Vintage tiles - the photos and the reality!

Two beautiful kitchens in the March and April Homes and Antiques Magazines have featured vintage or antique tiles. I've always fancied tiles like this, and Ben is currently looking for some tiles, so when I saw vintage tiles for sale locally, I moved fast:

I bought this pretty flower tile, and two other blue and white ones, for 10€ the lot.

The vendor was on the 'For Sale, Swap, Wanted and Giveaway in Toulouse' Facebook page - she sells items to raise money for a local cat charity. I've bought and sold plenty of things (bunkbeds, books and bikes, for example) on this wonderful English-language page since it was set up a year ago, but this is the first time I have found vintage items.

Here are the magazine pages with some beautiful ideas...

I shall have to keep shopping!

PS The sunshine and blooms were yesterday. Today, everything has been covered in snow!

Glorious vintage tins!

Son 1's leg is on the mend, and he's getting bored of being stuck in the house. When an attempted trip to the local safari park (drive-round, therefore suited to a hobbling teenager) fell through (snow damage still being repared) we headed off to the nearby Troc Shop. Oh, what a haul we found!Oh, I was so happy, and so surprised! Due to budgetary restraints, I've been avoiding the troc shops, but this was theraputic...Son 1 talked me into buying that rather impressive serpent which is now holding our oranges. We've always admired them, and buying trendy things about three years too late is par for the course for me.But the real Floss buys really old things, not just three-years-out-of-date fruit holders! I spotted this tin straight away, which has a quite remarkable image combining a 1920s/30s style couple in horse trap along with an ancient Greek horse. Really - see for yourself: http://www.etsy.com/listing/87402521/ancient-greece-bronze-horse-in-gallop

The base of the tin is pretty well-made too."Do you really need this?" asked Son 1, in some desparation...But I have to have a Scotsman in London! And the soldiers in their bearskins...I have to say, they do complete my vintage tin display rather wonderfully (for now, at least). See the bright red Chinoiserie one? That came too...It's fun with the Egyptian style one below it, which came from the same Troc Shop several years ago.

The ancient horse has found good company with another round tin too, I think.

And they all snuggle under the 'combles' near my collection of vintage fabric boxes. I am really rather pleased with all this!

A Wintery Find

At the springtime Troc Broc Solde I found this wonderful piece of jewellery: I promptly put it away because it felt all wrong for the season, but suddenly, it feels All Right!

I wonder if any of our jewellery makers out there could tell me anything about what metal it's made from, or even if the little stone is stone or glass? I'm not coming up with much from my traditional Google 'research'.

It's really quite big - about 20cm across. I wore it to the Tree Market on Friday and it felt very appropriate.

I've photographed it on the other side of my Welsh tapestry blanket, because I realised I never showed you the famous inverse pattern for which these blankets are admired. I've discovered this particular pattern is known as Caernafon, which is the town where my grandpa was born! I really am pleased to be getting to know more about it.

There are lots of bloggers signed up for our annual Pause in Advent. It would be great if you wanted to get involved - please click on the logo in my sidebar to leave your comment!

A Frenchman's Lunch...

Obviously, the French have the right and proper attitude towards lunch - that it consists of three courses and that it takes two hours. Think this is a stereotype? Well, working people do manage to get back to the office in under two hours, but they do all eat properly. They find the idea of eating a sandwich in front of your computer so bizarre that it doesn't really seem believable to them. And of course they're right - taking a proper break is better for health and productivity (and keeps crumbs out of the keyboard...) But there have clearly always been jobs where a picnic lunch is all that's going to happen. In the early 20th century, those lunches were carried in these diddy little enamel pails. The one on the left is my first buy - it's battered and doesn't seal any more, and I got it for a euro with some square mosaic tiles which had been stored in it - garage fodder, clearly.

But the new one, which I found today at the troc shop, is in full working order. Apart from two chips on the rim, everything is brand-shiny new. I wonder where it's been lurking all these years? It's going to hold batteries for recycling in our kitchen now (quick green note: we do use rechargable batteries, but the odd non-rechargable one does seem to intrude now and again).

Do you want to see how much the (overpriced, it's-old-so-we'll-sting-you-for-it) troc shop charged me for this shiny beauty?

Worth drinking to!

Foodie note: I know what the working French man has in his lunch box because when our pavement was being laid I stood behind the 'jeune' (the apprentice) who'd been sent to get the team's lunch at Intermarché. He bought baguettes, cheese, saucisson, apples and red wine. So there you go.

A bit of French fun

We're living life at quite a pace at the moment - but the holidays are about to begin and I hope to have a bit more blogging time then! Your lovely comments were great to come back to when I got back from my blogging break - so here's a little bit of French fun for you which Ben and I picked up for a euro today: A vintage French enamel coffee pot for one euro? Surely not!

No, indeed not, it's a vintage French (genuinely vintage, I think) kitchen-roll holder! A bit of fun for the kitchen, I think...

A nice day's Troc'ing - with a little bit of teaching thrown in...

I had a lovely day teaching in different parts of Toulouse today - in a chateau this morning (now part of a modern business) and in a second French company this afternoon. In between the two lie various Troc Shops... It seemed to be vintage china day. These pleasant pheasants have been used as a sugar bowl - there is still sugar inside!!! It's soaking in the sink now...

This is an art deco-type shallow bowl with a small pedestal -

here's a bit more detail!

This is a copy of a vintage American milk bottle - frankly, I've just always wanted one and it was 1€...

A tile from the owner's parents' home in the mountains, I'm told...

This beautiful stand was very cheap, because the base is sadly crumbling. I think I'll be able to use it with care, though.

And even the dog is interested!

La chienne qui chine!

Blooms, Birds, Blessings and Blue Pottery

Well, after all the excitement of hospital trips and pain-filled nights earlier in the week, things are finally settling down! Son 2's antibiotics and painkillers are finally up to the job of keeping him asleep at night and fit for school in the day, and the nurse came to our house yesterday to change his bandages - I think both boys instantly fell in love with her! Thanks so much for all your kind comments for me and the poor injured boy. Either you're going to look at the picture above and notice the pretty flowers, or you're going to notice that I need to weed! Cup half full, or half empty? I planted the bulbs right next to my washing line, so that I would see early blooms when hanging out the washing. Sadly the washing has been sitting on the line in the rain for the last 18 hours - I got caught out yesterday, and decided to risk leaving it there in the hopes that today will be a better day. I'm not sure, though...Now, in advance of Son 2 damaging himself, I had a smashing time myself last weekend, breaking a small coffee pot, a glass and one of our last good-sized serving dishes.

It was time for some shopping, and fast - Ben was threatening to go out and buy a whole new set of serving dishes! New??? A SET????? Shock horror. Action was needed to keep up my thrifty-eco-eclectic image.

Thankfully, the troc shop came up trumps. I was looking for a theme that would fit what little is left in our collection (mostly white or with small blue flowers) and I came back, delighted, with this lovely tagine-style casserole, the Crown Derby 'modern' casserole you see above and two hand-painted plates.

There's a lot of north African pottery in France, of course, given its colonial history.

j

Each piece I've bought is different but is hopefully united by the blue and white and the hand painting. I'm looking forward to finding some more pieces to add to the collection now!

So things are looking up. Son 2 and I have caught up on enough sleep to see the bright side of life again. Son 1 and Ben can look forward to having a bit of attention again! And the holidays start on Saturday, and my dad seems likely to be well enough to leave hospital and get home before we are due to vist him. I am very grateful for all these blessings, the big ones and the blue plates too.

And a final blessing is this regular visitor to Son 2's birdfeeder - a blackcap. It's either one very hungry one or several, taking it in turns. They are wonderfully elegant little birds and very welcome!

Loving the Challenge...

Tif's Challenge of the Utmost Kind is having a very positive effect on my life so far... Here is Tif, with her Dottie Angel Challenge - you can read about my response here, and her original challenge here.
Instead of giving you a running commentary on my weekend Vide Greniers finds, I thought I'd let the pictures speak (mostly) for themselves, and go through some answers to questions about the Challenge, plus letting you know how it's going so far...

So, the questions first.

Question 1: Can people still buy me new gifts? Of course, if they want to, but maybe this will free people up when they realise (as my sister already does, for example) that I'm very happy to have hand made, second hand or otherwise 'acquired' gifts from them. If my family wants to track down my Amazon wishlist, for example, they could buy me a second hand version of a book I'm longing for... (hint, hint)...Question 2: Surely you never found an Emma Bridgewater tray in a Vide Grenier in southern France? (OK, I made up that question, but you need to know the truth - I already had the tray and most of its contents - only the watch was new to me this weekend).Question 2 (the real one): Is this about 'being green'? Oddly enough, not particularly. We lead as green a lifestyle as we can anyway, and if I really wanted to have less of an impact on the planet I think there are other things I would change in my life first. Instead, I see this Challenge as a discipline, almost kind of a fast, to give me a chance to re-focus my life and my spending/consumption habits. This has some eco-relevance, but it's almost more spiritual for me. Hmmm, heavy...Question 3: (OK, OK, now I'm making up questions the way John Holmes makes up letters in the Now Show, but it's for a purpose...) What about those exceptions - you haven't said anything about clothes? I buy second hand or am given (as 'hand-me-downs') nearly all of my clothes. I do quite a bit of 'upcycling' of the clothes I'm given and am keen to do more. Last winter I bought some great boots and shoes (new - very unusual for me) and I have fairly new, or long-lasting, undies, so I think I'll be OK by continuing my careful mending policies... Tights are little-needed in southern France - I'll be fine!

Spurious Question 4: Why the exception you made for Fair Trade produce? Most Fairly Traded stuff is hand made anyway, so it comes into Tif's original rules. I also feel passionately about giving fair recompense to producers around the world, and this is a realisitic way of supporting people I will never meet. If I stopped buying FT for a year it would be a negative move, not a positive one. Since food is not part of this challenge, my FT buying habits there won't be affected anyway.

So, how is it going? As I said, I'm finding it incredibly positive so far - thanks Tif!

Successes so far include the discovery that second hand filing cabinets are readily available in France - by checking on the Internet I can see that they frequently come into the Troc Shops, so a bit of patience and popping in every now and then (or checking the local websites) should find me one to sort out our filing problems within the next month or so. If I'd bought one new, it would probably have stood, empty, for a while before I got the time to set it up, so it might as well sit waiting for me, second hand somewhere - I will find it!Another phenomenal success on a more frivolous level is that I found two (two!) red-initialed nighties at the VG this weekend! Elizabethd knows how much I have wanted one of these. I saw one in Brittany for 65 euros - ludicrous! The vendor wanted two euros each for these two...She thought they were family nighties, but did not know who LR was. I think she was a bit bigger than me round the middle, though!Despite that, they do fit, and I might just wear one after a bath as a rather whimsical version of a pair of house pyjamas!

But really, I just wanted to own something(s) this fine...There was another hand-embroidered nighty in the same collection, for the same price...

Very fine work... Love it!

If you turn the embroidery over you can see it is all hand done.And this is another good thing about thrifty shopping - even at the VG prices can be cut! I only discovered this label when I got home - it means that the nighties were in a Braderie, and didn't sell...So, exceptions and failures... I have felt positively freed up not having to make decisions about buying new stuff or visiting my favourite decor shops. I've had more time to do other things... I did go into a big electronics shop and buy something I'd promised I'd get for Ben. It's a desktop hard drive, so that he can download all our important files and photos before we upgrade/replace the computer. To be honest, the upgrade needed is so all-encompassing (only the screen still works properly) that we will probably need to buy a 'new' set. However, we might find this 'new' computer second hand - watch this space. I do predict that this will be the hardest thing to fit within this challenge, this year...The tin and its contents above weren't cheap, in case you were wondering! The vendor knew exactly what she was selling, and gave them to me at a reduced price for buying the lot, but nothing over-generous. I do think I did well, though.

And finally, I've found and photographed the magazine photo which I think inspired me to re-discover all the wonderful vintage things I had packed away around the house! The photo above was on the front of an old magazine which I bought shortly after arriving in France. Don't you think it's inspirational?