Like mother, like daughter

I was having difficulty deciding which scarf to wear today, and this got me thinking about the rather lovely choice in front of me: There is this alpaca one from South America, given to me for Christmas by Ben's brother and his wife - they travel a lot and buy fantastic presents on their journeys. Next to it is a pink and gold pashmina brought back from China by my parents in law, who are late to the travelling game but now enjoying it as much as their eldest son!

Not entirely surprisingly, the scarves which aren't pink, are blue! Karen sent me the floral one as part of our Christmas Stocking swap.I've been wearing a lot of scarves recently as I've been sore around the neck, due to a swollen thyroid gland. This appears to be due to nothing worse than a virus which has infected it, but I shall be glad when the specialist gets it under control... just a few more tests and then she can decide on the right treatment.

My mum gave me the adorable cashmere scarf above. Wearing it is like having a hug.

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So, like mother, like daughter? My mother has always been a great one for scarves, although hers have always been more on the elegant side. I did a bit of Google window-shopping ('lèche-vitrines' or 'window licking' in French - so expressive!) and found some vintage scarves which really reminded me of the ones she wore in the '70s. Hope you enjoy them, mum!

The one above is for sale on ecrater.

This is a great one available on American ebay.

I love this one on etsy.

Have you spotted a certain colour scheme yet? This one may be my favourite of all. It's on etsy too.

But the question is, what am I wearing today? Well, I wore the turquoise cashmere to visit the specialist (must look one's best in France) and now I'm back at home I'm wearing the soft pink one, whose tassels you can see above, which my sister gave me this year. Like mother, like daughters..?

Amazon Got Me (but at least it's second hand...)

A while ago I had a little chat with various bloggers about how Amazon lured me into buying something from my Wishlist, when I'd innocently visited the site to pick up The Borrowers by Margery Sharp for Son 1 (which only cost a penny plus postage...) Well, my item of temptation has arrived and I have to say I am really pleased with it, as Pomona predicted I would be. Here it is:Almost the first page amazed me, because I spotted Cath using the strawberry print fabric of my Edinburgh tea cosy, which I'd always felt was very CK-esque.

There's Stanley, gazing at it...
Next up was a really super idea that I zoomed off to copy.
French lace on my French torchon! I would love to have some of those vintage patterned ones, too.
Then an idea I'm already well up on, although I can't show too much as it's for Christmas presents...
So, although I still think I was a bit weak to give in to Amazon's superb marketing tricks, I am really pleased with a second hand purchase which is clearly going to inspire me in many ways, and arrived just when I was facing a dull few days at home with coughing children and no sign of December's Country Living in the post box...

French Couture, 1899

The boys and I took a quick trip out to a special holiday Vide Greniers yesterday. The rain more or less held off, and Son 1 bought an entertaining bingo game while Son 2 added to his Transformers collection. I confirmed the suspicion which was forming after my last Vide Greniers trip: the French currently don't value the paper ephemera of their own past....17 euros for all this lot - 15 euros for a bulk-buy of fashion supliments from 1899, and 3 euros for a school book and a photo.

So, I have found something worth collecting - easily availably, absolutely adorable, and under-valued by the sellers!Inside each suppliment are many, many sewing, embroidery and decorative projects and patterns.

Here's a print which made me think of Ashely, of Peacocks and Dragonflies! This is a pattern for decorating a cot cover. Another set in my 'job-lot' contains many embroidery alphabets.Anyone for hair dye? Hair removal? Or diagnosis of skin complaints? I am going to have to study these papers really well - there is so much in them!Each suppliment has a rebus - I never quite knew what a rebus was; I knew it was a puzzle, but here you are, it's one of those games where pictures, when read out loud, add up to make a word. How's your French?

The star of the show? This is clearly a signed photo from a theatre. I am going to have to look her up - a singer or an actress, do you think?The rest of the day was rather rainy, and lots of jigsaws were done, in addition to the bingo games once we got back from the Vide Greniers. I just loved the compostition of this violet and green jigsaw along with the purple flowers and green pattern on the oilcloth.

So today, I was off to la Poste with Sharon's Freestyle Swap parcel, and thence on to Intermarché, our nearby supermarket. I felt so totally un-French cycling off, all in pink (the pink fleece was a mistake with the pink flowered skirt, I admit, so I hauled it off when I arrived at the post office). The French are so wedded to black.I was quite amused when I opened up my pink, green and blue handbag at the supermarket, to bring out my pink flowered carrier bag (to match the skirt) and the lovely blue carrier (to match the T-shirt).I love living in France, but I have to be grateful that they don't judge my colourful couture by French standards!

And finally (Trevor Macdonald not forgotten here), Ben came back from Switzerland with these two lovely Swiss cheeses. Yummy weekend...

French lace from ebay France!

I've been making various little goodies using vintage and antique machine lace, recently. I began with a collar my mum had passed on to me, and when I'd used it up, I realised I had to get buying. My only lace at home is the exquisite hand made stuff I've collected over the years, and that's not for crafting! You can see two examples in my title header picture.Anyway, I decided to look on my local ebay (ebay.fr), for whatever was acceptable quality and cheap postage.And I discovered a flaw with ebay lace buying: the photos!OK, this tiny one is just one that I took from the site after the purchace - there was a bigger one originally. But I honestly was unable to tell the style, quality or nature of the lace from the photo. It was just a good bargain and some interesting shapes so I snapped it up. It arrived and turns out to be the hand made needlepoint lace shown in the two photos above! I really like it, and I am going to be able to use it for crafts, but I won't cut it up - far too lovely and hand crafted.

So I am basically reduced to treating ebay as a kind of brantub/lucky dip thing - put on a bid of a euro or two and you have no idea what's going to be sent to you! The collar above turned out to be made of extraordinarily fine tape lace.Come on, vendors, I can take a photo of it which shows its quality, so surely you can, too? I think they probably don't really value this stuff, or know the difference between hand and mass-produced lace anyway.

But of course I can reap the benefits of that, I hope. This one, which is really pretty, turns out to be of much poorer quality. Various styles of machine lace put together with net.But it does sit very sweetly!It's one I'll be happy to cut up, though, as I won't be desecrating the work of an earlier craftswoman.

So, what did we do on our sunny Wednesday evening?

Played 3 crazy games of Consequences. Look at the lovely difference in handwriting styles there! Primary school teacher-meets French education-meets mild dyspraxia!I'm alternating between posting French and Scottish news all this week, in the run up to my 100th post 'Auld Alliance' Giveaway. This is post 97, so it won't be long now...

I love a challenge!

Kristi, over at Vintage Window, who makes wonderful painted floor cloths, has taken up a challenge to 'define your style by posting a single photo'. She then challenges her readers to do the same. Here is mine!My mum gave me this superb book for Christmas (and given that she'd been ill and not up to shopping, it was an incredibly inspired choice). Once I opened the book and saw this photo on the frontespiece, I knew it was for me - although I have varied styles, I think this first photo sums everything up. How to define it? Handcrafted wonders from across time and around the world , with an emphasis on white, blue and the odd bright colour? That might do...

Thanks for the challenge, Kris - it was fun! Who wants to take up the challenge now..? Let me and Kris know if you do, please!