Travel

Les Antiquaires

Les Antiquaires de Notre Dame, Bordeaux via Year of Serendipity Challenge accepted, Bordeaux, I hear you loud and clear.  Sadly we haven't had too much time to explore while the shops have been open, but we've scoped them out and know exactly where we want to head back to.  That's the benefit and downfall of a river cruise wrapped up in one.  We've been to busy blending our own cognac and truffle hunting to do too much shopping #firstworldproblems.

We were able to sneak into one shop right as the shop owner was turning on the lights and opening- we had a solid 10 minutes to shop and get back to the boat before they set sail and we cut it a bit too close for comfort.  BUT we hopped back onto the boat (literally) with a few fun trinkets.

A small wood & metal ship that seems to be a souvenier from la Rochelle more than a few years ago.

antique brass boat via Year of Serendipity

A small painted gold pot that's about 4" tall and its calling to have some succulents or other easy to maintain greenery planted in it.

antique painted pot  via Year of Serendipity

And a pretty sweet clock.  It has a battery mechanism, so it's not some precious antique, but it makes it easier to fix up and I don't have to worry about winding or any annoying ticking.  The numbers and hands had me at hello.  I think I may try and freshen this one up a bit once we get home.

MCM bordeaux clock  via Year of Serendipity

You know, port hole window sills actually work quite well for photography.  I may have had to stand on the bed to take the shots, but work with what ya got!

styling/photography on a boat  via Year of Serendipity

Who needs generic souvenirs when you can come home from trips with items like these??  Hubby and I are both itching to get out there and do a bit more shopping.  I'm craving something that just makes me giddy.  I don't know what is it, but I always have fun hunting!

Hope you're having a great week too!

Les Portes

I'm blaming Hubby for starting this tradition.  Several years ago, on a work trip to France, I sent him with our old point and shoot digital camera.  Instead of filling the camera with pics of skylines and fancy meals like I expected, he had more pictures of doors than anything.  Fascinating doors.  Bright doors, fancy doors, paneled doors, etc.  So now when we travel together, that's one thing that catches both of our eyes. So, today I bring you: Doors of Bordeaux

Red-bordeaux-door 

wood-iron-bordeaux-door

Fancy-White-bordeaux-door

green-bordeaux-door

black-arched-bordeaux-door

blue-bordeaux-door

The hardware is pretty dreamy too.  I've fallen in love with over-sized centered knobs, quirky door knockers, and over-sized pulls.

blue-bordeaux-door-knocker

blue-bordeaux-door-chunky-handle

Now we only need to find some fun antiques to bring home with us!

Berkshires Treasure Hunting

I love and hate weekend trips at the same time.  Hate only because I come home to everything I wasn't able to do at my house over the weekend and then play catch-up, but weekend trips are pretty awesome otherwise.  This weekend was a girl's weekend (check off #3 on 30 before 30) with one of my best friends.  Antiquing in the Berkshires (Western Mass.) sounds like no fun to me.  None at all.  I hate antiques and treasure hunting and .....  yeah... needless to say, a good time was had by all.  AND we got to come home with a few fun treasures. I was a girl on a mission: end tables for my living room update.

Day 1 left me pretty high and dry mission-wise.  My only score was an adorable tea set (in less than perfect condition) for a whopping $5.  The set included only a teapot and a sugar bowl and I had plans for them the moment I laid eyes on them.

planted teapot

As you can see, the teapot-turned-planter is hanging out in the living room, while the sugar dish has found a temporary home on the kitchen window sill.

air plant sugar dish

B made out like a bandit on day 1, scoring 4 awesome mid century upholstered folding chairs with brass hardware that I neglected to get a picture of.  I was too distracted by my dream lamps.

dreamy 40s lamps

Since I didn't want to sell my kidney to buy them, I walked away and wiped off the drool.

Day 2 was kinder to me and and my mission and I ended up coming home with 2 very reasonably priced side tables.  One being EXACTLY what I was looking for, and the other was just too good of a deal to pass up.

This find was the best way to start out the 2nd morning.

living room antique side table

Although not in pristine condition, thankfully this little table is only in need of some minor sprucing up.  Much to my pleasant surprise, even Hubby really likes it!  At $55 it was cheaper and in better condition than ones I had seen on Craigslist!

antique side table front

The other table is a small, oval flip top table.  It's most certainly not antique, but it was only $20 and I think I can Tim Gunn it (make it work!).

oval flip top table

And here it is with my sexy reupholstered chair that I'm SUPER excited about.

oval flip top table and chair

Now I can't wait until the entire living room is at 100%!!