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.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Gnome Sweet Gnome

If you asked me if I collect Gnomes, I would say, "No, I do not collect Gnomes!"  But, if you searched and hunted around my house, you might think differently.   It's the time of the year when I don't have anything seasonal to put in my display shelf, so I hunt up a collection.  This time it is Gnomes. 

The majority of the vintage gnomes came to me all from one sale for 25¢ each.  I was digging in a trash bag (yes, a trash bag!) and kept pulling out one after the other.  They were happy finds, I must say.
"Gnome Sweet Gnome"
(I love my PROBE card banners)
I made that big toadstool in the middle.  The random plastic toadstools were purchased in amongst the fugliest flower arrangement ev-ah.  I plucked out the toadstools and gave the greasy plastic flowers the old heave-ho.
Most of my favorites are on this shelf.  Gerald there on the far right travels in the car with us and goes on trips with us.  We have photos of him traveling around on Facebook.
I adore that little guy reading on top of the giant toadstool.  I found the two wood sprites at different sales one summer.  I've never seen any more, but if and when I do, they will be coming home with me.
The big toadstool.  The base is a three pound margarine tub, so it's pretty big.
Some of my favorites.  Love the red and white toadstool salt and pepper shakers.  The little wooden mushroom is carved out of a branch.  The little gnome playing the harmonica is pretty darned cute too.
One summer I went to a yard sale that looked pretty sad from the road.  But, it turned out that she had one giant box chock full of vintage spun cotton toadstools, still on the card.  There were hundreds of them!  And, they were 10¢ each!  I think in the end, the lady chose to sell them to me for $5.00 rather than count them all.  I have gifted them, sold them and used them and I still have a lot of them.   
I had one square of pink polka-dotted felt and wondered what I would ever do with it.  I realized the other day it looked like a toadstool - so there you see it.  There's the little guy reading.  He's so sweet.
This one is different - I don't really know what it is for - there is the hole in the front, the basket and a hole in the toadstool.  It's really different. 

The toadstool in the front, is a pot scrubber holder, I think.  Weird, right?  I found the big glass jar full of vintage Christmas ornaments for 25¢ this summer. 

I especially love this old gnome planter with the crystals and old German glass glitter.  It is marked as a souvenir of Joplin, Missouri.  Sort of an odd souvenir from Joplin, but pretty dadgum adorable. 

So, as  you can see, I do not collect gnomes!*

*Can you imagine how many I would have if I did collect gnomes?   

7 comments:

  1. GNOME WAY do you collect those little guys, or make toadstools for them or take them on trips. Hmmmm....
    Very cute NON collection!

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  2. they are rather addicting ;-) !! I tend to go for the B/W ones and call them 'PIXIES' (I adopted a shelter cat once and her name was Pixies...)

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  3. I love them, whether you collect them or not.
    I have the "mates" to those two adorable little planters on the top of your shelf.
    You have made quite the wonderful display with all of them and their toadstools and such.

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  4. ok you are getting dangerous. I would go to a yard sale see a gnome and pass it by. I see your display and think yikes that is so cute I want some. The problem is I have some of a lot of other things the house is only so big if you know what I mean. very very cute display.

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  5. Gnome Sweet Gnome?


    Annnnnnnnnnnnndddd....

    I die.

    that is all.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's very plain to see you don't collect gnomes or toadstools!

    They are very cute! I need some gnomes!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice, I like how you 'found' a collection in your house, pretty nifty. My fav is the Joplin souvenir and the spun cotton toadstools... my family would always invariably (accidentally) end up in Joplin on the way back to Fayetteville from Tulsa!

    ReplyDelete

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