a mood board for a christmas table

Today I start two weeks of non-stop christmas ideas and, I hope, inspiration.   Unfortunately it's not snowing here in Normandy, but I added falling snow to the blog just to make it feel festive!

Today's offering: a mood board for a tablescape.  As I already told you, I'm not clever at shooting whole tables, but I had good fun today putting bits together around  a cream, gold and green theme.

I used an antique soup tureen and soup plates, antique cutlery; crystal knife rests; some cool feather christmas trees I found this week; and instead of laying all this onto a real tablecloth I borrowed a wonderful metis embroidered sheet from my stock.

Hope you enjoy.

what a girl - or a boy - does on a rainy day

You remember Dr Zeuss?   "so all we could do was to sit, sit, sit , sit,  and we did not like it,  not one little bit" -   well here yesterday it rained, rained, rained, rained and consequently I cancelled my plans for trimming in the garden and, much like the infamous cat,  settled down to play with plates.

Many bloggers are clever enough to show fantastic tablescapes as Christmas approaches.  I however am not. In the summer I can manage a decent photo when I lay a pretty table for an al fresco dinner, but shooting the table inside never feels satisfactory. I hate to use a flash, firelight looks too orange; candlelight too dim - just doesn't happen.

So yesterday,  instead of a real tablescape, I rigged up some soft lighting and played around with china, and glass and candlesticks - more of an association of ideas really than a veritable sitting down to dinner.  I didn't even use flowers, just curious to see how much atmosphere I could create with the bare necessities, against a background of antique linen, and tablecloths.

I hope you enjoy, as I say, it's just for fun ...

If you're also having a rainy weekend, I hope you found a way to keep busy.

French aprons and night shirts

Beyond excited to have found an old mannequin yesterday, having looked for  so long!  At last I can show off my aprons and nightdresses!!

OK, don't laugh, a girl has to take her thrills where she can find them, mine just happen to be in a pile of antique aprons, I've wanted to put them up for sale for a while, but never managed to take a decent picture!

The big question is  does the mannequin need a name?  But I know you could help me on that one! ...... She has a good temperament, is very patient when being dressed and undressed;  she stands tall and dignified which makes me think she must be from a good family ...  all suggestions welcome!

For those of you waiting for the brocante tablescapes, hopefully tomorrow!

Wishing you a happy weekend!

christmas gift ideas

In an act of shameless self promotion I thought I'd give you some ideas for Christmas gifts from my very own store.  I have selected items for all the lovely people you know and adore!   All the prices you see include shipping to WHEREVER you are in the world and, as the big Christmas rush hasn't started yet, parcels seem to be taking about a week to the USA, about 16 days to Australia and three days in Europe.

So here we go for a very brocante Christmas list ....

I'm sure that your favourite aunt Agatha would love one of these stunning pillow shams.
Either as a pair, or  one pillow standing on a freshly made bed looks divine

your best friend Mary Lou has just redone her dining room
and would love these glass coasters and salt cellars;

your teenage nieces Lisbet  and Kathleen would love these antique rosaries,
beautiful symbols and  très à la mode;

your sister who likes to bring flowers in from the garden would adore a couple of these antique glasses, perfect for displaying single blooms in a row or  grouped together, what I call a collective bouquet;

your next door neighbour, who's so sweet all year round, would be very touched to
receive a tiny plant, potted in a beautiful century old French cup 

not forgetting of course the cushions, that your sister would love to have on her porch

your sister in law, Betty Lou, has always dreamed of having some old 

glass fishing floats on her bookshelf 

and her hubby (that would be your brother) is a lawyer and very interested in history, and
he'd be thrilled to own an original 150 year old handwritten legal document;

your mother loves cherubs and candles so these little candle holders would be ideal

and for you, well that's easy, to make your festive table sparkle and shine when all these
fine people come to spend Christmas day in your lovely home, you could treat yourself
to some beautiful knife rests, bound to be a talking point and incidentally to pretty up your table.

Voila - thank you for visiting, if you need any more information about
these gift ideas, then either click on the links or send me an email.

An autumn weekend, friends, fun and finds!

Autumn rolls gently on here and we have just had another lovely weekend, which included the visit of a great blogging friend Tish Jett.    Tish was keen to do some early Christmas shopping that would include some brocante pieces so we decided to shop ensemble!

Of course planning a pre-dawn brocante raid is one thing:  when it comes to hauling yourself out of bed at 5.30 and you've only been between said sheets since 3 is a whole other issue ( one day I may learn not to have big dinners the night before a brocante fair),  and  Sunday saw me - yet again - trying to choose treasure through a post- party/late night fog ....  hmmm.

Once that fog lifted however, the pickings proved better than I had expected and I returned here laden with engravings, old silver pieces, picture frames, books and a load more. 

I was particularly pleased to find several of these early 19th century brulots or coffee cups.  I adore their shape and their weight!  They were manufactured in very thick and heavy porcelain to keep the coffee warm as long as possible.

Tish I am glad to say, found the longed for chandeliers!  Great buy Tish!

By the time we returned home our respective families were enjoying a late breakfast in front of the fire and had fun reviewing our finds.

I would love to show you a full loot shoot but I very stupidly managed to drop my camera so I'm temporarily out of visual action - GRRRRRRRRRRR!

I hope that you too had an enjoyable weekend, be it in

Northern Hemisphere autumn, or Southern Spring.

Thank you as always  for reading my blog.

end of fairs for this year

Next Sunday will see the last of the  brocante fair season in our part of the world!  It has been such fun, not once have I regretted getting out of bed early on Sunday, sometimes driving a long way. And this week I'll have the bonus of dragging along a girlfriend - but I'll tell you about that later.

Inevitably after a season treasure hunting I have some favourite buys in my memory, but also unfortunately the memory of the ones that got away.

For this Sunday to be totally perfect, and to make up for those goodies I didn't manage to purchase during the year, I'd have to find:

a chandelier for said girlfriend, I have to put this first, because that is after all the reason for her coming all the way out here, and if I don't at least look as I'm searching, she'll get into a sulk, and then where will we be?

A napolein III sewing mannequin, I still have to breathe deeply every time I think about the one I missed here in May !!! GRRRRR!!  It   She was perfect, tight waisted, all in black, pert silhouette .... sigh ... SIGH!!

some glass cloches for mon jardin;

another huge lantern to hang outside our workshop;

definitely want some more sarreguemines, preferably soup tureens;

and of course to make my bonheur complete, and because my linen shelves aren't groaning loudly enough yet, I'll be looking out for

beautiful,

heavy, 

smooth,

off white, 

embroidered, 

monogrammed, 

bed linen

wishing you all an action packed weekend too!!