Vintage at the Gite - a little quiz!

Our gite was full of unassuming vintage charm. I wonder if you'll be able to spot where I found this little spider amongst the following items of brocante? Opposite our attic bedroom door was this enamel sign.

Walking sticks or (dare I say it?) umbrellas could be stored here, by the door.

I thought of Serenata when I saw this - there was a Singer underneath, but I never checked the type...

In the main bathroom was a charming, but not matching, pitcher and wash bowl.

I thought the wash bowl would have looked good in my own collection!

Than handpainted violets on the pitcher were rather more special, really.

Downstairs, a washstand had been converted to modern needs.

As had these lamps above the stand!

So, did you spot the location of my spider?

It was delicately hand painted next to the violets on the pitcher. Unusual, but rather sweet.

In 1957...

Singapore gained Self Rule! (Thinking of Juanita here...) Dr Seuss wrote his first book (as a challenge to see if it was possible to put the words on the US young readers' list into a story).

The Windscale nuclear plant accident occured in the UK.

Donny Osmond was born.So was Jayne Torville. And my grandma's Featherweight Singer Sewing Machine was made!
I found out all about this trusty little machine (now mine and in regular use) after I read Serenata's post about her wonderful sewing machine collection, and following up Marmalade Rose's suggestion that Singer have information about all their machine's serial numbers. I found the list of numbers here, and a lot of other fascinating information too, especially at Planet Patchwork's page about the little Featherweights.
What a wonderful world of blogging, bloggers and helpful websites!

24 hours of flowers

We've had 24 hours of flowers here, outdoors...
and in...Yesterday afternoon Son 2 fulfilled his desire to get to grips with my sewing machine - I decided that he was safe to continue my bunting if supervised...He was great - on the technical stuff, as well as the sewing...We got the flags finished this morning!Meanwhile, Son 1 was down at our local lake, fishing with his friend Maxime. They never actually catch anything edible, but it's a great hobby! We took a break from the sewing to go and visit, and to collect more river pebbles...

The leaves are coming out on the trees.The trees reflect beautifully in the clay-pit lake, and the wildflowers are all around.

I'm not a flower expert, but I'll name the ones I think I recognise! I can only name them in English, not in French, though. Can you spot the periwinkles, creeping over the opposite bank of the stream?The streams and rivers are deep at the moment, with strong currents, so we keep Raja out of them.
Although she still finds plenty of water on the meadows!Son 1 was with me and the dog by this point, and we spotted stitchwort.And the little wild geranium, cranesbill (I know most of my flowers from the Flower Fairies - I can still quote parts of the cranesbill poem).Son 1 went off with Raja, and so missed the star of our walk, spotted by Son 2:Back at home, and wishing this blog had smellivision (for old fans of Blue Peter and Simon Groom), our ornamental olive is flowering and perfuming the whole area around the front door. It's the most restful scent...In the evening, Son 1 got interested in the sewing project, although he doesn't sew himself.He also resisted the general hilarity this morning, and declined to be photographed as a 'flower child'. He kindly volunteered Chanel as a 'flower cat', as you see.

We'll hopefully finish the bunting today, and we'll take some photos of its 'launch' in our home!

One more recipient is needed for my Pay it Forward - click here if you want some goodies from me and the chance to take part yourself! My goodies are light and easily postable, so any blogger, anywhere, any country, is welcome to join in. If you've just popped in for a visit for the first time, still go ahead - I love to meet new people!

Making sense of a vintage Singer

You may have gathered from a previous post that I treat my sewing machine more as a pretty accessory than as a tool! Frankly, I've had so many bad sewing machine experiences, and I love hand sewing so much, that I haven't used my Grandmother's old Singer for about 10 years. I find my mother's machine from th '70s even more terrifying, so it was to the Singer that I turned yesterday...
But here is the proof that I have conquered my fears, read the sweet instruction book carefully for the first time, and made a tentative but fairly encouraging start. Cushion covers for the rocking chair, here we come!

'Twas on a Saturday morning

...that Dr Strangelove invaded my sewing area...

Actually, I encouraged Ben to set up his heated mats and lights on timer switches there, because it gets a lot of natural light too. He's got tomatoes and goodness knows what other veg getting off to an early start there.

'Twas on a Friday lunch time

... that I picked up some lovely, lovely fabric for making bunting in Veti'Relais, my favourite troc shop... The wonderful blue and pink flowered bedding informed the choice of the other fabrics:And on the other side of the bunting I'm going to make it darker, so that I can turn it round and have some winter colours too. This lot comes from my fabric stash and needs an iron:
I've discovered that the blue flowered pillowcase perfectly fits the smaller cushion on my rocking chair, so that solves the immediate problem of how to cover those cushions! I'm going to have to use the sewing machine to make the sheet into a cover for the larger one, though (gulp).

Inspirations

I opened up my Grandma's old black and gold Singer sewing machine today and found this tiny text inside its box:



It's about the size of a large stamp. I've stuck it in my bedroom with my other inspirational cards, including pictures of blossom and words from the Bible, Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Calvin and others.

Next to the set of inspirational cards is this eclectic mixture hanging from our low beam: a wire and bead heart, a Valentine's card from a few years ago and a Fu Dog puppet I bought in the school Vide Greniers last year.