France Post 3 - A few Vide Greniers finds

Honestly, just a few! I may have mentioned to one or two of you before that I was extremely restrained at the vide greniers. I passed up so many things which a year or two ago I would have snapped up, but I am seriously running out of room to store everything. A lot of the things I did buy, I bought with selling on in mind. I did promise my DH that I would attend a fair or two before Christmas to move a few things out of the house. I might even go back to Ebay, I used to sell ever so much on there a few years back. Ah well, we shall see. In the meantime, here are pics of a few things I brought back. Ahem, they were in the small box, I haven't unpacked the biggish box yet, errr, that I will attempt tomorrow. I also had a few gorgeous old books in the small box, but I haven't photographed them yet, I'll do that tomorrow as well. I love books and their fabulous covers/illustrations so much, I think they probably deserve a post of their own.

Right, stop talking, woman, and get on with the pics, right? Ok, I'll start with one of my favourite buys, this beautiful enamelled coffee tin -

I just love the blue veining on the white background

I was thrilled to bits to find some gorgeous little tartlet tins which had come out of an old patisserie. These shallow ones make fabulous little frames for photos, little collages etc -

Yes, they are horribly crusty and mucky at the moment, I'll have to spend some time scrubbing, sigh.

These taller ones are great for making dinky pin cushions, for example.

They also look so sweet on a shelf in a row of six or so, filled with autumn treasures, conkers, moss, acorns, seed pods. I have done that in France on the kitchen window sill.

A vintage madeleine baking tray, I love displaying these in the kitchen-
Of course there is no reason why one shouldn't use it to actually bake some madeleines, hhmm.

Aah, and what about these dinky little tub things?

Can you not instantly think of at least a dozen gorgeous things to do with them? I have a particular project in mind for them. In a little while. When I have finally caught up with everything.

The gilded big old curtain rings are fabulous! Most of the time you find them without the clips, they were just sewn to the fabric, but these have the proper clips for holding the fabric still attached to them. Now that is quite rare -

I found another vintage Eiffel Tower, woohoo! I know I have another one somewhere, with a thermometer, which is quite fab, but I have no idea where it is, lol.

These door finger plates caught my eye straight away, they are so pretty and my first thought was, doors or window shutters in a mixed media collage ( something I would love to get into )

Of course they would look darned good used as door plates, lol.

I adore the deep blue colour of these old French house number plates, aren't they just fab? I particularly like the one with the rounded corners -

I really love those tiny little religious medals. They are beautiful just on their own, to wear or just to have in your jewellery box, but they also make such lovely additions to collages and little pillows/sachets -

If you know me just a little, then you will know how much I love wood, especially old turned wooden handles on old tools, they are so smooth and tactile. Just give me any kind of old wood really, lol, and I am happy. Look at these old lace bobbins, I know I am somewhat eccentric, lol, but I had to fondle them for a little while when I bought them. Standing at the stall at the vide greniers. Probably drawing some very odd glances. Who cares, lol.

See? Here is another piece of wood which I just had to get, a little pediment, perhaps the top of an old mirror, or a little sideboard, or even the back of a chair. I have no idea, but I love it, it is so beautifully smooth -

Errr, I also love tins, tins of every description. Aren't these beautifully shaped and decorated tins just gorgeous? And having a matching pair is such a bonus -

Another tin, which goes really well with the above two -

Also in the smaller of the boxes were a few pretty 60s trims -

and, ooh, look, a few buttons as well! Why oh why can I never resist buttons?
Lovely orange buttons, perfect for halloween projects -

And mother of pearl buttons, who doesn't love those -

Books tomorrow I think, and then I'll unpack the larger box. Would you believe me if I said that I can't exactly remember whats in it? I know there are a few gorgeous linen pieces and a bit of lace, but what else?? Sometimes its quite good fun having a bad memory, lol, hopefully I'll get a nice surprise when I open the box.

Have a lovely day/evening, wherever you are. Toodlepip xxx

France Post 2 - A little bit of crochet

I had hoped to get more crocheting done, really. I had prepared so well, taking a few new yummy yarns with me, as well some yarns left over from previous project. And then of course there was the garden lankie which I had started ages ago. In crazy bright colours, lol, very unlike me. But, you know the saying about the best laid plans, lol. Because my darling husband had broken a couple of ribs just a few days before our trip, it fell to me to do all the stuff he would normally do in the garden. Like cutting the VERY high grass, trimming the bushes, digging the veggie patch etc etc. I was way too pooped in the evenings to do any crocheting for the first couple of weeks. But as Andy improved and did more and more of the hard slog, I got more and more time to crochet. In the evenings, of course, a few granny squares at a time, and during the odd hour or two snatched during the day in the garden, in the beautiful sunshine. That proved not such a good idea, lol, and not just because I frequently stopped to admire the beautiful views. The main reason was...........


Yep, my darling Hector. Needing to be close to his mummy. VERY close. He is such a nosy little soandso as well, and seems to rather enjoy climbing around on things. I can't tell you how many times I had to pick up balls of wool, or how many times I had to untangle Hector. Or how many times I tried to arrange the squares while Hec was around before I learned my lesson and gave up?



But despite all that, I managed to finish the two cushions I had planned. This African Flower Hexagon pattern is soooo pretty and ever so easy to do as well. I prefer the squared version though, so much easier to sew together. I made one cushion approx 18" square and one approx 25" square -

The small one-

The large one-

I had the smaller one in the cottage for a while -

but then it joined the large one in our dinky little caravan-

The gorgeous pink blanket you can see in the above pic was a fabulous charity shop find, 100% mohair, new, huuuuge, the prettiest shades of pink and it was............... 5Euros. I love it.

In between making the granny squares for the cushions, I carried on with my stripey garden lankie. Bright colours, randomly picked out of the basket when I first started, inexpensive acrylic yarns, this was a very different project for me. A bit of colourful fun. But I have to say I am pleased with the way it turned out, its charmingly cheerful in the garden.

You'll probably remember from previous posts that the doggies always just had to make themselves comfy on the work in progress, often snuggling right down on the lankie when I was working on it. Nothing much has changed, lol, as you will see in a minute. First, let me show you the finished lankie-

keeping my darling husband snug after a hard day's work-

Hmm, he wasn't too keen on modelling the lankie, perhaps he would be happier modelling it outside? Two nosy dogs just had to get into the shot, didn't they, sigh-

So I decided that I would drape it over the lounger, surely that would display it properly-

As soon as it was spread out on the lounger, Poppy came over to investigate -" Mum, I arranged it for you, you may take a pic now", then promptly lost interest and wombled off

Not so my darling Hector, sigh. Hector loves the lounger. Hector loves lounger with lankie LOTS, lol -

It took me a good long while to get him off there!

And that is it, 2 months in France and that is all the crocheting I have to show for it. Perhaps during the winter visits I'll be a bit more productive.

I'll leave you with a little pic of a crochet cushion I got from a vide greniers or charity shop last year, I love that 3dimensional pattern -


Toodlepip xxx

France Post 1 - Tales from the Cottage

Well, more photos than tales really. I have posted many pics of the cottage, both outside and inside before, so I hope this is not too boring for you.

My most favourite time of the day has got to be the very early morning, just as the sun rises. The world is so still and peaceful, and every morning the scene greeting me when I open the cottage door is different. Being up on the hill, we are often in the clouds when the valley is clear, or vice versa, we have beautiful clear skies and sunshine and the valley is filled with mist. The most beautiful light for me is the warm, diffused, richly coloured light you get when it is very misty, the sun has just risen over the valley and everything is bathed in this pearly glow -


The dogs are not the slightest bit disturbed by the gone world


Looking over the valley

The little lane in front of our house


Sometimes we are in the clouds until lunchtime, which is quite weird, but it makes for a great atmosphere -


When the mist does clear away, I like sitting in this little sheltered spot by the barn door, it is out of the breeze we often get coming up the valley and which can be quite fresh at times -


I so wanted to have lots of lovely colourful plants outside the house, in pots and baskets, but of course trying to fill those in the middle of July, which was when we arrived at the cottage, was almost impossible. I could only find a few scraggly plants at the market. Still, better than nothing, and with the bits of enamelware and earthenware pots, I made a little display in this corner by the front door -


My lovely wellies unfortunately gave up the ghost and had to be retired, but I couldn't bear to throw them away, so now they are part of the garden display, lol

At the end of the little wall, an old zinc pot filled with bright red geraniums, guarding the door the the wine cellar ( you can see a little of the old door )!

On the other side of the front door, under the little window, is a little wicker table with a little display -

I found this gorgeous antique lace curtain at a little vide greniers, which was an almost perfect fit for the front door -

When the weather is good, we love having our meals outside, under the trees next to the bread oven. Relaxing under trees with a cold beer after a hard day's work is also pretty good -

The bread oven is an amazing little building and one day it will become my little soap studio-

I think this is quite enough for one post. If you want to see more pictures of the cottage, the inside perhaps, have a look through the blog, there are loads more pics sprinkled about.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll show the few little bits of crochet I managed to finish. I'll also try and photograph some of the vide greniers finds, I know a lot of you are waiting to see those, so that I can post those this week as well.

Until tomorrow then, toodlepip, xxx

Yep, I am back in Blogland!

And I have to say it feels really good, albeit a little strange, writing a blog again after two months of enforced bloglessness. Where to start??? Gosh, there are so many things to write about and so many photos to show, I really don't know where to start. Hmm. Really the first thing to do is to thank you all for the lovely comments on the couple of mimiscule posts I managed during the two months in France. I have just read them, thank you all so very much! It was really heartwarming to see that I hadn't been forgotten and some even missed me. Tehehehe, some of you, naming no names, J and S, might change their minds again pretty soon. I have two months worth of nagging stored up!!!

I am so looking forward to working my way through all of my favourite blogs, ahem, of which there are quite a few, and to catch up with everybody's posts, projects, news, lovely finds etc etc. Might get through by the end of the month, lol!

I have just transferred all the photos from France from camera to computer, geez, digital cameras make it way too easy to go completely nuts. I mean, how on earth did I end up with hundreds and hundreds of photographs??? So where do I start, come on, girls, tell me, please! What sort of photographs should I show first? Piccies of the cottage, of the dogs, of the garden ( well ok, can't really call it garden, lol, a kind word would be meadow, although field is probably more appropriate ), pretty flowers, wildlife, of sunrises and sunsets, of adventurous cows, of gettogethers with friends, of games of boules, pretty little towns, vide greniers finds ( ahem again, I haven't actually photographed many finds yet, so perhaps that will have to wait a wee bit ), of hard working tree surgeons ( my darling son and his colleague ), a couple of finished crochet projects..............

Perhaps I just randomly pick a photo of all the above possibilities and stick them on here, as a kind of appetizer, how would that be? And then you can let me know what you would like to see and hear about first.

Phew, that took a while, but I have picked a few pics, I think from all the above mentioned, and I am not going to stick them in any particular order, but just as I have come across them looking through all the pics. Here goes -

The doggies -


Playing boules at the Fete de Voisins, serious business, lol -

The cottage -

Adventurous cows -

A bit of crochet -

Garden flowers -

Getogether with friends and neighbours -

Spiderweb, I love spiderwebs -

Sunrise over the valley -

Sunset behind our top field -

Men at work -

Vide greniers find, a good length of fabulous tapestry trim, its gorgeous! -

Wildflowers, always have to go and pick some as soon as we get there -

And wildlife, of sorts, a wasp nest -

That's it for now, some time over the weekend I have to try and sort out pics to post, just let me know which ones you would like to see. ok? Now I got to be off and cook dinner.

I am so happy to be back in blogland, lol, and looking forward to hearing from you all!

TOODLEPIP !!! Liz xxx

JJ - Watch out, watch out, there's a Lizzie about....

And she's got 2 months' worth of bossing to make up for.  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

Nuff said, I think :o)

JJ

PS I'm glad she's back really, but shhhhhhhhhhhhh don't tell her, lol