Everything's coming up roses!

Recently I've been adding to my collection of roses...Last year the weather (poor until the end of June) gave us lovely roses in the garden, enough for cutting in June:
and into July:
This year April and May were a blazing start to an early summer, and only my much-loved Fairy Rose has coped with the more moderate heat of June - despite generous watering the other roses are waiting for September to give us their second display. Therefore, I stopped cutting roses months ago and am a bit short of cut flowers in the house.
But that doesn't mean there aren't any roses indoors! You probably know I've been picking up French enamel (and later Chinese enamel) bowls at Vide Greniers for a while. I love the stencilled detail - see the lacy pattern on the bowl on the left here:
And I have to say that Cath Kidston has absolutely come up trumps this time with her set of three enamel bowls.When I saw them (everywhere) in British magazines last month I knew I'd be stopping at her Edinburgh shop and picking up what turned out to be one of the last sets. I've looked online and they don't seem to be in stock any more, folks. Does that mean that any of you have bought them too? They seem to be popular and I think that CK deserve a lot of credit for producing something new that sits so well alongside the vintage original.
So now we move on to other roses in my collection. I've loved this little rosy jug since I found it, covered in candle wax, at a Vide Grenier a while back. But it took me ages to appreciate the slightly more stylized rose on the French sugar tin below - I really only 'clicked' that it went with my vintage rose collection yesterday!
This tile, which I picked up over the winter, went part-way to teaching me to accept the stylized roses of the mid 20th century...
... so that when I spotted this cup and saucer in my dad's local charity shop the other week, I was finally able to admire it for what it was, rather than thinking of it as a nasty piece of old-fashioned grot from my childhood!
It's interesting how our tastes can change - sometimes I think that things too recent in our memories can't be appreciated for what they are - I think of my MIL's phrase: 'ghastly Victorian' or my mother's: 'I never liked that the first time round, dear'...But now, using the definition that three items make a collection, I am now clearly a collector of mid-century roses, as well as all the other varieties!

A prophecy fulfilled...

Mine, mine, all mine!

And Nana Go-Go, I did read your helpful advice but my dad's Tesco is an inner-city one and it doesn't have clothes and shoes. And do you know what, I just wanted to splash out!

Unconditional love for shoes

Unconditional love is essential.It's what children need from their parents,
and it's a really important part of my faith.
But what may be appropriate for humans,

may not really apply to shoes.

Sadly, with me,

I love my shoes unconditionally.

It doesn't matter that the fabric is grubby despite many washes,

that the plastic is breaking on top,

and underneath (ouch!).

For me they are still the same shoes I bought in Cath Kidston, Edinburgh, in April 2009,

and they are comfortable,

and I can't buy new shoes whilst on the Challenge of the Utmost Kind,

and I love them.

I nearly threw them away at the end of last summer

and I nearly threw them away at the beginning of this summer

but it seems that this is beyond me.

I have tried to only wear them as rough shoes in the house and garden

but somehow they have still managed to accompany me to la Poste and the boys' school ("Ooh la la, les chaussures sexys!") But I still can't give them up.

I've got one of those!

I bet you Cath Kidston fans know what's coming next, don't you?

"Badge Blanket
£60.00
In homage to the Scouts, we have introduced this nostalgic blanket to our range which is ideal for sitting on outside or curling up under on the sofa. The blanket has a number of patches on depicting familiar images from around the British Isles

L 166X166cm (50% wool 50% man made fibre)

Machine Wash one blanket at a time in cool water.

Line or tumble dry on gentle lowest heat setting."

Well, I'm happy to tell you that "I have one of those!" and I made it, too. Obviously, my mum helped...

j

First I was an American Brownie Girl Scout.

Then I was a British Brownie Guide. Wasn't so convinced by that stage...
But I went on to join the best Girl Guide Unit in our area...

... and finished off in the later '80s as a Ranger Guide.

I wasn't one of those gung-ho campers. For me it was all about good food and activities and songs round the campfire, not starting a fire with one match, I'm afraid.

But I faithfully recorded all the camps and jamborees I attended around the hem of my utility-blanket poncho...

...and swapped (and bought) badges with enthusiasm.

Our Guide Captain, who was the village butcher's wife, was a marvellous woman - one of the best leaders I've known. She had a stunning Camp Blanket, probably dating from the 1950s onwards I suppose, and she inspired a lot of us to start our own.

I did go for quantity rather than quality, being me - a friend collected only Guide and Scout badges, and had a fantastic collection - but I loved to buy or be given badges from anywhere I or a family member had visited.

My dad was in the Navy, which gained me some excellent glittery badges - all sewn on the front where I couldn't accidentally sit on them - ouch! The old green and blue guide badges near the top of the above photo were earned by my mum. A real family blanket...

I really adored all the embroidered badges. The US and British Navies made some really plush ones...

And this Canadian Trillium badge is probably my mother's favourite - she had been a Guide in Canada and was in the Trillium Patrol, although I don't think the badge dates from her time.

And that's the story of my Camp Blanket - my "homage to the Girl Guides" as Cath would put it!Our boys aren't Cubs or Scouts - the Toulouse English-speaking troops don't appeal to them and there are no French ones in our immediate area, sadly. (Boy, do they have great hats? I would do a lot to get my sons wearing a Baden Powell hat like some of the French Scouts who hike through our town, but it's not to be...) However, Son 1 found me editing the first photo soon after I'd been working on my Blog Shop, and exclaimed in concern: 'You're not selling THAT, are you?' so he seems to have some appreciation of all things Scouting and Guiding...

j

I'd really like to thank you all for your kind comments on my last post. It is wonderful to me how loving and supportive this blogging community can be. My mum had a marvelous weekend - friends from her church choir came to sing for her in her own sitting room!