Have yourselves a merry little Christmas!

WOW this month has been insane! I'm finally finished work, shopping and apart from Xmas day I've pretty much got all the friends and relo's festivities out of the way so now I'm well and truly ready to relax and enjoy the summer! After the boxing day sales (naturally) we are all going up to the lake house for 2 weeks of sun and fun. I can't wait!

This year has been an absolute BLAST! Discovering blogland has been one of the best things I've ever done. I have loved every single minute of it. Meeting each of you and delving into your inspiring and adventurous lives has been the ultimate honour and pleasure. I simply can't wait to see what the new year brings.

I wish you ALL a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year! May all your wishes and dreams come true *HUGS*

Anna xox.

p.s Following are just some poor quality pics of Christmas around my home ;)


(try to ignore the big ugly navy sofa in the corner, it's going next year! lol)

(my attempt at a quiche hehe)

(I remember last christmas saying I was going to paint my mirror white, well hopefully i'll get around to painting it before next christmas lol)

(I'd never make it as a stylist, who leaves the loo paper in the shot? lol)

(again, candle should have been lit!)

(some beautiful pastel baubles, my friend Brook gave me last year)



See you all in 2009! Stay safe and eat yourselves silly! ;)

More Chrissy inspiration...

I'd say most of us have finished decorating our homes for the Christmas season but incase you're unfinished and uninspired here are some gorgeous festive rooms that have certainly inspired me!

Some have a nordic flavour and others are comfortably colonial. My home features a little of each.

(the three images above are all from Swedish Interior Design)

(the seven images above are all from country living)

(Liz Williams via VT Interiors)

While my children are still little, I have alot of decoration my children have made at school and such to which I cherish eg: the handstitched tree on a piece of linen my daughter made. My tree is very disorganized with mostly figurine and handmade ornaments as opposed to perfectly proportioned baubles.

Here is my latest edition, I found this lovely santa who I fondly refer to as my Nordic santa from the flea market this past sunday.

He stands proudly on my hall table :) My love for vintage finds certainly doesn't stop at Christmas. After seeing Tracey's post I'm now on the hunt for mercury glass baubles to place in a pewter bowl. LOVE IT!

More pics of my Chrissy decor to come...

New Book Alert and a Christmas giveaway!

Aussies, Hear ye! Hear ye! A fabulous new book has just arrived on the market that ALL Aussie francophiles should own. This beautiful handbook is filled with all the French food, wine and design places you need to know about to live your best French life in Australia.

With an abundance of glorious colour photo's, this book will become your new bible. This book would also make a wonderful gift for travellers.

If you have a French based buisness in Australia and you'd like to be featured in future copies you can email your details here!

Once again sincerest apologies for my poor photography but the images in this book are divine.





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To coincide with the worldwide release of "Australia" as well as being the season of giving I thought I'd put together a little package to give away with a distinctly Aussie flavour :)



Australian Vintage Living by Bronnie Masefau is definately a favourite, the large glossy photo's are filled with colour and detail.



This book is filled with wonderful vintage inspiration.




Mz Masefau's home is absolutely beautiful.

Plenty of eye candy for the girly girl in all of us.

I also thought I'd include a very popular stocking filler for most country loving Aussie's, The Australian Country Style calender 2009.

The images are simple and beautiful. This calender wont be a bold statement but a subtle sweet accent.

Of course I'm definately including a copy of this new fabulous book.

And for a little added extra I thought I'd throw in this little sweet Koala Christmas ornament

He's tiny but he looks real! Well I think so anyway lol.




No matter whether you are in Australia or Siberia if you would like to win these wonderful items just leave a comment with a link to your blog and I'll draw a name out of a hat on sunday.

GOOD LUCK!



p.s Happy Thanksgiving my American blogging pals!

pp.s Brooke, I received my bottle of Cote Bastide bubble bath the other day and that evening enjoyed the best soak of my life :) Thank you!

Chrissy Inspiration...

Skipping around blogland this week I noticed most of you are already getting into the Christmas spirit and begining to decorate your homes. My home is already so chaotic I usually don't like to even think about Chrissy decorating till the 1st of dec. I do however LOVE this time of year and after my little trip into the city on monday and seeing all the stunning shop window displays, as well as this months cover and feature story in Australia's Home Beautiful magazine I'm INSPIRED!

There are so many Christmas "styles" now it seems you have more and more choice each year. Gone are the days of the traditional red and green schemes. My BFF Pru dedicated her whole Christmas colours to hot pink and silver last year. I'm not that brave and as you well know a rather traditional girl at heart.

More and more Australian's are embracing our way of life at Christmas time and decorating accordingly. As most of the population are descendants from somewhere in the northern hemisphere a traditional winter style christmas was what had been passed down through the generations. The trouble with that is there is a 90% chance christmas day will be 30 degrees celcius + therefore cooking turkeys and whatnot in a hot oven is highly inappropriate.

Ever since my grandparents passing we started a new Christmas tradition with my family and only cold foods are on the menu. This includes loads of king prawns, fresh oysters, cold ham and turkey as well as a sumptuous variety of salads. And lets not forget pavlova with fresh fruit and lemon tart for dessert.

I absolutely LOVE the images above and I was SO excited when I saw this cover and feature of Gaynor Groome's home in the december issue. Mz Groome is the owner of yet another French treasure of a store in Sydney called Shades of Pale. For more incredibly beautiful pictures from this feature please visit my blog sista Ness at Marley and Lockyer but people who can, should definately buy the magazine as the computer just doesn't do these inspiring images justice.

This is exactly how I will be decorating my home this Christmas. It certainly encorporates my true love for French design as well as completely capturing the essence of the Australian climate at Christmas time.

Light, cool and whimsical are words I would best describe Gaynor's Christmas decor. I love the traditional colours of green and red but I love the complementary mix of white and silver. Although every other month of the year I am definately a gold person and love my gilded accents, at christmas time, I actually prefer silver as it is definately more of a cool colour. This year I will be banning all gold from my tree and all tinsel must go too lol.

One of my most favourite things about Gaynor's christmas decor was her linen stockings on the mantle. Last year was the first year I encorporated alot of linen in my christmas decor. Linen is fastly becoming my new best friend. I can't get enough. I now have chair covers, chair pads, curtains, placemats, a tablecloth and hopefully soon a new sofa all in raw linen.

It's just so earthy and airy. A table grouped with linen chair covers, a white tablecloth, white cotton napkins with red monogrammes and a clear vase with olive branches screams a summer christmas to me. A dash of duck egg blue couldn't hurt either ;)

The company where Mz Groome purchased her gorgeous stockings from has a fabulous website with an extensive range of heavenly linen and cotton products. Flora and Ceres monogrammes are based in Victoria and ship all over Australia. They are a company where you can buy that special personalized gift you just can't find anywhere else.

I will be placing my order this week and this is my list...

I want 4 Xmas stockings, all unique. The stocking above will display the letter J for my husband.

I want the star for my daughter...

And the stripes for my son.




Finally I'll take this one with a red monogrammed A.




I'm also LOVING this small santa sack!




As well as this outstanding idea for an advent calender.




I also feel I HAVE to have this apron as I hate cooking without one and it will look FABULOUS hanging off my new bakers stand lol :)




Just before I go I wanted to quickly show off my first little purchases for the season. A gorgeous ceramic handpainted "elves boot" from Me & Mo and a little russian doll from Myer for my tree :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. I can't wait to read about your Christmas inspirations.