Maison European Antiques

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Always a delight...outdoor markets

The outdoor markets in southern Cali are in full swing...most of the year the outdoor markets here are very busy...there seems to always be more vendors, buyers & the best to offer in the Spring & Fall each year. I shop an outdoor market here at least once a week...every week...my very fave is the Antique & Vintage Markets...I also love the fruit, vegetable & flower markets. Last week we shopped a wonderful monthly market, The Grove Antique Market in Orange County. It's a large, fun market set at the base of beautiful mountains. I met some wonderful vendors, talked about the most sought after finds, European Country items, talked about my blog :) and found some fabulous finds for Rue 27 Maison.
Afterwards, we had lunch at a wonderful & very authentic restaurant, Terroni with my son, who lives in LA. Terroni is on Beverly in the Fairfax district & specializes in southern Italian cuisine, it is very delicious, warm & welcoming. We had a traditional 2 hour lunch, Italian style, followed by fried apple fritters with creme fraiche & Italian expresso, a truly delightful experience and one of the very best Italian meals I have experienced outside of Italy.
Sharing with you a few faves from our morning at the Grove market & our fabulous lunch at Terroni...

Early arrival, grey skies welcomed us with cool winds, the vendors still setting up their tents...

Always a stop at the vendor who deals in antique leather & vellum books...

The sky is now bright & a brilliant blue as we walk over to the fresh vegetables..love the striped canopies and the friendly merchants

A fave vendor, Valerie Brooks has fabulous European Country finds...


Hard to resist the French daybed, above, it was wonderful....below, Casa Vintage from Sandra Portillo always has a beautiful array of vintage objects

After arriving at the market at 6:00 am, Terroni sounds perfect for lunch, the restaurant is fabulous with several stunning chandeliers, the largest hangs over the bar at the entrance...

our fave Italian sparking water from Roma...

freshly baked bread & beef carpaccio...

Terroni uses olive oil made entirely from hand picked olives, cold pressed Coratina olives from Puglia..it has a wonderful flavor

delicious flat iron steak with argula & shaved parmigiano

the end to a perfect lunch...fried apple fritters with Crème fraîche & Italian expresso


Terroni's Wine Room


Rue 27 Maison, with a few finds from the day...

Until next time...Cheers ♥

Friday, April 4, 2014

Topiary...crush

Always a fave...Topiaries, I have several inside & in my courtyard garden, I love them in all forms, love the rosemary simple ones as well as the floral varieties. I use them as centerpieces, in the kitchen and I love them on the mantle. They look great in pairs, wonderful en masse & beautiful standing alone. Topiaries go well with rustic French country decor as well as the more traditional & modern interiors.
Topiary is the horticultural practice of training live perennial plants by clipping the foliage of trees and shrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes. Sometimes geometric or fanciful, the term also refers to plants which have been shaped as an art form...a type of living sculpture. The word derives from the Latin word for an ornamental landscape.
Since its European revival in the 16th century, topiary has been seen on the parterres and terraces of gardens of the European elite, as well as in simple cottage gardens. Traditional topiary forms use foliage pruned and/or trained into geometric shapes such as balls or cubes, obelisks, pyramids, cones, or tapering spirals.

Topiary at Versailles and its imitators were never complicated..low hedges punctuated by potted trees trimmed as balls, interrupted by obelisks at corners, provided the vertical features of flat-patterned parterre gardens. The art of topiary has been in and out of style in England in the last several hundred years...becoming very popular again in the late 1880s until present day...and have been widely used in all forms...in the formal English castle gardens, Country Manor homes and the simple cottage home & garden.
Sharing with you some of my fave ways to use topiaries...

topiaries in the garden from Karl Gercens

topiary perfection from gershwinandgertie

Topiary love at Rue 27 Maison

Ginny Magher's home in France...

greenhouse topiaries via anurbancottage

flowering hydrangea topiary

beautiful setting from Tone on Tone...

rustic & chic from inspired design

topiaries from Tone on Tone...

Versailles...via the fuller view

Until next time....Cheers ♥

Saturday, March 29, 2014

joy of Spring....the awws' of April

The month of April has always been a fave of mine...I love the name...April....sounds very fresh and lovely...April always makes me think of flowers, the smell of rain and warmer days to come. April is also the month, a very special person in my life, my Father was born...I have always associated April with joy & happy moments, because of my Father's loving & kind spirit....and also my family's celebration of Easter. Living in southern Cali, we are blessed to have a very long Spring each year...April & May being the most brilliant months with beautiful skies, blooming flowers & trees and gorgeous green grass. I love the quote from...Byron Caldwell Smith...."Our spring has come at last with the soft laughter of April suns and shadow of April showers" and the quote from Shakespeare, "April hath put a spirit of youth into everything."
For me, the month of April, never disappoints....April always renews my spirit, promises & delivers the beautiful days before summer's warmth comes each year.

Sharing with you my joys of April...

gorgeous & fragrant lilacs...

Spring picnic in the garden...

Spring floral garland adorns the front door...via littlebitofsillynessreally

Spring al fresco...via worldofaerin

bunny love..via zsazsabellagio

lovely & delicate...Queen Anne's Lace via vibekedesign

Spring fleurs...via clausdalby.dk

the Spring table...via carolspinski

a Spring tulip graces the table setting...via boxwood clippings


celebrating the arrival of April...via wishflowers

Wishing you a joyful first week of April...Cheers♥

Saturday, March 22, 2014

collecting...a door to the past

Collecting antiques is a passion that opens the door to the past....One of the first questions you may find yourself asking is what exactly counts as an antique...Technically, an antique is an item that is at least a hundred years old. Furniture, art, textiles, decorative objects are some of the more popular antiques being collected today. Antique collecting is appealing (an addiction of sorts)...it offers the antique enthusiast the fun and excitement of hunting for rare and valuable treasures as well as that perfect, imperfect piece for their home.

As long as there has been a written history, there have been those who collected antiques. Religious artifacts were probably the first category of sought after antiques during the 16th century. Personal antique collecting, however, began to flourish in Europe and the United States in the 18th century, where archaeological finds and pieces of art were the main focus. Nearly anything that is old or rare is considered worthy of collecting...Most collectors seem to love history and strive to keep the past alive engage in collecting. In the past few years, French antiques & vintage objects have become highly sought after...rustic farmhouse furniture, decorative & utilitarian items are collected by many. A true collector of the past can always spot another with the same passion...the sparkle in their eyes & the smile on their face when they find that sought after piece of art, furniture or objects they collect.
Sharing with you a few things, I love & love to collect...