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.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

New Old Stuff

Last week I had some successful ebay auctions netting me $225.00 for $11.00 worth of finds. Whenever I have that sort of happy luck, I take the original amount (in this case - $11.00) and buy myself a little treat.  I still make a profit and I get a little something special. 
This week's happy accident brought me this vintage pinecone snowman.  He's really big.  His spun cotton head is about as big as a golf ball - the largest I've ever seen.
He brought a friend too.  Two giant pinecone snowmen!  I love their chenille stem candy canes and their jaunty little hats.
I also got this sweet little pine cone gnome.  He is holding a wee mercury glass toadstool in one hand and some mercury beads in the other.  He's a dapper little dude.
And, one more.  A spun cotton elf sitting on a pinecone.  His tag says 10¢.  Made in Japan of course.  All extra cute things were once made in Japan.

I generally find one or two extra special vintage Christmas items at the thrifts this time of year.  But, this year, I have not found one thing!  The thrifts are full of new stuff - from Department 56 to Walmart.  I'm starting to think that all the vintage has been dispersed and is in the hands of collectors like me and you, that it is all GONE!  I hope that isn't so.  I don't need boxes of ornaments or dozens of pinecone elves or miles of mercury beads...just a couple little things.  Maybe a couple of indented ornaments or one Putz house or one bottle brush.  Just a taste.  Is that too much to ask?

**(I certainly would take boxes of ornaments and dozens of pinecone elves and miles of mercury beads if the vintage Christmas Gods are listening........)

Have you found any vintage Christmas goodness this year?

9 comments:

  1. I'm not sure how vintage it is, but I found a silk rocking horse ornament a few weeks ago. We've had several that my mother found at a thrift about 20 years ago, and they are *the* Christmas decoration in my house. We found three more online, but the price wasn't ideal. Then walking through our thrift, I found a similar one for a dollar. Just a small find, and probably not particularly valuable, but I was thrilled.

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  2. Super finds. LOVE those snowmen. The vintage stuff just seems so hit or miss. Just when I'm ready to give up I find something awesome. I suppose that's why we do it. The "thrill of the hunt", right? Although I do have to say that last week I was so irritated at the GW where they had the audacity to charge $3 and $4 PER ORNAMENT simply because it was vintage. I kept muttering about antique store prices and how if I wanted to pay that I'd do my shipping at the antique malls.

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  3. I have one particular shop in town that has lots of vintgae christmas stuff which I have been buying up. Sadly, I ws in there on Friday and they have more viontage goodies, but the prices have more than quadrupled. I suppose they have upped their prices coz the stuf has been selling so well (to me, that is!). Little do they know that they have surpassed my 'ouch' threshold on their plastic 1960's poinsettias!

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  4. The thrifts here have been just pitiful. The best one closed, so that's like having a friend move away. The next-best one has not had anything good at any price this year. And the worst ones continue to be the worst ones. It was so good last year, too - maybe we have bought it all. Having said that - you got a lot of spun-cotton goodness for $11!!!

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  5. I haven't found much lately, but I know that's in large part because I just haven't been out looking. I'd have to take both kids with me, and I'd practically have to find the Holy Grail each time I went in order to make it worth the hassle.

    I did find good stuff this summer at estate sales, though. I put it all in a box and forgot about it, then was happily surprised when I opened it all up again a few weeks ago! So that will have to make up for my lack of thrift scores.

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  6. Anonymous11:36 AM

    We are not formally doing Christmas this year, so I have not been in the mood to look specifically for vintage Christmas goodies. That's not to say I wouldn't grab it if I see it at a great price!
    We had pinecone gnomes and elves back when we were growing up (even older than the ones you found) and my sister made sure to let me know every year that being older, SHE was taking them when she moved out.

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  7. I have that same Frosty the Snowman book from my childhood! I love the pictures in it. Nice finds.

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  8. I went thrifting for 4 hours today and hit 6 stores and found loads of vintage Christmas...which I dont even collect or display but will just resell...so its still out there. Maybe just not in your part of the country ?

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  9. I am with you! I have not found much in the thrifty Christmas goodness lately! I am SO bummed about it! Over the summer I found bunches, but nothing right now!! And I NEED MORED!!! lol...

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