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.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Shara Lee Bought Sara Lee

Yo Yo YO! It's me.  Whomp.  Whomp.

Every night I think "I WILL BLOG TONIGHT!" and then I get all lazy and brain dead and I don't do it.  But, tonight's the night!

So, we bought a business.  We bought the route that the Breadman has run every day for the past five years.  It's a weird thing, but that's how most chip, bread, cracker and cookie businesses are run now.  You buy your route and the company pays you a percent (higher than as when you're an employee).  There are expenses like a route payment, a big box truck truck payment, insurance and other things.  But, the company takes all of that out of your end before you get it, so you are paying, it, but not having to actually "pay" it.  He has a big territory and the possibility of building it up even more, so that is great.  Hopefully, we can pay someone to do part of the work within a year so he can have some structured time off.  He works from 2 am until 5 pm most of the time and no days off either.  

With this comes lots of paperwork, record keeping, planning and thinking and guess who that falls to - lil ole me.  UGH.  Just when I think I can't handle one more thing - BOOM - business licenses and taxes and leasing a truck and getting a million dollars insurance coverage and blah, blah, blah becomes part of my life.  My brain is still full of hospital terms and electrical terms from the past four months.  MY BRAIN IS FULL. 

His route is through Saralee.  That is really strange for me, because that is the thing of childhood taunts and jr. high sexual taunts.  My name is Shara Lee -I dropped the Lee when I was about 9 or so.  But, I got plenty of Muffin jokes and Cake jokes and on and on.  "Nobody doesn't like SaraLee" became "Nobody likes SharaLee!"  So, here sits this big truck with my nemesis on it.  UGH.

Here's one little good thing for ME - I can use the bread truck to haul my crap-ola to my junk shows.  Yippee.  No more rentals, so more $$ to keep.  So, that will be nice.  

Speaking of which, the Junk Ranch is coming fast.  Hard to think that June 8 is only 52 days away.  I have done NOTHING to prepare other than drag home junk to sell.  Time to get hopping on the fixing up, making and pricing.  I bought a new fancy tent with some of my casino winnings, so I am excited to use that.  It has walls, half walls, a door and all sorts of different ways to set it up.  It's 10 x 10 (my old one was 8 x 8 and that was awkward in a 10 x 10 space) and it's........PINK!  Like Pepto Bismol PINK.  My favorite!  Here it is if you want to see it:  tent

For some reason or another, my icloud account no longer reads my iphone, so I have NO access to any of my photos.  That's half the reason I haven't blogged.  A post without photos is just BORING.  I need to try and figure that out, but my brain is full to the very tippy top.  Someday, hopefully.  If you don't already follow me on Instagram, please do - I post some of my better and fun finds on there almost daily.  I have a lot of IG followers, but I will always love the long time blog readers most.  
I AM TALKING TO YOU!

I'll be back.  Just like Arnold.  Pinky swear!



9 comments:

  1. Yay for the business purchase! I love the pink tent! Get going on your projects girl, June will be here before you know it!!

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  2. YEH!! Sounds like things Are a Happening in Arkansas - You go Girl!!

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  3. Congrats on the business purchase! I'll head over to Instagram now!

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  4. Do I need to go with the Chanelle jokes? They still happen.

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  5. A pink tent!!! I love it. I want it. I need it. But I'll settle for my two tiki umbrellas that I have chosen to use for outdoor shows now. I don't do a lot of them now but it's so much easier to set up with the tikis. I use lightweight folding Christmas tree bases to hold the umbrellas up. I used to use cast iron bases but lugging those got old fast.

    I do have a very old but faithfully sturdy EZ up - so old that it's the one that weighs a TON - built very well. She's never let me down all these years. At one air show where we vendors set up and left our tents for the night, strong winds blew across the air field overnight and knocked down and mangled most everyone's tents. We drove in to a mess. We lowered our tent at half height before we left and she stood safe and sound. Granted she moved a few feet over even though we weighed her down but that was it. But she's getting a little yellow and probably could use a good scrub too. I should get a tiki canopy cover!

    Congrats on your new business! The truck is the best perk ever! I would probably eat the profits in Sara Lee pound cake!

    Don't stress about the Junk Ranch - you always pull it off Fiddy Boo!

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  6. Hey I loved you blog and would love to follow you on instagram, but didn't find you there as Shara Lee, or Shara Stacks or monkey box. and don't see a link here, but I might be missing it. If you ever make it to western Arkansas, you need to visit my flea market booths, I sell vintage jewelry, (I am online too) Brooches are my favorite so might hoard them. ROFL

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    1. Hey - I am @sharamonkeybox on Instagram. I saw you leave a comment that you came to town - I hope some of my pointers helped. But, as you know, thrifts can be hit or miss! You'll have to come back to The Junk Ranch someday!

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  7. Anonymous6:27 PM

    Please! No one is blogging anymore and I need my monkeybox fix! Even if photos with quick captions will do. Please oh please. Thanks.

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  8. I'll be back - I promise. I miss all the blogs too! I have been in a bit of a funk the past few months. Plus, I am super busy getting ready for The Junk Ranch. I'll be back with a recap. You've made my day - thanks for posting!

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