I decided this morning to hand wash some of the lace I had bought a while ago. It was a hot sunny day again, with a little breeze coming up from the valley, so a good day to hang out washing. And no, these white bits dangling from the line looking like ancient mummy wrappings are not the monsters of the post title, lol, they are sweet crochet laces and beautifully hand stitched broderie anglaise -
A little while ago we had a couple of days with a goodly amount of rain. The last few days have been really hot again, temps in the mid/high 30s. So last night I decided to water the veggie patch as the forecast for today was hot hot hot. All went well for a half hour or so while I watered the tomatoes, the beans, the cavolo nero.......... and then I got to the yellow courgette. Good grief, I almost fainted when I saw those courgettes, they were monsters! Three days ago, when I checked, they were dinky little yellow courgettes, last night, they were giants, monstrous giants -
Bigger than my beautiful Sussex trugg, longer than my hand and forearm together, and weighing an absolute ton. How could that have happened in three days?
I was going to use a yellow courgette for tonight's roasted vegetables dinner,
but I picked a small one for that, lol, these giants were just too big. They'll be in a big pot of vegetable soup tomorrow with leeks and onions and chilis, and sprinkled with crispy fried lardons ( bacon bits ).
Off to bed now, its almost midnight and I am so tired, but I had to finish listing a few things in my Etsy shop and showing them on the vintageland blog.
Toodlepip xxx
It sat on a side table, not on the large stand where all the desirable objects vied for customers. It looked tatty and very ordinary. Just a battered white shoebox. And then I saw the writing on the box, the magic word - DENTELLES -
Thats when my heart started beating faster and when I made a bee line for the stand, hoping for all those long seconds that there really would be some lace inside that little box.
And there was!
It took ages looking through the box to see what was hiding inside, and then negotiating with the stall holder, but in the end it was mine :-)
I found some gorgeous salesman samples in the box, with their original little labels, so special -
My favourite piece, RESERVED for North America
Fabulous metallic lace -
The first layer in the box was pieces of the finest, daintiest Napoleon III era black lace, so very delicate and somewhat ravaged by time, but beautiful nonetheless -
Amongst the black lace was this beautiful black floral piece, perhaps for millinery -
And then there was the white/ecru/ivory lace ...
And that was not all, there were also many pieces of the most beautifully hand worked broderie anglaise, which I absolutely adore -
I can't imagine how anybody could produce such beautiful, neat, tiny stitches by candlelight.
I hope you have enjoyed looking through the little white shoebox. Wishing you a beautiful new week wherever you are, toodlepip xxx
I have lost the plot already, lol, and I thought I was going to be so organised whilst we are here in France. I had intended to photograph and list straight after every brocante, post as soon I had made or done something, blog at least every couple of days. Alas, I find myself miles behind and desperately trying to catch up once again. Sigh.
So, where to start? I was just looking at Petite Michelle Louise's Grey Dey Thursdey post, so lets start with a bit of GREY ;-). Here are a few recent brocante finds in glorious grey -
This lovely old lace might have started out as a steely blue. Maybe, difficult to tell. It has faded to a gorgeous grey/ivory and is so perfect for my craft projects -
I am so bad at keeping my promises. I know I said a few days ago that I would post photographs of more of those beautiful antique French clothes the next day. I failed miserably, of course. But as white goes very well with grey, I'll post some of the photos now.
This full length night gown really is the most amazing one I have come across. I am sure it must make you feel like Royalty wearing something so incredibly fine. This was the little teaser I posted -
and here it is -
I think while I am on a roll, I'll prepare another post and schedule it for tomorrow ;-).
Until then, thank you for visiting and toodlepip xxx
