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.

Friday, March 05, 2021

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

 I seem to start these posts off the very exact same way  every time, but I honestly can't believe that I haven't been on here since October.  It's such a weird time - it feels like time is standing still but also zooming by.  How can that be???  Also, it is March 2021 and it was JUST March 2020 a few days ago, right? 

My stepfather got both of his Covid vaccines, but no one else int he family has been able to get it.  My Mom and my Dad are eligible, but there aren't enough to go around right now.  My mom isn't concerned - she stays home all the time for real.  Like she has been out of her house maybe four times in the last year?  She is a homebody and hates going anywhere, so this is really like the best thing ever to her.  My stepfather is careful so that he doesn't bring it home to her.  He only goes to the grocery store and thru a drive thru every once in awhile.  Living with my Mom has made him a serious homebody too.  

The Breadman had an appointment for the vaccine, but then the state back stepped and pulled grocery workers off the list.  So, he's waiting again.  He wears a mask, gloves, disinfectants everything and changes as soon as he gets home.  I am careful too and do the same things.  I go grocery shopping in the afternoon on a weekday when it's less crowded.  I still go thrifting - mostly to the Bins.  I can keep my distance in my mask and gloves and have a grand old time.  I tried hitting all the thrifts one day and I had little luck finding anything to buy and I encountered new people at each thrift.  I decided it was safer to make one weekly stop at the bins where I can only encounter a few people and I do stay way more than six feet away from them.

Here are some bin finds from this year.



Fun old cookbooks and a wonderful old chippy paddle.


I love old cookbooks with character.  There are people there scanning books and they toss the beautiful old books off to the side and I POUNCE on them.  The cow is celluloid and the little clock is just sweet as can be.


My friend offered the little chairs to me just as I found the old Bert and Ernie.  Aren't they fun?



This old wicker doll bed rocker was a good find.  The rockers had come off of it, so everyone tossed it away.  I fixed it in about three seconds with the drill.  You have to look for the potential in things at the bins and be prepared to work on somethings.  


This lovely old doll head was just rolling around in the bottom of a bin.  She was headed to the landfill, so I am happy to have saved her.  


This was a big framed portrait - some one pulled the photo out of the frame and I grabbed her.  I cut her out to make it look like she's really there.  She's about two feet tall.  I named her Penny because that's what she cost!  


I grabbed an old Fisher Price barn and found all these guys in the hayloft.  So many!




This old puzzle is just lovely and I ADORE the graphics on the box.


I don't deal in clothes, but I will grab vintage when I find it.  This is a Kenny Rogers Western shirt.  Someone will LOVE it, I think.  


I'm always amazed when I pull a vintage tablecloth out of the linen bins.  



I have bought about 15 quilts this year - most are really great picnic blankets and that is how I will sell them.  But this one seems to date from the Civil War.  I'm going to take it to the local Civil War museum and see if they know more about it. 

I am supposed to be working on taxes, but updating this old blog of mine seemed more important today.

Drop me a comment so I know you're still out there!  


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