Summery

This image captured my heart this morning.  I know it's Winter but I love Summer and this space above is pure perfection!  Of course it is by that very clever person - Sig Bergamin as captured by Elle Decor.

Happy Times

My beautiful dad.

The beach houses surrounding the house we stayed in. The agapanthus grows wild in front of these houses. I would love to see them flowering.

The gardens in this small sleepy beach side town are to-die-for.



Table set for Dad's Birthday lunch.






I spotted this cute beach shack when I was out picking flowers and loved it. In New Zealand I've noticed they paint many of their houses black and white which I love.



I had a bath in this huge clawfoot bath every day we were there. I love the little vintage butterfly prints on the wall.




When we eventually renovate the kitchen in our new house I definitely want to have a cabinet built just like this one which was in the kitchen at the beach house. It was so perfect for all the plates, platters, cups etc.

The beach in front of the house.

We've just returned home from a week in New Zealand where we celebrated my father's 60th Birthday. After spending a few days in Auckland we caught a plane down to Napier and drove down to a beautiful beach house my parent's have been frequenting over the past 12 months in a sleepy beach side town in Hawkes Bay. We spent 3 days here with my parents, brothers, cousins, aunty & uncle and our grandmother. It was the most wonderful holiday with lots of laughs, lots of tears and lots of reminiscing. Mum cooked an amazing lunch for Dad on his birthday. I went down the street and picked some gorgeous roadside flowers which I arranged for the table. It was the most amazing week away from work and the craziness of life. Happy 60th Birthday Dad. You are one in a million and we all love you so much.

If anyone is interested in staying at this beautiful house click HERE for details.

A Pretty Boat House

Look at this pretty Boat House....so lovely and inviting. What a perfect spot for a Summer Holiday.


Image 1 & 2 - Mike Newling

Stuart Membery

Although this post isn't really Christmas related, I had a feeling you would love to know about a new friend of mine, Stuart Membery. My Australian readers may remember Stuart from the fashion industry in Australia in the 1980's and also as the man behind bringing Esprit to Australia many moons ago.

This week I've had a few email conversations with Stuart and then yesterday he picked up the phone and called me from his divine home in Bali. Stuart's home has been featured in this month's House & Garden magazine and I must say I feel like I could move straight in and not change a thing. It actually reminds me of something my mother would create. His mismatch of cane furniture, collected things like shells, baskets, books and magazines is very much a look I love and have grown up with myself. The whole thing feels like I have seen it before. I absolutely adore his aesthetic and as for his life in Bali, well it sounds amazing.

Apparently, US decorator and journalist, Annie Kelly has just been over to visit Stuart and has photographed the house and it seems that international interest for his homewares and furniture is mounting daily....including my own keen interest in his products for our Black & Spiro store which we are renovating and extending in 2010.

I will be sure to keep you updated with our purchase of his pieces for Black & Spiro. In the meantime, you must race out and grab a copy of this month's House & Garden and see for yourself how beautiful his home is and how wonderful his life sounds!!

Vintage Beach Photos

I love these vintage Hawaiian beach images which have been hung in the staircase of the Moana Hotel in Hawaii. They remind me of the staircase Windsor Smith filled with framed black and white photos as below.

Image 1 - via Flickr, Image 2 - Domino via Flickr

A Passion for Beach Hats Part 2

I have talked about my passion for beach hats before. You may recall that post where I talked about my love of using hats as decoration, especially in a beach house. Here are a few more images I have been collecting which may inspire you to use hats as decoration also.

I am hoping to purchase a lovely hat this Summer to add to my collection. If I am successful I may need to purchase another vintage hat block as my 2 other hat blocks are becoming a little overloaded. As a tide me over I recently resorted to placing a few of my hats on top of a vase I have on our table at Straddie as below.

Maybe I should consider a lovely hat rack for the wall as an alternative as I think Brad & Harry might be getting a little overwhelmed with all the hats piling up on the table!!

image 1 - tom scheerer, image 2 - toast, image 3 - anna spiro, image 4 - tom scheerer

A Love Affair With a House

To be in-love with a house which you own is one thing but to be in-love with a house you don't own is another. Have you have ever felt a strong passion for a house or a property which does not belong to you?

My husband and I have had an obsession with a little waterfront house which is located at Amity Point on Stradbroke Island for quite a few years now. It is a cape cod style house which needs lots and lots of TLC {and white paint}. Whenever we drive from Point Lookout {where our little beach house is located} down to the fishing town of Amity Point we always slow the car down to a snails pace for a quick look and and a quick check to see that it is still there waiting for us. On the weekend I took a few photos to share with you. Maybe one day our dream will come true...

I have read stories about other people finding a house they love, dreaming about it for years and then becoming the owners down the track. It seems that sometimes, these sorts of dreams really do come true!

One particluar story I love is that of iconic Australian artist Ken Done and his cabin which he found and fell in-love with when he was 14 years of age. Ken uses the cabin, which is right on the edge of Sydeny Harbour, as his art studio. I have included an excerpt below from Studio International;

Australian Artist Ken Done

Ken Done's Sydney Harbour Cabin above

The Cabin studio at Mosman, overlooking Chinaman's Beach on Middle Harbour, was acquired by Ken Done in 1979, after he had leased it for sometime prior.

His first encounter with the building that subsequently became a most vital source of inspiration was when Ken was 14 when he and a friend took an alternative route from Cremorne to Balmoral Beach. Walking along the foreshore via Chinaman's Beach, Ken Done recalls his delight at discovering the small cottage:

"Suddenly, miraculously, underneath a huge tree was the most wonderful little building that I had ever seen. It was very much in the style of "The Wind in the Willows", but Australian. A house right by the edge of the water on the rocks, under a spreading Morton Bay Fig and a Camphor Laurel tree. It stood at the point where the rocks and sand and water and beach and land all met. A perfect holiday house or a fisherman's cottage."

By the time that Ken Done's previous studio, The Nook was demolished he knew the owner of The Cabin. The Cabin had been let to a series of tenants and Ken Done made it clear that he very much wanted to lease it to use as a studio. His childlike enthusiasm for the Cabin represents his joy and passion for the place. The components of the cabin studio represented perfection for Ken Done: an exquisite view over the Middle Harbour, marvellous trees and flowers, an exotic paradise. The view of the upper level of the Cabin from the wooden veranda provided Ken Done with further inspiration. It is a view onto a myriad of light effects, the endless patterning of boats, the drama of storms, the power and beauty in nature all from a secure vantage point. In the area surrounding the house, he and Judy have created an oasis of garden which Ken has painted constantly and where in the early years there he shared with his family at weekends.

To have loved a property for so many years and then to have been able to acquire it is an amazing and inspiring story. Ken Done certainly expresses a true sense of Australian style in his work and it is evident that his cabin and it's surrounds have been a huge source of inspiration for his paintings over the years. It was obviously meant to be that he would one day own the place of his dreams.

It Has Potential

This little old fisherman's cottage {bottom image} is one I've often admired on my morning walks over at Straddie. I think this house has so much potential and when you look at the top image you might possibly agree with me?!

Image 1 - elle decor

Tropical Style

We went over to our little beach cottage at Stradbroke Island on the weekend. We haven't been over to the house for a couple of months as things have been busy and the house has been heavily rented by holiday guests. I must say the weather was divine and we really did have the most relaxing weekend we have had in quite some time.

It was great to look through a few of my old books and magazines at the house. I was really inspired by these tropical style images I found in a few of my old Vogue Living magazines which I thought I would share with you. I for one am so excited that Summer is just around the corner....well on our side of the world that is!!

Muted Coastal Palette

I'm enjoying the muted coastal colours in these images. They remind me of being at the beach in Winter.

Image 1 - Delphine Chanet Photographer, Image 2 - Inside Out Magazine, Image 3 - Tim Clarke, Image 4 - Rummage via Sweet Home Style, Image 5 - Inside Out Magazine, Image 6 - Tim Clarke, Image 7 - Flickr

A Beautiful Vignette

I am in-love with this beautiful vignette in the home of Melbourne based artist John Young which was featured in the July/August 2009 issue of Inside Out Magazine. I think the composition of the simple, natural tones of the objects with the divine, earthy coloured portrait is very beautiful.

Loving Ruffled Kitchen Skirts

I love the informality of ruffled kitchen skirts. I'm thinking from a budget conscious point of view this might be a fun option when we renovate our kitchen at our Stradbroke beach cottage. Are they a pain to use and keep clean?? I would love to hear from anyone who has had these before...

image 1 - mary ruffle, image 2 - skona hem