Jackie & Her Children

I was recently asked 91 questions in an interview for an exciting thing I will be involved in later this year. One of the questions I was asked was;

Who, in your opinion is/was the best dressed woman?

I answered Jacqueline Kennedy. I googled images of her recently and became instantly obsessed with the images of her and her beautiful children. It must be my current nesting instincts which drew me to these photos. I thought I'd share a few here today. Aren't they beautiful...

Out & About: SGAR Opening

Renai Grace & Paul Spiro stand in front of one of the paintings we purchased last night by artist Simone Louise Gillespie

This is the other Simone Louise Gillespie painting we purchased

It was so nice to get out of the tracksuit pants I've been sporting all week and into some proper clothes with make-up on last night to head out to the opening of Spiro Grace Art Rooms in Spring Hill.

Brad, Harry & I decided we needed some adult time out so we decided to leave Max with his gorgeous Nanny Rhonda for a few hours whilst we attended the gallery opening. I had my first glass of French champagne in 9 months upon arriving at the gallery. It went straight to my head of course. We ended up purchasing 2 paintings by emerging artist Simone Louise Gillespie. I was so thrilled we decided on them straight away as every painting I looked at as the night progressed had a sold sticker.

Gallery owners Paul Spiro {yes he is related to me - he is my uncle} and Renai Grace will be showcasing emerging {and therefore quite reasonably priced} artists in their space on a quarterly basis. I for one can't wait for their next exhibition.

For all enquiries or to be added to SGAR's mailing list email Renai renai@sgar.com.au

An Update

Max


The shop renovation in progress

A snippet of one of the rooms in our new Design Studio

Last week we welcomed our second son, Max into the world. He is perfect in every way. Thank you for all your lovely emails and comments.

Our shop renovation is proceeding very well...still lots of work to be done. Our Design Studio is now in full swing upstairs. The girls and I are enjoying having a very special space just for our clients. Some photos are above for your viewing pleasure. I'll be back soon with some more news and posts. Just enjoying my newborn for the moment. Hope you are all well.

xo

Anna

It's Time..

Well it's time for me to say good-bye for a few weeks. I am having a baby in a couple of days and our major shop renovation starts on Monday. I thought I'd post some pictures of the signage we've had put onto the front of our store whilst we undergo renovation. This signage displays our new Black & Spiro logo. There certainly are a lot of exciting things happening around here and I can't wait to come back in a few weeks to give you all an update. Our Design Studio is in full swing upstairs and I'll be sure to show you some photos of it when I return.

Thanks again to everyone for your continued support and interest in my work. I can't wait to unveil the new store. It's going to be something very special and unique...I promise!!

xo
Anna

White on White on White

I love this image which Interior Divine posted recently of a room in a converted farmhouse in South Africa. It's just so white and bright and fresh. I am loving, in particular, the non-existence of colour...I know that may sound strange coming from me!! I am also in-love with the particular collection of pieces in this room.

Image via Living Etc. July 2009 issue via Interior Divine blog

Ivy & Piper, Mothers Day & Exhaustion Sets In...

My Mother's Day started early this morning when Harry and Brad arrived at my bedside with gifts galore. All except the bottle of YSL perfume were handmade by Harry. After the gifts were dispersed Harry went and prepared breakfast for me...my favourite fresh orange juice with lots of ice and toast with Vegemite!! Although a little burnt I managed to devour half a piece and {quietly without Harry knowing} Ned the other piece.

After some more rest {my exhaustion from the sale having completely set-in} we got ready and jumped into the car as I wanted to go and visit Melanie & Liz over at the Portside Markets. Their new stall Ivy & Piper had is debut this morning and I couldn't miss seeing the beautiful creations the girls have been working on over the last couple of months!

I loved the cushion with the vintage Chanel perfume bottles and pearls with the black and white hounds tooth piping and I couldn't resist a set of 8 pink and white geometric napkins. I can't wait to see their next collection!

After visiting the girls we headed down to my parent's house to visit my mother for Mothers Day with my 2 brothers. We picked up roadside chrysanthemums as none of us had been able to get to Phoebe Stephens Flowers before she closed yesterday afternoon.

Mum made roadside flowers look like flowers from the Chelsea Flower Show arranging them in her blue and white ginger jar on her coffee table.

You may remember the lovely Antique French chair upholstered in the blue and white French floral fabric I posted a couple of days ago which we had in the sale yesterday...well my father bartered with me upon closing the sale and bought it for mum. We delivered it to her today and she totally loves it. My brother enjoyed sitting on the chair all afternoon but was reminded every 5 minutes not to spill red wine on it...now that would have been a disaster!

The day ended up being all too much for Harry...he fell asleep on Mum's daybed amongst her copious number of blue and white cushions.

Although completely and utterly exhausted tonight, I had a lovely day with my family and I am now trying to imagine how I am going to do all the things I have to do this week without going into labour before all is done.

I'll keep you posted on that...

Happy Mothers Day and to FF Happy Aunts Day!!

xx

Anna

Oh and more blog thanks to Michelle at Divine Finds and Spring Blossom for also posting about our sale on their blogs today!!!

What a day...

WOW is all I can say. I am speechless. The sale today was incredible. I am so taken back by the support and patronage of our customers, blog readers and friends. A huge thank you to all of those who lined up at the door from 8.15am this morning waiting for our doors to open at 9.30am. Another big thank you to everyone for your patience as we tried our hardest to help as many customers as we could whilst the stampede occurred during the first 2 hours of our sale. I met so many lovely people who read the blog. Thank you to everyone including my gorgeous Black & Spiro girls for making today's sale the best Black & Spiro sale we have ever had. We literally have nothing left.

PS. Loved meeting you Faux Fuchsia {one of my new absolutely favourite blogs}! Thanks for posting today about the sale and also thanks to Bec from A Cup of Kitsch for also posting about the sale on her blog too!

Sale Preview

Thought I would post a few photos of how it's all coming together for our big sale this Saturday. The girls and I have worked liked Trojans today with still lots of marking down to do tomorrow. There are some amazing bargains and lots of great things on offer. Every time we have one of these sales it never ceases to amaze me how much fabric we accumulate. We have 2 huge tables full of piles of beautiful fabrics at seriously crazy prices. There's also a great collection of blue and white pieces going on sale and 2 sets of beautiful Antique dining chairs...not to mention all the other great pieces of furniture, lamps, artwork and CUSHIONS galore!!!

See you Saturday.

xo
Anna

Excuse My Absence...

To me, all of these beautiful images evoke a sense of fun, happiness, relaxation and comfort. I think I am drawn to these pictures at the moment because my world is so incredibly crazy

and quite the opposite of what these pictures portray.

This week has been all about preparation for our Black & Spiro one day sale which we are having this coming Saturday so I do apologise for not being around the blog much this week. I just keep crossing my fingers, my toes {and my legs} that this baby doesn't decide to come before this Saturday!!

I'll be sure to post some photos before Saturday of some of the wonderful things we have going into the sale. If you are looking for beautiful fabrics at crazy, ridiculous prices then you must come and visit us on Saturday but be sure to be here at 9.30am as our sales are renowned to have a line up at the door upon opening time!!

Hope you're all having a fabulous week and I promise to be a much better blogger next week!!

image 1 - via this is glamorous via fric & frac, image 2 - via habitually chic, image 3 - laudomia pucci via w magazine, image 4 - via fric & frac

Colourful

I love this fashion shoot featured in W Magazine celebrating admirable women in Spring attire! It's so colourful and so Bohemian and how gorgeous is that patchwork vintage style sofa in the picture above!

Photographer - Bruce Weber, Stylist - Camilla Nickerson

Black & Spiro One Day Only Sale

As we are about to embark on the remainder of our exciting renovations in under 2 weeks, we have decided to have a ONE DAY only sale.

The last famous Black & Spiro sale was approx 3 years ago so this one is definitely not to be missed!!!

All floor stock including furniture, lamps, shades and accessories will be heavily discounted, as well as a huge range of amazing fabric remnants reduced to clear. I am also throwing in some things from my own home so make sure you don’t miss out.

Remember, the sale is only on for one day!!!

Hope you can make it.

xx

Anna

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!!

White with a touch of navy...

I really love the navy high gloss material on these chairs and in fact I love everything about this image...the fantastic mirror above the fireplace is so gorgeous too. It is the work of Cortney & Robert Novogratz of Sixx Design...such a clever and dynamic design team. I just don't know how they do it with all of those beautiful children in tow!

Hope you all have an absolutely beautiful weekend!!

image via moodboard

Fun Chair & Update

I thought I'd share some photos of this fun chair we just had painted and re-upholstered for one of my clients. We used plain hot pink felt to cover the seat. We wanted to keep the chair all one colour and not cover the seat in a busy pattern. I can't wait to deliver it to my client. I am sure she is going to love it!

I have also had so many people ask me about the progress of our renovation and expansion. As usual, things have taken a little longer than anticipated. Upstairs is ALMOST done. I took these photos of the pink chair in our upstairs area. As you can see the cabinetry is almost complete and we are just waiting for our lighting to be installed. This should all be done in a week or so.

We will then be closing the shop for approximately 1 month from the 10th May to complete the renovation and expansion of the shop downstairs. So it is all systems go with a big re-opening party planned for mid-June! Oh and in amongst that we are moving house and having a baby so it is very full-on in my little world at the moment!!

Another Windmill

A week or so ago I posted an amazing windmill one of my clients found and had hung on her verandah wall. I was looking for a piece of furniture today for another client on Miguel Meirelles website and stumbled across this gorgeous windmill which I thought would look wonderful in a table vignette. It's available for sale on Miguel's website if anyone is interested...

From The {Old} Files

Whilst visiting Mum and Dad on Saturday night for a lovely home-cooked dinner, my mother handed me a pile of old magazine tear sheets she recently found in the cupboard of my old bedroom. They must date back to my early twenties. I pulled a couple out to show you as above. Isn't the last one interesting - I obviously loved blue, white and pink way back then and in actual fact, I think I might have pulled this one out of my mother's files originally!! I remember the top image as one from a story on Donna Karan...I remember obsessing over that table vignette for a long time...

The Billboard & New Project Unveiled

The scheme we originally presented to Mirvac

Late last week a new billboard went up in Brisbane which was being unveiled as my brother was coincidentally driving past it.

He dialled my number excited to advise me that my latest project was being unveiled as we spoke on a humongous billboard down in the Valley.

That afternoon, Harry and I went in search of the so-called humongous billboard. We went around and back and down and up the street approximately 5 times with great excitement. I nearly crashed the car 2 times trying to take a photo of it.

Saturday morning my parents couldn’t help but take a drive past the billboard.

Monday morning a client emailed us saying she had seen the billboard.

This morning another one of my clients commented on the billboard.

And tonight my husband said – “Where’s your billboard in the Valley? I’m heading down there tomorrow and I want to drive past it…”

The billboard has created a bit of a stir amongst family and friends…

One of my favourite things was selecting all the books and accessory pieces {some new and some vintage} for the shelving we had installed.

Remember that little snippet of a job I posted a week or two ago?? Well, that’s the one on the billboard.

Being invited by Mirvac to design the furnishings and accessories for it’s latest display apartment in the Newstead development was exciting and very rewarding. I was recently asked by Mirvac to explain my design and my thinking behind my scheme for the Park display apartment for a media release...


“To be working on one of Brisbane’s finest developments is truly exciting. I feel that my fresh and uplifting design for the Park display apartment is in tune with Mirvac’s philosophy of excellence and vision. When I think of Park I imagine expanses of lush green grass, leafy trees with natural bark clad trunks, colourful clothes and celebrations, mixed with urban elements such as vibrant graffiti and eclectic retail offerings. These are the things that have inspired my design for the display apartment. I want it to be fresh and colourful and I want the design to show people that they don’t have to have a ‘catalogue’ perfect interior to match a Park apartment. It can be colourful, it can be collected, it can be made up of vintage furniture mixed with more modern pieces. There are no rules. My vision with Park is to inspire people with my designs and encourage them to embrace their own unique style with their own Park apartment.”

I hope that my colourful design will be something different for Brisbane. We are so used to seeing ‘SAFE’ display apartments here. It is so exciting to be involved with a company like Mirvac who does think outside the square and who wants to be seen as different to the pack.

The cluster wall as conceptualised by Tony at Thyme Design

And on a final note…

Feedback on the apartment so far has been very positive. However, I have to share this with you…

My mother’s dearest friend and probably one of my biggest supporters went and had a look at the display on the weekend. She overheard the conversation of an older couple...

The husband said – “What were they thinking with those green chairs?”

The wife replied – “Oh Darling, get with the times – it’s for the young ones. They love it…”