Lustucru

Lustucru Torchon Rack

Lustucru Milk Pail

I have liked Lustucru ware for a long while and ask my French contacts to buy any they see as it is very collectible and always seems to sell.  Both the blue and the red would go in my kitchen but I have chosen to have the blue; this allumettes container and torchon rack are mine.

These storage tins and utensil rack are for sale and on my website.

Lustucru Utensil Rack and Cannisters

In 1824 a manufacturer located in Grenoble, France began producing 15 tons of pasta a day capitalising on a new drying process which enabled pasta to be made at a much lower cost.  In 1911 a contest between the best illustrators of the time produced a name, brand logo and mascot.  This was a simple blue checkerboard (to evoke a kitchen) and Pere Lustucru, a 17th century fictional character.  To raise awareness of the firm they produced kitchen items bearing this checkerboard design.  The French housewife would collect tokens from the pasta packaging and redeem these for her chosen kitchen items such as cannisters, utensil racks, clocks, milk pails, coffee pots and trivets.  Square and round cannister sets were especially popular in the 1920s and as well as the red/cream, blue/cream  colours they also produced light blue/royal blue and green/yellow (very rare).

Gwen and Augustus John

I attend an art appreciation group once a month (it sounds very grand but is only a few friends improving our knowledge of artists).  This last month I suggested we study Gwen (1876 - 1939) and Augustus John (1878 - 1961)  British brother and sister.  I came across Gwen John whilst wasting time perusing on Pinterest.  I am totally addicted to Pinterest and could spend hours on there!  The first painting of Gwen's that I found I just fell in love with.  It  is of a nun and two orphans

and I even persuaded my husband to paint it on a large canvas for our dining room.  Gwen is noted for her portraits of unknown female sitters and later became an artist's model and lover of Rodin.

Study of a child, probably another orphan.

This is a self portrait painted in 1902.

By the 1920s Augustus John was Britain's leading portrait painter and he painted Dylan Thomas, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw and T E Lawrence to name but a few.  My favourite is his painting of W B Yeats.

I particularly like the paintings of some of his children

Pyramus

Robin

and Caspar (who later became a British Admiral and First Sea Lord Sir Caspar John).

Augustus is reputed to have fathered more than 100 illegitimate children and apparently used to affectionately tap all children on the head in case they were his own!

...and more

I am still listing the French items I had bought before we went on holiday onto my website.  This large green enamel pitcher would look lovely displaying greenery and holly at Christmas.  (The portable cast iron step also in the photo was used for people to step out of carriages and is mine, not for sale).

This week I have learnt how to print onto fabric using my printer.  I have used a vintage French linen sheet to make all sorts of labels including this one on a French trug

and some hessian for a label on a florist's bucket.

(Both these items are now sold).
I often sell vintage French wine carriers, either for six or four bottles, but have never seen one which carried ten bottles!

That's more like my size!

These gravy/sauce boats are such a good idea but I've never seen an equivalent in the UK.

There are two spouts, one with a flange, one without.  One side has the letter M for Maigre, meaning lean, the other side has a G for Gras meaning fat.  The French refer to these double spouted jugs as Gras-Maigres.  Depending on which spout you pour from determines whether the fat is separated from the gravy or not.  Clever!

I will leave you with a photo I took whilst walking on the beach on Sunday morning; it was just like Summer.

I almost forgot!  If you fancy entering the giveaway on my daughter's blog you could win £100 worth of vouchers to spend at Boohoo (clothing).  Wish I could enter!

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.