The Old and the New, plus a little more info on Advent

Ben and I, belatedly, got round to trying this year's Beaujolais Nouveau last night:

It's an important tradition to us, not only because it's a good thing to join in French customs, but also because it marks an anniversary for us - eight years ago we came out to look for a rental house near Toulouse because Ben had been offered the job here. I was fairly ill and for many years I found it hard to look back on that time with any pleasure, but now I can taste the Beaujolais and reminisce with enjoyment on our first visit and all the years that have passed since!

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up for A Pause in Advent this year. We'll be starting on Sunday 2nd December, as Advent begins quite late in 2012! For those who want to know more, the idea is that we post on any subject which allows us to calm down and think straight at a busy time... Many people have a religious or spiritual take on the event, and many use the pause as a way to emphasise the value of simplicity or traditions old and new, and to dwell on the importance of people above profit at this consumer-driven time of year. We write about what we've been doing, what we've been thinking, and what we hope for. Will you join us?

A Pause in Advent, 2012

Some sweet people (in the USA, Britain and France) have expressed the hope that we'll be doing the Pause in Advent again this year - thank you so much to them for keeping the thought going while I'm so busy! The answer is yes, I will be delighted to host this four-week event again, where you are invited to post every Sunday or Monday in Advent, on any subject of your choice that helps us to think about the quieter, calmer aspects of getting ready for Christmas. Please see any of my posts in previous Decembers for examples, and let me know if you'd like to get involved this year! I'm so busy teaching that I may only manage the once-a-week posts, but I think I'll need those Pauses to take a moment to reflect on what Advent and Christmas should mean to me. Will you join us, please?

Family Celebrations!

Our frenetic activity over the last week was all to get ready for a wonderful celebration in Edinburgh:

I didn't think to ask permission to blog photos, so there are no faces in this photo, but the dashing naval captain is my father, marrying his beautiful bride, whom you see here holding her vintage family prayer book. It was a really special event. Maybe I'll be able to show you more photos when I've spoken to them after the honeymoon!

You have my permission to see me! I bought the outfit second hand, but at a rather classy (and therefore more expensive than usual) shop in Edinburgh called Mona's Catwalk - well worth visiting if you're in the area! Mona and I had a lot of fun playing dress-up, and I like the results. I wore my handmade mother of pearl button necklace, and a vintage coat that I picked up on the local sales page on Facebook - no photos of that yet, but I have high hopes that my brother in law got a photo of it!

I'm OK showing you these charming faces - they are my family's former minister (she's moved on to a new church now) and our two boys, who scrubbed up nicely for the family event, I think!

Purses from the elephant box

Some of the little wonders that I've shared with you over the past few days seem to have crept into the elephant box since my mum inherited it. But one thing I remember from the box's days with my grandmother was a collection of Victorian purses:

The three at the top are miser's purses. It's well worth 'Googling' these things - such a wealth of information and images which my grandmother would have loved! I think she did see the internet once or twice  - what she could have done with it...

Lovely little charms (the boar is my favourite) on this faded purse.

This one comes with a letter (I'm sorry - I can hardly read it but I know it's addressed to 'Dear Mary').

The purse with its ring was left to dear Mary - I think the ring was a family one and had been put onto the purse quite recently for her to inherit it. Really, it must be very old! I have got to knuckle down and transcribe the whole letter...

It's lovely to share these wonders with you, and to read your comments. Jenny, the elephant box is 'standard' box size - these things are just very small! Loved your comment, though.

Editorial note: I'm taking one of my blogging breaks - but this time it's going to include other internet activities too! I'll check my emails, though, for anyone who really needs to get hold of me... have a lovely week and I'll be back online Sunday 18th November!

Hand-decorated Pincushions

I can tell you one thing:

The women who made these pincushions would have been blogging about them, if they'd had the opportunity!



Can't you just imagine them, sharing patterns over the net?

Buying beads and silks online? Although, I think a trip to the shop would have been a lot more exciting - I'd love to have gone with them!

I imagine that they got a lot of their patterns in newspapers and periodicals.

This one has faded so much, but in a way the photo brings out some of the details, and the incredible depth of the painting.

Very textured paint, this one.

I love this one - shame about the mottling.

Punched and stitched cardboard - how incredible!

I imagine these talented ladies gave away quite a lot of their handicraft - so they'd have liked this challenge from The Year of Less! I'm going to be joining in, but I know I won't be able to make anything as beautiful as these 100-year old pincushions, collected over the years and found by me in the famous Elephant Box.

Shiny front door

I think I told you, back in September, that not only was I busy at work, but that I also had a front door to paint!

Our door was completely sound, but it had a couple of problems - Raja the cocker spaniel had scratched away at the 20+ year old varnish:

(Lovely Christmas wreath by a member of our local MOPS group, but weathered varnish quite visible...)

And the varnish was orange - no two ways about it. Cute summer wreaths can only hide so much varnish.

And orange varnish on the inside of the door (never photographed, because it was so horrible) made the whole of our entrance area dark and miserable. The light dawned when I stuck a white poster (Kings and Queens of England, from The Times) on the inside of the door and the whole living room lit up! I knew I had to paint the inside of the door shiny white (no photos yet - I have a few last things to arrange in the area) and Ben and I decided on Basque red, the same as our gate, for the outside:

This is the only photo where the colour really comes out, but here are a few other angles:

Did you spot the hen door mat?

I bought it for myself as a treat, for when the door was finished... it went down on Friday afternoon!

At the moment, I'm enjoying the pristine finish too much to add anything to decorate the door, but it was fun looking back over photos of what I've done in the past!

For Christmas, though, I'll certainly be contacting Amy to see if she's making her wonderful Christmas wreaths again! I'm happy enough creating my own seasonal efforts, but nothing beats Amy's proper wreaths for Christmas...

Little Mary and her six frocks

Little Mary has lived in the elephant box for decades - maybe a century!

She was an absolute highlight of my rainy Saturday afternoons with my grandmother.

She's so stylish, and she's all drawn by hand...

I've been guessing that she was 'born' in the 1860s and the similarity of her dresses to Tenniel's Alice in Wonderland could mean that I'm right. And don't you love her shoes?

I'm crazy about her travelling outfit, too!

I'm not so keen on the yellow with ermine (ermine???), although it looks warm...



I wonder if this is a party dress for winter, or an outdoor summer dress? I'm rather getting the impression that Little Mary has a winter wardrobe, so I'm going for this one as a Christmas party dress.

I think this is her day dress.

This is how she 'works'. I'm a bit upset about the lack of  hat for her hat stand - I really can't remember if there was one in the envelope when I was little, but there certainly isn't one now...

Good night, Little Mary!



Inside the Elephant Box - Part 1

There are two layers in my elephant box!

The box was given to my mother and grandmother by friends whose Victorian grandmother had been quite a collector...

As many of you guessed, it contains a lot of sewing equipment (no buttons, Betty, so you can read on!), including this quirky little pin cushion designed like a domino.

The domino pin cusion was in a compartment on the left, and, lifting the little lid above it, I found this leather needle case, the large 'needle' and the two amber rods... even after years of treating this box as my 'rainy day' box, to share with my grandmother, I really don't know everything that's in it!

Juanita makes a key point- not only is the box's inlay ivory, but the needle case seems to have snake skin on it and the 'needle' is almost certainly tortoise shell. My mother taught me to be horrified by the killing, but to respect these antique artefacts - I wonder what the rest of you think?

Just to add to my ethical issues over the ancient massacres of endangered animals, here is a collection of carved ivory bangles my mother bought in charity shops and (one of) my grandmother's crocodile-skin handbags. My mother bought the ivory bracelets because she couldn't bear to see something which represented so much life and work (obviously mainly on the part of the elephant) being sold as if it were plastic. She never wore them.  My grandmother bought the handbag because that was just what you did in those days... what do we do with it all now, I wonder?

Here is a box...

Here is a box,

an elephant box!

Opened and ready to play.

But this box can hide many secrets inside...

Can you guess what is in it today?

You say eiderdown, I say édredon...

...or at least, I do now!

So, I promised a friend I'd pop into the charity shop today, to look out for an old duvet for her dog's kennel...

Amongst the duvets (and I bought one for you and one for me, Jane!) were two bags labelled: 'édredon'. Can that mean what I think it means, I wondered?

Well, yes, it pretty much does!

You can see my mum's piece of eiderdown fabric, at the top of this photo, and the two French ones (probably the same period - do you think 1930s?) below. The French fabric isn't glossy - it's fairly coarse, in fact, but I do rather think they're going to go together well. French édredons are small and square, I was told. I think they will fit well on the end of the bed in the winter, though, for pulling up over shoulders when it gets really cold... And I think I'll use the down duvet I bought for myself as an innard for the eiderdown fabric I found in my mum's drawer...

The lady from the charity shop suggests a trip to the huge washers and driers at the laundrette down the road - what do you think, friends? Will they all survive the wash and dry (plus balle de tennis, of course)?

There was some very 'me' fabric at the charity shop too - it might be fun as a table cloth?

And finally, two bark cloth bed covers - I only bought this one, as the other one, trendy bark cloth or not, just made me want to cringe... some big, dark flowered patterns do that to me.

The holidays are nearly here! The trip to the charity shop took place thanks to a cancelled English lesson, and I have two more lessons to teach (one maths, please don't laugh if you know my ability, and one English) and then the holidays begin! I still have some work, but plenty of time with the boys too, and, I hope plenty of time to share some more of our modern vintage life in France with you! Thanks for holding on in there, friends - your comments were very kind when I was so busy. So, see you after the weekend!