Remembering England & France 2010

I can hardly believe it has been a year ago today that Tara & I left for our 2 week vacation in England & France.

I recall sitting alone waiting for Tara's arrival at our airport and swirling inside my brain was me.... yes me... I am on my way to board an airplane to Europe!  

Growing up I never thought I would ever have the means or opportunity to travel abroad.  Tara's son and family were then living in London and her husband was not able to make their October 2010 visit, so I was invited to go.   

My husband encouraged me to go and I jumped at the opportunity.  
Thank you Larry!

Over the next two weeks I will be posting photos from our trip as I reminisce our incredible trip. I hope you will check back and travel along with us.

Tara & Tami's 2010 European Vacation

 Ready for take off...

We flew into London taking a taxi to the home of Tara's family.  In less than one hour we dropped off our larger suitcases, briefly visited with family and were off racing to catch the Chunnel to Paris

The Le Regent Hotel 

The Le Regent Hotel is located in the Saint Germain district. It is a 18th century home converted into a charming hotel.  It has the tiniest elevator I've ever seen - barely able to fit one person and their suitcase.  Our room was cozy and charming with a nice en-suite bathroom.   It was conveniently located near Metro & Tube stations, cafes & shopping!  

Our first morning in Paris 

Two things we immediately discovered in Paris, getting up and out at 7:30 am is way too early for the Parisian lifestyle and Parisian coffee is very different than American coffee.

We finally took a Metro till we found the above cafe open and were able to grab a cup of stiff Espresso... coffee.  

This is one of the few photos of Tara & I together as you cannot trust pick pockets.  The handsome young cafe clerk offered to take our picture.

 We were their only customers that early in the morning.  Actually other than a few workers scurrying to work, we were the only people on the early morning streets of Paris.

My favorite sight in Paris and sadly I do not have a photo to share, is getting up early in Paris and being amongst the cafe workers as they hollered across the street corners to one another discussing life while sweeping their sidewalks and preparing for their day.  On another street corner you'd watch and hear the greetings of produce and flower vendors as they made their early market deliveries.  What a way to start off the day!

After our morning coffee we were off to find the Port de Vanves flea market.

We had made prior arrangements to meet with Eric a vendor at the Port de Vanves flea market to shop for antique and vintage clothing buttons.

Tara, Eric & Tami

Eric is so nice and we bought several nice buttons from him.

We found several more buttons, trinkets and vintage jewelry at the Port de Vanves flea market.  We also ran into Nancy a fellow American that we knew.... more on that later.  

After the Port de Vanves flea market we did a bit of sight seeing...

Pont Neuf bridge overlooking the Seine river

Lovely flat apartment living in Paris - lovely window flower baskets 

Another view off of the Pont Neuf bridge

Colorful neighbor bar area - love all the flowers and the great vintage metal signs!  Note: many things were posted in English.

Well that's was a bit of day one in Paris.  Tomorrow I will share Day 2.  Please stop back by and visit Day 2 with us.

 

  

The Trumpeter of Krakow (Cracow)

 

Laurie's September 6, 2011 Button Floozies post of Button Floozies: Are you a button floozie?... Calling all Floozies shows us a button known as The Trumpeter of Krakow (Cracow)

Over the years, the Trumpeter of Krakow has been depicted on buttons starting in the late 1800s as Victorian picture buttons.  This button was manufactured in various materials, sizes and slightly different images.  

The story depiction of this button relates to 13th century Polish folklore.  The story tells us one day in Krakow, the ancient capital of Poland, an old watchman guarding the town from the Market Square church tower, noticed in the distance, a cloud of dust growing bigger and bigger as it approached the town.     

The dust cloud was a large army of Tatars.  The Tatars had invaded their city before burning it and looting, murdering and enslaving its residences.

The Trumpeter of Krakow's job was to play an fanfare every hour.  On this day, high above the town in the tower, the only thing the trumpeter was able to do to warn the people was was to play the same Hejnal (St. Mary's Dawn, a Crocovian hymn) over and over.  

 At first the people of Krakow were puzzled by the same song, but eventually understood that an attack was imminent.

The Krakow archers took their positions waiting for the Tatars arrival.  Surprising the Tatars with wave after wave of flying arrows, the Tatars were forced to retreat, saving the town of Krakow.

After this victory, the towns people found the Trumpeter of Krakow in the tower with a Tatar arrow piercing his throat.  He died with his trumpet clasped in his hands ready to play another warning note.

To honor the trumpeter, the Cracovians decreed the Hejnal to be played at dawn and dusk daily in his memory.  

Historical records tell us the playing of the Hejnal has been cancelled and reinstated several times. Today, the trumpeter still plays daily.

Starting in 1927, a live broadcast of the trumpeter playing the Hejnal from the church is broadcasted daily at noon on the Polish national radio station.

The Trumpeter of Krakow is one of many stories that have found their way as designs on clothing buttons.  It continues to amaze me how one can study buttons and tell history through them.  

Art, stories, inventions, world events, fashion are just a few things used over the years in the creation of clothing buttons - a timeline of buttons is a timeline of history.

by Tami Hacker, Vintage Connections

Wedding day... Sheena & Ryan September 10, 2011

My Great niece Sheena and her love Ryan were married Saturday September 10, 2011.  

 The week before was sweltering hot and we worried about her outdoor wedding... their wedding day arrived with cooler weather, overcast skies and it was a gorgeous day.

Sheena & Ryan with their daughter & Flower Girl Aislin

My Great Great niece Aislin -

Isn't she adorable?

The cutest Flower Girl ever!

Great Great Nephew Jace, the Ring Bearer is a cutie patootie!

My other Great niece Breanna - BEAUTIFUL!

My Great Nephew Caleb with son Jace

(father & son, a handsome duo)

The mother of the bride is my gorgeous niece Sandy - here with her beautiful daughter Sheena

 

Sheena and her girlfriends  = JOY

Highlights of their lovely wedding - even though you may not know them, I hope you enjoyed some of their wedding memories with me.

Nostalgia & Reminiscing

Well, it's about time I finally post to this blog... smile.  
The past few weeks for me have been overwhelmingly busy.  

It was a bittersweet decision, but after several years I recently closed my antique booths.  It was emotionally and physically exhausting.  Over the past few years I've taken several treasure hunt road trips and have made awesome friends!

Reminiscing....

This guy was a hoot!  We meet him and his family along the Highway 36 flea market run in 2010.  Dee, me and our fellow road buddies (see 2nd photo below) had competition tasks on our treasure hunt.  Dee & I were on one team.  We told this guy we were looking for odd things... can you guess what this was?  Maybe not as the photo is blurry.

This is "wood eye, wood eye"

Would I love to help you was his response while wearing a disc of wood over each of his eyes - there always fun people to stop and share with along the way! 

It's a lousy picture of both my sister Dee & me, but we always had fun road trips.  This is us the morning of what may be our last road trip... the 2010 Highway 36 flea market run trip just weeks before Dee was thrown from a horse breaking her neck, back and shattering her left knee.  After months of hospitalizations, nursing home, physical therapy and lots of answered prayers, Dee can walk and has gone from a wheelchair to occasionally using a walking cane.  We are so thankful!

Here are my 2010 Highway 36 flea market run buddies - Julie, Randy, Dee, Cindy & Gerald...
can you say
"good times!"

Oh, BTW, Dee & I WON the competitions!! 

 This was my last road trip with my mom and sister Dee in the Fall of 2005 as mom passed away in June 2006.  In our earlier road trips, mom often traveled with us.  Such fond memories.

I guess I'm feeling a bit nostalgic since closing down my antique booths.  I am thankful for all the memories and friendships given to me through my antiquing journey.  Thanks for journeying down a small path of those memories with me.

2011 Creative No Harm Button Swap Now in progress

The 2011 Creative No Harm Button Swap is now in progress....

Swap registration ended last night.  This morning I wrote all the participant names on pieces of paper

folded the paper

 mixed up the names and randomly selected swap partners

The swap ends on October 14th - Stay tuned for creative art swap photos once the swap ends.   

This is my first time hosting a swap.  I hope it continues to go well and everyone involved enjoys doing it.  You have been so kind in your emails and comments.  My heartfelt thanks to each of you!!

Enjoy and have fun creating