what do we do with the elephant in the corner?

so, Spooky Daddy, Little Spooky & I went thrifting on Sunday, just because the weather had been so bad all weekend that we HAD to get out of the house. I have long said that I have "thrifty Spidey senses," and on Sunday, the idea just popped into my head that we needed to GO!

well, I usually tend to start at the front of the store and work my way back, because I know the good stuff is always at the back and I save it until last. Spooky Daddy, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. He goes straight for the good stuff! So as I was browsing the front, I failed to notice that he'd camped out with several large objects that he'd laid claim to, and he was trying to get my attention.

His first treasure was an orange and yellow Little Tykes picnic table that looks something like this. It was only $5, and we had to get it, because it is exactly the same one that I had when I was a kid. I can remember drawing so much at that table, and sitting indoors at it, watching the Golden Girls and Night Court while eating little pieces of cheese and Vienna sausages. It's amazing how $5 can bring back about a million great memories!

The second treasure he found was THIS THING!

It was only $2, and even though it is huge, we finally reasoned that we had to add it to our crazy collection because we had never seen anything quite like it before. We thought a while about what to do with it, and finally both agreed that it would be perfect to plant something in. I've had my eye on these small fancy braided fig trees at Home Depot since mom's day, and I think the elephant is the perfect container for one!

The inside seems pretty well suited to holding a plant, and there's already a large hole in the bottom for drainage. I figure that if I fill the bottom with rocks, it should be great!

Spooky Daddy is working right now on stripping the red paint off, because as awesome as it looks all chipped & stuff, I wanted to restore it to it's original look, if I could locate a photo. Well, it took a whole lot of Googling, but I finally found a small photo of what it originally looked like on eBay. Someone was wanting to find an "elephant toybox from the 70s" in the want section.




Now I'm not so sure if I want to restore it. The original paint job is kind of crazy & not the best quality. I might base what I do to it off of this photo, because I REALLY like the idea of a polka dot elephant planter! But I think I will work on his face more. Let me know if you have any other ideas!