Nearly a Nest Egg...

Continuing an Eastery theme, I have learned a bit more about the table service I picked up in a charity shop for the huge sum of 40€!

As you can see, this set with stencilled/hand painted hens, chicks and cockerels is quite large - it must have originally been a 12-place setting, with several sizes of lidded bowls, serving plates and fruit/cake stands on pedestals. A few are actually cracked. The platter has been used and used and used again. There are chips on one or two items. But the rest is in super condition, and we are now using the plates every day.

I turned the plates over one evening and started Googling the text on the base of each item. As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly easy given the curly-wurly writing, and the first thing I had to do was type in 'faience', which is the name for this kind of pottery. A great list of the faience manufacturers of France pointed me in the direction of Sarreguemines, which is apparantly what that stencilled writing says! It's one of those towns that kept switching between Germany and France in the nineteenth century, and remember that date, folks, because that's when this pottery mark was used!

I was pretty certain that the pottery must date from the 1930s-1950s, because nearly everything I buy does, and the design certainly isn't 'Victorian' to my mind - too simple and even faintly modern, I'd have thought. But I guess that it was based on the lovely hand-painted pottery of rural France (from Quimper in Brittany to Martres-Toulouse down here), and that its simplicity doesn't imply a recent date.

I called Ben to see the results of my research, and we began to get a bit worried, because what if I'd accidentally bought something that is too good to use and to put through the dishwasher?

Our final conculsion is that, although the set must add up to being worth quite a bit (a lidded bowl like the one above, whose lid I've put on the shelf above, could be worth about 90€), if we're careful with the big pieces, never use the cracked ones, and stack the plates carefully in the dishwasher, then I just happen to have bought us the best quality but also most useable table service that we will ever own!

It goes well with the other handpainted, Denby or Portmerion pottery that we have collected over the years, and we have ourselves a collection!

A little red hen... or 20!

Spot the difference?

On the right, Rosie the French hen. On the left, the only cracked plate from a large service which I found in the charity shop for 40€ today!

40€ is an awful lot for me to spend, but see the hand-painting on the large cockerel serving bowl, and note how he's different to his red hen, above. Some of the other serving plates, platters, bowls and soup dishes have chicks on them too!

I'm going to pack away a lot of my other vintage plates and bowls, and go all-out for this vintage French chicken theme for a while... and my 40€ expenditure was quickly vindicated when I heard an antique dealer excitedly asking to buy the service, which was already half-wrapped! Yippee - I got there before the brocante dealer, for once!

Snapshots of five days in Edinburgh

Five days with my dad in Edinburgh.Enjoying the flowers outside, and in.

Charity shopping alone (finding this Boden), and with my dad's new companion.

Going to the theatre to watch an old favourite,

and a hilarious comedy, new to me (but Nana GoGo will know what it is!).

Eating with a very elderly friend of my mum's at a happening new organic restaurant near her home in Canonmills - she loved it!

Posing (yes, literally) for my dad's church art club!

Reading all four of the Twilight books...

and still, on this second reading, I have to say that I remain a wolf-girl. My friend Jo says I'm in a tiny minority...

In love with...

... my shady spot next to the Cosmos, the Black-Eyed Susans and (Lululiz's) Morning Glories... ... this year's charity shop blanket - a volunteer knits a few every year, and I pick up another one for the collection each autumn!..

... the bag I customised this weekend. CK? What CK?..

... and a certain birthday-man who turned 44 on Wednesday.

The boys made him a cake each!

Homes for finds

Following my triumphant return from Sunday's Vide Grenier, I pottered about the house (dodging heat-grumpy family members, I have to be honest), putting my finds on display. After a good wash, the plates ended up on my now-full rack of stencilled French china. It's all in use and I guess I'm just going to rotate the pieces that go display in the rack! I put the holly bowl, which LissyLou likes best, with the two other 'French-style' bowls I bought at the brocante earlier this summer. If I get any more I'll put the holly one away until Christmas!

The sweet little hand painted cup ended up to the left of my favourite stencilled soup bowl.

Spot the broken plate behind a row of mis-matched jugs? I haven't done a 'themed by use' shelf before, but I think the jugs work OK. Son 1 gave me the blobby-glazed one on the right for my birthday this year. Ben and the boys scored big-time at a Vide Grenier when I was away on my London/Edinburgh trip!

And finally, THE frame. I bunged it here for now. Sometimes I go past it and think: 'Boy, I'm good".

Sometimes I go past it and think, "Good grief, that's pretentious".Time will tell. I can and will move it around!

The other, earlier, find that I'm really pleased with, is this blue and white tablecloth from an Edinburgh charity shop, bought stained and holed, in June.The French sun got rid of the worst of the stains, and I mended the worst holes. When I ironed it I hung it over the balcony, by coincidence on top of a red tablecloth. It was so pretty, and so in-keeping with my long-running red, white and blue obsession, that I decided to replicate the idea for our summer kitchen. (Some French people have a real summer kitchen - we just have a camping table with the toaster and coffee maker on the patio.) A clear plastic chopping-film does a good job of keeping most of the coffee stains off whatever cloth I have under the coffee maker.And finally, from the patio roof beams, hangs a string of Ben's chillis. If you're interested in his chilli jam recipe, by the way, it's basically the same as his darling Nigella's. He modifies it according to what's in the garden and the cupboard.Life is getting busy again - boys' friends staying, lessons, and then Ben's parents arriving on Thursday! So although this isn't an official blogging break, I don't see myself doing too many posts before the Rentrée, which will, of course, see my now traditional C'est la Rentrée Giveaway! You heard it here second... (I told Becca yesterday).

j

Thank you for all your comments, faithful friends, and new friends too! I really enjoyed reading what caught your eye from among my finds. Now, when I look at each item, I think of what you said about it...

Thrifty Week - Clothes Shopping in France

I'm joining in with Betty's Thrifty Week again, and continuing to post on the theme of Thrifty Living in Foreign Climes. Today I wanted to post about where I buy clothes. I have some serious criteria for clothes shopping, so here goes:

• our clothes should be good quality and last well, at least for adults - the boys grow out of their clothes so fast that it's less important for them!



• our clothes should good for the environment



• our clothes should not bought from people who ran sweatshops to make them



• we should look good in them!

Because cheaply bought new clothes are usually neither good-quality, good for the environment, nor fairly traded, I try to buy second-hand as much as possible. It's the 'reuse' part of 'reduce, reuse and recycle' and it works!

However, both the practicalities and the thrill of Charity Shopping seemed lost to me when we moved to France. I was actually speaking to a French mum this Saturday who commented: 'Of course, in England you have all those great little Charity Shops on the high street...' and we both got quite nostalgic over them. But there are Charity Shops in France, if you know where to look for them - you won't find them on the high street! They are big warehouses, more like the American Goodwill, I think, and they are on small trading estates, often near to the organic supermarkets, which is quite convenient... Why not ake a tour of one of my two regular Charity Shops with me here?

The other thing that the French really excell at is the town-wide second hand sale. These are called braderies or even, locally, the Troc Broc Sold, which probably inspired my blog's name! They are incredibly complicated affairs (see photo of the volunteers above), which I have explained here, but money is made for charity and good quality clothes are sold to the benefit of the donors (so better than a jumble sale, in that way). At the biannual Troc Broc Sold this weekend, which is where I got chatting to the French mum about Charity Shops, I bought enough shorts to last both boys all summer. I bought less for myself - my tastes and figure remain resolutely British, so I always do better in Charity Shops when visiting my father!

j

It's not possible to buy all our clothes second hand, of course, and whilst at first I had no idea where to buy cheap but decent clothes and shoes for the boys in France, over the years I've learned a lot, and now spend most of my 'new clothes' money at Decathlon, the major sports dealer which also runs fantastic 'Trocathlon' events twice a year - you've guessed it - second hand sports equipment sales! Once you get to know a country, you can find some very good thrifty deals. Just don't expect it to work the way your country of origin does...

j

Below is my second prayer for our children. Do have a look if you have children of your own, and want to be praying for them - maybe it will be of some use!

Charidee Shopping - France 2011!

I know I've been reading too many blogs over the last week or so, because I can't remember which blogger is guilty of setting me off with calling the innocent charity shop, 'Charidee' - Lady, whoever you are, you should be ashamed of yourself! (lol.) I can't get it out of my head now! When you say it, does it come out in your mind like Keanu Reeves saying 'Trinidee' in the Matrix, too??? Anyway, quite enough of that. Here's a really rather impressive haul I picked up at Veti Relais today, when I was actually there on a successful mission to buy thrifty ski suits for growing boys.

Large embroidered natural-linen tablecloth. Lovely linen and great colours. Embroidery rather rough but overall effect 10/10!

Eight matching napkins of modern size (i.e. not huge but not tiny either). Cost? Well, I bought a large cloth by what must have been the same embroiderer, in the same shop, last year, for 8€ plus 3€ for three annoyingly huge napkins. So, do they have a consistent pricing policy? No they do not. 6€ the lot! Smug Floss.

Four rather pretty embroidered mats - and yes, I do use these, a lot. One's already on our kitchen table, on top of the oil cloth, with a candle on it. Price? Getting smugger, here. 1€ the lot!

Lovely cherry blossoms here, and very fine cotton. I'm sure the woman in the shop gave me these for far less than the set price.

She'd just heard her manageress quote me 40€ for an (admittedly lovely) set of china kitchen canisters with one horribly cracked and mended lid. She was trying to make up for my well-hidden yet justifiable outrage with her kind discount, I'm sure...

A few more Provençal napkins got thrown into the deal. Always worth it.

And finally, a delightful sign reading 'cintres en bois' caught my eye. How much? 10c each? Surely shome mishtake...

But no, for 70c I now have seven wooden coat hangers for my wardrobe, both inside...

and out...Don't you think some clothes (and hangers) are too pretty to leave inside the wardrobe?

Something old, something new(ish), something useful, most of it blue...

Well, that describes a typical charity shop haul for me! I had a quick trip into the shop yesterday whilst dropping off a bag of stuff for donation (always lethal...) and came out very satisfied, with vintage teatowels and traycloths,

sweet blue gingham with French ribbon,

the useful bit - a steamer which allows you to cook your veg in the same pan as the potatoes,

and the old and blue:

such a sweet vintage tin mirror.

It must be a souvenir from somewhere - does anyone recognise the churches? I feel I half-remember them...Oh yes, the nearly new - some sports trousers for Son 1.

How could I have forgotten to photograph those?

j

Total spent - just under 10€.

j

Don't forget the giveaway and swap on my side bar!