Happy Christmas Eve!

Joyeux Noël à vous and all the best for your Christmas celebrations with family and friends!

Jennifer.
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Merci Beaucoup

Today I have something very simple to say.

Thank you.

Thank you for following me throughout the year. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your encouraging messages, 'like'ing what I post on facebook, making your own posts, emailing me with questions, and commenting on the blog.  

Thank you.

I wish you all much joy this season and hope to see you back here in the New Year!

Jennifer x

More creative trees

And calendars counting down the days to Christmas...

And some trees that are just yummy enough to eat!

via Sugar Daze Bakeshop, Paris

Enjoy!

Jennifer.

A little something special for you in store...

For my online friends, a little something special just for you.  Not advertised in store!

Jennifer

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The best house in France

Want some great holiday voyeuristic browsing, then how about this.

Currently there is a television programme and competition on France2: "La maison des préférées des francais" (the favourite house of the French).  Along the lines of "I Own Britain's Best Home" and other series around the world, it is a TV and online competition for viewers to vote for the house that is their favourite.  With houses representing the 22 regions of France.  These are real houses belonging to real people.

In fact so real, that as it turns out, on my last buying trip to France in April, I have actually been to one of these.

Christelle owns the sweetest a little brocante in Normandy, that I can attest looks this beautiful and chic EVERY day of the year, and not just for the photographs!

All of the photos to this point, are Christelle's charming abode; it is house number 11 on the website.  There are many more to look at too, so once you've had a good look around, please vote for Christelle's!

If you would like to vote in the competition, just click away!

Click here

Here is another of the other french rooms I liked and some more pretty french houses from the competition...

bedroom in Ille de France 

house in Centre

house in Picardie

Enjoy!
Jennifer x

In Store Now ... more mercury glass table inspiration!

I am so enamoured of my mercury glass tea light find!  It is just so lovely to have silver twinkling lights around our loungeroom at night.  And so I want to include this somehow in my table setting for Christmas Day.

Via Design and Decor

Doing a quick flick through some of my favourite blogs I was looking for some Christmas table inspiration and I found more mercury glass inspiration from Russian blog Design and Decor.

Via Design and Decor

Via Design and Decor

And don't these tea lights in the snow of a Russian winter, with bear skin seat and snow covered wreaths,  just all look so magical.

Via My French Country Home

I was originally going to opt for the traditional rustic french table, with silver touches.

Similar to this picture from My French Country Home.

However I am now really happy with my silver table setting inspiration find!

Here are some vintage mercury glass tealights I have in store now.  They are just so sweet, and I could not resist them when I saw them!

I have twelve altogether in store, and may be able to get a few more but you would have to email quick!

I hope you are having as much fun as me, thinking and planning and finding for your own special Christmas!

Jennifer.
x

When is a tree not a tree?

When it's a graceful, airy collection of twigs, ...

unknown: from old photo file

... A collection of shelves linked together with strings of lights ...

Ikea shelving: Image Simple As That

... A small potted plant, ... 

Via Design and Decor

 ... or a collection of twigs.

Via Songbird blog

Have fun with whatever you decide to go for this season!

Jennifer

x

via Design and Decor

L'arbre de Noël est arrivé! ...

Isn't it just so easy to make lovely memories at this time of year?

My little boys are still writing to a rosy cheeked man each year, asking for their hearts desire. We put their letters on the fire place where Santa removes them and leaves a gift in their stocking. I have kept all these letters, which trace so much of their changing tastes.

My Christmas tree arrived last week. And it has taken us a week to unpack decorations, decide on the appropriate ones, and adjudicate a family debate over the best star to use for the top!

I've gone for a bit of a blue and silver theme this year - through no other design than these have been catching my eye for years, and now I have enough to do the entire tree with lots of blue!  

I picked up some gorgeous blue mercury glass and also blue milk glass ornaments at Oliveaux at Woolloongabba.  I always get lovely inspiration whenever I pop into this store, and owner Amanda Harris is such a treat to talk to!  She has always been so supportive of me, and of starting my business last year and I love to see what she's been up to. 

I've also found some lovely silver mercury glass tealights also which I have along the dining table and across the fire mantle.

I managed to source a couple of sets of these so email me if you are interested for your own Christmas table.  

I plan to use them all year also, sitting along the fireplace hearth - when it's not cold enough to light the fire, but it will still give a warming twinkle and glow.

And thankyou, merci, to all my readers of this blog.  

I still feel like such a novice as I type away.  Mostly just when I feel that I have something to share.  To those of you who tune in regularly, thank you so much for reading! 

 And to all I send you genuine best wishes of the season.

Jennifer x

 all images Vintage Finds

Bench Seat for a Boot Room

I was looking for a bench seat for the bootroom to finish off this space, as it just needed somewhere for everyone to perch.

I managed to find this piece at a local supplier.  (Yes, sshhh! it is new and not vintage!)  And it's available to order if you should like it too!

I just loved the hessian-covered look and the dimensions (1500mm long, 500mm deep) work so well for this spot - a necessity for the boys to sit somewhere while they hoist on trainers, rugby boots and school shoes.

Hessian-covered painted wooden bench seat, vintage fabric cushions, Armadillo&Co Nest weave rug, all available to order via Vintage Finds

And to be frank, with that finish, this piece is perfect for the knocks and scrapes it is likely to get in this room!

Iron and Carved Wood bench seat (2400L 360D 460H)  Available to order via Vintage Finds

I was originally looking at this wood and iron bench seat.  Which I also love for it's simple rustic charm.  It would probably have been my preferred option, but at 2400mm long it would completely fill the space and I think look too cramped.  And so I am happy with the choice I have made.

What do you think?

Jennifer.

In Store Now ... Hand sewn linen cushion covers

These are just the sweetest cushion covers or pillow shams that I found in a market stall in Porte de Vanves.  The hand sewn thread work is just so well done, and also as it came from an attic sale, you can tell these would have been turn of the last century.

I must admit when I bought them I thought they were folded lengths of embroidered antique linens with some drawn-thread work.

When I got them home, on closer inspection, I can see they are the most delightful cushion covers.  All hand sewn - included the tiny button holes.  What a lost art that is!  To delicately and oh so neatly sew these for tiny buttons.

I have six of these in store now.  They are a large size and measure 68 cms across including the flange, and would fit a 55cm x 55cm sized cushion insert.

Surviving with only pink peonies

Well, here it is.

The last day of school before the summer holidays.  Much anticipated, has finally arrived.

Two months of little boys and their little friends running rampant here and at the beach.  Wet towels, grassy feet, and endless rounds of discarded clothing.

So pink peonies it is.

On my desk, and in my morning coffee spot.  I think I deserve two rounds of pink as they could be the last 'girlish' thing I see for months!

In store now ...

Here are some more vintage french house numbers I have in stock, enamelled in a pretty blue and white.  These are rectangle and are 10cms x 15cms.  The numbers I have available in this size are: 49, 58, 43, 63bis, 27, 28, 65, 10 and 56.  If you are after a specific number or size, let me know and I will add it to the list that I am sourcing at the moment.

What does the 'bis' mean I hear you ask?  In an address 63A Orchid Avenue, the french equivalent of the 63A would be 63bis.  Depending how many times more addresses need to be subdivided it would be numbered bis, ter, quater.

I just thought this one was so typically french I had to pick it up!

Sun is shining and weather divine here in Brisbane, spirits are high and so I am in a hive of activity to stock the Woolloongabba store.  Have a great day today whatever you find yourself doing.  

Jennifer x

Do I dare paint my wood floor ... Part 2

So, now we have done it, and as promised I have photos to share.  I am just amazed that it has worked so well.  Very pleased with the end result, and it still remains so functional for us!

As you can imagine, this back entryway area ends up being the logical dumping spot for school bags and assorted sporting equipment, as we come into the house.  And it also had a tendency to be quite dark. 

With the change to a white floor being so much brighter, now it just so lovely that I feel like I am 'stepping into the light'!  Such a change.

French vintage wooden coat rack from country fair in Normandy

I can't quite set aside practicality, just for looks.  

So I have installed a multitude of hooks, racks, hat shelves, and shoe baskets to store and hang everything that would otherwise live as a pile of obstacle course apparatus on the floor.  

And I purposely didn't install doors on the 'locker' style cupboards.  If I did, everything would land in front of the doors and not make their way inside to the hooks!

1950s french bamboo mirror

There are also different styles of vintage bamboo mirrors from France, which I have grouped together.  A couple needed new glass and the others still have their old and vaguely mottled patina.  Hung together like this they work really well for adults and growing children of various heights for a last minute check as they walk out the door! And to me I love the textural interest reflected down our hall.

This has been a drastic change for us.  Have you tried something that worked really well for you, better than you first thought?

Jennifer.
x

 {all images Vintage Finds}