Christmas Celebrations

Well the staff Christmas drinks went very well....I think there were a few of us with sore heads on Saturday morning...poor Kelly had to be the one who opened the shop up at 10am...I did not envy her at all!

The girls all loved their Christmas goodies which I wrapped in each of their current favourite fabric which I thought they could keep and have a small cushion made using the piece of fabric I gave them....they all loved this idea!!

We all laughed and reminisced about the year that was and all talked about our upcoming plans for 2009. Part of the gift I gave the girls for Christmas was to take them all down to Sydney in February for the Gift Fair. We will also hire a car and I will drive them around to some of my favourite haunts in Sydney. They are all very excited as am I!!

Flowers, Drinks, Pottering Around...

Yesterday afternoon I pottered around getting the house ready for our Black & Spiro Staff Christmas Drinks which I traditionally hold at home a few days before Christmas each year. I arranged lots of vases of pretty fresh flowers which I placed around the house. This one {above} was one of my favourites which I placed in a old crystal vase my grandmother gave me on the chest of drawers in our kitchen next to one of my most treasured possessions....a Herend tea set for two which was give to us as an Engagement present 8 years ago. Also on the chest of drawers are a couple of Antique spoons which I bought when I was in Paris earlier this year and lots of other special little things which I hold close to my heart!!

Overwhelmed!

Gorgeous Thank you Cards from Rifferaff

A very big thank you to you all for your generous comments this week about our house and my work. As I said earlier this week, I am truly humbled! Thank you also to the bloggers out there who then posted about the house on their own blogs....you are all so supportive and for that I thank you! xx Anna

Christmas Decorations

As you know each year I buy a few new Christmas decorations to add to my growing collection. The decorations I added to my collection this year I placed on an old plate I had which I then placed on my sideboard in a table vignette {as above}. As I decided not to put up my usual style of Christmas tree this year I had to find an alternative way to use my new decorations. Each time I walk past the sideboard I just love seeing this bowl of pretty glass decorations with their pink bows sitting on the table....just another different way of decorating for Christmas!!

P.S. Thank you so much for all of your lovely comments on our house....wow, you totally bowled me over with your enthusiasm and support!!

Welcome To Our House...

I picked up the old front gate from a demolition yard as having one custom made was way too expensive. This one cost a mere $40!!

I covered most of the exterior windows with black and white stripe awnings as above.

Here you can see the old part of the kitchen which is made in white laminex. We do plan to eventually change these cabinets but for the meantime I am very happy with the way they work. To dress the kitchen up I placed an Antique French Armoire in this old section which I use as our pantry and opposite it I placed an old chest of drawers I had which houses my large collection of napery. On top I placed a few of my favourite pieces of china and above it I hung a painting which was painted for us by a family friend and given to us as an engagement present {as below}.

Above is the new island bench we had made for the Kitchen with a white carrara marble benchtop.

In the dining area I was inspired by U.S. Designer Windsor Smith to use my 2 old black and white wing chairs as end chairs which I then paired with a collection of mismatched Antique & Vintage side dining chairs.

I had this large bookcase custom built to cover the entire wall at the end of our new room so that it could house my large collection of magazines, books and pieces. I had to let my husband have one thing in this entire renovation and that was having the t.v. in this bookcase. I'm usually not a fan of t.v.'s on show but I gave in!!

This loom sofa I had custom painted in hot pink. I bring it inside during the week so that we have extra seating in our lounge room and then I take it out on the deck on the weekends when we have friends over.

I wanted to use wallpaper somewhere in the house and as I have alot of artwork I didn't want the house to look too cluttered with wallpaper as well so I decided to use this Manuel Canovas paper in the W.C. to add some interest and fun to a usually not so interesting room!!

In the bathroom I selected white subway tiles with grey grout on the walls and white hexagonal mosaics on the floor. I found the old timber workbench on Ebay for a very small sum of money and decided to use it in the bathroom. I went for two Antique mismatch mirrors which I absolutely adore!

Hello again. I know you've all been waiting so patiently for this........

Finally here are some pictures which I promised to show you of our newly renovated home! As you can see there's lots of white with pops of colour and lots of vintage/Antique pieces of furniture....my favourite look!! We are just so excited and thrilled with the end result and we feel so lucky to be able to have our little dream cottage renovated just the way we like it.

We still have a few more things to do which include building a new garage pavillion which will also have a little room to house our treadmill, renovating the other bathroom in the house, doing some new cabinetry in the kitchen, planting some garden beds and skim coating the exterior brickwork of the house which we plan to paint white...but all in good time and anyway I think would get bored if I didn't have a little project or two going on!! I hope you enjoy sneaking a peak inside our home. Thanks for dropping by!

Oh, PS...I do have one more room to show you which I will post pictures of this week....it's another little lounge room which Harry uses as his play room but it was WAY too messy to show you pictures of today!

Reminder

Just a reminder to check back tonight to see the pictures I am posting of our house renovation! Here's another little teaser for you!! See you tonight!

Weekend @ Home

We've had a wonderful weekend full of family and friends coming over to enjoy our newly renovated home {as you can see in the above picture}! I know I promised I was going to show you some pictures of the house at the end of last week...so sorry I didn't keep my promise!! BUT, come back tomorrow night as I will be posting lots of pictures for you to see! I hope you've all been having a great weekend too!! See you tomorrow!