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, March 31, 2010

Eggstra Fun Egg Swap - Revealed

The eggs have been mailed, but if you haven't received them yet, and want to be surprised - divert your eyes NOW!  ;o)

Hang on to your Easter Bonnets!  Here we go!
Fabulous glittered eggs from Sarah  So pretty!  I have got to learn how to make those fabulous crepe paper ruffles.

Whimsical creations from Laurie.  She made big eggs and small eggs, in different colors.  I had a hard time choosing.  But, in the end, PINK always wins!


My contribution - Easter Treat Baskets with a silver glittered egg.  Some had different colored mercury beads and different colored chicks. 

A lovely Quilled Egg from Jane  She made every single egg different.  I had a terrible decision to make on which one I wanted to keep.  This one!  No, this one!  No...this one.  I finally settled on the bunnies since I am bunny crazy.  There were hearts, flowers, ducks and lots of other fabulous designs.  These are great!


Bright colored decoupaged eggs from Courtney..  These remind me of actual colored eggs.



A sweet tag from Lisa  She made these tags two sided - what a lot of work that must have been to decorate both sides!

Gorgeous Gilded Eggs from Heidi  Each one had a different vintage earring placed on top.  Again, I had trouble choosing because each one was prettier than the next!  I was torn between a pastel earring and the one I finally chose above.  So, whoever got the pastel one - think of me when you look at it!  (And Heidi, of course!)

Wee sweet chickie from Gail  Each chickie was nestled in a plastic Easter Egg and tied up with a pretty bow.  I just looked at her blog and now I see that each chickie was different.  Whew.  That is one decision I didn't have to make since I couldn't see in the eggs!

 
Very pretty Paper Eggs from Rebecca. I had to pull Rebecca's leg (the good one) to get her to join in on this swap. She made several variations of this too, again, hard to pick. But, pink and bunnies rule!
These eggs from Aimee-Suzanne made me happy.  They are plastic eggs and they are just chock full of vintage stuff.  Plastic tchotchkes, mercury beads, buttons, tinsel, die cuts, flowers, rhinestones, etc.  They are little shadow boxes of goodies!  And, they arrived in a goodie bag full of even more treats, chocolate and otherwise for everyone!
Lovely Collage Eggs from Debra.  Aren't they sweet?  Debra doesn't have a blog, but asked to play along in our swap.  I am so happy that she did! 


Fun eggs wrapped in thread from Wendy.  I'm not sure how she did this - but it looks time consuming.  The birds had popped ff and I reglued them, but they may pop off again in transit.  I had trouble getting my glue to stick.

Nearly all the eggs came in lovely cellophane bags with Easter Grass or shredded paper inside.  It is really going to be fun to get that box and delve into it!  Oh wait, if you are reading this, then you probably already opened yours.  Then it was fun, huh?

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Hostess With the Mostess

Now that the Eggstra Fun Eggs are on the way, I can show you all the lovely Hostess Gifts I received.  I didn't know I would be getting gifts, so I was very surprised!  Although, I always send a little something when I do a swap, still it surprised me to get goodies !
From Sarah, the original Queen of Tablecloths, this lovely springy tablecloth with butterflies, clovers and dandelions.  Swoon.

Also from Sarah, one of her repurposed embroidered Duckies that she made into ornaments.  I loved these on her blog, so to receive one was eggstra special!

From Debra, a funny Egghead Whisk for The Chief Egghead.  I used that little dude to mix up some cupcakes earlier and he is great!  I found the egg whisk at the top of the box, but about a week later when I was dividing up the eggs for the swap, I found these adorable Chocolates at the bottom of the box.  More treats!  They are oh, so, loooong gone.  But, I saved the little wrappers, because I always think I can do something with everything and because I might one day be featured on Hoarders!

From Rebecca, this sweet vintage Easter postcard hanging and a vintage-y Easter brooch/pin, that she made for me.  I wish I had somewhere fancy to go on Easter, because I really want to show it off!

From Jane, a handmade Easter Egg that she decoupaged and quilled.  This is sort of a sneak peak of what the swappers will be getting - not just like this, but an idea of what is to come!

And, from Aimee-Suzanne, lots of fun goodies.  A funny vintage bunny, a handmade flower and a vintage  Easter train ornament.

And, an oh so fun Mercury Ornament with a spun cotton bunny on top that she made out of all vintage goodies.

You ladies spoiled me! 

Thank you!

Come back tomorrow to see the eggs.  Unless you don't want to see them!  Then BEWARE!!!!!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Coping

Things have been completely stressful around here lately. Too lighten the mood and have a laugh, we terrorize our poor cat.
Groucho?  Or just a Grouch?

He's a pretty princess.

I'll be back when I'm less stressed.  Or if we terrorize the cat some more.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Vintage Easter Blog Hop

I'm joining in on Joan at Anything Goes for her Vintage Easter Blog Hop.  I don't join a lot of parties, but Joan's are always about vintage holiday decor, so how can I not join in! 

I have a ridiculous amount of Easter decorations. I have always had a love of bunnies and rabbits and now with my love of all things vintage, I can't pass up anything vintage Easter or Vintage-Inspired Easter.



Here is my old window with a huge yellow feather wreath.  I put all my fake Chocolate bunnies, vintage chenille chicks and vintage plastic flowers on a shelf under the window.

Big vintage flocked Chick card, and lots of eggs.  Hmmmm.....perhaps a bit of a sneak peak for my Eggstra Swappers....... 
This little girl spoke to me at a yard sale past summer - "Take me home!", she said.  So, I did.  Here she is wearing a wee pair of bunny slippers that I made, holding a huge vintage chenille chick and reaching into a vintage basket.

I got this huge pink bunny from the Easter Bunny when I was six years old.  He's really too big for my house, but there is not a chance he going anywhere.  Ever

Three sweet vintage bunnies with my collection of vintage Bunny themed books.  Love that pink one particularly.
Miniature Annalee bunny couple, scored from the FREE bin at one of my favorite thrifts a couple years ago.  The Nicole Sayre bobblehead bunny was a sweet find at a yard sale for 25¢.

This is Peeka.  I got her in Topeka, thus the name.  She was a happy Goodwill find, about five years ago.  e were in town for a wedding and had absolutely no time to do anything but wedding stuff.  But, I found myself within feet of the Goodwill and managed to run in for about five minutes.  I spotted her in the toy bin as I hurried past.  She wasn't priced and I was worried about the price since she is vintage and fabulous.  I was very pleased when the clerk decided that $1.29 was a good price.  I bought her to sell, since I had sold a rubber face teddy bear a few short months before for $287.00.  But, as it so often happens, I feel in love with her (and, luckily, the bottom fell out on the sale of rubber faced toys).  She is still worth about $100.00.  But, she's mine.  The Bean can sell her someday.

Speaking of The Bean.

This is his contribution to my Vintage Easter decor.  He spotted this in a bin of books when he was pretty small.  He had just learned to read his name and was pretty excited to see it on a book.  (So, now you know, The Bean's name!)

Here's the Vintage Easter Basket collection that I decided to start collecting this past year.  Oops, I think my collection is complete.  I have fifteen of them of all sizes.  The biggest one on the right was my Easter basket from my first Easter.  The flocked bunnies are the ones I am collecting to replace the ones that got donated when they shouldn't have.  (*Grumble*grumble)

A vintage metal basket full of chenille stem flowers that I made.  A few chenille chicks thrown in for fun.  (Have you noticed that I lurve chenille chicks?)  The green "egg" is an old embossed trivet, but it just looked like a big Easter Egg to me. 

Two small vintage bunnies.  They both have their "Made in Japan" paper labels on them.

An Annalee bunny, a gift from Miss Heidi, a vintage inspired egg cart full of more vintage plastic flowers and a felt duck that I made.  I added the duck slippers to the bunny because, well, I had them and they fit.  So, there!

Big bowl of German Paper Mache candy container eggs.  I still dream of Sarah's Big Egg
I will find one someday.  I will!

And, lastly, Hazel - my vintage Buster Brown mannequin.  Hazel is a part of my family.  I always thrift for her.  Here she is in a sweet flower-y sundress holding a vintage basket with a chick in it.  She needs some Mary Jane's, but the thrifting Gods have not yet taken upon themselves to show me a good pair for less than $1.00  That is my spending cap for Hazel's attire.  I like to pay no more than $1.00 per outfit.  'Cause she's a mannequin, ya know!  But, I will pay up to $1.00 for shoes or a sweater.  Sweaters are mandatory because she is missing her right arm. 

I hope you enjoyed the tour of all my things - vintage and otherwise.  Be sure to Hop on over to Anything Goes to see all the other vintage Easter treasures in Blogville.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Free Wednesday Take Two

Free Wednesday was cancelled today due to an annual event that the family looks forward to every year when our Income Tax refund is deposited into our account. 

It's pretty exciting. 

You will be jealous.

Are you ready?

Here goes.

We all bought new socks and underwear.

I know!

If you have bought new socks and underwear for an entire family you will know that this certainly did not qualify under the terms of my newly implemented "Free Wednesdays". 

**The Breadman deemed it "No fair" that I got bras too and he only got socks and underwear.  I'm really not completely sure what to make of that comment.

Come back next week to see is we pulled off a Free Wednesday or not.....

Monday, March 22, 2010

Collection Complete

Back in January, I shared my Gingham Apron Collection.  I had every color of the rainbow except yellow and brown.  (The yellow one in this picture is actually a tablecloth that I had in there to complete the rainbow).  I never set out to collect gingham aprons.  I just kept finding aprons, lots of aprons and I had far too many.  I decided to go through them and pick out a theme or a certain type of aprons to keep and sell the rest.  I settled on Gingham after I saw how many I already had.  I just needed to find a brown one and a yellow one. Someday.  No rush.

But, then a  few days later, a package arrived from Melissa in KS.  Inside it was a lovely brown apron.  It was so nice of her to send it to me.  I really wasn't looking for anyone to send me aprons!  But, the lovely ladies of blogland are so nice.  Thank you Melissa.

And, then last week, out of the blue, another package arrived.  This one was from my Aunt Betty, who also lives in KS. 

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a yellow gingham apron inside.  But then came the best part - my Aunt Betty actually made this just for my collection.  So, it is very special to me.

Guess what else she made?

Ha!  Cute, right?  I love it. 

Thank you Aunt Betty!

Now, my rainbow is complete. 
Weather Report:
Today it got up into the 50's and the bulk of the snow has melted. It was hardly on the ground for 24 hours. We went on a big walk in the snow yesterday. I am 5'2", which is 62 inches, tall. The snow was 14" add in anything on the ground, plus lifting my foot to clear the snow, I had to raise my foot about 16" (which is above my knees) with each step. I felt like I was marching in a parade with each step. By the time we got home, I was exhausted. And now my legs are sore. But, we had fun while it lasted.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Happy Spring!

It's Spring! 

 The birds are chirping.
Somewhere.

The Forsythia is blooming.

Well, sort of.

The leaves are budding out.
Or trying to, at least.

The grass is getting green.

Where it can.

Let's sit in the pink glider and enjoy Spring!

If we can find it.

I hope those nasty Spring allergies don't kick in.

There's only one person that isn't looking forward to Spring.

And you are looking at her.

March 21st, a record snowfall of nearly 14". 

In Arkansas

Are you kidding me?

Apparently not.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Eggscellent Post for YOU

Update:  The winner by luck of the random Number Generator is TRACI.  Congrats, Traci.  I'm off to email you.

I'm currently hosting an egg swap and the eggs are rolling in. I have got to get cracking on boxing them up and getting them in a carton back to each of the swappers. (I am running very low on egg jokes and egg word play here...)


Many of the lovely ladies have sent one extra egg that they have created for me to give to one of my lucky blog friends.  I will include some Eggstra Easter goodies and surprises too.  I can't show you the eggs because, I don't even have them all, but most importantly, because I don't want to ruin the surprise for the swappers.

Leave a comment on this post.  You MUST have an email address in your comment or attached to your profile to win.  If I can't find you, you can't win.  :o(  I will  pick a winner on Tuesday and get in touch with them ASAP so I can hopefully get it in the mail on Wednesday when I plan on mailing the swap packages out. If you've come from one of the other Egstra Fun Swappers blogs, leave me a comment so I will know how you found us.

Good luck! 

**This is my 800th post.  Man, this chick can gab!

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