Milton Moon

I may not have made much progress with this blog lately, but elsewhere, I'm doing ok. My husband (I'm not even going to pretend I had anything to do with it) has finished the main room downstairs and now it's up to me to do the finishing bits; furniture, rug, sideboard, mirror...
Last update, we had a thousand colour swatches on the wall. We went from white to blue, grey to green. Nothing was happening and in the end we had to put the anchors on the airy fairy swatches and get ourselves to the paint shop and make a decision. A bit of pressure can work wonders with procrastination.
After a few minutes we laid our peter pointers on a wee square of colour called Milton Moon and walked out with 10 litres of it.

The cane is a recent purchase and another work in progress. The covers are off getting made, hopefully as we speak and should be here in a week or two.

Originally when that light was hung the room wasn't painted and we weren't so keen on it, but now it seems to fit in a lot better. The outdoor lights on the other side of the French doors are a very similar style, plain glass with a black metal frame.

How's that grey? We are also happy with the oyster lights in the coffered ceiling. They were also quite the decision.

 

Both the girls have these el cheapo, yet a la pretty lights in their rooms. I got them on sale at Recollections.

It was my birthday recently. My people gave me this jardinière which I'd spotted up at Paddo Antiques. It will roost downstairs, maybe with an orchid or fern in it.

Riddle me this. Why is it that all the best television shows aren't on television or they are shown at 2.30am? Arrested Development, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock.

One more thing. I'm reading a great book at the moment called The Baroness by Hannah Rothschild. It's about her great aunt Nica who ran away from the Rothschild lifestyle to live in New York with her African American jazz musician boyfriend. Those Rothschilds were a wacky bunch.

Get Green

If you want to spruce up the joint, and you don't have a wad of cash, you can make an amazing difference just by installing some greenery. Plants indoors look fresh and crisp, and apparently, as an added bonus they will also make the air cleaner and cooler.
Potted palms and Queenslanders are a classicly handsome pair. You cannot go wrong with a verandah and a palm. Either fork out 20 clams at your local nursery for a living tree or, in the dead of night, snip off some fronds from your neighbour's garden. I'll leave the details up to you.

India Hicks is all over it, of course.

Ferns, like potted palms, are another classic, either indoors or on the verandah, hanging or sitting. They are delightful and more hearty than they look.

Ivy, Sydney, below.

Name another plant that can bend itself around in a circle like this.

If you can't garden, never fear, the succulents are here. I'm telling you, you cannot kill these things. They are survivors. They're also tres pretty.

Succulents come in all shapes and colours, you can plant them in just about anything, they only need watering every so often, and they're cheap to buy. What's not to love?

Plus, your husband will just love spending one of his rare and precious mornings off drilling holes in a fragile old teacup.

Indoor plants give you the perfect opportunity to break out your best macrame. Notice who has been entrusted to hang in these?

Orchids are beautiful indoors, and although I don't have much first-hand experience with them, I'm told they're not as high maintenance as we're led to believe.

Indoor plants can go in and out of fashion. Monsteria leaves and fiddlewood figs are very much loved at the moment. Cycads, stretlitzias (bird of paradise plants), staghorns and anything topiaried, will always be in style.

See, just a few fronds can make the world of difference.

I think ivy deserves a mention here too.

Herbs are pretty and useful, a double whammy.

You know, you don't have to limit the greenery to actual plants.

So if you can't quite manage something like this....

...or this vertical installation...

....or even this....

....maybe something like this will make a good start....