Verandah Home & Garden Living Solutions: 2007

Tablescapes & Chinoiserie

Chinoiserie - originating late 19th century Pan-Asia style

de Gournay's - Chinoiserie Chelsea on custom yellow background wallpaper; email at info@degournay.com

Verandah Home & Garden Living Solutions - Tablescape; Wall painted in Jervis Bay Blue, British Paints; Tall conical blue & white vase from Shanghai; Blue & white bowl with lid from Kelantung Malaysia; Bohemia Crystal Rib Vase with Cymbidium orchid; Oblong Frosted Lamp, Ikea.

Chinoiserie -
1.a style of ornamentation current chiefly in the 18th century in Europe, characterized by intricate patterns and an extensive use of motifs identified as Chinese.
2.an object decorated in this style or an example of this style: The clock was an interesting chinoiserie.
[Origin: 1880–85; <>Chinese + -erie -ery]

21 October was the official day for Breast Cancer Awareness & Research for a Cure.

21 October was the official day for Breast Cancer Awareness & Research for a Cure.

The SMH (Sydney Morning Herald) went pink and dyed its newpaper pages pink, and donated 10c from every newspaper to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. So if you bought the paper yesterday and you thought it was a bad batch from the printer like that pink washing - it wasn't! You've helped donate to the NBCF.

From the SMH web http://www.smh.com.au/news/general/the-herald-goes-pink/2007/10/22/1192301015518.html

Don't miss the special pink edition of The Sydney Morning Herald today.
Ten cents from every copy sold will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Breast cancer is the major cause of cancer death in Australian women.
One in 11 Australian women will be diagnosed with the disease before the age of 75.
Early detection is the best method of reducing deaths from breast cancer. The incidence of breast cancer is increasing, but with continued support and funding from the National Breast Cancer Foundation, improvements in research mean the survival rate is on the rise.
Your contribution today will help women. Readers of The Age, The Newcastle Herald and The Illawarra Mercury will also be contributing to the cause.
Click here to donate: http://www.nbcf.org.au/donate.asp

Here are some great images I wanted to share with you to Post 'Pink' for Breast Cancer. . .

A fantastic retro modern bright interior

I love this white apartment and all of its contents including
furniture wrapped in PINK paper. Very Cristo!

Trends Oct 07 - Our World, Future Files

I recently attended wonderful and insightful evening aptly named - Trend Blend - hosted by the fantastic ISCD (International School Of Colour & Design www.iscd.com.au), at North Sydney [Australia].

The evening presentations commenced with the very precise & fabulously candid, Richard Watson, who presented his observations and interpretation of world's society trends. Richard travels around the world documenting these trends and change through out our society, and how the trends for the future and its change reaction will affect our way of living and expectations - on society. What I found most exciting about Richard's presentation was that it presented 'multiple futures' for whichever future trend direction our lives take. Through his presentation Richard covered topics on Society, Food, Government, Science & Technology, Media, Retail, Home, Implications, Transport, Work, Money, Health & Travel. Within each of these topics were presented future trends with multiple paths and directions.

Richard, one of the pioneers behind the trend-blend analysis, that also areminds many of us of the London Tube map system - Trend Blend 2007+, here the map shows some of the major trends in each of these segments, as well as the key intersections between the trends. http://www.futureexploration.net/blog/Trend_Blend_2007_map.pdf

Richard's book ' Future Files, A History of the Next 50 Years, Scribe Publications describes Richard's work -

'Future Files is filled with provocative forecasts about how the world might change in the next half century. It examines emerging patterns and developments in society, technology, economy, and business, and makes educated speculations as to where they might take us.
But Future Files is not primarily about prediction. Its goal is to liberate our collective and individual imaginations so that we can see the familiar in a new light and the unfamiliar with greater clarity, and to make individuals and organisations think about where we are going and to consider whether, when we get there, it will be worth staying.
Future Files will prove indispensable to business analysts, strategists, and organisations who need to stay ahead of the game, as well as providing rich and fascinating material for water-cooler conversations'.

To purchase the book and find out more from Richard Wastson visit - Scribe Publications at http://www.scribepublications.com.au/book/futurefiles

American Holiday Decorating - Halloween

Holiday decorating ... I just love the way the Amercian (retail) stores have every possible

decorator item to make your 'holiday' look just right. There's nothing like it! Having visiting stores in the States I fell in love their ability to merchandise everything from a tea light candle to a 9ft dining table with matching 4 stack plate setting and cutlery!
With the Halloween holiday coming up, and although a mostly American celebration, I have always been drawn to it as my birthday also falls on the date - 31 October. From this I was inspired to share my favourite product images from a store and brand I just love, Pottery Barn. Both a very successful brand & business model, that many have flattered through their imitation.

A li

ttle background for you ...
Halloween, or Hallowe'en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, Halloween festivals, cost ume parties, bonfires, visiting "haunted houses", viewing horror films, and participating in traditional autumn activities such as ha yrides (which may have "haunted" themes). Halloween originated from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in parts

of the w estern world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto R ico, the United Kingdom and sometimes in Australia and New Zealand. In recent years, the holiday has also been celebrated in various other parts of Western Europe.
The term Halloween (and its older rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening of/before "All Hallows' Day",[1] also known as "All Saints' Day". It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions,[2] until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old C hristian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' (or Hallows') Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the

holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.
In Ireland, the name of the holiday was All Hallows' Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve), and though seldom used today, the name is still well-accepted, albeit somewhat esoteric. In Irish, the festival is known as Oíche Shamhna (Night of Samhain), or simply Samhain; in Scottish Gaelic it is Samhainn or Samhain; in Welsh, Calan Gaeaf to the Welsh; "Allantide" to the Cornish and "Hop-tu-Naa" to the Manx. Halloween is also called Pooky Night in parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit.