Alluring Lilac....from my garden to the table and all around my home.

I love antique pieces, hand made fabrics and an earthy colours around my home. All my tables in my home are places for my special objects and styling a setting. All my tables are used all the time, my large dining table, many side table, coffee tables, my kitchen table and my antique cedar pedestal table here in my living room.

What makes this particular table settings so appealing to me is the mixing of colours, objects, flowers and collections from my home. This gorgeous lilac I picked straight from my garden, unfortunately I am quite allergic to it so I had to handle it very carefully. The first year I gathered as much as possible and I couldn't breath for a week. I love to fill as many different vases, buckets, urns and different things as possible with Lilac as it just works so well in many different shapes, and the nice thing is you can just pop it in and the flower just looks great, but you do need bunches of it. I love the idea of using old objects and unusual vases as my centrepiece.

In my living room I have a antique cedar round table that seats four and we don't use it that much to eat at so I usually have books and lovely objects on it most of the time. It is a nice area to sit and read. I have a very old crewel-work fabric draped over it at the moment, which was an old curtain from an deceased estate. Which I think looks gorgeous and I just adore the mix of soft colours. The table sits in front of my Armoire that Andrew, my husband made. It was a gift from Andrew when we became engaged and I adore it so much. The Armoire is totally hand made and hand carved with two inlaid stars in the panelled doors and made from a light yellow looking timber called Yellow Caribbean Pine and it has never been polished as we decided to just let it age naturally.

"When I set my table, I usually start with the cloth, china and glassware and then decide what I would like in the middle and I love to mix old and new objects together and have more than one centre piece, sometimes many. In this case I had the Lilac in the two little tin urns and some in this adorable little flower girl figurine.

I will often pick bunches of lilac and put it in urns outside as well.

And more lilac in my back sunroom sitting beautifully with my ginger jars.

Welcome to everyone from Table scape Thursday at Susan's home, click here to visit her and many others from many countries around the world joining in on her party.

Also... If you have minute to spare, I have a questionnaire on my blog (left) today asking why you visit my blog, I have had numerous business meetings this week and I have been asked many times to describe my blog and which category does it fit in to, interiors, weddings, gardens etc. Well, I couldn't answer as you know I cover everything I love, but, they are waiting for my answer. Would you mind ticking a box (or more) and tell me why you visit my blog or just please leave a comment for me. With thanks, xx Coty

A little more Clematis and my love for flowers

When I look back over my blog I have realised that most of my posts have revolved around flowers. Even though my background is from Interiors, fashion and entertaining I find that the one connection throughout all my styling and my images over the last 28 years is flowers. Even when I design costumes my ideas come from the shape and colours of flowers.

I just don't know how we would survive in this world without them.

The white Clematis above is in my garden and the flower arrangement I photographed a couple of weeks ago. I found this lovely little old sugar bowl covered in the most wonderful patina and perfect for a vase.

and below, my friend Maria's garden in Burradoo, a garden that comes to life with Clematis everywhere at this time of the year, her tennis court is covered in both white and pink and the archway leading into the court is absolutely glorious.

and one of my favourite blogs to visit in Norway who also loves Clematis is Lisbeth, and her blog

Lisbeth's Little World

click below and visit her beautiful home and garden.

Wishing you all a happy week xx Coty

And for two minutes stop and savour this Chanel commercial with Nicole Kidman, I can watch it over and over. The dress, the ruffles, the slow motion..... all beautiful.

Clematis and Chalk Hill Farm

As I mentioned on my last post I had come across a couple of very beautiful and creative people that I wanted to share with you, well here is the first one....

It's not every day that I my heart beats so fast that I have to sit down, I do see and work with beautiful things all the time but last week I was left a comment after my Clematis story from a lovely reader Susan from Florali introducing me to an amazing group of incredibly talented people at Chalk Hill Farm,

Author Kaye Heafey and husband Richard Heafey, floral stylist, Ron Morgan, photographer Keith Lewis and garden designer Mary Toomey.

You may all be saying, Coty haven't you heard of these people before, where have you been?

Well, I believe that there is a time and place for everything and that includes discoveries. I may have heard their names whilst talking about flowers or reading magazines, I may have seen their books in bookstores, but today I my heart was opened when I looked at the beauty of this incredible book and garden. It is a book that I want right now, I off to find one today.

I had to show some of these amazing and beautifully styled images. All these images are from Chalk Hill Farm and the book 'A Celebration of Clematis'

Where do I begin, who must come first, the creator, the floral stylist, the photographer or the garden designer. All these people have joined together to create something special and unique based on a flower that I love and adore the Clematis and it works so well.

Just look at the colours of the these divine Clematis flowers....and you can view more on their website below

This book is one that all lovers of Clematis and flowers should have in their bookcases. The colours, the arrangements, the garden, all very beautiful, the perfect Christmas Present.

Thank you Susan at Florali for the wonderful introduction to Chalk Hill Farm, to go to the Chalk Hill Farm website and see more beauty click here

All images are by Keith Lewis and they are all from the book 'A Celebration of Clematis"

New Season Elegance - Summer Settings & Simple Decorations with Ribbons and Paper

One of life's great joys is to be with your family and friends around the table and I just don't do it enough anymore, life is so hectic at this time of the year and my family seem to come and go each day that it is hard to find the time to be together. We used to always sit at the table every night when my children were little, now it has moved to the kitchen and we spend more time together discussing recipes and cooking ideas as both my children love to cook, especially Thomas., then they eat and run....

My love for yellow continues...

Well summer is almost here, which means I go into hibernation, I move into the coolest part of the house for most of the day, I am definitely a veranda girl and I have always been the one under an umbrella when I'm near water. The colours surrounding me at the moment are still very fresh and green and the light is becoming brighter and the days longer. My love for entertaining outside doesn't change, I just look for cool areas to set up my table and we often have our dinner later in the evenings.

This very simple table setting I created with a deep mustard coloured tablecloth to the floor and I laid some dark yellow satin ribbon across and down side of the table, I found this ribbon from one of my suppliers and he was clearing it out for $2.00 a 100 metre rolls, so of course I bought everything he had. The organza ribbon I already had and I created this simple little tree as the centre piece for my setting.

I used a single iron candle stick as the base and wrapped a hoop with the ribbon then tied about ten cut lengths of ribbon to top and then to the bottom hoop, just like a maypole. I like that the ribbon is sheer and it also moves beautifully in the breeze. I also added a couple of lengths of the yellow satin ribbon to the tree and glued a few little satin bows on. It would make a fantastic Christmas tree if you don't want a tree tree, not that I really want to start talking about Christmas yet!

How quickly they do grow up, this is my little nephew Eddie, he is now much older and I know I would never ever get that shirt on him again, he a real footie boy now and very cool. Eddie and my little niece Bella used to stay with us when they were little and I would seize the opportunity to dress them up and photograph when ever I could.

A very quick way to make a napkin ring is to use paper, oh my, did I say that! paper not silver!....Here I have made some little rings out of a wallpaper, it was such an interesting texture and just the right colour. I am always so inspired by the colours of the trees around me, look at the soft yellows and greens in this tree it is almost the same colour as the green grapes which I have dusted with icing sugar!

As I have mentioned in my last yellow tablesetting post, yellow is such a perfect colour for all seasons, it almost looks like an Autumn setting above with the brown pears, it's such a relaxing colour and as a stylist I love that even the white wine in the glasses and the butter matches the yellow. It is vey important in creating the whole look.

I would love to offer you all a glass of beautiful Australian wine or a cool drink while your here at my blog and join me on this garden bench surrounded by all these yummy yellow daisies and we can talk just about blogging.

Cheers! Happy Table scape Thursday

Welcome everyone from Susan's Table scape Thursday gathering at Between Naps on the Porch, it is the place to visit if your like me and love table settings and display.

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Oh, I have also found this week two of the most creative & beautiful stylists, one a decorator and artist and the other a woman passionate about her garden, I will post about them in the next couple of days and I also have more clematis to show you.

don't forget to come back and visit x Coty

How can I thank you......

A year ago this week I was sitting here in my office pottering away on my blog as usual at home hoping that someone might visit me, I had been blogging for many months before, but no one knew I existed, a bit like Julie from the movie Julie and Julia. I had a few visitors, but not many and most of them I think arrived on my blog by mistake. Until, two wonderful women, whom I adore, in the same week introduced me to all their readers.

Thank you Minna and Shawn

Two women, both incredibly talented and creative,

Minna Mercke Schmidt from Blomsterverkstad blog in Sweden

and Shawn Stucker from Country French Antiques blog in America

opened the doors to a whole new world for me. Minna and Shawn are so well known through the blogging world that there is little that I can say that you don't already know, except that they are both kind and caring and they both love to share with others.

They are a must to visit each week.

I was positively overwhelmed and totally amazed, my life changed and I have had thousands and thousands of visitors from them and thus began the beginning of my love affair with blogging and all the amazing women and men that I visit each week. I have had many wonderful friends since promote my blog and I am both thrilled and honoured when I see my work, my images, my link and my button appear on websites around the world.

I am truly grateful and I thank you

Today, is the 11th day of the 11th month and at 11am this morning we remember the fallen.

"Rememberance Day "