Three or more Tuesday favorite paintings

Since I was a child I had an interest in the arts. My father followed painting lessons in the local academy and saw him do his paintings in the evenings and in the weekends. I have one memory of me being a model for him. He took me on his bike to class on a cold february evening. I remember the hot burning coal stove and the fact that I was wearing my hair in a ponytail. That I had it in a ponytail was special since my mom always braided my hair . I hated that and it was very special for me that I could have it in a ponytail. Helas the portrait of me is gone missing in the last 15 years.
The painting above is one of my fathers paintings. He was not a great artist but this painting is double special to me. He made it when I was 9 and it depicts his hometown seen from the little mount there was. It's called "Bilzen seen from the Borreberg". It hangs in my hall and I love the cool winter theme and the understated colors.

This second painting I found in a fleamarket. It costed almost nothing. It's painted on a wood panel and the frame is black with handpainted tiny golden stars. I believe it is at least 100 years old. It only costed about 60 dollars but I am in love with it. It has such charm. I love paintings with black and white cows on it. A reminder of my father being a farmers son??

The third and last painting I found in a second hand shop. It's big, almost 27¨ square.

It stood there in the second hand shop with a very havy gold frame on it. I immediatly say its potential. The painting is very well done and I love the braekfast scene on it. The eggs, the bread and the herings, the jug of milk and the cup and the Sanseveria plant. This plant was once's in every household. I remember my mother having one too. It is very strong and if your lucky it blooms once a year with one big stem of Ammaryllis type flowers. The painted costed about 150 dollars but I think it is worth every cent. It is the perfect picture for our kitchen wall.

3 or more Thusday George Jones cups and saucers...

I noticed recently that there is a theme developing in my latest buys...Birds...
I seem to buy a lot of things with birds...Birdcages, bird statues and now cups and saucers with birds. It's an odd combination if you like and have a lot of cats like me!

Years agoo, I was given these small cups and saucers by a sweet friend after I had been raving about them. She gave them to me as a thank you and goodbye gift after teaching a patchwork course.
They are so very, very sweet with the handpainted birds and butterfly's. I did not want to accept them since they one's belonged to her grandmother but she insisted and I have cared and loved them ever since. The porcelain is so thin that you can look trough them.

There is no mark, but a small handpainted number, so I know nothing of the factory.

Lately I came across some dinerware of George Jones. George Jones ( 19th century) is well know for his very beautiful and now expensive majolica wares.But I did not know that he also made diner wares.
I saw these bits of a tea set on Ebay and made a far to high bid on it and got them . The pattern is called " Almonds".

Then a week later I came across this very pretty George Jones cup and saucer and I could not let I go. It costed me about 20 $ but I think it is well worth this money.

In the same week I saw these darling George Jones cups and plates, also on Ebay UK...I love swallows and nobody wanted them so I bougth them very cheap. Postage was more expensive then the whole lot of 2 trio's and 1 big plate.

Sadly, as you can see, the cake plates where both broken in transit. I was so sad about it. The vendor say she has some more plates of this design so I am now waiting until she offers them to me for the price of the postage.

This darling, gay, yellow tea set is also George Jones and although it has no birds and yellow is not my colour at all, it is so gay and it was so cheap( about 40$ for the whole set) that it had to come home to me. I still have not found a place to put it ...but what a little sunshine it is!!

It makes you cheerful all day long!

See you next week and thanks for visiting.

Three or more candle holders

Despite the fact I hardly ever burn candles, this is because I can't trust the cats around them, it seems I have a lot of candle holders. The ones I show you are not all the ones I have. There is in the house at least another pair of slender wooden ones and a very tall modern single candle holder that I can think of.
The candle holder above is Art Deco in style and was made by a Belgian company called Thulin. I collected some of its ware a while agoo. This range called "Airain " always has the green and black color combination. A very typical Art Deco combination. I like the shape of this piece very much.

This candle holder holds special memory's for me since it was a gift from my late father. He had a friend who was cleaning out his garage and he wanted to trow this candle holder away. My father asked if he could have it because, I think this would be something that my daughter liked, he said. He gave me the candle holder on my next visit and I indeed liked it. I does not do it's job very well. I never have found a candle that would fit the thing so candles always topple over. So this is one never to be used but also never to trow away....

A very cheap wall sconce but I love it. It is modeled on an antique one. You can take the candle away and close the sconce so it will take less place.

Anonther antique Art deco piece. This is from one of my other collections. It is made by the world famous Val saint Lambert crystal factory's in there Luxval depression glass range. It is still a very handsome piece and I love the strong Art deco lines.

This last stately candle holder is one of my price finds in a second hand shop. I was abble to buy it for the equivivalent of 20$. If I wanted I could replate it and it would be very pretty on my table. But I like its shabby chic feel and I will keep it like this.

Thanks for looking. See you next week!

Tree or more Tuesday Bird bronzes

Last week I told you about a beautiful bronze statue of a bird on a wheat ear that was hidden in the last birdcage of that blog.

My husband and I where trilled about this silver wedding anniversary gift from our family.

The bronze is from the well know French artist André Vincent Becquerel.
We came across his bird bronzes by accident. A few years before this gift was made to us, my mother and I where at an antiques fair and all of the sudden we saw a bronze statue of a branch with 4 birds on. Its black base lay beside it. We where both immediatly atracted by it.

The base was signed by the letters AV Becquerel. We never heard of this artist before but since the bronze was not too expensive I advised my mother to buy it. Since that day it stands proudly on her coffee table and everybody loves it.
My younger brother, the man he is, wanted to know more about that Becquerel.
He surched and surched the internet but there is not much to be found. We see his work regulary at auctions and on Ebay and so, but he seems not to be a major artist.

There are two versions of his day of birth. Sometimes you see the date 1880 to 1940. On other websites you see 1893 t0 1981. Much of his work has influences of the Art Deco period so I would personaly rather go for the latter date. He has exhibited in Paris in the period between 1914 and 1922. That then again suggests rather the earlyer birthday since he only would have been 21 years old when he exhibited in 1914... I stays a mystery.

We have discoverd some other beautiful other sculptures of him, like leaping fish, deer, lioness and his famous panthers. He also made some bird booksupports and some radiator caps depictings dogs and hares. All these sculptures are much more Art Deco in style then the birds. But we mainly love his bird sculptures.

My brother was so fasinated by the bird bronze of my mother that he looked out for them and managed to find and buy some more. He knew I loved the one my mom bought and one day he found the one with the bird on the wheat ear in a small antique shop. First he offered me to buy it from him and I accepted that offer. Then when I wanted to give him the money he refused to sell it to me. I was very disappointed in him but afterwords of cause we found out that in the mean time the family had decided to gift it to us for our silver wedding anniversary.

So this one became the first I owned.

Of course I wanted some more... Trough Ebay I found the other once. The second one in the house where the seagulls on the waves...It is a common subject for Becquerel since I know of at least two other sculptures with gulls.

After a few years I saw this small one on the French Ebay site and bought it after asking my brother if he was also going to bid on it. We tell each other if there is another Becquerel on Ebay and we decide amoung us who is going to bid for it. We never bid against each other. Last september I found this big one with the whole flock of birds on a branch and managed to buy it. I weights a ton. But I love it so much.
A month agoo I found the last one. This is a sweety too. Look how graceful the grass bows and see the little snail that is crawling up the stem?

The birdies are just fledgelings.They look so young with hardly any feathers, huddled together looking at the snail that is crawling up to them. This bronze is more Art Deco in style than the other ones.
After I maneged to buy this one I said, now I have enough sculptures.I have no more place to put them...but I know I at least have my eye on two more. My mothers sculpture and the one with the birds picking cherry's that I managed to lose on Ebay. So I am saving up again for the next upportunity....

Just some pictures Alleen enkele foto's

A look from the kitchen on the diningplace.
Een doorkijkje van de keuken naar de eethoek



I love my cakes and my cake stands as you can see!! This is only part of the collection! Don't tell anyone but they actually need a good wash.

Ik hou van mijn taarten en ook van mijn taartenschotels. Dit is maar een deel van de colletie. Vertel het maar niet voort maar eigenlijk moeten ze weer eens een sopje hebben.



The "new" stuff in the kitchen. I love the high child's chair! Never saw one before like this.

Het "nieuwe" spul in de keuken. Ik ben gek van dit hoge kinderstoeltje. Zo'n modelletje had ik nooit eerder gezien.

a bench, a quilt and some cats

Last week Myrna, brought me this bench.
The whole week none of the cats where interested in the bench.

Vorige week bracht Myrna de klepbank die ik van een vriendin van haar gekocht had. De ganse week hadden de katten nog totaal geen interesse in de bank getoond.



Today I thought, I need to take pictures of the bench and I will put a quilt on it. That always makes a nicer picture. Not a second after I put the quilt on the bench the first of my Maine Coons sat on the bench...

Vandaag dacht ik, ik moet eens dringend foto's maken. Ik leg een quilt over de bank dat geeft altijd leukere foto's. Geen seconde nadat de quilt op de klepbank lag zat de jongste van mijn Maine Coon katten er op!

One minut later number two,Caitlin, arrived!
Een minuut later is nummer twee, Caitlin, gearriveerd!

Oh,said number tree,Patchwork Rosie, this looks nice!!
Oh, zegt nummer drie,Patchwork Rosie, dat lijkt me een aardig zitje!

I will fight you for a place says number four,Biggles...
I vecht voor m'n plaatsje zegt nummer vier,Biggles....

Me too says number tree!
Ik ook, zegt nummer drie!

I have won says Ushquebough and I am going to have a nice wash!!!
Quilts and cats...they are made for each other!

Ik heb gewonnen, zegt Ushquebough en nu ga ik eens eens lekker kattewasje doen!

Third time lucky Derde keer, goede keer

After painting the kitchen I wanted to tackle the antique pine cabinet in the kitchen. I wanted it to be a pale blue since that was in my eyes the best match with my Emma Bridgewater, "Summer Tulips" dinnerware.

Toen ik eindelijk gedaan had met het verven van de keuken moest ook de antieke dennenhouten keukenkast er aan geloven.
Ik wilde een lichte blauwe kleur voor de kast maar kon helaas niet de juiste tint vinden die ik voor ogen had. De kleur moest niet alleen passen bij de keuken en de open woonkamer maar ook bij het Emma Bridgewater servies "Summer Tulips".

But I could not find the right blue and the very pale blue I did found was to pale once I saw it on the cabinet. You could not see enough differance with the grey and white walls. The inside I had painted in a zinc colour and that looked all right until I put the dinnerware back. OOH what a horror ...it was all wrong.
So I painted the cabinet again with a blue-er paint but even that was not strong enough so I dry painted a bit of grey on it. It looked lovely and a bit shabby chic but... I did not go with the dinnerware...

Maar ik vond maar niet het juiste blauw. Koos uiteindelijk voor een heel stil blauw maar ik zag het meteen als het op de kast zat dat de kleur te licht was en te weinig blauw. Het interieur van de kast had ik zinkkleurig geverft en dat paste prachtig bij de buitenkant tot dat ik het servies erin zette..
Met een restje grijze verf verfde ik met een bijna droge borstel de kast weer over. Het zag er prachtig uit tot het servies weer in de kast kwam te staan. Deze kleur bleek ook niet goed te zijn.






I so love this tulip pattern but at that moment I hated it. It seemed that nothing would go with it . I wished that I never bought it and hesitated a while if I would put it for sale.

But then I decided to give it one more try and I choose a very vibrant pale blue (Blue ground) from Farrow & Ball paints.
I waited a month before it arrived in the store and when I opened the tin I saw that this would be the wrong color too... I was too "Miami" like...But the paint costed almost 50 dollars for the one tin and I bought it especially so on it went...
It became even more vibrant when it was finally dry and it looked allllllllllllllllllll wrong. I could not stand the color. I was in tears by this time... Finally I picked up the tin with the grey color again and dry brushed it with this grey paint and YES...This was it! This was the right color. Once the inside was painted in a warm cream the dinnerware looked amasing in the cabinet.

I hou zo van dit servies en deed er twee jaar over om het bij elkaar gespaard te krijgen maar op dat moment haatte ik het. Heb zelfs een tijd getwijfeld om het te verkopen op Ebay of Marktplaats.

Uiteindelijk richtte ik mij tot de bekende Farrow & Ball verven om de juiste kleur blauw te vinden. Na lang twijfelen koos ik voor de kleur "Blue Ground" en na een maand wachten was de verf eindelijk in de winkel. Maar zo gauw als ik de pot opendeed wist ik dat dit ook verkeerd zat. Ik waande me nl. in Miami, zo sterk was deze zeeblauwe kleur. Maar de pot verf had 36 euro gekost dus ik zette de verf toch maar op de kast. De kleur werd alleen maar intenser na het drogen. NU was ik echt in tranen en zag het echt niet meer zitten. Ten einde raad ben ik weer over de kleur gegaan met een bijna droge borstel en de grijze kleur van de tweede poging en ja, hoor dat was het!! Hoera!!!
Nog even de binnenkant in een warme roomkleur en nu ben ik weer helemaal happy met mijn tulpenservies!!
Het frisse blauw doet het uitstekend in de anders volledige grijs/witte woonkamer en keuken en geeft het een vrolijke toets.

Dierbare kunst Precious art

Ik zal jullie een hoekje van onze keuken laten zien.


Toen we zo'n maand geleden alles geverfd hebben moest en zou de decoratie ook veranderd worden en zoals men zegt alles komt terug. Zo zijn ook deze oude puddingvormen terug uit de kelder opgediept. Het zijn de allereerste brocante dingetjes die ik zo'n 25 jaar geleden gekocht heb. Ze hebben al eerder jaren in de keuken gehangen maar bij de vorige make-over zijn ze naar de kelder verhuisd. En nu zijn ze weet terug!

De tekening die eronder hangt is het geboortehuis van mijn overgrootmoeder. Zij had een heel bekend café in Hasselt dat nog altijd bestaat. Zo'n 10 jaar geleden is de zijgevel naar beneden gestort maar het huis is weer heropgebouwt en er is nog altijd een café in. Dat nu al voor meer dan 100 jaar. De tekening is van een kunstenaar uit de buurt van Hasselt, Steven. Hij heeft het huis speciaal voor mij getekend en ik kreeg het van m'n ouders kado toen we 25 jaar getrouwd waren. Daarom wilde ik graag ten allen prijze laten hangen in m'n keuken.



Aan de andere zijde van de keuken hangt dit olieverfschilderij. Een van de weinige vonsten dat ik deed in een tweedehands zaak.Het kostte maar 125 euro en het zat in een zwaar massief houten, gouden lijst.
Deze lijst maakte het schilderij echter te massief voor de keuken. Daar had ik het nochthans altijd willen hangen want met z'n onderwerp van brood, eieren en koffie is het voor een keuken gemaakt.
Nu zonder zijn lijst is het perfect op z'n plaats in de frisgeverfde keuken.




There for I want you to see a bit of my kitchen. On the wall are the old pudding moulds that spend years in the cellar. They where the very first brocante things I ever bougth.

After being on the wall for a length of time they disappeared to the cellar to be hung up again after we painted the kitchen last month.

The drawing beneath is is a drawing of the pub of my great grandmother. It still stands even after more then 100 years and it is still a pub. The artist, Steven drew it especially for me, so it had to be back on the kitchen wall at all cost. My parents gave it to us for our silver wedding anniversary.

The other painting hangs at the opposite wall of the kitchen and is one of the few good buys fron the second hand shop. It came with a massive wooden and gilded frame that was far to heavy for my kitchen. I love this oilpainting and with its subject of eggs, coffee and bread it was made for a kitchen.
Without its massive wooden frame it is perfect on this wall.

Hallo allemaal... Hello everyone

Ondanks het feit dat ik elders een blogje heb, heb ik besloten hier bij Blogger een nieuwe blog aan te maken en hoop dat er hier meer mensen de weg naar toe vinden.

De thema's die hier aan bod zullen komen zijn oa de katten, waarvan ik er 10 heb, het huis en het inrichten ervan, knutselen allerlei maar quilts in het bijzonder en dan ook koken want dat doe ik erg graag.
Ben van huis uit een creatief mens en dat komt als je en een creatieve moeder hebt en een vader die schilderde en fotografeerde. Sinds mijn trouwen, bijna 35 jaar geleden hebben een enorme hoeveelheid stoffen en andere knutselspullen ons huis overspoelt. Als je dan weet dat ik ook graag met huisinrichting en brocante bezig ben dan kan je begrijpen dat onze kelder van 100 vierkante meter sjokvol staat.
Daar is in de laatste jaren nog de Maine Coon cattery bijgekomen met alle mogelijke benodigdheden daarvoor. Ik kan je vertellen dat tien katten hebben bijna zoveel spullen nodig

als een hele klas met kinderen.

I had a blog somewhere else but decided to create a new blog with Blogger and hope that more people will find there way to this blog.
A lot of the entry's will feature cats, I have ten, quilts, my house and cooking.

Since I got married almost 35 years agoo, our house has been steadely filled with a lot of fabrics and a lot of antiques and since I love decorating the house the 100 quare meter cellar is full to the brim with lots of things. I think I got that creative spirit from my parents since my mother was a seamstress and my father was painting and making pictures.

In the last 3 years I added a Maine Coon cattery to our

house and I can tell you that 10 cats need as much then a whole class of kids.