Day 4: French (May Creativity Challenge)

Bon jour!

Today's challenge is FRENCH.  We use French in a lot of things.  French toast.  French fries.  French onion soup.  French braid.  French kiss.  French manicure.

I didn't get as much time to focus on this challenge today because I decided (last minute) to have a yard sale.  A few neighbors were already having one so I thought I would take advantage of the traffic that I assumed would come my way.

It was an interesting morning.  I had decided to skip the showering and "beautifying" of myself this morning to get a good start on being ready for the "mad rush" that seems to occur an hour before you are ever ready to open.  I got up at 5:15 and was filling up the driveway by 5:30.  I was feeling pretty good about how things were shaping up.  It was about 6:30 when I was satisfied with my preparations, but decided it wasn't safe to go clean up now since people are usually out for 7:00 yard sales and could drop by any minute.

7:00 am:  No people.  Not much traffic either.

8:00 am:  One person.  A whopping $1.25 (after they talked me down).

And so it went throughout the morning.  I vowed to shut it down at 10:00 if it stayed with way.

9:15ish:  A lady wants 2 of my bulky items as well as a few other things.  I give her a total and she says, "I have to go to the bank.  It's just up the road.  I will be right back to pay you."  She leaves.

10:00 am:  Things are still slow.  The lady isn't back for her things yet.  I notice that my Free tote is missing.  Not just the free stuff IN it, but the whole tote.  This yard sale is costing me more than I am making.  <sigh>

Later:  A lady comes by and wants to purchase one of the bulky items that the lady who went to the bank has on hold.  I decide to sell it to her because we all know that those "I'll be back" promises are rarely ever kept.

Later yet:  The lady makes it back from the bank.  She apparently forgot where I was so she was wondering town to find me.  I wondered if she would notice that an item was missing.  She didn't say anything.  Paid me for what was there and loaded it into her car.  While at her car, she tells me that she has the tote that the free stuff was in and wondered if it was free as well or if I had intended to keep it.  I asked for it back (oh . . . yes, I did) and felt relieved that the yard sale wasn't a complete flop.

I'm now vowing that we will close this yard sale by noon, so I begin packing up.

A lady stops.  I stop packing.  Another lady stops.  The first lady gathers a few items and realizes she needs more money from her car.  The second lady returns to her car but stops to talk to the first lady.  The first lady comes back to pay and realizes that in the distraction of that conversation, she left her keys in her car . . . and locked the door.  She calls AAA for assistance.  I bring out a chair for her to hang out with me in my garage.  AAA's faithful contract company comes to her aid.  I pack it up by 12:45.

Now . . . for my French challenge.  I didn't do much, but I did a little web surfing to learn a few things. I got inspiration at least.

First, I looked up Scrambled Tea in French.  Here it is.  My son helped me create this using Photoshop for the iPad.

Scrambled Tea looks so pretty in French.  Don't you think?  

I decided to learn how the French drink their tea.  I came up with very little on the subject.  It appears that coffee is more popular than tea, but tea is gaining popularity.  The tea shops are called salon de thé.    While it seems that the French drink the same kinds of teas that we do, when I looked up French tea, I found a few recipes.  For all I know, they could be about as French as French Fries, but we can have fun and try them out anyway.

The first one I found is on About.com and is called Cinnamon Tea.  

A blog called Southern Plate has a recipe that sounds really good.  I didn't have all of the ingredients and couldn't get to the store today so I'm sharing it here but I will be trying it quite soon.  It's called French Mint Tea.  I added it to my Tea Board on Pinterest.

What is your favorite French inspired thing?  Share it with me in the comments below.

Tomorrow the challenge is "Sincere".  I "Sincere"ly hope you'll stop by again then.  

Until then . . .

bonne nuit 

(good night).

Saturday's Yard Sale Finds

With the start of the school year and cooler weather ahead, it feels like yard sale season is winding down.  I have quite a few things to create with so, while I still enjoy looking for great things, I have to be careful I don't go overboard.  My goal is to actually repurpose or freshen up the things I purchased before next summer.  If I have too many things, my to do list will be too big, but who can resist things that are FREE or just a dime?

I am not a fan of driving from one small yard sale to another.  I prefer neighborhood sales or those that are in a cluster area.  On Saturday, I found two yard sales listed in the paper that were close to me.  I decided I was just going to stay close to home this time so I could be home at a decent time and finish some things at home.

I'm just going to tell you about the moving sale I went to.  I actually went twice.  This lady had so many beautiful things for sale.  I wish I had a house that they would fit in, but, because I don't, I had to leave them there.  :(

I did get a few things that made me smile though.

First, I found this teapot.  It still had the tag on it ($79.00).  I love it because it has an insert for my loose tea.  It came with the teapot warmer which I researched.  I found that it is sold by Stash Tea Company for $12.  For this set, I paid $2.

Lately, I've enjoyed collecting glass containers.  The more unique the better.  I love the look of grain or noodles in a glass jar.  I haven't decided what will be housed in this one, but I loved it.  Couldn't leave it on the table when it was only 50 cents.

This adorable teacup and saucer was only a buck.  I found a tea stain on it (what is a teacup without one, right?)  I think a little distilled white vinegar with clean it right up.

I'm creating a little tea corner in my living room.  This looks nice in the corner.  This is how I'm using it:

More glassware.  The one on left was 10 cents.  The one on the right was free.  Gotta love free.  I'm thinking of putting a candle holder inside the one on the right and some fall "potpourri" between the jar and candle holder.

Another freebie  --- :)

From a different angle.  I don't know if I want to shine up the silver or not.

After getting these goodies, I left the yard sale, but I couldn't stop thinking about something I saw there.  I have been wanting new dishes for years.  What I have in mind is hard to find.  I found one I loved which were way over my budget, but they've been hard to forget about.  There was a set of dishes for sale that were very much like what I was wanting.  The box had 10 large plates, 10 smaller plates, 10 mugs and 2 bowls.  I was stuck on the fact that there were only 2 bowls.  I would need more bowls.  After all, my family eats a lot of ice cream. :)  I left the dishes at the yard sale and as I was heading toward home, I kept thinking about them.  I really liked them.  I would probably not find something like them again.  I definitely would have trouble finding that many dishes at one sale either.  I could get other bowls to coordinate with the set.  Ok.  It was settled.  I turned my car around and went back to the sale.  I was just hoping that they were still there.

The lady at the sale recognized me and knew I was back for something.  I told her about the dishes and how I was hesitant because there were only 2 bowls.  She said, "No, there are 10 bowls.  I have the whole set.  They must be inside.  I'll go get them for you."  In that case, the set was definitely sold.

Then I got bad news.  She couldn't find the bowls.  She was in the process of moving and someone helping her must have accidentally packed them to go to her new house.  We exchanged emails.  I also gave her my phone numbers.  She seemed like a very efficient woman so I think I'll be getting those bowls once she gets settled.  I'm enjoying them while I wait.

I love the pattern.  I received several pieces of milk glass from my great aunt and grandmother.  I love them too, but they never seemed to go well with the color scheme of the kitchen (cream/brown).  The design in these bowls seem to pull the white milk glass right in.

The kitchen feels more complete now (although I'm never done).  I learned these dishes are called 'J'Adore Creme' from Laurie Gates.  See how well they go with my table and chairs?  :D

I think my fireplace needs some sprucing up now.  Nothing a little fall decorating can't fix.

Time for Tea
The other day I received a shipment of tea that I purchased from Teavana.  Since I had new mugs and it's time to put the summer drinks away for a bit, I decided I had to give my Strawberry Lemonade Herbal Tea a try.  It was recommended that I get their German Rock sugar.  I don't usually use sugar in my tea but since this one was fruity . . . and a lemonade, I figured it would work well.  I'm thinking next time I'm going to try making it an iced tea, but it was great as a hot tea too.

Thank you for visiting me today.  I hope you'll stop by again next time.