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RosiesFrenchadventure.com

~ Living life as if someone left the gate open! Taking the chance and seeing what happens

RosiesFrenchadventure.com

Tag Archives: home

The Renovation story: The Beast

24 Sunday Nov 2019

Posted by RosieJoseph in My home, renovations, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

a labour of love, crystal, French Armoire, French Mirrors, French vintage, French vintage furniture, French vintage mirrors, handpainted, home, obsessing, painted furniture, pretty furniture, renovated, sanctuary, shabby chic, stain bleed, vignettes, vintage furniture

It will come as no surprise to any people who read this blog that I love old furniture, and in France there is an abundance of old furniture.

This is what I have fondly come to call ‘The Beast’! It is a very old dressing table, 1860 to be precise as the date is written on the back of the mirror! It has had woodworm in its lifetime, and shows the life it has lived. It weighs just under quarter of a ton, with its marble top, and mirror. So imagine the look on RD’s face when I said I wanted it in our new bedroom!

This is our wonderful French curved, small stairwell that we had to try and get this piece of furniture up. We moved all the furniture in the living room and opened up the second door to our stairs (essential for moving furniture, it’s going to be hidden behind a mirror!) as we attempted to get ‘The Beast’ from RD’s van to the bedroom.

And we huffed, and we puffed, as I was at the bottom at one point I thought ‘if he lets this go now I am going to die!’ It got stuck on the low ceiling at the bottom of the curve in the stairwell, so we brought it down and sawed of legs that had been added to it at some point. ‘That should do it!’ Said RD. so up we went, huffing and puffing and it got stuck, really stuck. RD lost it, and punched it and it moved and was free! Once in situ RD said ‘when we sell this house this bloody thing is staying here!’

But the beast was not finished with me: I decided there was too many scratches on it so I was going to paint it (who am I kidding? I didn’t like the colour!) I primed the bottom first, and it bled through like a bastard! So I primed it again, and it bled! I painted it with acrylic and it bled! I painted it another two times with an acrylic lacquer and yey! Then I painted it with chalk paint. It only took me fifteen hours all told! The detail on the pillars had to be painted with an artists brush so that I didn’t lose the definition.

The only way to open the heavy draws was with the key, you can see the keyhole in the centre of each drawer. With our clothes in lace it was too heavy, and unpractical so I added crystal handles.

Then on to the mirror: I had learned and this only took three coats, but each coat took me two hours because all of it had to be done with an artists brush, so as to not lose the definition of the pretty flowers and filigree. But it all served as a distraction for me, to stop me being ‘driven’ about my book I have learned my lessons!

it really is a pretty detailed piece. I finally finished it, I started it over a month ago! But I love it, it now has a new lease of life.

It makes my life so easy putting our clothes away, as the beast contains them all, that and the little French armoire beside it.

Perhaps ‘The Beast’ is no longer an appropriate name for something so pretty.

More to come the bedroom is now our sanctuary.

Rosie

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Autumn: Swallows

15 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by RosieJoseph in Change is a coming, My home, Simple things, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

aerial displays, autumn, Change, everything must change, fabric of home, Feeling blessed, George Benson, home, le grange, Nature, old barnes, spring, summer, swallows, swallows in flight, swooping

When we moved here our house had not been lived in for over three years, and our old barn had become a residence of choice for the swallows every spring; with it’s lack of the likelihood of interference from humans, and the abundance of tall trees, and thereby insects our barn was the perfect choice. And then the English came along!

But life was looking out for our swallows because these English have not blocked up the barn (we’d have a job with half the roof missing) we have welcomed the swallows.

So every spring the babies can be heard chirping in the eves, and now they have come to realise that we will not hurt them the swallows no-longer dive bomb us when we go to the barn to move something back into the house (which has been moved to the barn and back, barn and back so many times!)

This winter the barn roof will finally be replaced by H, we hope to save that beautiful old building if possible. But we will ensure that the swallows still have somewhere to stay, they are part of the fabric of this home and all that it entails.

Every summer as we sit in the garden in the early evening we are treated to an aerial display as the swallows teach their young to catch the numerous insects milling about in the air in the late evening sunshine. In fact we get two displays because as the swallows take their young to bed the bats then come out as twilight arrives and take over the second sitting for the insect banquet.

But what has inspired me to write this post is what happened last night. The Indian summer continues and the past few days we have reached temperatures into the late twenties early thirties. After my shower I stood at the bedroom window and watched as the swallows began to gather. We have a collection of phone wires for our community and swallows love phone wires; add to that our trees and the corn in the field and the swallows found their ideal spot to swoop (a collective noun for swallows). It was amazing to watch as they swooped past our window over to the field opposite.

More and more arrived swooping high and low, sitting on the phone wires, just looking at me, as I stood like a mad woman in my pyjamas videoing them. My photos do not do the spectacle justice : they were preparing to say goodbye.

Autumn is here, despite the hot weather, and the Swallows know it is time to start their preparation to leave.

I realised that although they will be back next year it may not be the same swallows, many will die on the arduous journey to Africa and the Sahara; and it again highlighted to me how (to quote George Benson) everything must change, nothing stays the same. It cannot.

I am truly blessed.

Rosie

Simple things, simple things.

if you want to listen to the fabulous George B singing about change here it is.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oqtHo0pU-1M

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Wind, snow and a smart car!!

18 Monday Dec 2017

Posted by RosieJoseph in The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Cockney, Danny Dyer, Driving round Caen, following, French drivers, home, Journey, lightening, Lost in France, Rain, sat navs, Smart car, Snowy roads, traffic, traffic jams, windy

Over the past week  we have also been helping ‘Dad’ for a few days, and having a giggle along the way.

But coming home the other night we had the journey from hell… It is normally a two hour drive but we hit traffic at the busy port city of Caen where there had been four accidents, and there were grid locks everywhere.

Picture it ….. I am in a tinky tiny Smart car, following Rich in a huuuuuge van. We only had one sat nav between us (God knows why we did not bring two!) and I have no way of knowing the way home and I don’t have the Sat Nav!! But I had to let people in front of me, such is the etiquette where grid locks are concerned, well for me anyway!

I am sitting in my little car being blown about by the wind and unable to go over sixty kilometers an hour in case the wind picks me up and plonks me down in front of a lorry! There is traffic everywhere and Rich is about ten cars in front of me – I can just about see his tail light – bearing in mind that there are also about another fourty white vans around me I am hoping I am watching ‘his’ tail light!

The wind is blowing, the rain is sheeting down, I have bad eyesight and glaucoma so don’t see well to drive in the dark and add to that I am grizzling because I am lost. How I managed to use my sense and follow the right white van off the motorway I do not know but I did.  Bless Rich he stopped on the slip road (really dangerous) because he was so worried, someone was looking after us that night because how I did not get hit up the arse when I slammed my breaks on is beyond me!

But it did not end there…. we then had to drive through numerous villages and towns and down remote windy roads with lorries up our arse!! And then it started to snow! Add to that the lightening that then started to light up the sky and it was a joy. I did say to myself ‘you are ‘aving a f*****g laugh aren’t you?’ (you have to remember I am an Essex girl so this was said in what my international readers would consider a ‘cockney’ accent!) for others think Danny Dyer.

Bless my husband he pulled over and came running back to me because he was so worried about me – I was worried about me!!! But as we made our journey onwards it did not stop me looking at the Christmas lights and nearly crashing my car. Every little town in France has Christmas lights of some sort and it does lift your heart – although not this night when there seemed no end to the journey.

After four hours (the journey normally only takes just over two) we got home, and I made a mental note to use both of our sat navs in future – what a pair of silly arses we were!!!

Whilst I love it here the French people really are, from my experience, some of the worst drivers in the world. They don’t seem to have any spacial awareness, and take over on bends, brows of hills, in the snow, ice you name it they don’t slow down – they just keep driving! I think it is because the roads are not busy they forget that there may be someone else around that corner!

When we got home I have never been so grateful, the house was freezing (so yes, you guessed it we loaded the log burner!) and when I eventually sat down after feeding cats, dogs, putting the heaters on and getting into my jymbies (pyjamas) with my thick thermal socks and my slippers, glass of wine in hand, I thanked God for all my blessings. Not least my mad husband……

I love my home…… moldy walls an all …..

image

 

More posts are on their way – and as always please share.

 

Moisy

 

 

 

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