Today I Love

I really love this image. The white and caramel colour palette and the display of beautiful things is just so simple, beautiful and fresh and I am a fan of the painting hung over the books like that - I think it adds that little bit of imperfection which you all know I love!!

A Beautiful Old House

Look at this beautiful old timber house. To me this house exudes Summertime romance. I could imagine sitting on those white adirondack chairs sipping cool fresh cocktails listening to Frank Sinatra and chatting away with my family and friends! Only 3 more weeks to go till my family and I are off to the beach for our Summer holiday. I just wish I had a house like this at Straddie! I know a little over-the-top but I can dream can't I??


Image courtesy of abitare blog.

Courtney @ design*sponge

If you're after a little break from all my Christmas posting a visit to the design*sponge guest blog where Courtney from Style court is guest posting this week is a must. I absolutely LOVE this sofa above by much talked about American Interior Designer Ruthie Sommers as posted today by Courtney on the guest blog.

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!!

Making A Statement

I was recently asked to select some fabrics for some chairs which needed recovering at the new Emporium Hotel in Brisbane. Previously these chairs were covered in a matt silver pvc which I personally didn't think made much of an impact. The hotel's signature colour is red so I selected this gorgeous red zig zag fabric and what a statement it makes as you walk into the bar. I have now been asked to also select a new fabric for the curtain in the background which I am currently in the process of doing and there is possibly some very exciting things hapenning in the pipeline which I can't talk about at the moment but I should be able to announce something within the next month or so!!! Shh for now though!!

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!!

Decorating Annie's New House - Part 1

Over the last couple of months I have been helping my dear friend Annie decorate her absolutely beautiful new home. I thought I would show you a little sneak peak of the house with more pictures to follow within the next couple of weeks.

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!!

My Dining Room

I know you are all probably getting really, really bored of seeing the pictures of my new house so I promise this post will be the last one for a while but I had to show you my dining room. As we have moved into a smaller house due to moving into the city the one concern I originally had was where I was going to hang all of my paintings. After much thought, I decided to hang alot of them wall to wall and ceiling to floor in my dining room and I am so happy with the outcome even though it did take alot of planning as to the layout. It has created a very interesting look and feel in the room. I can't wait to have my first dinner party in there.

Find of the Week

I found this gorgeous vintage oil painting over the weekend which I absolutely love. It wasn't as cheap as the other vintage painting I purchased last week but I was still happy to pay $70.00 for it. I am trying to collect a few of these old paintings to hang in a cluster on a wall in my "Anna Room" at home.

Restful & Beautiful

Do you crave a restful, serene, simple, stylish, luxurious bedroom? This bedroom by Thomas O'brien via Studio Annetta is all those things. I love the mirror front wardrobe doors and the all white colour scheme is so restrained and simply beautiful!

Free People

A couple of gorgeous things from Free People above. I think the fabric covered stool is particularly cute and would look gorgeous in a little girl's bedroom. The luggage tag at the bottom is very sweet too. Unfortunately for us Aussies they don't ship to Australia but if you have a US postal address you can access these very cute wares.