Valentine’s Day table settings for me by far are the prettiest to create. Soft and romantic, these tablescapes set with the airiest of bone china pieces is always the way to go for pure beauty. Today I’ve brought out all of my beautifully decorated French Haviland & Co Limoges pieces to share with you…

Statuary

For this table setting, I brought in my little resting angel to add to our decor. After a good bath and a little touch up paint he rests comfortably in the table’s middle. Along with a small bouquet of grocery store florals, the two create a nice low off-set centerpiece along the table.

I actually got the idea from an older post I did back at our Big House in California…

This was one of the first teas I photographed when my blog was still very new ~ a Peacock and Roses Tea. The script writing I loved to use now causes problems when reading the post so the text is wonky but the photos are still good. 😉

I had saved up these little notepads from Joann’s or Michael’s for a year until it was my time to host a tea, then I brought in our angel and strew peacock tail feathers along the table with him. I think these are Mary roses, an English rose I had growing out in the garden there.

Close close all night

By Elizabeth Bishop

Close close all night the lovers keep.

They turn together in their sleep,

Close as two papers in a book

that read each other in the dark.

Each knows all the other knows,

learnt by heart from head to toes.

Recently I found these creamware mugs (not sponsored) while looking for after-Christmas sales at At Home, a home goods retailer close by in Lewisville, Texas (just east of Denton). They are a nice addition to the other creamware pieces I’ve collected over the years from HomeGoods, Marshall’s and other shops.

How I set this table

I began setting this table with a snowflake patterned tablecloth I have had for years. I love its lacy texture and the way it drapes off the table ends is very pretty and ethereal. Over the years it has shrunk with washing and accidental drying (from when I first began having teas with friends) so now it is more of a runner.

This worked perfectly as I was able to use the fall placemats I shared in this fall tablescape just upside-down, which adds even more texture and pattern to our table setting!

Bring in the pink

My go-to color is always pink! I had fun with last month’s Blue and White in the Cupboard but pink and white is my absolute favorite combination for any tablescape. This time I’ve pulled out four now-vintage Shabby Chic napkins I’ve had since the early 2000’s when Target used to carry a lot of Rachel Ashwell Simply Shabby Chic table linens.

Paired with the new white-handled silverware I picked up at Judith Stringham’s Christmas sales event in December plus a sweet silk rose napkin ring, the Haviland china looks delicate and sweet. Bone china is pretty tough, actually. It’s stoneware that bangs and chips more readily, surprisingly!

If you are looking for really beautiful vintage/almost antique Haviland & Co Limoge ware, here is a link for you from Etsy.

Valentine’s decor

Since we are still officially in winter ~ even if the plants outside say spring is coming soon! ~ I kept the pine and pinecone garland up on the chandelier and added a few more crystal and mercury glass ornaments to it for fun. Here is the other heart wreath I didn’t use in this month’s Pinterest Challenge wreath makeover.

Happy Valentine's Day 2017 Poems, Valentine's Day Quotes, happy Valentine's Day poems, Valentine's Day 2017 quotes, Valentine's Day poems 2017, Valentine's Day quotes 2017, funny Valentine's Day poems, romantic Valentine's Day poems, funny Valentine's Day quotes, romantic Valentine's Day quotes — source

Love this time of year!!!

Happy almost Valentine’s, dear friends!

Barb 🙂

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Gramma Kate’s Vintage Tricycle…

June 15, 2020 French Ethereal

Going home is always a little bittersweet, isn’t it… We love to revisit memories of family times together and places we have lived. We enjoy seeing how places have stayed the same and how they have been updated, how neighborhoods have changed. Coming home this time involved a lot of remembrances of times with my father-in-love, a whole bunch of cleaning and organizing, as well as trashing out things which needed to go.

One of my favorite things from this trip, after spending my first morning there sweeping cobwebs off the house and its eves ~ here in the Sacramento area ~ was playing with Great-Gramma Kate’s vintage tricycle…

Overblown lighting but still fun!
Will have to pull into Lightroom and edit… 😉

Mr. Ethereal was busy cutting back several oleander bushes hanging over from the neighbors’ yard. Vintage wood ready for projects, cut out pattern pieces for a rocking horse and two donkey carts, antique woodworking tools and steamer trunks were part of the detritus dragged out from the large backyard shed. Many of the tools in that shed ~ the wood staves for shaving logs and different size hand-drills and planers ~ were over 100 years old and belonged originally to Raymond Fudge, Pete’s father-in-law.

The oleander cuttings had been dragged out onto the lawn to prep for the garden recycle bins and that’s where I found them…

And this amazing vintage tricycle was among those treasures

found near that big metal shed!

Thinking of other friends who have photographed bicycles

popped into my mind and the fun began!

I love the sweetness of this old tricycle and I remember Kate and how kind she was. She was a track runner in her high school days and the girls on her track team competed against other local school girls during a short season of track and field during the 1920’s. There were no state meets during those days.

Kate was a long-jumper and triple-jumper and I think she also played basketball. She had long legs and was tall at 5’10”. I am sorry I can’t download a photograph of Kate but my computer is being finicky.

Gramma Gini’s roses bloom in the background and the old cherry tree stands to the left.

I can imagine Kate tooling around town with this tricycle along Rancho Cordova’s city sidewalks heading to the library or the grocery store or out to rides with friends along the American River back in the 1980’s. Kate could get there by the old tressle bridge which spans the river in Fair Oaks, which she lived right near.

A favorite!

I think she would have enjoyed seeing her bicycle basket

filled with bright pink and white flowers!!!

A bit of silliness made all the cleaning worthwhile…

All edited… Hope this post was fun for you, too! 💝

Thanks for visiting today,

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Places to Shop ~ A Visit to Emporium 1905

March 9, 2020 French Ethereal

Emporium 1905 is located down in the heart of Corsicana, Texas, in the revamped old-town district. It is a treasure trove of fun goods to wear and home decor goodies to add to your home. I will be heading down to Corsicana this weekend for an IOOF event and will definitely be stopping by! Let’s see what I found for you this past fall…

Emporium 1905 is fun vintage dress and housewares shop owned by two sisters who have went in business together after both retired from their previous lives. Finding themselves a little bored with retirement, they decided to open their shop five years ago to meet new people and do something fun. The name itself comes from the age of the building when it first opened.

🙂

Emporium 1905

323 N. Beaton Street

Corsicana, Texas 75110

903-602-5255

Located next to another favorite shop I found last time I was down in Corsicana ~ Victorian Sample Florist (and jeweler) ~ and also talked about in this other post ~ Tom’s Secret Garden. Emporium 1905 holds all kinds of vintage dresses, hats and shoes for anyone looking to dress up for a special occasion!

Of course there is a good selection of Texas goodies in amongst the mid-century canning jars, books, embroidered tea towels, bakeware and such. I love stores like this, don’t you? They are fascinating to browse and you just never know what will strike your fancy and have to “come home!”

Look at the chickens!!! I still love chickens ever since my grandmother
Helen had so many lined up above her kitchen counters…

The two sisters also have a surprise Christmas room!

Christmas anytime of year? Yes, please!

I know many of us love vintage Christmas decor so this is a must-stop shop for you if you are ever down this way. I found those little cotton elves like my mother used to collect plus vintage Golden Books with Christmas themes for children (and adults!).

Just look at this sweet Santa! “Take me home!” I clearly heard him say…

On this day I found a 1950’s style hat for my friend Laura and a pressed metal scrolled vanity mirror to use in our bathroom.

If you are ever in the area, do stop by! These two ladies are a hoot and know much about the history of the area. They will also gladly tell you about the goods they pass onto you.

💝

Sharing with

Hearth and Soul ~ April J. Harris

Share Your Style (here!)

Spread the Kindness ~ Shelbee on the Edge

Thursday Favorite Things ~ Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Friday at the Fire House ~ A Fireman’s Wife

Happy spring to you, my friend!

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Share Your Style #217

July 24, 2019 French Ethereal

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #217! I am your host Barbara of French Ethereal and I am happy that you are here!

•Barbara: FrenchEthereal / Facebook / Twitter /Pinterest / Instagram

Here’s what I share this week at French Ethereal…

An English Breakfast Tea in the Garden

This month’s Pinterest Challenge is a fun mantelscape recreation. Hope you’ll stop by!

And here are this week’s wonderful features…

Romantic French country pink peonies in a post and beam house

Last week I shared a number of wonderful gardens with you and somehow I totally missed Judith’s French Country garden home over at Botanic Bleu and her wonderful romantic peonies… I just had to go back and capture them for you. Definitely a special post to go back and sigh over…

🙂

Rita, who writes the fun blog Panopoly, shared some of her own

home decor pieces available for sale that she is letting go through the storefront she shares with her sisters. If you are looking for something that you’ve wanted for a long time but haven’t found… Check out her post as it just might be there!

🙂

Over at Fabby’s Living she shares a wonderful summer tablescape with her adorable fish plates and blue stoneware pieces underneath. I think we all enjoy setting our tables beautifully even when it’s just family for dinner. Show Fabby some love and stop by and leave her a comment or two, won’t you?

Debbie at Debbie-Dabble is back with a summertime patriotic lighthouse and she shares this delightful DIY ~ love its New England look!

melt and pour rainbow soap tutorial

Kelli at 3 Boys and a Dog brings us her recipe for making these fun rainbow soaps ~ super fun for kids in the tub!

Thank you to everyone who posts about Share Your Style on your blog ~ I do see it when I stop over and appreciate your support!

If you’ve been featured here at Share Your Style…
Here is a button to share and copy to your site and your featured posts, thank you!

I’d love it if you’d follow my Share Your Style board

on Pinterest, thank you!

Thank you to everyone who shared this last time!

I appreciate your stopping by and linking up.

🙂

Enjoy your week and let’s party!

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Royal Week ~ Limoges Porcelain Fit for Royalty

May 15, 2018December 9, 2020 French Ethereal

Royal Wedding week for HRH Prince Harry and his fiancée Ms. Meghan Markle and it wouldn’t be complete without a small discussion and a little history about “taking tea.” Warming us when it’s chilly outside and cooling us down when poured over ice cubes in the summer ~ tea is the perfect drink no matter what side of the Pond one lives on! 😉

courtesy of Yahoo.com images, saved to Period Dress on Pinterest

Excitement and guessing about what the bride’s dress will look like are all part of what is being shared this week surrounding the upcoming Saturday nuptials at St. George’s Cathedral, Windsor Castle, England of
HRH Prince Harry of England and Ms. Meghan Markle ~ a fairy tale being played out much like one 62 years ago where another American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco in April of 1956.

Tea and Brits

Tea and the British go together like… well…

tea and biscuits…

This week I shared a post about porcelain fit for a king so today I thought I’d share a little about how tea time as we know it came to be.

Tea as a drink has its origins in China in the year 2737 BC when Emperor Shennong was away from home with his army. His servant was preparing hot water for him to drink and a leaf from the camellia sinensis bush blew into his cup. The leaf went undetected and Emperor Shennong drank from the cup and found the brewed tea to his liking.

By English wikipedia, Public Domain, Link

In the 1500’s, Portuguese priests and merchants were offered tea to drink in China and they enjoyed it and brought tea leaves back to their part of the Western world. Tea became a popular drink in the United Kingdom
during the next century.

The East India Tea Company brought tea production to India during this time in order to compete with China. Consumption of tea was mostly for the upper classes initially as tea was expensive but with England being able to produce its own tea, the drink was eventually cost-effective and made available to everyone.

Anna Maria, Marchioness of Tavistock.jpg

Anna, Duchess of Bedford By Unknown – http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2716693070094285158FiYlXt, Public Domain, Link

Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, started the tradition of afternoon tea back in 1840 by inviting in a few friends to share a light meal to stave off hunger between the noon meal and dinner

which then was served at 8:00p.m.

The idea took off as apparently everyone was hungry and

high tea became very fashionable.

What’s the difference between the different tea repasts

you ask?

According to a nice post by Tea Time magazine afternoon tea {also called a low tea} is a light afternoon snack where little finger or tea sandwiches, scones and cake is served. High tea is a little more substantial with savories and meats included with the tea and is more like what we would call supper. High tea is served at 5:00p.m.

Not really a tea but too beautiful not to share. 🙂

Here is a table set for a light dinner at the Biltmore Estate

that I shared in my Biltmore at Christmas post last December.

A cream tea is a tea that serves scones with clotted cream and a small pot of jam.

In the Victorian Tea Society when we had teas at each other’s

homes we really had an afternoon tea.

Once in a while if a friend just happened to stop by

then I might have a cream tea as a mid-morning snack

but actually a cream tea is a type of afternoon tea

in the United Kingdom.

Tea Accoutrements

Tea tins

Earlier this year I found this tea tin at HomeGoods and since it works with our British tea theme today plus it’s my favorite color… Just had to share here with you today! On the back of this sweet pink tin of black tea by the Keep Calm and Carry On Beverage company, Ltd. there is a summary of how the famous saying on WWII British posters came to be:

“On the eve of WWII the British Government printed 2.5 million Keep Calm and Carry On posters. The aim of the simple five word statement was to convey tot he country a message of reassurance for the troubled times that lay ahead.

“The posters went unused and subsequently destroyed at the end of the war. Some 55 years later a second hand book dealer in the North of England discovered a copy of the poster in a box of books bought for auction. That find marked the rebirth and launch of the Keep Calm and Carry On message into the 20th Century.”

Tea tins have been in production for over a century now but tea was first stored in small locked tea chests or boxes within the home {think the Boston Tea Party of Dec. 16, 1773}.

Tea bags

There are first cutting and second cuttings of tea with the first cut referred to as the best tea for that harvest from the camellia sinensis bushes at a tea plantation. Brewing a cup or pot of loose leaf tea is still the best tasting way to enjoy tea.

There are differing types of tea ~ white, black, oolong, rooibos, green tea and more.

There are also tisanes which are herbal blends and not really teas but most people call them tea anyway.

The invention of the tea bag is considered as 1908 with little hand-sewn bags of fabric, usually silk. Patents were applied for as early as 1903 with production beginning in 1904 and successful marketing of tea bags by 1908, hence the date.

Tea spoons

Spoons specifically for tea were originally called mote spoons and were created by Colonial pewter and silversmiths here in America.

These spoons were long-handled with slots in the spoon face itself for removing tea leaves from one’s cup and from the crevices of the tea pot’s spout.

Pretty interesting stuff, huh?

🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little history of tea today and

please check some of my other posts featuring tea

by just searching “tea,” “teatime” and “table settings” in

the search bar along the top, I believe it is.

🙂

Set your recorder to record the royal wedding which will begin at 4am EST this coming Saturday morning on all the major news channels starting at various times.

Check there programming for the correct time for that station ~ especially if you aren’t planning to get up to watch it live

Today’s post then is sharing some beautiful china

fit for royalty!

This sweet Art Deco creamer with it’s zeppelin ridged style is lovely used as a flower vase.

Lovely Limoges

Porcelain tableware from the late 1800’s through the 1940’s from European countries such as Austria, Germany,

Selisia {modern day Poland} and especially France capture the heart

like no other ceramicware.

Beautiful, lightweight and durable with hand-painted gold details and decorated with roses and sweet garden flowers ~

Limoges and the ceramics from this time period are just as fashionable today as when these pieces

were first made.

Variety of uses

In today’s modern setting ~ vintage and antique Limoge can be used for their original purpose as placesettings for dining or just decoratively as I tend to use many of these pieces here.

Antique china tends to have small chips often along its edges called flea bites and small crazing all over if not down and out cracks and repaired breaks which someone lovingly repaired long ago.
Other than drops, much of this is probably due to the stresses of weather and time as well as from being boxed away and stored when not in use or in fashion.
🙂

Here I’ve repurposed this antique Irish soup tureen to display a candle ~ lovely!

Tip

Even if a piece doesn’t have any cracks or crazing ~ hot foods can cause any lead to leak out becoming poisonous so only use antique and vintage tableware with cold foods or place a clear plate between any food and your beautiful piece.

This O and EG Royal Austria plate was manufactured somewhere between 1898 – 1918. I hadn’t realized it was that old!

Too beautiful to just throw away past owners kept these
ethereal pieces until it was decided to let someone else

enjoy their beauty…

This cake plate (above photograph, lower left) is really a Victorian or Edwardian era soup dish with flatter sides as was popular for dinner parties at the turn of the last century. This porcelain soup bowl was made by a pottery manufacturing company called O and E. G. ~ then owned by brothers Oscar and Edgar Gutherz.

This little antique creamer with its zeppelin shape charmingly holds some posies.

According to a site called The Porcelain Zone Oscar Gutherz began the firm with Maximilan Marx decorating porcelain. Gutherz’ brother Edgar joined the firm after Edgar bought out Marx’s interest in the company. The company was commonly called Royal Austria Factory, according to the Porcelain Zone. From there, the brothers went on the produce porcelain themselves.

Here are the years of production to help date a piece of their tableware if you have or find some:

1876 – 1898: Marx and Gutherz

1898 – 1918: Oscar and Edgar Gutherz

1918 – 1920: OEPIAG – Österreichische Porzellan-Industrie AG

1920 – 1945: EPIAG – Erste Porzellan-Industrie AG / Karlsbad

1945 – 1958: EPIAG / Starorolsky Porcelán

This gilded Haviland deviled egg serving dish

has held berries on the table and does

double duty as a decorative soap holder

in our bathroom.

A collection of O and E G plates mixed with Haviland Limoges and other European tableware.

Practical uses

A practical way to use many of these pieces is by mixing them in with today’s modern tableware. My favorite thing to do is use reproduction cups and saucers that I know can be safely used for tea or coffee and the plates themselves can be used for cold foods like finger sandwiches, cold fruit and desserts.

If there is any doubt about using a dinner plate or salad plate for dining then a way to use them safely is by adding a clear glass or plastic plate over top to eat off of instead while enjoying the beautiful plate below.

My friend Gloria would do this whenever she used her antique carnival glass for our tea luncheons ~ although it may have been safe to use “as is” since it’s glass. The extra glass plate on top doesn’t detract from the look of the table either as it is almost invisible to the eye.

Another tip

The acid in citrus fruits can also pull lead out of pieces of porcelain.

Place a paper doily under your fruit salad when serving

oranges and mixed fruit salads.

Little bits of love in a stamp…

The history of Limoges

Often we call all of these pretty porcelain pieces Limoges

but that would be a misnomer. Limoges is a city in France where the base clay called kaoline used in this very

white porcelain was found.

David Haviland already had a thriving china shop in New York when in 1840 he went to France to find a manufacturer out of the

many in the area who would create pieces of porcelain that he could then sell to the American public.

Haviland eventually moved to the city of Limoges so he could oversee production of his tableware.

The city’s name became synonymous with Haviland’s china

production and hence the name Limoges stuck.

These pieces were always hand-gilded and sometimes sold as blanks to be hand-painted by women in cottage industries.
This was particularly popular at the beginning of the 20th century with American women.

Manufacturer’s used a newly invented process of transferring a
lithograph onto a piece when decorating a plate or china piece in
house ~ a process of placing a pre-inked tissue stamped by copper
plates which was then “transferred” by hand by a worker
onto each china blank.
The pieces were then fired at a low temperature to fuse the
beautiful prints into the clay.

An interesting book published by the Haviland Collectors International Foundation (HCIF) called

Celebrating 150 Years of Haviland China: 1842-1992

catalogues the history of the Haviland family and
an amazing amount of tableware pieces.

A couple of years ago I shared my story of meeting Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and I thought I had shared about Royal Winton potteries as I have a book in storage about their manufacturing facilities and their process but perhaps not.

This book shares many photographs of the artists and young women at work applying transfers to pieces of china and hand painting ~ really interesting if you like
studying this sort of thing!

Sets of china

Monogrammed china available as souvenirs is always created for royal newlyweds and though the new Duke and Duchess won’t have their official new titles bestowed upon them until

after the wedding ceremony you can bet their actual family china will be spectacular.

For other wonderful royalty posts check out my friend
Laura Ingalls Gunn’s wedding week posts on her blog
Decor to Adore.
She shares many posts on tiaras and all things royal.
🙂

A favorite photograph from this year’s Valentine’s post.

Sharing with

Dishing It and Digging It

Wow

Thursday Favorite Things

Feathered Nest Friday

Sweet Inspiration

Inspire Me Monday

Friday Features

Hearth and Soul

Create Bake Grow and Gather

Tablescape Thursday

Best of the Weekend ~ Pender and Peony

Tuesday Cup of Tea ~ Antiques and Teacups

Tea in the Garden ~ Bernadine’s

If you’ve enjoyed this post here are several others

on all things royal:

Tea with the Duchess

Add Sweet Vintage Candy Boxes to your Decor

Royal Week: Keep Calm and Drink Tea!

Three cheers for love,

Barb

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Places to Shop ~ Posies and Picket Fences

February 22, 2018June 21, 2019 French Ethereal

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Posies and Picket Fences

While out west visiting my friend Kathy who lives

just north of Santa Barbara and Ventura in the rural

coastal city of Nipomo,

she took me to two really neat shops…

The first shop we visited once I had arrived after driving

several hours {from Ranch Cucamonga/Ontario where my hotel was} to

meet up with Kathy for lunch was to

Picket Fences

1588 Mission Drive

Solvang, CA 93463

805-688-6559

in the Danish-inspired city of Solvang, a city

founded by a “group of Danes who traveled west to

establish a Danish colony far from the

cold midwestern winters.”*

Just off the main road coming into town, Picket Fences has

lots of unique mercury glass candlesticks, candleholders and

urns which are so lovely to use for decorating.

{This is where you might want to stop

a sec and grab a cup of coffee or tea

and a bite to eat…

This post is a lengthy one today!}

Look at all this lovely poor man’s silver ~ mercury glass is really pretty en masse!

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After drooling over all these lovely silvery

stoppered decanters and perfume bottles and browsing

the candles and candlesticks and linen-covered lamps

that were on this table and on the buffet to the left

I fell in love with all the

heart-inspired pieces there in the shop and brought home

three small heart-shaped ring holders ~ one for myself and

two to send to my

d.i.love and daughter for Valentine’s.

I posted mine on Instagram if you’d like to see it!

Sadly, I didn’t take any photos of the other two.

🙁

I really like stores which carry “smalls” as they

are easy to pack when you are traveling plus often

these items are a little easier on the wallet.

Each of these hearts above are only $4.95 a piece ~

perfect for saving for gift giving!

Of course being that we were in Solvang sweet

Danish mementos were in every shop and window!

These are such lovely reminders with their blue and white

ladies in traditional Dutch costumes and clogs

windmills and farm scenes gracing pieces of china

tile or on lace for your kitchen windows.

This was a special time for me personally too as I had

spent a weekend with my German host family in

Alkmaar, Holland

back during the summer of 1981 when I was 19 years old.

{Ja, ich kann die Deutsch sprechen und die

Niederländisch ein bisschen lessen!}

Aren’t these brassy hearts really neat?

They open up so that you can add little notes or sweets

or anything you’d like to place inside.

Perhaps a place to store love notes from your

sweetheart or hubby?

Wouldn’t these be a perfect addition also to a

bridal shower table?

Hearts in many forms are pretty much perfect for

Valentine’s or any holiday celebrations really.

🙂

Then there is the large iron heart just in front of them

which just calling out to go home to my yard…

sigh!

Okay, moving onward.

😉

A bit dark I thought I’d share a few photographs

of the whole shop for you.

I had forgotten about the black and white pillows

plus the lanterns on top of the right hand cupboard.

Black and white never goes out of style and I am finding

that though I’m not usually big on black in my decor

I am being drawn to it this year.

As you can see the black really stands out with all

the other neutral whites and rusty iron decor ~

I’m loving the look and maybe

you do too!

Still can’t wait until we have a house again and I can

either make some fun farmhouse signs like the one spelling

out “farmhouse” up on the high shelf.

I’d like to hang a few signs around our walls.

Soooo cute and on trend!

And I’m not usually a trend person as I like what I like

but word signs are pretty cool!

And then there is a favorite beaded chandelier which

just whispered to me like a few favorite toys did long ago,

“Take me home.”

😉

One last look at this sweet shop which was also just

up the street from a bakery which Kathy wanted us to visit

but which was closed ~ it was getting new flooring.

Next time!

Love the Dutch doors!

Did you ever wonder how they

got their name?

Apparently they were invented to keep critters from

wandering into Dutch homes and kitchens since screen doors

weren’t yet invented and though they were created in Holland

they were really a bit hit here in America.

Here’s a neat article on Dutch doors for you to check out.

Solvang is a great little town that after you’ve parked

you can pretty much walk everywhere to dine and shop.

Here Kathy is leading us on a quick tour around to see

a few other shops.

Oh, and there are a number bed’n’breakfast

places and hotels in Solvang to stay at, too.

From here we drove back to Kathy’s lovely home but

before we go here are a few last photos of Solvang and one

on the way driving through an ethereal allée of trees!!!

***

Our headline photograph from above, again ~ here you can see the lovely ethereal blouses
and some of their beautiful white on white antiques and vintage goods displayed

The next day afters spending the late afternoon having

tea and cherry scones for a snack instead of dinner

{We were still full from lunch, really.} and then talking until

late in the evening about decorating and all the

things Kathy and her husband Ken have been updating

in their new home.

Oh, and touring her garden ~ which I’ll be sharing both

with you in more detail soon.

We drove up to Arroyo Grande, California

and waited patiently for this shop…

Posies in the Village

106 West Branch Street

Arroyo Grande, California 93420

805-481-0404

http://www.posiesinthevillage.com

…to open it’s doors and let us in!

Okay, we weren’t too patient but we did manage to visit

a few antiques shops which had opened their doors at 9:00am

plus we visited with the local chickens!

Chickens are something Arroyo Grande is famous for

and they have always roamed free.

They even wander into shops sometimes

as one shop owner told us

to escape the cold or hot weather.

Cute!

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Posies is on the opposite side of the street from

where the chickens are so they don’t often get in here.

But if they did…

They’d find three beautiful shops in one…

Eclectic and fun there’s a mixture of gift items and

antiques up in the front of the store and upstairs.

Then here in the middle is a display of vintage record albums

which I promptly snapped a photo and sent to my son

who thought the place was cool.

For me it was chandelier heaven! Each was unique and

other than this next really large one ($995 on sale) and

another really beautiful French chandelier

most were in the range of $120 – $350 or so.

Colorful candles, mugs, pretty jewelry, curated clothing
and unique chandeliers all for sale along with spoon rings ~
Posies has something for everyone who
comes through their doors for a visit.

🙂

Sharing with

Wow Us Wednesday

Feathered Nest Friday

Thursday Favorite Things

Sweet Inspiration

Create Bake Grow and Gather

Hearth and Soul

Farmhouse Friday

Until next time, à bientôt,

Uncategorized

Add Sweet Vintage English Candy Boxes to Your Decor

August 29, 2017June 21, 2019 French Ethereal

While out shopping a few weeks ago I spied

this sweet candy box nestled at an antiques store

on a glass shelf almost hidden among

the other treasures with its

vintage likeness of

Queen Elizabeth II

of England on it…

It just had to come home with me.

🙂

I love old world style trinket boxes and this

candy box with its pitting and tiny rust spots

fits in with my decor perfectly!

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

Upcoming later this week…

I’ll be sharing a new tea party with you

continuing the British royal theme all week!

Blessings to you,

Uncategorized

Places to Visit ~ Finders Keepers Antique & Coffee Shoppe

September 14, 2016June 21, 2019 French Ethereal

Here is the post about

Finders Keepers

Antiques and Coffee Shoppe…

{though a few days late with our internet~challenged capabilities!}

😉

As I mentioned in my last post

Coming into this antique mall

right off the main highway

in Percival, Iowa

was such a treat to find!

After traveling for hours by car

bumping over mile after mile of roadway

though enjoying

snapping photos of rolling hillsides,

farms along the way

and silos to my heart’s content,

I still was in need of a break from

sitting or driving…

~ Finders Keepers ~

Antique Mall and Coffee Shoppe

2085 Crossroads Drive, I-29 & Hwy #2, Exit #10

Percival, Iowa 51648

fkantiques@yahoo.com

FindersKeepersMall.com

Right off Interstate 29,

Finders Keepers

was a wonderful find and upon entering

the shoppe,

I was greeted by the owners

who were very welcoming.

They asked if there was anything

they could help me find.

There wasn’t really anything

so…

I planned my quick adventure and hooked a left

deciding to scout the perimeter

then come back and zigzag up the middle

finishing out on the right side ending

near the front register

and the display cases there.

One of the first things I found was this incredible

ironstone watering pitcher that I truly, truly wanted

but just couldn’t afford…

It was calling to me desperately saying,

“Take me home!”

I am hopeful that when I am able to afford one,

I’ll find one like it again.

This creamware pitcher was in wonderful condition ~

just a little crazing

and was so, so very pretty…

I still think of calling up Finders Keepers

and inquiring about it…

sigh…

Not much further on these sweet

milk glass~style lamps with ruffled shades

caught my attention.

This pair would look nice lighting up a

vanity or as bedside table lamps.

A Radio Flyer sled would be a fun gift for any child,
and the prairie girl in me loves the whatnot shelf for
displaying special china or brick~a~brac.

Finders Keepers’ purveyors had nice collections of

old Ball canning jars, little wooden children’s chairs, and

a childsize covered wagon ~ something I haven’t

seen before in any antique shop out here

in California.

One such seller displayed a nice collection of

hand~embroidered linens from the 1940’s or 50’s

which were in great shape.

I was tempted to buy a couple and bring them back

especially since a friend of mine

from my old tea group recently copied one which was framed

and hung on another tea~friend’s wall in her

former home.

I’m not usually a kitschy person

but those linens as well as my

little doggy and peppers

did speak to me

and

they certainly are kitschy and

vintage to boot!

😉

In this particular row any of the ladies of

Downton Abbey

would be proud to carry and wear any of these

lovely leather gloves.

Along the back

an area dedicated to vintage books

held many young adult tomes

beloved by readers past.

These charmers would certainly

fit today’s trend of

displaying books with their

spines facing inward and the page ends

facing outward.

Among the middle rows of Finders Keepers tall lighted display cases held shelf upon shelf of Homer Laughlin Fiesta Ware,

two shelves full of frill~edged Shelly teacups,

a fair amount of chintzware with their cheerful colorful

all~over patterns of flowers and these lovely

brown and white Haviland pieces.

Much to drool over!

A personal favorite ~ koala bears made in the 1970’s

from wallaby fur {eventually outlawed}.

At one time, my brothers and I had 32 of

these darling little {and large} koalas that we

used to play with for hours on end.

My brothers Frank, Gene, and Tom with our metal climber and the plumeria trees we used to climb.

There’s a picture I took when I was about 11 years old

which is out on my personal Facebook page

{not French Ethereal}

from around Father’s Day a year or two ago

where I shared a photograph of my three brothers

with the mass of koala bears

atop our backyard picnic table

circa 1972-1973.

And lastly the pink thistle

that I saw out of the window and

I just had to photograph

that started this whole run into

Finders Keepers

antique store!

Hubby had only pulled~in to fill our gas tank

and I had just woken up from an hour~long nap

as I had driven all morning.

It was now a little later in the afternoon.

If I hadn’t left the car

to snap a few photographs,

I wouldn’t have looked around and seen

this shop about 50 feet to the left

from the gas station…

So happy that I did!

Please visit Finders Keepers at their website listed above.

If you click on the brown highlighted words above,

you should be taken

to Finders Keepers website and to my post

about the little doggie and pepper shakers.

Hope they work! 🙂

Finders Keepers is also out on Facebook

which I forgot to mention previously.

***Also, as you’ll see here at the bottom of this posting ~

I’ve joined up with a wonderful group of mostly women

{however, there are a few great men out there, too!}

for a

#FiftyandFabulous Blog Hop Party!!!

Do check out these wonderful blogs ~ there are

lots of wonderful exciting things happening

out in BloggerLand

that may be of interest to you!

I will be sharing with ~

#FiftyandFabulous Blog Hop Party

Create Link Inspire ~ Naptime Creations

http://nap-timecreations.com/2016/09/easy-fall-diy.html

WOW Us Wednesdays ~ Savvy Southern Style

http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/2016/09/wow-us-wednesdays-291.html

Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/2016/09/feathered-nest-friday_15.html

Blessings to you as you go about

your day,

🙂

An InLinkz Link-up

https://static.inlinkz.com/cs2.js

Uncategorized

$10 Antique Store Challenge ~ Sweet S&P Shakers

September 10, 2016June 21, 2019 French Ethereal

This summer was such a whirlwind of activity!

With taking our daughter and all of her worldly possessions

to her new home and to a new job in Texas,

then turning our car~compass northward and

heading up to our

son and daughter~in~love’s wedding…

Anyway, I never got to share all of the places that we visited,

the quirky cool things that we saw

{TEXAS itself was HOT being that it was summertime but it is COOL

as it has some really neat BIG THINGS there!}

I have more fun places and ideas

to share with you

and

these cute salt and peppers

are a little part…

As we were almost but not quite

to my son’s new

home state of South Dakota

{after the long haul driving out of Oklahoma, through Kansas, into Nebraska,

and into Iowa ~ after the previous day’s driving up through the top of Texas}

when we made a pitstop at a little area just before

Sioux City, Iowa.

We still had an hour’s driving time before reaching Sioux City,

so it was a nice to stop for awhile.

I had a bit of free time to visit

this antique shop that I mentioned
I would get around to writing up in my last post
$10 Antique Store Challenge ~ Sweet Salt & Pepper Shakers

Finders Keepers

Antique Mall & Coffee Shoppe

2085 Crossroads Drive, I-29 & Hwy #2, Exit #10

Percival, Iowa 51648

fkantiques@yahoo.com

FindersKeepersMall.com

Finders Keepers is right off the highway

there in Percival, Iowa.

I’ll have an article written up

for you hopefully by tomorrow sharing all that I found

for you!

While looking around though seeing what

Finders Keepers had and snapping a few photos

that I could share with you…

I found these little

doggie salt and peppers

and thought they looked an awful lot like

our Yoda.

What do you think?? You be the judge!

🙂

Here’s Yoda happy and playful during a recent walkabout.

Here’s the photograph I was thinking these

little doggies looked somewhat

like, far right:

Well, there’s the one {ok, two!} things

I purchased that weren’t t-shirts

a gift for someone else

from our two~week trip this summer!

Happy Saturday!

Sharing with
Wordless Wednesday ~ Create with Joy

Tag: vintage

Sunday Sentiments ~ A French Valentine’s Tablescape Set with Love

Statuary

Close close all night

How I set this table

Bring in the pink

Valentine’s decor

Like this:

Gramma Kate’s Vintage Tricycle…

Like this:

Places to Shop ~ A Visit to Emporium 1905

Christmas anytime of year? Yes, please!

Like this:

Tip

Places to Shop ~ Posies and Picket Fences

Like this:

Places to Visit ~ Finders Keepers Antique & Coffee Shoppe

Like this:

$10 Antique Store Challenge ~ Sweet S&P Shakers

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Statuary

Close close all night

How I set this table

Bring in the pink

Valentine’s decor

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Christmas anytime of year? Yes, please!

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Here’s what I share this week at French Ethereal…

And here are this week’s wonderful features…

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Tea and Brits

In the 1500’s, Portuguese priests and merchants were offered tea to drink in China and they enjoyed it and brought tea leaves back to their part of the Western world. Tea became a popular drink in the United Kingdomduring the next century.

Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, started the tradition of afternoon tea back in 1840 by inviting in a few friends to share a light meal to stave off hunger between the noon meal and dinner

which then was served at 8:00p.m.

A cream tea is a tea that serves scones with clotted cream and a small pot of jam.

In the Victorian Tea Society when we had teas at each other’s

homes we really had an afternoon tea.

Once in a while if a friend just happened to stop by

then I might have a cream tea as a mid-morning snack

but actually a cream tea is a type of afternoon tea

in the United Kingdom.

Tea Accoutrements

Tea tins

Tea bags

There are first cutting and second cuttings of tea with the first cut referred to as the best tea for that harvest from the camellia sinensis bushes at a tea plantation. Brewing a cup or pot of loose leaf tea is still the best tasting way to enjoy tea.

There are differing types of tea ~ white, black, oolong, rooibos, green tea and more.

Tea spoons

Lovely Limoges

Tip

Too beautiful to just throw away past owners kept these ethereal pieces until it was decided to let someone else

enjoy their beauty…

Sets of china

Three cheers for love,

Barb

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In the 1500’s, Portuguese priests and merchants were offered tea to drink in China and they enjoyed it and brought tea leaves back to their part of the Western world. Tea became a popular drink in the United Kingdom
during the next century.

Too beautiful to just throw away past owners kept these
ethereal pieces until it was decided to let someone else