French Monogrammed Linens, Trims and A Boot Fair

I love this tin which my Mother has given me, the colours are so beautiful and the design, gorgeous.

Hello everyone! I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front. I am not borred with it already, far from it! My parents are visiting for a couple of weeks and I naturally wish to spend some time with them, so blogging has taken a bit of a back seat for now. However, I will still be checking my comments from time to time so please leave one if you wish as it will get read.

I look forward to catching up with your lovely blogs very soon! :0)

My Mother arrived with a selection of French treasures for me! She knows that I love vintage things. This a selection of what she brought over with her....It was wonderful, bag after bag of beautiful things, it was as if a vintage stall had turned up at my house!

A selection of lace collars and beneath them, a beautiful roses & ribbons table runner that my Grandmother Gabrielle & My Aunt Suzy made together around 50 years ago.

I admire the work that went in to making these! What a pity no one really bothers doing that with their linen anymore. Well, there might be handful out there but it is a minority.

Pure silk thread, I love the sheen and feel of it.

Countless amounts of buttons, a lot of them glass.

On Sunday I did another boot fair as we still have so much to get rid of. Whilst I was there, I had to look around for some must haves...

I love this little vintage child's beret and little red shoes

Beneath the shoes and Beret is one of my favourite rugs. It is a Capel Rug bought from the The Braided Rug Company and looks perfect for a cottage or country look


Vintage crochet hooks.

Coronet Ware plate bought for 50p Laura Ashley cushion cover bought for 75p

I love these irish linen pansies handkerchieves, so pretty!

The box that the handkerchieves come in

Another Ladybird book to add to my collection!


This vase was on the stall behind mine, I kept looking at it and as I was having my sandwich in the car I decided it finally was a must have.

Pretty metal sign, which will do in my work room

Lloyd Loom linen basket in need of a fresh coat of paint.

It's lovely to have such glorious weather for a change, we do get a lot of rain in Somerset...

I am really enjoying it. The apple trees are about to blossom and the Lily of the Valleys will be making an appearance soon. I so look forward to experiencing their heavenly scent again.

A bientôt!

Isabelle x

Sunday Boot fair & Victorian finds in our garden

Today, I did my first boot fair in 5 years and there was a lot to get rid of! Phoebe, Alan & I headed off to Yeovil (Somerset) where there is a big boot fair that takes place there most Sundays. (In case you some of you are thinking of going soon, IT WILL NOT BE OPEN ON 5th APRIL but will be open for business as usual from 12th April)

We had a very good day for it. The weather was perfect, lovely & sunny.

Today was about getting rid of things, it wasn't really a buying day but that did not stop me from coming back with a few things nevertheless...

As I was laying my table not long after arriving, I saw a lady walking up to my table with a vintage child mannequin on a wooden stand, you can imagine my thoughts... 'Oh if only we had arrived earlier'.... I immediately said to Alan, I must have a very quick look around. Feeling a sudden sense of urgency, what else might I miss out on otherwise???....

And here are the things I came back home with

My favourite purchase of the day. The colour

was what I was really drawn to, green again!


I have a set of little glasses, now I have the matching jug.

I was also very pleased with set of keys, one of them being

Georgian.

These little saucers will find a good place in my kitchen

This fire screen was just £1

Roses bowl

One stall was selling these old cotton & silks threads,

I bought all the entire box (35 in all)

This plate is hand painted. Not in perfect condition

but I like it.

After the boot fair was over we returned home.

After unloading the car, we spent a bit of time outside. Phoebe continued working on her den.

Phoebe's 'secret' den

One of the views from our back garden

After Phoebe had finished working on her den, we went into the back garden to do some digging...

Our back garden was not as we wanted it, so we had a digger get rid of a concreted patio area so that we could have a large lawn and shrubs around and possibly a vegetable plot at the bottom. After the digger left, we found hundreds of piece of crockery and glass. We found several bottles which are intact. Some had what look like medication in.

Most of it dates from around the second half of the 1800's to early 1900. We have several boxes full of these bottles and broken pieces. I plan to make something with some of the pieces we have found. It's great fun and so interesting! Feels like 'Time Team' (TV programme on archeological digs)! We have not found any gold coins so far though...

This is one aspect of the back garden, as you can see a lot of work is required. We have to do some repairs on the outbuilding that you can see. At the moment we use it as a shed but want to convert it into a proper insulated & heated utility room. There is still a very old fashioned toilet in there! The garden... well, once we have removed as many pieces as we can, we will have to landscape it. LOTS of work but I look forward to seeing the end result.

Old barn in front of our house. When you go inside you step back in time. It used to be a stable. I will do a feature showing some interior pictures. It has not been converted in to anything. It remains a rare example of what the inside of this stable looked like over 100 years ago. You can still see some of the hay the horses fed on. Some the old leather harnesses are still there! Owls and other animals find shelter there from time to time. Explore the barn where time stood still in one of my future posts...

FINALLY:
Ali from Message in a Teacup is having two gorgeous Easter giveaways! Please click on the link for more details on how you might win....

That's it for now, I'm about to go and watch a bit of TV. I miss Larkrise to Candleford on a Sunday evening...

I wish all you a all have a good start to the week!

A bientôt!

Isabelle x