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, October 16, 2012

A Little Bit of Junk

Well, it's Tuesday and that's the one day I work for five big hours at the Flea Market.  Whew.  Am I beat!  Actually, I am tired - I have to get up earlier than I normally do(so I can leave and visit the Super Cheap Thrift on the way), I am on hard concrete floors all day which is killer on my legs, I climb up and down ladders, carry furniture out for customers, rearrange booths after a big item sells, run the register, stock my booth, straighten outside and yadda, yadda, yadda.  It is a rushed five hours and it wears me out!  

This morning I found  good amount of things at the SCT.  One cool thing I forgot to photograph is a huge hand blown bottle of some sort.  It had Christmas holly and lights in it and everyone at the thrift was ooh'ing and ahh'ing over it even though I thought it looked particularly hideous with that stuff in it.  Once I got home, I cleaned it out and washed it - it is really cool.  I hope I am able to figure out how to make a lamp out of it.  If that doesn't work, I will fill it full of something.

These are the items I bought and took straight to the booth.  VIntage 4 piece Hostess Set, two wooden Munising bowls, Richard Simmons Book, Rachel Ray book, cute doll with chicken dress, Carnival glass candy jar, two HOMCO elves, cobalt blue planter (under the doll) and a 1950's planter shaped like a giant egg cup.  Grand total for everything:  $5.85.  Lord, I do love my Super Cheap Thrift!  Some of those things don't look like my usual things like the books and the doll.  But the books were 10¢ each and the doll was 50¢.  I have a $5.00 book rack and I put $10.00 on the doll.  That's a quick $20.00 for those three items.  My initial investment of $5.85 priced out at $84.00 when I was done.  

I was a bit smitten with this sweet Hostess set still in it's original box.  Four plates and four cups.  Cake and punch?  Sandwich and coffee?  Mmmmm.

I brought home only a few things.  A funny Japanese egg shaped doll, a sweet porcelain Japanese doll and a glass bird that I think might be Lalique or Fenton.

This ornament tree was still in the original box from Pier One.  I think it will sell at Christmas time.  Or I will use it to display my glittered cookie cutter ornaments.

I went to the Salvation Army this afternoon and LOOK at what someone had donated!

A complete vintage Merry Go Round with two benches and fourteen cast iron carousel horses.  

The horses were amazing.  It was $1999.99 for everything, which if you think about it, that's a pretty good deal.  That made each horse $142.00 not including the benches or the track.  Who would donate that?

And, proof that I do have a knack for "finding" junk.  We went to Walmart so The Breadman could deposit his check.  While he went in, we drove around the parking lot to look at a truck with a weird HUGE item under a tarp on it.  (We thought it was the White House Christmas Tree it was so big, but it turned out to be a HUGE tree.)  Anyway, something caught my eye in the grass, so i swung around for a closer look.

Lying in the grass there were 22 albums and two big boxed sets of albums.  In the Walmart parking lot.  Really weird.  I scooped them up just in case there was a copy of The Beatles White Album in there.  (There wasn't...)  I'll drop them off at Goodwill where at least they will have a chance of being saved and not thrown in the landfill.

So, a little bit of junk to tie my over until the Vintage Christmas Motherlode.  (I can dream can't I?)

5 comments:

  1. For some unexplained reason, I'm r-e-a-l-l-y crushing on your gold metal tree (normally NOT my thing at all!). I can see it a Lime green or maybe in YOUR case a PINK with glitter, displaying ornies in your booth ;-)

    NICE HAUL! Just 'the fix' you deserved after the couple of weeks that you've had!

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  2. Wow! What luck! Love all of the great deals you found. Who would donate a merry-go-round to Goodwill?

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  3. Isn't it fun to go scouring around for good buys??!!! Must tell you, I scrolled down your sidebar to see all the things you collect,etc. and when I got to the bottom to see the "melted junk"-well .. I laughed out loud - and laughed some more!!! I sure hope it was a Baldwin candlestick! LOL

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  4. Definitely don't sell that ornament tree! I bet it would look adorable with your cookie cutters on it! :)
    -Denise

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  5. That wire tree will be perfect for the cookie cutter ornaments! Keep it! Love that frosted glass birdie too--so pretty!

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