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, March 11, 2010

Thursday's Thrifty Finds

Is is just me, or are the picking slim at your thrifts?  I went to two stores yesterday and spent $3.00 and then to another one today where I spent $7.00.  I am happy to not spend much $$$, but the stuff, the junk, we'll..it's just not there.  I think it will be a huge yard sale season.  Times are hard and people need extra money.  I think there will be a ton of yard sales and then they will send the leftovers to the thrifts.  Which is fine, I love a good yard sale even more than the thrift!  In fact, there is an Estate Sale this weekend!  I knew the lady that the house belonged to and I know the lady having the sale for her family.  She was an Administrator at school and died last year - she was only in her 60's.  Her only daughter had died a few years earlier, so there was no immediate family.  Her best friend was the Counselor at school, so she is handling the Estate.  Gee, now that I have said all that, I feel sort of bad about saying, "There's an Estate sale this weekend!'  Estate sales are sad in their own right.  But, to just junkers, they are fun too.  I appreciate the things that people acquired through their lives and I like to think that take them home and care for them.  So, I feel like they have gone to a new home and that is what the people would want in the first place.

So, on to the Thrift Finds of the Week.

A nice tall Matte White Hylan Pottery Vase.  I haven't found a nice piece of white pottery in a long time.  Thrift score!

A mystery item.  "What is that?" everyone asked at the thrift.  I haven't a clue what it is, but is is cool and I love it!  It is big and I think it has possibilities written all over it.  What shall I do with it? 
A sweet vintage Easter basket (my latest obsession), a spun cotton egg (my first!) and a flocked bunny.  I tell this same story every Easter, but here is goes again. When we cleaned out The Breadman's Mom's house, I found a yellow flocked bunny in this drawer and a pink one in that drawer and a blue on over there and a white one here and a brown one over there and so on and so on.  I ended up finding about twenty of them scattered around the house.  She had a ton of everything, so it wasn't that much of a surprise to find mass quantities of bunnies.  But, since I thought they were cute, I decided that would be the one quirky collection of hers that I would keep.  I put them all in a box near (not with or next to, but NEAR) the boxes of "Salvation Army" donations and well, you can guess what happened.  All those bunnies were gone.  So, now whenever I see one, I have to buy it.  Maybe when I am old and senile I will "think" they came from her house. 
 
A small cute picnic basket tin.
 
An old plastic bunny toy for 25¢.  Cute, huh?
A wee birthday figurine for my vintage Birthday collection. She's 5!
(Shown in front of a massive amount of Buttermints purchased at Walgreen's for 92¢)

The neat old Backgammon pieces came from a thrift and the cards are from Etsy.  I never heard of BEANO, but I had to get some for The Bean.

And lastly and more importantly, creepily, a mounted head.  Okaaaaaaaaaaaay.  It is sort of cute.  I mean, how wrong can you go with pink rick rack and pink and white gingham.  (Apparently, a little wrong.) It will go on Etsy and who knows, someone might buy it!

Speaking of people buying things - last Saturday I bought a book at the Super Cheap Thrift called "Hugh Hutchins of Old England".  It was a family history, printed in typewritten pages.  Big and thick.  I don't usually sell books. but this one looked like maybe a Genealogy person might need it.  I put it on Amazon and they suggested a price of $49.99.  What the heck, why not.  So, I listed it and surprise, surprise, it sold yesterday.  I paid 25¢ for it!  Woohoo!  Of course, Amazon took a nice chunk of it, (about $9.00), but still - not a bad profit.  Wish I could do that with all the junk good stuff I drag home!

10 comments:

  1. Shara!

    I'm so glad you posted about where to get the buttermints (of all things! lol) because I've been looking for them everywhere & can't find them up here. I'm going to Walgreens first thing tomorrow & stocking up!!

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  2. ok is the what's it a trellis? I think it would look nice in a large potted garden.

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  3. I FOUND COCONUT M&M'S!!!! YIPEE!! (I know... completely unrelated, but your buttermints reminded me, that we finally found them, and I HAD to let you know - DELISH!!).

    Nice job w/ the book on Amazon! Sweet.

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  4. The last three times I have gone to the thrift, I have come out EMPTY HANDED! That's how slim the pickings are here!

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  5. Not only are the thrifts pretty bare what they do have is over priced!!! That said, you did get some cool items.

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  6. My grandmother used to give me one of those little girls with the numbers on them every year for my birthday when I was growing up. Unfortunately, during one of our many moves years ago, ALL of my birthday girls (and most of my brother's birthday boys) were shattered. I don't have the company name or anything for the girls, so when I tried to find them online I didn't have any luck. (Or maybe my searching skills just aren't that good.) Please, please, please tell me that there is a brand name on the bottom of the girl! That would help me so much with my search. Thank you!

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  7. I got so excited that I didn't think to ask - if you're willing to sell it, please let me know. Thank you.

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  8. Note to Jenn - The mark on the Birthday Girl is Lefton China. There are a good amount of them on ebay, and not for much. Maybe you can find a lot of them that is affordable. I know losing yours must have been sad! :(

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  9. Thank you very much, Shara! I'm bidding on one of the girls now on ebay. You made my day! :)

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  10. you have scored some fab stuff! love the pottery and the bunny to is super cute!i had a good thrift trip over the weekend!!! yippee

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