Polish Pottery and The Blue Beet Root

Our church hosted a large Polish Pottery Event yesterday to benefit our local Crisis Pregnancy Center. It was such a huge success!!! If you have never shopped for Polish pottery then you were in for a real treat! This pottery is not only beautiful, but it is so durable and functional. Andy from Andy's Ceramics in Boleslawiec came to sell his pieces.

Here are a few photos on some of the items that were for sale.

There are so many wonderful patterns and these are just the tip of the iceberg. If you are ever so priveledged to take a trip to Poland you will be in polish pottery overload. I have several different pieces from all different patterns. You can mix and match or stick to just one. The possibilities are endless.

I managed to come away with a very large salad bowl, a pitcher, an olive tray, cheese and cracker tray and a beautiful spoon that was specially made by Andy for the first 100 guests that arrived to the event!

See those long skinny trays in the middle, I bought one of those! They are olive trays that are just too adorable!

Another special treat was that Barbara from the Blue Beet Root www.bluebeetroot.com

was here to tell about how she and her husband John, moved from London to Poland and purchased this 18th century barn which is now this fabulous B & B. Check out their website for pictures of the inside!!! So many of my friend's have stayed here! I took a trip to Poland when I first arrived in Germany, but did not stay here, however I can see a stay here in the near future. If you are ever in Poland, this is the hot spot!!!

I look forward to spending some time in Poland as well. Boleslawiec is not only a pottery town, but there are well preserved castles, fabulous shopping and beautiful sites to behold. Check out www.boleslawiec.eu for all your touring needs! It is such a priviledge to live to close to so many different countries and experience their culture! Come visit Poland, you won't be disappointed.

Antique and Flea Market in Wiesbaden

A few weeks back I went to the Antik Markt and Flohmarkt in Wiesbaden. I first stopped in at the Antik Market which was just fabulous, but it was VERY expensive. The delaers knew that people would come from all over so the prices were much more than I was willing to spend. After going to many brocante shops and second hand stores in France, I couldn't bring myself to spend so much.

It was however fun to look. I love that they hold the market in the parking garage. Even though it was beautiful outside, holding it inside would bring out shoppers even if the weather was bad. I must also note that it was a little dark inside, but that didn't stop anyone from buying!

I did purchase an antique bed from 1903. You can see the photo below, it was beautiful and I sold it within a few days!!

I next stopped in at the FLOHMARKT (fleamarket) about 10 minutes away and this was a gold mine!! I had such a blast and picked up some real treausres. I seriously love this part of living in Europe. Things that you read about on blogs are right there at your fingertips. We are headed to the Frankfurt area tomorrow for 4 new shops and this weekend we have 2 markets lined up. One is an evening market-ooh how fun! More to come!

Lots of fabulous furniture!!

Love these old clocks

I purchased that same piece (the thing with the glass cone) for flowers in France for 5 euros, and I love it!! I will never sell it! Here they wanted 30!

Love that french settee

The place where I purchased my bed

Next was the Flohmarkt in the REAL parking lot

My shopping buddy!

Love this Bavarian trunk -SOLD

Old German playset

3 demijohns-SOLD

My bed from the Antik Markt

A Kosmos Brenner Milkglass lamp! These are the original makers of the oil lamp!! Keeping this one

Picked up this handpainted rocking horse for 8 euros! Love it and keeping it!

Lots of Omas vintage linens!! *heart*

More linen-a man just bought this for his wife for Mother's Day! Sweet guy

Vintage Peter Rabitt-I sold this one right in time for Easter

It was a good day!

French Vanity with AS Chalkpaint

Love Missmustardseed and her inspiring blog. She introduced me to chalkpaint. Although quite pricey, it is totally worth it as there is really no prep involved in painting a piece. I have painted several pieces already and I can't wait to do more. I love how the french boudoir vanity turned out. First I started with Old White and then painted over it with Louis Blue. The vanity sold within a few days and I hope the buyer enjoys it!

Before photo of the French Boudoir Dressing table

And after........

French Market Cabinet Makeover

I love living in Europe, not only for the travel but for the super great deals on furniture. Here is an example of a find that I recently purchased and remade for $20. The cabinet was 14 euros ($20) and I had all the supplies and paint aleady!!! A cheap remake, but so worth it. Enjoy!

Bathroom Renovation 2011

For the past 2 months we have been sharing our guestbath on the bottom floor.

I am excited to say that our bathroom renovation is almost complete!!!

I have put together an album of our renovation from start to finish and we are excited about the change. Andreas has done a fabulous job and I look forward to the other jobs that we will hire him to do.

The bathroom was not bad before, matter of fact to most Germans, it was a nice bathroom, however not really our style. Take a look at how our bathroom went from drab to fab. Our heated towel bar is being installed tomorrow and with a few minor touch ups and accessories, our bathroom will be ready for use.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves! Enjoy!!

I do have to comment on my new built-in shelf. I found a bathroom photo in a magazine and liked it alot, so I did model my new bathroom after this photo. The magazine bathroom featured a built in shelf so waa-laa, here is my built in shelf thanks to Andreas!

I LOVE the new tile that looks like hardwood flooring! What a great invention, esp for a bathroom!

Andreas and his lovely wife installing the 80kilo glass wall!!

My husband picked out the HUGE shower head and bar, but I think it is going to be nice!

Scott and I picked out the old cabinet together and it is not 100% finished. It came with doors on the front, but he had a hard time stripping the old finish in between the cracks and grooves of the door, so we decided to paint the bottom a marble color and stain the top. I am going to hang a curtain rather than put the doors back on. I LOVE having my sink mounted on the top!!

I still have work to do on the cabinet once my beadboard arrives from AMERICA!! You can't find beadboard in Germany or in France; well atleast at the home improvement stores that we have been to, so when I found out that a friend that used to live here was coming back, I ordered 10 sheets of beadboard and had it put into her household shipment!!! So thankful for those perks!!! Also, the wall color is called Evergreen, but it looks more stone like in the container. Oh well, I actually like the color and it adds a nice contrast to the stone tiles!!

Don't you love the wires coming from the wall above the sink? We had Andreas run wiring for sconce lights, but do you think I could find any that I liked? German lights are SO ugly-no offense if you are German; I really love your country, just can't stand modern decor. We went back to France where we purchased our sconce lights for our bathroom downstairs, but they no longer carry them, so I am on the hunt. I wonder how difficult it would be to rewire some purchased from America? I like the ones in Restoration Hardware, so I guess we shall see!

We are also going to have an estimate on a new window, not sure why they put in privacy glass when this bathroom sits about 20 feet above the ground!!! Oh well, I can totally picture 2 smaller windows with some panes. One can dream right?