Three or more Tuesday Vintage cake stands

That I like cooking and baking is well known to those who follow my blog or know me personally. I also like vintage glass and if you combine the two than you end with the vintage glass cake stands. As you can see I have rather more then three. All together I have 7 stands with foods and a few more without a food. Then they are more cake plates.Once in a while I invite my quiltladies to an afternoon of show and tell and then the cake stands are in full use. Don't the cakes look pretty presented like that?

Here you see a cake stand and a vintage cake plate combined together with a zinc crown on top. I also use them to put on the Christmas table.
This is a bad picture since it is a scan of a traditional picture but it gives you an idea.

The one below is a special one to. I collect Luxval glass of the famous Val saint Lambert Cristal factory here in Belgium and this is an Art Deco cake stand.
Today I made a cake, just because I fancied making one... What better way to present my last glass cake stand.....

Three or more Art Deco buttons

About a year agoo, Annie came to my quilt class with a big tin in her hands.
It was the button tin of her late aunt who died a while agoo. She was about 90 then.
She offered us to pick out of the tin whatever we wanted to have. Non of the other studants had a lot of interest in the buttons but I began to delfe in it and discovered more and more beauty's from the thirties. Even the Annie herself was amased what I discovered. Since I wanted so many of the good buttons I offered to pay her for them but she declined. Thanks again Annie, for these small treasures.
Above, the more colorful dress buttons. Most of them are in an early plastic and some, like the ones with the flowers are glass.

Some very thin buttons on the right. They are real flimsy.
On the left, even on the card, some sturdy buttons for a coat.

A whole set of buttons with birds. I think these must be bakelite. The birds seems to be handpainted.

These coat buttons are truly wonderful and very Art Deco.
Very big buttons. I think of Bakelite in very strong geometric shapes. Most of them are more then 1 inch in diameter.

And then , glass buttons, a favarite of mine. I especially love the little ball shaped button in the center with the black stars in it. It's a shame I only found 1 of those.

In the box where also some old spools and some buckles and brooches and a few metal buttons.
These are two sets of buckles that where intact. How pretty they are. I have never done anything up to now with all these small treasures but I enjoy having them, just to look at.
Hope you enjoyed my story.See you next week.

Three or more birdcages...and a babygirls room

Once again it is Tree or more Tuesday hosted by http://gypsycorner.blogspot.com/

Today I showcase the birdcages I have collected in the last few years.

These little vintage birdcages are all the rage in Belgium and Holland for the moment. Everyone thinks they are so decorative. I was charmed by them too so I started my little colletion with the white one on the bottom right. It once was black and is a cage for exhibiting birds in on bird shows. You see them quite often on fleamarkets and so and they are still inexpensive to buy.
The very small one on the bottom was my latest find. I bought it at an brocante fair last year and painted it white to fit the baby room.
The blue one is my favorite. This one I got from a forum friend who also has a small antiques shop. I love this one very much.
First all these little cages where in a corner of my livingroom together with the little nest and the oil painting of the doves. But then I found this light garland with the birds at Ikea and I knew I had to incorporate these with the birdcages to go in the baby's room. I makes a nice feature at night for my granddaughter.

I finally finished my granddaughters room. It took a bit longer then I had planned but I is ready now. It could do with some more finishing touches but it is almost there.
Next to the bird cage wall is the bookcase. I am sad I did not have a vintage bookcase to put here but I had 4 of these Billie bookcases from Ikea in this room before it became Anne-Fleur's room so I had to use at least one of them. For years I have been collecting Pop-Up books and now there is finally a little girl who will for sure enjoy them in the coming years.

Next to the bookcase is a little vintage desk and the chair from my grandmothers kitchen. I still see her sitting on that chair peeling potatoes and so. I also have her kitchen table but that one was to big for this room. I want to paint the little table white I think. This is one of the things I still need to do. If you then turn to your right you then will see the bed my parents bought for me to sleep in when I was a little baby. I painted it a aqua kind of blue and matched it with a quilt that I made myself and some lace Ikea curtains. The old red chair is to be recovered. That is the second thing I still want to do but I am hessitating to do it myself because it is a difficult but beautiful shape. This is one of my better vintage finds. I only paid about 35 dollars for it.To your left under the window, stands this also vintage and very small baby's highchair. I bougth it many years agoo to display the replica porcelain doll's in that I made some 20 years agoo. This one sitting in the chair is the very first and one I made and the only once I made handmade clothes for. The doll sits on one my very first babyquilt. It is more then 20 years old.This delightful metal flowering walllight I bougt from the same lady where I bought the blue birdcage from. It was just perfect for this room.Anne-Fleur's daddy made this drawing when he was 5 or 6 years old. I found it last year when we where clearing our attic out. It fits the room perfectly. Anne-Fleur's room was her daddy's room for almost 25 years !I you turn again, you see the dresser and the shelving unit. The dresser was bought when our daughter was a baby and I will now use it as a changing station. On the shelving unit sit a very special toy. My very special Cotton Rabbit all dressed out in pink with white kitty's on her skirt!

I love her!! Next to the dresser this beautiful hook with a glass flower. I found these last year in a German Ebay store. The thing still missing in this room are my two oilpaintings of my fifties girls. I especially wanted to be in this room but they are nowhere to be found. The lays for years at the same place in my closet and when I wanted to put them up I could not find them anymore.

This is my last birdcage. I think I will move it to the baby's room too. I now resides in the bathroom. This is a very special birdcage for me. My husband and I got it for our silver wedding anniversary. Whe where surprised by this gift until we remover the paper inside the cage. Out came a beautiful bronze statue of two birds on a branch by the famous French animalier sculpter André Vincent Becquerel. I will show it to you next week.

Hope you enjoyed my birdcage and babyroom story's. Until next week and thanks for visiting.

3 or more tabacco jars

Why I have 3 jars or boxes related to smoking I don't know. Nobody smoke's in the house.
But my father and brothers and my grandfather where smokers.
This first box was an Ebay find. I stumbled on it and it was almost to be sold but nobody seemed to want it. I was struck by it from the moment I layed eyes on this battered old thing.
It has so much charm. I guess it must be from the early Victorian times maybe 1840 or so?? Don't ask me why but it has that feeling over it. It is a dog kennel with a little copper dog in front of it. The box is made of wood and decorated with metal studs.As you can see,it is really battered and brused. On the inside you can see remnants of the foil that traditionally covered the inside of sigar boxes and it also has the dividers for the sigars.

Don't you find this box as charming as I did when I first saw it???
The second tabacco jar my daughter and I found it at an antiques fair. My daughter absolutely wanted it but she could not afford it, since it costed almost 150 dollars. But I also was charmed by it and so it went home with us. I know why my daugther wanted it. As always it was because there was a cat on it.
Once again it is a dogkennel and two little dogs lay at the door of there kennel that is overgrown with ivy.

But aldo it is a dogs kennel the cat is master of the roost by proudly sitting on top of the kennel. The back of this box is plain but at the side you see two ivy bushes.

Are'nt they sweet little puppies?

My third tabacco jar is once again a dog kennel. In our country I olden days you often saw dogs who had an old beer or wine barrel for a kennen.
This ceramic jar comes from a little ceramic factory that once existed in the town where I was born.My grandfather, who's father worked as a blacksmith in that factory had a tabacco jar like this. These jars come in two sizes and in two colors, green and golden brown.

We never knew a lot about that factory, even the city had little or no interest. After my grandparents dyed and the house was cleared we found several things from that factory but nobody wanted these object because they where oldfashioned. I took home a pair of candlesticks because I found them very charming and an old flowerpot. My mother took home three majolica plates with grapes. How ever took home the tabacco jar I do not know.
But the fact of the matter is that after a while my joungest brother began to have an interest in this factory and started collecting the stuff. I found this tabacco jar in Antwerp in a tiny antique store and my brother was very jalous of it but he took revange and now is an authority on the subject. He has a major collection, hase founded a collecters group and is staging exebitions on the subject of this majolica factory.

You now can understand why this little bulldog in his barrel means so much to mee. Want to see more of this factory ? Here is the link http://www.hasseltskeramiek.be/

Hope you enjoyed my stuff and....sorry for the dust!

Pampilles...

Today there was a fleamarket in the neigbouring town. It is only once a month and I decided to make the trip. I cam home with little more than a small box full of crystal pampilles.
You know I never knew the word for these things until recently when I saw it on a forum.

Vandaag was er rommelmarkt in de naburige stad en omdat het maar eens per maand ik besloot ik de uitstap te maken.
Helaas kwam ik met niet veel meer thuis dan een klein doosje met pampilles.
Ik kende dat woord helemaal niet totdat ik er een tijd terug op een forum van hoorde.

I could not resist them. I saw the Christmas tree glistening with these pampilles and bougth about 40 of them. I was a bit of a spend since these cost 2 euro's a piece or about 3 dollars a piece.
I love them but was a bit disappointed when at home, I inspected them more closely.
More than half of them had little pieces missing ....When I see the vendor next month I will mention it to him since he assured me that these where inspected and suppose to be perfect.

Ik kon niet aan ze weerstaan. Ik zag ze al glimmen in m'n kerstboom en kocht er een veertigtal.Het was een behoorlijke uitgave daar ze toch 2 euro per stuk kosten.

I vind ze schitterend maar ben toch behoorlijk ontgoocheld toen ik bij nadere inspectie ontdekte dat meer dan de helft van de pampilles kleine beschadigingen hebben. Wanneer ik de verkoper volgende maand zie ga ik dat toch zeggen tegen hem, te meer daar ik gevraagd had of ze perfect waren en hij zei dat ze allemaal gecontroleerd waren.

It does not totally spoil my fun since they do sparkle as much als the perfect ones...But next time I will look more carefull before spending so much og my hard earned money.

Het vergalt niet helemaal m'n plezier in mijn pampilles want de beschadigde stukken glimmen net zo mooi als de gave. Maar volgende keer ga ik toch beter uitkijken voor alleer ik m'n zuurverdiende geld spendeer aan zo iets.

Dress form

You have seen this dress form before in my topic about a beautiful poppy. But here it is again. I found it a lot of years ago in an antiqueshop and even when it looks to be a child size it is not. It has a bust and a waist!!! So it is an old miniature dress form.
The little vintage dress came my way true a student of mine who wore it when she was a small girl. The dress must be about 80 years old by now.
But now I have found another use for my little dressform!

Jullie hebben dit kleine mannequintje al eerder gezien in mijn topic over de prachtige klaproos uit m'n tuin. Maar hier is het nog eens. Ik heb het jaren geleden gevonden in een antiekwinkel en ook al lijkt het een kindermodelletje het is het niet. Het heeft nl. een taille en een buste!!! Het is dus een oud miniatuurtje.
Het jurkje kreeg ik van een oud cursiste. Zij droeg het als kind en het jurkje moet nu zo'n 80 jaar oud zijn.
Maar nu heb ik een niewe manier gevonden om het het te gebruiken...
I now use it to photograph the baby shirt on that I make!! There is a new little Etsy shop on the way and I will be selling these sweet little shirts in it. The shop will be called BlumaBlue and I will keep you informed when it opens.

Ik gebruik het nu om de baby shirtjes op te fotograferen die ik maak. Er is nl. een kleine Etsy shop in de maak en ik hoop daar oa deze shirtjes te gaan verkopen. Het winkeltje zal BlumaBlue heten en ik hou jullie op de hoogte wanneer het zo ver is.

Aren't these sweet old pictures lovely? I add some vintage or new lace to them and adorn them with vintage buttons and sometimes embroidery.

Zijn deze oude plaatjes niet heerlijk? Ik versier ze met oude of nieuwe kant en een oud knoopje en soms ook wat borduurwerk.

This is one of the latest shirt I made. It was a gift for my daughters co-worker who became mom to little Rufus!

Dit is een van de laatste shirtjes dat ik maakte.Het was een kadootje van m'n dochter voor een collega die mama geworden was van de kleine Rufus!

I just love making things for babies!

Ik vind het gewoon heerlijk om babyspulletjes te maken!

Vintage find Vintage vondst

A few weeks agoo, when I was browzing on Ebay I found this vintage Communion dress.
Nobody wanted it and because it was so cheap I bid on it and got it for about 40 dollars!

It arrived from the UK but it was to be an old French dress. This must have been from a very tall little lady since the dress is about 135 cm long. It is made in organdie and it has a heavy plain cotton slip dress beneeth it.
The whole thing was so complete. It had the little bag with it and the little cap that was reinforced with iron.


Enkele weken geleden was ik aan het snuisteren op Ebay, zonder de bedoeling om iets te kopen en opeens stuitte ik op dit vintage Communiekleedje. Niemand bleek het te willen hebben want ik heb maar één bid moeten uitbrengen en het was van mij. Voor amper ingeveer 30 euro had ik het in mijn bezit. Het kleedje was gemaakt van organza en er zat ook nog een effen wit katoenen onderkleedje onder.
Het kwam naar me toe vanuit Engeland maar het was zogezegd eenFrans kleedje. Het was helemaal compleet met een piepklein tasje en een mutsje waarvan de rand versterkt was met wat ijzer.

The whole organza dress was lovingly handmade. The intire dress was adorned with shadow embroidery. It was on the front, the deep seam, the cuffs , the end of the bow slips and the top of the little cap. Little pintucks gave room to the bodice and very full skirt.

There was a small belt with an attached bow on it. The whole thing closed by little tiny white buttons and the eyelets where also made by hand. All the seams where handsewn and the top of the bodice and the cuffs and the seam where added with the help of a point claire stich. (an open stich)

Het hele kleedje was liefdevol met de hand gemaakt. Het bovenstukje, de diepe zoom, de manchetjes en de eindjes van de strik waren allemaal versierd met zijden schaduwborduurwerk.

Met kleine ingestikte nervuurtjes werd ruimte gecreëerd in het bovenlijfje en de wijde rok.

Het bovenstukje van het bovenlijfje en de manchetjes en de zoom werden vastgezet met een heel klein point clairtje ( een open steekje).
Er was een smal centuurtje bij met een vaste strik. De rest van het kleedje sloot met hele kleine witte knoopjes en ook de knoopsgaatjes waren met de hand gemaakt.

The little pouch seems the be an afterthought since it has no embroidery on it. It is made of pleaded and ruffled organza and the back is of very flimsy muslin.

Het zakje lijkt wel een nadenkertje geweest te zijn. Het is wel uit dezelfde organdie stof gemaakt maar het is niet geborduurd. De organdie is geplooid en gefronst en afgewerkt met kleine handgenaaide schulpjes. De achterkant is van heel dun muslin.

The little cap is so tiny in comparrisson with the very long dress. It is fitted to the head but has a upstanding rim that is embroided like the dress. It has a bit of wire in it so that the rim stands upwards.

Het kapje is zo klein in vergelijking met de zeer lange jurk. Het is een nauwsluitend kapje met een opstaand rand. Deze rand is ook geborduurd met hetzelfde motief als de jurk. Opdat de rand mooi omhoog zou blijven staan is er een ijzerdraad in het kapje ingenaaid.

This all made me think of my own communion. This is me with my parents in 1962 with the fine Swiss batist dress my mother handmade for me.

She was and is a fine seamstress and I will always remember the story of this dress. For being a simple working mom she had and has a very fine taste and so she went to the finest childrens boutique in town to see what they had in the window for the Communion season.

Mom did not like all those lacy dresses you saw in the common shops. In the shop window she saw the original of this dress and thought this is the dress for my daughter.

She took a little notebook and made some drawing and some notes.
Then she went to a fabric shop and ordered 6 meters of the finest Swiss batist fabric. There where also some 60 little covered buttons on the dress that went from the neckline tot the seam of the dress in a long row and some pink eyelet lace came peeking to beneeth the buttons. I also had a double sleeve. A fitted one with lots of buttons and a wider one with the same pink eyelet lace on it. It is a shame the picture does not show it.
From hundreds of cotton lily of the valley flowers she made my "crown" and the veil had one sheet of pink between two sheets of white tule.

Mom was en still is very proud of this dress but helas I do not know what happened to it. I think she shortened it for me to wear as a normal dress. But as you know, at this age girls become little women, very fast and I think I only wore the short version maybe twice.

This is so sad. I would have loved to have had the original dress now.

There is one little story I wan't keep from you about this Communion of mine. As you can see on the picture I had long braids and I hated them with a passion. But my mom would not allow me to cut my hair before the Holy Communion celebrations. But the day after I went to the hairdresser and with two snips, there went my braids...A few days later my father had come to the constatation that all the pictures he took of my Communion where flawed. So I had to put my dress on again and the braids, that came home with me from the hairdresser, where pinned back on again and hidden beneeth my veil. You can imaging that I don't look to happy on those pictures!!

Het verhaal over dit vintage Communiekleedje deed me denken aan het verhaal van mijn eigen Plechtige Communie kleed.

Dit ben ik samen met mijn ouders in 1962.
Ik draag de jurk in Zwitserse batist die mijn moeder voor mij maakte.
Mijn moeder had en heeft toch wel een heel verfijnde smaak en zag al die kanten jurken met veel ditjes en datjes eraan niet zitten voor haar dochter.
Dus ging ze naar de sjiekste boetiek van de stad om te zien wat die in hun colletie hadden zitten voor de Communiefeesten. In de etalage lag het originel van mijn jurk en ze wist gelijk dat wordt het. Ze had een klein notaboekje meegenomen waar ze in het geniep een schetsje en wat aantekeningen in maakte. Toen ging ze naar de stoffenwinkel en bestelde 6 meter van de mooiste witte, Zwitserse batist dat ze maar kon vinden. Er zitten ook zo'n 60 met stof overtrokken knoopjes op de jurk. Deze zitten in een lange rij van aan de hals tot aan de zoom. Daarlangs was een rij fijne plooitjes (nervuurtjes zoals wij zeggen) en onder de knoopjes piepte een randje van roze Broderie Anglaise kant uit. Ook de manchetten van de mouw waren met veel knoopjes en wat kant afgewerkt. Jammer dat je al die fijne details op de foto niet kan zien.

Van honderden stoffen lelietjes-van -dalen bloempjes maakte ze m'n kroontje en de voile had een roze laagje tussen de twee witte lagen zitten.
Mijn moeder was en is nog steeds erg trots op deze jurl. Helaas heb ik haar niet meer. Ik denk dat ze ze indertijd korter gemaakt heeft om op zondag te kunnen dragen maar zoals jullie weten worden meisjes op die leeftijd snel jonge vrouwen en ik denk dat ik de korte jurk hooguit twee keer heb gedragen. Wat jammer want ik zou haar nu heel graag in de originele staat gehad hebben.

Nog één anekdote over mijn Communie wil ik jullie niet onthouden. Zoals jullie kunnen zien had ik lange vlechten op mijn Communie. Nu wilde ik die al lang kwijt want ik vond dat zeer kinderachtig. Maar van mijn moeder mocht ik m'n haar niet knippen tot na de Communiefeesten. Dus de dag nadien ging ik naar de kapper en met twee knippen was ik mijn vlechten kwijt.
Bleek naderdhand dat de foto's die mijn vader van mijn Communiefeest gemaakt had allemaal mislukt waren .Dus ik moest opnieuw mijn kleed aan en de afgeknipte vlechten werden met speldjes onder mijn voile vast gezet. Jullie kunnen jullie wel indenken dat ik niet op mijn vrolijkst op die foto's sta!!!!