What Do You Do with French Linen and Hemp?

linen and hemp


 The antique dealer was genuinely puzzled as I loaded bag after bag of his old linen and hemp towels and sheets, "What do you do with these? Do you sew?" 

I felt cheeky when I replied, "Other than wrapping it around me while walking in the garden when there is a full moon? I use it for what it was meant for bagging grains, drying dishes, covering a mattress, or bread rising, as a tablecloth, and or wrapping up a dead pig.

He laughed, "A dead pig?"

"Of course," I teased, "Back in the day they did, you know."

 

French antique linen and hemp

 

 

stacked linen

 

Ask me, go ahead, ask me how many times I folded and unfolded these to fit inside the dome.

Folded linen

 

Then because the linen has a mind of its own, it fell over.

The Tower of Babel heard a few new words.

 

Linen and hemp towels

 

I added a rusty key and velvet pin cushion apple to the linen tower. Next, I started to stuff the tower in the dome.

My original idea was to stand on the kitchen counter and put the dome over the tower.

But that wasn't going to work. You see, I don't think things through. I figure it out as I go.

 

 

Hemp towels

 

But that damn apple pin cushion would not stay straight. Yes, I swore at that forbidden fruit, sneaky little thing!

Sure, I could have pinned it on, but hey, I didn't think of that until later.

 

 

linens

 

Since putting the dome over the tower of linen was not a happening idea, I stuffed it instead… forgetting to put the velvet apple pin cushion in first. Ding Dong is my middle name.

 

French Antique glass dome

 

At last: linen and hemp dishtowels were stuffed inside a glass dome.

Kitchen counter art and a velvet apple not to be used in a pie.

 

 

Madame Provencal

Then funny enough, I heard a knock at the front door. Turning around, I saw Madame Provencal. Holding her market basket tucked in her elbow, she said, "Tsk, tsk, tsk… linen under a glass dome… Corey, Corey, Corey, I am sooooo disappointed in you! Running around in the garden with nothing on but a linen sheet is more your style. Please do not disappoint me now."

 

I hugged her, ran outside, and frightened my neighbors with no linens in sight.

 



Comments

35 responses to “What Do You Do with French Linen and Hemp?”

  1. I must look for some next time I am in France.Is it as expensive as I fear? We can get it through ebay but a tower such of yours would be out of my budget!

  2. Your tower of linen looked very kitchen counter art but I think giving the neighbors something to talk about is more exciting.

  3. Well, didn’t see you running through your garden in linen sheaves (or was it a towel, I forget), but your tale of the linen tower under the bell jar made me giggle laudly. Merci! Happy Sunday! 🙂

  4. Corey
    Your neighbors would probably say
    “Oh qui blonde américaine folle” “En français
    nous aimons les toiles empilées si chics”
    and I must agree I do like the stacked linens in the glass dome — I am going to look for a dome tall but not to wide I love that idea, and always liked how you placed your dishes in them too, my kitchen cabinets are so small – it will look good – be clean and not take up precious space,,, thank you Corey for the artsy touch
    Joanny
    Portland Ore

  5. Your posts always put a big smile on my face!! Your neighbors are probably still talking and perhaps writing about you on their blog :)!!! Please write a book Corey!!

  6. Julie Ann Evins

    I think had you added champagne to those mimosa’s your linen tower would have behaved better. If it didn’t you wouldn’t have worried and as for running in the garden, well you would not have given that a second thought ! Jx

  7. You are so funny!! I love the linen under the dome!! I also love the velvet peach and the old key! How wonderful it must be to find such beautiful linen, I am so envious!!! I keep all my linen in a huge basket in my kitchen, on a bench. It doesn’t look French, even though I want it to!!!!!
    Have a nice weekend, enjoy wrapping yourself in your linen and giving the neighbors something to look at!!!!!
    Cheers,
    Margaret B

  8. Jeanette M.

    What a chuckle I had this morning while reading your post. Very enjoyable. Love the results of your linen experiment – it’s got my creative juices flowing.

  9. Oh, I just had to laugh as I read this post. Isn’t it funny the attempts we’ll go through to achieve something just as we envisioned it? I can especially relate to the little pincushion falling over. Too funny.

  10. You always come up with the best !!!!!

  11. Styling trials & tribs . . . I’m so glad you’re game.

  12. Oh, Corey, what a fun start to my day! 🙂 I love the way you can turn the ordinary on its head and bring laughter bubbling to the surface.
    What IS on your bucket list?

  13. you are such a nut. one of the great things about you.

  14. Yum, linens-I love to display and use them, especially in fall/winter. Is that the same glass dome you used in the old kitchen for the white plates? Good for you making the neighbors talk. Got to keep them wondering about that blonde American lady!

  15. Boy am I going to hunt down old linen next summer. You inspire me! My European husband said: What are you going to do with old linen napkins and towels? I said I was goint to stroke it and hang it and fold it and unfold it and look at it and FEEL it and when I had enough of that, I would USE it.
    As I am nifty with a needle, I may even TRANSFORM some of it.
    So there!
    Merci Corey pour les images et le texte qui me font rêver et qui me donnent le goût de FAIRE.
    By the way, I wouldn’t mind some of that Ravel pottery on my balcony and around my front door? Are they an arm, a leg or an arm and a leg?

  16. If I was a thief and lived in France, I might be tempted to sneak into your home and steal your linen tower – glass dome and all. And I’d have to search for that apple, too!

  17. Corey,
    What a unique way to display your linen! Plus, it will keep them dust-free. I love how your mind works. 🙂
    Marilyn (in Dallas)

  18. I understand! Often times when I’m trying to do something I can’t make it work the way I envisioned! I like what you were doing, looks pretty cool. Hope you had fun in the garden!

  19. Check out what I did with mine once… http://roxanestoner.blogspot.com/2008/03/sariette.html . Maybe you could organize a party “Wear your own french linen Party”. Costume can be wrapped on location. Then your neighboors will have more things to talk about… You sure know how to have fun.

  20. You made me laugh out loud again ! You´are soooo funny, Corey, you should be named Corey Humoro.

  21. I just found your Blog and I’m already loving it!
    I just started blogging myself, I’m planning on moving to Paris for six months next year…crazy idea but I’m very excited.
    Here’s my blog, maybe I can get some feedback from people that have gone through this process already?
    Thanks!
    Sylvia
    http://projectparis2010.blogspot.com/

  22. Corey – you began my day with a laugh! I could just imagine trying to do artful things with that beautiful linen which refused to behave! It looks lovely in it’s cloche … but is the key there too?

  23. Corey, I understand your desire for a promenade around the garden but please consider at least putting on some nice vintage lace bloomers with your linen shawl. You don’t want to catch your death of cold before your Texas trip! :]
    Love those linens and that old key. You’ve got such a terrific eye!

  24. How funny and how cheeky. From the brief glimpses I see of the inside of your home it is all so casually elegant and brocante-lovely. But seeing the effort in the linen under glass makes me feel a bit better because my few touches of artistry in my own home and the effort they inevitably take. I always endeavor to make my touches look effortless but somehow I always see the trial and error and time it took add my flair.

  25. Corey, You always give me a good giggle!! Hope it wasn’t to cold out. Such creativity and so artistice. If all else fails stuff it!

  26. I completely agree with Madame. Old linens are NOT meant to be put under glass domes. They are meant to be sensuously fondled, to be caressed gently with fingertips and yes,
    even wrapped seductively around one’s warm naked body.
    But under glass domes? Non! Non! Non!

  27. Linda Hanselman

    Great idea! I have a dome too and i am always changing and finding something I think is interesting to put under it.

  28. This made me laugh out loud!! Truly!

  29. Love your linen towels!
    Have a wonderful trip to the States!

  30. You crack me up!

  31. jend’isère

    Under the glass dome they are in their reverred place as if in a museum showcase. Thank you for taking them out for their well-deserved playtime!

  32. Oh My!
    Your textiles look deliciously crumply and if they’ve been out in the wind, I bet they smell like heaven!
    I love to stack and re-stack my old printed textiles until they are in a dazzling order of color and pattern. It is when they go behind glass, in a little cupboard, that they come alive.
    I do use them in every day life, but the bounty of the bundle peering out from behind glass is what gets me, every time.
    The dome was pure inspiration!

  33. Nancy from Mass

    Oh, Corey. You have way too many linen items…you simply must share some with me…3000 miles away….Really, I don’t mind. I’ll display some in my china closet with E/I Hubbys’ grandparents china. as for the remainder…just to touch that linen…

  34. “Doing laundry is not on my bucket list” – LOL! Well, I laughed out loud when I read that. My mom commented the other day that whenever we talk on the phone, I’m in the middle of doing laundry. Laundry is my stress release. Drying dishes, however, is not on my bucket list.
    Anyway, we are linen kindred spirits, you and I. I love that you were getting creative with your stack of linen goodness. And it has me grinning imagining you working in that apple somehow. No doubt in the end it looked fabulous. You have a terrific sense of style, Corey.

  35. Ooooh ! des piles de linge ancien que j’affectionne !!!
    Une merveille, ces photos !!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *