Girlie things and a new best friend

I have a NGBF (a new Gay best friend), whom I met in the local coffee bar and introduced himself as he was looking for someone to do work on his house/es.  NGBF bought a house very local to us for 11,000 euros over the internet without looking at it and when he came over here he bought another for 14,000 euros - 2 houses for 25,000 euros - you couldn't buy a garage in the UK for that!  NGBF loves all things girlie and pink (the pinker the better), shabby chic, the brocante, anything made of pastry and best of all shopping.  Effectively he loves all the things I love, what a fabulous combination.  This week I have had a lot of fun helping NGBF to depart with his hard earned "Pink Pounds".  Like a kid in a sweet shop, we trawled the Brocante, the Depot de Ventes, the charity shops and flea markets.  I took him to every conceivable shop and area I know where he could spend his money.  So what did he get................................................ the most beautiful Louis Bed upholstered in faded pink velvet for 150 euros, a shabby chipped painted table, a bronze and glass lustre chandelier, a painting, a bed settee (from the 1950's), with matching chairs, an old nursing chair and an old Louis chair upholstered in gold velour (not quite my thing but NGBF loves it).  He also got a combination oven, grill and microwave, an electrician, a plumber, a roofer and a plasterer.  I have just taken him back to the Airport and I am exhausted, but the type of exhausted you get after a holiday - glad you did it, had a great time but come back feeling worse than before you went!

A fabulous Edwardian linen letter keepsake bag that NGBF found and generously let me buy it!

The eaten boot

See post below...........................................

Note only both ends have been chewed!

Rain didn't stop play

But it did stop me and eldest daughter going to the Brocante 2.1/2 hrs away.  We went to a smaller one instead, that was not such a drive.   We found: sweet tinted Easter cards from the 1900's, more old sepia photographs of other people's families and babys, linen and lace to love, cafe au lait bowls (a favourite of mine) and enamelware, the pink trolley was full and we were home by lunchtime.  Discovered Barley Boy had eaten his way through 4 shoes (none that matched) and one leather boot - so in total 5 pairs of footwear to throw away as BH had forgotten to put him in his puppy crate.  Oddly enough all of the shoes (and boot) belonged to my youngest daughter.......................................arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

What to look for at the brocante

Old photographs of other people's children and babies - I don't know why, I just love them and have a bit of a thing for them at the moment - preferably in sepia.    Who was this baby?  Is it a boy or a girl?  If it's a boy why is he surrounded by roses and has the remains of an ill-fitting bra on?  Who cares really?  A sweet chick either way.  Off to a brocante 2.1/2 hrs away tomorrow.  It should be fun and the sun is shining.  Until tomorrow.....................................

Would you take him home?

I kinda of like this chap!  Out brocanting yesterday myself and eldest daughter saw this chap just loitering on the roadside.  His hand covers his modesty, he has real eyelashes, doesn't answer back and is probably cheap to clothe and most importantly feed! - I reckon I could have made space for him in the car (although I would have had to dismantle him first)!   A miserable wet windy Sunday - glorious weather all week followed by rain on a Sunday, I feel like I am living in England.  Why is that?  Never mind, as a hardened follower of the brocante I can take just about any weather as long as I get "my fix"!     What did I buy?  More linen (of course), enamelware, some beautiful leather bound 1880's photograph books, a sweet cherub holy water font + more which all at some point be available on my Ebay shop frenchfanciesinfrance.com.

Spring Urge

You can definitely smell it, Spring is in the air - thank goodness, Winter has been going on for too long.  I now have the urge to wash curtains.  In a former life when I was too busy commuting I didn't even really notice that Spring had arrived - if people got sweatier on a tube or I woke up at my stop with someone's arm pit stuck to my face I knew that perhaps Summer had arrived.  Stuck in an office with artificial lighting sometimes arriving at the office when it was dark and going home when it was dark I never had any conception of what day it was let alone what Season.  Here the seasons are very definite and I now notice them.  The flocks of geese have returned from the South flying in "V"s across the blue sky, the bulbs are peeping through and everywhere looks alive.
Prostate sheep lie around in vast fields waiting for babies to arrive, our dogs are spending more time outside basking in the sun and the bees have arrived.       THE BROCANTES ARE GETTING BIGGER AND THERE ARE MORE OF THEM - YEEEEHARR!

Should I have let this one go?

Being a dedicated antique linen fan (but a non sewing person) I have just questioned myself on selling the above boutis provencal quilt - sorry the last photo I have as I deleted the others!  Beautifully made with a lovely old rose pattern (I am going through a chintz stage at the moment) I pratically threw myself at the woman selling this when I spotted it at a brocante 2 weeks ago.  I have a BIG problem with letting my linen "go" - I have heaps of the stuff, am totally addicted, which is not wholly conducive to making any money to pay our electric bill lets face it.  Should I have let it go?

Holding onto things for too long is a bad habit for me whereas BH has a totally different attitude.  He is a "chuck it out" type of man or "lets put things away and never find them again" type of man.  We are having "gremlin" issues at the moment, certain items over the space of 2 months have gone missing.  Barley the errant labrador, whom has eaten most of the contents of our house could be responsible, but since January we have lost all of our front door keys (we have/had 3 sets) so consequently the house has been unlocked 24/7, not really an issue around here as our neighbours are of the "twitching shutter" kind, so no-one gets near our house without it being noted upon.  Riding gloves (2 pairs) have completely disappeared, every Wednesday the big search starts but to no avail, the TV zapper (that went missing this afternoon), various dog leads and my wellies which I will need for potatoe planting next week.  I just know BH wants to live in a minimalistic white box where there are no photo's, paintings, cobwebs, kids mess and dog paw marks or my "junk" scattered around - poor love its a bit too late now!