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.

Monday, May 21, 2012

The Week in Junk 5/21- Books, Thimbles & A Basket

Time for the Week in Junk.  Last week I did manage to fit in some junking, but I also gathered up a bunch of crap that went straight to Goodwill (yes, I went in and looked and bought a few more things....) and gathered up some new stuff for the booth from my stash. Saturday morning, I went to the Super Cheap Thrift and a few yard sales before we headed out to a birthday party.  The last sale of the day became the last sale of the day when a lady followed me around with a cigarette hanging out of her lip.  My chest filled up all croupy almost immediately, so I called it a day.

The finds.  Yes, I know, you are on the edge of your chair.  ha.
 Ceramic bird feeder to add to the garden junk.  It's new and from Big Lots, but I only paid 25¢ for it at a yard sale.
This cool old metal step ladder was $2.00.  I am going to attempt to shove it behind a bookshelf in my booth so I can use it to reach things.  The booth has eight foot tall walls so I find myself needing a ladder - a lot.  I figure people will want to buy it, so this plan may not work.
I got these three old books at the Super Cheap Thrift.  They have beautiful bindings.
Lovely covers.
Beautiful marbelized end papers.

 They are Law Books from Paris.  One is from 1862 and one is from 1902 - they have all the laws and legislative issues and decisions in them from those years.  They are so heavy and beautiful.  When I paid, the lady said, "Oh, I knew just the right person would have to come in and find those.  I hope they were priced okay?"   These wonderous books were....ten cents each. Any other thrift would have put them behind glass and priced them sky high waiting for that "right person" to come in.  I love my SCT!
A Marlin Fishing Trophy.  
I'm seeing trophies in all the magazines right now.  Maybe I can jump on the bandwagon and sell a few.

The smalls.  The brass spoon is from Lowney's Candy Company about 1905 - it was a premium in a box of chocolates.   Some smalls for the booth - odds and ends.  

A super tiny tea set.  Terribly cute.  I'll probably add this to my miniatures.

An egg cup from South Shore Country Club.  I wonder where that is - any ideas?
 At the sale where I got all these smalls, they had massive amounts of Tiara glass at full blown retail price.  I'm not a glass person and I know little about it, but it all looked over priced to me and not overly special.  I did spot a box of these tiny candle holders under the check out table and thought they were sweet.  As I paid, they told me to take some of those free candle holders in that box.  So I did.  They are pretty cute.
I found this Russel Wright teapot today at Goodwill for $2.00.  It looks like a good seller, so that was a happy find for me.
At the last sale of the day, they had a massive thimble collection.  Well, as massive as a thimble collection can be.  I picked out a Nippon, a Murano glass one, a few wooden ones from Russia and a figural Uncle Sam Hat to buy.    Because There were a few souvenir ones, but most of them are collectible, hand painted, from other countries, advertising, etc.  Old advertising, not the ones you see in the Carol Wright catalogs.  Plus a lot of metal ones, some that appear to be Sterling and possibly a few gold ones. On a whim, I asked, "What would you take for the whole lot?" The lady said she would have to count them and think about it and she really wanted to eat her sandwich and for me to get them for her because she didn't feel like walking out to get them and blah, blah, blah.  *Sigh.  So, I told her never mind, I didn't want to cause so much trouble.  I was just curious.  (Because you never know - they might say five dollars, they might say one hundred dollars.)  She said, "Just bring 'em to me and I'll add it up".  So I did and she proceeded to count them all, add up the prices she had told me per piece, then started doing some math on paper.  She said, "I'm going to name a price and it will be FIRM.  Okay?  $30.00 for them all."  I had considered offering $20.00, we weren't that far off, but I didn't want to spend $30.00.  So, I told her thank you and I appreciated it, but no thank you.  Then she got huffy!  "You had me COUNT them all and do all THAT and now you aren't even going to BUY THEM??"  Jeez, I told her not to do it, but she did.  I said, "I would have offered twenty, but thank you just he same."  She stuck out her hand and said, "I'll take it."  I was happy to get out of there and off that Mery Go Round.  I ended up with nearly 200 thimbles, which I know I can easily sell and ship.  

The week in junk wouldn't be complete without a basket.  A very nice old buttocks basket.  The handles are missing, but for $4.00, I still loved it and it's actually more useful without the handle.  

And you found??????

3 comments:

  1. No yard sales or junkin this weekend for me. Love the thimbles but oh the 'drama' to get them...sometimes people amaze me. I must say those books are amazing! Hugs, Linda

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  2. That's a good looking teapot. I'm glad you escaped from the Crazy Thimble Lady. And I ended up gardening and painting and all of that good stuff ...

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  3. good finds for sure.
    Cathy

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