till the sky falls down

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Stuart Membery Blog

Well, we can all now keep up with my friend Stuart Membery as he has just started a blog! How exciting. Oh and our latest container of Stuart's furniture is now in store at Black & Spiro....just in time for Christmas. There are some lovely new pieces so make sure you pop in for a visit before it is all gone again!!

Click HERE to visit Stuart's blog...

xx

Anna

the reward is so much greater than the risk

kazumitakashi

Le Love,
I read this blog all the time but over the break I hadn't been able to get to it. I just caught back up and in the process I saw the picture, this picture, you posted and I started crying...

Honestly I know that thousands of people have regrets about risks not taken but mine keep mounting up.

#1: Edwin = “Chances we didn’t take”
Edwin was my really good friend, then one I opened up to without feeling like I needed to get romantically involved with him. He was also the one I couldn’t tell my family or friends about because of his race. When we both started feeling for each other we both knew I would be risking a lot more than he. In the end I didn’t take the chance. REGRET #1.

#2: Mike = “Relationships we were afraid to have”
Mike is a great guy who is slightly older than me. My friend’s initial reaction to him was mixed which caught me off-guard. I ended up telling him we should just be friends way earlier than I should have—I didn’t even give him a chance really. REGRET #2

#3: Mike (again)= “Decisions we waited too long to make”
It’s been 3 weeks since we talked…I screwed it up Big Time. Sometimes I think if texting him and acting like it was an accident just to open up communication again, but I am afraid he is still upset. Why didn’t I just let him in? REGRET #3.

Can someone please tell me how they stop the regrets from mounting up? Because I can’t take many more…..and they are all 100% my fault.

Fanning Gets Hollywood

Dakota Fanning arriving at her private school in West Hollywood Nov 5, 2010.

chaos/order

unknown

Parties Flowers & Installations

I think that summer wind may have swept me away last week. I just realised that I haven't posted since last Monday. It is amazing how time flies. This week has seen the installation of a few gorgeous pre-Christmas jobs, Harry's school Christmas pageant, a friends surprise 40th Birthday party and a summer garden dinner party which Brad and I hosted at our home last night with a few of my lovely clients and friends.

I filled the house with fresh flowers including my first Peonies for the season.

The garden looked so lovely and green. I'm so glad the drought is over here for now.

I also filled the house and verandahs with lots of candles. I must thank my friend Stuart Membery for organsing a rush delivery of the oval rattan placemats from Indonesia and also to Brad's dad for painting them for me in that pretty green which I chose to go with the napkins and cushions on the chairs. We had such a lovely night. I think it was the beginning of the festive/party season as Brad and I have a few more exciting parties to attend this week...Christmas really is such a wonderful time of year!!

PS. I promise I won't let that summer wind sweep me away this week!!

xx

Anna

my confession

leslie

I'm only young. But in my short life I've seen love, love lost and found, love shallow and true. This blog is beautiful, it helps me feel when I was numb before. I don't think you'll publish this, but I trust you to understand, and I need understanding. Here goes.

I don't know why I always do this. There must be a genetic quirk in my brain or something, because I genuinely can't help myself. He is beautiful. He is smart. He is gentle and sweet and sexy and moody and as close to perfection as I can stand. Close as I can imagine. We've never kissed, never touched even. But I am his. For sure, I am his. Whether he wants me or not. There is no doubt about that. I think he wants me too. I think he's close to wanting me, close to doing something about the way we are.
But this weekend. I made my mistake. The same one I always make. To be brutally honest and not in an arrogant way, I've always been the sort of girl with quite a few guys around me, but until this weekend I've managed to keep away from them. Managed to rebuff their advances gently and sweetly while never losing the dreamy expression that the one I belong to gives me. I woke up this weekend. I woke up when I fell asleep in his arms. It wasn't the right him.
I was at this person's house. I drank wine with his mother, and mine. Then they went to bed, he slid a movie into the machine. His house is a beautiful farmhouse in the country; cold and big. We were in the smallest room on a couch with a blanket and a coal fire in the corner. I don't know that I need to be explicit here; one thing led to another. He cradled me in his strong arms, he kissed me with his lips and tongue and teeth, I felt his heart pounding through the thin cotton of my shirt. He was lovely. It was amazing. But he wasn't the right him.
And now I don't know what to do. My guilt is crushing me- not that I really did anything all that wrong. He's not mine, I'm not his. Not officially. But if that's true, why do I feel so sick? This is my confession. I wish I hadn't needed something like this to make me realise how much I love him. Because now I don't deserve him.

I needed to tell someone.
I feel embarrassed, and stupid, both the user and the used, full of self-loathing. This is my confession.


I love you, Christopher, with every shattered piece of my wasted heart. I'm sorry for everything.

fragile hope

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With Fans and Friends

Dakota Fanning with fans and then posing with a bunch of friends.

this one goes out to all the best friends

denimandflowers

It's a different type of love, and maybe we all need a break from the achey, sweet love that comes with romance, the kind that excludes the rest of the world, the kind that's limited only to you and him / her.

So this one goes out to all the best friends in the world. The ones that smile for you when you excitedly fall in love with some new, unknown boy. The ones that sit through a pack of cigarettes with you at two to five in the morning listening to you cry about said boy who cheated on you even though they've got to be up at six for work. The ones that take time off work / school just for a little naughty afternoon shopping and eating on weekday. The ones who drag you to social events just to distract you from a broken heart. The ones who respond to every facebook, every twitter status update, just so you don't feel so alone and ignored. The ones who recognize you have a right to feel as shitty as you do about the boy who hurt you even though they'd spent the last two years telling you he was nothing but trash, the ones who don't tell you you're a fool, the ones who tell you you've a right to hurt. Because they're also the ones who have the strength and the love enough to tell you to snap out of it, that he was never worth it, because they're also the ones who have the courage to be honest enough to tell you you'd be a fool to take the manipulative creep back. The ones who bombard his messenger account with warnings to leave you alone, the ones who tell him behind your back to leave you well and alone, to stop messing with your mind when he's already with someone else. The ones who introduce you to new and wonderfully normal and loving boys.

This one also goes out to all the best other-gender best friends in the world. The ones that pick you up late at night for supper, just to take you out of your head. The ones that show you not all the men in the world are screw-ups and traitors, the ones that help you believe that good people still exist in the world. The ones you can laugh with without wanting to kiss, the ones who can give you that insight into that boy's soul you've been dying to know. The ones who swear they'll beat up / get the triads to beat up the poor sod who had the poor judgment to cheat on someone as wonderful and incredible as you even though it's the first night they've met you. This one goes out to all the incredible best other-gender best friends in the world who stuck around even when you abandoned them because your possessive ex-boyfriend went loco every time you even spoke to them. The ones that love you exactly the way you are, the ones that don't mind you snuggling against them just for a warm body without asking for anything more, the ones that come all the way down to the club from home just to drive you home, the ones that cry with you when you sit in your darkness wondering what you've done to deserve such betrayal from the one boy you'd give anything for. The ones that hurt with you when you're drowning in your darkness, the ones that hurt because they see your pain and can't do anything to touch you, to help you.

Friends never betray each other. We fight, sometimes. We disagree. We laugh at each other. But friends, friends are something else altogether. Friends are God's way of saying: here, I know it's tough trying to find your soulmate, but here are some other people you know for sure you can count on forever. They're like family, but better because they love you without the moral obligation attached.

I see you, my lovable friends. And I love you. This is my apology, for doing what I did to our friendships, and this is my way of reminding the world that there is more love in the world that what exists between some guy and a girl.

I love you, my best friends. More than I ever loved him. I promise.

never love a wild thing

ffffound

Le Love is now on TWITTER! ♥

Ice Skating Celebs

Saoirse Ronan and Alexis Bledel (Future co-stars in the upcoming film Violet and Daisy) were in NYC ice skating Rockefeller center.

Partying Fanning

Dakota Fanning at a party with a friend.

he will make me complete

oh magpie!

It's not like I won't find someone new, you know.

We both know it's not exactly a question about lack of choice. It's only a matter of time before I stumble across that person who will somehow make my world magic again. Just by looking at me he'll put a hundred different feelings in my body and my head will go completely blank when he smiles. My heart will skip a beat from the slightest sound of my phone, and everything I do when he's not around will be colored by his absence.

I will meet someone who doesn't have that need of playing games and instead of following all kinds of rules, simply follows his heart. Someone who makes me wanna look past all the times I've been hurt and feel like it's actually worth risking everything again. Someone who makes me wanna fight my fears of opening up so I can let him in, because the thought of him not knowing me completely is far worse than my fear of rejection.

He will sigh at my stupid jokes and the way I tend to forget stuff and mess everything up, but deep down he'll love it because love's not about accepting each others flaws, it's about loving them because they make us who we are. I will find somebody for whom I am prepared to show not just the strong, independent side of me that the rest of the world know, but also the insecurities that make me wake up in the middle in the night crying because I'm sick of hurting.

He will not give me my confidence back or make me love myself again. I have no need for a fairytale prince who lifts me up on his white horse and saves me. He will make me complete though, in a way no one has ever done before, and together we will get struck by love so hard that nothing will ever be the same again. You see, I know he's out there and I won't stop until I find him. Cause I deserve nothing less than to love someone who loves me back and this I know. So there's really no need for you to worry. He could be right around the corner when I walk out this door today.

The thing is,
With all my heart
I still wish he could have been you.

The Summer Wind

Yesterday at home whilst enjoying the company of family, the first hint of a summer wind stopped me in my tracks. It's that warm summery wind that reminds me of happy times at the beach or by the pool on holidays with family and friends. I also think of Frank crooning in the moonlight...

The summer wind, came blowin' in from across the sea

It lingered there, to touch your hair and walk with me

All summer long, we sang a song and then we strolled that golden sand

Two sweethearts and the summer wind

Like painted kites, those days and nights they went flyin' by

The world was new, beneath a blue umbrella sky

Then softer than, a piper man, one day it called to you

I lost you, I lost you to the summer wind

The autumn wind, and the winter winds they have come and gone

And still these days, those lonely days they go on and on

And guess who sighs his lullabies through nights that never end

My fickle friend, the summer wind

The summer wind, warm summer wind, the summer wind

I'll leave you to ponder that and some beautiful images to remind us of the beautiful summer days which lay ahead.

image credits -

what hurts you, hurts me

weheartit

Black & Spiro Christmas

Here is our Christmas display at Black & Spiro which we installed today. I collaborated with talented Brisbane artist Sue-Ching Lascelles to create this installation. Sue made all of the amazing animals and wreath and screen in a mixture of paper and fabric....she is very, very clever!! We conceptualized the design with Mexican otomi textile as our inspiration. Unfortunately these photos aren't great so if you are in Brisbane, make sure you pop in for a visit. We'd love to see you...

i want him to be the exception

unknown

After years of disappointment, I finally decided to give up on the male species. No dating, no boyfriends, no love. I mastered the art of causality, distance, and feeling-less flings effortlessly. Anything emotional was always left in a mess, and someone's heart was always broken. I no longer wanted to, or I no longer could, be apart of that binge eating, tearful cycle of the broken hearted. So, I decided to never allow myself to fall into that vulnerable position of actually feeling something real ever again.

And then I get to college. You move in across the hall. We laugh at awkward run-ins on the elevator. We bond over our oddly similar favorite bands. You play me your guitar. It was much too surreal, how easily we clicked.. And it scared me. I knew where things were leading, and I wasn't completely comfortable going there. He saw my hesitation, but it did not stop him. And then the night came when he kissed me. It was halloween weekend and we were out dancing with friends. In that instant, all of my cynical beliefs on love, or really caring for another, completely disappeared.

I've never felt so happy, or excited to be with someone before. It was just so easy for us, so comfortable. Until his ex-girlfriend calls, exclaiming she wants to get back together, she really misses him. They had been together for 2 years, so I know she was a big part of his life. They had only just broken up a month before, and she also goes to school here in the city.. So a relationship would not be too hard to maintain.. He tells me it means nothing, it's just that she knows how to mess with his head. But, if she's still capable of messing with his head, that means she still has at least some of his heart.. right? Which makes me worried. I know it has only been a few weeks since we started hanging out, but with how things are going now, I would love to see those few weeks turn to months. I have never been so infatuated with someone that I was willing to get involved in a relationship, and risk the chance of getting hurt in the end.

The last thing I want is for him to be the confirmation of my prior beliefs– that boys are only made to disappoint.. I want him to be the exception, my exception.

- anonymous

Pine Cones

Whilst driving Harry to school this morning I spotted a few pine cones on the side of the road in a little spot along the way. I know pine cones are much more of a winter Christmas thing but I think I might stop in the morning and collect a few as I love the idea of mixing them with a few lovely baubles in a big bowl just like this image above!

image via interior divine

im sorry i hurt you

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I don’t know what to do

fernanda giannella

I not a jealous person. I’m really not. But when I see people in love, a hint of jealousy does flow through my body. I want it too! I can't even watch a romantic movie with getting irritated anymore.

I’ve been in one serious relationship in my life and I ended it. He loved me dearly but I didn’t feel the same way. The entire relationship was based on him loving me and me trying to love him. Yet I wouldn’t say it was a bad relationship. We we’re great friends and had fun together. I do look back at the time with him and smile, knowing that we share some sweet memories. The rest of my love life though has been one sad story so far.

I really don’t want to sound negative, but I just can’t help it. I must be doing something wrong. Very wrong. I think that I’m nice person. I treat other people well. I’m sweet and even funny occasionally. But nobody seems to be taking the bait. I’ve been played and made a fool of so many times that when someone shows me some interest I’m afraid it’s a joke. That he’s not being serious. That the minute I turn around he’s going to start laughing because he made a bet with his friends. Because, really, why would anyone seriously want to come up to me?

I have good days and I have bad days. I have days where I feel good about myself. But those days often requires for someone to say something nice to me. Anything from “I like your outfit today” to “you handled that situation really well” will do. And honestly, how sad is that? That I rely on other people to feel good. I know that I should be the one making myself happy, not someone else, but I just can’t seem to get there. My feeling of self is not very good.

For years now, I’ve wanted a boyfriend. Years I’ll tell you. And I feel pathetic. For wanting it and for not having it.

I made one big mistake through my teen years. I’ve given the most precious thing I have away too easily too many times. Me, my body, my soul. I know now, too late in life, that a girl should never sleep with someone who does not deserve it. Am I making any sense? I feel like giving yourself to someone in that way is a big deal. A guy should work for it. Earn it. Don’t ever just give it away. I’ve had sex with guys that I really cared about and I wasn’t sure about how they felt about me. I’ve had sex with boys I didn’t know at all. I’ve had sex with boys I knew liked me but I did not like them. What ever the situation, I now know myself well enough to realize that this is not the way to go for me. At the age of 20, I made a vow to myself. I’m not going to sleep with anyone before I’m completely sure that he really cares about me.

This turned out to be quite easy at first. First off all, there wasn’t that many temptations and the few ones there were, I managed to resist. About six months in, I made the decision to travel abroad. I’m right now living in America working as a nanny. I’ve been here for 10 months. So you do the math. I’ve gone without sex, without intimacy, without anything for a really long time and I miss it. I need it.

I live in a suburb, I hardly ever go out, I work with kids. My chances of meeting guys are not very high so keeping my promise to myself hasn’t been too hard. But. And there’s always a but, isn’t there? I went on a trip with my friend and I met a guy. We just clicked. You know that feeling, right? I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way before, not that strongly anyway. Sparks flew and felt like a million feelings at once.

We stayed up all night and we talk about everything and nothing and the whole time I’m thinking that he is the most adorable thing I’ve ever talked to. We talk for hours and I just want him to kiss me. When he finally does, I’m in heaven. But I’m also nervous. I haven’t been this close to anyone for so long. Do I even remember how this works? We get really close, really into it and I must admit I’m really tempted. I mean, seriously, I’m never going to see this man again. He is leaving town in a couple of hours. What’s the harm in a little fun? But I decide to stop what we are doing and tell him how I feel. That I don’t wish to be that girl. I don’t want to sleep with anyone, just for the fun of it. He is very respectful and sweet. He tells me that he really likes me and he wants to see me again. So we kiss and snuggle until he has to leave. And that’s really all I want. I just want someone to hold me.

Now here’s the problem. I live on the east coast, he lives on the west coast. So we can’t just see each other. I work basically everyday and he’s in school. And on top of that, I have to leave the country in three months because my visa will expire. It has now been a month since we met but we still talk everyday. When I finish working in two months I plan to go to California and see him. I can’t think about anything else than him.

But then again, what’s the point? I’ll have to go home no matter what. And I still have this voice in my head telling me that, maybe he’s just playing with you. Maybe he doesn’t really care as much as he says he does. Maybe he’s with other girl. All of those nasty thoughts that pop up out of nowhere. Because I don’t believe anyone wants to be with me.

I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid of going out there. What if we’re great together and he makes me feel like I never want to go back home? What do I do then? I can’t stay. How will I ever say goodbye? How will we ever make a relationship work when I’m on the other side of the world? And there’s another thing. He has a 2 year old daughter. Is that something I want to get involved with?

And then there’s the other side of things. What if I go out there and he’s not really that into me anymore? What if he never was? I don’t want to stand there, looking like a fool.

Men of the Year

GQ's 2010 Men of the Year Issues is on newstands on Nov. 23. This issue honors the year's achievers, leaders, and renegades with five separate covers:

Drake (“Breakout of the Year”)

Jeff Bridges (“Icon of the Year”)

Stephen Colbert (“Patriot of the Year”),

James Franco (“Leading Man of the Year”)

Scarlett Johansson (“Babe of the Year”)