Chequered Past: Rejecting Boring & Bland & Generic

I have been a good gel this week and almost finalized our bookings for the buying trip, so we’re almost ready to go and really looking forward to it. Only ten sleeps to go. We’re getting seriously short on stock from the last trip, although we still have some interesting furniture to tart up and present when we get back, so we’ll have plenty to keep us busy while we wait for the next shipment.

I’ve found a shop selling lovely striped canvas material, and unless I can find better in England or France I’ll get some to cover an excellent white cane lounge that I shall be offering for sale soon after we get back from this trip. It will look really great in the front window. (Sister Kym: Sewing Alert!). I’ve also found a shop selling mugs with spotted cats on them, so I’ve now got some new mugs for me and my visitors to the shop. They’re very zappo and goofy looking mugs, but when Calypso and Caleb aren’t looking all beautiful and elegant they’re totally goofing-off. This was my first rejection of boring and bland and generic for the week.

I think I’ve managed to slip in some Play Days at Stone Henge and Avebury while we’re away. We drive past Stone Henge on almost every trip and visited it many years ago, and I think it will be good to go and have a closer look again. Not that you can get too close these days – Doug says the very first time he went there you were able to walk among the stones, but that was a long time ago and these days you can’t get so close. But anyway, I think it will still be good to go again. Not far from Stone Henge is Avebury, which has the largest megalithic stone circle in Europe and even though it’s one of the best known prehistoric sites in England, we’ve never been there. So, depending on how much I buy while we're in Somerset and Wiltshire (and therefore how much we have to pack) we shall try to get in some Prehistoric Play Days.

The weather in England and France seems to be quite pleasant at the moment so fingers crossed that their summer lingers into autumn. We’ve been very lucky on most of our September/October trips to enjoy warmish weather, but just in case it’s chilly we’ve been getting in a bit of beach time before we leave. It’s always nice to have an early morning stroll along Noosa Main Beach, it’s good for your soul, and whatever else we will do in England and France it probably won’t include beachcombing. English and French beaches are often pebble beaches, which look nice but aren’t so good for strolling along. Many of the vintage French images I have that involve girls at the beach usually show the girls wearing nice shoes with their bathers, and that’s because pebble beaches are dang hard on your feet. Plus French girls take any opportunity to wear nice shoes, of course.

Enamel bucket with Hydrangeas

Hurrah that this week is turning out to be excellent for sales, which is always good news. I’ve bought some more flowers for the shop, so we’re looking all Spring-Time in the window this week, and it’s interesting how many French enamel buckets I’ve sold since I’ve started putting the hydrangeas in them. And now we’re down to one French enamel ewer, although I don’t like my chances of getting any more at a good price because they’ve become very sort-after and that means the prices go up. But I’ll see what I can find. I see that stylists in British homes magazines have started potting up nice old enamel pieces with herbs and bright flowers, so that doesn’t bode well for me finding affordable enamel anything on this trip, let alone ewers. But I’ll see what I can find.

I put out two old wooden printers trays this week, and they both sold the day I put them out so I’m positively looking for more this trip. And the nice heavy wire baskets that I kept forgetting to bring in to the shop both sold on the day when I finally did remember to cart them in, so I’m looking for more of them, too. Plus Deco glass, French copper, enamelware if I can, jewellery (naturally), French magazine covers and images, and any nice Deco lamps I can find. Today I put out a quite nice Deco lamp on a marble plinth and with a soaring bird, and that went straight to the front window It’s not the best photo of it, but I took a quick shot before it sells (which I expect will be quite soon). And finally we have the soda syphons converted to lamps back from the electrician – that took ages but boy they look fabulous so we’re very happy with them.

French Art Deco Electric Lamp

Now I just have to find some suitably stylish shades to go with them, and then they can be put in the shop. But finding suitably stylish shades is harder than you’d think, because there’s so much generic boring stuff about and I want suitably stylish. What is it with all the generic boring stuff that so many shops offer? Logic would suggest that this is what’s offered because this is what everyone wants. But is it? Do we really all want boring and bland and generic? I guess that’s easier than putting in some thought to design and aesthetics, but living in a lovely environment is good for you. It makes you feel good to live somewhere nice, and wherever you live you have the power to arrange that in your immediate environment. So anyway, I reject boring and bland and generic, and the hunt for suitably stylish lamp shades has begun.