Between wandering around the International Home Furnishings Center (IHFC) by myself on Friday afternoon/evening and then meeting up with Courtney of French Country Cottage {our Insider’s Guide to High Point Market for first timers!} and new friend and designer Janie Timberlake of JBeth Designs {she’s just starting a site on FB and is on Instagram} on Saturday and touring showrooms listening to a fabulous talk at a place I will share with you in a separate post {we were treated to a Moroccan lunch there, too!} and getting to shop for amazing pieces and see all these gorgeous goods coming from Europe and all over the world I’m on sensory overload ~ but in the best way possible!!! 😀 I’ll have several indepth write-ups over the next few weeks sharing more of the beautiful furniture pieces and accessories I found that inspired me. Here are Seven Incredible Showrooms that I found which just knocked my socks off:
Eloquence
Shown in the featured first photo was my absolute definite favorite followed closely by these next three. As soon as I can figure out how to share Eloquence’s trademark with you on their photographs I promise I have a TON of French etherealness by way of incredibly beautiful French pieces to share with you… sigh! Just look at those gorgeous round accent lights! They are such a lovely take on the 1960’s-1970’s ones my parents had in their guest/second bathroom in their country Connecticut home. {Left by a previous owner and they sufficed ~ just weren’t my taste.}
Love the old French novels and the French farmhouse table and benches at French Heritage.
French Heritage
A showroom filled with beautiful fine furnishings the owner designed herself for various designers and pieces of the company’s own label. Gold leaf, incredible French Louis mirrors exquisite reproductions and antiques as well as avante-garde Art Deco inspired pieces ~ totally on trend!
TONS of ironstone tureens inside Golden Oldies.
Golden Oldies
This must be where everything comes into port
from everywhere overseas…
Hat makers forms, chocolate molds, loving cups,
French mirrors, olive buckets in stacks…
Janie and I… Our mouths dropped open at the $$
we could have dropped there
for clients AND for ourselves!
Ave Home
Ave features raw wood designs for the home
and can customize any of their furniture pieces
with Annie Sloan chalk paint matched to your decor
or can stain as desired.
I like their ability to customize!
I think that’s their best selling point as not
every company has the ability to do this.
Ave prides itself on being very vendor and
owner-oriented.
🙂
Bobo Intriguing Objects
One of the first shops we had an appointment with on
Saturday which has really nice clean furniture lines
and a fun mix of funky accessories ~ like the cute
French bulldog who has a name which I forget
{I’m sorry!}
and cute children’s play horses with burlap bodies
but paper maché heads, legs and tails!
Bobo also carries incredible antique artists’ drawings
which would have been used as the original design
for pieces created in the 18th and 17th centuries.
Wonderful for framing
they were on my list of future wallhangings.
Bliss Studio
Lovely reproductions with that ethereal white Nordic look
that I have totally fallen for these past few years…
Bliss is making very European-style cushions
which are thicker and more comfortable than
foam-filled cushions used on a lot of lesser quality
furniture pieces.
They are featuring the Gustavian-French look
brought over from Europe
which is so beautiful and popular right now
in North America and across Europe.
I was particularly excited about this table
set up that you can see in the photo above.
I like that the demilune tables can be added to
the kitchen table to bring in extra spaces
when extra company arrives ~
especially handy during the holidays!
Blue Ocean Traders
OMGosh! We all went nuts for the many
vintage goodies found here…
My picks were horse troughs which come in three
sizes stacked and can be used in the garden
inside in a greenhouse or really anywhere.
Doors from India and the Middle East
are also a big feature here
along with reproduction wooden breadboards
doughbowls and the cutest capitals
from the Phillipines
made of wood.
A very famous t.v. personality has these
in her showroom.
🙂
Mine! 😀
These are the doors I wanted to put in my
suitcase and bring home…
Love all the colors on them!
Coming to Market has been crazy fun and
I’ve learned a ton!
I’ve linked all the showroom names for you
so you can see their products.
If there is something you’d like to buy
just let me know and I’ll
inquire for you and quote you a price.
Sharing with Inspire Me Monday ~ Create with Joy
Dishing It and Digging It ~ Rustic and Refined
Snickerdoodle Create Bake Make ~ My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies Totally Terrific Tuesday ~ Savvy Apron Wow Us Wednesday ~ Savvy Southern Style Welcome Home Wednesdays ~ Five Kids a Dog and a Blog Wonderful Wednesday ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girl Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage Sweet Inspiration ~ The Boondocks Blog This post was featured at Dishing It and Digging It at Rustic and Refined 😀
French Ethereal Design and
Photography
is my fledgling company with its own resale license.
I have fallen in love with pumpkins used as a vase
and thought I’d try to make a faux version
with a tutorial so you can make your own!
I’ll post a picture tutorial on its own as Blogger is
telling me it can’t or won’t let me add to this post
right now.
{the joys of programming!}
😉
Let me know what you think of this video!
{even with my head cut off and the need for
an external microphone} Sharing with Sweet Inspiration ~ The Boondocks Blog Wow Us Wednesday ~ Savvy Southern Style Friday at the Firestation ~ A Fireman’s Wife Create, Bake, Grow and Gather ~ Shabby Art Boutique
Friday Features ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girl Dollar Store Spooktacular Blog Hop Saturday Sparks ~ Pieced Pastimes To Gramma’s House We Go ~ Chas’ Crazy Creations
Setting a fall tablescape just for two is a lovely way to share time together and show appreciation:
to your spouse ~ for all his or her hard work
to a best friend ~ for always being there
or to a
grown child home visiting ~
making his or her day special…
Creating a jeweled fall tablesetting
It’s always fun to create every fall tablescape and this one
is easy in that all we need is a few fall leaves
some colorful plush pumpkins and the addition of
jewel tones with “candied fruit”
in our decorating.
For winning one of the games we played at a fall
Bible study dinner hosted a few weeks ago
by our teacher Peggy
I received a grab bag with some
jeweled fruit inside.
The jeweled candied fruit came from a thriftshop; the pumpkin salt and pepper shakers are from Cracker Barrel.
This beautiful faux fruit decoration with its deep green velvety leaves might have been intended for decorating a hat or
placing in a bowl on display ~ like the larger glass grapes
you might find at your local thriftshop which were
so popular for decorating during the
late 1960’s and 1970’s.
I was thrilled to find these jeweled fruit in my bag
that fun evening!
I knew they would be lovely for fall decorating
and lately they have been
nestled in amongst a big basket of dried flowers.
Here those velvety leaves continue the
velvety goodness of
our little pumpkins.
Adding fresh white painted chargers underneath each plate
adds an unexpected brightness and heightened drama
to darker jewel toned fall decor.
I realized toothat I said the other day that this
little pheasant cutie I found while out thriftshopping
a couple of weeks ago
was going to feature in today’s post…
I forgot.
Her lovely bronze color definitely fits in with
today’s jewel toned decor, though.
🙂
Here are some pieces available on the web if you’d like to decorate your table in a similar fashion. amzn_assoc_placement = “adunit0”; amzn_assoc_search_bar = “true”; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = “frenchetherea-20”; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = “manual”; amzn_assoc_ad_type = “smart”; amzn_assoc_marketplace = “amazon”; amzn_assoc_region = “US”; amzn_assoc_title = “My Amazon Picks”; amzn_assoc_asins = “B00OM4INX6,B06XRTMMQJ,B01LDZGOTG,B01LOOGZPE”; amzn_assoc_linkid = “6bf92025117518d0a7c2abd8fc29092d”; //z-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/onejs?MarketPlace=US
Disclosure: the items above are affiliate links and are sold on Amazon.com.
By sharing these items with you, if you purchase any of these, I will receive
a small commission thereby helping me to continue providing lovely
content for you. Thank-you! For my full disclosure please click Here.
Setting a lovely fall tablesetting
even if the meal is just something simple
like soup or simply sandwiches and
a piece of fruit
the thought behind decorating your table
will show just how much you care…
Sharing with
Snickerdoodle Create Bake Make Link Party ~ Blue Willow House
Preheat oven to slow 325 degree Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan.
Sift together butter and 1 1/2 cups of the sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
Beat in yolks one at a time. Add sifted dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk
to egg mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat well after each addition.
Beat until smooth. Beat in poppy seeds and lemon rind. Set aside.
Beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually beat in remaining 1/4 cup sugar until meringue
forms soft peaks. Fold into batter until no white remains. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in
oven at 325 degrees F for 55 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched with fingertips {use a cake tester and check the center of the cake; when it comes out clean the cake is done}.
Saturday Sparks ~ Pieced Pastimes Dishing It and Digging It ~ Rustic and Refined Friday at the Fire Station ~ A Fireman’s Wife Sweet Inspiration ~ The Boondocks Blog Friday Features ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girl! Fresh Starts at Hearth and Soul ~ April J. Harris
The gilded swags and bows circling around the lid and
the base and its royal depiction of
Elizabeth in her coronation dress and sash
when she ascended the throne as queen
at the age of 27 in 1953 ~ is
perfectly in line with my love
of all things royal!
I tried to turn the box’s top around for you to hide the seam line of the box
to the back as it’s a bit unsightly but it wouldn’t budge ~
so there we have it.
😉
These candy boxes don’t come along that often
so if you find one be sure to
purchase it while you can.
They are wonderful for repurposing to hold
anything small ~ beads, jewelry, sewing supplies
{like I’ve used the one here}
or even to hold potpourri while leaving the lid open.
At $8.00 the Queen Elizabeth candy box
was a good buy.
Now I have a mini collection of two of these
vintage candy boxes!
I thought I wrote a little about finding the first
English candy box in an earlier post but I guess
I didn’t as I cannot find it.*
*I did finally find it ~ over on an Instagram post. 🙂
More things royal: I’ve mentioned meeting Sarah, the Duchess of York, before. If you’d like to read about my meeting her and about this lovely Sarah’s Garden china set, please click HERE.
The square box on the left, above, I bought in England
while visiting my brother and his family
back during the spring of 2005.
I use it to hold small sewing supplies ~ it contains
a few loose buttons for those times
when one loses a pants or shirt button
a blue cloth measuring tape
some safety pins and extra
sewing machine needles.
This is how I have always used metal candy boxes
ever since I was a young girl.
My mother had a large black chocolate tin
when I was young that my father had given her
for Valentine’s Day back in the mid-1960’s.
At some point I asked if I could have it for my
growing collection of sewing supplies.
My craft room at our last house as we had the house on the market. The little square candy box can be seen on the sewing table. I hoped the black tin might be in this photograph but it wasn’t out. Usually that large round tin sat on the back shelving just to the right of this photograph where I could grab it easily when something inside was needed.
Sorry! Blurry photo of the craft room closet with loads of supplies.
Happily, my mother said yes! and that nice round candy box
with sprays of roses and other flowers painted on its lid
has held ribbons, seam rippers,
zippers, buttons, and an old 1960’s-era
button card of snaps for baby clothes in it ever since.
My mother used those little snaps when making me and
my brother Frank cute corduroy overalls
back when we were toddlers.
Charles, Earl Spencer, came to Design Bloggers Conference 2017 and spoke about his family home, Althorp House, and a new furnishings line by Theodore Alexander based upon many pieces of family furniture.
These two gilded boxes ~ one which held
sweet confectioneries and the other which
held tiny chocolates ~ will be moving about
our home in little vignettes as the
lovely 60-plus year old stars
that they are!
Sharing with
Create Link Inspire ~ The Crafty Blog Stalker
Talk of the Town ~ Love My Simple Home
Wow Us Wednesday ~ Savvy Southern Style
Totally Terrific Tuesday ~ The Savvy Apron We were featured at Thursday Favorite Things ~ Follow the Yellow Brick Home
laying tile in the house or laying the side yard broken
cement piece pathway.
Etherealness often includes the mundane, the usual
perhaps boring things of life ~ like a long level
to keep things straight and orderly.
Taken on a foggy morning with the pool in need of extra scrubbing. This mallard pair came every late August or September to eat birdseed and fatten up for the winter. Every spring we worked hard to prep the pool for our own pool use! 😉
Leveling out our lives… Kind of why we
go outdoors in the first place to
bring balance to our hectic lives
with spots to relax
and watch nature unfold
around us.
For this new dream garden
I’d bring in bring in more water features
as the sound of running water is an integral part
of the magic which soothes overtired nerves
and helps promote rest.
An addition of a chaise longue
also out of doors but then brought indoors
during inclement weather and
in the winter months
would be another wonderful
addition to this dream space!
More rose bushes planted along with
evergreens of juniper, boxwood and azaleas
and lilac
then fruit trees and pines
oaks and crepe myrtle
would begin the planting madness.
All of these dreamy pieces of furniture
were found on Wayfair as I went over to
their website just browsing
but then became inspired to pin
every piece which
I would love to have in my
own little garden.
{this is not a sponsored post though that would be fun!}
Time to take a break and relax outside a little ~ have friends stop by for a cookout… One of our favorite things… Outdoor living for my husband and I have always included a garden and today we will go on a little tour of those we have had here at our Prairie Home in Texas…
A view out to the incoming road from Site #72
If you are newto French Ethereal, welcome!
My husband and I moved here last fall with
a job transfer from California to Texas. We currently live in Sanger, a small farm town of about 2500 people, about an hour north of Dallas.
We are really enjoying living the country life!
Summertime at the Big House ~ the hollyhocks were blooming in amongst the roses.
This is my former garden in our last home
in Southern California.
My gardens have evolved over the past 30 years
however they all began with roses and
this last big garden was my little version of Versaille. 😉
Summer outdoor living to me always
blends gardens and gardening.
For me, outdoor living goes hand in hand
with working in the garden.
At that last house, we built a pool so it was lovely
to go sit outside with a glass of iced tea
then putter about weeding and trimming roses.
When I’d get hot from working in the yard
it was nice to just hop in the pool
for a quick cool-off.
Here, it’s just a short walk over to the pool
behind the barn.
🙂
We just moved over to this new site
{which will hopefully allow us to have a small shed out back}
a couple of weeks ago and it has been
really hot and buggy
so arranging the garden area
is going to take a bit more planning.
The basil and hydrangea are already out front.
This area gets morning shade and full afternoon sun
so
the plants will probably all move
in front of the fifth-wheel for the next
couple of months.
How does one adapt a garden as one
moves around? Plant in pots of course!
{preferably lightish weight ones! LOL!}
🙂
We are enjoying this raised patio with seating for two. I might look for a lightweight table to add here for alfresco dining.
The previous tenant had built this little patio area
{one of the reasons we chose this site}
and he left it and the cinder blocks
so I rebuilt them as a little fence
and deck area.
Outdoor living might also mean hosting small
furry friends in the yard.
We feed birdseed to the local birds
but the local rabbits enjoy coming over
to nibble, too!
This fellow and two companions
were romping about last evening
as we came back from a sunset walk.
My favorite garden style is sort of a mixture
between a very formal French Garden
with parterres and clipped boxwood hedges and plants
and the blousy overblown
English Garden style.
One of my favorite things to do outdoors
is have friends over for a tea party.
For fifteen-plus years, I belonged to a group
in Riverside County, California called
The Victorian Tea Society
and every month each one of us ladies
took a turn hosting a tea.
We often had our whole tea out of doors
under a patio cover or under a large
outdoor umbrella.
I thinkwe will be looking for an
umbrella soon!
😉
Our current outdoor patio area ~ a work in progress
I hope you have enjoyed our outdoor living tour.
Please stop by and visit the other bloggers on the
is celebrating a 3rd birthday today ~ July 11th!!!
The beginnings of a sofa slipcover made out of giant painter’s dropcloths.
Three years agotoday my son Peter sat down with me
and helped me begin a blog ~ just a little place where
I could share some sewing tips, share tea parties
and my garden.
I had no idea how to write a blog though
I loved reading several others online
that I’d stumbled upon
quite by accident, really.
Some blogs I’d found because they were
mentioned in decorating magazines, like
French Country Cottage and ShabbyFufu.
Two favorites, Schwannennest and
My Shabby Streamside Studio are
no longer written.
A beautiful tablecloth found over in England but probably Irish-made.
Schwannennest {“Swan’s Nest” in German} was a lovely
blog with an all-white Nordic look
set in Bavaria, I believe.
I would stay up late at night reading on my iPad
and dream of an all-white home and
how ethereal it was!
The author had hung four large doors with
windows as a big screen separating her
living room from her dining/kitchen area
and I always found that really unique.
Our mantel at the Big House decorated for summer… still a favorite way to decorate!
My Shabby Streamside Studio was a blog
also mostly done in whites with pops of
pink on dishes and fabrics.
It became a huge sensation and was written up
in home magazines and even was
featured on television.
Sandy, whose lovely hunting-cabin-turned-cottage
had such an ethereal quality to it
that I just wanted to go up into her
reading loft and while away
an afternoon!
You can still find Sandy’s postings
online.
They are worth the time to go back and read.
Just lovely!
Really, these were where I got
my inspiration…
Another one of my Girls draped with the usual array of necklaces plus a photo of my children when they were small.
I realized then just how much I really liked
decorating in whites
and even though my home had lots of color
on our walls
we also had some walls and lots of furniture
painted or purchased which were
painted white.
My daughter’s bedroom had all-white furniture
in it which I totally loved.
For Amy, though, she grew to
love stained wood.
{Though funny enough, she has a white car now! The pendulum
swings back…}
😉
That first blog was hosted over on Weebly.
Soon after, I found out that a lot of bloggers
were on another site called Blogger.
So, for the rest of that first year,
I double-blogged.
I’d write in Weebly and copy/paste
over here to Blogger.
It was crazy!
😉
That first year I worked on writing whatever
popped into my head, but I did share
lots of tea-related posts since I had hosted
many a tea for about 15 years leading up to then.
I also wrote up lengthy, very detailed posts about
making those sofa slipcovers in the photo
up at this post’s beginning!
You can find those here:
Post #1
Post #2
Post #3
Post #4
😀
We had a lot of dry rot, so replacing posts and cross beams was a necessity. Afterall, we planned on living here a lot long, though that wasn’t meant to be. 🙁
The First Anniversary
came and went and I don’t remember
why I didn’t mention it
but I didn’t.
Oh! I know why ~ I was too busy building
and painting the patio cover out back!
My son and a friend Jim rebuilt the patio cover
then I decided I wanted to totally cover the patio
to provide more shade.
It turned out well, but then a month
after it was finished…
My husband lost his job.
There wasn’t much to celebrate after that,
let me tell you…
The accent wall in our living/dining room painted a lovely blue-green {color-matched from a pair of pants}.
But we muddled on through that first year
he wasn’t working.
And I kept blogging.
It was a good way to step away from
our troubles
and
focus on something ethereal and happy.
God was working through all this planning
what was to come, though I didn’t see it
at the time.
A fall tablesetting ~ one of my favorites!
Christmas was tough that year and I think
we gave the kids one or two small presents
and Peter stayed in South Dakota
at school.
He went home with his girlfriend, Justine, to her
family’s home over Christmas
since we couldn’t afford to bring him home.
That year I made mini Christmas trees to give to the
ladies I worked with at school
and to friends.
I sent a couple to Peter and Justine.
It killed me not to bring our son home for Christmas
and it was his first Christmas away from home.
We all soldiered on.
Our warm barn red front doors decorated with twin wreaths festooned with new ribbons! Before, the ribbons were a 1990’s pink rose pattern.
On Valentine’s Day, I drove down to a book signing at Vignettes in San Diego and met author Fifi O’Neill.
The Second Anniversary
saw us preparing to move out of our beloved house
and move into a 27′ travel trailer
with no slides, no extra room.
July came and went as we were busy showing
the house and trying to finish up packing
enough belongings from
28 years of marriage,
a four bedroom plus den
and
complete with three car garage.
We were beyond busy!
A Valentine’s mantel ~ another favorite!
Moving to our Tiny Home
was a new challenge but we loved it for
the new life it provided
and we got our own private lake
after the summer and fall campers left
on Sunday afternoons!
The roses bloomed beautifully that last spring on Spinning Wheel!
Yoda loved going for two-mile walks each weekend.
The bird calls were peaceful ~ something we really needed.
Lake Skinner was the best thing that could
have happened to us during that awful time
Charles was out of work for two years.
We had a home with new scenery.
The lake was serene and when the campers
were gone from Sunday through Thursdays
that fall into spring
it was the best place we could have been
to console us.
It reminded me of my parents’ last home.
Lots of tears were shed but God
wasn’t done.
He knew we needed a break-away
from Murrieta
but a slow breaking away…
Our Coleman travel trailer over at Campground C, site 372 with a view of the moon rising over the mountains every night…
My birthday going into January 2016 and the new year.
I didn’t write for several months; I just couldn’t.
My heart was broken.
But, I realized pretty quickly that I had
a new opportunity to pull up my bootstraps
and get on with life
and that I still loved decorating
and sewing
and making crafts.
So, I did.
Second Impressions Antique Mall
Visiting Magnolia Market at the Silos
A Bridal Shower Tea
Then last summer, there was a wedding…
Peter and Justine with our daughter Amy on the far left in lavender.
And we were doing alright!
🙂
Hubby was still coaching and the school district
gave him an emergency credential to teach.
He made as much as I did, which was HUGE.
And, we had a lot less stress without the house
payment and all the utility bills.
And it was good.
Another photo from Magnolia Market at the Silos.
Fall came around again and it looked like
we were going to be spending a second year
at The Lake.
We were looking forward to it
actually.
But God had other plans.
A whirlwind of internet phone interviews
and Hubby now had work in his usual line
of employment ~ and we were moving!
Out of state!
To Texas!
Longhorns, prairies, horses, wildflowers
and here we are.
🙂
Celebrating the end of Year Three…
My life has kinda followed those scenes in
the movie Forrest Gump ~ where the feather
kinda floats through life.
Do you know it?
Exactly! My life has been a lot like that.
Who knows what this fourth year will bring
but I know where I will be.
Right here,bringing you my best photographs,
and gardens, and some tea parties
and places to visit.
Blessings to you, always,
Sharing with
Welcome Home Wednesdays ~ Five Kids a Dog and a Blog
