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...

The denouement????

If you've popped in for the first time today, you need to know that we started the day with a bit of a mystery, based on a vintage photo I bought on Friday. Follow the thread of the story here if you want the background...Now, the above lady is Mlle. Desclauzas. She was born in 1840, and had a very sweet, light mezzo-soprano voice. She rose to great popularity in character roles for comic opera (opéra-bouffe) in both France and America. A lot of my best results from Google searches for her come from the New York Times Archive pages - what a wonderful resource!Here she is (above) in one of her film roles. Early reviews describe her as 'a verry pretty woman' (yes, that's the NYT spelling) with a 'deliciously fresh' voice. Later on she is described in her comic character roles as 'very jolly', although I did find one unfortunate review when she had lost her voice on the night of the performance!Now to my mystery photo. The name 'Desclauzas' is all over the photo, but apparantly this woman is Madame Harles. She has a vague similarity to the famous singer, but lacks her pert little nose and chirpy expression, in my opinion.This, then, is my conclusion, but I will be really interested to see if any of you come up with alternative theories:

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Mlle. Descaluzas was popular, in the way that Music Hall stars were in the UK at this time. Her famous roles are still called 'the Desclauzas roles' - I found a lovely write-up of a woman who still specialises in these roles today (very pretty!).

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There was no TV and people 'made their own entertainment' back in those days! Therefore, I assume we're looking at the evidence of an early 'lookalike/soundalike' event, where the Municipal Theatre of Valence put on an event, maybe a comptition, at least twice. Women who could sing (and perhaps look) like Mlle. Desclauzas, came along in their best dresses, performed, got their photos taken, and maybe won a prize. Who knows? But that seems reasonable, although Google can't give me any evidence of it.

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Alternative 'denouements' welcome! (I never knew until I got to France that this word literally means 'unknotting', but that's a good word for the resolution of a mystery, isn't it?)

Long Weekend 2 and a wonderful swap parcel!

The advent of reasonable weather here hopefully means the end of the ludicrous wellie boot situation we have found ourselves in this winter.See the problem? What crazy mother thought that identical boots in sizes 35, 36 and 37 would make for easy gardening and dog walking? I cannot WAIT for the day that the boys' feet are bigger than mine, which will mean that they stop walking off in MY boots!Henry the hedgehog, who has been guarding wellies for longer than the boys have been part of the family, is still doing a great job, though. He could do with a brush-around, though, poor chap.
Other weekend events - Son 2 played rugby At Home for once, rather than in some far-flung town on the other side of Toulouse. It was a huge and very successful tournament - well done to the Ecole de Rugby.

The strawberries were successfully transplanted out of Raja's reach - now we just have to think about what to do to protect the raspberries! Son 2 decorated a third pot to complete our pot family. Mr and Mrs Pot (much admired - thanks for your comments) came with us from the UK years ago. This year 'Pappie Pot', which means Grandpa Pot, has joined the family. The boys have some wonderful all-surface pens which can write/draw on glass, stone, pots etc - fantastic!

The fence you saw being planted up has finally removed the 'sitting in a goldfish bowl' nature of our patio. We celebrated by setting up the table there and enjoying an evening meal without being watched by everyone passing the gates. The flowers are from Ben's 'meadow' and the little greenish vase was a troc shop find by me and Son 1 this weekend.This is just a close-up of the little broken teapot I showed you in the last post - very cute, and a good planter for the Lily of the Valley, I thought.

It just got better and better, because my swap parcel from Sharon the Crafty Trundler from Clover Cottage arrived!

It was a free-style swap and she spent a lot of time researching the things I like, including the colour blue. Look at the fantastic bag, which is going to come on a first outing with me tomorrow to my French lesson! And two happy little hearts, in my favourite colours and fabrics...

I knew just the place for the hearts... We have our very own loving couple: Great, Great Aunt Selina, who I think has a bit of a Mona Lisa smile, and the rather gloomy Great, Great Uncle Joshua.I think that the love-hearts are just what they need to cheer them up!

Thanks so much, Sharon - I am overwhelmed by the lovely things I've been given!

This is post number 93, I think. I am planning an 'Auld Alliance' Franco-Scottish 100th Post Giveaway, so do look out for that!

A bit of Make Do and Mend

I saw a wonderful denim/floral patchwork bag in Claire's Accessories the other day (of all places). Son number one, who was with me, said dubiously, 'It's very Mummy'. However, I wasn't going to pay the asking price, oh no! It was one of those 'I could do that myself' moments.

So far I have decided to use this little broken Roxy bag as a base. I looked at handbag patterns on the net but I'm not feeling like starting from scratch. I'm feeling exactly like 'make do and mend', so that is what I shall do.

I've drawn around the bag and cut out a pattern onto which I've pinned the pieces - it's a bit like crazy patchwork but with hems.



Now I have to start stitching, which shouldn't take too long. The real challenge will be fitting it round the base-bag. I will let you know if it works...




I've been very inspired in this by Happy of the great blog http://happylovesrosie.blogspot.com/. This is the first time that I've posted a link, so I hope it works! You'll really like her wonderful ideas and creations.

A home for elderly relatives...

Several years ago my husband Ben rescued two portraits, of rather dubious quality and condition, from his parents' attic. The portraits have 'Uncle Joshua' and 'Aunt Selina' scrawled on the backs of their frames, apparently by the cousin of Ben's dad. This makes Uncle Joshua the several-times great uncle of Ben and our boys, and Selina their great-whatever aunt by marriage.

Ben's mum had no interest in these ancient relatives by marriage, and we thought we'd have a go at giving them a home. To be honest, they are quite hard work. Hung on a wall, they are very sombre and serious, and tend to intimidate any room where we put them.

I decided to give them another chance a few weeks ago, and propped them on two small cabinets on our upstairs landing.

Here is Uncle Joshua. I gave him a few 'props', such as an antique telescope in a box on the right, and another little wooden box which contains a few vintage travel tickets. I couldn't resist putting his bow tie, or a reasonable facsimile, in the horn cup, although I think this is verging on the twee.

Aunt Selina was very much easier to accessorise! I brought out some of my lace, which hasn't been displayed for quite a while, and a few bits of jewellery which look vaguely like the two brooches she is wearing in the picture.

Now, it is agreed by casual viewers and experts alike that the portrait of Joshua is much better quality than that of his wife. Ben's dad takes the cynical view that old Joshua spent more money on a better portrait of himself. I've thought of a second possibility, however: is it possible that Joshua treasured his wife so much that he paid to have her portrait painted first, and then waited until he was older and had saved up a second time for his own portrait? Of course, there is no way of telling which was painted first, as the two portraits don't appear markedly different in age or style. But maybe the romantic option is the real one...