Surfacing...

Hello friends!

Oohh, surfacing here, after a long time of busy work and trying to sort difficult things out. I did manage to buy the enamel mug, above, at a rainy Vide Grenier, though! We are all well and enjoying a bit of sunshine, finally... How are you all?

A week away from blogging - and those tins!

Thanks for your encouraging comments about my new blog header and background, and also about my blogging break. I don't know if you ever find that you feel a bit out-of-sorts, and that the internet is becoming a prop which attempts (and fails) to improve how you feel? When I get like that, I know it's time for a week's break. Here is the story of this last week:

Shortly after I signed off, Son 1 and I decided to pop into the Troc Shop on our way past. They are usually pretty short of vintage stuff, normally veering between useful modern stuff, modern tat and antiques, so I was stunned to see this wonderful set of canisters there for 25€.

Far more than I would usually pay to add to my collection, but far more beautiful (and also more complete) than anything else I own. I was given 25€ for my birthday, so the canisters are now mine, and have inspired my first ever change of blog design, too!

On Saturday night we had an unexpected gift – the boys were invited to sleep over with a friend, so I booked (by executive decision) a table at the best restaurant in our town. As Ben loves good food and I usually book cheaper places, I knew this would be well received!

He and I spent the afternoon doing coupley-type things, choosing new glasses for him, buying some kit for our forthcoming camping trip, and trying on, but failing to buy, sandals. We dashed back from the optician’s to get changed and walked out, through the Coulée Verte, to the restaurant. Having been warned there was a wedding party I was anxious that we might not get a seat outside, in the old open barn, but the wedding party had checked the forecast and decided to go indoors! Ben and I therefore celebrated both my birthday (late) and our 22nd wedding anniversary (early) by eating a fantastic meal, drinking velvety wine, and not getting wet despite the flash thunder-storm. The wedding party was small and very sweet – an older man (very dashing) was marrying a woman a little younger (extremely tasteful lace dress) and their children and a few grandchildren made up the party. Other diners included one of Ben’s bosses!

After we’d finished our leisurely meal we strolled back through the town, as the Coulée Verte was too wet underfoot for a return journey in decent shoes. This gave us the opportunity of passing through the town’s youth music festival, which was actually well-attended by adults too. We spent most of our time (in the light rain) looking at le train d’enfer, a wonderfully old-fashioned fairground side-attraction, the aim being to push the skeletal train model up a steep track into the flaming mouth of hell… This and a few other old-French-style attractions were presented by exquisite young adults in black and white stripes, berets, skull carnival masks and other stunningly stylish accoutrements. Their every move was like something from a silent film, and the overall presentation was so different to a modern fairground. One game was a variation on what the Brits call ‘Bash the Rat’, but this time, children had to stab a speeding saucisse with a fork as it came down the tube! We watched one child win his saucisse, and then decided to head for home.

Sunday was quite a different day, with Ben heading off to the Netherlands with the aforementioned boss, and the boys coming home rather on the tired and ratty side… I did pop out to the weekly Vide Grenier that calls itself a Marché de Puces, and came home with some lovely bargains – usually, prices are quite steep there, but everyone seemed to be clearing out granny’s attic this week! I’ll post pictures when I’ve taken them… but immediately after coming home, I lost the camera! I know I only put it down briefly, but can we find it...?

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!

Spring Cleaning the Kitchen

I Spring Cleaned the kitchen last week.





I didn't mean to - it just kind of happened.I was getting fed up with a sticky shelf where the golden syrup tins sit,the dried fruit shelf needed a bit of a sort-out,spring was in the air outside,

and it just kind of happened!You get to see the pretty side of it...... but there was plenty of the usual grime and elbow grease and embarassingly out of date spice packets, too.And now we need Post-its to tell us where the cereal and the wooden spoons have gone!

A Frenchman's Lunch...

Obviously, the French have the right and proper attitude towards lunch - that it consists of three courses and that it takes two hours. Think this is a stereotype? Well, working people do manage to get back to the office in under two hours, but they do all eat properly. They find the idea of eating a sandwich in front of your computer so bizarre that it doesn't really seem believable to them. And of course they're right - taking a proper break is better for health and productivity (and keeps crumbs out of the keyboard...) But there have clearly always been jobs where a picnic lunch is all that's going to happen. In the early 20th century, those lunches were carried in these diddy little enamel pails. The one on the left is my first buy - it's battered and doesn't seal any more, and I got it for a euro with some square mosaic tiles which had been stored in it - garage fodder, clearly.

But the new one, which I found today at the troc shop, is in full working order. Apart from two chips on the rim, everything is brand-shiny new. I wonder where it's been lurking all these years? It's going to hold batteries for recycling in our kitchen now (quick green note: we do use rechargable batteries, but the odd non-rechargable one does seem to intrude now and again).

Do you want to see how much the (overpriced, it's-old-so-we'll-sting-you-for-it) troc shop charged me for this shiny beauty?

Worth drinking to!

Foodie note: I know what the working French man has in his lunch box because when our pavement was being laid I stood behind the 'jeune' (the apprentice) who'd been sent to get the team's lunch at Intermarché. He bought baguettes, cheese, saucisson, apples and red wine. So there you go.

Think big!

This is a photo from last month - the current flowers in the pitcher on the piano are even taller!I've been a terrible one for picking a few flowers and making a tiny posy. Buying one little whatever because I couldn't afford the big one, or more than one. But in church last month I noticed that someone had picked a whole cosmos plant and stuck it into the flower arrangement, very effectively.

It worked.

I tried it and it's been working at home ever since.

I wonder why I never THOUGHT BIG before?

We're going to Toulouse... (to the rhythm of 'We're going on a bear hunt'...)

OK, I'll lead, you follow...

Are you ready? Don't forget the sound effects and the actions!

We're going to Toulouse. (We're going to Tou-lo-ouse.) We're starting off in church. (We're starting off in chu-urch.)

The boys are eating with Youth Club. (The boys are eating with Youth Club.)

And Ben is helping with youth games. (And Ben is helping with youth games.)

So I'm free! (So I'm free!)

Quick! (Quick!)

Into the car... (Into the car...)

Find the list of Vide Greniers... (Find the list of Vide Greniers...)

Find the map... (Find the map...)

Only got half the map! (Only got half the map!)

Argh! (Argh!)

There's a sign! (There's a sign!)

Follow the sign. (Follow the sign.)

Past the hospital, nee naw nee naw. (Past the hospital, nee naw, nee naw.)

Past the disco, boom-cha-boom-cha. (Past the disco, boom-cha-boom-cha.)

Past the flyover, vroom, vroom. (Past the flyover, vroom, vroom.)

There it is! (There it is!)

It's raining! Pitta-patta, pitta-patta. (It's raining! Pitta patta, pittat-patta.)

Buy a plant stand from some students. (Buy a plant stand from some students.)

To the car! (To the car!)

To the next VG! (To the next VG!)

Along the canal, splash-splash. (Along the canal, splash-splash.)

Round the Grande Ronde, vroom vroom. (Round the Grande Ronde, vroom vroom.)

There's a sign! (There's a sign!)

There's a parking space! (There's a parking space!)

No parking charges on Sundays. (No parking charges on Sun- days.)

Buy a bucket. (Buy a bucket.)

Buy a box. (Buy a box.)

Buy some platters. (Buy some platters.)

Time to pick them up! (Time to pick them up!)

To the car! (To the car!)

Round the Grande Ronde, vroom vroom. (Round the Grande Ronde, vroom vroom.)

Along the canal, splash, splash. (Along the canal, splash splash.)

Back to church, alleluia! (Back to church, alleluia!)
There's the Youth Club, scream, scream. (There's the Youth Club, scream, scream.)

Time to go home... (Time to go home...)

"C'est vieux..."

I cycled off to a Vide Grenier yesterday and, once again, heard those popular words in my title, which of course translate as: "It's old..."

What got me thinking was how these words mean different things to different sellers.Far too often, I hear them being used to excuse a silly inflated price:

I'm charging you lots because... "It's old!"

There was a time a chap about my age tried this on me with a charming mirror with the date 1964 on the back.

I sincerely wanted to point out that anything that was only a few years older than him or me was hardly worth a price-hike.

But I didn't.

And I did buy that mirror, after a bit of bargaining.

But on this occasion, the phrase: "It's old..."

Clearly meant: "So that's why I'm charging so little for it. Why on earth would you want it?"

Hurray!

j

I'm in the mood for a guessing game. Which object (excluding the bread, above) do you think was the condemned 'old' item in question?

No prizes, but if you want prizes, don't forget to enter my giveaway (button in the sidebar) which closes tomorrow!

On the mantelpiece and a little of my history

The mantelpiece is a paler version of my red, white and blue theme this month.Just some vintage French bits and bobs gathered up from around the house, plus a Florentine mirror bought in Edinburgh and a tiny Chinese porcelain box, given to me by Son 2 for my birthday - there are lots of little fossils inside!
The wildflowers came mainly from the garden - you can call them weeds if you want to be picky!
And to answer your questions about my early life in the USA (including the excellent bicentennial celebrations in 1976), my father was in the Royal Navy and was asked to teach navigation at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. We lived there from my 4th birthday until I was 7, (not long after Della Grace's grandfather was also teaching there, it turns out!) and we also went back to the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, for just under a year when I was 9. We flew back to the UK the day after Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister! I have always felt that was rather significant, although I'm not sure in what way...
j
Even thought I feel extremely British, my time in America was very formative. I learned to read on the Little House books and have ever since hankered to make a rag rug (more on that later this summer, I hope...). Laura Ingalls Wilder has to be one of the most influential women in my young life, and Daisy Gordon Lowe was also significant to me in my childhood, along with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. I think I've always looked to the past to make sense of my present!

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!