Company's coming! Fresh from France....market baskets, and hostess-ing in the bungalow

In a couple of days our dear friends who have been in France for 5 months are coming to stay with us for a few days. So I will be in full on hostess mode! I am eager to see them as it has been far too long and they have pictures of their adventures, from Paris to the countryside near Auvilar where they were living. I also think my autographed copy Of French Women Don't Sleep Alone written by Jamie Cat Callan is coming!
I am getting things tidy and ready for them. I washed and ironed the Alfred Sung sheets (Yes I had to iron them as the edges were wrinkled and said to myself who irons sheets in this day and age? )
That prompted me to go out and seek out some better sheets. The thread count that I usually aim for are over 500 but I found a set that were sateen and at 400 thread count they feel very soft and smooth. They look lovely on the bed under the toile du jouy coverlet.

Humblest of Humble Bungalow Guestroom

(Small but cozy!)

French books, magazines, chocolates and Perrier.

There is a small bathroom and a sitting area just outside the guest room but as I have said, our bungalow is small...the accommodation is very modest, comfortable, and we usually spend time socializing and going out. So far none of our friends have complained!

WARNING!  the next pictures show a very dated decor! Peek only if you are brave!

This bathroom is on the "To remodel list"...I want to add a shower and expand on the space but that means a general contractor and disruption so not this year, maybe 2011.

This bathroom was done in the late 1980's....need I say more?


We plan to go out to a local Italian restaurant one evening and the other we plan to cook an authentic French dinner of 5 courses! We each have a copy of the cookbook The French Market Cookbook:More Recipes from a French Kitchen by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde. According to my girlfriend this was spot on for the local area where they were living, as the local markets carried the food items required in the recipes.
The French Market cookbook is wonderfully illustrated, the recipes are simple and straightforward and as with so much of the French influence, it revolves around marketing, small specialty vendors, local produce and wine.

The Joie de Vivre book is not as much of a cookbook as it is a lesson on shopping, cooking, serving and eating the way the French do.

I am heartened that marketing involves baskets as I am a huge fan of baskets. I do have a variety of vintage first nations baskets but I am referring to the sturdy ones with handles that one can pop over their arm and load up with veggies, cheeses, bread and wine. I have several baskets that I use for a variety of things, from a lasagna size casserole to a small appie and a bottle of wine.

I have "planned ahead for my retirement" in that I ordered a French Market basket on wheels! I ordered this online as I couldn't find one anywhere close by. In my retirement I wonder if I will have more time to leisurely stroll to the Village? Who knows?

French Market Basket on wheels.

Post spa...

I am in that Zen Zone..my spa experience was stellar, a facial and a manicure, a soak in the mineral pool, decadence.......I came home to pop that free range organic chicken in the oven and made some mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, and gravy.....a few glasses of bubbly and I am ready for bed!

Have been planning a getaway to Seattle in March...and Sweet Tea in Seattle has suggested some shopping spots and dining too! I have admired her Tory Burch flats and there is a new shopping area with Neiman Marcus, Tory Burch, Louis Vuitton, Hermes! called The Bravern.
Thank you Sweet Tea your help it is much appreciated!

Blogging is interesting, informative and still so new to me, a network,  like a community of sorts.
I had a pen pal way back in the 1960's, we've come a long way....

Wednesday is an indulgent ME DAY....Yoga 1st, Spa 2nd...and Flea Market Style is having a giveaway!

Tomorrow I will be attending my regular Yoga class and after many downward dogs, and several sun salutations I am heading off to the spa for a facial.
I go to a luxurious spa in a large hotel downtown and have been going there for several years. My family have kindly given me gift certificates for birthdays and Christmas. I haven't always been a spa client. It's a luxury that I have come to appreciate since my 40th birthday!
I received a gift certificate for a 90 minute facial from Mr. HB for Christmas which had a 30 minute mini manicure added on as a gift bonus.  Thank you Mr. HB, I am going to use the mineral pool and sauna, shower, put on a plush terry robe, sit in the lounge, read magazines, sip herbal tea and eat fresh fruit and yogurt before the 90 minute facial and then the 30 minute manicure...
After which I will retreat to the lounge to let my polish set, sip mineral water and take a few deep breaths before dressing in my street clothes and driving home.
I will be in the Zen Zone, not rushing about, not working hard, not thinking about world events or worrying about our elderly mothers. I will banish the thought that I am unworthy of such pampering and put my "Do list" aside for a few sacred hours and give myself up to momentary bliss.

I am excited about a new magazine coming out in February...
flea market style is having a giveaway to celebrate the launch of the magazine...pop over to their blog and check it out, and enter their giveaway.

Manners are not what they used to be...please, thank you, excuse me.....

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

Marcus Garvey 

I am appalled at the lack of manners these days. I don't know if I should let this go or if I should hang on tooth and nail and pontificate loudly.
My upbringing was such that there was an unwritten code of rules that one followed. I was born into a middle class family who had endured financial hardship, during that Great Depression. My parents taught me at an early age to say thank you, wait my turn, chew with my mouth closed, not to speak with my mouth full and men and boys were NEVER to come to the table with their hats on! It would appear to all intents and purposes that their financial state did not affect their ability to acknowledge what was considered proper and polite. Courtesy and comportment still mattered.
I see men dining in restaurants and cafes with ball caps on...why? Are they bald? Are they cold?  Did their mothers never tell them that the hat comes off at the table? There is a time and a place for everything...OK wear that cap at the game in the stands, eat your hotdog, burger and drink that beer.
And while I am on the subject, where are the thank you's for gifts and flowers? A telephone call will suffice, definitely not a text or an email.
Pushing ahead in line up at a movie or bakery, what is that all about? I offer the person behind me in line up to move ahead if I have a full cart of groceries and they have a few items, common (or so I would think) courtesy, is it not?
I recently went to the local museum and was standing in front of a display, not too closely mind, as there were others also reading the posted information and a man pushed in front and stood directly in front of me totally obscuring my view...did he not see me?
I am getting worked up over this and I need to find that zen Yoga breath and put things into perspective!
I am quite possibly an over-the-top manner snob!
I phone to thank my host and hostess after a dinner party, acknowledge gifts and flowers, write thank you notes, sympathy cards and letters and send them in the post.
I have heard this before, in the presence of my dear mother...I have become a parrot of sorts but share the same values.
I am now stepping down from the soapbox and slowly walking away....pontificating no more, at least for today!

Simon Chang meets Marcel Boucher

Saturday: matinee, live local Theatre production, with Mother.

Outfit: Ca va de Soi taupe tank, Black trousers, Simon Chang jacket,

Brown Nine West shoes.

Accessories: Diamond studs, diamond solitaire pendant, diamond engagement and anniversary rings.

and introducing Marcel Boucher...the brooch.

Boucher designed jewelry and apprenticed for Cartier in Paris in the late 1910's and early 20's. He was transferred to the New York branch in 1922 and continued making jewelry until the 1929 Wall Street crash. He worked in the costume jewelry business with the Mazer Brothers and then opened his own small company Boucher et Cie in 1937. He had a reputation for innovation and exceptional metalwork, his rhinestones were exquisitely cut and enameling so colorful that the pieces were often mistaken for precious jewels. Saks Fifth Avenue carried his designs, and when he died in 1965 his wife, also a French jewelry designer, Sandra Semensohn kept the company going until she sold it in 1972.