Easter

 

I think of the garden after the rain;

And hope to my heart comes singing,

"At morn the cherry-blooms will be white,

And the Easter bells be ringing!

 ~ Edna Dean Procter

 

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter with your families and friends!

Till next time


Sharon x

"I had a farm in Africa"

My parents owned a large farm in South Africa and which is where I grew up. We lived in this Cape Dutch style farm house which was built in 1846. Our lifestyle was very colonial. Think "White mischief" or "Out of Africa" without all the decadence! My father employed a number of farmhands to work on the farm and they lived there with their families. Their wives were very keen to work so my mom used to employ as many of them as she could. So we grew up with cooks, laundrymaids and housekeepers. As I said, it was a very colonial lifestyle! I was the youngest of five children and we each had our own nanny until we went to boarding school at the age of 6.

Oil painting of the farm house with the lake in the front

The beautiful stone outbuildings

The reason for this bit of backgroud is to introduce you to my favourite piece of furniture in my home. It is an antique mahogany linen chest that I inherited from my parents. It stood in the sitting room of our house on the farm and my parents used it as a drinks cabinet. Every evening one of the housekeepers used to bring a silver tray with a silver water jug, ice bucket, slices of lemon and so on and place it on the slide-out shelf of the cupboard. We would all have to get clean and tidy for the evening and gather in the sitting room for pre-dinner drinks. We would then move through to the dining room for a candelit dinner.

Of course, my life nowdays is very different from those days! We do try to have dinner together as a family most nights and I do light candles, but there are no servants to whisk away the dirty plates and wash the dishes. The mahogany linen chest is still used as a drinks cupboard and is well stocked thanks to my mother-in-law. (When she emigrated to New Zealand, we inherited the contents of her drinks cupboard.) However there is no silver tray with ice bucket placed there every evening. The cupboard only gets opened every once in a while when being mom, taxi-driver, laundry service, cook and cleaner for my 4 boys takes it's toll and my husband decides that I need a whiskey! LOL.

I almost forgot - well done to Pamela @ French Buttons, Ange @ Chair-up, Jessica @ The Velveteen Rabbit, Lynn @ Dreams on 34th Street and Sherry @ No Minimilist Here. You guessed it! My dining room in my previous post was E. You are a very intelligent, intuitive and/or observant bunch of bloggers!

Till next time



Sharon x

Divine Dining

Whether its big and elaborate, small and intimate or rustic and relaxed, a dining room or dining area is an integral part of our lives. This is the place where we usually gather with family and friends, sharing meals and special occasions. My dining room is one of my favourite rooms in my home.  I have included it in the mix of pictures below. I wonder is you can guess which one it is. (I will give you some clues - small budget, big family, messy children, warm climate)

A

B



C



D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

Wishing you all a wonderful week

Till next time

Sharon x



(Pictures via House Beautiful, SA Garden and Home, Tumblr,  Atlanta Homes,Magazine and me)

Village vignettes

Thank-you for all your lovely comments after my last post. You shouldn't have encouraged me because now I feel compelled to show you a few more pictures taken in and around the beautiful village where we spent the weekend.


The lovely entrance to Kloovenberg Wine and Olive farm

This feels just like France with the cypresses, lavender and vineyards





This attractive entrance is to a shop selling olive products



Another beautiful entrance



Pretty little Georgian style house in the village

I love this row of potted olive trees

Stunning chandelier and stone wall

I want one of these garden clocks

These cypresses are so reminiscent of  Provence or Tuscany

A  sweeping avenue of plane trees underplanted with ivy

I hope you enjoyed and I promise I won't subject you to any more sightseeing for a while!

Till next time


Sharon x

Back from my break!

 

I'm back from my short blogging sabbatical and I really missed all of you, but did enjoy spending time with my family. I haven't been entirely unproductive during my boy's school holidays and have been busy with some little projects around the house which I will show you another day, but today I want to show you some pictures of the place where we spent the weekend. My husband and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on Friday and my twins celebrated their 9th birthday on Saturday so we decided to treat our family to a little getaway. We went to a beautiful little town called Riebeeck-Kasteel which is about an hour's drive from Cape Town and spent 3 nights there. We stayed in a house with a lovely view over the quaint town.

 

The patio behind the house where we spent a lot of time. Don't you love the fleur-de-lis cut-out on the chairs?

The view of the town from our house with the vineyards in the background.

To celebrate our anniversary, my husband and I went out for breakfast to a restaurant called Cafe Felix. It is a French style restaurant with a very rustic French country feel.  I took these pics especially for you, my fellow Francophiles. I am reading a book at the moment called "Almost French" by Sarah Turnbull and she talks about her French boyfriend and how everything around him has to be aesthetically pleasing otherwise he feels "unwell"! I can really relate to this. If I am in an environment that isn't particularly pleasing it can adversely affect my mood. I'm not proud of this, but it is what it is. These surroundings were so lovely I was definitely not "unwell"!

 

This is the front entrance and after walking through here you are met by delightful little scenes of weathered shutters and old ladders and gates leaning casually against the walls,  beautiful lanterns fixed to the walls and old iron urns with greenery tumbling over them, a weathered potting bench with old terracotta pots and a beautiful fountain with tinkling water.  Everything was just so appealing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we returned the boys asked if they could go to buy us anniversary presents. They came back with a bottle of olive oil, a rusty wire heart, a bottle of strawberry jam and a small beaded heart. I just adore those boys - too sweet! You can't really see in the photo, but the little cards they made say happy A-day. I guess 'anniversary' is a bit of a mouthful!

 

 

 

I will show you some more of the picturesque town in another post, but would like to share with you a lovely surprise I got. While on my blogging break I received not one, but two "Stylish Blogger Awards"! The one is from Jodie at The Nest Eclectic and the other is from Renee and Angela from Under Spanish Moss. I am very flattered and grateful to you wonderful women. If you aren't familiar with these blogs, please go and pay them a visit. You won't be disappointed.

I will briefly mention 7 things about me that you probably don't know:

• I am the youngest of five children.
• I grew up on a big sheep farm in South Africa.
• I went to boarding school at the age of 6.
• I loved being part of a big family and am so blessed to have a big family of my own.
• I will never send my children to boarding school.
• Having dinner with my family in the evenings is my favourite thing to do.
• Being the only person in a family of 6 interested in interiors and decor is sometimes lonely - that is where you bloggers have come to the rescue!

I have been sitting here trying to decide who to pass this award on to, but am finding it impossible to choose. You are all wonderfully stylish bloggers in so many different ways and have enriched my life immeasurably so I am giving this award to all of you with my love and gratitude!


Till next time

Sharon x

French Beauty

My children started school holidays yesterday so I am going to take a little break from blogging. I thought I would leave you with these French lovelies to gaze upon. See you soon!

 

Images via Life as a House


Till next time



Sharon x