Anna Spiro at Canadian House and Home and Giveaway.

I fell in love with this home in this months issue of Canadian House and Home Magazine.  It is the home of Australian designer and blogger Anna Spiro.  What's to LOVE?  Her use of color. Pinks and yellows and blue and black and WHITE.  But she does it with such charm and freshness, I find it uplifting.  I think her dining room with the mismatched chairs is one of my favourites ever.  Love it when designers use old, mismatched, vintage.  This house looks real and lived in, rather like the photographer popped by unexpectedly and snapped a few pics, and not like it was styled and propped for a photo shoot. 

 Look at that wall of art.........

For those of you who are greatly missing your Domino, Canadian Home and Country or other magazines that fell victim to the Recession, you really should check this one out.....With the fairly new Editor Suzanne Dimma, it had a new feel......a bit younger, edgier and the rooms have a much artsier feel, less "decorator just left" and more evolved, collected and unique.  I am really proud of this Canadian magazine, and always take a copy to give my host when I travel, or as a little gift to visitors here from elsewhere.  Don't you LOVE reading the design mags from other countries when visiting.  They have even taken a new step in producing a new version in French called "Maison et Demuire".  Leave me a comment on this post and you could win a copy of Canadian House and Home in your mailbox.....

Did House and Home pay me for that little plug????

No.  But I hate that so many great magazines have vanished and I know you would love this one if you saw it, and I really, really want it to keep going and growing...........

Sorry, back to Anna Spiro

I am crazy about her mismatched mirrors and this bathroom vanity....

I could just sit on this pink and whte sofa and look at her collections and Readables on her coffee table with a nice cup of tea..........

You could get this look by ordering pillows from different Etsy sellers.....

Remember that old battered chair you have tucked away......Go Bold or Go Home

The Giveaway. 

This one is dead simple.  No need to add your little face to my sidebar, no need to create a big windy post about this giveaway, no need to leave your name once, twice, three times.  Just leave your name in a comment if you think you would enjoy winning a copy of this magazine to check it out.  On Wednesday I will pick a person and send you a copy pronto........and you Aussies (and other countries) feel free to enter if you want to check out your Gal. I don't mind mailing overseas....

If you love Salvage, check the blog this coming week, I have been in Salvage Heaven.

Photos from http://www.houseandhome.com/  

Anna Spiro Blog http://www.absolutelybeautifulthings.blogspot.com/

Sarah Richardson's Farmhouse-Boy and Girl Bedrooms.

A Boy Room, a Girl Room.  Toss of a coin.......

Sarah gets Girl........Tommy gets Boy

Tommy uses blankets from an Army Surpus shop for the Boy Bed....Sarah uses a chenille coverlet found in the original farmhouse and has the most gorgeous pillows made for the Girl Bed.

An alabaster lamp set off by bright floral drapery...........and the best feature of all in my opinion.....a barnboard ceiling that gave this boys room (that supposedly lacked features) a huge wow factor.  That was my favourite thing in both the rooms next to the flowery custom headboard whose shape was inspired by the "keystone" trim over a door.

All photos from http://www.hgtv.ca/ . Some people have asked about fabrics and paint colors.  Paint by Para, from the new Sarah Richardson line. You should be able to find other details on the HGTV site.

Milk Bottles & Pansies

You don't need to spend money buying fresh flowers.........

When there are Pansies in your garden....

3 little pansies......3 little vintage milk bottles......

You could use jam jars even..............

Or Dandelions.....

And your weekend Flower Arranging is Done............

Have a great Spring Weekend

Window Shopping-A Peek at Our Best Finds This Week.

Well, we have had a CRAZY week shop wise, and business wise in general.  We have several really exciting things in the works that we hope to be able to tell you about very shortly.  And this blog even got a mention on Sarah Richardson's Website.  You can go here to Sarah Richardson Design.com to see our little mention. 

The most exciting thing at the shop has been some of our new pieces that we brought in, and practically brought right out again. I thought since you are all so far away, you may like to go window shopping and see some of the more unique pieces at Razmataz.

This Farmhouse cabinet was likely used as an old shop fixture as it is finshed on all 4 sides.  I think it would make a fantastic kitchen island.  If you added some castors and a marble slab, it would be wonderful.

I just LOVE the colors, the Mustardy Yellow and the Saffron top are delicious...

Here we staged it for it's photo shoot with a sparkly Indian Silver vase full of pussy willows, a rusty

 fleur-de-lis art piece, vintage racing binnoculars, and a mix of old and new books.

Just the right amount of "Scrubby-ness".

We were sad to say goodbye to our White Farmhouse chairs, but they are going to a new home with 4 young children, so they were thrilled that we had the 6th unpaintedbut matching "mystery chair" in the back room.

The Uber Cool Vintage bar stools were a very unusual find.  You don't see these retro stools around much and I find them so interesting and fun.

It was either Farmhouse or Retro this week.  This old typewriter table make a perfect end table or night stand.  The side "flaps"  fold down.

It has the origanl tag "Albert White and Co. Toronto.

I love it as a side table with this old leather button tufted wing chair.  Very Urban Loft. 

I would so make my kid sit in this chair as soon as he was out of a high chair.

Or make it "The Time Out Chair". It is actually a vintage shoe shine chair.

As you can see, there were lots of fun pieces around this week.  This weekend we are restocking......
 

Beach Cottage Chandelier

When we bought the cottage there was a pinic table in the dining room and nothing else except for a large heavy stained glass ceiling fixture with yellow glass panels.  I removed it immediately and waitied for the right fixture.

My brother in New York picked up this chandelier for me from West Elm before we had it here in Canada.  Each little string of shells came individually wrapped in a plastic bag and then taped up. It took an hour to cut them open and lay them out without tangling the strings.

I had just finished a hand made bead trade with the Fiber Art Traders group and decided to hang my trade beads them on the chandelier with fishing wire.

And I added seahells from Sanibel Island..........

I found this beautiful pod on the trail one morning......

My Sister in Law has a friend in Africa who makes these beach glass beaded and wire mobiles, and I added this to the mix.

It Tinkles in the breeze....and has become an evolving piece of art....

Head over to for White Wednesdays....At Faded Charm

Sarah Richardson's Farmhouse-Part 6-The Living Room and Dining Room-A Double Post of Sarah

Does this look like a Farmhouse?

As of now, this is the latest room Sarah has done for the show.  A new episode airs tonight.  What do you think of this piece of Salvage selected for the fireplace?

The room is massive and she used tons of upholstered pieces including an old flea market sofa that was redone.  But, other than a few antiques, it seems to have a much different feel than her other country properties that have feature her infamous "Cottage Chic"

Personally, this is not the look I would have given this home.  Given the exterior and the fact it is a farmhouse, I would have done the scrubby Farmhouse look, but to keep it current maybe given it a Belgian Farmhouse twist.  But that said, mine would be what you expect, Sarah take it to another level...What yo udream of..

I love the wood on the ceilings.

In typical Sarah Fashion, her pillows are incredible, varied in pattern and color.  Love this shot. But I wanted something different!

So what do you think?  Is it what you expected?

The Dining Room is posted below this one.

All photos from http://www.hgtv.ca/ If you missed this episode you can watch it here .

A huge walnut table purchased at Christie's

Wicker Chairs lighten it up a bit.....

As usual she brings in Architectural Salvage and there's the paisley repeating through the house.  Perfect...

Check out this wallpaper, actually fabric that is paper-backed and applied as wallpaper.

Pheasant Decor.??

Sponsored by Sears, she selected dishes from there.........that is the problem when you are sponsored, you have to use your sponsors products....(I would rather see vintage dishware) but she dis use her own linens and silverware.  How lovely is all this silver on this old table?

Images http://www.hgtv.ca/