An old brown chair

Last December I decided to zoosh up an old brown chair and use it in my bathroom.

 A Mr Price tea towel and a bit of embroidery thread

did the trick for the seat cover.

Then I wanted to try a heart stencil and the silver

stencil paint I bought at the last Hobby-Ex.....

My husbands commentary was: Isn't it a bit wild?

No.... you sometimes need a bit of colour!!

This post is also part of The Cottage Market: Mission Possible Linky Party.  Go check out some of the other colourful posts.

An Ode to Friendship

I celebrated a birthday recently and a dear friend gave me

"The Ultimate Recovery Kit".

Inside were:

A shoe charm - to continue my journey of self discovery

An embroidered angel bookmark - for protection

A candle - to light my path

A (cupcake) mug - for when I need to take a break and

Sachets with "smelly stuff" - to remind me that I am pretty, sexy and special!

Thanks Lizette,

Friends like you make life really awesome!!

I hope that you also feel pretty, sexy and special this weekend...

Bread, cheese and wine....

What more can you ask for?

Healthy fresh bread...

Interesting cheese...

Excellent wine!

One evening we had the privilege to be educated by an expert on the
local bread, cheese and wine.
We started with an aperitif. Sparkling wine and Violette liqueur.
The Violette liqueur gave the wine a blueish colour and it tasted wonderful!
Then came the white wine and some goats cheese, say no more!
Then another white wine and a more -edible- cheese.

We sat on the veranda talking and listing to our host, Lizzie,
as she translated everything.
As the sun went down it was time
for the red wine and two different cheeses.
Then came the "bread to share" -  which is baked in
such a way that you can easily tear off a piece.

We ended up going to bed quite late, but it was a wonderful experience.

WOAD

Ok, now you have a little bit of background of what we will be posting about.

...... I am totally wowed by WOAD.
If you ever had a look at my Colours Pinterest Board
you would know that I like blue and this shade of blue is just out of this world.

Thursday 21 June 2012 was Summer Solstice.

That was the day we spent woading.The woad vats were set up in the
garden of the Chateau under the trees and we took all our white,
semi white, grey and khaki possessions down to die them.

Denise Lambert, our teacher for the day, started explaining and
guiding us through the whole process. Also telling us the history about Woad.
How Napoleon's army needed this colour for their uniforms.

How Toulouse and the Woad trade was linked and
how the pigment was extracted from the leaves of the Woad plant.

It was really like magic.... when you put something into the vat
gently stirring it, after a minute or so, fishing it out, lifting it from
the vat and the item is yellow! Then you wring out the die,
open up the item and it turns green.....
then as soon as it comes into contact with oxygen..... it turns blue!!!

I still think it is magic.

After many hours at the vats, everyone had weird and wonderful items Woaded.

We ended off the day with a long supper outside under the umbrellas and we watched the sun set.

Workshop in France with French General

This is our group of girls that attended the week

long workshop with French General.

Three South Africans, three Australians, and the rest

of the girls from America.

Kaari, the owner, together with her whole team did a wonderful....

wonderful job to create a special week for all of us!

If you lived in a Chateau, way back when, you were semi royal...

 well, we all felt like semi royals for the whole week.

Thanks Kaari, Molly, Kick, Cathy, Lizzie, Charlotte,

Michael and Christopher!

(and all the other silent partners)

You all made us feel welcome.

This is the link to Kaari's blog.

http://frenchgeneral.blogspot.com/

Little Treasures

I always have to bring back stuff!!

These are the little things that founded their way into my suitcase
during our trip to France. I call them treasures.

Maps, bus tickets, bias binding, woaded buttons, wine bottle corks,

mother of pearl buttons, doorknobs, liqueur, wooden spools

and the best of all....

antique brass wire to make French Beaded Flowers!

Well, we are back from two wonderful weeks in France. The first week we spend in
the country side at a Chateau in a small village called Auty.
(which you will not find on a map) It is also close to Caussade and Montauban.
Chateau Dumas.
Click on the link to have a look at the Chateau.

It was a week filled with amazing things to do and see!

We will tell you all about the workshops we did, the food we ate, the sights
we saw and the people we met.

But first I had to show you my "stuff."
Keep well and thanks for stopping by!