Le Gateau

There are times when I find myself in a creative lull.  I cannot manage to use thread and a needle in order to satisfy that need to artistically express myself.  During the last year or so I have turned to baking in those moments.  I love the process, the quest to make them beautiful as well as tasty, and of course the visual gratification when I am finished.  

Enjoy your Sunday!

Michele

Vintage French Baskets

Happy Sunday!  

I thought I would share a few of my recent finds.  I have been looking for a nice old French basket lately.  

I saw this one and instantly liked it.  

What do you think of this olive basket?  I wish I had a small lemon tree or myrtle topiary to place in it.  

 I could not pass up this lovely oyster basket because of the beautiful blue patina on it

The piece de resistance, though, is the pernod sign I found.  The memory of drinking pastis at a cafe in France is one of my happiest.  

Tough as it is, I have listed these new treasures in my Etsy store.  

Thanks for visiting

Michele

Vintage French Body Pitchers

Happy Friday

I hope that this finds you all well and ready to relax this weekend.  

 I found both of these pitchers from my vendor who imports from the Brittany region of France.  They are available in my Etsy store.

These zinc ones are not easy to find these days.

 I really like the hue of this one.  A real French blue.  

It has some enamel loss, commensurate with its age.  But isn't that what draws us all to vintage treasures?  I also am drawn to the rusty band at the bottom.  Don't see that often.

 I could not help but add a few photos of my tulips.   My daughter says that they look like Easter eggs on sticks. ;)

I love how they are all going their own way.  

Thank you for visiting.  

Enjoy your weekend

Michele

Spring flowers and a zinc body pitcher

One of the best parts of spring, in my opinion, are the gorgeous flowers.  The constant sneezing and scratching my eyes until they are the color of beets is almost offset by the beauty of snowballs, tulips, daffodils, peonies....etc.  

I really like these zinc body pitchers and am thrilled to be adding two to my etsy shop on Friday.  

My sister in law, Cheryl, of Fresh Vanilla for C, gave me the mercury C for my birthday.  I love it!

As I say often, I love the contrast between the old and beat up and the fragile and lovely. The snowballs feel as though they could barely withstand the drive home.  Whereas the pitcher is decades old and very rugged looking.  

Today is my friend Kristy's bday.  I decided to make her a little arrangement.  

And, so typical me, I make the effort to hand emboss the card.  But I neglect to remake it when I stamp the "d" backwards.  I am going to say that it adds to the charm.  ;)

I hope that you are all enjoying a lovely week.  I am very grateful today for everything that I have been blessed with.  

xo

Michele

Happy Easter.  

I hope you all have a wonderful day today.  

Thanks for visiting

Michele

Vintage Coal Bucket with Lillies

As you may know, I love the contrast between the rough, old, worn, aged, and the fresh, delicate, and sweet.  I found this great old coal bucket recently and fell in love with it!  

The woman who brought it back from France said that it is technically called a body pitcher.  Some research told me that it could be termed a scuttle.  

Whatever the name, I like the feel it gives my living/dining room.  

Especially when filled with beautiful pink lilies.  It is rather large, standing 21" tall.  I think it makes a statement.  

 It is increasingly difficult for me to part with treasures like this one.  But the truth is that I found it for my Etsy store.  And that is where it will go.  Otherwise, my girls and I will not be able to walk through our apartment at some point.  ;)

I hope that all is well with you, my readers.  I feel like I am coming out of my creative abyss.  More on that next week. :)

Sincerely

Michele

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Primp

French Country Cottage

Jennifer Rizzo

Wonderful Day at the Flea.....and a polka dot cake

Happy New Year to you all.  I have to say that usually I am excited to begin anew this time of year.  But for the first time that I can remember I was not happy to see 2012 end.  I had a wonderful year!  Healthy thriving kids, great family and friends and my full time as well as part time, Etsy store, did well.  I am, though, looking forward to another good one.  I, as many of you likely do, have a list of things which I will approach differently this year.  And I am grateful for the challenge.  

Today I went to our local flea market.  I saw some good friends and came home with a few treasures.

  That list includes grain sacks, French hotel silver tea pots, a galvanized pitcher,  a French jute sack and a few other finds.  I will share more with you as soon as I can get organized.  In the meantime,  here is my polka dot cake.  I saw one on Pinterest and loved it.   It is a vanilla cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting and fondant decoration.  

I did not make it for any special occasion, just for practice.  I had a tough time cutting into it, to be honest.  I didn't want to ruin the exterior.  But when I did I was thrilled to see the pink and green polka dots.  

This was actually very easy to make.  To create the dots, you first make cake balls, or pops.  You then place them in your regular cake pans and cover with batter.  I just learned a few tricks as well.  I did not know that it makes it easier to frost if you freeze the cake overnight, and use a hot knife to smooth it.  

I know that it is a bit odd that I post mostly about interiors and making use of old and worn things and then once in a while I throw a cake at you.  But what I like to do here is write about my creative endeavors.  So, I guess that both fall into that category. 

I wish you all a happy and very healthy 2013

xo

Michele