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.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Thursday Thrift Therapy

I got to go to THREE thrift stores today. Yesterday was a flurry of Christmas shopping and grocery shopping. Today I needed a little thrifting and fun.

First stop: the Super Cheap Thrift Store. We parked next to a red pick up and noticed that there was a little dog sitting on the dashboard. Then we saw another little dog siting int he seat and what looked like a bit of white hair on another dog under the steering wheel. The Bean and I looked in the window and there was EIGHT dogs in the truck. Eight teeny little yappers. Seven of them just looked at us, but the one on the dashboard really wanted to get at us. Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap!

Second stop was the City Hospital Thrift store followed by a rather unspectacular trip to the Salvation Army.

These signs are words carved into thick pieces of Lucite. They came from either the football or basketball field house at the University. The lady that is in charge of the thrift is a House Mom at a Sorority and she often brings in University cast-offs. I thought I could use them in some way shape or form in our Homeschooling or just in life. They were 3/$1.00.



At the Super Cheap Thrift we spotted a lady putting out a cartload of clothes. Hanging on the side of her cart were two Arkansas Razorback Jerseys. I put The Bean on alert and he followed her all around the store and grabbed them as soon as she put them on the rack. They were the right sizes for DH and The Bean and only 75¢ each. I looked them up on ebay and they are $29.99 but the auction says they retail for $100.00, which I cannot imagine. But they were a good deal for us at 75¢!



This picture is a mixture of items from all the thrift stops today. The silver tray in the back is engraved "Merry Christmas" and is marked Rogers Silver on the back. This was $1.50. I polished it up and it is practically a mirror now. The little handmade Santa and Snowman ornaments were 5¢ each, as were the angel made out of a silk magnolia blossom and the little vintage plastic basket of poinsettias. In the center is a Santa cup. Now, I have more Santa cups than should be allowed right now. But, this one is a Holt Howard and I was so tickled to find it for 25¢ today. My others are old JAPAN ones, but none of the are Holt Howard. I adore Holt Howard things - they are so charismatic. The 25¢ book is "Christmas Around the World" and tells how Christmas is celebrated in every country. There are also paper dolls for each country. But, if you cut out the dolls for Sri Lanka, you can't read about China and if you cut out the China dolls you can't read about Sweden and so forth and so on. It's from the early 1970's and not very well planned out as far as the reading and cutting is concerned.




A white swan for my Matte White Pottery Collection. This one has a glossy glaze on it and I really prefer the Matte glaze. But, I have several pieces with the glossy glaze that I display near, but not with the Mate White. This one says, "Merry Christmas - Love, Helena" on the bottom. I am such a sucker for anything someone handmade!



And, lastly a really blury bad awful photo of a piece of costume jewlery that I picked up at the Salvation Army. It is a really pretty shade of yellow and made of all glass beads. The clasp says Western Germany on it so I know it's old. I am pretty sure with the exception of an orange FireKing bowl that this in the only other vintage item I have ever found at the Salvation Army. I had to buy it then, right??? Only $1.00, so no harm done.



On a side note, the Medical bills have started to roll in for The Bean's Mystery Illness. Let's see....$1,250.00 for the CT Scan. $1,400.00 for the Emergency Room. Six doctors visits at $85.00 each. One Doctor Visit at $150.00. One prescription at $100.00. And, I won't even mention the $360.00 for Homeschool Supplies. But, the good news is that the insurance finally paid something! A whole whopping $112.00 total. What the hell? Oh, well. All is well now, so that is all that matters.

Happy Friday! It's going to snow and be 15 degrees here. Yikes!

4 comments:

  1. That necklace is so pretty! I recently found a blue one that looks similar but mine is not glass. :) And I have an ornament on my tree that is a doll made from a silk magnolia like your angel!

    hugs

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  2. WOW! You ARE a die-hard thrifter! You put me to shame! Our Goodwill is 1/2 hour away, so I haven't been there in a while, but on my last trip there, I found an antique silver bowl dated 1886 in honor of a little girl's birthday (her name was engraved on it, too). $9.99! lol My best find of the year it was!

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  3. I wish we had a cheap thrift store here, but they are all pretty pricey. Sometimes you can find good deals but not nearly as good as the ones you get!

    And I'm jealous that you're getting snow! I want some!

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  4. Thanks for visiting my blog. That necklace you got was a fantastic deal! That's the sort of thing I look for because I take them apart and repurpose them into new jewelry. West Germany glass is a great find!

    Diana

    ReplyDelete

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