Yo-ho, yo-ho, it's charity shopping for me!

Before we get all piratical here (and I didn't start it, folks - see the comments on the last post for the culprits!), I just want to tell you that I bought a new card reader today and can now show you the photo I took of my parents' garden in yesterday's Edinburgh morning sunlight. My mother has strived to get the garden looking like this for 15 years, and she is really appreciating it now.

Thus it was that, yesterday afternoon, I set off down Leith Walk, clutching my Edinburgh charity shops map and searching for treasure.

I REALLY want to show this photo to the guy from a Stockbrdge charity shop who'd said to me the day before: 'Buttons? You want John Lewis, love. You won't find buttons in a charity shop.'
Ha!

In a funny little shop in aid of a local support charity, mainly selling furniture, I sorted through what remained of a donated button box. Quite a lot of the buttons had already sold, apparently, but I found more MOP than I've ever seen in one box before, I think. I paid quite a lot, but it's worth quite a lot. The charity was fantastic - the women in the shop were clearly working daily with the families they support, which really impressed me. I don't want to get bargains off people like that.

I bought this paste cluster and the tatted mat in the same shop.

This little cutie from the 1920s came from another furniture charity shop further down the road! I think the boys will adopt him.

Next to him on the shelf were these two under-valued cups from the 1930s - the one on the left is hand painted.

This purse is modern but has a beautifully vintage feel.And to complete the set I got a teapot for my garden party, plus the pretty blouse everything is resting on.This wonderful bucket of roses and lavender arrived for my mum yesterday morning (when we were taking photos in the garden, actually). It's from my uncles and aunts on my father's side - they are so thoughtful!

Tomorrow I'll be off to church in the morning (there's a BIG difference between French Baptist and Church of Scotland!) I'll report back to my mum for lunch and then one of the uncle and aunt combos mentioned above will be popping in, as they're on a touring holiday of Scotland! I should find time to photograph and chronicle my other Edinburgh treasure hunts at some point tomorrow, though, so more to come...

Flowers, strawberries and... vinegar?

Hello again! Thanks for all your lovely comments. I had a productive day yesterday, posting off my Sweet Tweet Swap parcel to Ele in the USA, and the Auld Alliance Giveaway to Olga in Poland. I learned a lot too - Olga is originally from Belarus - I told you she is well travelled.

For those who aren't sure how to pick up my award, I know the feeling! I finally discovered that you just right click on the picture, click 'save as' and use it exactly as you would a photo in your post or on your side bar. But it took me a while to work that out... My lessons were all cancelled yesterday, as my private pupils were in school (usually, Wednesday is a sports and outside activities day for children in French primary schools). Son 1 had the afternoon off as usual, being in secondary school, but he was my only company all day... I got sewing, taking my small sewing basket to his piano lesson with me. When I glimpsed it inside our modern(ish) car I realised how vintage everything in it is!

My mother and I both collected, and used, vintage sewing items through the 1980s. We had a natural division of the spoils - she prefers more elegant, 'Edwardian Lady' type pieces, while I have always loved the 1930s 'Milly Molly Mandy' flowers... I'll try to get some photos of her vintage sewing things when I'm in Edinburgh next month.My little sewing project for the day was fabric flowers. So many of you have been asking 'what are you going to do with all those buttons?' that I thought I'd better get started! I quite like these, although if any of you has a pattern for something more realistic I'd be interested to try it. I think I'll use them at my 40th birthday Garden Party (more on that soon...)Whilst both boys were enjoying the pool in the sunny early evening, I got round to cleaning out the fire. It's our only real source of heat throughout the winter, and we lit it several times in April to dry out soggy cyclists and wet clothes when we had a spell of bad weather. Therefore, I'm always reluctant to put it into summer mode too quickly - but now is the time!French fires have a wonderful glass door which allows you to keep the fire burning all night without risk. By the end of the winter the glass looks like this:But I have a secret weapon:

Spot the gingham, Sarah!

Once everything was clean, I stacked up some pretty logs (including ones from our poor fallen tree) and some pine cones, and shut the glass doors until autumn.

Before I got vinegary, I finally baked the wonderful shortbread recipe that Sumea's friend Betty gave her. I totally recommend it, as do the rest of the family!We ate it with strawberries, peaches and cream or ice cream of choice...It being strawberry season, Ben got making jam again...Sticky kitchen season starts again - it's another long weekend here for us, and we'll be cherry picking tomorrow!

Last Chance to Enter, plus a few buttons...

Great whatever Great Aunt Selina has a change of view - she is now guarding some charming vintage tins with well-sorted buttons...But before any more button pics (and there have been a lot of them already today - check here for more!), please don't forget to enter my Auld Alliance Giveaway to win these Franco-Scottish gifts - you can have up to three entries, until my next post tomorrow! Lurking followers are particularly invited to comment, as I've been really enjoying getting to meet some of you already.So, back to the buttons. Last night I got to sorting "mamie's" tin (I'm thinking of her as mamie, which means granny) - it's the tin I bought from her generous family yesterday (I also got her bloomers!...)The buttons on the left, in the tin lid, are some interesting vintage ones from mamie's collection.

And again on the left, are mamie's mother of pearl buttons, to add to my own... When you add in my recent ebay winnings, which arrived today, it makes quite a nice selection.On the right, this time, are mamie's contributions to my 'pretties' - glass and flowery buttons. Thank you, mamie! She was obviously collecting until fairly recently (I allow clear plastic pretties, as well as glass - apologies to the purists).
Now, for the 'I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on' prize, here is a really super little bunch of buttons and buckles I've obviously had for ages - no idea where they came from, though!

Really rather good, though...And they are all resting under the watchful (but possibly ever-so-slightly-amused) gaze of Aunt Selina.In other news, Son 1 is vealthy (thanks Olga for that word, meaning very healthy) but Son 2 has had another miserable day at school followed by a trip to the doctor. So it's another day off tomorrow and a course of iron tablets - the doctor says it's perfectly normal for him to be tired after the virus, but I find it all a bit overwhelming - another day of cancelling my own lessons... I took some much needed sempervivum therapy, planting some of my 'chicks' in another pair of old boots, and felt much better.

Son 1 was so vealthy that he pranced around in our pool as it slowly filled up this evening - can you see his shadow?And finally a pickie for Sarah, of Red Gingham - look, in France, our butter is your favourite pattern!I've been meaning to snap that for a while...

I wasn't going to post today...

But I've just won two lots of mother of pearl buttons on ebay.fr, and I'm excited! Lots of crafting opportunities, I think! And secondly, here is a lovely article about thrifty living in the High Pyrenees - we live on the lowlands but we can see the mountains and often travel to them for winter sports and summer camping trips. The author lives in a very remote area but I can still relate to what she is talking about - similar things happen even here, near the big city!

If you read it it might just give you an idea of the neighbourliness and care taken by people in rural France - I think it's great!

Here is a wild rose for you, picked, displayed and photographed by Son 2, yesterday.

And don't forget, wherever you come from, to enter my giveaway, in at least one way (there are three possible ways to enter - why not go for all of them?)

Treasures in silk and lace

Here is just the tiniest glimpse of some of the treasures my mother and I sorted through last week. I'm going to have to take the time to sort through my photos properly, but here is a taster of what happens when you open a wooden chest at my parents' house: Mainly Chinese, mainly clothes, mainly picked up quite cheaply in antique shops and fairs over the years!

Incredible detail...Some on entire robes, and others in bits...Of course the British are properly represented too! What was this sweet bag doing among the Chinese embroideries? We used to live near Honiton in Devon, so Honiton lace is very well represented. But there are plenty of other laces and needleworks too. So many sad little souveniers of the First World War,some of them quite heartbreaking.And just a piece of nostalgic ephemera for those who remember shopping in Exeter in the old days!My own baby dress, made by my Aunty Faith. I seem to have been as messy with food as my own sons!

An incredible Second World War Scarf - I will do an entire post later on the fantastic slogans. And let's not forget the buttons, which I've shared already.

While sorting through all these treasures, we found other items which were good but worn in places, and which could be turned into crafted items. I've brought them home and have started a bit of work - in silk and lace, but with a few other vintage items thrown in too. If you sign up for the Pay it Forward event below then you could, or in fact would, find out just what I've brought home! I realise that not everyone has the time to do something like Pay it Forward, and that others have done it before, but I'd be delighted to have the full three people for whom I could 'Pay it Forward'!

Something old, something new, something borrowed and a search for blue...

No, no-one's getting married - the title just seems to sum up the varied things I have to post today!
When I was searching for a background to photo Juanita's lovely necklace, I turned up this charming little hand-embroidered bib.

Can you imagine any baby actually wearing it? Surely it was for a Christening day, or just a present, never to be worn?? Our boys' bibs were, of necessity, a whole lot larger and a whole lot plainer!

Somebody has enbroidered the word 'pet' on it, which I never really liked, personally. I know it's a human term of endearment too, but for me, this is what a pet looks like:

Note the half-tail! That's a tail for another post...

Here's the back of the bib, which I like best of all, because it's plain cotton rather than synthetic silk. And here is an adorable cloth button. I love the little details...

Here is something new from something old - Penny's cardigan, which I showed you last week. If you remember, it was all brown, with brown buttons and no colour. This looked great with Penny's sparkly silver hair, but does nothing for my paler colouring, so I changed the buttons for vintage Mother of Pearl ones...

and shortened the cuffs until they were the right length for me, trimming them with some lovely fabric from a much-loved T-shirt which recently gave up the ghost after over 10 years' active service... Here is me, wondering how on earth to get a good photo of the cardi when the mirror is screwed to the wall opposite the window...
You've had the old and the new, and here is something borrowed: I read Kari Meng's lovely blog The Warp and the Weft today and I think that, if you don't follow it anyway, you should read today's post. Once again, she's been given access to an old treasure-house with 'tons of old stock - ribbon, notions and millinery...' She has few photos on the post, but her descriptions of how she made the fascinating contacts which led to today's news are well worth reading.

And here is something blue! You'll note from my blog that I rather like blue, but I now have a problem. The upstairs bathroom is blue and the kitchen is blue. The spare bedroom is blue-ish. The living area's spring colours have often been green/blue/yellow, but this year they are more predominantly blue. Bit by bit, I am removing the orange and rainbow colours which have kept us warm this winter, and am replacing them with blue. And, before I get to the end of the orange, I have run out of blue!

Items from the kitchen and the spare room are creeping into the living area; these vintage-quilt cushions, for example. But I have now officially run out. Tragically, I now have a Mission - to scour Troc Shops, Vide Greniers, Charity Shops etc for Blue. Life is hard, sometimes...