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.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

I Do Not Collect Vintage Toys

If you asked me if I collect vintage toys, I would say, "No."  I really don't think I do collect them.  But, what I do collect is memories. I pick up cute  little things here and there, beloved little things from other people's childhood.  I pick up things left behind at sales, thrown in boxes of Happy Meals Toys and things not appreciated. A tiny bedraggled doll, an old toy car, a colring book, an old game - one tiny thing that someone used and loved.  I hate to see a random tiny thing lying in a heap or in a box and know it was once loved by someone.  So, I bring it home to be loved by me.  I have an old cabinet with screened doors where I stick all the teeny things I find. 
Lots of loveys from other people's childhood...and a few from my own.

Many tiny things I have brought home over the years.  The marbles were mine - when I was a kid, every time it rained, I could go out in our ditch and find marbles.  I filled up an entire jar full of found marbles back then.

I love that tiny worn dustpan in the middle - some little girl really used it - a lot!  The toaster with the rose was mine as are the little Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls.  The Steiff Ram on the edge was bought to sell, and I will someday.  The prices aren't what they used to be, so I will just love him a bit longer.
Two more Steiff - a lion and a Schnauzer - to be sold someday.  I think that pink poodle with the original tags is one of the very first vintage things I ever found - and fell in love with.

More things - many of these from the ebay stash.  Old kaleidoscope, tiny playing cards, wee ping pong paddles, marbles made from end of the day 7UP bottles (mine as a kid), blocks and a fun old giraffe, to name a few things.
All these bears and bunnies have arms and legs that snap off.  I found the white bunny first, then the other two bunnies in a free box along the way.  The three bears came as a group from Etsy. 
My sweet little toaster and dolls.
Some of my favorites.  A tiny little rabbit rattle, a nekkid baby in a stroller, a teeny doll in a teeny cup and another nekkid baby.  And, of course, that stinking dustpan. 
At that big digger sale I sent to last Fall, I bought a large amount of Fisher Price toys.  I have put most of them in the Flea Market booth and on ebay.  But, this "There was an Old Woman Who lived in a Shoe" has snuck into my heart.  I need to find some people to sit in the toe.

So, as you can plainly see, I do not collect vintage toys.  :)

It's just about time to put them away and bring out my beloved bunnies and chicks.  I ((heart)) my Easter stuff!

9 comments:

  1. Love the Steiff animals and that giraffe! So cute. I love how you described your (non)-collection.

    I thought of you the other day at a flea market. I saw one of those Annalee dolls. This one was a white, pregnant mouse! I never noticed them before I started reading your blog! They wanted $20 for it.

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  2. What a wonderful (non) collection. When I was little I loved a book about two Japanese dolls that spoke to each other when their owner was not around. They would worry about what would become of them if their owner got tired of them. I love that you have rescued other people's toys and given them some love. You always find the coolest things!

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  3. Love "the toy collection that isn't". You have a great knack for display. It all looks so cute and you make us want to sneak into your house and snatch it all up! Have a great weekene!

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  4. Can you imagine how many you would have 'if' you collected toys! Love the old Fisher Price toys!

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  5. Cute post! Your collections and non-collections always look great! Love the nekkid babies too!! :)

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  6. I love your non-collection. My craft room is filled with toys (some of them my own...many of them not). I can't wait to see your bunnies and chicks.

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  7. I had the Old Woman Shoe toy when I was a kid. I loved it!

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  8. Nope. You don't collect toys! I love everything in your non-collection, but especially that toaster and the FP shoe. I've been trying to collect old FP stuff that I remember from my childhood, but its SO expensive!

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  9. That toaster is making me drool!!!!!!!! I love it! Now I am going to be on the hunt for one for Scarlette's Kitchen:)

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