A French Country Spring

Spring has finally arrived and I am excited, not only because it’s my favorite season, but because I am am joining a group of my fellow Francophiles to bring you a little peek into our homes…French Country style! Much of the rest of my house is filled with Easter bunnies and colored eggs in anticipation of the furry fellow’s visit to my little grands. But…I have reserved the breakfast room just for my style!  And nothing says French Country to me more than lots of texture and rustic touches!

20+ Fun and Easy Ideas for Valentine's Day

Can you believe that it’s just a little over a month until Valentine’s Day? I  love to make my own decor and gifts, so it’s time for me to get busy crafting! Sooo…just in case you are like me in that department, I thought I would share some of my favorite ideas!

Creating a French Country Dining Room on a Budget

I have a little tour of my home to show you that I have been saving! I was excited when Kim at Savvy Southern Style asked me to share my favorite room a while back for her regular Friday feature and, if you know me, I'll bet you can guess which room it is. Yep...my French Country dining room! And...I managed to create my own little corner of France on a budget! I hope you enjoy this up-close-and-personal look at my favorite space!

But first, let me tell you a little bit about myself and how I found my style. As a French teacher, I have had the wonderful opportunity to live and travel in France over the years and to visit and be a guest in beautiful homes, like this farmhouse in Provence. How could I help but fall in love with French Country style! But eventually the birth of my first grandchild drew me back home to Georgia. And I knew what I wanted to do…create a little bit of France in my own home! So I began to look for pieces that reflected what I had seen in France.

My hutch was the very first piece that I found…and I still love it! It has the French Country look that I love and was a blank canvas for me to display my plates! Those are my favorite plates on the wall…

…vintage Quimper faïence found at the Sunday antique market in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France, depicting a couple in the traditional dress of Brittany. I love the way Quimper comes in pairs…and I find that I have to have them both! I can’t separate the little couple, after all!

On top of the hutch is my collection of double happiness jars…named for the Chinese symbol pictured on the face of the jars. They have all come from thrift stores and flea markets except for my original jar purchased 40 years ago.

Although the centerpiece on the table may change with the seasons, this is my favorite…a pumpkin-shaped tureen that I found for a song in slightly funky Grayton Beach, Florida! It was sitting on a shelf looking over my shoulder and calling my name while I was eating breakfast in a little café! I love blue and white…can you tell?

Always present somewhere in the dining room is my mom's vintage Red Cliff ironstone tureen. I love the grape motif...my favorite! I have since been lucky enough to find a few more pieces in the Red Cliff grape pattern in thrift stores, such as the sugar and creamer that you see on the table.

On the opposite side of the room is the matching buffet with a few more pieces of my Quimper collection…a poster topped by another pair of plates and a double wall sconce filled with lavender. And on the buffet…

...is my Victorian silverplate castor set! It is one of my favorite flea market finds! I seem to have a thing about antique silverplate and this one was a steal…a real “start the car” moment!

One of the things I like best about this room is the fact that I can change the look with just a tablescape! Here, we are having a French Country supper with layers of linens. The tablecloth is actually a drop cloth topped with my faux grain sack table runner.

In fact, many of the linens that I use on my table are not French at all, but my much less expensive copy-cat versions of vintage French linens.

And I love decorating my dining room for the holidays! Here it is all dressed in a Thanksgiving tablescape using a ruffled burlap table runner to anchor it.

And here it is ready for the holidays with a Christmas tablescape of more burlap, plaid and glittery stars. That’s my shabby tool box in the background…

…wearing its Christmas garb and stealing the show on my hutch!

But I can also dress it down for every day with favorite pieces from my blue and white collection. In fact, this little tool box has proven itself to be quite versatile and a fun addition to my dining room!

I think this room is my favorite, not only because it is filled with things that I love, but because this is the room that feels more French to me. It gives me a little chance to escape and dream about past adventures in France and hope for more to come!

Thanks so much  for allowing me to show you my favorite room! If you would like to have a look at the rest of my home, you will find a complete tour here.

Remember to pin it! 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed seeing my favorite room! Please visit these wonderful bloggers and their beautiful blogs to see what they are up to and to find a list of this week’s participants. 
Under the Table and Dreaming for the Sunday Showcase Party , Thrifty Decor Chick for Before and After Monday , Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday , The Stories of A2Z for Tutorials and Tips Tuesday , Coastal Charm for the Show and Share Party , A Stroll thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday , My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Inspire Me Monday, Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays ,   French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday , Common Ground for Be Inspired on Fridays , The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday , Craftberry Bush for the Inspiration Gallery on Friday

See you next time! À la prochaine!

Also find me at…

 

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Collecting...Country French Style

I am excited to join our Country French design group this month to share my thoughts on collecting…Country French style! You may already know that I love France and all things French, having taught French for many years, and that I love plates. Soooo…I think it is easy to see that a collection of French Quimper pottery was the obvious choice for me!

I have even visited the HB Henriot factory in Quimper in the lovely Breton region of France, an experience that I will never forget! But finding Quimper pottery here in the United States is not always easy, especially since I am a collector by happenstance...a treasure hunter.

I want to discover my treasures in the corner of a little antique shop or hiding among a collection of totally unrelated items at a flea market. I want them to surprise me and make me squeal with delight when I see them! Silly, I know, but that’s how I like to collect…so that each piece has a memory attached to it.

I love seeing my little couples in their traditional Breton costumes all stacked haphazardly on my hutch. I even love the broken pieces that someone lovingly mended. You can read about my biggest Quimper flea market haul here.

But I realized that I had another tendency when my just barely three-year-old grandson looked up from his lunch and spied my little vintage Breton candlestick couple and casually said “Mom and Dad.” Whaaat? I asked him to repeat it. Yes, I had heard him right. And I realized…not only do I insist on finding my treasures, they must always be in pairs!

Well, of course, you must buy a pair for salt and pepper shakers. That just makes sense!

And how can you not buy a pair of egg cups? Who can separate the little couple…leave her without her little man? After all, they are looking at each other! Sometimes she’s on the right…

and sometimes she’s on the left…

and sometimes he’s ignoring her completely, but they must always be together if at all possible. Why is that a problem? Because you can’t buy just one! (This couple, by the way, occupies my favorite plates...bought at the brocante in l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France during my retirement trip to France.)

Occasionally, she has already lost her little man and I buy her so she won’t be lonely.

Or sometimes he’s the one who has lost his mate, so he comes home with me so he won’t be alone. (You can see how I made those vintage-look French fairy tale book covers here.)

And then they join the little Quimper party on the hutch! Baby Kitty thinks I am totally insane. He says they are just plates and they don’t have feelings! And in my head I know that, but still…I can’t leave one of them behind! Could you? Are you a treasure hunter like me, too?

And just in case you missed it…last time I shared some of my favorite tips for creating Country French style in your home. You will find them here.

Be sure to join our design group on the last Sunday of each month. I am so thrilled to have be included with these very talented bloggers! And check out this month’s tips from my fellow francophiles:






Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed seeing my Quimper collection! Please visit these wonderful bloggers and their beautiful blogs to see what they are up to and to find a list of this week’s participants!
Under the Table and Dreaming for the Sunday Showcase Party ,Thrifty Decor Chick for Before and After Monday,  Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday , The Stories of A2Z for Tutorials and Tips Tuesday , Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday , A Stroll thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday , My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Inspire Me Monday, Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays , The Shabby Creek Cottage for Transformation Thursdays , No Minimalist Here for the Open House Party on Thursdays, French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday , Common Ground for Be Inspired on Fridays , The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday , Craftberry Bush for the Inspiration Gallery on Friday
See you next time! À la prochaine!

Also find me at…

 

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A Touch of Spring...and a Bargain

It has been a crazy week in Atlanta…iced in for several days, an earthquake and now temperatures in the 70s! Yes…you read that right…the 70s! :-) Gotta love winter in Georgia! And with the first sign of spring, my urge to decorate with even more blue and yellow comes out…such happy colors to me!

Sooo…I have created a new centerpiece for the breakfast room starring a two-tiered basket that I can’t wait to share! My friend Linda at Nina’s Nest and I had headed north to hit the outlet mall…Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma in particular, but…horrors!…both stores were closed to take inventory! We stared through the window likes kids in a candy shop to no avail.

But fortunately, Linda went back the next day and got that basket for me from Williams-Sonoma…at a fabulous bargain price! Gotta love good friends!

So I loaded it up with some of my favorite blue and white pieces…like this pitcher filled with faux daffodils…too early yet for the real ones.

And I added my Wedgwood Queen’s Shape sugar and creamer filled with some vintage silverplate in my favorite grapey patterns.

I stacked up a few of the matching cups on some blue and white Spode and vintage Wedgwood dessert plates…

…and finished it off with my little French jam jar…also a bargain find at Williams-Sonoma from last year.

Add in a few toile napkins, more vintage flatware and Spode salt and pepper shaker and…taaa daaa!…a little bit of spring has come to rest on my table! It makes me smile!


And speaking of resting…our Miss Isabella is stretched out as far as her little portly self can stretch to take advantage of every inch of sunshine that is streaming in! Now that is a very hopeful sign of spring!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed seeing my spring centerpiece! Please visit these wonderful bloggers and their beautiful blogs to see what they are up to and to find a list of this week’s participants!
Under the Table and Dreaming for the Sunday Showcase Party , Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday , The Stories of A2Z for Tutorials and Tips Tuesday , Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday , A Stroll thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday , My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Tuesday's Treasures, Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays , The Shabby Creek Cottage for Transformation Thursdays , No Minimalist Here for the Open House Party on Thursdays, French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday , Common Ground for Be Inspired on Fridays , The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday , Craftberry Bush for the Inspiration Gallery on Friday
See you next time! À la prochaine!

Also find me at…

 

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