What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Fabulous Friday Finds

I went to two sales this morning. One was right here in town and is one of my favorites. I didn't know they were having it this weekend, or I would have made it there earlier than I did. This is two sisters that like junk and do things with it. They always have such cool things in their sales, I would love to get inside their house and see what they keep! I think they must have flea market or junk booths somewhere. Everything above came from that sale except the enamel platter and the bench. Included in this photo and not in the close -ups are 25 very old postcards from Easter, Birthdays and Christmas with wonderful old graphics. Some are dated 1908 and have 1/2¢ stamps. They were 10¢ each. There is also a very small old wooden dovetail corner box with sliding top that was 50¢ and a neat old milk bottle with red graphics for 50¢ too.

This wonderful old vintage photograph was a mere 50¢ too. It is big - about an 11" x 14". The boys and girls are dressed in their finest and have corsages and some sort of ribbons or awards pinned on their lapels.
This old composition doll has seen better days, but, of course, that is why I like her. Actually, she isn't in that bad of shape - she is intact and her clothes are all there. She was $2.00.
These big blue Ball Jars were 50¢ too - (that seems to be the price of the day!) These are the big 1/2 gallon size. I have zinc lids for all of them already. They are all clean and bright now that I have scrubbed them up. I should bave done that before I took the photo! (I'm sure my neighbors wonder why I photograph all the crap I drag in!)
This copy of "Alice in Wonderland" has an original copyright date of 1903. And, yes, it cost 50¢ to. The cover is loose and the pages are brittle, but I am hoping that I can make color copies of some of the pages for collages or cards. If not, I will just display it in the "old junk" cabinet.


We headed across town looking for an advertised Church Rummage Sale, but I could not find it anywhere. There were signs on every corner for sales, but I only decided to go to one that said it was a MOVING SALE. t was on a dead end street, there were cars everywhere and it was very difficult to find a parking place where DS and I could get out of the car without falling in a ditch. I really only saw Man Stuff - fishing stuff, tools, manly things and I really don't know why I even was hell bent to stop. But, I was. We walked through the entire house but not much really appealed to me. But then I spotted this great old enamel tray/platter hanging on the wall in a modern wrought iron hanger. I asked the price of the tray and she said $4.00. I took it and carried it around while we looked at everything and then I ended up paying her husband for it.
As I was paying him, I noticed this bench in the front yard. I asked him how much it was and he hemmed and hawed around and finally said I better "ask the wife".So, I went back in and found "the wife" and asked her how much it was. She hemmed and hawed and said, "What'll you offer me for it?" That is usually my clue to leave, because I am pretty damn cheap and that usually means they want a bunch for it. Then she said, "Would you give me $2.00 for it?" I whipped $2.00 out of my pocket so fast I am surprised I didn't get a paper cut! Then she said, "Oh, just give me a dollar - you were supposed to take that iron hanger with the tray for $4.00." So, I paid $5.00 for the bench and the tray! Yay for me! There were four women sort of circling the bench when I came out of the house. DS asked if we had paid for it then he went and picked it up. The women sort of sucked the air through their teeth when they realized they had missed out on it. And, yes, I misbehaved, I said to DS, "Yes, I paid the lady a dollar - it's ours." Kind of rubbed the old salt in their wounds. My bad.
The pictures don't really do the bench justice - it is made of an old barn door - you can even make out the drill holes where the big latches were on the door. There is a support on either side which is unusual too. This is just the sort of thing that I adore! And for $1.00. Ah, heaven. When DH came home from work he said, "I see we have another bench." But, when I told him the price, he couldn't argue about the price, that's for sure!

*If you read this post earlier and now you are reading it again, I'm sorry. Blogger "Published" when it should have "Saved". Or maybe I did it. Who knows!

9 comments:

  1. The barn door bench is wonderful! Talk about something having character. What are you going to do with it?

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  2. I love the way you stated you were trying to avoid the paper cut. Bet you couldn't open that wallet fast enough. Being oh so frugal that you are, what WOULD you have offered for the bench? I have found that if you stand there pondering long enough, they will cut you a better deal than you would have offered.

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  3. I love the way you stated you were trying to avoid the paper cut. Bet you couldn't open that wallet fast enough. Being oh so frugal that you are, what WOULD you have offered for the bench? I have found that if you stand there pondering long enough, they will cut you a better deal than you would have offered.

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  4. Ooh, great stuff! I am drooling over the blue jars, especially because they are the big ones! I have one big jar and I love it. (cue Gollum voice) My precioussssss.....LOL

    The bench is so neat!

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  5. Great finds! Love the bench & that book! That is one of my favorite stories.

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  6. Awesome finds! Love that enamel tray and what a great deal on the bench!

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  7. Anonymous6:48 PM

    You got some good deals. I too love the big jars. They are so perfect to put "stuff" in.

    Libby

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  8. LOL-I love how you put salt in the vultures wounds, you are tooo much!

    50 cents seemed to be the lucky number for sure! Let me know if you ever come across used stamps in your saling, I want to use some in my collage work but never see any around. Maybe we could do a trade or I would just purchase them from you :)

    lucy

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  9. Wow! What a great sale! I can't belive those post cards were 10 cents! I buy them for a dollar or two at the antique mall. And the Alice in Wonderland??? You have the luck of the hunt my friend. :)

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