And So We Start Again...

Image - Anna Spiro - Sofa & Flowers @ Home

Another New Year has begun and so we start again hopefully refreshed and excited about the year which lies ahead of us. I have just come home from a week at our house at the beach which has been a very unusually wet and almost cool week of Summer here in South East Queensland. We were unable to go to the beach all week and except for my morning walks we were either held up in our house or my family's beach house. This weather encouraged lots of family talks, reading, rests and beautiful cooking. Even though a lot of people have been disappointed by our weather for the holidays I on the other hand enjoyed the cool and the other things I engaged myself in - a nice change to our usually humid hot Summer days. I will be posting intermittently over the next week as I am heading back to the beach tomorrow. I hope you are having a lovely festive season. I'd love to hear what you've all been getting up to!!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I would like to extend warm wishes to all of my readers and fellow bloggers for a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. I am taking the next few days off to spend with my family. I'll be back very soon. Take care over the holidays and I look forward to lots more fun together in 2008!!

xo

Anna

And The Winner Is...

Entry 19 - Alison & Gail's Christmas

Congratulations Alison & Gail - you have won the Absolutely Beautiful Christmas competition!!! Thank you to everyone who entered the competition and also the other 2 finalists Felicity & Nancy congratulations to you too. Thank you also for all of the votes we received. It really was so wonderful to have such a big response to this special Christmas competition!!! I can't wait to see which cushion Alison & Gail select as their prize. I'll be sure to post the cushion once they have made their decision!!

Merry Christmas!!!
XO
Anna

Two More Sleeps...

Whilst browsing around blogland today I came across this beautiful Christmas image on Modern Country blog which I had to share. I have loved seeing everyone's Christmas inspiration around the world and the way in which others celebrate and prepare for Christmas in their home. We have been counting down the days in our home with Harry announcing this morning that there are only 2 more sleeps to go!! Don't forget I will be announcing the winner of my Christmas competition tomorrow night (Christmas Eve) at 8.00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. Voting will close tomorrow night at 6.00pm Aust. EST so please do cast your vote for one of our finalists below.

VOTE TODAY

Today is the last day to vote for the 3 finalists in my Absolutely Beautiful Christmas Competition so please cast your vote for your favourite entry TODAY. I will be announcing the 3 finalists tonight at 8.00pm Australian Eastern Standard time. Thanks everyone who has voted so far!

Beautiful Handmade Paper Wreaths

Beautiful handmade wreaths from etsy seller Haru. These are certainly very beautiful and are made using vintage papers, giftwrap, magazine clippings, pages removed from books etc. Some of the papers are dyed using coffee and concord grape/cranberry juice solution to achieve a coloured effect. What a beautiful gift this would make or a purchase for your own front door. All I can say is Beautiful with a capital B!!

Christmas & Birthday Preparations

Just one beautiful picture tonight from Martha Stewart via House Martin - an arrangement of vibrant pink Christmas Cacti - so gorgeous! I have been very busy tonight preparing for a little someone's 5th Birthday tomorrow in amongst wrapping Christmas gifts, writing Christmas cards, setting the table for the 5th Birthday family dinner which we are having at home tomorrow night, preparing pancake batter for the 5 year old's breakfast, wrapping birthday presents etc. etc. etc. etc.!!

My Completed Wreath

Here's my completed Christmas wreath on our front door. My son Harry also made a wreath at kindy which we have placed on the back of the door. He's very proud of his creation and his mother is happy with hers too!!

Christmas Preparations @ Home

Starting to prepare the house for Christmas over the last weekend in November/first weekend in December is a tradition in my family but thinking about my theme and the colours I am using starts well before this. Each year I like to buy 5-10 new Christmas decorations to add to my collection which I started when my husband and I spent our first Christmas together in our first house (and yes this was when I had just moved out of home). Every year when we pull down the large basket of decorations we have collected it is like bringing down a box full of memories. The first one I always look for is the decoration which was given to our son Harry for his first Christmas and now that he is 5 he too searches madly for it along with his other special decorations. We have all sorts of memorable decorations which I always re-ribbon every Christmas to match the theme/colour palette I have selected for that year. It takes me at least 2 days to decorate my tree and Christmas wreath but it is worth all the effort it in the end. This year I have chosen a red/white/green/black colour palette. I am still waiting for my wrapping paper to arrive and some beautiful black/white French ribbon which should be here any day now but I thought I would show you a few sneak peak pictures above of how it is all shaping up so far. This year we have a green tree which is a first as I usually have a white tree but for some reason this house suits a traditional green tree. I'll post more pictures once I am finished in the next couple of days.

Competition Entries - Week 1

The first 9 entries in my Absolutely Beautiful Christmas Competition are in and I have posted them below. I am thrilled with the response to date but if the competition is to work we need your vote for your favourite one this week. I will take votes via email anna@blackandspiro.com.au or alternatively leave your vote in the comments section of your favourite entry. Thank you everyone who has entered so far. I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing about Christmas in your home/town. Please continue to send in your entries!!

Merry & Bright Oh & Happy Weekend!

I've had a lovely day today creating our Christmas windows and rearranging the shop for our Christmas look. I really love having the entire day free of appointments to spend in the shop pottering around and being creative. I am so happy with our Christmas look this year. It is very fresh and of course very colourful!! I've posted lots of pictures above for you all to see. We made the wreaths ourselves using fabric remnants, tuile and a few pretty ornaments. I'll try to take a few more night time shots of the windows next week to show you as the day time pics don't really show up very well. I am getting my sign writer to sign write "Merry & Bright" on each of the large front windows of the shop early next week as our Christmas slogan which I think is very fitting.

Hope you all have a great weekend and don't forget to look back on Sunday night to see this week's Absolutely Beautiful Christmas Competition entries!!

xo

Anna

Australian Christmas Inspiration

I love these Australian Gumnut Christmas Greeting cards by Tsk Tsk @ Etsy. So lovely to see a modern take on Australiana!!

Black & Spiro Christmas Preparations

Friday this week we are installing our Black & Spiro 2007 Christmas windows. My assistants, Avril and Tess are working hard like little busy elves preparing for the installation. I'll post pictures once everything is up for you all to see.

On another note, thanks so much for the wonderful response to my Christmas Competition. I've already received some lovely entries and I can't wait to receive some more. I'll be posting the first batch this Sunday night.

A Christmas Competition

Last weekend I received these two beautiful Christmas images from Jill, a reader in Illinois which made me start to think how nice it would be to see more of people's images of Christmas in their home and or town/city. Then I came up with the idea for an "Absolutely Beautiful" Christmas Competition as below;

The Absolutely Beautiful Christmas Competition

To enter, please email me anna@blackandspiro.com.au some pictures of Christmas in your home or home town/city with a brief description of what Christmas means to you. Depending on how many submissions I receive I will post each one in a once a week posting which will contain all of the submissions I have received that week. I will be asking readers to vote each week on which one they like best and then 4 days before Christmas I will post the finalists and then ask readers to again vote on the one which they feel should win the competition. I will announce the winner on Christmas Eve.

The winner will receive one of my custom made one off Black & Spiro Couture cushions. I will email the winner some of the cushions currently available and they will be able to select which one they want. The cushion will be posted out to the winner.

I can't wait to see what happens at Christmas in your town/home. Please don't be shy about sending in your submissions - I think we will all love seeing what other people around the world get up to at this beautiful time of year!!

xoAnna


Oh, and by the way I will be treating Jill's images above as my first submission. I will post her images again at the end of this week with the beautiful email she sent me.

Happy Weekend!!

I finish this week with this undeniably beautiful white house via Habitually Chic. Oh to have a home like this perched on the water and surrounded by a mote of lush green grass!

I must say a huge thanks for your beautiful comments this week - you are all so very kind!! I was pleased to hear that I'm not boring you all!!

Just a reminder to check back on Sunday night as I will be announcing my very exciting 2007 Christmas Competition!! Until then, have a lovely weekend!!

An Early Christmas Delivery

I was very excited to receive an early Christmas package in the mail today from a special friend in the U.S. Inside the gorgeously wrapped gift (and yes that is a Kate Spade Christmas card) was the very last edition of American House & Garden - what a treat! Thank you Courtney!!

It's starting to look alot like Christmas....

Christmas seems to be creeping up on us again and I am so excited as this is by far my favourite time of year. To start the season I am posting these gorgeous ornaments and wreaths by "Nest Pretty Things." I am also very excited about an Absolutely Beautiful Things Christmas competition which I will be announcing this Sunday night 25th November so do stay tuned as there is a beautiful prize to be won!!