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, January 24, 2008

Thursday's Thrifted Goodies

The Bean and I headed out for a morning of thrifting. I am getting accustomed to having him here and us being on our own schedule. I still have pangs of guilt if we don't do a full day of Homeschooling. But, what isn't completed today can be completed tomorrow. It's not like we're not doing it, it's just that we're not doing it hours and hours and hours a day. A break is needed! (I have an intensive recycling lesson for him later. We are going to go to the Post Office and raid the trash cans for more FREE Chick-fil-A coupons that were mailed to the residents in town today. Save a tree and a cow!). We really do do school - it's just a drag to talk about, so I make light of it. (In the words of The Bean - I said, Do Do)

On to my nifty thrifty finds of the day. We went to the Super Cheap Thrift, the Attic (City Hospital thrift) and the Salvation Army. As usual, lots of goodies at the Super Cheap Thrift. Stay tuned for the end item and you will see why I had another urgent "I must go to the thrift" moment this morning. Kismet.

I'm not a big purse person. But, I have learned that at the Super Cheap Thrift you can often find cool vintage purses, Vera Bradley and even an occasioinal Enid Collins. So, I took a looksie. No big dollar finds, but the one on the left is from Longaberger - who knew they made purses? The one on the right is handmade and very "Vera". Not Vera, but "Vera-ish." It really isn't me, but for some reason, I like it. I will use it this spring to carry my water bottle, snack, camera and other things I think I need to take with me when I leave the house. They were 75¢ each.
This large basket has a row of corn cobs around the outside. Now, that's a new one. I think it will hold gourds and mini pumpkins this Fall. The ladies hemmed and hawed about a price as it wasn't marked. 75¢ was their final decision. "AN OUTRAGE" I should yell.. ha ha.
This is a big old oak splint basket with lots of age to it. It is also so big that the 21 pound cat can sit in it and only fill up half of it. It was $1.00. I overlooked it as it was full of cameras, but then I spotted it and saw it was priced. Buh-bye cameras.
Miscellaneous goodies - a package of yellow rick-rack*, a big of vintage buttons, a 1971 Pillsbury Doughboy and a vintage kity with a gold heart around his neck. $1.50 total for all four items. *(I am obsesed with ric-rac. I look for it everywhere. I use it in my crafting as of late. In the 7th grade I had to have a skirt made to wear in my Choir group at school. It was blue calico with yellow flowers - very Holly Hobbie. It was a three tier skirt and each tier had a row of thick bright yellow ric-rac on it. Oh, how I hated that skirt. I loathed it. And, I had to wear it once a week for the entire year. I never in my widlest dreams would have thought I would be loving ric-rac all these years later).

This little guy has been at the thrift for almost three months. I have admired him every week, but never bought him. He was $4.50 and really more than I pay for something so ridiculously silly and unnecesary. But, today, I knew his time was limited. Easter is on the way and someone was going to scoop him up. I had Empty Hands Syndrome anyway and needed to buy something. Now that he is home, I realize that $4.50 was a deal. (I mentioned "Empty Hands Syndrome" at the thrift and a lady laughed and said, "I never have that here!"

And, now for the Thrift Ksimet. About a year or so ago, at the Super Cheap Thrift, I bought this huge round heavy pewter tray shaped like cabbage leaves for $2.00. It literally weighs a ton. It has this little flat spot in the center of the tray, which I always found odd.

So, today at the very same thrift store, I spotted something similiar in color and form under a stack of Dollar Store bowls. I pulled it out and it was this:
It has seven bunnies in the center of the bowl - three of them sleeping. It has a flat disc on the bottom and fits perfectly in the center of the platter. Like this:

So, not only do I know they go together, I really honestly think it is a set that should have been together and got separated. I suspect someone donated the platter, then found the bowl in a box or cupboard and then donated it. I could be wrong. But, I rarely am. Ha! It just think it has been "Reunited" and I am sbsolutely thrilled. It is marked Arthur Court 1990 on the bottom. I'm going to look it up on ebay, but I will not be selling it. Love it! (Today's bowl was $1.00)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All Good Things Must Come To An End:

Out with the old.

The couch that is, not the boy.

(Thanks for pointing that out Ottermom!)
This would make a good Christmas Card photo.

In with the new.

The new couch. At first I hated it. Now I am down to Eh. It isn't what I wanted, but he old one was literally falling apart. It needed a handy man and I ain't got one of them here. The new one is pouff-ier than I wanted and more flaired on the ends, but it is comfy and not too bad. It's just Eh. (I think we need an area rug to tie it all together.) We want to do a whole remodel and renovation, so we are hoping that is it sort of a temporary sofa. But, I also don't know where we think we are going to get money to do all that, so we will probaly be sitting on this one 'til it falls apart too. I get attached to things and found it hard to replace the couch. I picked it out (the old one) the chairs, the carpet, the curtains and had a "look". Now I must start over. And, it is time. But, geez, I just hate to let things go. Luckily, someone took the old one so it now has a happy home somewhere else. Or it's firewood....

*P.S. Please ignore the crap, the clutter and the cat.

5 comments:

  1. While I think that you had an amazing find, the second piece of the bowl set, I must tell you that I was very amused of the picture of the couch with the Free sign - and the Bean sitting next to the sign! Almost looked like you were giving him away!

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  2. Those bags are excellent! I tend to be crazy wild about 'bags', and since I don't travel 'lightly' (anywhere!) - my friends tend to refer to me as a 'bag lady' (Yeh, with friends like that who need enemies, right?!. The Longaberger should do well on E-bay, or is it a 'keeper'?
    The Arthur Court stuff is Great! I was doing a little research on E-bay... some fun stuff this 'Arthur Court' did/does!!

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  3. Anonymous9:07 PM

    Too funny-I bought the same couch too last year and totally hated it at first too. I am into it now and like it. It too is a sort of temporary couch (read-good deal) as we have dogs and a new babies so having an expensive fancy couch at this point is out of the question. Mine is more of a sage color (I think I like your color a bit better). But it the exact style-flaired arms , poufy and all. I too would like one a little less poufy. I have to say though it is quite comfortable ANd dog hair kid mess coes off pretty easy.
    Your couch has sibling up in canada-go figure!
    Cheers!

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  4. I really like that couch! It looks like a nice couch and not a this is the cheapest couch I could find so I bought it type of couch. Not saying your other one was like that lol! That would look great in the place I am moving into, all the carpet is a blah beige color. It's a new house you can imagine how plain it looks.

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  5. So, I looked on Ebay too, and some of those pewter platters do make good money. It sure is a cute thing.

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