Another French Guessing Game, and Yesterday’s Winners Revealed

French entrance 

Photos and Text by Corey Amaro

As much as I would have liked to have left my neighbor's belongings in a doggy bag on their doorstep, I would never do it. Though my other neighbor left a big sign saying, "When your dog poops on OUR doorstep, or on the street, please oblige yourself to pick it up with a plastic bag and throw it away properly."

To make matters worse, the neighbors had three pet bunnies, adorable fluffy bunnies, that ran around in their courtyard. The other day their pet bunnies became edible. The neighbors BBQ-ed the bunnies and had them for lunch.

Doggy bag As for what was inside the doggy bag tied up with a pink ribbon?
It wasn't dog poop,
nor dog biscuits,
not a brownie, nor raspberries,
nor my brother's fantasy baseball team,
nor a poop-er scooper, nor chocolate truffles, nor summer brown bulbs… Though those were reasonable, good answers, except for my brother's guess regarding the baseball team.

What did I put in that doggy bag? The winner, the one who guessed correctly was Alexis Lozano. "Nothing at all, just air inside a pretty brown paper bag tied up with a pretty pink ribbon."

The winner of the most creative answer goes to Annie of Bunny Bungalow: "I"m guessing
that the bag tied with a pink ribbon contains something from the
Brocante, perhaps a something depicting St. Francis of Assisi, patron
saint of animals and the environment.
"

AND, because your guesses were brilliant and made me laugh, I thought I would give you another "REAL" guessing game.

French brocante item

 Can you tell me what this is? It is about one inch tall. Dated around 1920s. I see these regularly at the brocante, though not in such a psychedelic container.
Again, the first one who guesses it correctly will win a small, French brocante, prize, and the person with the most creative answer will win something from the brocante as well. The answer will be revealed tomorrow morning. French brocante item

Happy Guessing, and thank you for playing along yesterday, more importantly for thinking I would never do such a thing as leave their dog poop on their doorstep even if I have stepped in it many of times.

French brocante item 2



Comments

109 responses to “Another French Guessing Game, and Yesterday’s Winners Revealed”

  1. angelique

    I’m not sure what they may be called in French but is it something to your stuff in or other substance of frivolity.

  2. angelique

    Sorry I didn’t finish the whole sentence there. It should read ‘is it something to carry your snuff or other substance of frivolity in’

  3. Julie M.

    The bunnies were the last straw…I REALLY can’t stand your neighbors and am praying for you!!! I’ve had rotten neighbors in the past. Thankfully, God moved them away from us. I guess they moved themselves away from each other as well. They divorced. Whatever the method. God blessed us by moving them far away…but not until after they’d cut down one of our beautiful trees.
    So, hmm…what is the little box? Something that would fit very nicely in a sling shot??? No, that’s not very nice…and with the tassel, you don’t really need a sling. : )
    Is it a snuff box or a lighter?
    With best wishes for you and your village and all of the little bunnies in the land…
    Julie M.

  4. Hasmin Cannon

    Is it a container for needles?

  5. Barbara Sydney Australia

    I think it is a manicure or sewing kit. Petite and delicate as only the French can make.
    With regards to your neighbours “kill them with kindness” they wont know what is happening and may just realise how awful they really are.

  6. Di Overton

    A Needle Case

  7. It’s an ETUI,a small sewing kit! How do I know? I collect them 🙂

  8. How about tiny, beautiful smelling salts, in case you feel faint from stepping in the neighbor’s dog poo?

  9. Alexis Lozano

    I won?? Cool! 😀
    I live in the Philippines, but I have an uncle going to Australia to meet us in June…which address would you prefer?
    And the bunnies…! :(( Fine, if they were meant to be bred for food…but…their own PETS!!??? Not very nice at all. D:

  10. Maybe a pill box? It’s very pretty.
    Oh, that bunny story is horrible!

  11. Maybe it is a container for
    small ivory carved toothpicks
    to use when one went to a
    fancy dinner and got some
    food stuck in one’s teeth?
    Of course, it would be used
    in privacy.
    Jann

  12. I guess the sewing kit lady was correct, but i was thinking its a tablecloth weight for dining outdoors so your cloth won’t blow away. The Bakelite is the same as my mother’s set of kitchen utensils from 1946–which she still has and uses.

  13. Jill Flory

    Maybe this is what they carrie when they walked the dog? And used it to ‘scoop the poop’!?
    🙂
    Jill

  14. Sewing needles?
    Lipstick?
    Pills?
    A lock of your beloved hair?

  15. Chris Kalina

    A small sewing kit containing needles, a tiny spool of thread and a thimble! I have a yellow one!

  16. welltraveled

    Yes, I think it is a sewing,needle case too.
    Beautiful,fun one..most are rather dull..
    And of course we all know you are MUCH to GRAND to leave the poop on their doorstep…

  17. Did the bad neighbors kill the good
    neighbor’s bunnies and eat them, or did they kill and eat their own bunnies?

  18. Mary Ellen

    My daughter and I thought it would be for toothpicks. She is 11 and said, “Whoa that’s pretty. What is it?”

  19. Hmmm…my first guess was fishing lure. It’s certainly eyecatching. Lovely photo at the top, btw.

  20. Miss Sandy

    I see my guess has already been said but I will repeat it, a French needle case. I think it belonged to a lady of the manner who far ahead of her time. She was a psychedelic hippie chic who wove her chatelaine out of hemp and hung her groovy needle case from it. Instead of silks and brocades she fashioned her wardrobe out of denim and gauzy muslin. She wielded her needle with skill embellishing her clothing with flower power, intricate vines with leaves in hot colors of the rainbow. She caused quite the stir as she sashayed down the Champs Elysees in her bare feet, denim tired skirt, gauzy off the shoulder peasant style blouse with its brilliant blaze of needlework. She painted a picture of the perfect French Gypsy with a daisy chain in her flowing locks and a dainty needle case dangling from her waist.

  21. Marci Larsen

    I am confused. Did the neighbor’s with the offending dog kill the neighbor’s with the sign bunnies? OMG that is terrible. Sorry I guessed you would leave the dog’s waste.
    I think you have enough gumpton to do it!

  22. Perhaps its a snuff box or some other kind of drug like cocaine, for a lady of course!
    Or to keep something extremely personal, perhaps from a lover, tucked in your bosom.

  23. sandra blanks

    I thought at first a needle case, but since it’s only 1″, that can’t be. Is it a pillbox? Whatever, it sure is pretty!!!
    Sandra

  24. my first guess was a needle safe, but then 1″ needles and yes they have those.. then it went to snuff holder, and then i thought maybe a perfumed container. People didn’t use to bathe frequently a long time ago, but then is it really that old? I actually have a bracelet made of vintage perfume buttons. They had fabric on them on which the fair maidens would sprinkle perfume so that when unbathed persons came around they could wave them under their delicate noses…

  25. Splendid

    dearest corey
    perhaps it is an antique vessel to carry silly putty. i always have an egg of the stuff in my purse for those times when i find myself waiting in the company of a child we usually pull it in half and see who can make a shape first ~ my favorite is making a small square like a die. What a fancy container this would be!

  26. Could it be a case for one’s pince nez?
    You know, those little fold up eye glasses.

  27. They ate your neighbors bunnies??????

  28. A pill container
    A fishing lure
    A place to keep wishes

  29. How about mini opera glasses, snuff box, mini foldup fan, face powder fluffy, rouge, lipstick, cigarette holder….can’t wait to find out what it really is!

  30. Jeanette M.

    I am so traumatized about them eating the bunnies I cannot muster even the slightest of answers.

  31. Denise Moulun-Pasek

    I think it holds a miniature figurine of a saint or another religious figure.
    Denise

  32. Is it a toothpick holder?
    Can’t believe they bbq’d the bunnies. Where are these people from? I hope you find a way to change them (or make them move away). I’m afraid they have more surprises in store though.

  33. It is a 1920s flash drive, to fit a 1920s computer and contain all a lady’s secret documents.

  34. Good Morning Corey~ I think you attach these to the corners of tableclothes on outdoor tables to keep the breeze from blowing them away.
    I got to babysit Nathan last night for the first time!!! Pure Bliss!!!
    XOXOXOXO,
    Shea

  35. Diogenes

    I cannot believe that they did that to the bunnies.
    Stunning…

  36. Cheryl Dawn

    I beleive it is a sewing kit. A Beautiful compact travelling sewing kit?
    I have been following your Blog for along time. I love your images and your words.
    Cheryl in Canada

  37. I think it’s for carrying smelling salts – when a lady swooned she needed to be revived!
    Lorrie

  38. I looked at it and thought sewing kit-“nécessaire de couture” but than everyone thought so. I think they were mostly used by soilders.
    Poor Bun-nee-nees…

  39. lipstick or rouge. Or a beautiful container for a custom piece of jewelry. It looks a bit short for a needle case.

  40. I have a little metal one of these, which contains a wooden spool on which you can wind two colours of thread, slipping needles and pins inside the spool. It’s not as pretty as yours and I used to take it camping, but I think that yours has the same purpose!

  41. M.J. Jacobsen

    I think it’s a place to put whatever you want…..like a curse on your neighbors, or a blessing for little bunnies. Other that that I have no idea!

  42. I am delighted to be the winner of the most creative answer in the “doggie bag” guessing game. Thank you,Corey.
    But neighbors who eat pet bunnies! Now that gets me mad. We don’t eat bunnies here at The Bunny Bungalow.
    Tell them that crazy Annie from Texas will pay them a visit.

  43. I love Splendid’s answer! I think it is a thimble case that a seamstress wore on a chatelain. Have a wonderful weekend.

  44. I guess is a lovers secret kisses holder…
    🙂
    Lovely!

  45. How sad for the bunnies.
    I think it is a needle case; so a woman can always be prepared to repair a torn seam or hanging hem. But then it could be a case for keeping ones secrets close to ones heart.

  46. It holds perfume. You wear it around your neck and it slowly releases it’s scent… that or a fishing lure.

  47. Your neighbors sound like French hillbillies!

  48. A snuff container… but I see Anglique has beaten me to the punch on that one…
    it’s so tiny… a tiny spoon… for drug use… ?
    I think your neighbors are heathens if nothing else… maybe they thought the bunnies were wild… but who in their right mind would eat an animal that their dogs had killed? heathens… that’s who

  49. Stephanie

    It could be used for all of the above. If it was made of wood it would be a treen. But what ever it is the colors are so lovely. I come to your blog every day for a bit of peace. merci.

  50. It is a place in which to hold a child’s tears. They are very, very important and one does not want to lose them. A little ribbon slipped through the loop keeps them close to the mother;s heart, where they truly belong.
    Whatever it really is, it is beautiful. 🙂

  51. ~jolenemarie

    Perhaps it is a weight for window drapes!

  52. Franca Bollo

    Kit beat me to flash drive so all I’m left to do is leave a little rant regarding the rabbits.
    I’ll preface this by saying I do not eat meat for ethical and environmental reasons. And to those who judge the neighbors for eating their rabbits … if you live in a glass house, pocket your stones …
    Unlike the majority of animals consumed by humans, TIC’s neighbors raised, killed and ate their own. I wish this were the case for anyone who chooses to eat meat. I think participating in the full cycle makes one appreciate the sacrifice as opposed to one who goes to the market and purchases their meat tidily wrapped in plastic.
    Also, the rabbits had a sublime existence compared to the majority of animals who are raised on factory farms. I believe when one eats beef from a steer raised in a feed lot they are consuming bad karma in the form of the animal’s misery.
    Reconsidering the today’s guessing game, maybe these little almond-shaped things were sold in pairs … one for each nostril, inserted when surrounded by offending odors.

  53. My guess is a container for holding matches and a ‘flint’ before safety matches were more common.
    A vesta in English. I just gained another word in my French vocab; une allumette bougie.
    This looks like the kind of allumette bougie a lovely young flapper would wear around her neck or strung to her bag.
    The cigarettte would be placed in the matching bakelite cigarette holder, a strike from the allumette bougie,and voila….Shocking 20’s cool!

  54. Monica Roberts

    Hmmm, let’s see … I believe this is one of those little bone or ivory receptacles, that open in the center by unscrewing the two pieces. Every French mother of any consequence had one for each child, partially tinted pink for girls, or blue for boys with matching tassels (although in early Victorian times the opposite was true, pink for boys for virility and bravery and blue for girls denoting daintiness and virtue). Within each, a mother placed the baby’s first wee teeth once they were lost, along with a lock of hair, and kept them forevermore attached to a gold pin worn near the heart. OMG … not bunnies at Eastertime! Sinners and heathens, everyone!

  55. I vote with the others that it is a sewing kit. BUT, I prefer to dream that it is a place to put a lock of your love’s hair. Or maybe some other memento to remember your loved one by.
    Or maybe inside is a little magnifying glass that could be discreetly brought out when needed.

  56. Maybe it’s a needle case, or a match holder.

  57. Drapery or tablecloth weights?

  58. A fishing lure sans hook. Can’t believe they ate the bunnies! What Bummies!

  59. I say it is either a woman’s nail file.. one of those ceramic ones…… or a fishing lure….a fishing lure that is made for some exotic fish off the coast…. but my guess would be a woman’s concealed nail file….
    I can not believe that the neighbors would eat anothers bunny’s that is so terrible…. they should really replace the bunny’s that is just so tacky….

  60. Monica Roberts

    By the way I think maybe the winning prize for today’s mystery game should again go to Anne of The Bunny Bungalow, due to yesterday’s massacre and the fact that she must be overwhelmed with grief and outrage at such goings-on. But then again Paulita’s answer is right on!

  61. babelfish

    Humm…this looks like something that can be opened, perhaps somewhere to store medicine, something precious? I love these 🙂

  62. Etui. Needlecase.

  63. I like what Franca Bollo said. I had similar thoughts, just in that people eat meat all the time but putting a *face* to it can make it seem nasty. We don’t eat very much meat ourselves, and I understand your initial horror and disgust but just to balance it out I don’t know if raising and eating rabbits is necessarily evil. We used to raise pigs and turkeys and chickens and many of my Mother’s neighbor’s still do. 🙂 I can imagine it would be shocking if someone had visited and saw our pigs and didn’t realize they were going to food for the winter. Just my thoughts on it. Hopefully your neighbor’s wild ways will settle down and you all can live peacefully next to each other.
    I am gonna guess the little doohicky thing is for tatting.

  64. A chatelaine. It separates into two pieces and inside are a combination of small instruments. Perhaps a stiletto, scissors, needle – more, less or none of the above. The clue is that you have displayed it on a piece of linen and I am an embroiderer. I see every charming small thing as something to do with the delicate arts.

  65. Looks like a needle safe to me— and too many others to allow me to feel terribly clever!

  66. I think it is a treasure holder or holds some secret potion to attract their lover. At least that is what I would use it for. Maybe it held secret notes for their lover. well you can see where my mind has gone. It is on romance.

  67. My first and utterly unromantic thought was “a toothpick holder”.

  68. Brother Mathew

    A jump drive?

  69. I submitted my guess ‘ETUI’ last night, at comment number 8, which I know was correct as I collect these little treasures … voila` (sp)… yet today I return and my guess has disappeared … Mmmmm the cyber gremlins have whisked my chance away, how bizarre ;(

  70. Diogenes

    Is it an early 20th century lipstick?
    I was going to guess smelling salts as well.
    Corey, why did you leave the paper bag empty on their doorstep? To convey the thought without doing the deed? I’m still troubled about the bunnies – it makes me think of that Glenn Close movie (Fatal Attraction) from the 80’s.

  71. Snuff holder?
    Judy
    P.S. I think I’m traumatized by the bunny thing. Egads!

  72. a sewing kit

  73. angelique

    Does it hold a lock of hair?

  74. angelique

    Or could it be a fishing weight/lure? They come in bright colours oui?

  75. sandra blanks

    Is it a holder for fishing hooks?

  76. Cindy Thompson

    A bobbin (for a sewing machine) holder.
    Cindy from Marseille

  77. I think it looks…. not terrible old.. and could maybe hold lipstick….

  78. A wild guess from someone known to have stapled her daughter’s girl scout badges on her sash – I don’t sew. Cook up a storm on a daily basis, but, don’t sew.
    How ’bout a needle threader?

  79. How about a container for/with fold-up glasses? Can’t wait to find to find out!

  80. Perhaps they hold a wee pair of collapsible sunglasses? Or vintage celluloid guitar picks?

  81. a container for smelling salts?

  82. i’m really baffled by this one…
    a container for pins
    something that can be halved and used as a thimble?

  83. I don’t think lipstick or lip rouge was widely used then so I’m going to guess lip balm.

  84. my guess is that the little holder is a small reliquary. possible holding a small statuette of Jesus or Mary. one would be able to carry the statue in one’s pocket and take it out whenever one needs to make a small alter to pray.
    and i have to say…ugh about the bunnies. ick.

  85. Fishing lure?
    I don’t understand why you put an empty bag on the neighbor’s doorstep. Did I miss something?

  86. Nora Grace

    Hmmm…a tiny little flask to hold a tiny little sip of a reviving spirit?

  87. Hi Corey,
    Can it be a nail kit? I think we have some old celluoid ones of my grandmothers. The color is so unique. Thanks for all the fun. Laurie

  88. Is it a glove darner/sewing kit?

  89. I think it’s a little sewing kit.
    I hope I’m right.
    chris

  90. It’s used to top off an unfinished bottle of wine….it’s a cork!

  91. I’m going to guess that it’s a sock darner.

  92. Wandering Chopsticks

    A shuttlecock for a loom. I keep picturing it darting back and forth, adding another line of fabric at a time.

  93. Cabra Seis

    hi Corey, a jewelry holder of some sort? don’t ask me why

  94. I think it was a small pill bottle of some sorts….headache powders???

  95. Is it a cocaine container? Or perhaps for smelling salts?

  96. Perhaps it is a shade pull or a lamp switch pull? Guessing games are so much fun!

  97. Not to be too morbid…but I will guess that it is a high falootin holder for a lucky rabbit’s foot!

  98. Lynne Stevens

    It looks like a needle case, Corey. Or, it could hold a thimble if it’s round enough.
    Lynne

  99. Could it be a container for a chaplet?

  100. Perfume holder.
    I am at a loss because at one inch, it’s too small for needles etc.

  101. wait! A nutmeg grater?

  102. Ren in AZ

    Could it be a holder of solid perfume?

  103. I think it must be a needle case.

  104. If this held a battery we would all be giggling to ourselves…. but, not from the brocante, so you have me stumped! Hee heeeee

  105. Nora Grace

    OK…upon taking another look after a good meal and my vitamins, it is completely obvious what this is. When you open the lovely wee carrying case, you will find a bonny wee surfboard for the more adventurous of the little folke. And some of the readers are right about the tassle being a later addition, because, without a doubt, the loop is for securing the case to the top of the tiny volkeswagon bus! Mystery solved!

  106. erika b.

    did it contain smelling salts in earlier days? erika

  107. Marie-Noëlle

    1- a little case to carry or send kisses. The older version of your pretty, pink-ribboned bag from yesterday.
    2- a case for a mini flask of smelling salts(but somebody has mentioned this already)
    3- A little container to pass messages to lovers(easy to drop down a pocket or whatsoever)
    4- a darning egg for glove fingers.
    5- a travel case for tooth picks.
    6- a case for dice.

  108. Marie-Noëlle

    Venturing :
    A USB flash-drive for ladies (created by a visionary genius)

  109. Hi there –
    I’m guessing that the beautiful item you showed today is a amulet of sorts made of a pearl-like material…the very thing one leaves a love note in, a note for anyone, not just a lover. The perfect package with its sleek shape, and multi-colored top which opens in half.
    The perfect packaging for a special note to make someone happy for no reason! (or as my mother would say, this is a “happy” – a gift given for no occasion, just to make one happy).

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