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.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Valentine Candy Box Collection

When I think of Valentine's Day, I tend to think of candy.  Oh, who am I kidding - I associate ALL holidays with some sort of candy.  :D  Easter = Malted Robin's Eggs.  Halloween = Candy Corn  Valentine's Day = Boxes of chocolates.  Specifically Chocolate Covered Cherries.  



I found my first Chocolate covered Cherry box by accident - it was at a garage sale and I actually bought the contents of whatever was in it and only discovered it was a Chocolate Covered Cherry Box when I got home.  That was the ROYALE box on the bottom right corner.  The rest came from Etsy and a couple were Happy Mail Surprises.   That's an old Brach's Chocolate Covered Cherry Ad in the back.  I need to get it framed.


I also LOVE the old heart shaped Candy boxes with flowers and lace.  And, I am NOT a flowers and lace kinda gal.  I am always on the lookout for a big box chock full of vintage ones at a sale, but haven't been lucky enough to find ANY yet.  I did find this one last week at Goodwill.  It was missing the flowers, but thank God I am a hoarder so I dug around in my tacky plasticky flower bin and found those pink roses.  I think it looks like it came that way now.

I've found several very old chocolate tins at various sales and thrifts.  Love that purple Louis Sherry Confectionery tin.  That's a Chocolate Treasure Chest on top.

This very old Whitman's Chocolate treasure chest is really neat.  It's big and I think getting it as a gift would have been completely and totally awesome. I bet the chocolates were wrapped in gold paper.

Last year I was stalking the candy boxes at Walgreen's when I spotted a GIANT Whitman's Sampler box with two and half pounds of chocolates.  Holey Moley!  The holy grail of chocolates!

On Valentine's Day there was a knock on my door and there stood my Dad holding THAT giant box!  All for me!   On the rare occasion I have been gifted a box of chocolates, I tend to be a bit stingy with my sharing.  I want the caramel.  I want the little Postman.  I want the Nougat.  It's MINE.  All mine!  

*insert evil chocolate coated laughter here *

Well, did you know that it is virtually impossible to "hide" a candy box as big as the coffee table?  Or to be able to sneak a chocolate when everyone an see you lifting the lid from across the room?  :(  I had to share.  But, there was plenty to go around.  

That box is now the crowning jewel to my Candy box collection.  At Christmas, we had an open house at the Flea Market and someone brought one of these boxes of chocolates to sit out at the refreshment table.  I coveted it for about a month until it was finally emptied out and asked about it.  

"You want that?  Take it!"  

You don't have to tell me twice!  Now I have TWO.  They hold my Valentine's decorations perfectly, sit on a shelf nicely and look perfectly delicious all at once!

**PS.  I think Chocolate Covered Cherries are loathesome and they do not cross my lips.  Any other chocolate covered anything is fair game though......:)

10 comments:

  1. I love chocolate covered cherries. My Daddy did too and every year, I would buy him a box. I haven't had one in ages as we don't have them here, but when I see them online, I always think of him.

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  2. I believe I could eat the box, if it was chocolate covered....

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  3. I love your chocolate box collection! I'm not fond of chocolate covered cherries but oh a Whitman's sampler makes me get all gooey inside! and if someone showed up with a HUGE box like that...chocolate heaven! I always try to pick up some chocolate after the holiday and this year I'm looking for some heart shape boxes to craft with next year!
    I'm still drooling over the Whitman's chocolates!
    hugs,
    Linda

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  4. Well, as you know.....3 of those coffee table size boxes will officially be a "collection". You know your tried and true friends will on the lookout for a 3rd one, all for you. :)

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  5. I love all your boxes - I remember my Dad used to buy Mom great big boxes of chocolates from a candy shop, the boxes were so pretty......

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  6. Love the Chocolate Covered Cherries boxes! Very cute.

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  7. My candy boxes are out on display as well..not as many as you tho. The big candy boxes always remind me of a past co-worker. We used to get these big candy boxes at work from customers and my co-worker would stick his thumb in the UNDERSIDE of the chocolate to see what kind they were..if he did not like it he would put it back in the box. You had to turn over a chocolate before you ate it to make sure that it was not one he had monkeyed with. BLECH!

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  8. Years ago my older brother dumpster dived behind Eckerds (like Walgreens/CVS) and brought home 100 boxes of Whitman chocolates that had to be thrown out because they were past their sell by dates. We shoved them all in our outdoor freezer and happily munched on Whitman chocolates for weeks on end for free :)

    For a birthday one year my mom bought me the 5 lb box of Godiva chocolates. I have to say..it was the greatest gift ever!

    Love the chocolate box display

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  9. After reading this post.... I am CRAVING chocolate like none other. I might have to pop into Walmart this evening and buy myself something sweet before I go nuts.
    I have got to say I LOVE YOUR COLLECTION. It's lovely and unique too.

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  10. I have a thing about boxes and containers in general and find them hard to resist, but your vintage candy boxes are too, too cool. I wonder if, years from now, there will be people collecting packaging from today's candies? Yeah, right!

    I cannot stand chocolate-covered cherries--too syrupy for my tastes--but my mother loved them. When I was a kid, I started buying her a box for Christmas and continued doing it through the rest of her life. Somewhere along the line, she got mixed up and forgot that I don't like them and started buying ME a box too. I never could bear to tell her, so I would take it to work and leave it in the break room.

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