Hot Product

Look what arrived in the store today!

These gorgeous slip-on canvas runners come in 5 colours and we stock sizes 24 to 30. They go with absolutely everything and cut out the 'Muuum, can you do up my shoes' factor.

Also perfect for anyone who is a little bit over the Croc thing.

At $26.00 you don't need to toss up between colours either - buy them all!!! (go on - then Surfer boy and I can go on a holiday)

Moving House

This week my husband, my son, me and our two dogs are moving to our new house so please bear with me as my posts may be a little light on. It's an amazing thing packing away all of your treasured things into boxes. We have lived in this house for six years, we had Harry here and now it's time to move on. I really am finding it so hard to leave this house with all of the wonderful memories it holds. It's been such a great house and we have loved every single minute of our time here!! On the other hand I am pleased that we will be moving closer to my business and my husband's work and to Harry's school. I am also looking forward to our new project which is the renovation (on a budget) of an old 1930's art deco house so there is lots to look forward to!!

Australian Record Industry Awards

God I love the ARIAs -

*How many beers do you reckon Daniel Johns consumed before Silverchairs Album Of The Year award??

*How hot were John Butler and Keith Urban together?

*Is Nick Cave finally loosing his mane?

*Did anyone else tear up when Missy sang?

*Can anyone do rock star better than Daniel Johns?

*Is Megan Gale taller than Rove McManus?

*Is there anyone else who doesn't get the Sneaky Sound System phenomenon?

*Sarah Blasko - best pop release??

All questions I could ask for this weeks poll.....

This is for Eliza -

This is for me -

And this is just 'cause she's ACE -

History Lesson

Due to public demand I am going to give all my Australian friends a history lesson...

ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN

Halloween dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.

The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1st. This day marked the end of the harvest (hence the pumpkin) and the beginning of winter, a time of year often associated with death.

The Celts also believed that on new years eve (Oct 31st) the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became thinner.

To celebrate New Years Eve the Druids built huge bonfires where the people gathered to make sacrifices to the gods. During these celebrations they wore costumes and attempted to tell each others fortunes.

Once Romans had conquered most of the Celtic territory, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honour Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees.

When Christianity spread to Celtic lands, Pope Boniface IV made Nov 1st All Saint's Day. It is widely believed that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a church sanctioned holiday.

The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hollowmas and the night before began to be called All-hallows Eve, and eventually, Halloween.

Even later the church would make Nov 2 All Soul's Day. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, costumes, angels and devils.

And finally to Beau - I did teach you this , you just weren't listening as usual!!

(I can't for the life of me remember where I got my original notes for this so if I have hugely plagerised someones work I opologise and please let me know so I can credit you.)

Aaargh!

Does anyone else get really agro on a windy day, or is it just me??

Redecorating Mum & Dad's House

Over the last couple of months I have been helping my mother redecorate our family home. Now that it is mostly just mum and dad living in the house they felt it was time to redecorate and give the house a fresh new look. We incorporated all of their old Antique pieces and mostly just recovered and added new cushions and new lampshades throughout. We have just finished the lounge room so I thought I'd show you some pictures of the completed room. My parent's Golden Retriever, Gus seems to be completely at home leaning against their new white slip covered sofas - a very scary concept!! My mum wanted a very simple yet elegant look in this room and her love of blue and white was certainly something we had to consider so we opted for white slip covered sofas with her 2 French chairs recovered in a beautiful Ralph Lauren bulky patterned navy and white linen and cushions made in some old blue and white batik which mum bought overseas a few years ago. I have to say the chairs are SO beautiful and the room does look very elegant and refined. I'll post more images of the rest of the house as the project takes shape over the next few weeks so stay tuned.

HALLOWEEN

Moondoggie and I have been Halloweening our front verandah this morning.


We were in a bit of a quandary as I was unsure when you were allowed to start decorating for this holiday. It is not one that is widely celebrated in Australia so I did what all good bloggers do - contacted the lovely Whitney in America and asked her advice! Apparently, like Christmas, decorating starts as early as possible to eek out maximum enjoyment, hence this mornings pumpkin hanging.

When I was teaching I celebrated Halloween with my class as we had quite a few international students. I felt it was important to explain the origins of Halloween and spent quite a few sessions on it's history and cultural significance. I did not want it to be seen as just another American invention as it has such a wonderful, rich history and is a fascinating celebration.

(If I can lay my hands on my Grade 3 synopsis of Halloween I'll post it for anyone who's interested.)

This year, (or to be honest, yesterday!) I decided it might be fun for the kids to talk about Halloween and decorate a little. They loved the idea and having been brought up on Australian TV which has a scary amount of American programming, they knew heaps more about it than I thought they did. What they didn't know is the background to the celebration so today I'm going to put on my teaching hat again and fill them in. Surprisingly there is more to it than re-runs of scary Simpson's episodes!

And just because I'm in the mood - here are some Halloween decorations that I wish were at my house..... maybe next year!

Photos courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

One more thing - how can we make a fabulous Halloween tradition of our own here in Australia when our seasons are reversed and many of the traditions are related to Autumn?? I guess it's the same as our Christmas dilemma - snowmen, sleigh rides and hot turkey lunches in 40 degree heat!!

Ulrika's Oxfam Cushions

I received another lovely reader email today from Ulrika in Monterey California. I just had to share it with everyone as below;

"Hi Anna,

Thank you so much for your wonderful blog! I moved from Sweden to Monterey, California last year with my family. During the past years I only had white furnitures, walls etc, the summertime in Sweden are really short so the light is really important. Since I started to read your blog I suddenly wanted colours. I have always been reading interior magazines but nothing compares to your blog! Today I recieved the pillows from Oxfam that you recommended. I love them so much! I post you a picture so you can see how good they look in our livingroom.

Best Regards,

Ulrika"

What a lovely email to have received. I was just so thrilled to hear that Ulrika had used some info I shared on ABT. The Oxfam cushions truly are a bargain at $6.00 each (cover only) and don't they look lovely on her sofa!! BTW - I just checked the Oxfam site to make sure they still had the cushions available and they are still showing as in stock.

Thanks Ulrika for your email!!

Chiang Mai Dragon for Courtney

I found this beautiful shop via Pink Wallpaper blog (a gorgeous blog BTW) today - Hudson located in Boston. I'm sorry if I'm a bit slow my American blog friends but I just love the look of this shop and I had to post these images of this chair they had on their site for Courtney @ Stylecourt as it is upholstered in a fabric she loves - Schumacher's Chiang Mai Dragon. This one's for you Courtney!!

Bronwyn's Flowers & Books

Brownyn from South Africa sent me this GORGEOUS picture today of a vignette she created recently in her guest room in which she also has used pretty fresh flowers placed in vintage teacups (LOVE THIS DETAIL) and some of her favourite books and vintage prints. I absolutely loved receiving your email Bronwyn and the picture of your beautiful vignette was a real treat!!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

One of the joys of having kids is seeing parts of yourself reflected in them. It may be your musical ability, your tongue rolling skills, your sporting prowess.
In my case it is the ability to read until I fall asleep, but still be able to continue where I left off when I wake up!!

My children are obviously going to be gifted in all the skills that really matter.

The book she is reading (or actually, not reading) is one of 4 fabulous Richard Scarry hardcover books I found at the Mill Markets in Geelong. I was particularly chuffed about this find as I remember pouring over his books for hours when I was young and it's lovely to be able to share that joy with the kids.

Flowers & Books

A couple of images above of some of my own flower & book vignettes.


Megan Samuels book & flower tablescape above. Image courtesy of Stylecourt.


Courtney's book & flower tablescape above.

When creating a tablescape or vignette I often find myself hunting around for beautiful books and fresh flowers arranged in vintage vases to throw into the mix and I notice I'm not alone. Courtney at Stylecourt often talks about her love of design books and has shown us on her blog images of some of her very own tablescapes where she mixes fresh posies of flowers with collections of her favourite books. Megan Samuels from Beach Bungalow 8 is also another flower/book lover and I just adore the picture above of her vintage silver jug filled with beautiful flowers and a pile of her favourite books. What things do you like to mix into a vignette or tablescape?

Pretty In Pink

My dear friend Annie sent me through this gorgeous picture today of the Mother's Day brunch she created for the girls in her family earlier this year. I LOVE the pink themed table - so pretty and so perfectly girly!!

Better Late Than Never

FINALLY!!!

Today - thanks to my very talented and creative friend Kris, I produced my very first graphic tee for CHALK!! Woo Hoo!

This has been in the pipeline for the 5 years of CHALKs existence but for one reason or another has taken this long to actually reach the store. Nothing like watching a professional make it look easy to inspire you.

In the past I have done appliqued tees, button tees etc but the screen printing has always ended up in the 'too hard basket'.

UNTIL TODAY.

I present CHALKs very first printed tee, done by my own fair hand (and watched over by Kris) -

The Firebird.......

She will go into the shop tomorrow so hopefully she will be well received.

What do you think?

My French Life Update

I am thrilled to be able to show you today some recent images Vicki Archer sent me of the absolutely beautiful country house she and her husband renovated in Saint-Remy-de-Provence in France. I have talked alot about Vicki's beautiful book, My French Life in the past which details their renovation journey and I am thrilled to annouce that the book was released for sale in the US 18th October, 2007 and is due for release in the UK late November, 2007. It was so lovely to see these candid pictures of the property. In the email Vicki told me that she is currently having a "white moment" so everything in the house is a little paired back and white - white flowers, white cushions etc. I'm just loving the whole thing but those iron daybeds on the grass under the shade of big beautiful tress in the first image is just so dreamy!!!

Happy Weekend!

Well, what a week it's been! I thoroughly enjoyed being at Design*Sponge this week showcasing a little bit of design down under. Thanks Grace for having me! I posted the picture above of a wing chair covered in vintage Aussie teatowels (as featured in this month's anniversary edition of Australian Vogue Living) on my last post at D*S today - you can't get much more Aussie than that can you?!!

I would also like to send a big hug over to Victoria from Sfgirlbybay as her beautiful and much loved dog Cooper passed away yesterday and I am just so sad for her. I'm thinking of you Victoria!

Well, that's it from me this week. Thanks everyone for a lovely week. I'm looking forward to seeing you all next week!!

xo

Anna

Flashback Friday

The theme this week is Grandpas.

Unfortunately I didn't get to spend very long with my grandfather as he passed away when I was young. I particularly love this photo taken at Aspendale beach in 1970. I don't have many photos taken with Keith so this is one I treasure.

Recently my Mum passed on all of Grandpas diaries to me. It has been a lovely journey dipping into them and getting a glimpse of the man. They are such a slice of history too as many were written during WW2 when he was stationed in New Guinea.

Rug Love

I covet this rug. I can't tell you where it's from as I am hoping to purchase it soon but for the moment I am dreaming about it, wishing for it, can't stop thinking about it!!! It is actually an Argentinean hand woven rug!! I just LOVE the colours in it and I proclaim that this rug is my current obsession!!!

Play School

Thought we might stock these -

What do you think?