T is for Tins, Souvenirs de Bretagne

T is for

Tins, Souvenirs de Bretagne

Galettes from St. Michel

Join me as I share a collection of delightful souvenir tins. I'm recycling this post from one I published as guest blogger for Quimper Club International last September. A special "Thank You!" to QCI members Diane, Gay, Judy, Doris, and Barbara for sharing photos of tins from their collections as well. All you pinkies here for Pink Saturday this week will find lots of pink used in the designs on some of these tins.

Group of Tins Filled with Galettes

If you are like me, you like to take home small gifts from your travels to family and friends.

I've discovered the perfect gift from Brittany is a tin of galettes. Designed for the tourist trade, one can easily find tins filled with the traditional Breton butter cookies: the flat"glaettes," the thick shortbread "palets," or the rolled crêpe cookie "crêpes à dentelles". Of course the charm for me of a souvenir of this sort is the gift tin in which these cookies are packaged. Often these delicious French butter cookies come in hinged tins decorated with Quimper faience designs. So once the cookies are gone, the charming little tin box can be reused for any purpose. In our home one is usually filled with fig newtons, while another may have fresh baked brownies. Several are home to tea bags, odd buttons, or anything that needs to be stored on a shelf. A friend in France says they are the perfect size for a box of sugar cubes.

No wonder these are so good. They are made with lots of butter!

This tin shows the typical decor of "Décor Mistral".

This one is in the "Décor Soleil".

One of my favorites is "Décor Le Coq Ancien".

Another of our feathered friends, "Décor Jardin d' Eté".

Here we have another version of the "Décor Jardin d' Eté" with a "Décor Mistral" .

This tall cylindrical tin shows the same HB-Henriot décor as the large square tin show in the header.

It was produced in recent years and often used to store spaghetti once the cookies were gone.

The beautiful floral design is also found on the sides of the square tin of this design.

This tin shows a painting by Philippe Lalys in the tradition of Porquier Beau.

This unusual tin with handle shows the décor of Jim-Emile Sévellec.

Another tin, Galettes de Pleyben, is from the 1930s and is also a design by Sévellec.

Each side is decorated with additional scenes.

Notice the detailed borders

And of course this identifies the contents.

This vintage tin is possibly a design by Fouillen.

This tin shows the Modern Movement work of artist Mathurin Méheut.

Obviously this tin held the curled crêpes dentelles. The delicate lace border mimics the lace of the coiffe, a traditional Breton headdress.

Looks like these young ladies are having a good time!

Oh, the Breton crêpes are the best!

Vintage tin from Le Croisic

Yet another vintage tin with typical Breton scene.

This is the colorful border on the tin pictured above.

Contemporary tins typical of those found in the souvenir shops of Brittany.

Another tin with a scene of celebration.

This one shows the beloved Bretagne character, Becassine.

These two contemporary tins show typical seaside scenes from Brittany.

This delightful tin depicts a celebration along the river bank.

If a trip to Brittany is not in your near future, this charming "Décor Mistral" tin filled with Galettes de Bretagne is just a click away here in the US at Frenchy Bee. Click here to order your tin today.

Click here to buzz over to Mrs. Matlock's class for more about the Letter T at Alphabe-Thursday. I'm also linking this post to Le Chateau de Fleurs' French Obsession Party for June and the following memes this week.

Suzanne's Vintage Thingie Thursday @ Colorado Lady

Pink Saturday with Beverly @ How Sweet the Sound

A Few of My Favorite Things with Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie

Blue Monday with Smiling Sally

Three or More Tuesday with Tam @ Gypsy Corner

Happy Birthday, Pink Saturday!

It's a Party!

A Birthday Party for Beverly's Pink Saturday

Today Beverly @ How Sweet the Sound is celebrating two years of her now famously popular weekly meme, Pink Saturday. This weekly meme has occurred every Saturday since Beverly posted her first Pink Saturday photo on May 31, 2008. It has steadily grown to include over 700 different people participating at various times over the previous two years. Join me for a bite of a pinkolicious strawberry cupcake in honor of this occasion.

Beverly make a wish and blow out your candle!

Happy Birthday, Pink Saturday!

hey cupcake! An Austin Original

The cupcakes for today's party are from 

hey cupcake! an Austin original.

The strawberry cupcake is hey cupcake's newest flavor, and is it yummy. This is the eighth flavor, and is made with strawberry cake and a strawberry cream cheese icing.

hey cupcake! has seven additional flavors as well. Each is made from rich, moist cake and topped with a creamy icing and sprinkles.

Check out the menu board and place an order for a dozen to take home. You'll get an extra cupcake free!

The most popular flavor hands-down, 

according to an employee, is the 

Red Velvet with cream cheese icing.

Airstream Location on Congress Ave.

Started in 2007 by a young man named Wes Hurt, today hey cupcake! has four Airstream locations and one actual storefront. The storefront location is in connection with the business office and bakery and is designed to look like the inside of an Airstream.

Menu Board of the Offerings

The menu board now features 8 choices: Vanilla Dream, The Standard, Double Dose, Snowcap, Red Velvet, Michael Jackson, 24 Carrot, and Strawberry. There is also a vegan option sometimes. When a flavor is gone a little "Sold Out" magnet is placed over that variety. One can also ask to make the cupcake a "whipper snapper". That's when they inject it with fresh whipped cream.

Billboard Sign at the Walk-in Location

This is the clever sign that is posted outside the main office and bakery. It's just a hint at the creativity that one encounters once inside. I think Wes Hurt must have a terrific sense of humor.

Order Counter

Once inside of the store you feel like you could be inside an Airstream. It's a small space with just a few tables, and the order counter is constructed from actual parts from an Airstream. Lots of shiny stainless steel and accents of chocolate and bubblegum pink create the yummy mood.

Cruising Along in the Airstream

There is even a "window" which streams video of footage as if one were actually cruising along the streets of Austin in the Airstream.

The menu choices are the same at each location. Baked fresh at the storefront location, the cupcakes are transported to the Airstream locations daily. The Red Velvet and the Vanilla Dream are the best sellers. hey cupcake ! sells thousands of cupcakes a week. Better get there early though before your favorite sells out.

Trivia Board

One wall has this large board that displays interesting trivia about cupcakes and Airstreams. Another wall has one of those wavy mirrors like what I remember from the House of Mirrors at carnivals of my youth. If you stand in front of it you look elongated or wide or whatever. You get the idea.

The Snowcap

Those of you who follow my blog have seen this one featured in a previous Pink Saturday post here. It's chocolate cake with a buttercream icing and still my all-time favorite.

Wes Hunt's Great Sense of Humor

Yum....oh so good!

Happy Birthday, Pink Saturday!

Click here for more Pink Saturday Birthday Celebrations.

Since cupcakes are some of my favorite things,

I'm also linking this to Laurie's A Few of My Favorite Things

S is for Storks

S is for Stork

A few years ago we had the opportunity to spend a week in Marrakech, Morocco. The White Stork was a dominate figure on the landscape in this ancient walled city. These birds are considered holy in Marrakech.

Known to be monogamous, the White Stork often returns to the same nest year after year.

They are large birds with long legs, a long neck, and a long stout bill. Completely white except for the black feathers on the wings, these birds can weigh 10 pounds.

We sat and watched the activity of this nest from the terrace of our room as this pair of white storks came and went. They were most attentive to the young hatchlings in the nest. It was difficult to catch the babies with the camera, but we could see them on occasion when one of the parents returned to feed them.

The nests were huge, and as you can see were perched atop these towers. There were stork nests high up on the minarets and the towers of the kasbahs throughout the city.

Storks are mostly silent and do not have a bird call. Instead they click their bill together to cause a clattering sound as their mode of communication. This clattering could be heard when the parents were together on the nest.

Storks generally lay 3-5 eggs. We occasionally saw little heads pop up from inside this nest off and on.

Being heavy birds with a wide wing span, storks mostly soar or glide rather than flapping their wings. This helps them to conserve energy in flight.

Storks fly with their neck outstretched and their long legs stretched out behind them.

This hand crafted silver bookmark is one of the souvenirs from our trip. This graceful cigogne has a delightful tassel that hangs from the feet.

Anyone who enjoys embroidery, needlepoint, or counted cross stitch will likely recognize these gold-plated stork scissors. Long a classic scissor design used in the needle arts, the scissors shown above on the left were my very first pair of handwork scissors. They are German made, while the newer and somewhat smaller one on the right is Italian.

This pair is unmarked, but newly made. Note the interesting "feet" below the finger holes on the one on the left and the flat tipped bill of the one on the right. I'm not certain what the intended purpose is for the "feet", but the flat tipped bill comes in handy for pulling a needle though heavy layers of thread.

This one was hand forged by a talented blacksmith from Uzbekistan. I purchased it last summer at the International Folk Art Market held in Santa Fe, NM. You can read a previous post about this annual event here.

Storks have long been associated with happiness and prosperity. The White Stork is also associated with childbirth in Western culture. The stork's role in nursery stories and folklore most likely originated in Germany or the Netherlands. The image above of a stork delivering a new born baby has been common since Victorian times.

For more Letter S Lessons, click here to glide on over to Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday.

This post will also be linked to the following weekly parties hosted by these lovely ladies:

Claudia' Friday Finding Beauty @ Dipity Road

Tam's Three or More Tuesday @ The Gypsy's Corner

Susan's Outdoor Wednesday @ A Southern Daydreamer