A few corners of our local Thrift Shop

 Welcome to "Troc de France", a place I love to visit, despite how cold it is at this time of year, you just have to remember to dress accordingly...like you are visiting the North pole.

I always started off by checking out the furniture and finish off here, in the bric à brac section.

There's always a treasure to be found, and most time for less than a couple of euros. Today I found a retro sugar dispenser for 2 euros.

More than half of the furniture come from thrift shops, before I used to buy on Ebay (last big buy was our  1960's butcher's block, our Conran couch and of course our Eames Lounge Chair).  One thing's for sure, I just love thrifting. 

cupcakes and ebay

For Mother's day, Marie-Kate and Alexis made some yummy cupcakes, the weather was still great and we had yet another barbecue.

Marie-Kate still loves her English school dress, can you believe it, it's the only dress she'll wear.

I've saved this photo for last, because my children think my new paintings off ebay are too much, and to make things worst, I've hung them on the stair wall, so they are the first thing you see when you enter our home....strangely enough, they haven't invited anyone here since...

glimpse of our newly finished stairs and le Prince Aventurier

Four flights of stairs later, and over seventeen liters of paint with bits and bobs still to paint (including whether or not to paint part of the stairs or not) we have finished the stairs, landings and half-landings. This is the view from the entrance looking up towards our newly acquired ebay painting, he's lots of fun and brightens up the space.

The first two walls have been painted in a neutral colour (dimity) and the door in blazer.

The skirting boards look almost black in railings, now we have to decide what to do with the stairs which were waxed. I'd like to lighten the wood and maybe paint the stair risers in a light colour.

The rest of the walls have been painted in Hardwick White..photos to come sometime today ( spindles still to paint...boring and long)

It's been a while...Stairs, bedroom, Ebay and barbecues

photo's a bit dark, but I'll get a better shot next time

After two weeks away on a fpso off the Angolan coast, Alain and I had a lot of catching up to do and he had a some time off from work which was way overdue, so we've been eating out, visiting Paris and just having a great time, we even bought a couple of bicycles and a new couch (second-hand off Ebay).

Our new second hand Conran couch, it's so comfortable and can you believe it's 10 years old

The weather has been glorious, so much so, we've been having barbecues most days, we never had so many down in the south so go figure.

The work in the house is coming on too. Our bedroom has been painted in Elephant's Breath and we love it. I did manage to paint the armoire Pigeon, my favourite colour. Still lots to tidy, so the photo doesn't really show much.

The stairs and landings are almost finished, hardest part still to do, but who knows, we might just finish it for the weekend. I've stripped the wax of the stairs, know just need to figure our how to lighten the wood ready for varnish.

For the walls we used Hardwick white, which is far from white as you can see, but after first having reservations about the greyness I really like it now.

On the first floor landing (our floor and that of Oliver and Charlotte) we are slowly building up a art/photo wall. The doors (that you can't see) are going to be painted Arsenic, which is something that I'm really looking forward to doing.

Time for a cup of tea I think. Back later in the week with more photos and updates.