Hope you have a great weekend. I am one of those looking forward to the Royal Wedding which is only hours away. I am about to head home to immerse myself in the coverage! I can't wait to see her dress! See you next week...
New Things
We've had another influx of new things at Black & Spiro this week. The new blue and white inlay chest of drawers which we have placed in our front window with the butterfly fabric is very beautiful. We also have new pale pink cockatoo lamps which we've had custom made for our store, lots of new cushions in fabrics I bought when we were overseas earlier this year, a pair of antique armchairs and yet another delivery of our special blue and white ginger jars.
It certainly has been a busy week getting all of our new things into the shop. Here are a couple of photos I thought you might like to see. The colourful, mismatched and at times very wild style we seem to be known for is very noticeable in these pictures.
I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow already and another long weekend. I don't know about you but I'm finding it hard to fit everything I need to do into these short weeks!!
Happy Easter
The anticipation is building in our household for the Easter Bunny's arrival tonight and for what he might bring. Today Harry made this large, colourful card for the Easter Bunny which we will leave out tonight along with some carrots and some milk. It is so fun watching the innocence of young children at times like these. I am looking forward to our annual Easter Egg hunt in the garden tomorrow morning which I have been preparing for over the last few days. I hope everyone is enjoying special times with family and friends. Happy Easter!!
MusicMonday: April's Free Music!
Free Downloads
Here's a list of free downloads compiled since last month:
- The annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival was held this past weekend, but the fun didn't end there. Thanks to SPIN Magazine, you can get a free downloadable album of songs by 10 of the festival's bands. Click here or the image above.
- Also from SPIN Magazine, 18 additional tracks can be downloaded via iTunes here. Offer expires May 31.
- Thanks to People Magazine and iTunes, download six songs from top new Country artists here. Offer expires June 1.
- From Urban Outfitters and iTunes comes a sampler of 23 songs here. Offer expires June 30.
- The Spring 2011 edition of the Landmark Digital Sampler is available via Filter here. Download the 10 individual tracks or click the "download" button for a zipped folder of the entire sampler.
- Missed the SXSW Festival this year? Compliments of WXRT radio, you can download 140 songs from festival artists here.
- Also, Amazon offers an SXSW sampler of 12 songs here.
- Dirty Vegas has downloads available on its Facebook page here. Just "Like" the page to see the list.
- Download Michele Branch's "Long Goodbye" here. The song also features Dwight Yoakam.
- Smashing Pumpkins now has nine free downloads on its site --with the latest being "Lightning Strikes." Download them all here.
- Thanks to SPIN Magazine, you can download The Wombats' "A Robot Like You" here.
- Looking for a way to occupy your kids? There's a download section on the Sprout site here.
Want more free downloads? Well, don't forget to continually check the following sources -- new songs covering all genres are added frequently. Just click on the links below and enjoy some new tunes.
Back Soon
These flowers have been sitting on the fireplace mantel in our bedroom for 2 weeks now. I am surprised they have lasted so long. At $3.00 a bunch at the markets they were a good investment. I have enjoyed looking at them every morning when I wake up.
I am taking off early this week for a few days away. I am so tired. See you soon.
xx
Anna
Good Old Blue & White
I have posted this bedroom before but I thought I would post it again today as I still love it and it reminded me that blue and white can look so beautiful in a bedroom. I also love the black iron bed and the mix of furniture styles in this room. {image - country living magazine}
Here are a couple of new blue and white fabrics which hit our fabric library this week. I'm sure the die hard blue and white fans will be excited to know that we have had a very big influx of beautiful blue and white fabrics over the last few months into our library.
PS. It seems that the fresh flower post I wrote yesterday has created a bit of stir amongst readers from areas where it is hard to grow and buy fresh flowers/produce. I am very lucky to live in a sub-tropical climate where flowers/foliage/fruit & vegetables are accessible and easy to grow. I apologise if I have offended anybody with my post. That certainly wasn't my intention. I was purely stating my own personal preference and in my haste I didn't consider the circumstances of readers in remote/barren areas.
Fresh is Best
The other day we had a lady in the store ask us for some fake flowers. I had to bite my lip and very kindly advise her that we only use fresh flowers. I don't go for anything fake. I'm a real or nothing girl in all aspects of my life. If I can't have real flowers then I would prefer to go without. Today I brought into the shop some of the succulent pots I have been potting up at home which I placed onto a tray on one of the coffee tables. They look great mixed with the fresh lemons in the clam shell. It just goes to show that fresh really is best.
Great Issue
I think this month's issue of Ivy & Piper is excellent. They've certainly highlighted some lovely things. In particular I loved their feature on Fenton and Fenton...one of my favourite furniture and homewares stores in Melbourne.
I also thoroughly enjoyed their interview with my friend Stuart Membery. He really is such a talent and his home, which I have had the pleasure of visiting, is seriously beautiful and so stylish.
And last but definitely not least, I loved seeing our friend Paul Hunt featured. He too is so talented and creative. I am always inspired after he has dropped into B&S for a visit.
Overall a great issue I think!! Our online Australian magazines are just getting better and better. I can't wait to see what Adore magazine and Ivy & Piper magazine come up with next.
Natural Cane
We spent lots of time with my family on the weekend as it was my brother's birthday and birthdays in our family tend to be celebrated over a few days.
Whilst at my parent's house this afternoon, I couldn't help noticing how beautiful the Stuart Membery cane chairs look with the older pieces of cane on their deck. This is one of the chairs from Stuart's Home Collection above which we sell at Black & Spiro and when you look at it mixed with mum's old cane chairs as below, it looks like it has been part of her furniture collection for years.
I have been collecting a few of these old cane chairs {like mum's above} for our house which I have also mixed with Stuart's chairs on our verandahs. I really love the look of this natural cane and I think it looks particularly nice mixed with Antique furniture and blue and white fabrics and china.
photos by me at mum & dad's house
A Perfect Flower Stall
When I was a little girl I was as obsessed with flowers as I am these days.
I think I might have been around 8 years old when we lived in an old Queenslander at Wellington Point with a beautiful garden which my mother absolutely loved. I would collaborate with my neighbour Angela who was about a year younger than I was. We would pick flowers {mostly the daisies} out of mum's very large garden and we would set up a flower stall in front of my parent's house and sell the flowers on the roadside.
I would never let my children do that these days but back then it was different. When I spotted these little stalls by Mouta over on Poppy Talk earlier this week memories of these fun times came flooding back. I wish I had one of these back then. I think if I did it might have improved sales!!
Ned Turns 2
I can't believe our beautiful Ned turned 2 the other day. It feels like it was yesterday that I picked him up from the airport. He has been such a wonderful addition to our family and we just love him so much. Golden Retrievers are the BEST family dogs!
This week whilst Brad and Harry are away at Brad's family farm in NSW Ned has spent a lot of time on our bed. He isn't usually allowed on our bed but I let him when Brad isn't around....just down on the end of the bed. He loves it and secretly so do I. I feel safe with him there as I can be a bit of a scaredy cat when when I am home alone.
Oh and just in time for Ned's Birthday this week Max {our 11 month old} started saying woof woof...exciting times in our household!! Happy Birthday Ned.
Today
I think these lilies which we have in the shop at the moment are the prettiest lilies I have ever seen.
I am smitten with our new hot pink {well it's actually fluoro/neon pink} love heart fabric which just arrived onto my desk this morning.
This vintage rug in my office keeps me smiling all day. I love it.
And these new baskets in the shop are calling out to me - "take me home".....
Cosmo Fun Fearless Female
To my complete surprise I have been nominated with 9 other wonderful Australian female bloggers in this years Cosmopolitan Magazine Fun Fearless Female Competition in the Bloggers category. I actually haven't ever won anything in my life and I'm not so sure that this will change however, if you do enjoy visiting my blog and if you do enjoy my posts and if you would like to vote for me then I would love that. Click HERE to vote. It only takes a few minutes. I think it would be wonderful to be one of the 3 finalists however, I am just so thrilled to have been nominated in the first place.
Thank you for your continued interest in my blog. I feel a bit funny asking you to vote...it's not really my thing to ask for votes....but if you decide to then thank you so much!!xx
xx
Anna
Flowers, Vases, Baskets, Fabric, Plates & Pots
I've had a busy few days fossicking around the garden, the markets and local Antique shops.
In my travels I stumbled across these vintage vases which I couldn't resist. They now sit on our chest of drawers in our entry hallway. The vibrant orange of the larger vase makes me happy every time I see it and I just love the quirky bird clinging to the other vase/jug....it certainly is something you either love or hate.
I fell in-love with these little yellow flowers at the markets but I can't remember the name of them so please do tell if you know.
I also picked up one of these baskets which I have been coveting along with this piece of fabric which I am thinking of making into table napkins for an upcoming event I have planned.
On Saturday I potted up 12 little pots with Succulents for my brother as he was having a lunch at his house over the weekend and needed something wonderful to place down the centre of his dining table. I kept a few for myself to add to my growing collection of pot plants. {Correction to my post last week the little pots sell for approx. $1.20 at Bunnings and the succulents came from there too}.
It seems I wasn't the only one playing with flowers on the weekend. Mum just sent me this picture of the fresh Banksias she collected from the trees on their property at the beach. I am hoping she might deliver some over to me this week.
And finally I added 18 mismatched vintage dinner plates to my blue and white collection. We never have enough plates when we have the family here for lunch or dinner so now we will. NB. Mismatched vintage is so much less expensive than heading out to buy a complete set and so much more interesting I think and the best thing is that I can keep on adding to them as I see them.
And finally I added 18 mismatched vintage dinner plates to my blue and white collection. We never have enough plates when we have the family here for lunch or dinner so now we will. NB. Mismatched vintage is so much less expensive than heading out to buy a complete set and so much more interesting I think and the best thing is that I can keep on adding to them as I see them.
April
vintage basket and vintage rabbit vase from southside antique centre, alphabet stamp set from coming up roses @ bulimba, flowers from chandler markets
photos by me
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