Happy April Fools Day!

Hope you get a kick out of the products I found for you today.  Enjoy, Heidi

Candelabra birthday candles by Urban Outfitters

Brush you teeth with cat or dog vomit, twice a day.

Blow bubbles as you scrub your pots.

A clock that knits while keeping time.  Found here

Wall tentacle           Found Here

A bus for your cat.

Guess What?  Chicken Butt! shirt.              Found Here   

Porcelain cans

I don't have words.

Brass knuckles for the crazy bride.

Cactus chair

Door mat  that complements you.

Gift complaint form.  found here.   I should get this for my brother, his birthday is today.

Barbie Boob necklace.

Urban Outfitters

theft prevention Sandwich bag  by Urban outfitters

Cedar Shake Shingle Houses

Perhaps it is the cedar shake shingles that give a home a cottage feel.  Maybe it is the texture I love so much.  What ever it is, I love the look.  There is a product out there called Enviroshake that is a shingle with the look of wood, only made from 95% recycled materials.  

I posted about a similar product once before, click here to see.  Enjoy, Heidi

                                                                        Elle Decor
                                                                              
                                                                     Found Here                      

                                                          Polhemus Savery DaSilva 
                                  check out this site, it will blow you away with cape cod houses

                                                            Sorry, no source

                                                                Sorry, no source

                                                                      Sorry, no source

                                                                    Found Here

                                                                  Trumbull Architects

                                                         Paul Whicheole Photography

                                                                       Found Here

                                                                      Found Here

                                                                 Sorry, no source

New Things

New Tables

New Paintings

New Blue and White Bone Inlay Boxes and Pink Inlay boxes too...

Another new painting

And another fabulous and very reasonably priced table

It really is like Christmas at Black & Spiro lately with all of the beautiful new things we have arriving from our overseas suppliers and also our wonderful Australian suppliers too.  Here are a few things which just arrived in this week.  I am finding it hard not to take things home.  I whisked one of the new pink inlaid trays home with me yesterday and I am obsessed with it...almost as much as my garden!!!

Garden Pots Inside

After planting a few little pots for my garden table on the weekend I have been thinking I might do a few more so that I can bring some inside to put on the table in our lounge room or to place down the centre of the dining table when we have people over for dinner.  I also love how they are placed on the bench in the bathroom I have posted above.  I think it would be a nice idea to find an old rack with perforated shelves {like Brooke's} so that I can store lots of potted up succulents and also my potted bulbs and herbs in the garden near our garden shed.  Lots to do!!

PS.  If anyone is wanting to plant up some of these traditional little terracotta pots, I purchased mine from Bunnings.  I think they were approximately $2.50 per pot.  And if you live in Brisbane and want to purchase some bulbs then head to Bunnings as well.  Bulbs can be a bit tricky to buy here in Brisbane due to them not really liking our climate.   Oh and one more thing, if you want to plant some sweet peas you need to get them in this week if you live here!!  Mine were planted yesterday.  I can't wait to see them grow and flower over the coming weeks.

PPS. I only know these things about when to plant etc. thanks to Merve, Uncle Robbie, my mother, my grandmother and the lovely man at Bunnings who is my new best friend.  What would I do without them!!


image 1 - via delight by design scanned from easy elegance, image 2 - http://brookegiannetti.typepad.com/ {thanks viera}

A Polished Small Home.

Hard to believe this home is 640 square feet.  With carefully selected window treatment, moldings and ceiling color choices, Designer Barbara Pervier has mastered the art of  drawing the eye up to give a room a much grander feel.  I love the clean, polished, calm look she has created in her home.  Traditional with pretty collections and elegant antiques.  Did I mention that is feels so polished?  Enjoy, Heidi

                                                        All Images Via New England Home

Chair Heaven

When I was at a client's house a few weeks ago I spotted this fabulous image when she was showing me through her file of things she loves.  I took a photo of the tear sheet as I too love this chair.  I'm sorry I don't know the source of this photo so if anyone does then just let me know.  This image has now been slotted into my file of things I love...the file is bulging these days!

image source thanks to Make mine Mid-Century Blog - Home Beautiful May 2007 'Bohemian Rhapsody' p 72.

Garden Ramblings

This is our garden yesterday with the round garden table Harry and I filled

with pots and also our vegetable garden to the left.

If my ramblings about my garden are becoming annoying just take me off your google reader or stop reading because I am thoroughly enjoying the excitement my garden is bringing me and I hope that these posts might inspire you to get your gloves on too.  I am actually quite a highly-strung, stressed-out maniac most of time however, I am finding that my garden is a place where I can relax.  I tend to drift off into another world when I am out there.  So, this is what I got up to on the weekend.

Harry and I planted up 10 little pots with succulents, herbs, pansies and another little plant which I can't remember the name of.  We arranged them on a round wire garden table which I placed near our vegetable garden.  I think this idea is such a great idea for interest in a large garden like ours but also would be wonderful on a verandah in an apartment or in a courtyard in a small garden.  I originally got the idea from a story on Deborah Needleman in Lonny magazine.  I think it was in one of their first issues...

We also started planting up some terracotta pots with Hyacinth bulbs which won't flower now until Spring but we are prepared and I think I might plant a few more this weekend as they will make nice gifts when Spring comes around. We also planted 30 Daffodil bulbs into the garden.  This weekend we will plant the Ranunculus, Freesias and tulips {which are currently in the fridge}.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will like it here in our red soil and will flower in Spring.

On Saturday we spotted 2 capsicum growing in our vegetable garden along with some corn.  We collected a small basket full of beans and cherry tomatoes which I cooked up on Saturday night.  This week we are planting some pretty sweet peas...this is the perfect time here for planting them.

And just to prove that I am making some headway in the garden compare the top photo in this post to this photo above as this is what one area of our garden looked like just before Christmas last year.  What a difference some effort can make and some help from my Uncle Robbie and Merv our lovely 84 year old gardener.  I can't claim all the accolades although if I didn't work I think I might be out there 24-7!

PS...One day she will be painted white but for the meantime we endure the red, green and yellow...xx