Mosaics - picture of colored pieces paints a thousand words

I love mosaics.  Maybe because I grew up in old fashioned pubs with tiled bar counters, floors...it was the high traffic answer to decor back in the Victorian era - tessalated tiles and ceramic mosaics.

Although I have a definite leaning to the clean look of black and white I also appreciate and covet the colourful porcelain and glass mosaics made famous in the Roman bathhouses and Grecian courts.

The tiny coin tiles which remind me of an Australian 50 cent piece are just so.  Very dinky, although I believe much harder to keep clean.

Don't you just LOVE grecian key?

This is like checkerboard with a floral motif

Good old no nonsense checkerboard

Moroccan mosaic

Greco Roman mosaic

Simple floral motif is really effective

Michelle Nussbaumer - Dallas Design Maverick

What I love is her website Ceylon et Cie. Michelle sources materials and items of provenance from all over the world during her worldwide trips taken five times a year.  Anyone who says "More is more" is a person after my own heart!

Michelle's home

Exquisite shops - just window shopping

Mint green exterior - I'd sell pencils just to get this shop

 I'm always stopped in my tracks when I'm strolling down a street and I see a beautiful shop front of get a glimpse of the store window and its contents.  I'm forever looking at the store layout and design wondering what effect the owner wanted to make.  There is so many wonderful stores, but the small, bijoux shops are the ones I'm mostly attracted to.  Usually because they are intimate and the layouts are almost always original.

Aesop store - Australia, love the herringbone parquetry

My church.  Worked here in the late 80s.  Built from beams of an old ship in mock Tudor style

Hanging lamps and shabby cobalt colour

Photo I took in Soho.  Old Italian butcher's...lovely

Love the palm fronds in the glass jug

Paris Collectibles in beautiful old New Orleans - a den of treasures

Love the old mantle in Paris Collectibles

Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Store

Scout Design Group - a treasure trove of lovely old vintage pieces

Scout Design Group

Gindora salutes: 1st Dibs

If I ever need reminding of just how provincial I am, I take a look at the Saturday Sale each week on 1st Dibs.  This beautiful 1910 Japanese screen being sold by Naga Antiques, New York, entitled "Gibbons on Mulberry Paper" is absolutely delightful.

Or a complete swing to haute couture - how about this fabulous Chanel Couture silk georgette 1920s inspired evening dress that's being sold by Marlene Wetherall, New York.  Oh to be able to buy these lovely items!

Chanel Couture

Or for the DUX DELUXE, shut the door, don't look at anything else, this 5.83 CT Alexandrite and Diamond Ring will absolutely do for me.  Alexandrite is the rarest of gem stones from the chrysoberyl family.

Alexandrite has the unique green-to-violet color which changes depends on the stone’s reaction to natural and incandescent light. It displays an emerald green in daylight, and a beautiful purplish-red in incandescent light.  This trait of it changing colour makes it valuable, I love the fact that the first Alexandrite was discovered in Russia in 1834 on the birthday of Czar Alexander II. The Czar claimed all subsequent finds of this natural chrysoberyl for the throne, making this truly the gemstone of royalty.

It's being sold by MS Rau Antiques, New Orleans, so if you have a lazy $198,500 - it could be yours!

Alexandrite & Diamond Ring - 1st Dibs

Green - the new hue

Green with envy, he's green in experience...why is so much negativity attributed to the beautiful colour green?  For me green is peaceful and fresh, and it just plain makes me feel good.  From apple, aquamarine, beryl, bice, blue-green, chartreuse, fir, forest, grass, greenish-blue, jade, kelly, lime, malachite, mint, moss, olive, pea, peacock, pine, sage, sap, sea, spinach, verdigris, vert, viridian and willow.  I'll take it all!

Green Pagoda Toile Source: Verandah House

The ever stylish Marie Antoinette obviously loved green and all that whooshing silk.  This beautiful french set of drawers is also a twist on the kelly green theme. 

I don't think I can ever look at wallpaper the same way after I'd seen deGournay silk panels.  This old french company excels in silken chinoiserie walls at nearly criminal costs - but how beautiful are they?

I'm sorry this 8 carat Emerald (below) one can get lost in!

Green & blue vignette of old frames & candle holders

Green goblets from Black & Spiro

Display and hideaway

It never fails to amaze and delight me how wonderful kitchen cabinets or dressers look. Going right back to the old world Welsh dressers they can be used as a feature in a room, to hide things away and create wonderful displays of your favourite items. The french ivory display cabinet belongs to Sharon Osbourne who is an avid collector of french antiques.

Duck egg chinoiserie

Sigh...If only I could afford this. A beautiful French chinoiserie hall stand in duck egg blue. I die. Miguel Meirelles Antiques in Melbourne is selling it to some lucky, lucky person.