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, December 09, 2013

A Journey & Some Junk

Today after five long days in the house, we ventured out.  The roads were dicey and I was happy to be come when we sere done with our errands.  We weren't exactly hurting for groceries, but it's funny how when you are cooped up inside all you can do is think about the things you need (or mostly want) to go buy.  Before the storm hit, we went to stock up on groceries, but I kind of went overboard on the candy/cookie baking supplies and not on real food.  I have made Vegetable Soup, Guacamole, Snickerdoodles, Sugar Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Fudge and Vanilla Walnut Fudge in the past few days.  The cookies have been frozen so we will have them on Christmas.  I am SO tired of being in the kitchen!  I don't have a dishwasher, so every time I make something, that is more dishes to wash.  it's a vicious circle, isn't it?  The funny thing is, I like being in the kitchen puttering around on cold snowy days like these.  But, then I go all crazy making things and then I am almost immediately sorry.

Since the roads were a mess and we only went for groceries, do you think I squeezed in a bit of thrifting?  OH YES I DID.  We stopped by Papa Murphy's for a pizza (Mama needed a night off from that kitchen!) and Goodwill is right next door, so I HAD to run in.  I just HAD TOO!  

 They were wheeling out the carts of new items and I JUMPED on them.  I scored a few goodies and $4.50 later, I was on my way again.
This old conical wooden pestle looked like it could become a Christmas Tree with a little repurposing.  But, even though I think making things out of "junk" is an awesome thing to do - I can rarely actually bring myself to DO it.  It has such a lovely patina on it.  I will probably leave it as is and just throw it in my old dough bowl.  
 This will go to the booth - a cute old Swanky dresser caddy.  
Two great old boxes of flash cards - Mammals and Reptiles.  The Mammals are great - the reptiles are okay if you don't look at the s.n.a.k.e.s.  Creeeeepy.  

And a nice book - Santa Calls.  The Bean and I have a love of Christmas Books - you are NEVER too old to read a good Children's Christmas book!  

When I went back to look at the books, there were two guys with book scanners looking up all the books.  I have never actually seen any scanners before so it surprised me to see them scanning all the books.  At most thrifts, there are signs saying, 'NO BOOK SCANNERS".  When I walked over to look at the books, I really expected them to throw their arms up over the books and yell, "NO - You can't look at the books because we are scanning them!"  But, when I walked over, they told me to tell them to move if they were in my way and asked me what sort of books I was looking for because they knew what all was there.  Now, wasn't that nice?  I've ran into a lot of nice people lately.  People that I didn't expect to be nice are really, really nice.  Maybe the world is changing.  That would be nice, wouldn't it?

11 comments:

  1. ~ wait~
    ...back up...
    Let me get this through my tiny head...
    'You DON'T HAVE A DISHWASHER????'
    (...I will ask Santa for one for you this year!)
    *****This girl brings NOTHING into the house that:
    A. Needs to be ironed
    B. Can't go into the dishwasher (okay, there are a couple of 'Speshul' exceptions!)

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  2. Because of our crazy weather and roads, we've been cooped up in the house for the last several days too! I was actually just saying to Brian that I feel like all I have done is cooked, baked, or eaten. Why is that?! I don't spend nearly as much time in the kitchen when its not snowing. Must be psychological.

    I haven't seen any scanners at the thrifts yet but all of the Goodwills in our area sell their books for 49 cents. There are two guys who go in and buy tons of them then sell them at the flea market for $2.00 each. There are always tons of people at their booths. Smart guys.

    ~Erica

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  3. Shara, Could the dogs over the fence be a pipe rack? Do you think it is Syrocco? Janet in PA

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  4. Anonymous9:59 AM

    The pestle thing could be used in a chinois (conical sieve on a stand) or to make krumkake cookies.

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  5. That pestle thing is COOL and would indeed make a neato Christmas tree if you could figure out how to make a base for it! We have that same Santa Calls book. I don't even love the story that much--I will fully admit that I bought it because I love William Joyce's retro-style illustrations!

    Hooray for cabin fever--I swear that's what brought out the hordes of shoppers to my market this weekend! Everyone was sick of being cooped up in their houses but it was too cold to be outside much, so they came to the mall and shopped, bless them!

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  6. Glad to hear that you survived the ice and yuck.
    I swear, thrifting cures lots of things.
    I'm with you on the pestle, but I could never bring myself to cut it or change it to make a tree. You find the neatest things. I too think the dogs over the fence could be a pipe stand. But don't know.

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  7. I am still in shock that you have no dishwasher. Agree with Sweltestuff that you need to be asking Santa for one. Or you are so good at thrifting/junking you need to FIND one!

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  8. I know what you mean! Nothing makes me want to bake treats more than snow or rain. I made a whole batch of chocolate chip pecan cookies during our "icepocalypse" good till they were gone!

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  9. Love the patina on the wooden thing! Also I love Christmas books! Great finds.

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  10. You got some GREAT things. I swear, you find such great stuff at that Sally and I rarely find anything good there at all. Howsoever, I did make quite a score at PH yesterday, just haven't taken photos yet. I think we got good stuff because no one was out thrifting, they were too concerned with buying things like FOOD. I am especially in love with those flash cards.

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  11. Glad you got out after being cooped up. I know how that goes. I would be cranky without my dishwasher. I just sold those same mammal flash cards in my Etsy shop last month!

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