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.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Super Cheap Thrift

I haven't mentioned the SCT in awhile, mostly because I haven't been there in about a month.  It's only open Tuesday and Thursday for three hours and Saturday for four hours.  I don't like to use gas just to go there, but if I am headed that way, I try to go when it is open.  The SCT is actually called Life Ministries.  I have had people write to tell me that they can't find the Super Cheap Thrift anywhere.  I just call it that to keep it a secret!

The SCT recently rearranged the entire store.  Actually, now that I think about it - nearly every thrift I go to on a regular basis has completely rearranged their stores int eh past few months.  I like knowing where things are so I can go in on my "route" as I call it.  If I am going down the aisle where the knick knacks are, I have in my mind to look for pottery, vintage figurines, etc.  But, when I go down that aisle and it is all hampers and ironing supplies, my thrifting mojo gets out of whack.

Back to the SCT - they did rearrange, but I have a handle on where everything is now.  The worst thing they did was pretty much stop selling any kind of toys due to the new laws regarding unsafe toys.  I used to come across vintage Fisher Price and old die cast cars a lot, but no more.  They do still have a lot of board games and, for some reason, they are all 10¢ now, so have found a few Scrabble games which always make me happy.

Oh, they did another bad thing!  They made a VINTAGE section.  Ack.  It's not very big, but it's chock full of vintage aprons, linens, handmade doll clothes and vintage baby clothes right now.  The same vintage tea towel I used to get for 25¢ is now $5.00.  Double Ack!

Today I made a run to the SCT just because I hand't been in such a long time.


This poker chip caddy complete with poker chips was in the original box.  It was in the 10¢ board game section.  Heck, almost anything is worth a dime!  I will put it in the booth after I add a couple decks of cards to it.

I really try to sell vintage items, vintage inspired items or handmade items.  My only real exception is Razorback stuff - I prefer to sell the vintage stuff.  But, if I see something I can afford, I will stick it in the booth.  Money talks! This Razorback Growth Chart was new in the box and only $1.00.  I will price it $10.00 and that will pay for my purchases and my gas for today.  

I originally picked this up for the frame alone, but the needlepoint ballerina is kind of growing on me.  It's for the booth,  If it doesn't sell as is, I will just sell the frame.  
Four small frames to paint and repurpose for the booth.

Crummy photo, huh?  I think this is a big silver trivet - it has a blue velvet backing on it.  It's about a foot tall or so.  I'm going to polish it up and use it as a fancy magnet board for the magnets I am making out of old puzzle pieces for the Barn Sale.  

A tiny little cut glass jar with lid.  I don't know why I bought it or what I will do with it, but it was 10¢, so I will figure that out later.  

Department 56 Snow Village Legion Hall.  I always do pretty well with Dept. 56 on ebay.  I haven't looked this one up yet, but if it isn't worth selling, I will put it in with my Patriotic decorations.  I bet you can't guess how much I paid for it!  (That sort of takes away some of the value of course).

A gum drop tree.  Because I already have two gumdrop trees and I have never, ever used them, so of course, I NEED another one.  Now I have three gum drop trees.  Hey!  That is one gum drop tree per family member in my house.  'Cause we all need our own individual gum drop trees, right?

A big old glass candy jar.  This is my third big one, and I have two smaller ones.  I want to put things in them at the barn sale, sort of like a candy store, and sell things by the scoop or individually.  But, I haven't really thought of anything to sell that way.  I think buttons would be cute, and I have a crap load of buttons, but I really can't see myself selling any of them.  I might need that one yellow button shaped like a lemon or that one big black glass buttons one day, so I better keep all eleventy thousand of them.  Suggestions welcome!

Here's the one thing I found for me to keep.

Because I am a grown woman and I need a vintage baby quilt, of course.  
Love the little duck.  And, may I point out that she is wearing GINGHAM?

And, Humpty Dumpty?  Cute! Why, is that a GINGHAM wall he is sitting upon? Yes, yes, I think it is!

I don't collect full size quilts because they are pricey and I just do not have room to store them.  But, goodness, I love a sweet vintage baby quilt.  From time to time, I go through my collection and cull out my least favorites and take them to the booth.  They usually sell right away.  This one will most likely stick around here for awhile.  It's adorable.

Yesterday I stopped at a yard sale on my way home from reworking the booth.  It was at the  house where the man had given me a handful of old fishing lure tins for free when I commented that they were different.  When I stopped yesterday, someone had pulled all those old tins out, put them in a basket and priced them $2.00 each with a FIRM beside that and an ANTIQUE below.  He must have told someone what he had done!
I picked up this cat, which I thought might pass as mid century, but probably not.  He, along with the ten cent stained glass cat, will go to the booth.

I spotted these four old hanging baskets on the ground under a table.  They were 50¢ each and I knew just what to do with one of them.  

I went straight home and put all those old baseballs in it.  I think this would look great on a porch.  It's actually on my porch right now, but it will be going to the Barn Sale.  We put our set of Bocce Balls in another one of the baskets and put them on our patio table.  Now we can play Bocce anytime!

And, lastly - a Goodwill find.  A Levi Ragdoll.  I had a set of the smaller boy and girl when I was little.  (Okay, your right, I still have mine.)  This one will go to the booth or ebay, whichever is the best fit.  

I've done a lot of junk blogging lately, but I am jonsing for a journey soon.  I don't have any in mind, but I an ready for a little diversion and fun!  And, the good lord willing and the creeks don't rise - a little junk thrown in too!

9 comments:

  1. My favorite thrift got bought out by Savers and they've been making slow changes. I went in last week after a month or more and not only did they move everything around, they totally changed the pricing structure. :( Whereas they previously had stuff priced like 1.41 or 69¢ or 2.82 or 3.83 (which admittedly is totally random), now everything is in 50¢ increments. So where something was priced 1.81 previously, now it is 1.99--so basically prices went up on everything. Also, they squished all the clothing rows together so you can barely fit a cart down there--forget it if there's already another person standing in the row. You won't both fit. GRRRRR!!!

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  2. Love those old baskets with the baseballs! I would totally buy something like that.

    Have a great Sunday,

    Erica

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  3. You still find great stuff for your booth and yourself! Love stuff for .10!!

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  4. this past week was a crap load of nothing at the thrifts and yard sales. I will go through a long dry spell, sometimes weeks and then BAM, I will hit the motherload. You always manage to scrape up some good stuff.

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  5. I am so jelly that you have places where you can still find things for less than a dollar - amazing!
    I think a jar of buttons at your sale is a fun idea. I am a button accumulator, too. I pick out the ones I really like and sell the rest to support my habit. You could also put free hard candies in one of the jars. I have seen folks do that and it's always a nice surprise.
    Love your finds!!

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  6. I'm going to work on getting rid of some of my buttons either in the booth or the barn sale. As I learned from my research on that big batch I got at the miracle sale you pointed me towards, buttons do go bad. So what good is it for me to keep them all jarred up, doing nothing with them? We can intervention each other in the upcoming weeks and maybe we will be able to let loose of them. Love the basket of baseballs. Those baseballs are the perfect level of worn. Quilt is gorgeous, jealous of your display for magnets, and I love that ballerina. Of course, I love EVERYTHING you got, but these are the standouts for me. :-)

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  7. You do realize that you have a collection of gumdrop trees now, right?

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  8. and You do realize that I.LOVE your gumdrop tree! You MUST use them regularly! (I DO!!) ((AND they sell WELL on ETSY!))
    Last weekend we were in NH and there was an Arkansas plated car parked next to us ~ thought of you 8-)!

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  9. OK, here's my vote for things to sell from the jars:
    1. Buttons
    2. Candy
    3. Tiny junk - paper parasols, little junky toys, little Christmas doodads etc. I know you must have enough extra of this to fill a jar - just price it higher than jars 1 and 2.

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