Happiness

This week I received the Happy 101 Award from the lovely Victoria of the Art House Design blog!

She wrote me that my blog makes her happy every time she comes over! Isn’t that wonderful to hear?!

Victoria, you make me so HAPPY with this! I appreciate it a lot! Thank you so much!!!

For those who do not know Victoria’s beautiful and inspirational blog, please click on the header of her blog.

So Victoria asked me to tell about 10 things that make me happy.

Here I go!

1/My family : my husband Jan and my son Anthony make me happy.

I love raising my son into a good and respectful young man. He is 14 years old now and I know that time is going on so fast and that he is growing up so fast. I have to enjoy every moment with him!

My husband supports me in everything I do and together, we are managing our business in the best way possible.

Watching my husband being happy with his grandchildren makes me happy!

2/ Family reunions : I so love gathering with our family. Especially when Nele (my husband’s daughter) and her husband  

                                           with the 2 grandchildren come to visit us.

My husband and his daughter with the grandchildren Alexa and Tristan.

I especially love summer reunions. Here a family reunion at my sisters last summer.

3/ Flowers : I really love flowers and love to decorate with these beauties.

This is a rambler rose, named Kir Royal, at the back of our house.

I can’t imagine living without flowers! Every week I bring fresh flowers to decorate my home.

4/Decorating : it is a way of destressing to me.

Sometimes it happens that I decorate and redo that same corner twice a week. I can’t help!

5/Inviting friends : to prepare a good meal (I have to admit that my husband is the best cook at home.) and setting the table for

                                         friends and guests is making me happy.

My private cook!

6/France : going to France is making me so happy.

                      A city trip to Paris,  spending our holiday at the south of France, visiting the wine castles at Bordeaux,

                     a search for antiques at Isle-sur-la-Sorgue,….. I adore the French way of living. It makes me happy!

                    

A few years ago at the Ritz in Paris.

A view from Eze Village on the Mediterranean Sea, I took 2 years ago.

Me in one of the antiques shops at Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

 

7/ Castles : I love visiting castles. In Belgium there are a lot of beautiful castles to visit. Lucky me!

                        The interiors of them give me inspiration for my job!

                    The Castle of Beloeil.

8/Satisfied clients : one of the very important things in my life that really makes me happy and that gives me satisfaction!

9/ Reading books and magazines : mostly related to my job.

 

                                     It is relaxing reading a book or a magazine, in the evening, after a busy day of work.

10/ Blogging : It makes me so happy that I met all these wonderful people through blogging!!! Some of them became

                              very good friends! I am so thankful for that.

This is my home office, where I also spend a lot of time blogging.

 

So now it is my turn to tag 10 other bloggers with this HAPPY 101 Award !

I would love to hear from them the 10 things that make them happy.

1. Miss Baptista

2. Oakview Cottage

3. Malvini Puur

4. Toile de Jouy

5. Holding Court

6. French Kissed

7. Trouvais

8. Splendid Willow

9. Desde my Ventana

10. Céline Chollet Aquarelles

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

xx

Greet

Lefèvre Interiors featured in latest issue of Beta-Plus books

In november 2009 I did a post (here) about the photo-shoot that was taken at my home and I promised to show you the published photos of this shoot. So the shoot and related article of my home is now published in the latest issue of the Beta-Plus books, Contemporary Living with Antiques!!!

Cover of this issue of the Beta-Plus books.

The book is published in Dutch, French and English.

First there is the article about my home and second there is a reportage of the home of a client of our company Lefèvre Interiors.

My home

A Lefèvre Interiors’ client’s home

WWW.LEFEVRE.BE

I am wondering what you will think about it?

xx

Greet

A French guest house where authenticity and comfort come together

Isabelle and Alain Groult have opened their charming B&B LA LOUVIERE some 5 years ago. It is situated in the village of Saint Denis Sur Sarthon, in the North of France, just outside le Perche, 2 hours from Paris.

It is a small 18th century manor house and the 4 rooms have been refurnished in the local style and in an original decor.

La Louvière is a guest house where authenticity and comfort come together.

The entrance of the B&B.

 

The charming 18th century manor.

 

 

 

 

  The owners love to spoil their guests! As you can see here below!!

And they have an eye for detail !

 

 

La Louvière has a beautiful garden to enjoy and to relax in.

 

And even a pool !

And look at those beautiful rooms.

 

 

Isn’t that gorgeous ?

And so very French !

 

Has anyone of you already stayed at this beautiful B&B ?

For further information, please visit the La Louvière website http://www.louviere.fr.

xx

Greet

All images of the La Louvière website http://www.louviere.fr

The outbuilding in our garden

Following my previous post about orangeries, and because some of my readers were interested in the evolution of the outbuilding we started to build the previous year, I decided to give you a glimpse into our garden. I have to say that we started to the garden landscaping in october the passed year, so we (especially my skilful husband!) had done a lot of work the previous weeks and we have to do a lot of work in the coming weeks!!

Honestly, I was planning to show you some pictures of the building within a few weeks, when I would have been ready with the finishing touch of the decoration, but because of the demand of my readers, I couldn’t resist to post a few pictures of how it looks at this moment.

I promise you to post more pictures within a few weeks where you also will see the evolution in our garden.

For those of you who haven’t read my earlier posts about our outbuilding, you can go to see it here, here and here.

Maybe you will remember these pictures of last summer.

 

The start in July 2009 !

 

  My husband is preparing the roof , ready to be thatched.

 

The thatching is going on (September 2009).

The outbuilding as it is today.

 

The planters will need a beautiful tree, maybe an old olive tree??

 

Do you remember the oak table that Jan made for me?

Here she is!!!

The oak is beautifuly weathered, because the table has wintered outside.

 

An old sink of Belgian bluestone.

 

Within a few weeks when the weather is better, I will put the cushions in the chairs (show you pictures of it later).

For the lanterns I was inspired by…

…this image I found at Côte Maison,

And for the wicker chairs I was inspired by…

this image in Veranda.

 

The following pictures are all of the gardening we did the passed weeks.

 

You see that everywhere we have to put flowers and plants now!!

This very old boxwood plant was coming over last week from my mother’s garden! I hope this old lady (?) will enjoy living with us now!

 

The hydrangeas and the oleander are ready for summer!

And this last picture I posted especially for my neighbours Marie-Jeanne and Serge, who are helping us wherever they can with some good advice to gardening! This is their horse, named Carol, and she is grazing in the grazing land next to our home!

She is my favorite!!!

 

Well my friends , if you are wondering why there maybe are lacking a few posts of me in the coming weeks… you will understand… I will be gardening!!!!

xx

Greet