Giveaway results and a little garden produce...

I’m coming to the conclusion that full-time working mums don’t blog – how can anyone find the time?  Work is fun but really busy, and taking the time to relax with the boys in the evenings, with Ben and the boys at the weekend, and to keep the house tidy-ish (lol, lol, lol) means that blogging is sadly very secondary at the moment.

 

I did manage to meet, and even work with, a blogger a few weeks ago – Dormouse came to our area for a weekend course, and spent the Sunday night (and Monday morning, in class) with me! It was a flying visit but it was lovely to meet her in person and to be able to help out with accommodation and transport, and, in return, be helped with some interesting role plays in class!

So now I’m really happy to take some time to announce the winner of my magazine giveaway – chosen randomly by Son 1, the winner is Healing Woman, who left a really positive message of encouragement (not the only one of course - it's so nice to find your comments and even to read your posts inspired by my own). So, Healing Woman, congratulations and please send me your address by email ASAP, so that I can post it to you while it’s still in date!

I’ve prepared several other posts in a spare moment (waiting for hours with Son 2 at the doctor’s, unfortunately…) and I’m going to schedule them for you, because I have so much to share, even though there’s little time to share it. So please do keep reading, and if you have time and thoughts, please do leave a comment. I read your blogs on my phone, which doesn’t allow me to comment, but I am keeping up to date with you in my limited kind of way…

A First Pause in Advent - 'Essence'

Welcome to A Pause in Advent 2012, as readers and as ‘pausers’ ! This Pause in Advent is more challenging for me than others I’ve organised, as I’m working close to full time right now and our internet connection decided to desert us last week. I wrote this post on Saturday night and am now (Monday morning) in a McDonald's restaurant near to my next lesson, taking advantage of McDonald's free WiFi (and a diet coke and a salad...) It's been an enormous pleasure to log on and read all the kind and enthusiastic messages you've left me since our internet connection disappeared - my apologies to those who asked questions which I haven't been able to answer yet.

So, having more outside pressures at the moment, I’ve had to think about my priorities for preparing Christmas. What is really essential, and what is just a pleasant trimming? Or, to go with the title of this post, what is the essence of Christmas, and what is merely ‘Christmas-flavoured’?

I teach French people who work in the food industry, and one group had an interesting conversation last week about which ice creams are entitled to a vanilla flower on their packaging. If real vanilla essence is used, the packaging can be illustrated with the vanilla flower. If flavouring which has never seen a vanilla pod is used, then there is no right to use a picture of the flower. (Although unscrupulous producers do use it. No surprise there…)

So there we are – essence (the distilled ‘real thing’) and flavouring (a commercial attempt at copying the real thing).

 

For me, I’ve decided that to distil Christmas preparations down to their essence, I will need to focus on four things. I’ll post about one of those things, each Advent Sunday!

The first part of the essence of Christmas may well be tradition. I love the old traditions and I really enjoy the way that families and other groups quickly create their own traditions – there doesn’t need to be much age behind a tradition to make it significant. I hope that some of the other ‘Pauses’ are going to talk about these traditions, old and new, and I’m really looking forward to learning more about them. But another, very practical, aspect of tradition has really made itself clear to me this year.

I was far too busy teaching English to food producers (and others) to prepare much for Advent this year. So on Friday night I went to the box labelled ‘Advent’ and pulled out:

The Advent Tree made by Ben’s mum when the boys were little.

The Advent Wreath made by Ben from one of our firewood logs two years ago, after we’d burnt a hole in the old fabric wreath in our 'Pause' logo. (I need to add some greenery - I haven't had time yet!)

The Advent Nativity Scene bought by me in the Harrogate Fair Trade Shop about eleven years ago.

If I hadn’t had these trusty, traditional pieces tucked away, we wouldn’t have been ready for Advent. Last year I really enjoyed getting creative and making a fresh Advent wreath. This year I’m delighted to be revisiting the old favourites, which have allowed me to establish a genuine atmosphere of preparation in the home, with almost no work. Traditions make it easy to hold on to what matters – my new discovery of the week.

PS Ben has just started playing ‘O come, o come Emmanuel’ on the piano – full marks for Advent Essence, that man!

Those heady days...

... when there was time to blog...

Ah yes, I remember them well!

I haven't forgotten you, friends, and I'm aiming to do some posts in the autumn holidays, which start on Oct 29th!

A week away from blogging - and those tins!

Thanks for your encouraging comments about my new blog header and background, and also about my blogging break. I don't know if you ever find that you feel a bit out-of-sorts, and that the internet is becoming a prop which attempts (and fails) to improve how you feel? When I get like that, I know it's time for a week's break. Here is the story of this last week:

Shortly after I signed off, Son 1 and I decided to pop into the Troc Shop on our way past. They are usually pretty short of vintage stuff, normally veering between useful modern stuff, modern tat and antiques, so I was stunned to see this wonderful set of canisters there for 25€.

Far more than I would usually pay to add to my collection, but far more beautiful (and also more complete) than anything else I own. I was given 25€ for my birthday, so the canisters are now mine, and have inspired my first ever change of blog design, too!

On Saturday night we had an unexpected gift – the boys were invited to sleep over with a friend, so I booked (by executive decision) a table at the best restaurant in our town. As Ben loves good food and I usually book cheaper places, I knew this would be well received!

He and I spent the afternoon doing coupley-type things, choosing new glasses for him, buying some kit for our forthcoming camping trip, and trying on, but failing to buy, sandals. We dashed back from the optician’s to get changed and walked out, through the Coulée Verte, to the restaurant. Having been warned there was a wedding party I was anxious that we might not get a seat outside, in the old open barn, but the wedding party had checked the forecast and decided to go indoors! Ben and I therefore celebrated both my birthday (late) and our 22nd wedding anniversary (early) by eating a fantastic meal, drinking velvety wine, and not getting wet despite the flash thunder-storm. The wedding party was small and very sweet – an older man (very dashing) was marrying a woman a little younger (extremely tasteful lace dress) and their children and a few grandchildren made up the party. Other diners included one of Ben’s bosses!

After we’d finished our leisurely meal we strolled back through the town, as the Coulée Verte was too wet underfoot for a return journey in decent shoes. This gave us the opportunity of passing through the town’s youth music festival, which was actually well-attended by adults too. We spent most of our time (in the light rain) looking at le train d’enfer, a wonderfully old-fashioned fairground side-attraction, the aim being to push the skeletal train model up a steep track into the flaming mouth of hell… This and a few other old-French-style attractions were presented by exquisite young adults in black and white stripes, berets, skull carnival masks and other stunningly stylish accoutrements. Their every move was like something from a silent film, and the overall presentation was so different to a modern fairground. One game was a variation on what the Brits call ‘Bash the Rat’, but this time, children had to stab a speeding saucisse with a fork as it came down the tube! We watched one child win his saucisse, and then decided to head for home.

Sunday was quite a different day, with Ben heading off to the Netherlands with the aforementioned boss, and the boys coming home rather on the tired and ratty side… I did pop out to the weekly Vide Grenier that calls itself a Marché de Puces, and came home with some lovely bargains – usually, prices are quite steep there, but everyone seemed to be clearing out granny’s attic this week! I’ll post pictures when I’ve taken them… but immediately after coming home, I lost the camera! I know I only put it down briefly, but can we find it...?

It's my birthday!

One of our family quotes was started by my sister, 37 years ago:

"It's mine birfday! Happy birfday to me!"

We're celebrating quietly, as Son 1 has his own birthday and, more significantly, his Brevet exams, coming up next week. There will be a birthday tea and presents at the end of a working day... and part of my present is already here - I shall tell you about that later!

I leave you with a photo of the vintage ticking I picked up the other day, having an (unsuccessful) try-out on our sofa (looked good but scrumpled up too quickly).

I also leave you with two lovely blogs featured in my favourite magazines this month:

Emma from Silverpebble who's been a blogging friend for years now - how lovely to see her and my little silver bird pendant (or one like it) in Country Living this month!

Jenny from The Custards - how can I have missed her blog up until now? Fortunately, Homes and Antiques rectified this terrible situation...

So, two presents for you, but:

"It's MINE birfday!

Happy birfday to me!"

Vintage velvet and sequin crowns

On Saturday I mooched around a Vide Grenier in the shade of a Basilica church - life can be good! I found this extraordinary combination of black velvet and sequins,

and gold and silver tassels, too!

The sequins are (frankly) more wonderful than anything I've been able to track down on the internet - crowns, flowers and stars.

You can probably imagine that when I found the crumpled little ribbons, and stretched them out to see this strange shape, I was completely unable to work out what they actually were! I half-remembered a tiny set of braces that my mum made for my little sister when I was Gretel and she was Hansel...

but investigation at home shows that the right combination of hooks and eyes produces this sweet little collar!

It goes round my hand but certainly not round any neck in this family, so my instinct about it being for a child is surely right.

But what is it? As I've implied, my usually quite informative Google techniques have let me down this time. Beautiful white silk bows were worn for First Communion in France (I have one), but black velvet necklace/collars with sequins seem unheard-of. I'm working on the theory that it might be for a carnival costume, and a one-off. But I shall ask Kaari Meng, of the truly wonderful French General, if she has the time to pop over to my blog and have a look - she may be an expert in French fripperies but she is also a very friendly blogger, at The Warp and the Weft. If anyone can guess, it will be Kaari.

In addition to the mystery collar, I also bought some buttons (of course) a large piece of red striped ticking (my first), some more blue mottled enamelware and two vintage French tins. Mmmmmm...

Amazed!

Blogging creates the most wonderful connections - you know that for yourselves and I've experienced it in many ways before, perhaps most surprisingly with my Californian friend Shelley, who 'bumped into' me on the internet whilst researching a French singer - it's a great story which we told here. Another one of these 'amazing' connections popped up towards the end of last year, and I'm partly writing this post to tell you about it, and partly in an attempt to re-connect with the person - I'm ashamed to say that when I changed email addresses I lost all the relevant emails and even her address!

So, this lady is Australian, and has a fantastic son called Tobias who is pictured above - along with the cute dog he has a cute little family and they are heading from Australia to Mozambique this year, to work as missionaries.

What made the connection is that Tobias draws the most incredible mazes - it's been a hobby since childhood and he's used it to explore spiritual ideas, as well as to pay homage to the very first maze - the Labyrinth of the Minotaur:

So when Tobias' mum was browsing my blog, she noticed a link to my old friend Rob's blog, and was unsurprisingly drawn to this post, where Rob writes about a worship labyrinth he created on Tynemouth beach.

Realising from my comment that I actually knew Rob in real life, she contacted me to see if I could put her in touch with him. She explained the maze connection and asked for our adresses, as she wanted to send us each a copy of Tobias' book!

How incredibly generous! And how I would like to get back in touch with her to tell her all about how Son 2 worked his way through the 'Simply Amazed' section for children and then tackled the 'Hardly Amazed' set of really, really tricky mazes, and even paid a teeny bit of attention to the spiritual content, and was genuinely interested in Tobias' call to work as a missionary...

j

But I can't, so, Rob, could you possibly pass on her contact details for me again please, or, if you are reading, LeAnne (have I spelt that right?) please do get back in touch again. We've been praying for you and for Tobias and his family, and I would love to get back in touch!

The Thrill of What You Already Have - February

Finally! I managed to post our inspiration picture early this month, but it took me ages to get some bits and pieces together, and then even longer to put them into a blog post for you!You'll see the inspiration picture - a vintage railway poster advertising Edinburgh as a destination - to your left in my sidebar. Last time I just used the colours and shapes in the Dunfermline poster to inspire a collection of nicely-toned bits and bobs (geegaws, as Ben would put it...).This time, influenced by the destination and by the January posts of other bloggers taking part, I've collected things which actually do have an Edinburgh connection. It's probably the only time I'll do that, but Edinburgh is my Scottish base and always has been, I suppose, so it's no surprise.
I found this tin, with a scene of the Scott Monument very reminiscent of the poster itself, in my dad's larder when we were visiting at Christmas. The vintage tin is lined with blue velvet - it's really very plush and unworn. But I have no idea where and when it arrived in my dad's house - I'd never seen it before! Evidently my mum or my grandma found it in a charity shop years ago, and it's been tucked in the larder (which is nowadays a general store room) waiting for me to find it! I asked my dad if he'd like it out on display and he shuddered slightly and told me he was trying to get rid of things, not display more - so it came back to France with us! Maybe it's the first time the tin has ever left Edinburgh, but now it's in good company.Just below the tin is a little vintage enameled sewing case - just room for a thimble, pins, needle and thread. I think I found that in my Christmas stocking one year in the 1980s...


The little basket you see in several of the pictures popped in due to its colours as much as its Edinburgh connections. But as my mother gave it to me, with a real story behind it, I thought it was appropriate, as Edinburgh is so connected in my mind with my mum. The story is that when my mother's family lived in Canada for a number of years in the 1950s, my mum spotted this little hand-made basket, woven by a Canadian Indian lady who lived near their holiday home. (I've looked up the modern terms for Canadian Indian but am confused. 'First Nations lady' sounds strange, but Canadian friends, what is correct?) My mum was desperate to spend her pocket money on the basket but my grandmother told her it was a complete waste of money and not to be so silly. This caused the usual kind of rift that you get over spending on family holidays, but somehow or other my mum ended up, triumphant, with the basket. And I can't really think of anything else she could have afforded which would have stood the test of time so well, can you?After that triumph, I don't think any of my other finds seem quite so impressive! The books have some Edinburgh connections - my mum talked me into buying the three enormous leather-bound Bible commentaries in the Bethany Shop, Stockbridge, Edinburgh. I bought the Poems and Songs of Burns from my dad's church book stall more recently - isn't it a wonderful binding? The cannon balls could recall Edinburgh's military history and even the Cannonmills area of the city, if you like, but actually they came from an English battlefield and are really there to hold the books up!This is my other recent Edinburgh find - and I got it at the English Christmas Market in Toulouse! The title was vaguely familiar and it turns out that this is a reprint of books by an author which my grandma collected in the 1940s. The Silent Traveller is the pen name of a Chinese artist and writer who arrived in the west in the 1930s, and wrote charming and insightful books about what he found, illustrated with his own Chinese-style drawings. If you can find one of his books about a city or area you know, I think you would be really charmed by it!Here's the whole set-up - I always put them in a dark area, which is bad for photography but just right for seeing when you enter the house! You win some, you loose some...
*
I'm really enjoying the other 'Thrill' posts that are coming up. The diversity is what's impressive. If you look in my sidebar you'll see that some people are using the theme to think in terms of colour, others are looking at geography/travel, some are using at as an exercise in story-telling/nostalgia (as I've done this time, I realise) and others have done something different! I think that's great. I wonder if it has to be about household items anyway? What about an outfit based on the colours or themes? That might be fun! Please feel free to go wild with the theme and do what you like...

Blogging connections and a giveaway winner

Life is strangely busy here in the (slowly) melting snow. I'm popping in to draw the giveaway winner for this, but before I do I just want to tell you what else I'd like to share with you in the next two holidays weeks. I want to tell you how blogging led to Son 2 getting hooked on incredibly complex mazes, created by a young man on the other side of the world...

I want to share a recipe (especuially for Serenata) which originally came to me years ago from the lovely Sumea, who blogs when she can at Morikomiori.

I want to share my Thrill of What You Already Have photo - lots of people have already done their posts, and my collection is made, but not yet posted:

I want to tell you what Son 2 is cooking up for Valentine's Day!

But before I have time for any of that, I'll pick the giveaway winner. I just want to say that giveaways can be such a good way to meet friends - one year I got to know Kit, when she won a giveaway of mine (English roses, I think), and then I got to know her daughter, too, who also has a blog! I really enjoy following both of their mountain-living blogs now, and their lovely comments here. So now to the draw...

......................................................................................................................

Ooh - the winner is Gill, who made the second comment! Congratulations Gill - I will email you and I'll need to know your address so that I can post your parcel!

Looking Four-ward Giveaway!

Well, friends, it has been three years since my first blog post! However, I don't seem to feel interested in the number three: I am, rather, looking ahead to the fourth year, which begins today! That's why I've called this giveaway my Looking Four-ward post - can you forgive me?
With this in mind I want to give you the chance to win four sets of four sweet French collectables, all bundled up in a little surprise wrapper! The first collection is a set of four vintage children's handkerchiefs - they were given away free with 'Alsa' brand baking powder. I especially love the gypsy one, which is in green, but you may have other favourites!

The second set of four is antique French postcards: they have romantic pictures and poems on the front, and several have messages or addresses on the back too. They date from the early 20th century.


Now we come to four rather special, quite large, Mother of Pearl buttons from my collection. Actually, these might not all be French, because I've collected these for years and some could come from the UK.

And finally some French ephemera and kitchenalia - a match-box cover with a little proverb, the number 37 (probably from a police uniform?), a Notre Dame brooch and a little madeleine tin.I don't know what you'll do with these four collections, but I think you could have fun with them!To have the chance to win, please leave a comment here. I'd love it if you would publicise my giveaway, so if you take the first or the final photo here and put it into your blog with a link, please let me know in a second comment and that will give you a second chance to win. If you're new here and would like to come back, do feel free 'follow' and/or to browse through other events like The Thrill of What You Already Have and A Pause in Lent, which you'll find in my sidebar. It's been quite an incredible three years with you all - probably the most formative of my adult life, aside from university. I'm really looking forward to the Fourth!

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED - I'm going to delete the non-entry comments so that I can count the draw fairly...

Somerset - 20th December - Any chance of a meet-up?

Well, friends, I've had a bit of a think and done a bit of planning, and the result is that I'm going to have a free day in Somerset on Tuesday December 20th.The boys and I will be at Ben's parents' farm, and my generous parents in law have told me that I can have their car and they will take the boys and I can escape (weather permitting) for a day! So where am I going? Nostalgia calls - specifically Niki's Nostalgia at Number 1, in Shepton Mallet. Niki is an incredibly popular blogger, crafter and shop-owner, yet she is also one of the kind bloggers who first started replying to my comments, and commenting on my own posts, when I started blogging nearly 3 years ago. I will check with her nearer the time that she'll be in the shop that day, but all being well in terms of weather she'll be open and I intend to visit!

What else will I get up to that day? Well, it depends if any of you other bloggers would like to meet up. I realise that it's very close to Christmas and might not work out for people, but I just thought I'd leave it open and see if anyone in the area will be free. Let me know!

Button Swaps and Bloggers' Meets

Elizabethd organised a sweet and simple Buttons and Bows Swap last month - such a lot of fun for such little cost and effort! We simply trawled through our button boxes and similar stashes and sent an appropriate selection to our swap partner. My partner was Christine from Time Out Stitching, all the way on the other side of the world. This is what she sent me! Here's what I sent her - look how we beautifully colour-coded our gifts, lol! You can read more about what I sent her on her post about the swap.

So, shall we take more of a peek at the Australian wonders that have winged their way to France?

Such a sweet ribbon rosette. I shall put it on one of my white blouses, I think - I really want to show this one off!

A beautiful tatted circle, now forming the backdrop for a few of my favourite buttons from the package:

So simple but sweet...

Sewing-themed charm and fabric - I can really see this making a great pincushion... or a sewing bag... or the cover for my sewing box... lots of ideas, there!

Hand-dyed embroidery threads and two lovely doileys

And finally...

Thanks so much, Christine, for this lovely package of goodness!

j

For my second Bloggers' meet-up this summer (I am doing well), I noticed that Elizabeth Rimmer, the poet who writes such thought-provoking and authentic pieces for some of our Advent and Lent Pauses, was going to be at the Edinburgh Poetry Festival while we were visiting my dad last week. She mentioned that she'd be at the Couryard Reading one day, so I told her I'd try to happen along and hear her read there, and I made it (through the pouring rain). I enjoyed all the contributions, by published and unpublished posts (Scottish, English and Portugese) and particularly liked Elizabeth's poem about the Eclipse. You can read Elizabeth's festival write-up here.

j

It's horribly hot here ("Forte chaleur, penser à vos proches...") and we're quite busy with lovely holiday stuff - the boys' friends are constantly spending nights with us and they're alternating time between the swimming pool (yay!) and the computer (yawn), and Ben and I are finding indoor things to do (chilli jam in his case, wonderful man) and saving hot stuff, like gardening and ironing, for the early mornings. Boy, does it make a change from Edinburgh! Next post: I visited a Vide Grenier...