Hello from France

We are still happily snuggled up in our little cottage in France. With the fire blazing, it is so cosy and I just love sitting in front of the fireplace, toasting my tootsies whilst doing a little bit of crocheting.

As I have mentioned before, there are no vide greniers or brocantes in our area at this time of the year, so to get my fix of old stuff, I had to go to the charity shop in Etang, which opens a couple of times a week for a few hours and is VERY expensive indeed. They got wise to the fact that all the Dutch tourists who love this area pay whatever price the shop puts on things. Grrr.

Didn't find very much, but a few things did come home with me. Amongst them was this wrecked bead tree thingy, which had lost its pot and was very sad looking -

But, I loved the glorious aqua colour of the tiny beads, and thought it would be a good idea to take it apart and use the separate 'branches' in collages. Me and my good ideas, lol. It took ages! Have you ever tried to unravel one of these? But it was worth it in the end, because I ended up with a bunch of gorgeous beaded leaves -

Pretty, aren't they?

I also found two quilted pillow covers, not very vintage, but oh so perfect for the cottage. They might have been part of a bedroom set, but I am using them on the settee, because they are so snuggly. Well, when I say 'I' am using them, I mean, the doggies are, because they sure know how to make themselves comfy ;-). I love the rose pattern, and the pieced border around the central panel, and even the back of the pillow covers is so pretty -

I have to leave the other bits and pieces for another day, the last couple of days have been very grey and dark again, there just isn't enough light coming in to take pics. Which brings me to the weather. Wintry, lol. We did have a couple of nice mornings though. A while ago, we had this lovely sunrise -

and a couple of days ago, after the snow had all but disappeared, we had a very hard frost overnight, which turned the world into a white, glittery and kind of spiky wonderland. Every tree, every blade of grass was covered in pristine white needles. It was a real delight taking the dogs for a walk first thing in the morning -

Every frozen puddle had to be investigated, -

jumped upon, -

and nibbled -

whilst I was admiring the beautiful countryside -

Brrr, cold! After that, it was quite wonderful to come back to a blazing fire and a cup of tea, lovingly prepared by my wonderful DH. 

I am delighted to welcome some new followers, I hope you stay for a while and enjoy the posts. I am very happy you found your way here. And of course a big thank you to all my 'oldies' for visiting, I appreciate you being here so much.

Toodlepip xxx