We're Moving!

Reorganizing things, and because I've been wanting a change, I am now blogging over at French Objects. This new blog will be more about stories about and photos of vintage finds and my sewn creations. I'm writing it together with the hubby. Personal life stuff (for those not yet sick and tired of my never-ending photos of Lilou and Pierre, for example :D) will now be posted at my Facebook account (my personal account, and not the sad, neglected fan page). See you over at French Objects then! It is still very new, I'm still building it, but you can already read a first post, which is about this:

Vintage Finds

It's grey Monday here in the south of France, but the weekend was all bright sun and blue skies, perfect weather for going to the puces and brocantes, where we found a lot of the battered, decayed, and falling-apart-but-strangely-beautiful objects that I love. Some of them will be put up for sale at the shop this week, but some I'm keeping, like a box of old natural twine and a rusty old cup:

Work and Play

I'm sewing new things, and it feels very good! In the mornings when my husband takes care of Lilou for a couple of hours, I almost run to the mobile home that we have transformed into my work space so I can get at it, that's how excited I am.

I've been making pillow cases, table napkins, pincushions, lavender bags (of course!), and even tote bags. All from recycled vintage fabric, washed and mended, and given new life. This is a peek at what it all kind of looks like:

I can remember when the seed for this new collection was planted in my head; it was about seven years ago when my husband unearthed a few of his old jeans from when he was still a teenager. The jeans had been patched and mended all over by my mother-in-law, a French country housewife. I was struck by how it spoke of frugality and of a great respect for the continued usefulness of objects, so different from the throwaway culture that I had been immersed in. Also: I kept thinking that the sewing and patching looked so artistic somehow. I know I kept a piece of one of those old jeans somewhere... I will post a photo as soon as I find it.

When I'm not working, I'm forcing myself to go out and go for walks with the little one, despite the often -bad weather. Being cooped up indoors for too long makes me cranky, I find. Here is a photo I took two days ago. In the distance you can see my mobile home work space.

Had My Cake and Ate It Too

Yesterday was my birthday. My husband took me out to dinner at a restaurant we've been wanting to try for the longest time while mom-in-law looked after the baby. There were flowers, champagne, a great cake, and gifts to open. I have this thing about my birthdays, you know, something I carry over from childhood, that they never get celebrated because everybody is all celebrated out just after the holidays; so when that beautiful chocolate cake came out of the kitchen complete with those sparkly little candle thingies, I was a very happy girl.

Afterwards, I thought about sitting down to write some resolutions, but life is just too intense at the moment. I don't have much quiet time for the kind of thinking resolutions-making demand. So I'll let those go for now, and just live life as it comes.

P.S. As I write this, I am working into that cake so that it has gotten much smaller than how it looks in the picture. Burp.

On My Work Table

Ragged edges, vintage white cotton, winter light, a found skeleton key - a peek at what I'm currently up to.

Gardening in Winter

I am working on a new collection, which will be ready in February. I am concentrating on making functional pieces, and on using materials found and reclaimed. My goal is to not use anything new in the making of these objects, except for thread. The process is a lot more organic than usual; I have always been drawn to the imperfections and particularities that I find in vintage fabric, a hole or a stain maybe, so I am letting these holes and stains be, leaving them in as part of the finished object.

With my head up there in the air, in a creative cloud somewhere, I thought I'd share with you my recent discovery for greening up my interiors these winter months - aerial plants. At a Christmas market, I happened upon a vendor from Montpellier selling them. They're not exactly cheap, from 4€ to 12€ a piece, so I got just three. Then I installed them on dry branches, and hung them up on a white wall. Here is how they look: