Twerking The Louvre

Oh how our values have changed.  Everybody just thought Miley was being too lewd.  Guess that's just a 21st century thing.  If I looked like Miley Cyrus, I'd walk around naked all the time.

At The Louvre

This sculpture was my personal favorite at the Louvre.

Statuary Redux

Some of the statuary at the Louvre.  I loved the sculpture wing and would also love these scattered about my Peaceable Hill Farm.  I took many pictures there and will show more later.

Statuary

I love statuary.  When is too much too much?  I have many pieces.  I just love it. Martha doesn't like it in the garden.  I love it everywhere; tucked into crooks/holes in trees, under plants, in the field and gardens, porches...  I wish I could wax poetic about them like Keats.

Though not statuary, I once placed a child's china tea set in the hollow of a giant oak tree, in hopes that a child in the future finds it.

This little satyr holding a bunny is my most recent purchase.  It was just too cute to pass up.

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' - that is all Ye know

on earth, and all Ye need to know.

Ode On A Grecian Urn by Keats

Collections

I guess it's time for me to bend over and show my backside and a few of the many things I've been keeping tucked away.  I'm not proud of it and I'm really not a hoarder.  Really.  These are all leftovers from my days of selling antiques; stuff too nice to donate to Goodwill or sell in a garage sale (the cheapest people I have ever met in my life). So, it sits in my garages and barns.  My houses are full too, though I really don't do any primitives in my houses.  I just like them, though my collections run the gamut from sterling silver to folk art and fine art. This beautiful bowl is about 14" across the top.  Someone said they made them in graduated sizes that fit inside each other.  

And who needs an old egg crate?

I keep old canning jars and milk bottles in this cabinet.

I have two of these - tall and shorter.  I don't know what people do with these, but I like old windows.  It also has a large carved thingy with a finial that goes above doors (pediment).

This was on the counter of an old general store.  Mud daubers and spiders live in it now.

This hanging kitchen cabinet is photographed upside down, but you get the gist.

The top half of an old stepback hutch; the first primitive I ever bought.  It weighs a ton.

Well, there you have it.  I'd love to have an estate sale, but since I live so far from everyone, I don't think I'd get many takers.  It is overwhelming.  My kids don't want any of it - they either don't have room or it's not their taste.  They have told me to please don't leave all this for them to have to do something with.  I think I need to catalog everything.  I don't want them selling my Native American collection of totem poles for $10. when one of them is worth over a thousand (and I bought it for $10.00). I wish I'd never bought all this stuff, but it sure was fun looking for it - kind of like hunting for Easter eggs.

The Waning Days of Summer

I have an abundance of cayenne peppers in the garden this summer.  So what am I doing with all of these?  Making hot sauce.  I don't know why I never have before.  I am trying many different recipes.  I think I like the fermented ones the best.  In Louisiana, where they make their famous hot sauce, they ferment their peppers for three years in oak barrels. 

My problem has been finding bottles.  I found some online, but shipping was horrendous.  I'd have to be a hardcore fan or starting a business.

Though I love pepper sauce on many things, here is my new favorite.  I have to make this when my husband isn't here as he wouldn't eat it.  Garlic cheese grits, an egg and bacon.  Now I know you think the grits would be a pain to make, but I found these instant ones in the oatmeal section of the store.  They cook in a minute.  Lately, I have been dropping the egg into the grits and it bakes inside the grits.  All done in the microwave I might add.  

I am also making jalapeno pepper sauce (which is hotter than cayenne) and pepper jelly, to be added atop cream cheese for appetizers.  Mmmmm....

Why We Must Not Look Away

Lest we forget...

I took this photo in France;  it was carved on the side of Chartres Cathedral or Chateau de Chambord.  

Whatever side you are on about Syria (and believe me, I am all over the place), nations must stand together to let the evil despots and murderous dictators know this - atrocities using chemical weapons will not be allowed to happen without consequences.  In the 21st century, you can not slaughter the innocents with poison gas and chemical weapons and get away with it.

Never again.

More Parisian Brocantes

I found this sign lying on the street behind a tent at a neighborhood brocante in Paris.  It was fairly big, heavy, but I thought it would fit into the large hard-sided luggage I brought.  I asked the lady of the tent if it was for sale and she told me, 75euros.  I didn't blink and it now hangs in my kitchen, and, it didn't fit, so I had to bend the trefoil edges to get it in my luggage which security went through at the airport to see what the heck was in there.

I loved this mirrored bird sconce - there were two.

Bought some of these cute wooden animals.

Loved this big ape and would have brought him home on my lap, but it was not to be.

This would have come home with me if it were 200 euros instead of 2000 euros.

I had planned to look at old wall coverings and papers, but didn't know what to do with them and didn't want to try and bring them home.

Paris Brocantes

Thought I'd show you some of the things for sale at the Paris fleas and brocantes.  Mid-century modern was evident, but other than that, much like what you'd see at the big shows in USA.  I did come home with some things I'll post later.  The ghastly industrial lighting trend was also big; I think it must have started in Hollywood; I don't get it. I always look at toys.  Look and enjoy and I'll post more later.