2012 in a Pocket Handkerchief!

I inherited my mum's collection of antique and vintage pocket handkerchiefs this year, and when I was doing an initial sort-out recently this one sprang to my attention:

In the centre are the four seasons, and around the edges, as you can see, are the months. Each one is illustrated with a natty 1930s illustrations of a stylish young lady doing the Things One Must Do at that time of year! It's witty, colourful, and a good way for me to do a little review of 2012:

Let's begin with January (where else?). I didn't skate but I did spend an unusual amount of time in Toulouse, doing the cultural kind of things that there dosn't usually seem to be time or money for. It was all thanks to Son 1's work experience, and I wrote about ancient, medieval and modern Toulouse here.

February was indeed a month for staying in and recuperating - don't you love the picture? Son 1 had a big op on his knee at the end of January, and February seemed to be mainly taken up with nurse's visits and carrying food to a sofa-bound son. However, being fairly house-bound had its compensations, and I re-organised all my lovely vintage kitchenalia, and also popped out to buy some fantastic vintage tins which are still talking starring roles around the house.

Would that I looked so stylish in the wind. My only similarity with this picture is the red face. It was windy here in March, but there were moments of springtime sunshine, too. Everything was overshadowed by the killings in Toulouse towards the end of the month, and it seems that many people in the key communities (Jewish and Muslim) have had a really hard time since those complex and tragic events. Your continued prayers would be appreciated.

We had a few April showers - here and in Edinburgh, where I went to visit my dad and also to meet his lovely new friend... there was more news to come on that front as the months progressed! For Easter I looked at my vintage French chocolate moulds, and also shared an embroidered map of England, which dates from around the same time as this handkerchief.

I certainly didn't dance around any May Poles in May! I think that's what she's doing - don't you? However, things got appropriately outdoors-y and a huge Scottish foxglove burst into bloom in our French garden. I also painted the front gate and got  some great deals as the Vide Grenier season really came into play!

June is my birthday month. I love sun hats, but I don't quite go for the bonnet-effect pictured here! We wore our sun hats to pick blueberries and to spend time with our new hens....

In July I changed my blog's look - I loved the old blue flowers so much but I had to find a way to celebrate the beautiful kitchen canisters I'd bought with my birthday money! I also picked up some antique hemp sheets - this is a stunning fibre and the sheets now do sterling service absorbing whatever the boys and the dog can put on them, under the throw on our sofa. But the main excitement of July was our departure on a 28 day camping tour of Italy!

The pictures for the two months are kind of reversed, on the handkerchief - we swam in the Med in July and walked in the Appennines in August. But, close enough! The holiday was a wonderful time together - I've got over the fear that things will go wrong, mainly by relaxing and realising that, of course they will from time to time, and it's my reaction to them that will turn them into either a big deal or a short-term blip. Later on in the month I took the boys over to Edinburgh to meet my dad and his now fiancée!

September is often a quiet month for my work, as all the children I teach are busy with la Rentrée and don't yet know their timetables for out-of-school activities. However, over the month I slowly built up my own timetable, deciding that the boys are now independent enough for me to take on after-school lessons - all of them at home, and finishing around 6 or 7pm, so that the boys come home independently, relax or do homework (lol) and then we all eat together in the usual way - it's working fine, and gives me the chance to teach a lot more children and teenagers, as this is the time-slot their parents have always wanted. The hens also became more numerous, as we adopted two new littlies, whose previous owner was heading back to the US. After a nervous start, these two have settled in well and now live up to their heroic names (more or less)! In the picture, our society lady is looking at the apple harvest - for us, it was finally an egg harvest! Our little swan song to summer was a weekend camping trip in the Pyrenees for Ben's birthday.

What is our friend doing for October? Sneezing? I have no idea... Well, I was mainly working! Taking on more children in the evenings gave me more time to accept appointments with my language school in the daytime. I took a weekend out to take the boys, plus friend, to a rural science event in a beautiful village. I also popped into the charity shop near my Friday lessons and was delighted to find vintage down-filled édredons which have kept us warm though the only patch of freezing nights we've yet had this winter.

November wasn't particularly foggy, but I love the illustration! We spent a weekend in Edinburgh, for my father's wedding.

I didn't share many photos at the time, as I hadn't asked for permission to show faces, but I've got permission since then, so here are the happy couple! Don't they look great? My BiL took this wonderful photo at the reception.

December, well, that's now! We didn't find any mistletoe (it grows all around here, but only very high up). We had a lovely, peaceful Christmas, and today Ben and Son 1 have gone off to the Toulouse museum where Son 1 did his work experience back in January. He never had the chance to take his dad around it then, so today is the day. Son 2 is slowly going crazy as he waits in for a delivery of a game he's ordered with his Christmas money. We were told it should arrive today, but...

So, it's been a wonderful year. Honestly, my years are getting better and better.

Which way is the wind blowing for 2013?

We have some fixed points. What should be Son 1's final operation is set for February, so that will be another quiet month in! Our wonderful holiday in Italy has inspired us to plan another two weeks of camping, this time around Spain. Ben may, hopefully, be doing some further training from September onwards, so this will keep him away from us during the week but will allow us all to discover a new part of France at the weekends. I'll still be busy teaching, but I will commit myself to one New Year's Resolution - I will continue blogging! One of the reasons my life has got better and better is that I have learned to appreciate and cherish the good times - to record them and even to seek them out. Bloggers and blogging have taught me to do this. Busy or not, it's too good to leave behind! Happy New Year to you all.

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...

News plus Handkerchief Q and A!

Super responses to my handkerchiefs post, below - thanks so much! I've also sold a good number of sets from my shop, although there are still more, and a cute sent of kitchen cansiters, waiting for a buyer!

Now, the news is not so good - my dad is ill with pneumonia (and some complications). He's being very well cared for in hospital and my sister, aunts and uncles are around for him, but it's a worrying time. Your prayers would be very much appreciated.

j

But I can still talk about handkerchiefs!

• So, lots of people use them, and others are freaked by the germ issue. Understandable. My mum would never let us use cloth hankies (memories of nasty ones from childhood I assume) but I had a friend whose mum always kept a bucket of disinfectant/water in the bathroom and the used hankies got thrown in there until wash day, which seemed one way to handle it.
• I have learned, since going over to the cloth hankies, that there are certain habits you need to get into if the hygiene is going to work out. NEVER leave one in your pocket when you take off a piece of clothing! Rediscovering an elderly used handkerchief is a total no-no! (And, Sarah, for me pockets are best if but all else fails sleeves will do - the problem comes with summer dresses...)
• On those terms, there is no way I am getting my boys to go over to cloth hankies. Their hygiene standards do not meet my own (see below) and they are going to have to stick to paper tissues thrown straight onto the fire after use. Anyway, they don't do the dainty, ladylike, keep a hanky in your bag just in case thing... The one time I had a really bad cold since I had handkerchiefs I used loads in one day and put them into a tub to soak before washing on that same day. I'm really only talking about general, light, everyday use, here.
• I wash mine on the normal wash (eg quite ecological low temperatures) but line dry them (I agree with Sherri B that the sun is a disinfectant - so do the 'experts' I've read) and I also iron them very hot, which is going to have the same effect.
• Having used cloth nappies and gone through similar concerns about the hygiene there, and with having a biologist husband, I am fairly familiar with what ACTUALLY makes us ill rather than what we might just feel is nasty. I have a fairly sturdy approach to hygiene, the way I like to imagine our ancestors did in the days before antibacterial kitchen sprays. However, each to his own - if it feels yucky for you, it is yucky, so fair enough!

The Joy of Handkerchiefs!

Oh, the joy of having washing on the line again! And, perhaps more of an eccentric pleasure, the joy of having a neat pile of ironed handkerchiefs ready to go back into the drawer for daily use...

Shall we have a little peep at this pile of hankies? They're just the random results of my washing and ironing over the last week:

At first, I switched from paper tissues to cloth handkerchiefs for environmental reasons - we'd been using regularly-washed cloths instead of kitchen roll for years.

Then we replaced 'kiddy-wiping cloths' at the table with proper cloth napkins - just as good for the environment but a bit more grown up!Having more or less eliminated paper kitchen rolls in this way, it seemed a bit silly for me to be using a pack of paper tissues a day, so I decided to look out for vintage cloth hankies in the charity shops.And there they were, in beautiful detail and appropriate quality!

At first, I'll be honest, I didn't iron them, or the napkins either. They were a 'green' necessity, not something else to go in the ironing pile. But something strange has happened in the last few years.

I've read a few books and blogs. I've realised that being fairly tidy and organised can be rather more of a delight than a bind. I've discovered that, for me, ironing my well-chosen handkerchiefs and napkins is a simple pleasure, which makes the day seem that much more pleasant.

You don't have to feel the same way - isn't variety the spice of life? But you might like to Google 'handkerchief quilts' if you're wondering what to do with your handkerchiefs that you don't want to use on a daily basis!

You might also like to pop over my blog shop, because I found so many handkerchiefs the other day that I've finally felt generous enought to share some of them!

Tell me - did you or do you use cloth handkerchiefs? What do you think about them? And don't forget to find out who won my OWOH giveaway, in the post below...

Tagged handkerchief

Help! I have been given an award and tagged by Juanita (thank you, Juanita!). The questions have a definite 'fashion' edge to them - I may be truly challenged here! To keep you awake through my non-fashionista answers, I have posted some pictures from my mum's handkerchief collection...

What is your current obsession? Blogging, I guess!
What are you wearing today? Denim skirt (there's a surprise) with a frayed edging, pale blue and white striped T-shirt and sandals.

What's for dinner? Salad, bread, cheese, ham and (for the boys) a jar of Marmite too! What's the last thing you bought? Apart from food shopping, I think it was my cute polka-dot bike panniers. What do you think about the person who tagged you? Juanita is great! She's one of the most easy-going, relaxed bloggers I know - it's fun to find out what she's been doing every day. That question about a fully furnished, paid-for house that everyone answers with 'Paris' or 'New York'. Oh, in the Pyrenees, which are only 2-3 hours away, which avoids the long, expensive or environmentally unfriendly travel business. What is your must-have item for summer? Sun hat. I become rather ill, very quickly, without one. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would it be? Hmm. One hour is just not long enough. I'd love to go to Macchu Pichu, Peru, but as you have to acclimatise to the altitude, an hour there would just make me very ill! Who do you want to meet right now? Nobody modern springs to mind. I'd like to meet some people from the past, either famous or ordinary, to see what life was really like for them.What is your favourite piece of clothing from your own closet? Denim skirts, probably - I have one in every length and most styles (except frilly - they don't work on me).What is your dream job? Helping people learn whilst having time for my own family (wait, that sounds like what I do right now!)What's your favourite magazine? Maybe BBC Good Homes, at the moment - I have to decide, as my parents are going to give me a magazing subscription for my birthday!What do you consider a fashion faux-pas? Bulges where there should not be bulges.Describe your personal style. Fairly traditional, on the cute, English, flowery side.What are you going to do after this? Take the boys to their piano lesson. Three styling tips that work for you:

1 Don't wear things that keep having to be readjusted. Wear something which stays where you put it!

2 Skirts are more comfortable and more flattering than trousers.

3 Blue is the new black.

What are you proud of? That we moved to France and have settled here successfully.What does your favourite underwear look like? Good, grief, my father reads this blog every day! It's one thing for him to have my washing in his washing machine, it's another for him to have to read the info over the net! "There are rules to this tagging shenanigan... Respond and rework – answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, and add one more question of your own. Tag eight others." Oops. I've only tagged four. If anyone else wants to take on the challenge, please do!

Glenda

Alexandra

Betty G

Ashley