Green through the Gold...

"You'll have to repaint it..."

said Ben, surely tongue in cheek after all those years of coming close to having 'it', whatever 'it' happens to be this time, bashed over his head whenever he says this!

So this time, which was at the end of our September camping trip, 'it' was this gold mirror with the most wonderful bits of green showing through the paint. We found it with another mirror at a 'Vide Maison' in the foothills of the Pyrenees - the only time we've ever actually been to a garage sale in France.

Putting it up on the mantelpiece when the Christmas decorations came down inspired me to go and seek out the green and gold I already own: 'The thrill of what you already have' once again! (Sorry that died a death as a monthly project last year, friends...)

But one Christmas card was allowed to stay - do you see the wonderful Cardinal print that clever Izzie and George (our summer pet sitters) sent us? Wonderfully green, and a great reminder of a lot of Lenten fun last year...

The Thrill of What You Already Have - October's Inspiration

 

 

Observant friends have noticed that I didn't post a picture from my calendar for August and September - oops! Many apologies... but here is October's calendar poster, nice and on time for you:

 

If you want to know more about how to join in, click on the link in my sidebar and leave a comment when you've done your post - have fun, and remember that you can be inspired in any way - clothes, crafts, displays - anything based on things you already own!

The Thrill of What You Already Have - July picture

Here it is - another unfeasibly sunny Scottish beach!

The colours are cheerful and sunny, but what inspires me is that little white-sailed boat. How I wish I already had a little white boat... But without one, we'll just have to see what comes up! Please let me know if you join in - the instructions can be found by clicking on the image in my sidebar.

The Thrill of What You Already Have - June

I had difficulties, for the first time, in finding a version of the vintage Saint Andrews poster online - the only ones I found (see in my sidebar) lacked the vibrant peacock blues and oranges of the poster in my calendar. So here are some of those colours, reproduced in a plate previously on the kitchen wall, and in honeysuckle, rose and Californian poppy petals from our garden:

And here's the full arrangement, with a glimpse of the calendar inspiration in the background!

The 'vase' is something I already have which, frankly, has never thrilled me. It's a lovely big water jug from BHS, which I thought would be just the thing last year for meals in the garden - it holds lots of water, which we need in the heat, but is light enough for the boys to pick up and pour, because it's plastic. Minor drawback - the handle fell off when I washed it in hot water! I suppose the price was too good to be true... But now I suppose I have a really handy vase...

The Thrill of What You Already Have - June Picture

This month's picture seems topical - I'm constantly being engaged in conversation with French people on the subject of the Royal Family at the moment, and Saint Andrews seems to come up a lot:

Voila!

Here are two different web-versions of the poster on my calendar. Mine is very strong and clear, with a lovely bright peacock-blue sea, which neither of these pictures seems to capture! But when I try to take a photo of my own, it really goes all wrong. So please enjoy the sand, the sea, the ancient stones and the prospect of golf and royal marriages just around the corner...

Thrilling Side-Efffects!

The Thrill of What You Already Have is one of the blogging events which has had a wider effect on me this month. Once I'd worked out that the blue vase I was looking for to match the May picture was in the kitchen, I had one of those embarassing epiphanies - the kind that would be obvious to anyone else but take me ages!

The thing about my kitchen is that it was one of the first rooms I sorted out in the house. Our first few years were a whirl of 'just-coping' and we really under-played the charm of our home. The kitchen had any old stuff in it, and I never thought of colours, but it began to dawn on me that I could play up the cute little blue and white tiles by introducing blue decorations, and sticking to blue hand towels and such, as well. It worked! And so whenever you see a blog photo of my kitchen, it will always be blue.

Up until now! I also saw a pretty Scandinavian kitchen in a magazine this month, and the realisation that a) I can take blue things out of the kitchen and b) I can judiciously add non-blue things TO the kitchen, dawned upon me.

Hurray! Actually, I really like the blue in there, but why not change it around every now and then?

The poor old kitchen units are dreadful, so playing round with the changeable stuff is part of the fun.

It's been a bit of a revalation to realise that I can bring my rosey enamelware in here!

The Thrill of What You Already Have - May

We've all been slightly suspicious of the azure-blue 'sea' in this month's picture of  the Clyde holiday resort, Dunoon.

Those who have been there deny that it ever looks like this:

But the inspiration is fantastic - I knew I had something with that incredible glossy blue, and it took me a while to work out what it was. That's the excitement of  this challenge, I think - the pictures trigger something, and it may take a while to work out what is lurking on shelves and in boxes... and this time it turned out to be on top of a kitchen cupboard...

It's this blue-glazed vase. I bought it from the stall-holders next to us when we had a stall at the school Vide Grenier, years ago. I got it very cheap, as they'd manage to chip the rim as they were transporting it (sound familiar?). It's been sitting on top of various kitchen cupboards ever since, because I like to keep a blue theme in the kitchen.

It's been really fun to take it off the top shelf, give it a thorough wipe, and find another home for it!

I have to admit I cheated with the Cornish-ware style bowl below it - I only bought it on Saturday at a Vide Grenier (four of them for 50c). It does look good, and reflects the architectural lines of the resort building at Donoon!

The yellow plate below it came from Leclerc (the big hypermarket) when several of our Denbyware plates broke in The Great Collapse of 2007 (it was a shelf-collapse, but deserves capitals and a place in family history). The yellow supermarket plates turned out to be woefully inadequate in terms of staying power - I really don't mind a few chips on vintage china, but I do object to new stuff chipping as soon as you use it. Give me modern Denby-quality or vintage toughness any day!

The flowers are from the garden - the large blue ones are new this year, and the others are staples of Ben's 'flower meadow' area - I pick them (and love them) every year!

Let me know when you do your 'Thrill' posts and I'll link to them in my sidebar - I'm looking forward to them!

The Thrill of What You Already Have - May picture

Whatever the weather may be like in Europe at the moment, it's looking pretty good for Dunoon in the 1960s:

I'm thrilled by the seaside colours and stylish architecture of this holiday scene, and I've been drifting past my calendar trying to get inspiration for this month's collection. I haven't actually come up with anything yet, but I look forward to all your ideas and to sharing some of my own once I get organised!

Holidays (but not the seaside variety) are very much the theme here in May - this week the First was a holiday, and the children had Monday 30th off school too. Next week the eighth is a holiday - the boys will be in school on the seventh, but Ben is taking the day off to paint the very rusty front gate. I'll post some pictures (before, during and after) so that you can get an idea of the palatial gates we go in for in this part of France...

The Thrill of What You Already Have - April

This is the closest so far that I have come to cheating!The 'Thrill' is all about celebrating things that you have tucked away, with a new delight.
But the day I turned over the calendar to find this wonderfully purple picture was also the day that...
....I bought this purply flower embroidery at the Empaux Vide Grenier. In my defence, I did buy the embroidery before I peeked at the April picture! And when I saw it, I just had to put it in to my display based on the beautiful colours of the Aberdeen poster.

The other part of my display is something that's been in the house a bit longer - maybe only two years, though?I saw if for 5€ in a Troc Shop and wasn't sure - it certainly isn't my normal style, and 5€ is pushing it a bit...but I'm so happy I went for this rather zany embroidery with its purple, tattoo-style anchor.Here's a mahout on an elephant in India.An energetic Russian dancer.

Rice-picking in China.Is this oil from South Africa?A more traditional African scene, although using white embroidery silk for the Africans was, well, kind of different...Here are some well-covered women from Muslim East Africa.The USA hardly features, I'm afraid - what a Euro/Afro-centric world this embroiderer depicted!

And, assuming s/he came from France, I wonder what was in mind as the symbols of France and Spain? Some kind of food, I guess...The winds (you can glimpse a few above) and the adventurous ships are some of my favourite details:Blow, wind, blow!I love the reflection of this exotic boat with its orange sail.So a poster of Aberdeen has taken me around the world! I wonder what our other participants will find this month..?

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I'm off to Edinburgh to spend about five days with my dad. We have planned some trips out and social visits, but I expect to have a little bit of time shopping and a little bit of time blogging, too! Hope to speak to you from Scotland, soon!

The Thrill of What You Already Have - April picture

It was quite hard, turning over the rippling waters of the River Tweed, but I was rewarded with this!I do rather wonder if Aberdeen really looks so calm and sunny in April? But I love the purpley-blue colours and the two relaxed yet stylish day-trippers. My going away-outfit was a bit like their daywear! I'm looking forward to what everyone does with this theme. Thank you for all your contributions - the more varied the better!

The Thrill of What You Already Have - March

When I looked at the rippling waters of the River Tweed, all I could think of was glimmering beads!I also wanted to do a 'Thrill' post that didn't involve ornaments, because I really take Betty's point that not everyone has too many 'gee-gaws' (my MIL's word) about the place.I also thing that Ang's post about bead necklaces influenced me...So this month's thrill of what you already have is a coil of Chinese necklaces (all but one of them jade) on a plain French plate. I am appropriately thrilled with them!