la Brocanteuse: January 2012

Jan 31, 2012

Weekend at the beach house

Our weekends at the beach house is very laid back, little routine and loads of sun and relaxed living...

meals consist of fresh fish, and what is to be found at the local market.

Every Saturday morning there is a Farmers market at our local village HERMANUS which is very popular in summer. Here you will find fresh produce to enjoy at the long tables under umbrellas, or to take home.

We have our favorites, and after regular visits have learnt who sell the best bread,the mature cheeses, the sweetest fruit and know the oyster man..

This is where we started on Saturday..

Local wine, oysters and a open greek lamb- shwarma with tsatsiki

bread , cheese and coffee

after brunch we took a brisk walk on Onrus beach, and as allways, collecting shells to add to the ever expanding "collection" for a maybe project

with a very energetic almost nine year old,

the question of keeping little hands busy, and inspired by previous fun with shells,( a shell wreath) a project happened.

Two white washed picture frames that never found their way to a wall,

glue, shells and coral collected,
and a beautifull view...

one frame is allmost completed, the other ,..soon

Not sure how we are going to use the frame, it is a little small for a bathroom mirror,

perhaps as a underplate for serving oysters?...

we shall see,... it was fun to make and mostly, the memories of the day the most precious of all!...

have a lovely week

Colette

Jan 23, 2012

French hilltop

We love driving with no particular place to go, no rush to be in time for an appointment with a dealer somewhere,or to be early at a market,allowing us to explore, and this was such a day. It was in the region Corezze, not far from Collonges la- Rouge, that we saw this hilltop village from a distance.

Curious to see more, we took the little winding road uphill.

It looked very quiet and there was a soft drizzle of rain, but we were not put off by that.On arrival we had to leave the vehicle at the bottom of the village. There was a sign indicating that only local residents were allowed to drive further up the narrow , what looked like a one way road.I have no idea who would have checked on us since there were honestly no-one to be seen anywhere...

most of the buildings were closed up, and not even a whiff of boulangerie anywhere..

The grass around the buildings were kept neat, some potted trees, so there must be activity ?...

it was early evening, ten to seven on the clock, and surely someone sees to that..since it was right on dot

then totally unexspected we were at the entrance to a open door..

it was dark and quiet on entering...Dd spotted a brown wooden box just inside, and felt we should at least light a candle ,(she has an obsession to do so at least once a day, I promiss..) When we inserted our coins as gesture when taking some candles to lite, the whole building lit up.

Music started playing (recorded) and we were quite stunned for a while, at the pure special feeling. I suppose this is quite ordinare , lights and music in a church come alive on insertion of coins...but we have never come across this and especially since the whole town seemed to have been "out" for the week. Perhaps this was a town people visited over weekends, escaping the city.

It is unplanned days like these with unexspected happenings that is filed in our little family's memory book..

On arrival at our car down hill, the house where we parked, the shutters of the windows that were closed earlier, were now open..

at last, this is real!

the only regret I have...I cannot remember the name of the village! - but we will surely check in on it again when next in that area..

Colette x

Jan 21, 2012

French couronne love

Enjoy the weekend!

I am loving these today...

left over from here

and here

Have a lovely weekend

Colette x

Jan 16, 2012

Beach wrapping

Here at our beach house,away from my very organised "gift" cupboard at home, I had to make do of what is available and had fun too

The DAS pronto clay has been lying in a drawer for quite a few years already, a project that never happened, and was still in perfect order..

I rolled the clay, made a few circles ,

using the bottom of a glass to shape,

and stars using a cookie cutter

while the tags were still damp, I stamped them with a rubber stamp , laying it onto the rough linen , to give the back some texture as well.

using a tooth pick to make little holes at the top,

tip: as the tag dries out, the little hole tends to close up slightly, so a good idea is to check on it and open the hole again gently using the tooth pick

any raised object can be pressed onto the clay to give a interesting look, I used a large old coin to impress a profile, and a small shell to make little imprints on the edges of the round tags.

When the tags were completely dry, I varnished them with clear nail varnish since that is what I had available. It worked perfect and easy.

the note card I used to write a special note on, is a collage of photo's previously shared on my blog of our beach house . I combined it into one photo and printed it in black and white.

tiny shells and driftwood from Dd's daily collection was added to the loose ends of the string tied around the very pink box