Inspiration and shabby chic

There’s such imagination, charm and photographic talent among the vendors and collectors of vintage and shabby chic that wandering around the internet sites that radiate from the stylish Provence deco blogs is pure escapism. Doors open upon doors. One of my favourites is 52 Flea. It’s written by Laura Kaufmann, who describes herself as ‘a life long collector of objects with history and soul’, and creates a distinctly French ambiance from her home in the north-eastern USA. She has such a sure eye for the quirky, and the possibilities of composition, that every picture tells a story.

I've taken the liberty of making a collage (above) of some of her photographs that are most poignantly relevant to the world I have tried to portray in The Lantern. When I first saw her picture of this rusty pump-tap, bookshelf, lantern, candlestick holder and bookend, it was uncanny - as if these odd items had been brought together expressly for the book: the found objects in the house from which the tale was woven.

Click here for Laura’s whole post, titled Outside Sweet Pea’s Home.

My narrator also has a runaway collecting habit, one with which I suspect she would empathise:

         We filled the main house with relics and prizes from the local brocantes, the second hand bric-a-brac markets. However badly rusted, flaking, dented it was, we were charmed by each item. Cast-offs, objects near the end of their life, their usefulness already given to other people in other settings, could play out their final years for us, until they crumbled finally into the dust which fell steadily from the ceilings and walls. 

                                                                      

                                                                                From The Lantern

 

Laura's blue-purple medicine bottles, (click here for her post) will also play their part in the story. And the way she notes the sun shining through the amethyst glass and takes us further into a world of delectable imagination with her anticipation that they will come into their own in spring ‘as part of a vignette with lilacs and violets’ is a perfect example of why I tell myself that such enjoyable meandering around the blogsphere could never be time rashly stolen from work.

For here is a rich source of detail and inspiration for any writer. Who could possibly be bored or stuck or lacking in spark when there are such treats so freely available? This is a blog trail through a sensory paradise, starting perhaps at French Essence written by Australian journalist Vicki Archer or Chic Provence by interior designer Kit Golson. Travel on through their blog rolls to go on into other landscapes full of curiosities. Give yourself plenty of time, and prepare to lose yourself in glorious fabrics, the rustic, rusty and fantastical, dream houses and dreamier settings. And don’t forget your notebook.

Click here to visit 52 Flea.

Click here to visit French Essence

Click here to visit Chic Provence

All photographs are copyright Laura@52Flea