'My Own Style' ATC swap

Hmm, my own style, that was quite difficult, because I like different things, but in the end I just went with pretty images and bling. Definitely bling, lol, each ATC had to have some sparklies on it.

Here they are -

The are on the way now to Kimberly of ArtJoyStuff, THE most fabulous swap hostess!

We are enjoying a bout of lovely sunshine, which means we spent many hours in the garden, preparing more ground and planting out more veggie seedlings. I would be quite happy if it rained for a few hours now :-).

Toodlepip xxx

A few brocante finds

As I said yesterday, I have only photographed a fraction of the lovely new treasures I have acquired. These are mostly from this Sunday -



A dilapidated old typewriter -

A small journal full of gorgeous handwritten text -

THE prettiest duck egg blue thick glass bottle with porcelain stopper, I LOVE this one -

The most ornate vintage French sugar nips/tongs I have ever come across -

Fabulous hand crafted huge copper water scoop, apparently used in the olden days for rinsing off after washing -

Some pretty enamel lunch boxes, a couple of cheese molds, a small 1920s medical diary, tiny silver shot cups -

I fell in love with this primitive hand carved wooden ladle, it is awesome -

A sweet little basket - 

A set of 4 mid century Bonne Annee ( Happy New Year ) cards with envelopes -


And then there is this huge book dated 1869 full of the most beautiful engravings -

I particularly like this last one of Jeanne d'Arc.

Thats all I have to show you today, hopefully there will be more soon.

Toodlepip xxx

20 Days Later

20 DAYS! Good grief, I had no idea it had been 20 days since my last blog post. What happened? Was I abducted by aliens and only just returned? Heck, I don't know, lol, time just flies by.

Most of these photos were taken at least ten days ago, but they are bright and colourful and I thought I'd share them with you. For years, I didn't have any flowerbeds in our garden, hence all the pot plants, but I finally got my first flowerbed a little while ago -

A real flower BED!

I found this gorgeous duck egg blue child's bedstead a few years ago and finally dragged it out of the barn and put it to good use in the garden.

I have pots of these gorgeous petunias all over the place -

We have a shrub in our front hedge which, for a very short time in late Spring, produces these tiny little red heart shaped, errmm, fruit, berries, things....

Our vegetables are finally growing, as we had a few days of lovely sunshine, and we have been harvesting lettuces every other day -

The difference between shop bought and freshly picked is amazing, and we love our salads -

I took a couple of freshly picked lettuces ( and a rhubarb and apple crumble with freshly picked rhubarb of course ) to our neighbours Peter and Andrea, and look what we came back with! -

Fresh eggs from their hens! My DH had to remind me that I also had a goose egg left ( he had the other one for brunch and it was huge ) -

The roses are all flowering now, this is a little beauty, so pale and delicate -

I have been to a few brocantes as well over the last few weeks. We had 5 religious holidays in May and of course that means there were 5 extra brocantes to go to, yay!

I have only managed to photograph a fraction of the treasures I have brought home, but I will try and get some more done soon. I did photograph some today but had to stop when it started raining again. But as I am still up and fairly awake and kind of watching a Jackie Chan film I think I will prepare a post with those few pics and schedule it for tomorrow. And while it rained earlier this afternoon, I listed a few new things in my Etsy shop, which I hadn't done for ages and ages! Only small things under 3cm thick, which I can post from France without huge shipping costs ( gosh, I really detest the new La Poste tariffs ).

So, toodlepip for now. Wishing you all a very happy week wherever you are and thanks for stopping by. xxx

French General Style arrivals

I adore the gorgeous ATCs I received back in Kimberly's French General Style swap. All three were beautifully packaged -

and they were accompanied by Kimberly's sweet gift -

And here are the fabulous ATCs -

Thanks for stopping by, toodlepip xxx