Whirlwind Days

Since we got back from France, it has been a whirlwind of appointments. Hospital, dentist, doctor, optician, vet, you name it, we had an appointment for it, lol. We tried to cram as much as possible into the 2 1/2 weeks we planned to stay in the UK. In between all the appointments for both of us, I am trying to get some of the brocante finds listed so that my darling son can post them from the UK when they sell. I looked at some of the photos I took in France, and realised that I hadn't even posted the last few brocante pics I took in the garden! Doh! So here are the finds from, errm, probably one Sunday 3 weeks ago, lol -

There are many more things I didn't get to photograph in France, and I probably won't have time to photograph them all this time round in the UK, so they might have to wait until September. But at least some of the items in these pics will make it into the shop :-).

Wishing you all a wonderful week and good news for all of you waiting for news of some kind. 

Toodlepip xxx

Brocanting on a Sunday morning

It was a beautiful morning, a little mist drifting through the valley below us, blue sky smiling above us and sunshine trying its best to warm us. I wake up early when it gets light early, so I walked the dogs at 6.30, and we were ready to leave for the brocante  at 7. So much fun! And of course I did find a few things which I had to bring back.

I unloaded them straight onto the garden table as it was such a lovely day -

So what did I get? A rather lovely silver handled carving set, marked Paris on the knife, a few tart tins including these dinky Xmas tree ones -

Ephemera, like these calendar pages, and what looks like a police diary from the 1930s, which could make for very interesting reading -

Wonderful old school books

The sweetest child's basket and a wicker and glass wine jug -

At long last I found a couple of gorgeous enamel pitchers/jugs again, don't see them very often anymore -

Isn't this just the sweetest little tin?

Another rather pretty tin, a weird old medical thingy in its tin and a pair of  antique weights. I could not help but imagine a 1910 gentleman with big moustaches and wearing one of those striped outfits, using these -

A pair of top quality metis sheets, never used, with original labels, a garnet red rosary, a white rosary, and a sparkly bead necklace ( for moi ;-) ) -

a bunch of sweet little greeting cards and a set of 12 really pretty coffee spoons -

Gotta finish this post with another photo of the enamel jugs, they are soooooooooooo gorgeous!

 I spent a couple of hours in the craftavan this afternoon, making more tags to go with orders, but I think I'll leave those pics for tomorrow.

Until then, toodlepip xxx

Happy First of May and silver grey brocante finds for Grey Dey Thursdey

What a beautiful, fragrant French tradition, the giving of 'muguet', Lily of the Valley, on the 1st of May. Today is a bank holiday in France, Labour Day, and also the day when people give each other little bunches of 'muguet' as a good luck token. I can't give you real ones, but perhaps the images will do the same and bring you all good luck. 

Everywhere I looked today, there were bunches of Lily of the Valley for sale, and their scent in the air was so delightful. Where did I see them? At a brocante, of course! Which brings me neatly to the second part of the post, the Grey Dey Thursdey bit :-). 

I almost didn't make it. We got into the car at 7am, bright eyed and bushy tailed, lol, and............ it wouldn't start. Flat battery. ARRGGHHH. Now as you know we live in the deepest countryside, very little moves on a normal day, and on a bank holiday, well, just about nothing at all, lol. And you can't just knock on the nearest neighbours' door at 7am on a holiday, lol. So my poor darling husband stood in what passes for the main road near our house ( about as wide as a country lane, lol ) and waited for someone to drive by. And waited. And waited some more. And finally, somebody did drive by, and eventually, 2 hours after the planned start, we got going. Hurrah. But I did find a few lovely old things, so it was all worth it. I'll just show you the silver grey treasures though, so that I can link the post to Petite Michelle Louise's lovely GREY DEY THURSDEY linky party ;-) -

And I'll leave you with another little bunch of muguet -

Thank you all for your very kind comments on previous posts and of course for stopping by today. Toodlepip xxx

A few hours spent in the craftavan

I managed to get into the craftavan a couple of times and get some crafting done - this week's inchie for the Every Inchie Monday challenge, the tag for the Tag Tuesday challenge and a couple of other bits.

The inchie theme for this week is CEILING. Not an easy one I thought. But when I think of beautiful ceiling, I think of the wonderful old coffered ceilings in those grand old British buildings. And that is what I went with, a coffered ceiling. 

I used a couple of different brown inks for the background and brown embroidery thread to create the coffered effect -

Next up, this week's tag with the theme of Casino Amusements and Bingo.
Luckily I had some bingo related images in my little stash , but all the bits and pieces I would have loved to use are in my craftroom in the UK!

I also made another tag, more in keeping with what I usually make, and the lady I used here is somewhat, errrmm, slighter of figure -

You remember I found a handful of bits and bobs for mixed media stuff at a vide grenier recently? I showed them on the vintageland blog here. I so wanted to make something with one or two things. And I finally did, yay. I made a necklace! -

Now my bed is calling me, I am nicely tired out from haggling my way through the Thursday evening vide grenier.

Toodlepip xxx