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, August 16, 2008

Happy Day, Happy Mail

Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes. I had a wonderful day with countless gifts bestowed upon me. I really don't know what I did for everyone to be so incredibly generous to me this year.

The Bean was in charge of ordering my cake this year. He wanted a monkey cake for me - a cute monkey like Curious George. Despite my chatter of wanting a corner piece, we always order cupcake cakes since they are easily served and you get a good icing to cake ratio per ice. Yes, we did the Cake Math. He wanted something cute like this:


Or maybe this:
Or even these:

But, when we picked up the cake, this is what we saw:

Holy Guacamole. That's not a monkey! It looks a lot more like this man:

Looks a lot like this young man with Werewolf Syndrome* more than it does Curious George. I mean, it almost looks like they used a picture of this man to make my cake. He doesn't look like a monkey. Neither does my cake.

***I saw an hour long special about this man one time. He is a really sweet regular guy with a new baby and a family and a job and a regular life. I mean no disrespect to him whatsoever, it's just that the cake really looks like him, don't you think?????***

The Bean said, "Oh well, it still tastes good no matter what it looks like!" So, the festivities continued.

The gifts were plentiful this birthday. They began arriving on August 1st! The first batch of goodies was from Sue. She sent me a plethora of pink goodies including a fabulous pink tablecloth, vintage pink paper goods, a wee seagrass basket, matte white pottery (one of her beloved Haeger pieces!) and some Vanilla Tootsie Rolls. How well does this lady know me????

Pink Pyrex creamer! Pink Bias tape! Pink Scarf! Oh Me, Oh My!

The pink sand and shells is for decorating, but she said, "Bath Salts for Shara" when she remembered DH thinking I was buying bath slats when it was actually sanding sugar for cookies. Thank you, my friend, Sue!

Although this was not a birthday gift, it seemed like one! I won a giveaway at Jen's and this was my prize. A magazine, sweet vintage apron, vintage French postcards and a vintage salt shaker filled with old German glass glitter. What a fabulous package! Thanks, my friend, Jen!

What's this? Another box. Oh my. This birthday box was from Carol. She knows me too well too! Tons of wonderful goodies chosen just for me! Check out those fabulous vintage cupcake toppers. Too stinking cute for words. And that Santa in the center? He's a painted Coke Bottle. LOVE!!!
Hmmmm.more Vanilla Tootsie Rolls. Am, I detecting a theme here? A cookbook, a Friendship book, vintage Birthday Napkin, painted coffeepot, and much, much more. Thank you, my friend, Carol!
Still with me?
Okay. This surprise envie arrived on the morning of my birthday from Rebecca. She had spotted the Spooky Math game and thought of The ban. It's a math Game that involves Dice (We're a gambling family, if I havne't mentioned that) and SKULLS. The Bean is Skull crazy, Not sure how Skulls got to be "The Thing", but they are with all the Tweens. She also made a watermelon potholder JUST FOR ME This is the pride of the watermelon potholder collection for sure. It is lovely and I am the first owner of it, not the rescuer of it! She has another one in her Shop - go buy it! ;o) Thanks, my friend, Rebecca!

This box of goodies arrived on my birthday from Heidi. My dad was leaving when it was delivered. He has never used a computer, has no idea what a "blog" is and has no concept of what it could be. I explained that this was a birthday gift from one of my blog friends. "You've never even met?" he asked. "No" "You don't even see each other?" he asked. "No." He just doesn't understand. My Mom arrived as he was leaving. She spotted the package from Heidi. Now, she uses the computer and she reads blogs and she reads Heidi's blog, so she started squawking, "A box from Heidi! This is like seeing a movie star!" As I pulled out each item, my Mom recognized a few things like a gorgeous handmade rickrack flower pin like Heidi had shown a few posts back. "OH SHE MADE THAT! she exclaimed.

Heidi is a Master Packager. I mean her packages are almost too lovely to open and unwrap. But, I did! Goodies included a book for card making, cards, accordion cards, Japanese Candy that smells yummy, a sweet beaded garland of cupcakes, presents and party hats, a certificate for 365 Happy Days, sweet ceramic buttons, puzzles of two vintage kitchens, the flower rickrack pin and a Garage Sale Mystery Book. There were even Flash Cards with MY words on it including JUNK, VINTAGE, GLITTER, PATINA and...drumroll...JUNKRATE! Thank you, my friend, Heidi!

I really am blessed to have so many fabulous friends. And, yes they are my friends even though we have never "met" or "seen" them. THANK YOU!!!!

8 comments:

  1. Oh, Happy Birthday! I love your blog and read you daily. I am a fellow Arky except I got terribly lost and ended up in eastern Kentucky.

    May I come home now? ;0)

    Anyway, that cake made me choke on my tea! You HAVE submit it to cakewrecks.com You will be FAMOUS!
    I sat and looked at their archives last night and was gasping for air I was laughing so hard.
    Sounds like you had a wonderful day. Sending you virtual hugs. *sniff* I miss Arkansas!

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  2. You have got to send your cake to the lady who does the blog Cake Wrecks! It's a hoot!
    http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay, I hope you won't be offended if I laugh like crazy at your cake! Oh my gosh, that is a riot! How anyone thought that resembled a monkey is beyond me. I think it looks like that Bigfoot body they supposedly found and talked about yesterday. LOL And I was thinking the same thing as Nancy & the Queen of 50¢ about Cake Wrecks! You must submit!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:06 AM

    Oh my! That cake is hysterical! I hope it tasted better than it looked. You need to submit it to that crazy web/blog

    http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

    I think yours would be the star!

    Have a great Sunday!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy Birthday...a day late...what awesome gifts you received...junkers just create the coolest gift boxes, don't they? I have to agree with the other comments...re: the "monkey" cake...so sweet of Bean to get a cake for you, but that face was done by someone with not one iota of artistic ability...maybe she was filling in for someone who was out sick?? Never heard of cakewrecks.com...am on my way there right now!! *elaine*

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  6. That cake was LOL funny! Personally I think they were confused and going for a Planet of the Apes look rather than monkey look.

    http://www.poster.net/anonymous/anonymous-beneath-the-planet-of-the-apes-film-review-6500095.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oooo I wonder what the cake would have looked like if you had asked for a werewolf cake?? :)

    Happy birthday buddy! You got some great packages, what a lucky lady!

    hugs

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  8. Oh my good heavens, that cake. THAT CAKE. I had to stifle my laugh for fear of waking up the entire house. How dreadful! But oh, how hilarious!

    ReplyDelete

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