A Good Junking Day

I've been reading on a lot of blogs that the yard sale season is drawing to a close. But, around here, the yard sale season gets very busy from now until it gets cold. I love fall yard sales - first one there, digging through boxes wet with dew, hands cold so you can't feel them, but you just keep on digging. These are the sales where people clean house, dump out the barn, clean out the outbuildings and let it all go. Not just a tarp full of clothe,s books and kitchen stuff. Good stuff. Lots of good stuff! Generally the last two weekends in September and the first two weekends in October are prime yard saling weekends. Today was no exception.

Four gingham aprons - 25¢ a piece for two and the other two were in a big box of assorted linens for $1.00. I bought the box just for the aprons, but found some other goodies in the box when I got home. The pink one needs a good long soak in the Oxiclean, but I think it will come out fine. I decided to only keep and collect the gingham ones, and lately that is all I have found. I just might get a collection as good as Linda!

I commented earlier in the day that I hadn't found a tablecloth in awhile. I found this one a bit later for $1.00 and was very happy to have found it. It has a small hole in the middle right, but not so bad that it bothers me. I bought two, but the other one turned out to be more faded that I first thought. I have a rule that if a tablecloth costs less than $1.00, I buy it without unfurling it and risking grass or oil stains in the driveway. I am usually lucky and the tablecloths are in good shape. This one has such bright colors, that I don't mind the hole. I just strategically fold them and stack them up so you can't see the hole anyway.
I thought this potholder hat with potholders was funny for only 50¢. It's made out of some sort of old cardboard packaging and has great old millinery flowers on it.
This Lucite cake carrier was $1.00. It was my first buy of the day and I was eager to buy some vintage junk. I bought it without looking at it very closely and didn't notice the small crack in the base. Not so bad it isn't usable, but bad enough I probably won't be selling it (which was my intention).
A wooden FLOUR and SUGAR canister set for $1.00. I like the fruit motif, but they are for resale.

An old Garvey pricing tool. I had coveted the one that Heidi found back way back in March, so I was very happy to find this one today. This is what they used in the grocery store to price canned goods and other items back in the day. My dad worked in the grocery store and I always heard the chu-chut sound of these pricers. I have some old jars I keep my four and sugar in and they still have the purple prices on them from a marker like this one. I buy so much old stuff that it is nice to find an item that has special memories for me specifically.
An old wooden shopping list for 50¢ with staples such as Lard, Doughnuts and Cigarettes on it. Mmmmmmmmm...Good!

Yet another canister set - all yellow and only $1.00 for the set. Once upon a time they had flour, sugar, coffee and tea on the fronts, but it is mostly faded away. I still think they are neat and will make good storage.
Two tabletop blowmolds for resale. I asked how much they were and the lady said, "Oh, those are Mama's, I'll ask her." "Mama,how much for the plastic Santa's?" "The WHAT?" "The plastic Santa's." "Where?" "The ones on the table in the driveway." (Where most yard sale items generally are, as a rule). "Oh, those," Mama said. Que the Jeopoardy theme song while she thinks and thinks. Then she said, "A quarter." The daughter said, "Mu-other! Those are OLD!" Then Mama looks me square in the eye and says, "A quarter each." Whoa, back up Grandma, that's too much. She was happy with her 50¢, but the daughter was not.
A pair of really cool old Orna-Wood bookends for $1.00. Not sure if I will sell these or use them in The Bean's room with his other Native American things.
Nine packs of vintage rickrack (two not shown because I found them under the car seat after I took the photo), a ballerina cupcake topper, a bunny cupcake topper, a handful of old candle holders for a cake and a set of marble Tiki cocktail picks - $1.25 for everything.

I found this great old Christmas gift wrap box in a suitcase full of old sewing patterns. The sewing patterns and the suitcase were $10.00 for everything. I asked the lady at the sale if I could take the patterns out of the box, put them back in the suitcase and just buy the empty box. As I asked this, about seven people were shopping and they all just stopped dead in their tracks and looked at me like I was a complete doofus. An empty box? Why would she want an empty box? The lady having the sale who has flea market booths and knows her stuff looked up at me and said,, "Oh yes,that is a great box!" Everyone went back to their shopping. I suppose they decided it wasn't such an odd question after all. The red in the background is a big roll of wrapping paper sized crepe paper. It was in a big pile of new-ish wrapping paper for 50¢. I asked if I could buy the one roll for 50¢ and leave her the rest of the pile to sell to someone else. She understood, but once again, I stymied the other shoppers. I really don't know what I will do with this, but it was only $1.00 and I had to buy it. A full case of McKesson's Soothe Skin Hand and face Lotion from the 1940's. The box even has the Santa Fe Railroad tickets attached to it. There are twelve bottles and they are all full and it still smells good, although I wouldn't actually use it. The bottles are glass, so the case is quite heavy. It's just neat, don't you think? Why didn't it sell? Where has it been the past 70 years?

Tomorrow we are going to the Sorghum Festival. Last year we stood in line for half an hour waiting for our first taste of freshly made sorghum. Well, that's half an hour we'll never get back. That stuff is nast-y. Blech. But along with the sorghum there is square dancing, clogging, fiddling, a Dutch Oven Cook-Off and free tasting, butter making, a tractor show and all sorts of other slightly hokey Ozark-y things. I am not a fiddlin', cloggin', square dancin' gal, but I think it is fun to watch for an hour a year. That's about long enough. New to the festival this year is a flea market. Hmmmmmmm.....

Worth a Thousand Words

I've been taking a slew of photos with my new camera, but this is the first time I have been able to post any of them. I like to take pictures of people, but my real love is nature and old buildings. I am lucky to live in an area of such natural beauty where everything, and I mean everything, is so beautiful.

I love this odd old building in the middle of the lake. I don't know what it is really for, but it is just cool. We have been there before and I have taken lots of photos of it, but on this visit, the sun was setting and the reflection of the building in the water was a new view for me.

I love the way you can't tell where it all starts and where it all begins. It's just pretty and serene and peaceful there.
A bunch of odd fungi growing on a tree near the waterline. Some people think things like this are ugly and nasty, but I think they are natural, unique and interesting.

Here's the so-called "river" after Ike came through last weekend. Those trees in the middle of the river aren't anywhere near the water's edge normally, let alone in the center of the river. It was rushing like rapids in a movie when we were there. We were in a parked car sitting on the ridge, but with the rush of the water, we had vertigo and it felt like we were rushing by and not the water.

A heart rock I couldn't bring home. It was probably 12' across and below a 40' bridge. But, it will always be there for us to see when we visit the lake.


Another reflection photo. There was a guy in a kayak just in the "v' there to the left. It looked like a peaceful lace to take a float.
There's my building again. Why do I love it so?
The County Fair. I never knew there were so many kinds of chickens and bunnies and turkeys, oh my.

The Horticulture building at the County Fair. Such a gorgeous mix of green and purple. It won Grand Champion, and rightfully so.
Jams, jellies, green beans, relish, applesauce and all other sorts of canned goods. The most remarkable part about these jars is that each and every one was canned by someone under the age of 16! The Adult categories were slim this year, but the Junior Divisions were packed.
Wow. Is he ugly or pretty? I can't decide. I'll settle at different, that's for sure.
This sheep reared up on his hind legs and threw his head over the fence to give me and The Bean a kiss. He liked us, he really liked us!
I love the colors of the Fair -Pinks & Aquas, you can't do better than that. And,they have the food pyramid - Cotton Candy, Popcorn and Candy Apples!

I took 356 photos, so consider yourself spared from The Bean's birthday,the gummy rats we ate at the party, 56 photos of various chickens and nearly 80 photos of our three cats. You're welcome!

Of Wrecks and Junk

I had an email today from The Queen of Fifty Cents telling me that my now famous birthday "monkey" cake was being featured today on Cake Wrecks. She said she had "outed my cake" to Cake Wrecks. I had submitted it too shortly after my birthday, and received a nice email from Jen, Ms. Cake Wreck herself, declaring her horror of the so-called "monkey". But, it hadn't shown up yet, so I thought it might not be wreck-worthy.

But, then I took another look at it, and knew it had to be Wreck worthy. So, thank you Queen for letting me know that it finally made it. Be sure to read some of the comments on Cake Wrecks. Too funny!

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I made a quick run to the Super Cheap Thrift today. I have really good luck finding books there to use for our homeschooling. So, I hate to miss an opportunity to go when I know they are open. Today I found a good Science book, a 7th grade Health textbook and a big book all about trains - how they are made, how they run, how they came to be, etc. All for 25¢ each. So, worth the trip. So, anything else was just the proverbial icing on the ugly monkey cake, right?

Set of very heavy metal "Thinker" bookends. I saw these at a yard sale last Friday for $5.00. Got them at the thrift today for 75¢. I love it when people price things high and then donate them!

Three old metal receipe/filing boxes. I thought I could use them in my craft supplies that I am trying to get organized. I've mentioned before that the pricing can be odd at this thrift - different people volunteer every day and price things differently. Case in point - these boxes. One was 25¢, one was 35¢ and the third one was 50¢. Go figure. Still, $1.10 isn't bad for three nice old metal boxes.

Now for the "Oh, no you did-un't" purchase. A pair of scarecrow bunnies. I do not need these. I have too much fall decor. I have too much Halloween decor. I do not need these. I picked them up three times and put them back. But, that fourth time, in the bag they hopped. Especially after I saw they were only 25¢ each. I do not need these. I want them!

Outside the store they are still throwing random things in a box for FREE. I dug these two old tins out of a box and had The Bean run them to the car. They are old and have neat old pictures on them, but aren't overly special. But, for FREE, why not?

And, lastly, a set of homemade "Snowbabies". They are cute/ugly. Homemade ceramics, covered in glitter. Actually, they are sort of sweet and I know someone worked hard to make them. I know that this Christmas, nestled in some greenery with some twinkly lights, they will be cute and the ugliness won't show. Much. They were 25¢ each. The lady at the counter "ooh'ed" and "ahhh'ed" over them and showed them to everyone in line saying how CUTE they were. Glad I didn't mention I found them to be borderline ugly. She might have kept them!

Winner and Some Junk

First matter of business: The Beanerator drew the winner for my giveaway and the winner is......Wendy! Congratulations! Drop me an email with your address and I will have a box of goodies on it's way to you ASAP. Thanks to everyone for commenting!

Friday I hit a couple yard sales. Not much out there right now, but I found a few goodies to make me happy.

This wicker tray is really not my type of thing, but I loved those gianormous corn handles. They are huge heavy pewter corn on the cob which I think must really be drawer handles. ('Scuse the nosey cat).
I took the handles off and redonated the tray already. Not sure what I will do with two big pewter ears of corn, but when I think of an idea, I've got them!
I found all three of these items at the thrift. They were scattered about the store, but I think they must have come from the same donor. Left to right - decorative a noisemaker, big package of old chopsticks priced 29¢ originally and a very old Asian doll. I paid $2.00 for all three items.
Wow, what a crappy photo. Oh, well. I was happy to find this cool old Dymo Labelmaker for $1.00. I was happy to open the box and find five big rolls of label tape inside the box as an added bonus.

I've done a little Junkreating lately. I bought a rather blah old corkboard last week at the Super Cheap Thrift for 25¢. I painted it white, sanded it a bit, added the vintage feedsack material, matching pink rickrack and a few old buttons. This will go in my Office to hold photos and notes. I think it turned out sweet.

When we had the A/C replaced, they put in all new duct work in the centers of the room which left the exiting vents above the doors useless. We need to have sheet rock put over them someday, but until then, I am finding decorative ideas to cover the holes. This is a piece of old door that I salvaged years ago - it has the chippiest red paint on it. I attached the old 1966 Kansas license plate (I was born in KS in 66) to it and hung it over the vent hole. This is in the bathroom which is covered in old tin signs, so it fits right in. I like it.

The Bean and I are reading about Anne Frank and we are pretty wrapped up in it reading it all day. We read the Biography and watched the moive last week, now we are starting the actual Diary. I know we should have watched the movie last, but it came in at the library first. Plus The Bean liked it and it peeked his interest so he is ready to read the Diary. We read the play version when I was in 7th grade and I read the part of Anne. I really got wrapped up in it then too. If you haven't read it lately - I recommend it!

Over 100,000 Served

I missed a monumental moment on the old bloggity blog that I had been watching and anticipating for weeks and weeks. I had been watching my Visitor Counter rise over the past year and sometime this week, I surpassed 100,000 visitors. I have it set for unique visitors, so once you visit one time, you aren't counted again. I know that I have loyal faithful guests that visit every day, but I also know that a lot of those visitors have just clicked right on by and not read a word of monkeybox. (Poor souls don't know the junk they are missing. ha.)

Today I looked and I had 100,428 visitors as of right that very second. That's a lot of folks stopping by, even if they didn't stick around or come back for seconds. I always dreamed of writing for a newspaper or writing a book, but my life didn't seem to go that way. Yet, anyway. So, knowing that 100,428 people stopped by my blog, even for a milisecond and read a word or two, is just mind boggling to me. Mind boggling!

So, in honor of this monumental moment in my blogworld....a GIVEAWAY. Yea, me! Yea, you! Leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner and bestow upon them a big old box chock full of goodies! I have a lot of paper items, scrapbooking items, stickers, paper, cards and such for Christmas crafting that I will add to the box plus special goodies chosen just for the WINNER. Drawing to be held Sunday night at 9:00 pm Central Time. So, SIGN UP NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday's Thrifty Trick or Treat Treasures

I made a quick run to the Super Cheap Thrift today. I thought they might have started putting out the Halloween stuff, and they had. They hold holiday items until the appropriate time and then they bring out cartload after cartload every day. I don't need anymore holiday things, but I am always on the search for vintage items and things for swaps. But, let's be honest. Even though I don't need any more holiday items, that doesn't stop me from buying more. I have been on a massive holiday decor purge in the recent months. I finally know what I like and what I don't like. I don't want a lot of the things I acquired when I had my apartment or was first married just so I would have holiday decor. So, those things are gone and I am on the hunt for neat old things for me.

This handmade clay witch oil lamp was so sweet, I had to grab it and especially for only 55¢. Her head comes off so you can pour in the lamp oil.
Three little handmade pins - two Halloween and one Winter themed for 10¢ each. I thought these would be sweet pinned on bag or in a swap.
I was on my way to check out when I made one last run to the Halloween area and saw they had just set out this 12" tall Halloween blowmold. And, for only 55¢! Yea, me! It's for resale.
This little witchy girl is a handpainted ceramic piece, which normally isn't my cup of tea. But, she is sweet and rather cute and rather large - over a foot tall. She a only 45¢. She's signed and dated 1974 on the bottom.

I liked this wooden bluebird with it's tin wing and beaded streamers with bells because I thought I might give a try at making some one day too. He was a 10¢.
This little Vinegar Cruet was 25¢. I know it should have an Oil Cruet with it, but the odd thing about the Super cheap Thrift is that I often find the other half of a set a week later and sometimes even a month later. So, I took a chance at buying the Vinegar thinking I just might happen on the other one day soon.
These three little Kewpies were in the 5¢ bin. They were wearing the oddest teeny crocheted clothes when I bought them. They are only about 3" tall, so the idea of someone actually taking the time to crochet itty bitty shoes for them was funny to me. I think Kewpie's are cute and always rescue them when I see them. But, I honestly have no idea what I will ever do with them. I just can't leave them!

My favorite lucky find of the day. An old Doll-e-Bed Highchair by Ansco. It is tin and stands about 7" tall. Love the little graphics on the back of the seat and the fabulous aqua color. I spotted it on the toy aisle marked $1.50. Now, $1.50 is a really cheap price for an old tin toy, but since I am accustomed to spending 15¢ or 35¢ for things at that thrift, I stood there thinking, "Wow. $1.50. That's a lot. Hmmm." Dork. It would have been $15.00 at the Salvation Army. Luckily I came to my senses and snatched it up. I should sell it and I probably will, but I want to look at it and enjoy it for a bit before I sell it.

Diversions

Last Friday half of the front of our house got ripped off. Literally. Gone. When our house was built in 1993, for some insane reason, they didn't put guttering or an overhang on it. So, for all those years, every time it rains, the rain has ran down the siding and under the siding, causing the particle board to rot over time. Oh joy. Just what everyone wants - rotten walls. But, they are being fixed and we are having guttering installed, so the problem will be over soon. I suppose once you have lived in the same house for 14 years, things start to go wonky and you have to do some work on it. We are the talk of the neighborhood - everyone keeps showing up asking what is going on? and why are we doing this to our house?

I installed a new porch light fixture yesterday which spruced things up too. It looks like an old railroad lantern. I got it on clearance at Lowe's for $3.00 marked down from nearly $50.00. I love the Clearance at Lowe's - they go bananas and just mark things a few dollars to move it out. I've replaced nearly every light fixture and outlet cover recently by finding things on clearance at Lowe's. I also bought new house numbers and a HUGE rusty looking star for the front porch. We are going to paint the front door, garage and shutters a new matching color too. I am leaning towards a charcoal gray.

To make me not remember that my house is being ripped apart - I present to you some diversions.

Found at The Dollar Tree today:

A box of candy boogers. We haven't eaten any, nor do we plan to eat any. The gross factor is just a little too eeeeeeew.
Does anyone watch Drake and Josh on Nickelodeon? This boy, Josh Peck, is one their. He was once a cute chubby kid, then he returned one summer and had lost some weight and gotten taller. He was still a teenager and just a good looking kid. But, then this happened:
Ha-cha-cha. He got HOT! Smokin' hot. He was answering phones on "Stand Up To Cancer" the other night and I was the only one that recognized him. Yowza.

Let's see......a few more diversions. Here's a funny story. The Bean has a Kajeet phone which is a phone for kids. The parents control the time and the money based on behavior, grades, etc. We got it for free as a Beta tester two years ago. Since we were beta testers, they set up the account under The Bean's name and not mine. I've never had to contact them for any reason. Until today. The Bean asked for a new camera phone for his birthday and I needed to activate it. But, the Kajeet dude wouldn't let me access the account since it was in The Bean's name. He wanted to talk to the Bean and get his permission to let me access his account. The entire purpose of Kajeet is for the parent to control the phone - not the kid! Since I wouldn't let The Bean talk to the dude (just because I was feeling pissy about the whole thing), I made my husband call them later and pretend to be The Bean. The Kajeet dude kept asking him, "How old are you?" "What is your favorite subject?" It was really quite comical seeing my husband pretend to be thirteen. Right before he was finished he said, "Can you add my Mom to my account so I don't have to do this next time?" Great, now I am my husband's Mom.

Hmmm..what else? Yeterday I was headed into the bathroom when I made a sharp left to go through the doorway and three of the toes on my right foot went with me, but two went to the other side of the door jamb. Ouch. I have the purplest toe ever and it hurts. And, did you ever notice that when you have an injury like a broken toe that you tend to drop things on it, stub it and even your family tends to step on it???????

I've made a few changes to my blog concerning comments. No more Anonymous comments. 99% of the comments I get are not Anonymous, but the few that I do get are sometimes not so nice. Especially concerning a few posts I made a year ago or so about the D*uggar family. So, I am hoping if anyone really wants to make a good useful comment, they will become a registered user. I really don't see the point in leaving a hurtful comment on a blog when that person will most likely not be returning to follow up on it anyway. It's just hurtful and makes me feel violated in my blogworld. Also, if you don't have an email attached to your account when you comment, I can't follow up on your comment. So, if you make a comment or have a question and don't hear back from me (or from anyone else's blog, for that matter)- you probably don't have an email attached to your profile.

So, how's that for a random post - house repairs, boogers, a hottie, a phone story, a broken toe and a bunch of whining by ME!

September 6, 2008

Breaking News:

The

is

Oh My!

Happy Birthday Bean!

Love, Mom!

Back to the Beginning

When I started this blog, I called it My Deal of the Day. I wanted to chronicle some of my deals that I get at the grocery store and other stores. Well, that got rather boring after a while and I started chronicling my thrifting stories and that took over the old bloggity-blog. So, in honor of the original idea of this blog - here are my Deals of the Day:

I knew I was going to Target today so I checked Fishing for Deals to see what sort of deals were going on. I found that 12 ct. Pop-Tarts were on sale 4/$9.00. That is $2.25 a box, so a bit cheaper than my regular store. Plus, part of the Target ad is after you buy four, you get a $5.00 Target Gift Card, bringing the price down to $4.00 for four boxes - $1.00 a box. Now we're talking. But, wait, there's more! At A Full Cup you can go to the Target coupon generator and print out a coupon (or eight like I did) for 50¢ off each box, bring the price of each box down to 50¢ a box. Now, that, my friends is a deal.

Eight boxes of Pop-Tarts at 50¢ a box. Plus there is a form on each box for a FREE book with two proof of Purchases. So, that is four free books on top of my already good deal. (But, you know it will get even better before I am done).
Special K Bars are also part of the 4/$9.00 with a free $5.00 Gift Card Ad. Take off the $5.00 gift card and you are down to $1.00 a box. But wait! ;o) I belong to Vocalpoint and get coupons in the mail from time to time. Not long ago I got an envie full of $1.00 off any Special K bars. $1.00 off $1.00 equals freebie city. So, all eight of these cost me Na-Da.

I did have to pay the pre-Gift Card price for all 16 of these items, but I used a $25.00 gift card from MyPoints to pay. I only used $12.00 off it, plus I got $20.00 in Gift Cards on top of that. There is also a $10.00 Kellogg's rebate when you buy 10 items on one ticket, so I will send in for that, bringing my entire cost for 16 boxes of PopTarts and Snack Bars to zero, plus I still have the $20.00 in Gift Cards.

On to Walgreen's for my next deal. This week Life Savers are Buy One Get One Free. I had six coupons for Buy One Get One Free, so that made for twelve bags for free. When I checked out, three of the coupons came off fine, but the other three didn't. I paid the checker, but she asked for a manager to see why the other three wouldn't come off correctly. Actually, I knew why, Walgreen's prices are so random that it messes up the system. One flavor rang up $1.99, then the free one was free. One flavor rang up $1.00, then the second one was 99¢. Another one rang up $1.39 and the next one was free. Each flavor had a different random price. After ten minutes of the manager taking my coupons and receipt and leaving the front end, he came back and told me that under no circumstances where those valid since they were already Buy One Get One Free, so I couldn't use them. The register had taken off the first three fine, so obviously it would take them. He did say that I had been overcharged 50¢ (Not sure how he decided that), but made no effort to give me my 50¢. He was talking to me like I had tried to pull a fast one or down something wrong, so I just really didn't feel like pushing it or making a big deal out of it, so we left. I like to feel good about my deals, not guilty. The other six that I didn't have a coupon for were Buy One, Get One Free, so I only paid about $3.00 for all twelve in the end. And, probably, just to prove that I did no wrong, I will take the other three coupons to my Walgreen's (I should have gone there in the first place) and get six more bags for FREE. Trick or treat candy for free at my house.

So, that is probably more than you ever wanted to know about my Deal of the Day. If you want a snack or some candy - come on over. We are all set.

Tomorrow I am going to a Church Rummage Sale and an Estate Sale. The Estate sale is in a teeny town up the highway. The ad says that the poeple lived in the same house for 50 years and everything must be sold. Most Estate sales around here are just big yard sales. Not the high priced Estate Sales run by companies. There are a few companies around here that do hold high priced sales like that, but I usually only go to them to see fancy-schmancy houses and never buy anything. The sale tomorrow sounds like it could be a good one. I don't need a bunch. Just a treasure or two to make my day!

Junkreating Outside Edition

I spent most of the day watching the news of Gustav and glittering some Halloween goodies for a Halloween Swap. I got so wrapped up in watching the storm, that I was surprised every time I looked out the window and saw it was a beautiful sunshiny day. The weather forecast is calling for up to 12" of rain here in the very tippy NW corner of Arkansas. I cannot imagine how intense and strong a storm must be to drop that much rain this far inland. I feel fortunate to live in a place where there are not Tropical storms, Hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, volcanoes, floods or any other natural disasters waiting to happen.

I put the mantle out my the fence as I said I might. I think it makes a wonderful vignette. I need something inside the old window frame so it looks like art, but this is what I could do with what I already had in the yard. And, I think a sconce on either side of the window frame. I can see myself having an entire household out there, I already have a table and chairs, now a fireplace mantle. Can a bed be far behind?