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.

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

House Tour of Sorts

I realized that I have a few new displays up in the house that I haven't shared.  It is the time between my Birthday and The Bean's birthday, so we just celebrate for a month with a display.  Then, for no reason at all, I rounded up all my vintage school stuff and made a back to School display.  I don't have a school aged kid anymore (BOOHOOO!) so there's no reason for it.  But I have so much fabulous old school stuff that I just wanted to SEE it all together.  Then there's the "It makes me happy and it looks good together, so I put it all together" display.  It's my favorite.

First up:  Birthday

It's to celebrate my birthday and my "two days and he's not a teenager anymore" son's birthday, but there is a lot of PINK in there.  Mom makes the stuff and buys the stuff, so PINK it is.  


Love the banner.  I won it from a fellow blogger years ago.


I framed this from an old children's book.


Old cards from Heidi, a children's record and candles that I thought I might make and sell SOMEDAY.

Vintage candle boxes, cake slice, more sweet old cards and the Happy Birthday song.


Spun heads from Carol, Party birds from Laurie and an Annalee holding a cake.  



I really think I would leave this up all year if I had space for it.  

Next:  Back to School


So much goodness.


My vintage chalkboard collection and chalk boxes and a tiny box of flashcards, 


There's always an Annalee - a teacher this time, of course.  


A few of my old School Readers.  I have a ton of them and I have found a lot lately.  I need to cull some out.  But, how do you choose what to let go?  More chalk boxes and a graduation girl.  

The "Throw it all together display""


Gnomes, German and red.  That ties it all together, I think.



We all know I love tiny things and I pick tiny things up all the time.  I sell some.  I keep some.  Some, I keep awhile and then I sell.  This is where a lot of that tiny stuff goes.  


I love the old German Weather houses.  The one on the right is actually a bank.  So, I only have two, but it looks like I have three.  And we know what three means.....:)


I thrifted the Gnomes book to sell, but would you look at that - all up on the high shelf where even I can't reach it.  It';s not going anywhere anytime soon.  I made the nesting dolls.  They don't nest though.  They aren't German, but they are red so they fit.  Yes, they do.  


Small cuckoo clock my friend Hope from Fayetteville/the UK sent me.  


Oh wait, there's more!  


I forgot that I threw some deer in there.  Add a toadstool and they fit too!



This was thrifted for resale and it will be someday.  But, ti just fits so perfectly up there on my picnic tin from Chanelle.  

Now that I see all these things, I see that a lot of them remind me of my blog friends and that makes everything even sweeter.  

11 comments:

  1. Love your displays. Your vintage Birthday items are really great. I would leave up that for the month of June since I celebrate for a month ya know! I had the Gnomes book but gave it to my son in law, wonder if he still has it?
    hugs,
    Linda

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  2. Loved seeing your treasures!

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  3. Happy Birthday! I'm a Virgo too, come the 6th. I really have forgotten how old I am - I had to take out a calculator to check the other day.

    Back to the treasures: Do, a deer, a sweet sweet deer! I actually thrifted one this week - one half of a salt and pepper set. I'll spend the rest of my life looking for the other half. At least I have a goal . . .

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    Replies
    1. My son's birthday is the 6th! I am actually a Leo - mine was the 15th of August. That deer had a broken ear, but a drop of glue and some vintage millinery and he is darling once again. Good luck finding you other shaker.

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  4. What fun displays! That birthday one is so awesome, I love vintage birthday stuff. And your pinwheels look great in your back to school display. The last one is just quirky fun. Suits you perfectly :) Happy Birthday to the Bean!

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  5. Love your displays. I used to decorate my fireplace mantle for every holiday/season... but that has fallen by the wayside. :(

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  6. Sneaking some blog reading at work and I'm so glad I did. I just love all your special vignettes. I'm going to keep coming back and looking over all your treasures.

    PS. I have a back to school vignette on the mantle and my eldest daughter has informed me that she wants it put away. It's going to be a wild and crazy senior year!

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  7. Love all of these displays! My favorite thing is the flash card banner which I could totally do too. And since I'm a little craftily-challenged, that is saying a lot :-)

    Thanks for making me feel like a slacker. I still have my 4th of July displays up!

    Erica

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  8. I've got that gnomes book...somewhere. Happy birthday to the Bean. I love the "throw it all together" display the best. Cute.

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  9. I adore the German/European/Woodland theme decor. Anything with toadstools is a win! PS Benji is going to be a Garden Gnome for Halloween. The hat is HILARIOUS but I guarantee he is never going to wear it. The store also sold a teeny red polka dotted toadstool trick-or-treat bag and I wanted it sooooo much but since it will only fit about 6 Tootsie Rolls I didn't buy it. But man, it was cute!

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  10. I love all your displays! Such fun!

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