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.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Thanks to everyone for their warm birhday wishes including Miss Heidi for her thoughtful Birthday Blog Post to me. I had a nice day - lots of goodies and surprises. DH bought me a Portable Lighting Studio. It's a set of lights all packed up in a carrying case that converts into a light box for phtographing things for ebay. Hint taken. SELL SOME STUFF. It's funny - I had spotted this at Wal-Mart and shown it to DH and commented on it. (Now, don't get me wrong, I do like it and it was nice he listened to me for those three minutes) BUT, he has selective hearing. I had shown it to him, said, "Hmm, look at that. I know how to make something similar for $10.00. Someday I'm going to make one, because I really need it". He heard, "Look at that. I need It." So, I got it.

In our house we are often plotting out how we will spend our Lottery Winnings when we hit it big someday. (The fact that we rarely even play the lottery has no effect on the hopes of winning eventually...) Two items of pure luxury and on the un-necessary list are these: My very own soft serve ice cream machine and a new pair of socks every day. I love the feeling of new socks - all soft and smooth and not knappy. DS must have heard me saying this, because he, along with the help of my Mom, bought me 20 new pairs of socks. Time to clean out the old sock drawer!

Thursday afternoon we hit two thrift stoes. Our last thrifting day before school starts on Monday morning. Unlike a lot of Moms, I like to have DS with me when I go sailing and thrifting. But, he is good company and not a little one digging in things or crying to go home.

My three best find of the day include:

1947 Audubon "Birds of America" Book with 345 Color Plates - $2.50 (seems to sell for $75.00-$100.00)

Longaberger Basket - $1.00

Charcoal Pyrex Baking Dish - $2.00

This is my first Pyrex purchase. I had never seen one like it - black with the white snowflakes across the sides. It has a vintage feel but a modern look. I didn't know the name of the pattern, but the resident Pyrex lovers on Yardsalequeen told me that it is Charcoal and a rare pattern. So, I guess I did okay buying it.

At the Salvation Army they have a big bin full of baskets and I alwyas dig to the botom of the bin looking for oak splint handmade baskets, seagrass baskets and Longaberger Baskets. I've dug through a lot of old Easter Baskets, cheap import basket and the like, but I have found several good baskets during that time. This time I was on one side of the bin digging when another lady walked up and started digging on the other side. Well, I consider that bad manners. I wait for that peson to finish before I begin my digging. Anyway, at the bottom of the bin, I snagged this small Longaberger basket. The lady was not pleased that it was on my side and not hers. I was! I really don't give a fig about the Longaberger name, but it is a good sturdy basket and I will sell it once I know the name for that size basket. Any experts out there? DH has an Aunt that collects Longaberger Baskets. She has them everywhere in her house and saves up for months to buy some of them. And then there's the liners too! What money she must spend! I have three - this one, one I found in that same bin for 50¢ and one I foreged out of someone's trash! Big spender, eh?

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DS is off to a Back to School Bash tonight. At a girl's house! With boy's and girl's. Swimming, games, movies, snacks, etc. And that leaves Mom and Dad to be alone. Oh, some of you are saying, "Oh, how wonderful." Truthfully, I don't know what to say or do with him alone for 2 hours. Kind of makes me wonder what the next forty years of my like will be like......

5 comments:

  1. Yes, you could have made that light box for $10, but isn't it nice just to take something out of the box, ready to go?

    Our ds's will be out of school within 3 yrs. of each other, so maybe I can move to the old folks home near you and we could yardsale out our remaining days together.LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7:21 PM

    I know what you mean about having your son with you while yardsaling. I enjoy shopping with my daughter (22) and have for years. We always eat lunch out when we shop and since she was a young girl this always seemed to be a good time for her to talk about what she was thinking about. I always figured spending one or two Saturday afternoons a month goofing off with her was worth whatever it cost me in food/clothes/etc. I bet you and your son will always enjoy doing stuff like ys.

    Libby

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10:46 PM

    I think that's the berry basket.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy Belated Birthday Shara!

    ReplyDelete
  5. No way!!! A Longaberger for a dollar!!!
    I am SOOOO envious!
    And the Pyrex is new to me... never seen it before.
    You had a good day!

    ReplyDelete

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