Having a party with my cousin

Hi!!

Last weekend I was staying with my cousin, who was celebrating her 46th birthday. We are like sisters, being the same age, (OK, OK, you are two weeks younger M.) and sharing the same interests, crafting, collecting almost everything with a slight preference of dolls, tea-sets and dinner-services everything cheap and bought at the flea market, yes we particularly like bargains of any kind!!
As it was her birthday I brought some presents; I made her a personalized banner as well (as I did for my own birthday). Made from cardboard, vintage wallpaper, old magazines and old music paper, it hides all kind of personal information about my cousin.



First of all she has always been a very good dolls mother and now a real life mother of 4, so this flag speaks for itself:



Every little flag had some ribbons attached and at the end of some ribbons some clues about M. That very little doll (8 mm) is actually a button.




My cousin is a cat lover. Only the dutch viewers can see a hidden message; my cousin is a beautician. There are some old advertisements in the background, one is an advertisement for removal of superfluous hair.



Here a picture of the happy M. herself complete with crown (brooch) and wings. The little telephone at the end of the ribbon is referring to those endless phone calls we are making.



The one with 46 speaks for itself, 26 (October 26th) is her birthday. She used to be a girl with 2 of those braids as the silhouette-girl. I don't know any one who is better with needle and threat and the sewing machine as she is. She taught herself at the age of 12-13 (could be earlier as well), so I attached some little scissors, a button and some threat at the the end of the ribbons of this little flag.


The day after her birthday we went into Belgium to a flea-market and we both did some amazing finds;



Some vintage ribbons at bargain prices, an old box filled with crochet needles. The knit-needle on card to knit around, (do you know what I mean?) was actually a gift from Mrs. H. We bumped into her on the flea market, as I told you she is always looking for bargains too.

Some stuff to use...old kitchen towels (found by my aunt and she gave them to me as a belated birthday present). An old jug, some french white and blue breakfast- and dinner plates.


A complete tea service. Here you can only see the teapot, but there's a sugar bowl, a milk jug, 12 saucers and 11 cups all with these little violets and all without any damage. Now all I need are some plates with violets...



This is a true amazing find; vintage paper doilies in all sizes, yes!! Ooooh they will come in handy crafting for the holidays I guess. And again, when you compare these treasures with the paper doilies they make nowadays the difference is huge...I guess that's why I like vintage and antiques. There is nothing like the real thing...



And some books filled with pictures for my paper crafts. The best find is a french illustrated Larousse 'petit' encyclopedia, about 2000 pages with so much information, beautiful illustrations...ah what a find! It's so beautiful.



Lots of old cards and family pictures, enough to reconstruct my past...



In my studio I have all kind of glass jars to keep my buttons and ribbons and little things assorted. This one is new, but as I bought it at the flea market I only had to pay 3 euros, instead of 12 or 19,95 euros in those so called 'gift shops'.
In the jar are some glittery figures on sticks. I guess they can be used on top of a cake. I only have 3's, 1's and 6's, so I have to wait a few years to use a pair of them. In 2009 my son will be 13 and my daughter 16. I have to wait until 2022 till my 61st birthday. I wonder if I still can remember where I have put them, then, mmmm perhaps I don't remember having them at all!



These will make my Christmas dinner, don't you think? It's silver-plated and very baroque, suits me fine!!



I have bought a few of those hairpin cards. These are so awesome. Every girl in the sixties was wearing these kind of pins to keep her braids or pigtails neat. True nostalgia! The artwork on these German cards is fabulous. 12 x 2 pins illustrated with flowers of the 12 months of the year. I'm going to resell these cards at eBay or at 'Marktplaats' the dutch auction site.





Last but not least some soaps. I always like those Avon soaps, these were still in their original package with some nice artwork on the box. Unlike most of my old slippers these still smell very good, but I'm not sure whether to use them or not, they are so nice...
It was such a nice weekend, I'm still enjoying it.
Have a nice weekend too...Love LiLi

Welcome to my cyber space birthday party!!!

Hi all!


Today is my birthday and the very first time I will celebrate this in cyber space too. Worth a small party of its own! I especially welcome the Picasa-ladies at here; Hello to all Picasa-girls!
Ok. Whould you like to drink something? (alcoholic beverages only after showing your id) and a little pain d'amandes or something else to eat?



I am having such a great time!




For this occasion I have made a personalized banner! I was inspired by some crafty women on the internet. And when everything (cooking, cleaning etc) still had to be done, I was crafting and doing and being very relaxed.
I'm so happy with my banner; I'm going to make one for my daughter too. And both will be extended every birthday from now on. It should be possible that when I will be celebrating my 100th birthday our townhall will be decorated with my personal banner (about a mile long a that time).





The banner is very Lili's 2007 birthdayish; musicpaper, birds and the map of Paris, as my husbands gift to me is a little trip to Paris! I'm so looking forward to it!











There are some picasa-elements to the banner too; thanks Manuela for the Mary medaillons and thanks to Wietske I could use the beautiful pink vintage wallpaper! Thanks girls!

A very good thing about birthdays are presents:



I just love this kitchenrack, oooh it doesn't become more brocante than this, you know. Though my husband isn't sure this actually is a KITCHEN rack...



Yes, some people do collect those little bobbins of embroiderythreat. ooooh did you see that little pillow and the lace as well?
























Is there any one out there who has enough candle-holders?


Home decorating magazines should be sold by the dozen too. And who knew so well that my little studio was still underconstruction?



It feels a bit like showing of, but I cannot put one picture here and hold some other picture in my album, ok ok, I am a very spoiled girl, always have been!!



Look at this...isn't that a bit exaggerated?? Oh no not at all!!
My husband got me 46 red roses and 1 white, symbol for the year to come, symbol of love hapiness and health. (oooooh so sweet!!)


and more presents...



Oooh I simply love flowers... and everybody knows that!



Dutch treat

And now for the dutch treat. We in Holland have a custom; the one who's having a birthday (me) is going treat the guests (you) to a drink and/or a snack. Well that's hard here, and besides that we had some tea, coffee and pain d'amandes at the start of my post. So my treat here in cyberspace: every one who is responding to this topic and/or the ones coming up the next two weeks makes a chance to win Cath Kidston's book 'Design' in dutch. Even the shippingcosts are paid by me, as it is my birthday. I will draw a winner on monday october 22nd.
Not a dutch treat but actually a give-away!!!!! Don't miss this one! Hope to hear from you all!!

Counting down...

As I told you its my birthday in about 10 days. This week mrs. H., a close friend of mine, visited me and while she is not sure she can make it on my birthday, she took with her this basket full of lovely surprises.
Yes!! I love friends like mrs. H! We met in my Barbie collecting period. She was sellling and I was buying (of course). This year we will be celebrating our tenth anniversary being friends. Mentioning her in my blog will be a surprise, but I'm not sure she likes it or not. Just testing mrs. H.
Mrs. H. is always on the go and is famous for her good eye ahem nose for rare and amazing finds.

Let's take a closer look




((Yes I did it. I've managed to put a picture in the middle!! )))

Mrs. H. knows that I don't collect baseball cards, cars and militaria hahaha.
But her presents do fit in with my white enamelware collection, my 'stuff-with-violets on it'-collection, my collection of rhinestone and cut glass-brooches, my tailor's requisites collection and of course the collection of white on white embroidered linen. By the way, I was always thinking that those french women were embroidering those fat characters/initials themselves, but I now have the evidence there was this possibity of just sewing them on your pillow-case. Mmmmm I could have been french too.

Did you see those sheets? awesome!!!



There was an auction in town today and I made an absentee bid for an antique wooden brocante drying frame. Keep my fingers crossed that I will have it. This drying frame is exactly what I need right now. It would be perfect to hang these sheets somewhere in the bedroom ah...why was my bid that low? I never saw such a beautiful drying frame before and its getting better and better in my mind...That's the funny part with auctions including ebay, somehow you're always feeling sorry. Either your bid was too high, and now you are the proud owner of some paintless and shabby drying frame, or it was just one euro too low and now somebody else, probably a dealer who easily sells this frame for ten times the winning bid, is the owner of that drying frame that shows up in auction every ten years...

You will be hearing from me again...bonne nuit, LiLi M.