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 15, 2009

All About Me

It is about this time of year that my house needs a bit of cheer and my desire to start my holiday decorating is starting to kick in. Since today is my Birthday and The Bean's birthday is in three weeks, I decided to do a vintage birthday display this year. I love it for my birthday. Not so sure how the Bean feels about lots of PINK and vintage stuff. I'll just throw some skulls in there and he'll be fine.

Here is my shelf where I do most of my holiday vintage Dime Store displaying. I had quite a bit of things sprinkled about the house and I started looking for more things this summer. The theme was vintage - birthday, cake, candles and numbers.

I spotted this old Happy Birthday book at the SCT not long ago - it is so sweet. I had the old noisemakers in my Happy New Year box. And, bonus, they were PINK! I bought the blue boy candle holders on ebay and the vintage package of Plastic letters and numbers on Etsy.

I found the old Musical Birthday cake turntable not long ago. The clown cupcake picks and the vintage napkin were a sweet gift from Carol last year, the Magic Number candles came from Heidi. The vintage candle boxes were gifted to me by Laurie when I commented on her lovely collection. She was sweet enough to send me her doubles....which led me to buy a couple more lots on ebay. Whoops!

My sweet toasting glasses in the center (which we totally did not use on my cake today), rolls of vintage crepe paper, a jar of old candles, a slice of felt cake that I made, vintage birthday cards and cake cookbooks round out this shelf. I made the banner to put above the window, but it was too small up there. Now it looks too big on the shelf. Oh well, I like it anyway. *The Bean bought me the "39 Forever" ribbon a year or two (or three...) ago.

Most of these cupcake picks and candle holders arrived in the mail one day from this sweet friend. She spotted them at an Estate Sale and crawled around on the floor and found every last one of them! Just for ME!

I love Annalee dolls - especially these tiny ones that I can stick in my displays. A mouse with a birthday cake - are you kidding me? Perfect! The used birthday numeral candles are all from The Bean's cakes over the years. I am missing a #4 - he had an Elmo party that year. I wonder what happened to Elmo?

A card from Heidi (her paper crafting skills are the bomb), a (pink)Betty Crocker Parties for Children book, my Shara Soda bottle and a few more cupcake and cake items are in this area. Love that little pinata too! Since I took this photo, I received a few things from Beth's Etsy Shop.

She has the best stuff at the best prices! Go look!

But, come back!

Thank you for all the Happy Birthday wishes today. You guys ROCK!

13 comments:

  1. I missed the first post, but a Very HAppy Birthday to you...from one Arkansan to another!

    Email me your address, I have a little something to send you!

    Hope G
    scwk0511 (at) yahoo (dot) com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Birthday to YOU!!!! What a beautiful way to decorate vintage-ly {not a real word? it is for Shara's party!} for your birthday...too much pink? doesn't come out that way in the pics...but for Bean? a skull or 2, and maybe a hottie from the pool party? I've missed a couple of your posts...blogger was not updating properly, and after 2 days of it, I threatened to pack up the u-haul and move to TypePad. No response so far...I hate to move...any where...but I can't be missin my morning coffee blogs either! SSooOOSO...Happy birthday to you & the Bean...no monkey cake this year?? :o} Have a great Sunday *elaine*

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  3. I was SO waiting for a photo of your cake with the little toast glasses!! Why didn't you use them?? Oh well, sounds like you had a great day!

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  4. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! What a great display, I am loving it.
    Sonya

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  5. Top 10 reasons I'm leaving a comment:
    10. Because I like to be the first to leave a comment.
    9. Because Sue said it was your birthday.
    (eight). Because I wanted to show somebody how the (eight) key just stopped working on my keyboard.
    7. Because I'm in love with your birthday collectibles.
    6. And I love how you displayed them.
    5. But I'm a little jealous because my birthday is 9 days before Christmas, and not a fun, nothing-else-going-on time of year like August.
    4. Also, a little jealous because there's no way I'm decorating for my birthday AND Christmas, and half-birthdays are silly (I've tried.)
    3. Um, because I wanted to see if I could actually come up with 10 things.
    2. Because I thought it would be fun to leave a ridiculously long comment.
    And the number one reason:
    1. BECAUSE IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY! WOO-HOO! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happy Birthday girl!
    Eat, drink and be merry.
    All the best,
    Erin

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  7. FAB FAB FAB goodies! Hope you had a fun bday!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy, Happy Birthday! I hope you had a great day, but, oh cr*p! You just made me want to start another collection! I never thought of a birthday collection. I have a couple vintage boxes of candles, also because of Laurie's influence. A collection would definitely help make MY birthday WEEK celebration even more fun..... Ok, I'll start another collection!

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  9. Happy Birthday! What a fabulous idea! Hope you have a super great day!

    Shannon

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  10. HAPPY
    BELATED
    BIRTHDAY!!!
    Your birthday shelf is awesome! Filled with very fun treasures!
    I see I also missed a giveaway..here have I been???
    Sure hope you had a Great Birthday!
    Deb :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Happy, Happy Birthday! Loving the display as a tribute to the big day - and glad the candles found a happy home there. I saw those birthday napkins on Beth's Etsy in the sold area - now I know who got them! Happy Day and may your birthday wish come true!

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  12. LOVE your birthday display. The great thing about an August birthday is the lack of holidays in August. You do know that August 15 is a Catholic holy day though, don't you? It's the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

    Happy birthday!

    ReplyDelete

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