Receiving my digital copy of the December issue of House Beautiful this morning was like a breath of fresh air. I loved this house above in particular. Absolutely beautiful...
xx
Anna
Showing posts with label Blue and White. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blue and White. Show all posts
Beautiful HB
Receiving my digital copy of the December issue of House Beautiful this morning was like a breath of fresh air. I loved this house above in particular. Absolutely beautiful...
xx
Anna
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Seaforth Cottage
Jane & Neville {above}
Janes Lilies {above}
Harry on the front steps {above}, He looks like he lives there!!
Me with Max and Charlotte {above}
I have long admired {actually, ever since I was 14 years old} the very pretty cottage which is located diagonally opposite my parent's house. It is called Seaforth Cottage and was built C.1897. It has been owned by Jane and Neville for the past 30 or so years and they are some of the most beautiful people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
As a young girl I would often talk about the pretty white cottage across the road. I even told Brad when we were looking for our first house years ago that if that house ever came on the market then I would really, really love to live there.
I recently plucked up the courage and went over and introduced myself to Jane and Neville. We sat on their front verandah and I asked them the huge favour of whether I could use their beautiful home for our upcoming Christmas/Summer photo shoot for our online store. I explained to them that I had always loved their pretty cottage and I would often wish I could go inside to see what it was like and what lovely things they had furnished it with. There was absolutely no hesitation and they offered their home to me with open arms.
One of the most beautiful things about Jane and Neville is their generous spirit. Jane is actually a potter and an extremely talented one at that. She holds classes for a couple of ladies in the street one morning a week in her gorgeous white timber shed at the back of the house. You might have noticed the pottery animals on the verandah under our Christmas tree over at the online store. Well, those are Jane's. She has lined her entire verandah with her pretty and enchanting pottery animals. I told her I wanted to take them all home with me! She laughed.
I should also mention that next year Neville turns 100. I really couldn't believe it when Jane told me.
We had the most glorious day setting up our Christmas/Summer vignette on their front verandah and front lawn. Did you notice the beautiful garden in the pictures? It is amazing to say the least. When we were there all the November lilies were beginning to flower. It is just so beautiful and rambling and imperfect. Just the way I like gardens to be.
I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit about the beautiful house we used for our online vignettes this season. I feel that Seaforth cottage was the perfect setting for our photo shoot. It gave us that beautiful, lived-in, comfortable, old family house feel which is exactly what I wanted this season to reflect...a place where good times are shared and memories are made.
xx
Anna
Above are some of Jane's pieces. They are so gorgeous!!
For The Lovers of Blue & White
I emailed this picture of our new Black & Spiro window display to my mother last night. She wanted every jar in the picture. I think that's the thing with blue and white, it becomes an obssession. I can't count how many blue and white pieces my mum has in her collection but no matter how many she already has, she continues to collect more and more.
I think this recent delivery of beautiful blue and white pieces is the most amazing one we've ever had. You should come in and see the others we have placed throughout the store. It's hard to pick a favourite!!
xx
Anna
Random Snippets
I arrived home last night to this arrangement of flowers from our garden on our fireplace mantel. A little fairy had been to visit. Gosh they were a lovely surprise. As I've said many times before, there's nothing like flowers to bring a smile to my face...
I thought you might like to see some photos of our new bedroom display at Black & Spiro which we have just finished decorating. It's so nice having our back rooms looking beautiful again.
We've also had an influx this week of some beautiful new cushions and a few vintage treasures which is always very exciting but they don't seem to last long!!
This vintage blue and white lamp is one of my favourite pieces at Black & Spiro at the moment. I found it covered in dirt at an auction a few months ago. You couldn't even see that it was blue and white. We wiped it back to reveal this beautiful vintage lamp base...divine!
Summer Is That You?
I am usually more of a Winter girl but I must admit I haven't really enjoyed Winter this year. I have no idea why. I am so excited about this coming Summer. Maybe it's because I've been working really hard or maybe it's because our weather here in Brisbane this past week has been a bit warmer. Whatever it is, I just keep dreaming about long Summer days at the beach.
With all of my thoughts turning towards Summer I couldn't help posting this image today. It's very Summery. It is a room I have loved for such a long time. I love how layered and thrown together it is. It is a great example of blue and white done well, in my opinion...not too fussy and not too contrived.
Actually Jennifer over at Peak of Chic wrote a very interesting post this week about decorating with blue and white. I am in complete agreement with her. As she says 'I feel as though there is blue and white...and then there is blue and white!'
I'm taking a few days off from the blog. Hope to be back mid-next week!
xx
Anna
image via vacation homes book
A Fresh Garden Rose
Whilst on a bit of a reconnaissance mission today for something exciting down the track, I was very lucky to be given this beautiful fresh rose stem from a public garden which is currently full of roses in bloom. I am shocked and horrified that tomorrow the roses in this garden will all be cut back and most of them will be sent to the rubbish. Isn't it so sad that they don't bunch these beautiful things up and send them to the hospital for patients to enjoy...?? What's with that??
I hope you all have a great weekend. I need to apologise now as my posts will be a bit sporadic over the next couple of weeks due to all of my efforts going into the launch of our very exciting online store on the 28th of this month!
See you soon...
x
Anna
Summery
This image captured my heart this morning. I know it's Winter but I love Summer and this space above is pure perfection! Of course it is by that very clever person - Sig Bergamin as captured by Elle Decor.
Patchwork Tiles & Mothers Day
Whilst having a flick through one of my old decorating books today I stumbled across this image which reminded me how much I really like the idea of these blue and white patchwork tiles for our new kitchen. Oh and look at those big fabulous blue and white bowls...definitely something else to covet!!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. Mine was lovely. The boys cooked me lunch. I set the table with succulents and our mismatched old blue and white plates. It was relaxing and happy and I loved every minute of it....xx
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.
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
Black & Spiro Today
This morning I pottered around my garden at home and collected a few flowering things for the shop. I arranged some pink bougainvillea and some native gum leaves in a couple of shell encrusted baskets I picked up in Bali a while ago. There's something so Summery and vibrant about bougainvillea and I do love it mixed in with a few classic blue and white ginger jars.
Above is one of a pair of amazing hand beaded African chairs we have in the shop at the moment. I think these chairs are a favourite of mine right now. To think of the work that goes into them...
We just received this gorgeous geometric patterned rug in today. The girls and I couldn't wait to put it in place under our bright orange coffee table in our front lounge room display. I think it has added so much colour to the shop...I just love it and I am very tempted to take it home!
Just thought you might like to see a few of the new things we have in at the moment.
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