Winter

Now that it's cold outside, I've got my Winter rituals going. First up, I put flannel sheets are on the children's beds, the fire has been going most nights and I'm cooking soups and stews. To "cozify" the house, I've also invested in some rugs. I bought a navy rug for the living room (this room is still under development) and a flower shaped rug for the girls room. You will notice that Coco (our Westie) loves the rugs.

I've also been reading alot. On my bedside table are Kate Spade Things We Love (a gift from a friend, fabulous!), The Life of George Apley by John P Marquand (halfway through this one), How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk (great tips), Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin (loved this) and "Team of Rivals" (about Abraham Lincoln) by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Truth be told there's also been a bit of on-line shopping lately. Did you see the collection that Diane Von Furstenberg (DvF) did for Gap Kids? I didn't buy everything in the collection.......................

(Photos 1 and 2 by Spots and Stripes, Photo 4 via gap.com)

A Life Well Lived

Deeda Blair is an American fashion icon and medical philanthropist with amazing taste in interiors. She's led an extraordinary life. This photo shows a peak of her home in New York.  Read all about her in the NY Times Magazine here.

The Great Gatsby Houses

(Daisy Buchanan's Home via Architectural Digest)

The Great Gatsby opens in Australia this week and I'm off to see it with a group of girlfriends. I can't wait to see the clothes and the jewels but most of all I can't wait to see the houses.

(Daisy Buchanan's Sitting Room via Architectural Digest)

In Architectural Digest, CM says that the sets are central to establishing character, “showing the inner world in an outer way."  
I admire CM's work and have already fallen in love with the rugs she made for the movie which are now available through Designer Rugs, like this one (above) in Daisy's sitting room. I read that Baz and CM gave Leonardo DiCaprio one of the rugs as a birthday present.

 (Gatsby's Home via Architectural Digest)

Gatsby's home seems more masculine than the home that Daisy shares with her husband, Tom Buchanan. It makes sense given he's a bachelor.

(Gatsby's Bedroom via Architectural Digest)

Read about the movie sets and see more photos at Architectural Digest here. 

Garden + News

(Miles Redd designed house via Veranda Magazine)

After collecting pictures of beautiful gardens for some time, I’ve now started an actual garden. It’s the first garden that I’ve really cared about and planned. In our previous house, I was concerned about privacy so I planted hedges (Murraya), some Port Wine magnolia’s, a lime tree and a lawn, and that was about it. This time around, now that the renovation is (almost) complete, I’m taking a longer term view and am trying to plan a proper garden.  We’ve been lucky that our block of land had two established trees, there was a huge Crepe Myrtle tree in the backyard and an ancient Frangipani tree in the front yard.

(House unknown via Mark D Sikes) 

Up until now, gardening has not been a priority. This is despite my Mum devoting all her spare time to her garden (it’s an award winning garden in Toowoomba), my sister tending to a kitchen garden in Sydney and one of my dear friends developing a beautiful garden in Melbourne.

(Reed Krakoff's Pool, East Hampton)

 I’ve taken Mum’s advice to plant trees with different heights, textures and leaf colours. In the front garden, the larger trees will be Camellia’s for hedges and little Gem Magnolias. The shrubs we’ve planted are gardenia’s and azaleas. Mum has supplied cuttings from her garden for the flowers which include star daisy’s, sun jewels, geraniums. We’ve added double size chrysanthemums.

(Landscape Garden by Perry Guillot)

The backgarden is still being planned and I’m thinking of a long row of pleached trees. Although, I haven’t worked out the best type of tree to plant for pleaching in sunny Brisbane. Ornamental pears are a popular choice in Melbourne.  Any suggestions?

(Photo of Anna Wintour's Garden via World of Interiors)

It’s going to take years to look great as the plants are small and the soil has a lot of clay. But my Mum has been tending her garden for thirty-five years now so I can now say I’ve made a start.

PS. In good news, our house has been short-listed for the Master Builders Awards, the judges came through last week. Will keep you posted.

Beach House

 Regular readers will remember these photos of our beach house which was featured in Australia's Home Beautiful magazine last year.

I used lots of manilla cane, or wicker as it's called in the USA. Today one of my favourite blogs, Habitually Chic, did a feature on wicker and included our dining room.

Lamp Shades

 After spending the last few years renovating three different houses and advising friends and customers on their homes, I've learnt that it's the smallest details that make the biggest impact on your home.

 Take these lampshades. They're a small detail but they have a major impact because of the contrast with the wallpaper.

I chose a navy silk for the shade and added a green chinoiserie trim. My lampshade lady did a fabulous job. If you'd like to update your lampshades, let me know.

Stonework

 My mum has an amazing garden in Toowoomba ("the garden city"). The garden has blue stone paths leading to all sorts of secret spots throughout the garden.

 The blue stone was quarried locally so when the paths were built (over 30 years ago) there was an abundance of stone. Since then the quarry has closed and it's much harder to find these days.

But I noticed that it can still be found, like this fence in close to our place in Brisbane.


 And I've always admired this sand stone fence at the Moreton Club in New Farm.

 So with these pictures in mind, I also wanted to do some stone at our place. But with the quarry closed in Toowoomba, it was hard to track down the bluestone. Luckily, Mum came to the rescue and sourced some unused bluestone in Toowoomba. And here it is being made into steps at our place. Eventually, there will be terraces on either side of the steps too with a garden. But it's one step at a time around here!

(All photos by Spots and Stripes)