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, March 15, 2014

Saturday Finds: Dolls, Books and Bookworms

*(Optional title:  LOOK AWAY EDDIE, LOOK AWAY!)

This morning I managed to get out of the house about 9:00 am which is SUPER EARLY for me.  I am so not an early morning person.  That doesn't mean I sleep until noon- it just means that I am not social early in the day.  Just ask the people that live with me.  :)  I went to two rummage Sales, an Indoor Sale, the Super Cheap Thrift and a huge garage sale plus my own flea market and I was  back home by 12:30.  Not bad!


I've been looking for an old Arkansas metal plate to turn into a clock to sell in the booth - happy to have found this one for 50¢.  A Glasbak cup, Holiday Inn Ashtray, Piece of stoneware, a wee pitcher and a lovely little green pottery pot.  

A pink Fenton (I think) toothpicker, Ouja board doohickey for crafting, a LOUD train conductor whistle and two pretty rose plates.  

 I don't buy plates as a general rule but these are awfully sweet.  They would be nice on a plate wall.  

This is quite possibly my favorite find of the day.  Sadly there was only one.  A wee little velvet mouse clip on earring.  He has little beaded (note - beaded - not BEADY!) eyes and he is just really adorable.  

The pot isn't marked, but I can tell it's good old pottery.  I already planted a small cactus in it.  

I picked up this old marionette at the Library Rummage Sale. She's a Fortune Teller and has Tarot cards on her lap.  I love all her bright colors and her funky teeth.  :D  

(This is not why you shouldn't read, Eddie - it's still coming...)

This is all handmade - the Grandma doll, the chair, her clothes and all.  I think the little boy getting his pants mended might be store bought.  Anyway, I think it's sweet.  

Several old packages of Martha's Transfers.  I always pick these up, but I don't know why.  I've never sold any.  I keep thinking that I will think of a clever use for them someday.  Thinking...thinking...thinking....
(Oh! A hint for Eddie - did you see?)


A big bag full of packages of doll hair in all sorts of colors.  Something else to add to the craft drawers should inspiration hit and I say "I WISH I HAD A BAG FULL OF BLACK DOLL HAIR!" and BOOM I do!

This is a vintage Razorback squirt gun.  Hard to see in the cellophane.  

Three vintage boxes of Angel Chime candles.  Two of them are in German which is sort of interesting since most of those chimes are from Germany.

A stack of Reader's Digest books with new to me covers.  I have a rule about washing, tearing apart, getting rid of packaging, etc. from sales as soon as I get home.  I always do it immediately.  I worry about cockroaches and other ICKY things.  I came thisclose to NOT cutting the covers off these books today.  I started to put them in my office with some other books until another day.  But, at the last minute, I took them outside and slit the first cover to reveal REAL LIVE ACTUAL BOOKWORMS.  Ackkkkk!  I started to pitched them, but I ended up cutting off the covers and they were fine - the rest of the books are int eh recycling bins.  I did put the covers in a Ziploc bag and stuck them in the freezer overnight.  Stuff like that gives me HEEBIE GEEBIES.  

This huge Rubber Duck is about 15" tall.  Wouldn't it be fun to have him floating in your pool?  I don;'t have a pool, so to the booth he will go.  

LOOK AWAY EDDIE, LOOK AWAY!

At the last sale of the day, I was digging in boxes of toys (with a little three year old girl that kept asking me , "Why is you in these toys?") and I kept pulling out vintage dolls.  There weren't any prices on them, so I just gathered them all up and figured I could just ask later.  

There are old dolls, vintage dolls and  vintage Effenbee story Book dolls.

They all need a rubdown with a Magic Eraser, but other than that, they all seem to be in okay condition.

Maybe not "collector" condition, but good enough that someone might want to pick one up because they had it as a child or to give to their daughter or grand daughter.  

This one is my favorite.  Her wig is a bit askew in this photo.  Whoopsie.  She is very old and has the open mouth.  She's got a lot of character, if you like that sort of thing.

This one has a talking box in her tummy, but I haven't been able to make it do anything.  

You will be happy to see that out of all of the things that I bought today - these are the only keepers.  Candles for my collection (plus we use the candles), the pottery pot for the cactus, the whistle just for fun, the earring to add to a craft project and the new blue bowl for my Ramen Noodles.  

It's nice to see a few sales creeping in slowly.  Spring is coming and Lara and I are chomping at the bit for YARD SALE SEASON.  Between the booth and a couple of upcoming venues, we both are on the hunt for merchandise.  

*Eddie hates dolls.  Eiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee he will say!


14 comments:

  1. Love the wonky eyes on that talking doll!!

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  2. You got me scared about bookworms now! LOL! I will have to start checking the stuff that I buy. You found lots of goodies.

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  3. It has never entered into my mind to look for bookworms. Never gave it a thought and now you go and find insects in your books!

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  4. Still lots of great find Shara. I am not a doll fan for some reason either.

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  5. Ooh, I love that little flowerpot! The perfect color. And brilliant idea on the Arkansas tray! I see those all the time--heck, I own the Utah and Colorado trays--but making one into a clock is super clever. I wonder if you could thrift a cheap clock and use the movement for your tray? I did that once to fix a clock with a broken movement because new ones at the craft store were like $8 and I could thrift a clock for around $1.

    Bookworms. SO SO GROSS

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  6. Hey! I am looking for a yellow rolling pin with red accents. It was the only thing I had that belonged to my father- bachelor days I guess. i left it on tp of a cabinet when I moved. I would appreciate you looking out for one for me if you don't mind- you get out and about more than I do. Thanks!

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  7. I think you picked out some great things to keep for yourself. Unfortunately, my keep pile is always about 100 time bigger than my sell pile. That should probably change in the near future.

    Erica

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  8. the doll with the red skirt startled me. It looks like my MOTHER if she were a doll when she was young, put some cat eye glasses on her and it would be her twin.

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  9. I have that Holiday Inn ashtray too. I use it as spoon rest at my coffee station.

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  10. Eiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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  11. But, seriously, you bought that demented horde into your house???? Better go count your cats and check on the Bean.

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  12. Goodness! Lots and lots of great loot, I think My favorite thing is the "fortune teller" marionette, that will be GREAT for Halloween Decoration!

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  13. Love your finds! As soon as I saw the hoard of dolls I knew Eddie would be horrified. Poor guy.....

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  14. "I wish I had a bag full of black hair doll and BOOM I do!" LOL! You crack me up!! :D.

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