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.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Field Trip Thrifty Finds

Friday after The Bean and I fit some halfway educational things into our day, we, of course, hit the thrifts. This was a town 20 miles away, so these were new thrifts for me. One was the Battered Woman's Thrift and it was a pretty good one. Very low prices and a bulletin board by the door with lots of Specials on it - 1/2 Price Jeans, Shirts, Jewelry, Vases and Record Albums that day. I'd hit it frequently if it were closer.
And now, on to the thrifting...

This is a hand painted 50th Wedding Anniversary Plate. I normally would have shyed away from something like this - but check out the wedding date - 1915! So, the plate is from 1965, which is an antique in itself (Hey! Wait a minute! I was born in 1966!)not to mention they were married in 1915. I thought it might sell, not sure though. It was only 75¢.

See? 1915!
And this fabulous glass bead necklace was $1.00. The beads are huge, as you can see from the penny in front. Not sure what I'll do with it, but it is pretty cool. It has a little gold tag with a name on it, but I can't quite make it out. Those darn 1966 eyeballs of mine.
These little charms were in a teacup in the glass jewelry counter. They were in groups of 10 on a keyring and the tag said "Charms 50¢ each". There were three rings of them - so 30 charms total. Jewelry was 1/2 off that day. So, I thought 30 x 50 = $15.00 - 50% = $7.50 (I should have had The Bean figure that out...). I didn't want to spend $7.50, so I was going to pick out about ten of them. I asked the lady if I could take them off the rings and she said, "They're 50¢ for the whole ring." Well, alrighty then. That's what I love about volunteer run Thrift Stores. One person prices it one way and someone else decides differently. So, I got all thirty charms - 50¢ x 3 divided by 2 for 75¢ total. Cha-ching. (Anybody need a charm?)


This crow was $2.00. Love the rusty star in his mouth. I have quite a bit of crows as that is The Bean's Cherokee name (Crow Walker) and I am on a bit or a star kick right now, plus who doesn't love rust?

I must be nuts for buying this. Ha ha. This handmade wooden box has glass on both sides and houses nuts of all sorts inside preserved for prosperity. I have no idea why anyone took the time to do this or really why I even bought it, but I did. It was 75¢ and now that I have it home, I really love it. It's just quirky. When I saw it, I put it back, but decided to get it since it was so cheap. I wonder if it was from someone's childhood home from all the trees or something - acorns, pecans, walnuts, almonds. Well, I guess I just answered my own question - I don't think I've ever seen an almond tree. Oh well, it's fun Folk Art.

I got excited when I found an entire aisle of craft items. None of the thrifts that I frequent really have a craft area. I love the pompom fringe - I've already used the white in my Sweet Goodness Hanging Heart Swap Project. The card of buttons, bag of red buttons (the price read "29 red buttons - 25¢"), all six doll faces and the pompom fringe were all 25¢ each. They had six packages of the doll faces, but I only bought one package. Of course, now that I'm home, I'm wishing I had bought them all as I now have an idea for them. Doh! The cowboy scrapbooking stickers were 50¢ and the roll of cupid ribbon was 25¢. The giant roll of Sasheen ribbon was 75¢. I recently learned that vintage Sasheen ribbon is all the rage. What luck to have found a roll.

I think there are 375,000 feet on the roll. Seriously, it's HUGE!

Today, on the not so thrifty front, we bought a new couch. New, new. Like from a retail store new. Of course, it was on sale and today they were paying the Sales Tax, but still - NEW! I never would have found a used one that I liked anyway, but there is just something about a used couch. Eeew. A girl's gotta have her limits. We'll be picking it up Wednesday, so I'll post a photo then. It's pretty blah - taupe and plain, but that's what we wanted. Man, the furniture today is so fanceee and big! We had a terrible time finding a plain old couch. I didn't want a lot of fancy material or 100 pillows on it. Just a couch. One that would fit into my old junky rusty chippy yard sale decor. You know what I mean, right?

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:35 PM

    wow, what a great deal on the charms, I have a vintage charm bracelet and I have never paid less than 5$ per charm. I love the crafts too! Great finds!!

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  2. Anonymous8:37 AM

    We have been couch shopping too, so I am dying to see your new one. I'm also looking for a nice traditional looking sofa, no microfiber, no down, no fancy schmansy, that will fit into my smallish living room. Yikes, it's been shopping torture!

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  3. Can't wait to see your new couch! I bought my couch and love seat at a garage sale...but they'd never used it so it was kinda like new!
    Looks like once again you hit pay dirt! Great finds!

    Jan

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  4. Anonymous2:09 PM

    That crow with the start rocks! I'm a star freak. Being a native Texan, I collect stars. And that is one really cool find.

    Nice to know you like stars too. I might be able to us that...

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  5. NICE FINDS! The green beads look like little watermelon - COOL!

    I think the 'shadow box' of nuts can be deemed a 'schooling tool'... can't it?

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  6. LOVE your charms! So cute. Are they sterling? I need to get thrifting. Spring cannot come soon enough!

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  7. Lovely finds! The charms were an amazing deal, I usually pick up charms/charm bracelets when I see them.

    Are you keeping all the charms or are you looking to sell them? I would trade you some vintage items for a few, I especially like the bike ones pictured. :)

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  8. Shara, you find the BEST DEALS!!! WOW!

    And thanks for the aqua phone info... waaaay coool!

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  9. Love the charms! Fantastic find!

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  10. Anonymous3:55 PM

    Are the charms sterling silver? If so, it may be worth more than you thought. It is pretty either way.

    Congrats on the new couch.

    Sounds like that thrift is still worth a check on a regular basis even though it is 20 miles away.

    Libby

    ReplyDelete

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