Much Ado About Blue

I grew up surrounded by blue and white and not just a bit here and there.  I am the daughter of a serious blue and white addict.  She has it everywhere. 

When I was in my early twenties I vowed and declared I wouldn't do the blue and white thing like my mother.  I tried to escape it because I wanted to have my own thing.  I wanted to be me, not my mother.  But there seems to be this innate sense which I can't seem to escape.  No matter which way I turn I seem to include a little bit of blue and white.  It's almost like I feel instantly at home when I see it. But I do like to think that I do blue and white differently to my mother.  She's more of a classic blue and white girl whereas I tend to be more this and that and a bit of something else thrown in. 

Over the weekend I photographed this little collection of things which were sitting on my mother's dressing table.  That old blue and white picture frame which houses a photo of my Harry as a baby has been sitting on tables in her house my entire life.  And yet it's only now that I want to sneak it into my handbag whilst she's not looking!! 

Here are a few other blue and white things which caught my eye this week...

Whilst out and about the other day I came across this beautiful pair of antique blue and white garden stools.  I can't begin to tell you how divine they are but unfortunately they are completely out of my price range.

I also stumbled upon this beautiful Antique stool with it's old cornflower coloured upholstery.  I wouldn't change a thing about this beautiful thing.  It would slip into my house with it's age worn style so perfectly!!

And look at this fabulous set of blue and white vintage canisters which we currently have at Black & Spiro.  A perfect complement to any blue and white addicts kitchen!

Inky blue and white batik notebooks and ginger jar also at Black & Spiro.

Blue & white quilts just arrived in last week from our New York buying trip earlier in the year.

And last but certainly not least, these very beautiful hand-painted blue and white lamp bases are too beautiful for words and pictures.  You must come and see them...that's if you can beat my mother to them!!xx

xx
Anna

Lucy Visits Sally Campbell

If you haven't already seen it then you must head over to The Design Files to see the beautiful tour of Sally Campbell's Sydney home.  Divine in every single way!!

Click HERE...

xx
Anna

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

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!'  

Click HERE if you would like to read the post...

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.

Flowers on Monday

Here are some pretty roses in blue and white ginger jars which I couldn't help taking a photo of at mum and dad's today. I don't think anyone has as many blue and white ginger jars as my mother and still she continues to buy more. Whenever we get new blue and white pieces in at the shop she just cannot help but take a few more home...and yes if you look closely {in the background} she does have a hot pink dining room!!

New Window Display

We installed a fresh new window display at the shop this afternoon. The pretty blue, yellow, green and white floral fabric in the background is a current favourite. We teamed it with some classic blue and white lamps, fresh bright yellow roses and a set of Antique Victorian jugs. Over the next few weeks we have lots of lovely new things arriving which is always very exciting!!

Stuart Membery

Although this post isn't really Christmas related, I had a feeling you would love to know about a new friend of mine, Stuart Membery. My Australian readers may remember Stuart from the fashion industry in Australia in the 1980's and also as the man behind bringing Esprit to Australia many moons ago.

This week I've had a few email conversations with Stuart and then yesterday he picked up the phone and called me from his divine home in Bali. Stuart's home has been featured in this month's House & Garden magazine and I must say I feel like I could move straight in and not change a thing. It actually reminds me of something my mother would create. His mismatch of cane furniture, collected things like shells, baskets, books and magazines is very much a look I love and have grown up with myself. The whole thing feels like I have seen it before. I absolutely adore his aesthetic and as for his life in Bali, well it sounds amazing.

Apparently, US decorator and journalist, Annie Kelly has just been over to visit Stuart and has photographed the house and it seems that international interest for his homewares and furniture is mounting daily....including my own keen interest in his products for our Black & Spiro store which we are renovating and extending in 2010.

I will be sure to keep you updated with our purchase of his pieces for Black & Spiro. In the meantime, you must race out and grab a copy of this month's House & Garden and see for yourself how beautiful his home is and how wonderful his life sounds!!

Black & Spiro Today

Our new left side window display was supposed to go in today however, we had a few dramas with it and it won't go in until tomorrow so the girls put this temporary display into the window for today. I had to share it with you as one of my most favourite things in the entire world is blue and white ginger jars filled with fresh flowers...definitely an obsession my mother has passed onto me!!

Bathroom Shelving & Stools

The concept of open shelving in a kitchen or lounge room is often talked/blogged about but I do also like the idea of open shelving in a bathroom. These images above, which I have saved in my files, certainly show this concept very well. I like the idea of soaking in the bath tub looking at my beautiful things in the shelving surrounding me.

Another great idea for a bathroom, if you have a bath tub, is to use a drum stool next to the tub to put a book or a glass on. We have some lovely blue and white stools {and other colours too} in the shop at the moment which would do the job. I use one at home next to our bath and it is fabulous. I often have a pile of magazines on mine...nothing like reading some magazines in the bath at the end of a long day!!


image 1 & 2 via the lettered cottage, image 3 - anna spiro

Room Scheming

I would love to be asked by a client to prepare a room scheme around these two beautiful pieces above. They are simply breathtaking, in my opinion.

I could imagine an {almost} all-white colour palette with recycled European parquetry timber flooring and beautiful blue and white patterned fabrics on cushions and possibly on a couple of accent chairs here and there. I think I would use white slip covered sofas with frilled skirts {like the ones Joni posts}. Oh, and of course I would fill the room with blue and white ginger jars.

What would you do if you were given these two beautiful pieces to work with?

Woodblock painting by celebrated Australian artist Cressida Campbell and beautiful French antique mirror from Baran de Bordeaux in Auckland.