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.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Thrifty Finds......FINALLY!

I had to have my stitches taken out today, so I put on my best pouty face and wah-lah, The Breadman took me thrifting beforehand. Yea! The stitches weren't bad - the ones in my belly button hurt, but not too bad. He told me I looked good and didn't need to come back. He asked if I needed more pain pills and I told him I hadn't taken a pill yet. He said I was TOUGH! It never really hurt anyway, I was just sore. I still can't lift and have to take it easy a few more weeks. But, I feel really good.
Okay, that is the end of the surgery talk! I promise. On to the thrifting.....

A bowlful of Mary Englebreit cherries. They look so real! These will go in an old blue Mason jar.(I have turned this photo a hundred times and it will not stay sideways. Grrr!)

This big old handmade Hillbilly doll was a quarter. I just couldn't leave him. He has a patch on his back pocket that says "BUBBA" so now Bubba is a part of our family. As I carried him around, Bubba got a lot of attention. Everybody likes Bubba!
This is hard to get good photo - it is an acrylic box with eight acrylic plates in it. I imagine it was for bridge parties, or cocktail parties. I can see it on the buffet with cake, petite fours, buttermints and peanuts for a bridal shower. It is pristine and I don't believe it has ever been used. I'm going to sell it. In doing a bit of research, I saw a lot of acrylic items, but they were all touted as being "Mid-Centruy". I don't think this looks Mid-Century at all. I just hope I can list it so the right person finds it.
Here's another fun party-ish item. A new in the box vintage Cake Set complete with server and six forks. Those forks look wicked. I'm not sure I would trust a bunch of chit-chatty ladies to eat safely with those things!
A boxed set of Congress Playing Cards. I have several of these old Congress sets that I really need to get listed. Most of mine are one deck and two deck sets. But, this is the first three deck set I have found. I love the old velvety boxes that package these old Congress Cards. There was a write up in Country Living last year about Congress Playing cards, so I started picking them up. I hope I haven't waited until the fad passed! I'm not really sure that this wooden scoop is for - butter, ice cream, ???? It is all hand-turned and hand-carved. It was $1.00.

I think it would make the impression of a bird head, beak and all. When I paid, the lady sighed and said, "You always find the neatest stuff." She said that she gets overwhelmed with it all. I just scan it all and see what I find.
This poor sad trivet has seen better days. Somebody set fire to the poor thing at one time or another. Each little grape is a crocheted Coca-Cola lid. I can't imagine that people actually did things like this - crocheting Soda caps. But, they did. It was only a quarter, so I decided to rescue it. I don't now if I will keep it as it, or take it apart and reuse it. I have soaked it an quite a bit of the brown came off.
I have been searching for an old hanger like this for a few months. I have found several old pant hangers, but I thought I might find a better one down the line. Today was my lucky day. This is very old and very cool. And only 25¢! Have you seen these used as impromptu clipboards for grocery lists and such? They look really cool for holding up and old print or photo too. I'm hoping to keep finding them - I have a project in mind.
There are two Thursday sales in the paper, so I will probably hit them pretty early. It was 100 degrees today, so I don't relish the thought of being outside much past early morning. I love junk, but once it gets really, really hot, it truly looks like JUNK. The crappy kind of junk.
Hope there's some junking in your weekend ahead!



3 comments:

  1. Yes, you do find the neatest things--and the lady at my favorite thrift shop always tells me the same thing, which just amazes me since she works there and gets to see EVERYTHING. I'd at least cruise the store before it opened! I'm of a certain age and have never seen cake forks like that--maybe they're for picking up cake cubes or something? Weird.

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  2. I have some of those ME cherries and I LOVE them! I've put them in all different containers and they always look cute!

    Those cake forks are SCARY. I'm afraid I'd have to concentrate really hard when eating them, so as not to stab myself in the mouth.

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  3. I think you should work that "take it easy and not lift anything" for all it's worth! I would love to find some of those cherries, but that cake set is an accident waiting to happen!

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