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, February 23, 2013

The Week in Junk

I do still go thrifting.  I try to go a few times a week since Goodwill is right up the street.  And, if I find myself within a close proximity of any other thrift on any give day - I am there!  I'm tryiing to find new merchandise for the booth and always, always hoping to find a treasure for ME.  I still thrift for the joy of adding something to one of my collections.  Finding things to resell is just what I do while I am there hunting for things for me!  You do that do, don't you?

This week's treasures.  Or not.  I'll let you decide.

First of all I went to a real live GARAGE SALE today.  Oh, sure it was a huge disappointment and basically just a table full of baby stuff.  But, still - it means that Garage Sale Season is COMING!

I did spend 50¢ on a sweet denim jacket for Hazel. :)
I always keep her dressed.  I prefer vintage clothes or holiday clothes.  But, sometimes she just wears cute stuff.  

I avoid glass and I avoid vases.  But, this lovely vintage E.O. Brody vase is heavy and well made.  I only have one vase in the house - I usually just use a Mason Jar to hold flowers.  But, I think this nice old green vase would be lovely with my favorite flowers.  It was 50¢ at the Super Cheap Thrift.

This odd old red handled object was 25¢. I have a pretty good sized collection of old green and red handled kitchen tools.  I'm not really into them anymore so I am considering selling them.  But, I don't want to be sorry that I sold them.  Have you ever sold off a collection and then been remorseful?

A pretty cut glass butter dish.  I bought it for the booth, but I am tempted to keep it for Thanksgiving Dinner which is the one day a year I set a fancy table.  It was 25¢ at the Super Cheap Thrift.

A vintage handpainted cup for 25¢.

A sweet vintage Easter tin.  My Mom has one of these and I have always loved it.  So much in fact, that I have already thrifted another one just like it.  So, this one might and I stress MIGHT, go to the booth.

An A&W Root Bear (yes, Bear) glass.  

Three sweet vintage floral cups for 10¢ each.
This old bank isn't in working condition, but I am hoping to fix it.  I think when you drop a penny into the top, the cowboys arm pops out with a gun it in like he is going to rob you.  He is a bobble head to boot.  I just need to fix that spring in his arm.  

 A sweet 1950's Picture Dictionary.


  I love the old graphics in it. 

An old handmade broom that I discovered was made by the Student Industries at Berea College in KY.

 My research shows that they still make brooms at Berea College.  But, I can tell this one is an older one.  I think it is interesting to think of a bunch of college kids sitting around making brooms.
I bought this big copper compote at the Flea Market,  There is a booth that sells donated items for the Animal Shelter.  They sell their things super cheap since it is all donated and for charity.  So, I search the booth every time I am there.  This was only $2.00.  I know I can use it for holidays or even to display things in my booth.  I don't usually like copper things (it makes my hands stinky), but I do like this.  
This handmade rabbit shaker will go in the folk art collection.  Or maybe the Bunny Collection.  Or maybe the pottery collection.  Or maybe the Easter Collection.  (See why I HAD to buy it?)  He fits in the palm of your hand and when you shake it, it rattles.

This neat old sprinkler was $1.00 and will go on the porch in the gardening tool collection.  


And, the one thing I always, always ALWAYS hope to find at each and every thrift or yard sale - a good old tablecloth.  This one is lovely with aqua stripes and big pink flowers.  It was one very happy find today at the Super Cheap Thrift for $2.00.  I consider vintage tablecloths to be the holy grail and most wanted item when I am thrifting.  I can always squeeze one more into the cabinet.  And, when they day comes that I can't (and that has happened) I sort them out and take the least favorites out to the booth.  But, I keep a lot.  But, you knew that, didn't you?

So, I get to keep the vase, the sprinkler, the tablecloth and the bunny.  I'll think about the butter dish and the copper compote.  The rest will go to the booth.  That's not a bad week of thrifting, I suppose.

Did you find anything this week?
PS - It snowed this week!
But, it was gone by that afternoon.  :(


14 comments:

  1. A garage sale?
    A real, live GARAGE SALE?!
    SOOOOO JEALOUS!!

    L.O.V.E. The Copper Compote, and The Clay Bunny, and, and, and, ...

    GLAD the 'snow' in the mailbox worked ;-)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, I have that sprinkler and I use it all the time, it's the best one I have!

    And yes, I have sold a collection and was sorry, mostly because I got a pittance out of it. By the way, the red tool is a knife sharpener. I have a collection of red and green kitchen tools too, mostly red. I have sold duplicates, of course, for a pittance again. I wish I could afford an antique booth like you have!
    Pat G

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love all the items you found for yourself! I have a green vase that is heavy and I love it! You do find the prettiest table cloths. I've slowed down my thrifting but come Spring I do think some yard sales will be in my future!
    hugs, Linda

    ReplyDelete
  4. great finds as always love the bunny. we are far from yard sale season usually opening season is memorial day.
    we are getting snow but it will not be gone by tomorrow.
    Cathy

    ReplyDelete
  5. That broom from Berea College is very cool. Did you know that every student who attends there gets a full scholarship? In addition to their studies, they are required to work in jobs on campus - it's part of their learning model.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am just itching to go garage saling. But there is still snow on the ground here and there has not really been any sales just yet. But I know they will start soon. And then my Sat mornings are spoken for until Fall. Seriously that's how garage sale crazy I am.
    You found some really great things.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Garage sales are just starting up around here, I haven't seen much yet. I have sold some of my Fenton collection, and immediately regretted it. I guess I had a moment of not thinking and I promise never to do it again.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very fun "stuff" you found. I would love to find old tablecloths, but I just don't seem to come upon them--although I'm not the earliest bird at yard sales.
    I did go to a vintage market - kinda like a thrift "show." I finished the post last night.

    Stay warm and well!
    Laura from sundayview.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. We got some sleet one night last week, but it was gone by morning. Bye bye winter. Please!

    Berea grad here. Students don't sit around and make brooms. Every student has to work at a college labor position as a condition of enrollment. Some of those positions are in the student craft industries, which include broom-making, pottery, and weaving. Somewhere I have an adorable penguin I bought one year at a seconds sale.

    Berea student crafts are high quality, steeped in the traditions of the Appalachian mountains where the school is located, and pretty famous in some circles. You found a bargain.

    To clarify a remark above, no Berea student pays any tuition, but not everyone gets a "full" scholarship. I usually had to pay a little bit (not more than a couple hundred bucks) a semester.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think that bank is fabulous, whether you fix it or not. I have the same butter dish (I think I'm on my second one) - Early American Prescut, and no 1960s bride escaped getting a piece of it. I have a lot of pieces of it ... it's pretty sturdy stuff but looks a little fancy. Cannot, cannot, cannot wait for the sale season to start ... I am desperate!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Okay, here's the story, Morning Glory: you have found some magic portal into that thrift store of yours. I really haven't had any luck at it at all. I had stores like that in Chicago, where other people hated on them while I was secretly thinking "I find something good there every time I go." So that is your special, special thrift store, Shara; be good to it as it is good to you. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sorry; fixed a double post of mine. Now it looks like I cursed you out for all the good things you're finding that I'm not, thought better of it, deleted it, and tried to be nice. I promise, that's not what happened!

    ReplyDelete
  14. LOVE all of your finds-as usual! I was very happy to read that you went to an actual GARAGE SALE--YAYYYY! I can't wait!!! Happy Weekend!!!

    ReplyDelete

I love my comments. I'd love to respond to everyone, but if you don't have an email address tied to your ID, please sign your name so I will know who you are! It makes it nice to know who is saying what. Now, leave a comment! Please? ;o)

I Can See You!



Look at my Visitors!

Fellow Junk Followers