Brocante Finds Displayed

Every museum has to have a display case (etagere). We have one of those.

A couple of years ago, we bought this display cabinet at Ikea. For a long time we had a really neat showcase of my hub's toy automobile collection. Much to our son's chagrin, my hub was the only one to ever play with these miniature vehicles. But I enjoyed cleaning them and Googling to find their worth. Not a fortune, but quite interesting!

When the furniture "musical chairs" happened a month ago, we had to move the narrow, heavy glass display box closer to the stairs. I unloaded the shelves and stored the cars back upstairs, and then we shifted the case a few feet along the wall. Now it shares space with our inherited mirror and the "who knows what this is?" bench.

Today I dusted the glass and put up a new showcase. My Mammaw C. would call this collection Knick Knacks. My mom and sister-in-law call it Junk. I call it part of my Brocante collection. Now which sounds the best description to you? If you have to look up Brocante, then you probably don't even care about my Stuff.

In this display, I tried to use real Thrift Shop finds. Maybe a few family treasures sneaked in, but they were probably rescued from the Flea Markets in Europe anyway. Notice that I used real lead crystal (15 cents at the Thrift Shop) and pressed glass candle sticks to display brass, glass, hand-painted tins, and blue/white pottery.

One of my favorite pieces is the amber tealight on the second shelf from the top. I bought that for a pittance at a Charity Shop in England the time the three of us spent the week on a narrowboat. My hub and son never even entered the shop, but it was great!

Think I will swap Brocante finds in this spotlight area the next few months. Does that mean I will be the curator? :)

Desert Rose by Franciscan

One of the first things I bought back in my $5,000 a year salary days was my own china.

I chose a very popular Desert Rose pattern from Franciscan and began collecting. I remember going to a local jewelry store to replace a broken cup and being told that I would have to buy more than one cup. The saleslady said, "We can not break a set. You will have to buy more than one cup!" Needless to say, I did not buy anything from her.

Over the next 40 years, I added to my service and even bought a complete set made in China. It isn't as crisp and detailed as the original, but now we have more than enough to set a nice table with the most popular china service of all times.

All of our Desert Rose china was "hand carried" from the US to Europe by me and my parents during many trips across the big puddle. In 2006 the entire set was transported back to the US by freight on board a huge ship.

Twenty years ago I started picking up Villeroy and Boch Wild Rose china that almost matches my Desert Rose. The German service has several pieces that are not available in the Desert Rose pattern. Plus Metlach, Germany and the Outlet Store for Villeroy and Boch sometimes just happens to be on our vacation route :)))))

Here is a photo of a cereal bowl filled with my oven polenta and crawfish, shrimp, ham, and okra gumbo dinner. Yummy!

"de Eindhoeve" Gable Sign

Our old Dutch farmhouse in Zoeterwoude had wooden planks to decorate the gables and also "geveltekens" (gable signs).

Usually gable signs are wooden planks shaped with several stylized symbols, which can be anything from a life tree, cross, anchor, heart, a sun wheel, two rampant horses, or two swans. (Ours was a flower and a cut out heart.)These gable signs are mounted vertically onto the ridge of the house at the front and the back gables. The symbols are believed to either invoke prosperity or to ward off misfortune.

Back years ago when we had our wind planks replaced and painted, we had our gable signs replaced, too. Actually the front of our house at one time was lower than the back, so the house just had one gable sign (the back one). Now it has one on the front and one on the back!

What you see below is the rescued original gable sign from our farmhouse "de Eindhoeve" ( the end farm or last farm on the road). It now has a special dry spot in the corner of our hallway.

Above: Back of house 2006

Above: Look carefully, front of house (actually barn by chimney) 1924!!!

Corner Cabinet

According to my hub this corner cupboard is new. I guess that depends on how you look at it.

We brought this handmade piece of furniture to the US in 2006.
We had it in our bedroom (kitchen was too small for it) in Zoeterwoude for almost 20 years!
It came from the corner of my in-laws' kitchen in Olst before that. I remember seeing it for the first time there in 1979.

So even if it is NEW, it must be at least 35 years old.

I still want to lighten up the inside walls so that people can see what I have placed on the shelves. That collection is a treasure of old kitchen apparatus from "grandmother's" time and earlier.

Shame it still smells a bit musty!