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.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Friday Finds: Just Enough

Today I went out to work in the booth which has been greatly ignored for awhile.  I had pulled a lot of things to go the The Junk Ranch.  Since the booth was low and most of my "best things" weren't in there - I had a 25% off sale all month long which seems to have cleaned out a lot of things that have just been sitting there.  When I got there today, I filled up three big bags of stuff that I am just SICK of looking at and threw it in the car.  Then I brought in a whole carload of stuff and filled up the booth!  Yee-haw.  I still have a slew of things all priced and ready to go on the next trip.  It's possible that the smaller booth next to mine might be empty soon and if it does, I will take that spot too.  I haven't quite figured out how to make the most of both spaces - take down the wall in between, take down half the wall either horizontally or vertically OR leave it as two separate spaces.  I guess I will have to see IF I get the spot before I worry about it TOO much!  

You know me - on the way, I hit a few sales and even drove way to far out into the middle of NOWHERE at the lure of a green chalkboard sign that said, BARN SALE.  *Swoon*.  Sadly it wasn't that great - they din't have much.  I did get enough to make it worth my trip, I guess.  Most of my finds came from two sales, but I think I stopped at about six.  At the first sale, I had a handful of Hot Wheels - not new, not old, just some advertising ones that I can sell for a dollar to two each.  They weren't priced, so I asked the magic question, "How much are these?"  And the lady replied, "Those are 50¢ each and I won't come down on them any, so don't even bother asking."  Now, this was obviously a woman that had been nickel'd and dime'd to death all day and she was hot and tired.  BUT!  I didn't even imply that I was going to dicker with her (I don't do that anyway) and I was planning on buying them.  But you know what?  Her attitude STUNK, so I put them back on the table and I left.  I'm sure she just thought I was too cheap, but golly, she was RUDE.  

The goods I did find:
A Primary School set of Balancing scales (on the bottom), an old metal cigar tin and a vintage fruitcake tin.  
Five yard sticks for 25¢ each - I have some projects I want to try with yardsticks, but I am not willing to sacrifice any of my neat old vintage ones.  The cool old metal stool was sitting beside the barn with an old gas can on it.  I asked if it was for sale and after much thought, it was decided that "a buck" would do it.  SOLD.

The blue jars were in the barn (which, by the way was not a barn  it was a shop with concrete floors, fans and plumbing).  They were $2.00 each, which is more that I like to spend, but I figured I better make it worth my trip to buy something to sell.  But, who am I kidding,  I haven't let a blue Ball jar out of this house.  EVER.  The bundle of child's hangers in pink, white and blue were at the RUDE ladies sale, but I had already bought them before the rudeness ensued.  The pool balls are my favorite find - they are small - maybe for Bumper Pool - I don't know.  They are about half the size of regular pool balls.  The post card is of a bunch of marines learning to tie knots.  I should have taken a better photo of that - sorry.

Tomorrow there are SO many sales advertised but I really need to NOT go shopping.  But, not shopping means scrubbing the tub, mopping the floor and washing towels.  :(  We shall see what tomorrow brings.....

9 comments:

  1. Good for you! I leave rude people's sales too. Life is too short to put up with rude yard sellers and there is always something else down the road anyway. Go ahead and shop today. Life is also too short to scrub the tub when there's junk to buy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yard sales rather then clean house would win everytime for me. I hate rude people, good for you to leave and not buy her stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What is it with you running into rude people lately?!

    Have I told you about the garage sale I went to where the every single square inch of the garage wall was covered in vintage yard sticks? It was awesome and I'm sure it took years to complete.

    Have a great weekend. I have tubs to scrub as well. Boo.

    Erica

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lucky score on those yardsticks! I have a project in mind, too, but hate to cut them up if I have to pay $5 each for them. Yikes!

    ReplyDelete
  5. $2 for blue jars is a bargain around here! The metal stool is awesome too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. dang, didn't even think about picking out the bucket of yardsticks at the estate sale I helped with. Might need to see if it got stuck back in a corner when I go Monday.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I always leave garage sales with people like that. As Bon Qui Qui says...RUDE Security! (Mad T.V. hiliarious) Good finds, I always buy those blue jars. They are all over my house and are currently holding marbles, cotton balls, q tips, Starburst, game pieces, shells, change, and a few more I am probably forgetting about :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I would have said, "lady, lose the 'tude. I would have paid fifty a car, but with that attitude you can keep the damn cars." She should have just said, "50cents firm".

    I almost bought . similar hangers at GW, but left them. Our tees hang off & jeans stretch them out.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Fun Fun! I love the blue glass of those jars, I'd hold on to them too!

    ReplyDelete

I love my comments. I'd love to respond to everyone, but if you don't have an email address tied to your ID, please sign your name so I will know who you are! It makes it nice to know who is saying what. Now, leave a comment! Please? ;o)

I Can See You!



Look at my Visitors!

Fellow Junk Followers