First few days of the hols

We finally finally got to go on hols three weeks ago, weeks later than I had planned, because of that stupid passport business. We do like to get an early start in order to catch the crossing just before 6am, which gets us to our cottage by lunchtime-ish, so we were up and away by 3.30am.

It just so happened that on that particular Saturday, our nearest little town had its annual braderie/brocante/vide greniers, so I asked my DH to drop me off in town, while he and DS Nick went on to the cottage to unload the car etc. I asked him to come and get me after two hours, which I thought would be enough to have a quick rummage through a few stalls. It was blisteringly hot, 37C, which was hard to cope with after the long car journey, sooooo, would you believe I actually gave up after an hour and phoned him to come and get me early? ME, cutting a vide greniers short?? I know, quite unbelievable, but sadly true, I couldn't handle the heat. And my brain really wasn't working because I realised later on that I had screwed up royally, not buying certain items which I really should have bought, and I actually had nightmares about them for a week or so. You'll hate me when I tell ya what it was I missed out on - tins full of buttons, sorted by colour, a tin of red buttons, a tin of blue buttons etc etc, I spent ages looking at them, and then left the stall. What the heck was I thinking? I am still kicking myself. I spent the next three weeks trying to guess which vide greniers those people might be at next, but alas, it wasn't meant to be, I never saw them again at any of the vide greniers we did go to. I suppose I ought to post pics of the few little things which I did manage to buy, eh? I'll do that at the end of this post.

The grass at the cottage was, errmm, a tad long, lol, as you can see from the pics, but boy, did the dogs love it! They took an instant liking to the cottage, the garden and the surrounding area, no hesitation, no awkwardness, they loved it straight away just as we did the first time we saw it. Don't they look so happy and excited, with actual smiles on their faces -

Poppy -

Hector-

Both of them-
They went absolutely loopy, running through the grounds, playing with each other, and by the end of the day, they were totally pooped. Mind you, they were not the only ones, lol, DS promptly went to sleep on the sofa with Hector snuggled up, Poppy made herself comfy on the other settee, and all I had managed to do was pick a few flowers from our top field to fill a little jug for the table. Oooh, do you remember when I bought this little jug not long ago? I blogged about it here



I was so happy about being back at the cottage, I was up the next morning literally at the crack of dawn, well before the sun put in an appearance over the distant hills. If you look very closely, you can still see stars in the sky -


DH got the mower out and gave the grass a first cut, I got stuck into cutting back the very overgrown shrubs etc at the front of the cottage, we got out the garden tables, chairs, bits and pieces, and generally just made the whole place look lived in again. It was bliss, sheer bliss.

So, from Monday onwards, we were able to enjoy our lunch under the trees again, Nick could take a rest in the hammock, and I could mess around with flowers. I had gone off for a womble down the lane and picked a whole basket full of the prettiest wild flowers -



My goodness, whats happened to the time? How can it possibly be 10.30pm already? Yikes, I suppose I had better quickly post the pics of my finds from the very first day in France, pretty poor really, but I really wasn't in the right frame of mind -

I bought a few bits of jewellery at one stall. A glass pearl necklace, the pearls were very worn, but the clasp was gorgeous, so I was quite happy to spend 50cents on it. Another necklace, peachy glass pearls in very nice condition and with a pretty clasp as well, also 50cents. A vintage hat pin, yep, you guessed it, 50c and the sweetest little jewellery box with an old brooch. The brooch is nothing much to write home about, the green glass centre is quite scratched, but the box is soooo sweet!


Bags, you asked? Waxy paper bags? What on earth for? Well, I bought them for my soaps and skincare products, I thought that when selling those products at fairs, it would be great to give them to the customers in these gorgeous vintage French bags instead of the usual white bags -


I adore these tiny little colourful biscuit/cake moulds (?), they are so dinky, and they look so charming amongst other vintage baking items or general kitchenalia-


Oh, and I found a few buttons as well, huuuuuuuuuuge buttons, just look at the size of the one on my hand. It seems they are quite popular at the mo, I have taken some to fairs in the past and they sold every so quickly.


Oh, and I bought some tatty old embroidery patterns, I mean REALLY, falling-to-pieces tatty, but I wanted to them for decoupaging some storage boxes, so they were ideal. I would never be able to cut up anything in good condition, just coudln't do it, nope. I started with one box while we were in France, but I haven't finished it yet, so more about that later.

Ok, thats enough for today, I am blogged out. I have been trying to catch up on other blogs, but only managed half of the ones I follow, and I think my eyes have gone wonky now, lol, its time for bed. I'll probably be posting about our three weeks in France for the next week or so at least, so be warned! Night night now xx

Oh, forgot to mention that I am definitely thinking about the swap I have mentioned. I'll try and get that one under way soon, but more of that later.