Memories. I have none.

Today we cleaned out the garage. I'm always out there rearranging and organizing and donating things I no longer want or need along the way. But the day starts to draw to a close and I have to quit my work. There is one corner that never gets touched. It's in the very, very back. I thought I knew what was there - my old toy box full of Bobbsey Twin books, my Garfield collection form the 1980's, my albums (yes, I know, I need to get rid of them. But, I have so many good ones!) and DH's high school football and track crap awards. But, under that I found a couple mystery boxes. Hmmmmm..what could be in there, I thought? OH, my heavens! It was Halloween decorations from my childhood, my apartment years and our early married years in our first little house. A good lot of it went straight to the donate pile. Cheap things, Dollar store things, stuffed animals, junk in general. But! I found some treasures! A Beistle honeycomb turkey and pumpkin, Halloween die cuts from the late 1960's, and a few more goodies. I was happy to get rid of 95% of it, just to find the good 5% that I had forgotten about!

I found this guy in a box too. How could I forget him? Don't tell anyone...I have absolutely no recollection of this guy ever. Where did it come from? Did he just appear?

And, it gets worse! There's two! I forgot two!

I did remember her after I saw her, but I had forgotten about her. I don't remember where I got her, though. I love her Mother of Pearl buttons and her jaunty spider.

Trick or Treat? C'mon, spin the wheel! You spin the wheel and it decides if you get a trick or a treat. The box under it holds the goodies. I have no idea where this came from either. Never seen it. Nope. Nada. Not me. I can only imagine it came from an after holiday sale and I packed it away and promptly forgot about it. Either that, or I have Old Timers.
Whenever I am out thrifting or saling, I am on the lookout for cupcake picks. I adore cupcake picks. I just love to look at them. I don't think I would ever use my vintage cupcake picks on actual cupcakes for fear they would be thrown away. (That would be another plastic fork fight.***) I've been searching everywhere hoping to find some Halloween Cupcake Picks. I've looked at the thrift stores, yard sales, anywhere I look for vintage goodies. One place I never dreamt to took was in my own garage.

Two orange cats and two orange witches.

Two skull and crossbones picks, a funny pumpkin ring and a trio of skeletons.
Eight black cats. (I know these are such awful photos. I didn't think to take them while the sun was still out).

One funny black cat head. I love this one most of all.

I remember buying thesepumpkin ring cupcake toppers when I was a child, packing them away and thinking, "I bet when I find these when I am in my 40's that I won't even remember them!" Okay, none of that is true. Except the whole "not remembering them" thing. I have no memories of these either. But, Mama likes!

***A few years ago, I hosted a Wedding Shower for The Bean's 4th grade teacher. I bought really nice heavy weight plastic forks at the Party Store for her shower. They were the loveliest Pepto-Bismol-ish Pink.

After the shower, I had a handful of the forks left, so I put them in the silverware drawer. One night we ate a piece of cake and used the pink plastic forks. The next day I was washing dishes and there were only two forks instead of three.

I asked The Bean what he did with his fork. He had put it in the sink with mine, he said.

I asked The Breadman what he did with his fork.

His response? He...he....he...he threw it away! "YOU THREW IT AWAY, YOU THREW IT AWAY????" The Bean and I shouted.

"It's disposable," he said.

"It's not disposable," I said.

"It's PINK!"

I Prefer Lime

I found a few sales today on the way to and from the Library. I found only a few things, but I am happy to find a few good things and not bring home a ton of stuff. Plus, the prices were oh, so dirt cheap today.

The print is a very old "A Thought Of Mother" poem - so sweet with great old graphics along the borders. The book is Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The metal box has these great old dividers with metal Alphabet tabs. The pile of dice aren't that old, but they will fit into my crafty supplies and some will make their way into my "Junkreator Packs". The Bingo Cards were 25¢ at one sale, but everything else in the photo (plus the letters in a photo to follow) only cost a total of $1.00 at another sale.
The dividers pretty much fill up the box, so there's not much room for filing much of anything. I think there must be a craft use for those tabs and not just a utilitarian use. I love that there is a separate "Mc" tab for McDonald, McPhearson, etc.
Tom Sawyer has great old color plates strewn about inside. I just love old books. I would rather The Bean read an old copy like this that the new ones at the Library. It makes you appreciate how old the story is and how many people have enjoyed it in those years.
These letters were in an old cigar box and were quite dirty. I washed them up and they are as good as old. (!) Each letter is about 2" tall, so they are a good size. I can see all sorts of fun - Holiday words, collage art, swappy fun and more with these.
I had recently purchased two very small Pear Gourds that I intended to crack open next Spring and attempt to grow. But, I like my little pear gourds so much that I didn't really want to crack them open. Lucky me today when I found all these Pear Gourds at a sale for FREE. Hopefully I will get them dried out and ready for next Spring with no problem. For now, they are part of my Happy Fall Ya'll decor.

Okay, let's talk Jell-O. More specifically Jell-O molds. I have a fish shaped mold and a heart shaped Jell-O mold in my kitchen that hung in my Mom's kitchen my whole life, so it means something to me. But, I never really gave copper Jell-O molds another thought. That is, until today when I spied a bunch of them at a sale. (A sale, in fact, that was at the house directly behind my house. And there was a sale directly across the street from my house too. I had to go saling today! It was a sign! A Yard Sale Sign!) Oh yes, back to the Jell-O molds.....

There was a box chock full of old Jell-O molds. Four wreaths including one with roses.

Four typical Jell-O molds - I think the one with the acorn in the center is kind of neat.

Three different watermelon molds, a fish and what appears to be a bale of hay, but certainly isn't. Is it? Maybe it's cheese?

Two pineapples, a cluster of grapes, a lobster, a clover and a diamond.

Jell-O for every occasion!

These are my favorites. Love the cherry heart, the little birdie mold and the bunny mold. Those are keepers. The rest will be sold. I got all 27 molds for $5.00. I don't even know if they were worth buying, but seeing the whole collection sitting out in someones yard made me sad. Someone worked awfully hard to amass those Jell-O molds. And, now I have the whole darned collection. Time to make some Jell-O. I prefer Lime.

Boo! Eek! It's Halloween At My House

I drug out my Halloween decorations today and threw them up in the living room. Everything is clearly crammed into one corner and one corner only. I didn't think I would be able to get things out this year, but I longed to see my lovelies. I've been involved in swaps for about two years now and Halloween is one of my favorite swap themes. I've swapped with some talented ladies and I wanted to see my treasures from the past two years. So, it is up and out for me to enjoy.

Halloween Town corner. Lots of goodies. My look is certainly more folk art and vintage than it was several years ago.

This wall hanging was made by Jennifer at The Felt Mouse last year. Wicked cute!

A party hat made by me last year (and completely forgotten) with a "Boo To You" sign sent to me this year from Leslie in this year's Very Vintage Halloween Swap. (You can click on her link to see what I sent her.) An array of boo-tiful goodies including the baby on the white pumpkin - scored last year super cheap after the holiday, so new to me this year. The cool candle holder, battery operated candle and raven also came in this year's swap from Leslie aka Junkgirl. The paperweights in front are this year's creative endeavor by me.
See that baby - so dadgum cute! When I bought it it made me think of Andie's Boo - and it still does!

Here's my altered art paperweights a bit closer. They are hard to photograph since they are encased in glass, so they didn't make it to Etsy as planned. Maybe next year. I covered the backs in felt and they have rickrack trim on the edges. Sometimes I have trouble putting together a big collage in a day or so, but these little guys just come together *poof* fast.

A closer close-up. Grammatically correct, I think not. I bought an envelope full of that little girl's photos from Kindergarten to 8th grade. I feel bad making her into a witch - how would she feel if she knew what I have done to her?

The shelf of Goodies. The "BOO" banner in the center, the orange chandelier ornament, the witch's broom (it's a pen!) and the glittery pumpkin are all from Leslie.

The black cat shelf. Trick or Treat tag is from Jennifer and the skeleton is from Leslie, everything else was thrifted or bought after the holiday at 75-90% off.

The three little guys on the left and the "Boo" cupcake are from Hobby Lobby this year. I spotted them on half price day, so home they came. I love it when Hobby Lobby has specials like, "All Resin Items 50% off". That's half the store!

A sweet Bingo card Halloween card from Heidi, a painted pumpkin rock found by The Bean at the thrift last year and lots of other goodies.
Last year's crafty endeavor of pompom animals. I think she is sweet and I had forgotten about her. I made the itty bitty witch shoes the other night during "Dancing with the Stars". Actually, I never "watch" TV, my hands are always busy dong something while I watch TV. The only exception is when I watch "Lost". Can't take my eyes off Lost or I won't know what the h*ll is happening!
A set of nesting owls from my Mom for my birthday this year. I love nesting dolls, per say, and have several not including my Santa ones. These owls are particularly cute - I need to get them out and line them up.

I made this candy corn tonight. It was going to be a Candy Corn Man, but I ended up adding the buttons and rickrack trim to make it more folk art looking. I made the pattern, so I will just make a new pattern tomorrow night and make Mr. Candy Corn man then.

I made a thrift store run today after The Bean and I attended the U of A Insect Festival were we saw things like five inch long cockroaches, eight inch long millipedes, beetles the size of mice and other simply horrifying insects. My head is still itchy from just looking at those things! *Note to self - try not to think about the bed bugs, try not to think about the bed bugs......"

Anyway, back to the thrift score - one purchase only, but I think it was a good one.

A nice realistic fat pumpkin complete with vine for $1.00. It has a $24.99 price tag on it from Hobby Lobby. $1.00 is a good price for me!

Somebody Cleaned Out Grandma's House

Uh-Oh. Somebody cleaned out Grandma's 1960-70's decorated house and donated it all to the Super Cheap Thrift.

A 55¢ "Smoke and Sip" from now defunct "Dogpatch" theme park. What a better way to remember your family vacation to Dogpatch than to enjoy your morning cigarette and coffee? People do collect Dogpatch items so this is for resell.
"God Bless This Lousy Apartment" china plate. I think these old comical plates are funny. This one will be for resell as I do not live in a lousy apartment. I sold one a few years ago that said "God Bless This Lousy Trailer House". I have a collection of these old plates that I will have to share someday.
There were owls everywhere at the thrift today. Owls, owls, owls. Most were slightly creepy and oh so 1970's owls. I did like this wooden owl letter holder for 25¢ and the small porcelain owl for 15¢. The little handpainted pumpkin box was only 20¢ and maybe even made by Grandma herself!
Yes, I know. This is ugly. Four animals that are not even normally found in a natural habitat crammed into a wooden house in a cloche. It's ugly. I've already dismantled it and will reuse the cloche for some of my bluebirds and eggs. That won't be so ugly, right? It was only 55¢, so I took a chance at tearing it apart.

Speaking of ugly. Are you ready?

Yowza. Now, that's ugly. A huge plastic half barrel full of ginormous toadstools, plastic grapes, ivy, and a few sugared Christmas picks thrown in for good measure. Eeeew. But, like the cloche, take it apart and what do we have?
Really cool old toadstools in an array of colors. They are big - bigger than life actually. But pretty cool.
And, the half barrel isn't that bad once it is empty. I will add it to my Fall decor full of mini pumpkins and corn. The plastic grapes remind me of my childhood. We always had a bowl full of plastic fruit on the dining room table. That's cause we was class-y.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My new favorite Halloween items this year are these fun vintage inspired sets of Halloween Topiaries. They crack me up and add a whimsical twist with my vintage inspired decorations. (These are not handmade - but still really, really adorable!)

(Not sure why that glare is in the first photo - sorry). I have a couple of sets for sale if anyone is interested. A set of two is $20.00 shipped.

Each one stands about 10" tall.

Funny glittery punkin' head topiary.

Fat black cat topiary. $20.00 a set shipped.

Email me at monkeybox at juno dot com if you are interested.

Thanks!

Sometimes

Sometimes the stuff from the thrift store is good.

Sometimes the box that it came in is better.

Thursday's Thrifty Finds

Thursday yard sales are my favorite. Usually if someone is having a Thursday sale, they are having it for three days. Which should, and I stress should, mean they have a ton of stuff. Sometimes this is true, sometimes this is not true. When I read the Star Shopper yesterday, I noticed three Thursday sales in my town. (Have I ever mentioned that is exactly 1.3 miles from one city limit sign to the other?) One sale was at a house around the corner where an older couple lives. I go to their sales twice a year and always find a treasure. So, The Bean and I headed out about 10:00 (after some schoolwork) to see if any treausres lie in wait.

Oh wait, I forgot I had these photos from yesterday. Before our ghost trip, I made a quick dash into one thrift to see if they had put out any Halloween yet.

No Halloween, but I did find this musical revolving "Happy Birthday" cake stand. Sort of kitsch, but I think it will be fun with one of my giant cupcakes on it. It was $1.50.

I also got this sweet vintage puppy planter for 50¢. I just love the heft of old pottery.

Okay, back to today's sales. I spent 45¢ at one sale. Sad, eh? I bought a miniature glass oil lamp in the shape of a shoe for 25¢. I tried and tried to take a photo of it, but it is clear glass and just did not show up at all.

I also bought these slightly cute, but actually more scary rubber face Santa heads for 10¢ each.

We went to two other sales. One was disappointing because it was in an older neighborhood and the sign was written in shaky old handwriting, so I thought it might mean vintgae treasure heaven. But, it was baby stuff. Ack. Avoid. Avoid. The other sale netted only an M&M dispenser for The Bean's collection. This is a double dispenser with both Plain and Peanut on it - we had seen one at the Salvation Army for $5.00 last week, but this one was only $1.00. Score one for The Bean!

The rest of my treasures came from the sale at the older couple's house. When we arrived at their house, I was saddened to see a "For Sale" sign in their yard. They informed me they are moving to Senior Housing and that makes me sad for them. They say they just can't handle the upkeep of thier home anymore. I hope they are happy, they are nice people.

I was digging in the boxes of tools and I spotted this neat old sprinkler with it's original paper tag for only 50¢. The red thing is the sprinkler head, but it looks like a flower.
Another old wooden ruler. This one was $2.00. The best part about this one is that I walked right past it and didn't see it. The Bean picked it up and brought it to me. "Here's one of those rulers you like, Mom." GOD BLESS THAT BOY.

I hemmed and hawed over this last purchase for quite awhile. It was only $3.00, but sometimes $3.00 seems like a lot and I have to do some thnking and soul searching before I buy it. Sometimes I buy it, sometimes I don't. This is a vintage tablecloth, but not my usual type of tablecloth.

This is a quilted tablecloth. It's quite large as you can see I had to spread it out in the driveway to get a picture of it. I know it loks like a yo-yo quilt, but it's not.
Each one of those patchwork shapes is large - about 3" across. It is machine sewn and a mixture of both old and new fabrics. By old, I mean 1940's floursacks and by new I mean 1970's polyester. So, even the "new" is actually "old".

The entire back is made of a printed redwork design of little girls. It's not embroidered, just printed. But, it could be used quit side up or redwork side up for different uses. I think this is a tablecloth I would feel comfortable taking on a picnic to throw on a table or on the ground and not wory about staining it or ruining it. I like it, I gues that's all that matters. And, if I knew I was only going to spend $1.45 total at the other three sales I went - I would not have thought so long about this purchase!

A Beautiful Day

A few weeks ago our family tried to go on an adventure to find a little one lane open bridge that is rumored to be haunted*. The bridge is open on the sides with nothing to prevent you from driving right off the sides into the river. The day we tried to go, just happened to be the day after Hurricane Ike had roared through our city, unbeknownst to my sleeping family. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz we slept away as the wind howled and the rain fell along with trees in the neighborhood. The next morning, we rose from our slumber, jumped in the car and headed off in search of this bridge - the Tilly Willy Bridge. But, it was flooded out and under water because of the torrential wind and rain that we had no clue had happened the night before. Zzzzzzzzzzz. We got partway to the bridge, but had to come back home because of the flooding.

So, today we rescheduled adventure. This time we made it to the bridge. It was a bit uneasy driving over it and not even being able to see the sides on each side of the car. The water was low this trip, but I still didn't want to go over!After we crossed the bridge, we drove for seven miles on a dirt road looking for a lake that we had recently read about. I honestly did not know that there were still that many dirt roads in our area! When we did find the lake, we were thrilled to be the only ones there. We parked the car, walked the edges of the water, throwing stones, looking at frogs and cutting branches from the various types of trees. This was a family adventure day, but it was also a field trip day. We cut branches from every different type of tree that we could find, a lot of weeds, flowers, acorns, hickory nuts, persimmons, mussel shells and five different types of mushrooms. We didn't pick the mushrooms - we took photos for reference. Tomorrow we are going to look each thing up in our nature book and document it. So, see, it was educational!

As we were walking along the water, we heard a car driving up the dam. I got a little worried because we were the only ones out there and we were, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere. But, then I saw the car and it was a Sheriff's Deputy making his rounds. He stopped an visited with us for quite awhile, wished us a good day and then he left. So, we had a good feeling about being safe out there. We drove on to the other side of the lake, ate our picnic lunch and walked the nature trail. It was a gorgeous day with temperatures in the low 70's all day. The hills full of trees have a slight touch of orange and yellow to them. I normally am not an outside, hiking, walking on the edge of the lake kinda gal. But, when Fall arrives, I am outside a lot. I cannot get enough of the cool temperatures, the blue water, the clear sky, the changing leaves and all things Fall.

*The Legend of Tilly Willy Bridge: It's said that two fatal and tragic events took place on this treacherously narrow and decrepit structure. One story tells of a family, consisting of a husband, wife and new baby traveling home one dark late night. The baby was in the backseat began to fuss. Not wanting to awaken his sleeping wife, the husband turned to comfort the child, only to end up running their car off of the bridge. All three perished in the dark waters below.

The other is a similar tale of a woman losing control of her vehicle and as the last family did, plunged herself and her young son to their own untimely and watery deaths.

It is now said that there are several paranormal events which occur there. One is the sighting of a woman in a white dress dancing and twirling in the fields near the bridge, and reports of a green goblin-like creature skulking about by the water's edge. Sometimes a "ghost car" is seen crossing the bridge.

It's said that if you stop your car on the bridge and put it in neutral that your car will be pushed by unseen hands to safety and when you get out to investigate you'll find your rear window steamed up as if by the labored breath of your rescuers. Oddest of all are the hand prints, both adult and child-size, that are imprinted in the steam. (From Ghost Geeks. com)

I will say that after we came off the bride, we had a hand print on the back of our car, but I thought it must have been there before the dust from the dirt roads settled on it. But now, I 'm not so sure!