One of many New Year Resolutions was and is to update the stores blog regularly.......Let's see shall we....
I had planned to complain to you all about the appalling weather I 'weathered' while on my last overseas buying trip, but after being glued to the TV yesterday for many hours watching the horrific scenes of the Queensland Floods, I have very little to complain about! Our thoughts at both duckeggBLUE & quintessential duckeggBLUE go out to all affected by the devastation that is currently being experienced.
Now back to my trip......It was cold! It was SNOWING! It was SNOWING very heavily! Did I mention it was cold AND snowing? I have now lived in Australia for 11 years and haven't experienced snow in all these years......I chose not to!
I have commented on many occasions that it would be nice to see the snow again, the romantic idea of snow that obviously still exists in my memory of childhood fun had sledging down hills in the local fields.....and well, I did see the snow! Lots of it while in England, but it just wasn't as romantic as I seem to remember....maybe because I was actually trying to work?
France & Belgium were kind to me, only sleety showers and cold, cold winds.....cold enough to make me invest in a cap to try and keep the warmth in! I had packed plenty of leggings and jac+jack cashmere jumpers and scarves for the trip, even gloves, socks & boots, but a hat, NO! The picture below was my first taste of snow.....in Lille, North West France......I was rather excited to see the snow.....hence the photograph...little did I know what was in store for me when I arrived in the UK.
Many factories and markets were visited in France & Belgium with some great, but rather elusive 'finds'..........it was difficult on this trip to find exactly what I was looking for, or pieces that were 'covetable' and to my strict standards of quality, potential and individualism......examples of factory hunting and seeing the potential in some 'finds' are below.....
Factories are great, especially in November when they shield you from the outside temperatures and chills, where as the UK markets are outside in huge open fields and well, your left to keep warm for yourself! Now where did I leave that glove that I kept taking off while carefully sifting through potential buys!
My final selection.....along with contents of 'it doesn't bear thinking about'!
You never know what you will find.....
These have to be one of my favorite 'finds' from this trip.....dating back to the very early 1900's, they were originally used in a pharmacy - customers paid 1 old penny, and stood on the scales...as the scales say, "To weigh oneself often is to know oneself well"......
Still with the original paint work, a little bit of restoration work and these will be 'For Sale' very soon......great in a bathroom or perhaps next to the fridge....I suppose it depends which way the scales are tipping when you stand on them!
Dating from early 1910, this McVitie & Price (you may know them as McVitie biscuits.....chocolate digestives were always my favorite, how about you? Rich Tea?), is an original biscuit display cabinet, that would be used in a retail store to sell McVitie only products from........
I literally sprinted up the field when I spotted this 'find'.......I have only ever seen one before, in Paris of all places, and that was the price of a new bathroom!!! So I had to have this......
A week of restoring and this too will be 'For Sale' in quintessential duckeggBLUE.
More snow, this was just the worst day, very hard work, cold, wet, literally impossible to walk around the markets.....
Goods were left outside in the snow.....how else were buyers meant to 'buy' and sellers 'sell'?
We had a few issues actually driving mothers car out of the snow filled car park/field!!
The results of this hurculiane effort of a trip will be in store at quintessential duckeggBLUE from Saturday 29th January......we look forward to 'warmly' welcoming you into our 'snow free' zone.
My next overseas trip to 'find' more covetable industrial & antique objects is already booked...for the, fingers crossed, warmer month of May.
