More Straddie Pics...

This is the main bedroom - I used an old cane bed head I found which I painted blue and the shades on the lamps are made in a new floral fabric I love. I threw lots of patterned cushions on the bed which I dressed with a plain white quilt. The bedside tables are white painted timber with basket drawers - perfect of the beach.

Here is one of the flower arrangements I did in an old blue and white jug. I placed it into a vignette on the big old white sideboard I have in the dining area. Note the India Hicks candle - one of my favourite scented candles.


This is the little shelf Harry and I had fun filling with bits and pieces found from around the Island and some pretty jars from the back of a cupboard.

Harry and I went over to Straddie late last week to get the house ready for some tenants arriving. I also had my handyman come over to do some bits and pieces around the place which was SO great. He hung the little old printer's shelf I found at one of my favourite junk shops on the wall above the blue inlay chest on the back deck. Harry and I scouted around the Island looking for things to fill it with. We found shells, stones, bits of wood, dried fern leaves, dried seed pods and a few little jars I had hidden away in the cupboard.

When visitors/tenants are coming to stay at the house I love to fill it with fresh flowers & foliage which I pick from the middle of the island....usually I pick lots of pretty Banksia and other Australian natives which I place into big vases. I do it in the hope that it makes the people staying feel special. I also love to leave little luxuries around for the visitors to use. For example I leave lots of beautiful candles, a pretty set of place mats and napkins so that they can entertain their family & friends on the back deck, pretty soap in the bathroom etc. etc. I like to make it the way I would like it if I was renting the house. Anyway, I received a lovely text from the visitors staying in the house at the moment saying how lovely it all was and they particularly loved the fresh flowers. So all the hard work does pay off in the end!! Please email me anna@blackandspiro.com.au for enquiries about renting the house for a holiday.

I have posted some more images above as I have been asked by readers to share some more pics.

Rita's Gorgeous Apartment

This image is an older one of a vignette in Rita's apartment which I continue to love

I really love these new pictures of Rita Konig's chic apartment which is featured in this month's Domino. I particularly love the all-white walls with the pops of colour in the furnishings! It's just so pretty, lived-in and GORGEOUS!! I could move straight into this apartment without changing a thing!!

Listen To This!!

Do yourself a favour. Click HERE now and enjoy Pia playing the Piano!! Amazingly, Goose Bumpingly beautiful!

Thanks Martha!!

I was so thrilled to come back from Straddie to find that I had been included in Martha's Best of Blogs: Editor's Picks by Rebecca Robertson, Deputy Decorating Editor at Martha Stewart! How exciting! Thank you so much Rebecca for including ABT!! Also a big congrats to fellow bloggers This is Glamorous, Coco+Kelley and Design*Sponge for also making the list.....these three blogs are among my favourites too!!

Grace's Absolutely Favourite Things

Gracey Bonney from Design*Sponge is one of the original design bloggers and is believed to be one the very best by many readers worldwide. Based in Brooklyn Grace originally started Design*Sponge as a place where she could talk about her love of chairs with anyone who was interested. Today her site is HUGE with a worldwide readership and hits of more than 30,000 a day! How does she do it? I know that when I have had any email conversations with Grace she's very quick and always seems to be very organised and always so, so pleasant!! I was thrilled when she said she would send me some of her favourite things. Let's see what Grace has to say about her favourite things...

"This is our new "landing strip" in the living room. Our living room space is impossibly small and cut-up into odd alcoves with walls jutting out here and there. So without cutting into the room, we wanted to create a space where we could leave notes for each other (without paper clutter) and keep mail, keys and magazines that typically pile up pretty quickly in our house.

The chalkboard frame is a vintage piece from Blue Bell Bazaar at Etsy- I love the way Gosia (who runs the shop) thought to reuse found frames and give them new life with a little bit of chalkboard paint. The little hutch by the door is a fleamarket piece that our friend Carl from Repop NY found for us- it's got a drawer where I stash my laptop and houses a rotating collection of my favorite books of the moment. I bought some el-cheapo wire baskets at the hardware store and used some Benjamin Moore test pots to paint them a bright blue (which contrasts nicely with the grey and orange wallpaper we have on another wall in the room). I made the little pencil cup one afternoon with some of my favorite gift wrap from a local paper shop.

It's been rainy in Brooklyn lately so I've been getting a lot of use out of my favorite umbrella from Pare- it's so girly and I always get compliments on it when I walk to the coffee shop in the rain.The prints on the wall are favorites from Hammerpress, Camilla Engman, Sugarloop, Alice Stevenson and Little Doodles at Etsy. Most of all I love the Paul McCobb chair beneath it from Scout in Chicago. The plaid upholstery makes me wish for Fall to hurry up and come soon."

I'm in love with that chalk board and of course I love the art cluster wall!! Thanks so much Grace for taking the time to put this together for us!!

Absolutely Favourite Thing will appear here every Thursday so stay tuned!!

Happy Weekend!!

I'm heading off a little early this week as I have to pop over to Straddie again tonight to get the house ready for some more tenants arriving on Saturday! I hope you all have a great weekend and I'll be back next week!!

Image by Monika Elena

Trying To Convince...

I emailed this picture of this gorgeous fabric through to one of my lovely clients today as I thought it would be the perfect choice for her 2 old French chairs but she wasn't convinced. She is wanting a fabric which is bright and patterned with a bit of pink and some black and possibly some other colours as well. She already has some black and white stripe dining chairs and I was planning on putting it back with new white slip covered sofas with lots of colourful, mismatched, patterned scatter cushions and a few vintage furniture pieces thrown in....I'm going to keep trying as I think this fabric would be beautiful on her chairs. I'll let you know how I go!! And anyway she might just change her mind once she sees the fabric in the flesh....fingers crossed!!