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 In my blogs I will focus on how to use crochet to create stuff that will make life easier or prettier... Read up as you might find some of them useful as well. Some designs will be for free and some designs will have a price... It all depends on the effort it went into making/researching/designing it.

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2021-07-12

My France crochet Romance-part I

I feel very lucky as my husband’s parents own a small but cute house in one of the most magical parts of France, Dordogne. And the most magical time to crochet is in the spring when everything is super green and smells divine and the most magical place for me is in the backyard. With a cup of coffee, snack, my husband next to me on his PC and the doggies rolling in the grass or sunbathing. That is my version of heaven. The first time we did this, I felt so charged, so regenerated for days after, like dream walking the rest of the days we had there. But it got even better over time. For a few crochet related reasons 😊…

-Vide greniers or Brocantes- which are similar to large yard sales, where everyone reserves a spot and brings all the stuff they don’t need in the house to try and get rid of while getting some money for it at the same time. In the first couple of years of going there we always missed these moments/dates and I was always sad as it felt as if it was a missed opportunity to find some hidden treasure that could enrich our lives with its beauty that only we could’ve seen. So when we actually planned our vacation around it there was no one happier or more excited than me and I just couldn’t wait for those days to come. And boy did it pay off! I scored some beautiful old French lace, old thin frail yarn, and some yarn in trash bags from an old lady’s house which her children were selling as she was no longer able to use it. As well as some new yarn that a lady just wanted to get rid of for a small price.

On the website https://vide-greniers.org/ you can find markets per area and per date… Or you might see these kind of posters around the neighborhood where you are staying:

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Do check it out and do let me know if you went, how it was and what you have scored!

-Neighbors are ‘a treasure in hiding’. Another reason we were at the yard sale was that we needed some cabinets or armoires for our clothes and we wanted to stay with the spirit of the house which was ‘old and French’, not necessarily antique. As we didn’t find anything we could freshen up or repurpose, we were disappointed but not discouraged as we have time to find something we would like. Luckily my father in law is quite well connected in the neighborhood as he likes to chat up anybody he sees in his good French, and people like that about him. He heard via the grapevine of neighbors that some acquaintances are clearing up a house of their mother who passed away and they had a few cabinets to check out. So we went to see what was on offer, no expecting a lot. It felt kind of weird to go and see a house where up until recently a woman lived with all her stuff still possibly there. But luckily the house was cleared up from any personal belongings and it wasn’t as weird as I thought it would be. But one thing they haven’t removed that I still found very personal were crocheted white medium-yarn curtains in her bedroom. Beautiful and heavy, obviously labor of love, they hung on those windows letting in the warm sun rays and giving the empty room still a feeling of home. I was quite taken by that image, and felt soooo bad I didn’t have my camera with me to capture the moment… Would’ve been post card worthy! So I asked the daughter of the lady about them: who made them, how old were they, have they hung there all her life and I commented how a beautiful legacy she left to them, as I would know it being a crocheter myself. She was quite surprised about my comments as clearly she didn’t see it the same way… In the end we got two large armoires for a super small price and everyone was happy, we didn’t haggle but payed what they asked for it as it was low in our opinion anyways. 
When the furniture arrived to the house there was a surprise for me! The lady was touched by my words and thought that it is best that someone enjoys the curtains as much as her mother did and give them a beautiful home, and she decided that should be me! In the bag where some other crocheted items her mother also made over time and she thought maybe even some inherited ones… My God, I was flabbergasted and didn’t know what to say, even got emotional, which her husband saw and told me all she wanted was a photo once we put it up. Which I wasn’t going to deny by any means! I posted it in couple of the crochet groups on FB and within a day I had >3000 likes and a lot of comments on how lucky I am and better believe it, that I did feel very lucky and privileged to be gifted ~70 year old curtains in a pristine condition to give them a home for the next 70 years…

Here is a photo I made then, but due to Covid still haven’t had time to go back, sort it out and clean it up to be white again…
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Do you have similar stories/experiences/scores you want to share? I always get excited seeing what people find on yard sales or similar! Share photos if you have!

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