Jackie & Her Children

I was recently asked 91 questions in an interview for an exciting thing I will be involved in later this year. One of the questions I was asked was;

Who, in your opinion is/was the best dressed woman?

I answered Jacqueline Kennedy. I googled images of her recently and became instantly obsessed with the images of her and her beautiful children. It must be my current nesting instincts which drew me to these photos. I thought I'd share a few here today. Aren't they beautiful...

The beautiful garden of May & Axel Vervoordt

 

As a lot of you know, 2 times a year, in summer and in winter, the castle of ‘s-Gravenwezel, owned by our famous Belgian antiques dealer and decorator Axel Vervoordt, is open for public.

As I am a huge admirer of the work of Axel and his wife May, I won’t miss any opportunity to visit the castle.

I thought about you, all my readers and blogfriends, and wanted to share with you some pictures I took of the castle and its gorgeous garden! The weather was so beautiful this Friday, so I was able to take a lot of good pictures to share.

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castle, that we have to respect because Axel Vervoordt and his family live in it.

I hope you will enjoy the tour of this fantastic garden!

If you want to read more about Axel Vervoordt and his castle, please visit http://www.axel-vervoordt.com.

 

The entrance gate of the castle.

 

The back of the castle.

 

The entrance.

 

   A view seen from the balcony.

 

Another view from the balcony.

Every where around the castle you notice the beautiful rhododendrons.

 

A lovely terrace in front of the entrance of the castle.

 

Isn’t that a gorgeous orangerie?!!

 

Notice the wisteria!

 

May vervoordt loves to bring in flowers and plants inside the castle. In every room of the castle you notice flowers of their own garden.

A view from inside the orangerie towards the pool.

 

I call this a still life of stones.

 

There are the rhododendrons again!

 

Me, sitting in the outhouse (one of my favorite places in the garden) in front of the pool. A wonderful place to relax!

 

Only a part of the huge kitchen garden!!

 

What do you think about the boxwood ? Beautiful isn’t it!

 

Every  where you walk you discover something surprising!

 

 

 

Throughout the garden there are places to relax…

or…

…to dinner!

 

 

 

A beautiful weathered oak table.

 

  And after spending a fantastic afternoon and enjoying the castle and the garden, we had to leave the castle!

Thankful to Axel Vervoordt and his family for sharing with us their beautiful private home, I am looking forward already to the winter exhibition!

 

xx

All pictures are taken by me.

Out & About: SGAR Opening

Renai Grace & Paul Spiro stand in front of one of the paintings we purchased last night by artist Simone Louise Gillespie

This is the other Simone Louise Gillespie painting we purchased

It was so nice to get out of the tracksuit pants I've been sporting all week and into some proper clothes with make-up on last night to head out to the opening of Spiro Grace Art Rooms in Spring Hill.

Brad, Harry & I decided we needed some adult time out so we decided to leave Max with his gorgeous Nanny Rhonda for a few hours whilst we attended the gallery opening. I had my first glass of French champagne in 9 months upon arriving at the gallery. It went straight to my head of course. We ended up purchasing 2 paintings by emerging artist Simone Louise Gillespie. I was so thrilled we decided on them straight away as every painting I looked at as the night progressed had a sold sticker.

Gallery owners Paul Spiro {yes he is related to me - he is my uncle} and Renai Grace will be showcasing emerging {and therefore quite reasonably priced} artists in their space on a quarterly basis. I for one can't wait for their next exhibition.

For all enquiries or to be added to SGAR's mailing list email Renai renai@sgar.com.au

An Update

Max


The shop renovation in progress

A snippet of one of the rooms in our new Design Studio

Last week we welcomed our second son, Max into the world. He is perfect in every way. Thank you for all your lovely emails and comments.

Our shop renovation is proceeding very well...still lots of work to be done. Our Design Studio is now in full swing upstairs. The girls and I are enjoying having a very special space just for our clients. Some photos are above for your viewing pleasure. I'll be back soon with some more news and posts. Just enjoying my newborn for the moment. Hope you are all well.

xo

Anna

Nesting Newbies Issue 3 - Fantastic Home & Decor E-zine

A couple months ago, I blogged about a new E-zine called Nesting Newbies.

Well, they're out with their latest issue and it does not disappoint.  I 

absolutely love their spreads and how they carefully reference designers 

and materials in the issues so it makes it easy for the readers to know where 

items came fromand the names of colors or fabrics.

They have a wonderful Chef called Lea who has these fantastic ideas

for recipes and entertaining.  I really love salads so I think this"salad" 

bar idea for entertaining is fabulous.  Beautifully laid out, it also gives

guests a choice in what kind of salad they want to make.

Along with salads are the dressing.  I, for one can't eat a salad without

dressing.  Chef Lea not only shows the ingredients how to make 3

wonderful salad dressings...

But being an E-zine, can take advantage of technology where an 

embedded video in the magazine shows you step by step how to

make these dressings - really fantastic.

Sangria is one of my favorite drinks when going out.  One of the

best Sangrias I've had is a white Sangria which very few restaurants

serve.  Here are 3 variations of white Sangria which anyone can 

easily make at home.  The berries make it so pretty!

Classy chocolates? These certainly are - it's a great gift idea.

It seems in every issue of Nesting Newbies are some great 

table setting ideas.  This issue is no different.  This one is

a great idea how you can use colored glass and bottles in

groups to set a colorful, fun and easy table setting.

This is right down my alley because I love 

collecting bottles and colored glass.

Here's another variation of the same table.

That top dish is from Ikea!

I thought this page was super cool - it gives you sources for all kinds

of places you can find platter ware and glass from to design and 

set your own tables.  These are large, well known chain stores, where 

anyone can get to - easily accessible which is why I though this article is

so well written.  Sometimes it's nice to admire designer platter ware, but 

many of us can't necessarily afford to collect designer sets so this is a 

wonderful alternative where you can have fun and be creative in mixing

and matching.

Some great rooms are featured including this master bedroom.

Love the lavender theme and the luxurious draperies.

There are a lot of lofts in San Francisco and it's fun 

to see one showcased - what a huge photo eh?

Now this is taking stenciling and digital imaging to a whole 

new level.  I love the birds and the chair motif is so fun.

In this issue, a special section is devoted to Nooks.

A reading nook.

A nook in a living room.  Love the vivid colors and textures in this room.

Definitely check this issue out and let me know what your favorite 

articles or images are!

Nesting Newbies Issue #3 2010

All photos from Nesting Newbies