Selasa, 17 November 2009

The country House of George Sand

This is the French country house of George Sand in Nohant in the French region of Berry.
George Sand (pseudonym of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant when she married Baron Dudevant) was a French novelist of the 19th century and considered as a feminist.
She had 2 children Maurice and Solange.

In 1808, George Sand, came to live , with her grandmother, in the House of Nohant, after the death of her father.

In the beautiful House of Nohant she wrote many of her books as Consuelo, La Mare au Diable, Le Meunier d'Angibault. And most of here novels are set in the Berry countryside and villages around Nohant.

She hosted many of the most important artists and writers of her time, including Chopin, Balzac, Victor Hugo and Delacroix.


The beautiful house of Nohant.




After the death of George Sand, the house passed to her son Maurice Dudevant. And the house remained in the family until the death of Sand's granddaughter, Aurore Dudevant in 1961.






Isn't the house charming?



The house was classified as a National Historical Monument of France in 1952 and was opened to the public in 1961.





The gardens are classified by the French Ministery of Culture among the Notable Gardens of France.


The English-style park.








The barn and garden of George Sand, and the church of Nohant.
George Sand's grave is in a small enclosed cemetery between the church and the garden.




Portrait of George Sand
1804-1876




The dining room with a Murano chandelier.



The bedroom with the "lit à la polonaise".




A beautiful 18th century screen in this bedroom.




The staircase in the entry hall.




In the entry hall hangs a portrait of her granddaughter Aurore Dudevant.




The kitchen.









In the attic is made a room for all the "treasures" of George Sand.




Treasure room.


So this was a cultural educational post.
I hope you loved it!
xx
Greet
images: Maisons de Campagne Magazine, the November-December issue 2009 and Wikipedia


Minggu, 15 November 2009

Ten things about me

I received the Honest Scrap Award from the lovely and talented colour consultant and designer Maria at Colour Me Happy.
So I am asked to tell you honestly 10 things about myself and to nominate 7 other blogs I love.
In an earlier post (here) I told about things of myself. So now I will try to share another 10 honest things you do not know yet about me!

Here I go!

1. I love roses, especially white roses.






2. I love pearls.




3. My preferred dress is the little black dress. And I love the Chanel styled one.












4. Like most of us I am a shoe and a bag aholic!







I love to wear this pair....




...as this high-heeled pair!



5. The city I really love to visit, is Paris.





6. My preferred movie (and which I can watch over and over again) is
"A Good Year" (2006) by Ridley Scott. With Russel Crowe.
I so love the house with his vineyard and the way you can discover the beautiful
Provence in France!








The beautiful house in the movie.

7. My preferred food :
In winter I love the Flemish Stew!

Click on the image to watch a video about how to prepare the stew!

And in summertime I do prefer a salad Nicoise.

Click on the image to watch the video how to prepare.


8. My favourite winter evening is the one sitting around the fireplace with my family!





9. I love snow but I hate driving the car when it is snowing!





10. I love blogging ! It is so nice to meet all of you!







And I tagged the following 7 bloggers:
1. Cindy from Oakview Cottage
2. Lidy from French Garden House
3. David from The Neo Lifestyle
4. Lauren from Pure Style Home
5. Linda from Surroundings
6. Anci from The Lighthouse
7. Monika from Splendid Willow


We will all love reading about you!!!
xx
Greet

Sabtu, 14 November 2009

A shoe and another shoe

These items I spotted this weekend in the Belgian lifestyle magazine Talkies. I could not resist to share them with you!







This 12 cm high-heeled pump from GEOX pays homage to the skyline of New York and is inspired by the Empire State Building.

A bath-tub in mosaic from the Italian design manufacturer SICIS.

Shoe-aholics, you can start dreaming!

xx

Greet

images scanned from Talkies Magazine, the November 2009 issue.

Jumat, 13 November 2009

I won a give away

I am so thrilled to let you know that I won my first giveaway! It was a giveaway from Monika from the Splendid Willow blog.
I won this beautiful Nate Berkus' Hope Pillow! Evoking a message of hope, this pillow emphasizes that your home is your haven.

Thank you so much Monika! I can't wait to receive it!



Monika is an interior designer and a native from Sweden, so she always brings a sense of Swedish to everything she does.
She tells us to be a design junkie.
Her blog is really beautiful with a lot of gorgeous images.
For those who do not know Monika yet, please go to visit her at the Splendid Willow blog.



xx
Greet

Kamis, 12 November 2009

Redecorating a corner of your interior


Last Sunday I visited the exhibition Classica in Kortrijk, which is an interior and lifestyle event. Walda Pairon was one of the exhibitors. You all know that she is one of my favourite Belgian decorators and I did an extensive post about her a few weeks ago.


I took a few pictures of her stand that she had decorated wonderfully!!
Click on the first image to enlarge!!!



The fabric used for the table-cover is just gorgeous!





Look at all the beautiful fall colours of the fabric, the flowers, the plants...and notice the colours of the paintings at the background!




Pewter, glass and silver as table decoration.




Walda in conversation with clients.





Bringing in a touch of bright colours seems to be a trademark of Walda.


A beautiful still life.



Walda loves to put flowers between the other decorative items.





Very pure and natural decorative items.




Another wonderful still life that Walda created at her stand.
Two times a year, in winter and in summer time, Walda organizes open house weekends.
If you plan to go to Belgium for the next weeks, you can visit Walda in her beautiful cottage near Antwerp the last weekend of november and the first weekend of december. Read more on www.waldapairon.be.

I hope these pictures inspired you to start redecorating even only a corner of your interior!

xx
Greet
All images : by me

Selasa, 10 November 2009

John Saladino in the footsteps of Johannes Vermeer

First of all I really want to thank all of you for the best wishes for the birth of Tristan! It was so nice to read all the sweet comments and emails I received! Thank you so much!

One of the amazing things about blogging is the fact that we are able to make a lot of friends! A lot of readers are really following all of your posts and do help with giving advice or relevant information about items you might be interested in.
Billie, one of my readers, who became a good blogger friend, is a person like that!
Two days ago Billie sent me an amazing video that I really have to share with you because I know that a lot of you will love watching it!!

In this video, one of my favourite designers, John Saladino, shows and tells about an interior he designed and of which he was inspired by the Dutch (from Delft) baroque painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). In particular it was the movie "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (2003) from Peter Webber , that influenced him a lot in designing the interior seen on the video.
The title of that movie is after the title of a painting of Vermeer :" Girl with the Pearl".



Girl with a Pearl
Oil on Canvas
44,5 x 39 cm
Mauritshuis Den Haag



John Saladino




Mister Saladino tells about the way Johannes Vermeer is bringing in light into his paintings. So even for John Saladino light is a very important aspect in designing an interior. And he tells us he wanted to follow in the footsteps of Johannes Vermeer by his vision to bring in daylight in this wonderdul interior he created here!
It is a gorgeous interior and you will notice the Dutch influence by seeing for instance pewter dishes, the blue Delftware used here as a decorative item.
Click on the image of the painting "Girl with a Pearl" to watch the video! ENJOY!!
Especially, I want to thank my friend Billie for sending me this wonderful video!!
Thank you Billie!
xx
Greet

Senin, 09 November 2009

Our new born pearl

We are so proud to announce the birth of Tristan, our first grandson!!!
Tristan is the son of my husbands daughter Nele and her husband Tom.
And Tristan is the brother of our granddaughter Alexa! See post of my family here.

Tristan is born on the 4th of November. He is healthy and just gorgeous!!
Congratulations to mum Nele and dad Tom and of course to big sister Alexa!!



First picture of Tristan in maternity clinic.
3,800 kg and 51 cm

Big sis Alexa. She is now 1,5 years old.

XX

Greet