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Showing posts with label Edinburgh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edinburgh. Show all posts
Sunday, November 18, 2012
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!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
In Edinburgh and Not Blogging!
The boys and I are here visiting my dad and his fiancée. Life continues to be too busy and too pleasant to find time for blogging - but I haven't forgotten you, my friends!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Snapshots of five days in Edinburgh
Five days with my dad in Edinburgh.
Enjoying the flowers outside,
and in.
Enjoying the flowers outside, and in.Charity shopping alone (finding this Boden), and with my dad's new companion.
Going to the theatre to watch an old favourite,
and a hilarious comedy, new to me (but Nana GoGo will know what it is!).
Eating with a very elderly friend of my mum's at a happening new organic restaurant near her home in Canonmills - she loved it!
Posing (yes, literally) for my dad's church art club!
Reading all four of the Twilight books...
and still, on this second reading, I have to say that I remain a wolf-girl. My friend Jo says I'm in a tiny minority...
Thursday, February 16, 2012
The Thrill of What You Already Have - February
Finally! I managed to post our inspiration picture early this month, but it took me ages to get some bits and pieces together, and then even longer to put them into a blog post for you!
You'll see the inspiration picture - a vintage railway poster advertising Edinburgh as a destination - to your left in my sidebar. Last time I just used the colours and shapes in the Dunfermline poster to inspire a collection of nicely-toned bits and bobs (geegaws, as Ben would put it...).
This time, influenced by the destination and by the January posts of other bloggers taking part, I've collected things which actually do have an Edinburgh connection. It's probably the only time I'll do that, but Edinburgh is my Scottish base and always has been, I suppose, so it's no surprise.
I found this tin, with a scene of the Scott Monument very reminiscent of the poster itself, in my dad's larder when we were visiting at Christmas. The vintage tin is lined with blue velvet - it's really very plush and unworn. But I have no idea where and when it arrived in my dad's house - I'd never seen it before! Evidently my mum or my grandma found it in a charity shop years ago, and it's been tucked in the larder (which is nowadays a general store room) waiting for me to find it! I asked my dad if he'd like it out on display and he shuddered slightly and told me he was trying to get rid of things, not display more - so it came back to France with us! Maybe it's the first time the tin has ever left Edinburgh, but now it's in good company.
Just below the tin is a little vintage enameled sewing case - just room for a thimble, pins, needle and thread. I think I found that in my Christmas stocking one year in the 1980s...
The little basket you see in several of the pictures popped in due to its colours as much as its Edinburgh connections. But as my mother gave it to me, with a real story behind it, I thought it was appropriate, as Edinburgh is so connected in my mind with my mum. The story is that when my mother's family lived in Canada for a number of years in the 1950s, my mum spotted this little hand-made basket, woven by a Canadian Indian lady who lived near their holiday home. (I've looked up the modern terms for Canadian Indian but am confused. 'First Nations lady' sounds strange, but Canadian friends, what is correct?) My mum was desperate to spend her pocket money on the basket but my grandmother told her it was a complete waste of money and not to be so silly. This caused the usual kind of rift that you get over spending on family holidays, but somehow or other my mum ended up, triumphant, with the basket. And I can't really think of anything else she could have afforded which would have stood the test of time so well, can you?
After that triumph, I don't think any of my other finds seem quite so impressive! The books have some Edinburgh connections - my mum talked me into buying the three enormous leather-bound Bible commentaries in the Bethany Shop, Stockbridge, Edinburgh. I bought the Poems and Songs of Burns from my dad's church book stall more recently - isn't it a wonderful binding? The cannon balls could recall Edinburgh's military history and even the Cannonmills area of the city, if you like, but actually they came from an English battlefield and are really there to hold the books up!
This is my other recent Edinburgh find - and I got it at the English Christmas Market in Toulouse! The title was vaguely familiar and it turns out that this is a reprint of books by an author which my grandma collected in the 1940s. The Silent Traveller is the pen name of a Chinese artist and writer who arrived in the west in the 1930s, and wrote charming and insightful books about what he found, illustrated with his own Chinese-style drawings. If you can find one of his books about a city or area you know, I think you would be really charmed by it!
Here's the whole set-up - I always put them in a dark area, which is bad for photography but just right for seeing when you enter the house! You win some, you loose some...
*
I'm really enjoying the other 'Thrill' posts that are coming up. The diversity is what's impressive. If you look in my sidebar you'll see that some people are using the theme to think in terms of colour, others are looking at geography/travel, some are using at as an exercise in story-telling/nostalgia (as I've done this time, I realise) and others have done something different! I think that's great. I wonder if it has to be about household items anyway? What about an outfit based on the colours or themes? That might be fun! Please feel free to go wild with the theme and do what you like...
You'll see the inspiration picture - a vintage railway poster advertising Edinburgh as a destination - to your left in my sidebar. Last time I just used the colours and shapes in the Dunfermline poster to inspire a collection of nicely-toned bits and bobs (geegaws, as Ben would put it...).
This time, influenced by the destination and by the January posts of other bloggers taking part, I've collected things which actually do have an Edinburgh connection. It's probably the only time I'll do that, but Edinburgh is my Scottish base and always has been, I suppose, so it's no surprise.
I found this tin, with a scene of the Scott Monument very reminiscent of the poster itself, in my dad's larder when we were visiting at Christmas. The vintage tin is lined with blue velvet - it's really very plush and unworn. But I have no idea where and when it arrived in my dad's house - I'd never seen it before! Evidently my mum or my grandma found it in a charity shop years ago, and it's been tucked in the larder (which is nowadays a general store room) waiting for me to find it! I asked my dad if he'd like it out on display and he shuddered slightly and told me he was trying to get rid of things, not display more - so it came back to France with us! Maybe it's the first time the tin has ever left Edinburgh, but now it's in good company.
Just below the tin is a little vintage enameled sewing case - just room for a thimble, pins, needle and thread. I think I found that in my Christmas stocking one year in the 1980s...The little basket you see in several of the pictures popped in due to its colours as much as its Edinburgh connections. But as my mother gave it to me, with a real story behind it, I thought it was appropriate, as Edinburgh is so connected in my mind with my mum. The story is that when my mother's family lived in Canada for a number of years in the 1950s, my mum spotted this little hand-made basket, woven by a Canadian Indian lady who lived near their holiday home. (I've looked up the modern terms for Canadian Indian but am confused. 'First Nations lady' sounds strange, but Canadian friends, what is correct?) My mum was desperate to spend her pocket money on the basket but my grandmother told her it was a complete waste of money and not to be so silly. This caused the usual kind of rift that you get over spending on family holidays, but somehow or other my mum ended up, triumphant, with the basket. And I can't really think of anything else she could have afforded which would have stood the test of time so well, can you?
After that triumph, I don't think any of my other finds seem quite so impressive! The books have some Edinburgh connections - my mum talked me into buying the three enormous leather-bound Bible commentaries in the Bethany Shop, Stockbridge, Edinburgh. I bought the Poems and Songs of Burns from my dad's church book stall more recently - isn't it a wonderful binding? The cannon balls could recall Edinburgh's military history and even the Cannonmills area of the city, if you like, but actually they came from an English battlefield and are really there to hold the books up!
This is my other recent Edinburgh find - and I got it at the English Christmas Market in Toulouse! The title was vaguely familiar and it turns out that this is a reprint of books by an author which my grandma collected in the 1940s. The Silent Traveller is the pen name of a Chinese artist and writer who arrived in the west in the 1930s, and wrote charming and insightful books about what he found, illustrated with his own Chinese-style drawings. If you can find one of his books about a city or area you know, I think you would be really charmed by it!
Here's the whole set-up - I always put them in a dark area, which is bad for photography but just right for seeing when you enter the house! You win some, you loose some...*
I'm really enjoying the other 'Thrill' posts that are coming up. The diversity is what's impressive. If you look in my sidebar you'll see that some people are using the theme to think in terms of colour, others are looking at geography/travel, some are using at as an exercise in story-telling/nostalgia (as I've done this time, I realise) and others have done something different! I think that's great. I wonder if it has to be about household items anyway? What about an outfit based on the colours or themes? That might be fun! Please feel free to go wild with the theme and do what you like...
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The Thrill of What You Already Have - February Picture
It's snowing! Here in the south of France that's quite an excitement, let me tell you... Ben and Son 2 are planning a skiing trip on Saturday. Son 1 and I are planning another quiet day, but he's becoming more mobile and suffering less pain so we are quite happy with a quiet day on those terms... He's just worked out how to play the (new, digital) piano with his leg stuck out sideways, so he's a whole lot less bored now.
So it's February! I managed January's Thrill of What You Already Have post towards the middle of the month, but I'll be aiming to give you the pictures earlier in the month from now on - here is February's vintage rail tourism poster:
I'm quite excited by this one! For a start, my Scottish connections these days are all Edinburgh-based, but my imagination is really captured by the great age of steam trains, along with all the historical monuments captured in the poster.
The aim is the same as last month - use the inspiration of this poster to rummage through the things you already have, to create some kind of display that allows you to delight in possessions you didn't have to rush out and buy! Last month some of the participants decribed it as 'home shopping', which I thought was fun. If you want to know more, the basic rules are here. I'll be doing my rummage over the next few days, and will post a photo or two once I've got a collection I'm happy with. Let me know on this post (or on my next one) when you've posted your February 'Thrill', and I'll put a link to it in my sidebar. Have fun!
So it's February! I managed January's Thrill of What You Already Have post towards the middle of the month, but I'll be aiming to give you the pictures earlier in the month from now on - here is February's vintage rail tourism poster:
I'm quite excited by this one! For a start, my Scottish connections these days are all Edinburgh-based, but my imagination is really captured by the great age of steam trains, along with all the historical monuments captured in the poster.The aim is the same as last month - use the inspiration of this poster to rummage through the things you already have, to create some kind of display that allows you to delight in possessions you didn't have to rush out and buy! Last month some of the participants decribed it as 'home shopping', which I thought was fun. If you want to know more, the basic rules are here. I'll be doing my rummage over the next few days, and will post a photo or two once I've got a collection I'm happy with. Let me know on this post (or on my next one) when you've posted your February 'Thrill', and I'll put a link to it in my sidebar. Have fun!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Christmas in three countries
Happy 6th Day of Christmas, friends! I've set myself the challenge of recording our Christmas using three photos from each country - so here goes...
We started Christmas week at home in France. Père Noël travels by horse and carriage here! The smoke is from a barbeque (of course).
The lights in our town are the most tasteful for kilometres around... and the church was lit up by wonderful fireworks from a storytelling event in the town centre.
More lights when we arrived in England - my parents in law regularly go to visit a local street which is decorated for charity at Christmas. This year they took me, Ben and the boys - it was incredible!
The theme for this part of the holidays was family - we had a great meet-up with the cousins for a visit to Bristol aquarium.
We also met up with some friends - I finally got to visit Niki at her shop Nostalgia at No. 1 - she and her lovely shop are all I had imagined and more! Later in the visit I met up with "Josie Crafter" and we had such a good, long chat about the homemade, happy life and our various children. Ben and I also took the boys over to visit his old schoolfriend Bill (no, I'm not making up that name-combo) and we had an enjoyable late night with him and his family.
Finally we arrived in Edinburgh, at 8.15am on Christmas Eve. It was fantastic to see my dad doing well, and to decorate the beautiful Christmas tree he'd put up in his hallway.
There was a LOT of food preparation over the next two days. Ben and the boys decorated the Christmas cake I'd made back in October, using the pieces of marzipan wreath the boys had made with Ben's mum. Then Ben prepared most of the Christmas dinner, and later the boys and I worked hard to prepare a buffet for Boxing Day evening, when my sister and her husband arrived.
Hard work in the kitchen was a lot of fun, shared out as it was, and we were well-rewarded with a fantastic Christmas meal and truly magical Boxing Day spread! It was a relaxed and happy family Christmas.
We started Christmas week at home in France. Père Noël travels by horse and carriage here! The smoke is from a barbeque (of course).
The lights in our town are the most tasteful for kilometres around... and the church was lit up by wonderful fireworks from a storytelling event in the town centre.
More lights when we arrived in England - my parents in law regularly go to visit a local street which is decorated for charity at Christmas. This year they took me, Ben and the boys - it was incredible!The theme for this part of the holidays was family - we had a great meet-up with the cousins for a visit to Bristol aquarium.
We also met up with some friends - I finally got to visit Niki at her shop Nostalgia at No. 1 - she and her lovely shop are all I had imagined and more! Later in the visit I met up with "Josie Crafter" and we had such a good, long chat about the homemade, happy life and our various children. Ben and I also took the boys over to visit his old schoolfriend Bill (no, I'm not making up that name-combo) and we had an enjoyable late night with him and his family.
Finally we arrived in Edinburgh, at 8.15am on Christmas Eve. It was fantastic to see my dad doing well, and to decorate the beautiful Christmas tree he'd put up in his hallway.
There was a LOT of food preparation over the next two days. Ben and the boys decorated the Christmas cake I'd made back in October, using the pieces of marzipan wreath the boys had made with Ben's mum. Then Ben prepared most of the Christmas dinner, and later the boys and I worked hard to prepare a buffet for Boxing Day evening, when my sister and her husband arrived.
Hard work in the kitchen was a lot of fun, shared out as it was, and we were well-rewarded with a fantastic Christmas meal and truly magical Boxing Day spread! It was a relaxed and happy family Christmas.
The festivities in Edinburgh are never complete without a trip to the Winter Wonderland fair. This year we went with Aunty and Uncle, and shared out the rides between adults and teenagers - Son 1 went up the Scott Monument with his uncle and I later braved the Big Wheel. I feel I've spent too long not doing things, and the Big Wheel was a good Thing to Do!
Thanks for all your Christmas wishes - I'm off to read some of your own Christmas posts now...
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Button Swaps and Bloggers' Meets
Elizabethd organised a sweet and simple Buttons and Bows Swap last month - such a lot of fun for such little cost and effort! We simply trawled through our button boxes and similar stashes and sent an appropriate selection to our swap partner. My partner was Christine from Time Out Stitching, all the way on the other side of the world. This is what she sent me!
Here's what I sent her - look how we beautifully colour-coded our gifts, lol! You can read more about what I sent her on her post about the swap.
So, shall we take more of a peek at the Australian wonders that have winged their way to France?
Such a sweet ribbon rosette. I shall put it on one of my white blouses, I think - I really want to show this one off!
A beautiful tatted circle, now forming the backdrop for a few of my favourite buttons from the package:
So simple but sweet...
Sewing-themed charm and fabric - I can really see this making a great pincushion... or a sewing bag... or the cover for my sewing box... lots of ideas, there!
Hand-dyed embroidery threads and two lovely doileys
And finally...
Thanks so much, Christine, for this lovely package of goodness!
Here's what I sent her - look how we beautifully colour-coded our gifts, lol! You can read more about what I sent her on her post about the swap.
So, shall we take more of a peek at the Australian wonders that have winged their way to France?
Such a sweet ribbon rosette. I shall put it on one of my white blouses, I think - I really want to show this one off!
A beautiful tatted circle, now forming the backdrop for a few of my favourite buttons from the package:
So simple but sweet...
Sewing-themed charm and fabric - I can really see this making a great pincushion... or a sewing bag... or the cover for my sewing box... lots of ideas, there!
Hand-dyed embroidery threads and two lovely doileys
And finally...
Thanks so much, Christine, for this lovely package of goodness!j
For my second Bloggers' meet-up this summer (I am doing well), I noticed that Elizabeth Rimmer, the poet who writes such thought-provoking and authentic pieces for some of our Advent and Lent Pauses, was going to be at the Edinburgh Poetry Festival while we were visiting my dad last week. She mentioned that she'd be at the Couryard Reading one day, so I told her I'd try to happen along and hear her read there, and I made it (through the pouring rain). I enjoyed all the contributions, by published and unpublished posts (Scottish, English and Portugese) and particularly liked Elizabeth's poem about the Eclipse. You can read Elizabeth's festival write-up here.
j
It's horribly hot here ("Forte chaleur, penser à vos proches...") and we're quite busy with lovely holiday stuff - the boys' friends are constantly spending nights with us and they're alternating time between the swimming pool (yay!) and the computer (yawn), and Ben and I are finding indoor things to do (chilli jam in his case, wonderful man) and saving hot stuff, like gardening and ironing, for the early mornings. Boy, does it make a change from Edinburgh! Next post: I visited a Vide Grenier...
Thursday, August 18, 2011
On-tro-po-lo-jee...
I didn't know I pronounced it the French way (as above) until I hear myself whispering the name in awe when I saw it on wooden hoardings in George Street this April. I came very close to getting inside it this June, but it opened the day after my flying visit to my dad ended. So it wasn't until this Tuesday that I entered its hallowed gates: Anthropologie, Edinburgh.
Of course, as a blogger, the shop has been on my radar for a very long time. I'm aware of it as a shop that has a great eye for displaying the quirky, the found, the handmade, the recup'...
So I was very keen to see it with my own eyes! When I got in out of the rain, it took a while for my eyes to actually see. I was a bit overwhelmed, and it took some time for me to settle down. Spotting two of my favourite books:
was a help.
The shop assistant I asked was very happy for me to take photos (I guess if you're going to stun people with your displays you do want people to study and share them) and, with my camera in hand, I began to focus enough to take things in.
Secretly, I'm waiting for the day that mis-matched chairs aren't the In Thing. Much as I like them, it is clear that they're only a trend, and style writers don't seem to realise that... But yes, I love that little table-setting!
Super hand-painted plates.
j
And then on, past the work of a local artist, down the stairs...
This is very much to my liking. The plates have been cleverly covered with real canvasses. I won't be doing it, but the overall effect, and the clever idea, are great.
I have a real aversion to the chinaware (on the left, below) that slopes and slants and doesn't follow the rules, however. I felt my mother tutting along with me at that moment...
But I can see myself doing something with old books, old cutlery and string.
Minus the candles - I'd be constantly wanting to pick the dripped wax off.
Watch this space...
Always looking for ideas with mirrors - this is very successful, I think!
And chairs too - when I taught the Infant Class in a tiny Cumbrian school I got very used to chairs like this, although very few of the wooden ones were left. Theywere mostly grey-blue plastic, if I remember rightly...
So I found Anthropologie inspirational, nostalgic, fascinating and, fortunately for my budget, totally un-tempting on this occasion. But I will be back!
Of course, as a blogger, the shop has been on my radar for a very long time. I'm aware of it as a shop that has a great eye for displaying the quirky, the found, the handmade, the recup'...
So I was very keen to see it with my own eyes! When I got in out of the rain, it took a while for my eyes to actually see. I was a bit overwhelmed, and it took some time for me to settle down. Spotting two of my favourite books:
was a help.
The shop assistant I asked was very happy for me to take photos (I guess if you're going to stun people with your displays you do want people to study and share them) and, with my camera in hand, I began to focus enough to take things in.
Secretly, I'm waiting for the day that mis-matched chairs aren't the In Thing. Much as I like them, it is clear that they're only a trend, and style writers don't seem to realise that... But yes, I love that little table-setting!
Super hand-painted plates.
j
And then on, past the work of a local artist, down the stairs...
This is very much to my liking. The plates have been cleverly covered with real canvasses. I won't be doing it, but the overall effect, and the clever idea, are great.
I have a real aversion to the chinaware (on the left, below) that slopes and slants and doesn't follow the rules, however. I felt my mother tutting along with me at that moment...
But I can see myself doing something with old books, old cutlery and string.
Minus the candles - I'd be constantly wanting to pick the dripped wax off.
Watch this space...
Always looking for ideas with mirrors - this is very successful, I think!
And chairs too - when I taught the Infant Class in a tiny Cumbrian school I got very used to chairs like this, although very few of the wooden ones were left. Theywere mostly grey-blue plastic, if I remember rightly...
So I found Anthropologie inspirational, nostalgic, fascinating and, fortunately for my budget, totally un-tempting on this occasion. But I will be back!
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