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, March 16, 2013

The Five Minute Goodwill Run

I seem to be running on fumes lately.  I go and go and go until I just can't go anymore.  To put it mildly...I am tired!  This to shall pass.  My Mom is doing so much better.  She got the good news a few weeks ago that her back had healed and now we find that her neck is healed as well.  She is out of her giant turtle shell back brace and is being weaned out of her neck brace the next few weeks.  It is so nice to see her without all that equipment on her.  She is still working on strength and getting her right arm and hand to work again.  She can do a lot now that she couldn't do before.  But, she still has things to improve.  But, my gosh, she works SO hard in therapy.  She never says no or complains - she just does it.  She wants to go  home so badly.  But, not until she can do certain things for herself like grooming and hygiene.  I can't believe all the things that she has been through and acclimated to being in rehab - like having a stranger shower you.  But, she does it because what other choice does she have, right?  The hardest part mentally has been having different roommates.  She got a new one tonight and she is a DOOZIE.  She is on oxygen and there for her COPD and guess what her very first question was?????  "Where's the smoking area?"  When they announced that it was smoke-free campus (as is our entire city) she CALLED A CAB TO TAKE HER HOME.  My Mom was happy that she was leaving since all she did was talk about smoking, cigarettes, not smoking and lack of cigarettes.  But, then her son went and bought her an electric cigarette and that seemed to pacify her, so she decided to stay.  She still needs to learn roommate manners such as deciding what to watch on TV TOGETHER and to NOT jerk the partition curtain back any old time she feels like it.   Anyway, I digress as usual.  The point is that my Mom is doing better!  I will be glad to get her home and out of there.

In between all my chores and responsibilities at home and the time I spend with my Mom, I sometimes still have about five minutes to pop into Goodwill on my here and there.  Here are this weeks five minute picks.

Two beat up old Disney Readers for the booth.  I sell a lot of old kids books.

A funny vintage BBQ tray.  I'm working on a BBQ/picnic display for the booth this summer.

A bunch of old shoe stretchers.  I saw something somewhere made out of these and told myself to find some.  So, now that I have found some, I cannot remember for the life of me why on earth I wanted them!  Any ideas?????


A neat stork with a baby honeycomb decoration.  It's from 1989, which is not vintage in my book.  But, it;s a Dennison and cute, so I picked it up.

Another old book with great graphics.  This one has crayon marks on a lot of the pages, so I will either sell it cheap or cut it up as ephemera.

A wooden Fisher Price Queen Bee pull toy.  A lady was standing about a foot away from it when I reached it to pick it up.  She let out an audible sigh when she saw it in my hand.  But, she had already worked her way down the aisle past it and didn't see it, so it was fair game.  It's really quite cute.

Lastly a small handmade felt ballerina doll.  Se sits in the palm of my hand.  She's really funny to me.  I love old handmade things.  

Today I had five minutes to pop into the Super Cheap Thrift and find a few things.  But, that is a post for another day.

*I'm sorry for my crummy photos. I'm never home much during the day to take nice bright outdoorsy photos.  Someday soon though!

11 comments:

  1. They are all great! I like the ballerina doll...

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  2. Happy to hear the good news about your mother and her recovery. I remember the Fisher Price Bee. Even with a five minutes stop at the thrift store, you found wonderful items.
    Happy St. Patrick's Day

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  3. thank goodness for thrift therapy. If we didn't have that, we might some kinda wild and craaaazy gals.

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  4. I am so glad your Mom is doing so well! She has been through an ordeal and has handled it with grace! Love your finds and the fisher price bee is adorable! Hugs, Linda

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  5. Glad your mom is definitely on the mend. That doozie of a roommate sounds horrendous!

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  6. Firstly, glad your mom is doing well. Secondly, take care of yourself and get some rest! Thirdly, I sell a lot of that Disney series myself, even though I never seem to find copies that haven't been read absolutely to death. Fourthly, love the FP Bee! Been selling a lot of FP lately as well. Fifthly, the arrangement of those shoe stretchers reminds me of the old atomic-style clocks. If you could figure out how to attach them together and bought a clock kit, maybe that would be an idea? Sounds like too much work to me, but you are far more industrious than I.

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  7. Can you send me a message about the first two books? I had those as a kid and am interested in purchasing them, beat up or not.

    thanks,
    barbara

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  8. So glad your mom is on the mend. Good finds as always.
    Cathy

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  9. How wonderful that your mother is out of the "turtle shell" It so glad to hear she is on the mend! Maybe you could make a clock out of the shoe strechers?!

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  10. I still have the set of 4 Disney reader books with the cardboard case from when I was a wee lass. ;) I should dig those out now that Marjorie is getting to the reading stage.

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  11. Great to hear your mom is on the mend. Like Eddie said, you take good care of yourself too girlie.

    and let me tell ya, boy oh boy you can find more amazing treasures in five minutes than I can all year!!!

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