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.

Friday, May 21, 2010

A Good Day of Junk.....Ahhhhhhhhhh

First, thanks to all of you for your kind words of encouragement on my last post. My life isn't so bad, it's the lives of everyone that I care about right now that is in turmoil. But, it will work out. We'll all get through it.  But, until then, it really did feel good to vent a bit.  Thanks!

Don't you love this big glass toadstool jar?  It is so sticking fabulous, I can barely stand it.  It came with the vintage garland and the lovely vintage spun ornaments for 50¢.  Fifty cents, I tell you!  Love the old bar glasses.  I think they would make good vases for summer wildflowers.  A pink elephant, seriously?  Seriously cute!

Today The Breadman got called back to work even though is vacation wasn't over until Monday.  He was not happy about it, but his boss was desperate and offered to give him a few days off in a month or so to make it up to him.  One of his work friends is in the hospital with a bad, bad injury, so he doesn't mind helping for him.

I kept going back to this framed piece.  Those are actual Dogwood Blossoms under glass.  It's just a homemade project, but I really liked it.  It was only 50¢, so I decided to get it.  Even though my walls are geting badly crowded.  The matte white baby is absolute perfection in my matte white pottery collection. 

Since The Breadman was back to work, I looked at Craigslist and Holey Guacamole there were a ton of garage sales!  You don't have to tell me twice - off I went.  Zoom!  First stop was a Church Sale that I went to last year just at the end of my street. I got a ton of good stuff, so I was itching to get there. When I did get there, there weren't any cars, despite the giant yellow BIG SALE in the yard. I pulled up and noticed a man sitting in a chair by the door. He waved for me to come on in and shop. I've never had a Church Sale all to myself before. Sadly there wasn't much there, but what was left was only 50¢ each. As I paid, the man having the sale smiled and waved his money bag at me..."We've already made a thousand dollars today!" he said very excited. Good thing I am an honest law abiding gal. I think I could have taken him. 
I spotted this cool old tie rack on a table at sale, but it was full of ties.  I asked the lady if it was for sale and she hemmed and hawed and really never gave me an answer.  I kept looking at other things and started making a pile.  When I paid for my pile, I asked about the tie rack one more time.  She said it holds the ties so nicely, I hate to sell it.  Okay, I thought.  Then she said "How about $5.00 for the ties and the rack?"  $5.00 was a pretty good price for the rack, so I grabbed it.  There ended up being about 40 really nice handpainted and abstract ties from the 1940's on it.  The case of ViewMasters and reels was from the same sale for $1.00.


Our second stop was at a neighborhood sale where we went to about six sales on one block.  One turned out to be a lady that I know.  She is in her late 60's and just got married, so all the new hubby's stuff had to go.  I thought that was funny.  She mostly had a ton of DVD's and books.  We bought a couple movies and a stack of Hallmark Collector Club yearly membership packs.  I'm hoping that those sell.  I haven't looked them up yet.  Do you know that with all the photos I post, there are things that I buy that I don't even mention on here???  Clothes, movies, music, video games, books and the like don't get a mention here.  But, we do buy a lot of good usable things. 

Old Hiawatha book, small flower frog, a wee JAPAN deer figurine, old pottery shoe, old cheese box, magic Art Magic Copier and a framed dried flower bouquet.  

After the neighborhood sale, we did a few drive-bys.  I never used to do that, and it makes me feel rude to do it.  But, honestly, if I only see clothes and baby stuff, I'm not stopping.  We finally found one that looked promising due to massive amount of stuff scattered in the yard.  The Bean ended up getting a nice stack of books about mummies, crypts, skeletons and zombies.  Such happy reading!  (He loves books).
Four very nice end of the day marbles and a scissor rack.

I decided to drive out on the highway just a bit to see if there was  one more sale.  I spotted a sign that said HUGE SALE.  I am leary of that word HUGE.  In my experience, any sign that says HUGE, really isn't.  But this one....it was!  It was a four car garage with three room chocked full of stuff.  It was like a store, but everything was cheap.  Even the antique-y stuff that is usually was high, was cheaper than usual.  I ended up with a huge bag full of stuff for $5.70.  I loved it!!!!

The next photos are my favorite finds of the day.

Three incredibly cute wooden girls with flowers.  As I picked them up, I said to myself, "Please be cheap, please be cheap!'  And, they were....50¢ for all three!  They are from Germany and I love them.  And, they are cleaned up now - I didn't realize how dusty they were until I saw this photo.
A beautiful aqua colored West Germany Candy Container.  This is one of my most sought after items.  I thought it might me a repro when I picked it up, but it is marked West Germany on the lining.  And, it was only 50¢!


I found this old BBQ apron at the sale with the tie rack.  Can you believe this silly apron???  Check out the wiener cowboy on his wiener horse with the fork and spoon legs.  And, a wiener fence!  Larry was a fancy BBQ'er!

The top of the apron has all  these old charms all over it.  I have a feeling that this might sell okay, but I just do not think I can let it go.  Not yet anyway.  I love blue and red vintage linens.  And, this fits that.  Not to mention the wiener man! 
One last thing - a quilt.  I don't know the pattern - it looks like butterflies in this photo, but the quilt is sideways, so not sure.  it's older, but not super old.  There are feedsack squares in there.  It was only $2.00 and I never leave a $2.00 quilt behind.  It's a good useable picnic quilt or wintertime quilt. 

So, my day of junking.  Ahhhh, it felt good.  And, there are plenty more sales tomorrow.  But, I think I might just consider myself lucky to find all these goodies and not tempt fate. 

But, then again.......

7 comments:

  1. Man, you deserved a day like that! I'm dizzy just looking at all the goodies you got! You made up for the lack of my finds today! Loving the little gals with the flowers (would you believe I have a collection of them?)

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  2. Man, where do you live? I'd kill for some of that stuff, but especially the girls with flowers and the wiener apron!!

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  3. Wow you hit the jackpot in yard sales! Great stuff! Even better prices!!

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  4. Anonymous9:05 AM

    Since I can not be out thrifting and saling myself today I thought I would see what other people are finding. This is making me want to get out and look again as soon as possible! Amazing finds. The thrifting gogds smiled on you.
    Then, while waiting for comment form to come up I saw your "sold items" in the right column. Wow!

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  5. So sorry to hear about your Dad and those horrible people! What is wrong with folks???
    Hope your weekend is better and you can smile.

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  6. Anonymous8:11 AM

    My Goodness, what neat finds. Those German girls are to die for! I have some angels like that we bought on our first assignment there in 1970! So nice for you to have a day like that! Lynn

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  7. PocketChange7:35 PM

    You've been busy! Love the $2.00 quilt, the horse tie rack, the wooden girls, but espcially Larry the weiner man! Love to go to one of his bar-b-ques!

    ReplyDelete

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