Catching up with Tag Tuesday challenges

I have tried hard to keep up with at least one challenge whilst I am in France. Its not easy with the very limited craft supplies I have in my craftavan here, it really is a challenge every week, lol. I'll try and post all the tags I have made for the various challenges, hopefully I won't run out of time before we have to go to the evening vide greniers.

Right here goes then. I am not sure whether I have got them all right, because I usually phone Nick back home in England on a Tuesday to read me the challenge. But, being somewhat scatterbrained, lol, come the next day when I have time to craft, I have usually forgotten most of the instructions....... sigh, old age creeping up on me, no doubt.

The first one I need to post is " THE FACE " from a month ago, yikes!

Next was the POSTAGE STAMP challenge. By the time I got round to making the tag, I wasn't sure about the details anymore. I steamed the stamp off a vintage postcard and then made this tag with it -

But then, after thinking about it for a few days, I thought that perhaps the stamp should be more prominent, so as luck would have it, a letter arrived from Dorthe, and I used her stamp to make a new tag -

Next was the VINTAGE PHOTO challenge -

And this week, it was the LETTER A, where we had to pick a subject which started with the letter A and use that for the tag. Being in France, I had to chose A for Amour, of course -


OK, thats it, no more time, gotta go to the vide greniers. It is the last evening one, boohoo. Wish me luck!

Toodlepip xxx

Furniture finds in France and two big thank yous!

This is going to be a looooooooooong post, gals, I have to try and make the most of my visit to our friends with the internet, lol.

Let me start by saying a huge thank you to two lovely people, from whom I have received fabulous packages here in France. A little while ago I won a giveaway on Kimberly's blog ArtJoyStuff.blogspot.com, and she posted the gorgeous necklace I had won, to our home in France! Look what arrived a few days ago -


and inside the beautifully wrapped package was this -


and inside that gorgeous little bag was this -


Beautiful!


The sweet little bag and the gorgeous tag are now hanging in my craftavan -

,
Thank you so much, Kimberly, the necklace is really beautiful and has already been much admired!

My wonderful friend Dorthe sent me a surprise, and I was thrilled to bits to receive this beautiful collage made by her -



Dorthe, you are the best, thank you so much for my lovely surprise, I love it so much. It is hanging in our living room now here in the cottage.

And now to the furniture! A little while ago we went to a kind of charity shop, Emmaus, in a nearby town and amongst all the horrible rubbish outside, I found a table. It looked pretty grotty, it was covered in very dirty oilcloth and it had abviously been ignored for a very long time, as furniture is usually sold inside and only goes outside when nobody has shown any interest for a long time. I had a close look and realised it was a very old, hand crafted table, it was made with wooden pegs. I couldn't tell what the top would be like under the oilcloth, which I thought had been glued on,but it was a low price so I took a risk and bought it. Oh boy, what a bargain it turned out to be! We realised that the oilcloth was held on with little strips of wood, and once he had removed those, the cloth came off easily. The top was beautiful, stunning really, two wide planks of oak with a narrower one in the middle and the most gorgeously aged colour.
But see for yourself -


It has all sorts of old stuff in the drawer -


This looked like amber, but I have no idea whether it is

and also the old number plate which I showed you the other day -


Here it is in the blue bedroom -


I really love this table, the wood has a wonderful mellow colour, Andy just waxed it. I'd say the table is probably around 150 years okl.

At the evening vide greniers on Thursday, I found a gorgeous old wash stand. It was painted and the white paint had mellowed beautifully to a creamy colour. Of course it was also perfectly distressed already, lol, through many years of use ( and cigarette burns ). I just had to scrub it real hard to get decades of grime off and sand the burns, but it definitely did not need to be painted. Perfect distressing -


While I was scrubbing, Andy was cleaning the inside of the drawer for me. He also sanded the inside and waxed it, so it is beautifully smooth now.


I have put it in the bathroom and Ithink it looks perfect there -


Still with me? Wow. Thanks for persevering. Don't know when I'll be able to get online again, I have some tags to post, and loads of vide greniers finds. Hopefully it won't be too long.

Until then, toodlepip xxx