Antiques Market

The chestnuts are steadily growing on the trees at the playground, so that means it is time for the annual antiques market in town. This Sunday it was time to spend all that carefully saved pocket money (BIG grin!!!)!

And people, let the baking season begin! I found a whole bunch of lovely kitchen utensils.
I guess soon it will be meringue time. With those whisks that will become peanuts. It has a lovely little nut wood handle that charmed me away.
I also found a nice cooling rack, so now there will be plenty of room for cooling fresh baked cookies.
And my personal topper, the one I was hunting for: The Madeleine baking moulds. I needed some that would fit my too small oven. I'm not only a little city mama, but a little kitchen mama as well I must confess.
That leaves us with the lovely art deco glass bowl I found. It is a Val Saint Lambert bowl and it is such a deep and rich yellow... it was love at first site. Strange for me, because normally I don't have an eye for glass. I'm more into pottery and glazes.
The bowl proudly adorns our dinner table. Now what to do with it... fruit bowl...salad bowl...desert bowl?

Salvation

You know how big gardening warehouses sell little dried out Christmas Star plants (Poinsettia / Euphorbia pulcherrima) at Christmas? They all stand there in lines in crates and most of 'em look kind of o.k. and the grabby crowd throws them in their carts anyway because it is Christmas. And then there are three or so standing there... Nobody wants them 'cause they are just to ugly by neglect, maltreatment and grabby customer hands that have hold them and put them away a thousand or so times....??????

You know? 

I am that person who will always adopt the most ugly of the bunch. 

I like to salvage things that have been neglected and give them a new home. 

And so I came to be the proud owner of my favorite wooden bowl, which has the destination of dough kneading bowl, dusty and covered in paint spots it was, and my latest foundling: my mezza luna. She was covered in a thick layer of rust and paint daubs here and there. 

After some tough love, which included the handling of various grind supplements, she has started her new life in our kitchen. 

Now I already praised pasta pesto in a previous post. But that will be what we are eating tonight. Finely chopped with our new "Mezza".

Weekending

It was a very busy and extra long weekend for us, so there was a lot of serious Weekending to be done.

Yesterday it was Queens Day or Koninginnedag in celebration of our queen and a national Holiday.

Every where in the Netherlands there were flea markets, mainly occupied by mothers and their children, selling the toys and kids stuff they have out grown, including the contents of cellars and attics. 

When I was four I stood on a flea market selling my toys with my big nephew and when she is old enough it will be miss E's turn and I will be one of the moms overseeing the spectacle. 

This year we went into the hunt with one special item on our wish list: a nice seat for Miss E. and scored within the first hour to our content. We are two vintage school-seats richer and one mom somewhere is celebrating the space in her home with two seats less.

There were picnics to be had: scones with Mascarpone and jam, quiche with grapes and cucumber and cherry tomatoes. So there were also a few late night baking sessions.

The day before it was Spring Festival on the mountain. The shepherd brought his flock and lambs that were born that same morning to see and touch. There were all kind of ecological market stalls. 

And now this busy mama is going to close her eyes and count some sheep herself. It was a wonderful weekend; I hope it was the same for you too.

In my kitchen

It is spring and that means that the flea and antiques market season is upon us! I love antique and flea markets. One of my most cherished items I once found on an antiques market is my antique herb-cabinet.

 I filled the cabinet with glass pesto jars. This is a pesto-lovers collection of many years mind you... Now a day I make fresh pesto, in the same tradition of 101cookbooks. Which brings me to this amazing film of kinfolk have you seen it yet? It instantly brings me in the perfect kitchen mood. I learnt to make pesto like this many years ago on a French campsite, from our Italian neighbors, (how small can this world be...) but it's the same method.

But back to the herb cabinet...
My love who has these divine hands with which he can make about anything I can dream of, made a construction underneath the cabinet so I can easily hang my collection of cookie cutters and measuring spoons in hand-reach. I am so happy with how it has turned out and will keep this cabinet for the rest of my life.

And no there is nothing wrong with your eyesight, my kitchen walls are crooked and this cabinet is oblique as well. So the house and cabinet match perfectly. That's the advantage of living in a 1920 old house like ours ;-)

Have a nice weekend; you can find me on the next flea market!

Sewing Basket

Have you ever heard of the fairy godmother?
I have a fairy mother in law! She read my post of dreaming about a new sewing basket and look what I got! this dreamy old little basket, perfect for my wooden bobbins.
I love the carmine red fabric.

I have collected a nice set of antique darning tools. One day I'll really have to learn how to mend my own socks. It takes painstakingly for ever to knit a pair so it will be worth it. I already have one favourite woollen skirt that needs mending after a firecracker exploded during New Years Eve.
I am sooooo grateful for youtube and all the people who are so nice to put their expertise in instruction films.

Thanks to a mild autumn, until this day the sucky thumb mitts RULE!

They are so great, keeping her small hands cosy and warm, lending a helping hand/mitten whenever she falls or decides to crawl over the playground. (She is still mastering the skill of walking.)

This is the second season they come in handy :-)

Thrift finds: Wooden Bobbins

I love second-hand materials. And I totally love these wooden bobbins that I have found at a thrift store. My current sewing box is falling apart out of pure misery. It is a small thing. Now it is time for a "new/old" one to be found. I can already imagine these wooden bobbins in it!

What I love about second-hand craft materials is the idea of memory embedded in the tools, by their previous owners, the skills and love they used to make beautiful things with them. 

I hope some of that skill will pass on to me while taking these treasured tools in my own hands. 

And there is nothing like strolling on a flee-market or second-hand store, it's my favorite way of shopping. You never know what you'll find and there is such a diversity!