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, August 25, 2011

Junk

I am sooo ready for Fall.  I am ready for these 100 degree days to be O-V-E-R. I am ready to go to some digger sales, ready to find some Christmas junk.  Last year I made one Shiny Brite Wreath and put it in my Booth and it sold immediately - like thirty minutes after I put it out.  The owners requested that I make more and they will put them throughout the store.  Which is great.  There's only one problem - I have not found one.single. Christmas ornament this entire YEAR.  Where are the boxes full of glass ornaments?  Come on Fall and people cleaning out their sheds and garages.  Mamma needs some Shiny Brites!  (I use the term Shiny Brite, but I, of course, mean any old glass ornaments.)

This morning while longing for Fall and a digger sale, I spotted an ad for an Estate Sale three minutes from my house at the lucky address of 1111, so I proceeded to fly out the door and GO!  The yard and the garage were chock full or neat-O cool stuff.  Things right up my alley.  I got excited.  But, then I saw what I hate most - NO PRICES.  Oh, I hate that!  I can't pick up twentyhundred things and say HOW MUCH HOW MUCH HOW MUCH?  Or can I?  I inquired about a Santa Blowmold and she told me a quarter.  Hey, things are looking good, I thought.  Then I picked up a Baby Sinclair Dinosaur and she told me he was five dollars.  The link shows that they will sell for about a hundred dollars, but the one I was holding was really, really dirty, his face had marker on it and his talker was broken.  He would have needed a ton of work and cleaning and he still wouldn't have been that great.  When she noticed that I put him back, she must have decided that  I was a tightwad.  When I picked up the next item, a vintage child's book called "Kitties" she said, "You aren't goin' like the price of that one".  Then she told me that I could "have" it for ten dollars, but not to tell a soul that she practically gave it to me.  When I put that back, she let out a big siiiiigh

I did manage to find a few things that weren't terrible overpriced.  The aforementioned Santa Blowmold, a neat old crate, a stack of I really do not need because I have a ton of them but I cannot seem to leave them behind tart tins, four giant old green springs, a neat old pulley and a Bakelite Viewmaster.

The big old springs looked like Grasshoppers or something that I could fashion out of junk.

The crate is cool - I plan on using it for display with some of my pottery flowerpots. each one should fit right in a cubby. Or I could use it flat with things in it at a party - cups, silverware, napkins, etc. 

The old pulley will hold up a hanging basket until one day when I am lucky enough to find a cool old scale to hang from it. 

So, despite the high prices and the lack of actual prices at all - I managed to score some goodies.  Kind of wet my whistle for what is to come this Fall.  I HOPE!

4 comments:

  1. Love youre junk.
    Cathy

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know what you mean about yard sales with no prices. You are scared to ask what they want. usually it is more than what it is worth.

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  3. I am so ready for cooler weather and yard sale prices! Even the Thrift prices have gotten crazy if you even find anything good. I love those ornament wreaths so I hope you find some old ornaments. Cool finds for sure. That crate and the viewmaster are my fav's. Hugs, Linda

    ReplyDelete
  4. First of all, are those family members in your header? I WANT EVERY SINGLE THING IN THAT PHOTOGRAPH (well, except the people). Secondly, I feel your pain about high priced yard sales. I'm sort of torn between having things priced and having to ask for the price, since I'm the kind of person who sees a pricetag, thinks it's too high, and wanders off rather than dicker. You know, now that yard sales and thrift stores are so expensive, you have to think people aren't making as much money and one of these days they'll realize they're too darn expensive. Grrrrr.

    ReplyDelete

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