More stock on the website

A lot of the past week has been spent adding newly acquired vintage French goodies to the website and I still have lots more to add.

I love the redwork embroidery on this linen sheet.  Whoever A P was owned this pretty monogrammed linen nightdress case too.

Do you call these clothes airers or clothes horses?

I wonder who wore these charming little French shoes.  They only measure 11 cms in length.

Regular readers of my blog will know how much I like enamelware, especially when it as pretty as these two items.

These are the last few flowers picked from our garden.
I hope you are all enjoying the weather this weekend after so much rain.

Florida Fun

Whilst in Anthropologie I bought a book entitled 'The Happiness Project' by Gretchen Rubin.  I have never read a book in this genre of a 'Self Help' book before and have always been rather dismissive of books that 'tell' us how to live our lives but as my daughter was already reading it and kept quoting parts of it I thought I would give it a try.  The first quote I came across which struck a nerve was by Colette (I assume this is the authoress who wrote Gigi) 'What a wonderful life I've had, I wish I'd realised it sooner'.  Well, that made me stop and think!  Yes, I am having a wonderful life right now and I should appreciate every day.

The book is basically about a lady who realised that she wasn't as happy as she could be. She came to the conclusion that her life wouldn't change unless she did something about it so resolved to assign herself a year to find more happiness.  Each month she pursued a different set of resolutions (one was start a daily blog); some worked, some didn't.  I am really enjoying reading this and have found lots of tips on things to try.  I already have a great life but, there is always room for improvement!

One of the Gretchen's resolutions was to have more fun.  Everybody's idea of fun is different and this was no more apparent than when we visited 'Islands of Adventure' whilst in Florida.  This would be many people's ideal day out but, sadly, not mine.  It was nearing 100 degrees and very humid (I don't do excessive heat) and the majority wanted to visit 'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter'.  I have never read a Harry Potter book nor seen a film, there were hoards of people, piped music everywhere and the worst day of my entire holiday.  I don't like theme park rides so am always the one standing around holding other people's bags, sunglasses etc.  I know, I shouldn't have gone but this is my point, that this is perceived to be everybody's idea of fun and there must be something wrong with me who didn't find it so.  In the end my daughter and I left the men there and we found a cool cafe with a long, cool drink.  Then I spied a 'Fossil' shop, went inside and treated myself to a new watch.

Now that's more like my idea of FUN!

What do you consider to be fun?

Anthropologie

It has been quiet on my blog over the last couple of weeks as we have just returned from a wonderful holiday in Florida.

Blogging doesn't really come high on my huge 'Home from Holiday To Do' list but I was so excited to find an Anthropologie store in one of the shopping malls I thought I would share it with you.

I didn't buy any of their beautiful clothes

but I did treat our home to some goodies.

Roasted Sweet Tomato Tart

I love my Avoca cookbook and am attempting to make as many of the recipes as I can.  One of my favourites which I have made twice is Roasted Sweet Tomato Tart with goat's cheese, basil and pine nut crush.

(I took the photo before adding the basil pesto)

On Saturday I was watching Saturday Kitchen and Donna Hay was making some Pancetta Baked Eggs which looked so delicious I decided to make some too.  I had prosciutto instead of pancetta which worked equally well.  Line muffin tins with the pancetta, whisk an egg with cream, salt and pepper.

Pour this into the tin, sprinkle with parmesan and bake.  Simple!  One egg made two of these.

I served them with a salad but they could also be served as a cooked breakfast.