for your choices only once. (Or in other words, please don’t vote for the same project across all three categories.) I am hiding the results, mainly because I would hate for anyone to feel sad if their project didn’t do well vote-wise. I think they are all 1000% awesome, and I hope you did too!

First up is “Most Creative.” Not the catchiest of names, but pretty self-explanatory. Vote for the project you feel went above and beyond creatively, and/or the person who really looked at their item in an entirely new way, perhaps a way that would have never occurred to you.

Next is “Best Case of Using What Ya Got.” Award your vote to the participant who you think made the most out of a difficult item. They were all pretty difficult items. Choose wisely!

Thirdly, “The Better After Award” is the grand numero uno. The crowd-pleaser, call you husband into the room, jaw-dropper, hands-down favorite. Ooooh, which will you choose?!

So let’s get started! I feel like we need some fanfare here.  Please imagine a drum-roll and a t-shirt cannon.  Thanks.

VOTING

FOR THE

FIRST EVER

MYSTERY THRIFT-OFF

HAS

BEGUN!

(If you can’t see any of the polls, click their titles and that will take you directly to the poll page).

Most Creative

Best Case of Using What Ya Got

Better After Award

Check back tomorrow to see the big winners! Share your thoughts in the comments! They’re always so fun to read.

Special thanks to Goodwill for awesomely sponsoring the Mystery Thrift-Off.

And also these fabulous small business/etsy shops who are so kindly donating additional prizes to our winners. Check them out!

The Reclaimed Life    Retrofit Baby    Trish Stitched

MGraphic Design Market    Wildfire Events    FabulashKrash 

Day two of the Mystery Thrift-Off is upon us! Did you catch all the action in round one?  Remember, voting happens on Thursday after we’ve seen all the projects.

But first, I thought I’d rewind a little bit today, and tell you how I narrowed it down to 12 participants out of 250 applicants.

When I created the online form for people to apply, I asked a few basic questions like: where do you live, what’s your name, do you have a blog, etc. Then I just left a big blank space at the end and said “What else do I need to know?”

THAT’S where I really got to know people. Some people shared links to awesome projects they had done in the past. Some people didn’t have blogs or much DIY experience, but their enthusiasm more than made up for it. And some people …

Some people …

Some people used that space to send me all the lyrics to We Don’t Need Another Hero by Tina Turner, from the 1985 Max Max movie Beyond Thunderdome.

I obviously chose those people.

Husband and wife team Justin and Rachael aren’t bloggers, but probably should be. They sent me Thunderdome lyrics, I sent them this collection of fake brass sconces. Or planters. I’m not sure what they are, other than made out of plastic and illegally ugly.

Then, life hit, and they decided to up and MOVE right in the middle of the contest! Amidst all the crazy, they wound up with only one day to start and finish their project, photograph it, and submit it to me.

They got down with some paint and paisley and created crazy craft storage! Also kitchen storage! And bathroom storage!

I’m shocked at how much those things can actually hold. Way to be creative under pressure, guys. I would have used them as an urn to hold my tears, because moving is the WORST.

Next up, Elaine at Elaine Wagg received one of the items from the what-the-heck-is-this category. Any guesses? I initially thought it was some kind of spice rack, but upon closer inspection I realized that it would actually make the world’s worst spice rack, so that can’t be it.  Elaine supposes it was some kind of cat toy.

What oh what could be done with this?

A ’70s inspired light-fixture, that’s what. Groovy man! She had a piece of plastic cut to size, then stuffed a string of Christmas lights inside. Those psychedelic paint colors were found at an art supply store. If you love it, you might be in luck because she plans to eBay it.

Elaine’s blog caught my eye, because she is hilarious. Be sure to visit and say hi!

Next up, one of my more diabolical choices: this pair of olive platters sent to Denise from On the Verge of Snapping. Hahahahahaha! How impossible! I’m the meanest! Denise said she was expecting something hideous, but this pristine pair of oblong dishes really had her stumped. But not for long.

Bet you didn’t see that coming! Neither did I! When she sent these pictures back to me, I was like, “Wait, what exactly did I send her again?” Then it hit me that the dishes had been turned into stands for the cat and the schnauzer. SO great.

I love all the detail here, and the colors. These just make me happy! Animals are close to Denise’s heart, she actually runs an animal rescue that focuses on schnauzers, so triple awesome points for that.

And now, for our final project of the day …

Did you think you could escape?

Did you think I really wouldn’t go there?

Oh yeah.

I went there.

It’s time for ….

SCABIES BEAR!!!!!!!

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Oh man, I really am the worst. I don’t think anyone is going to sign up for this contest next year.  But Janet insisted, and I quote “If you see an item that you are wondering if it’s too horrid, if you should even include it, send that one to me!”

So I did. But wait.  There’s more.

Scabies bear had a brother.

Ha! HaHA! But Janet didn’t even flinch.  She rose to the challenge like a champ. Now YOUR challenge is to spot Scabies Bear and brother in the next photo:

See it?

Look closer …

Hot tamales! Scabies Bear is no more, but his ghost lives on. It lives on in STYLE.  She ‘deconstructed’ the bears into bits, then glued them one piece at a time on edge inside the design, like a mini stack stone wall. It’s fantastic!

She still had lots of crushed bear shards to work with, so she made two more pieces of art: these super hip geometric glittered diamonds for her daughter’s room.

Could crushed ceramic bears be the next big thing? I think probably maybe yes.

Be sure to check out round one if you haven’t already, and click here to see the third and final round! What did you think of round two? Do you have a favorite already??

Huge thank you to Goodwill for making The Mystery Thrift-Off possible.

Today is the day! The first ever Mystery Thrift-Off is underway! I’m so excited! I’m so excited!! I’m so … SCARED!

I’m not really scared. Just EXCITED!

In case you are new here, here’s a quick rundown:

I’ve always thought it would be hilariously fun to find the most random and hopeless items from the thrift-store and send them to people, and then have those people give them makeovers, while I giggled maniacally in the background.  Goodwill thought this idea sounded fun too, so they agreed to partner up with me and The Mystery Thrift-Off was born!

To begin, I needed to find out if anyone actually wanted in on this party, so I created a little online application looking for participants and was stunned to have over 250 people apply! It was super  tough to narrow it down, but I eventually did, to twelve participants.

Then, the fun part: shopping! And it was fun! And also waaaaaaay harder than I expected. I needed to find 12 makeover-worthy items, small enough to ship, tragically awesome but not too tragic. I didn’t want to like, send someone a bag of hair or something. That actually almost happened. Pickin’s started getting slim, and that bag of wigs in the corner started to seem like maybe a good idea?

After several days of hunting, and hundreds of laps around my local Goodwill stores, and carefully assessing the potential of every single oddball item I came across, I was very much losing my mind and starting to scare the other shoppers. No one wanted to upset the crazy lady fiercely staring down the clown figurines and muttering to herself.

But I think I ended up with a good mix. The items in the contest range from quirky to mundane to what-the-heck-is-this? I lovingly packaged them up and sent them off to meet their fates.

The rules for each participant were simple.

1. Take your mystery item.

2. Give it a makeover.

That’s it. I didn’t care if they completely dismantled their item and created something entirely unrecognizable. No rules! Just makeover magic.

Today I am showing you four projects, then four more tomorrow, then the last four on Wednesday, then we’ll have a big vote on Thursday and announce the winner on Friday!

**********

So let’s not wait any longer!!! Without further ado, here is our first Mystery Thrift-Off project from Brittany, aka Pretty Handy Girl. I knew she could handle anything I threw her way, so I threw this:

I think it’s a Christmas decoration. Honestly, if it had been left to me, I would have created maybe a slightly nicer looking Christmas decoration. Not Brittany.

She made THREE projects! First, she took the center piece of the decoration and created this adorable arrow sign for a lemonade stand. (Funny story, she actually posted the arrow sign picture to Instagram immediately after posting a picture of the before decoration, and no one spotted it!)

The second item is a housewarming gift caddy made from the right piece, brilliant. Then she let her son paint the left piece, which he made into a little house for his stuffed octopus, and oh my gosh my heart wants to explode from the cuteness and happiness that it brings me.

Moving on to the next Mystery Item, two very exciting bags of craft sticks.  These were the very last items I purchased, when I was starting to get desperate and crazy and truly deciding between this and the bag-o-hair.

I knew Mary at Sweetwater Style would have a vision however, even if I didn’t.

It’s a growth chart! It took me a minute to spot the sticks! They turned out to be the perfect size for making increments on a growth chart, which Mary was planning to create for her cutie-pie grandson anyway. Good thing a couple bags of craft sticks just happened to drop into her life!

This next items needs no explanation. Only because I don’t know what it is. Some kind of decorative relic. It’s similar to a dream-catcher, only covered in stiffened twine, pinecone pieces, and a thick layer of dust. So, not really a dream-catcher at all. More of a sneeze-causer.

Let’s find out what Tracy at General Splendour did with it …

How cute is that? Not only is it an adorable little tray with adorable little feet, she made the inner layer interchangeable, so she can use it to decorate for the seasons. She’s a smart one, that Tracy.

Tracy also sent me some pretty hilarious outtake photos of this project on its journey to completion. Check out her link above to see for yourself!

Finally, Sage and Naomi, the gals from Plaster and Disaster received one of my favorite items in the contest: this plastic cactus. You should have seen the terrified look on my husband’s face when I came bounding down the aisle at Goodwill, triumphantly waving it overhead.

It was so funky up-close. Not in a good way.

As you can see, they painstakingly scraped off that layer of glued-on sawdust and turned this thing into a side table! I mean. Look at that. It’s simply genius. I’m so proud of that funky little cactus and how far it has come.

Just watch, now we are going to start seeing cactus end tables showing up in all the decor magazines before you know it. Mark my words. Better trademark this thing Naomi and Sage!

What did you think? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.   And be sure to check out the next group of projects in round two! (Remember, voting won’t happen until Thursday, after we’ve seen them all).

Huge thanks to Goodwill for making The Mystery Thrift-Off possible!