Wandering the streets of de pijp with such a lovely bunch of strangers, sharing a little slice of ‘my world’… it was all so incredibly enjoyable and rewarding, I don’t even know where to begin…
Photo credits above are as follows:
1. first two atelier photos by fellow wanderer and newcomer to amsterdam, bex radford.
2. 2 of only 3 photos I took on the day – thankfully everyone else had cameras and they took some great shots which I’m thrilled to share with you in this post.
3. the 3rd shot I took – another lovely little vignette at hilde tempelman’s shop.
4. these fab photos of sophia and lenneke are by fellow wanderer Larissa.
5. cool triptych by Dutch-born, Seattle-based linda ferrol.
photo from the front window display at van Rossum, taken by Alice, and photo of mini booklet taken by linda.
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Well, let’s start at the beginning when I lost an elderly lady, shall we? Yes it’s true, within the first couple of minutes in fact! but fellow wanderer Alice filled me in on the mystery of the missing lady during afternoon tea – I didn’t lose her as it turned out, rather, she ditched us. I’m not too sure where she came from because I was quite certain that she was not an avid reader – or even aware – of my blog, but I think she must have been a customer at van Rossum and perhaps she thought it would be nice to go on this unique tour. However when I handed her the little map with booklet and spoke to her in English, she seemed a little perplexed. As it was, just before the rest of us headed onto the tram, she came to Alice and said very kindly that she had lived in Amsterdam for 30 years and was quite sure she would know all this already and off she went.
part of the group on the tram, on our way to de pijp, as captured by Alice.
I thought that was quite hilarious. And I was very happy to hear that I didn’t actually lose her after all. So, with one down it was 17 of us in total – we all hopped on the tram to begin our journey together and man, was it fun!! As most of you know, I’m not fond (to put it mildly) of being in the spotlight. Doing all these book events this past month is a really big deal for me – they are all completely out of my comfort zone. Saturday’s wander was no exception – it meant I was to lead a group of 17 around the city…! But everyone made me feel so incredibly comfortable and relaxed from the moment I met them, making this special adventure an absolute joy from beginning to end…
more incredible photos by bex.
Now I’m not going to take you through everything we did or everything we saw but instead, I’ve assembled some of the images here in this post that my fellow (very talented!) wanderers took to give you a virtual visual wander. And lucky us, those with blogs have even written fabulous posts about the wander already! So I highly recommend you visit them for a full account of our adventure. Their blog links will be at the end of this post…
photo on the left by Alice, photo on the right by Bex.
I have no idea what I’m saying here but I’m glad everyone seems so interested! This image was taken my Malwina who was carrying a gorgeous bag which she made herself, see below in the top right photo…
more great shots by Alice! here you can see us wandering and stopping into various ‘made by hand’ destinations.
Now I seem to be having no problem taking to the stage, ha! Photo on the left by Bex, on the right by Alice.
lenneke and sophia taking tea and scones, as captured by malwina.
photo on the left by Bex and afternoon tea shot by lovely Larissa.
two tiny collages I made for the booklet which I handed out to everyone at the beginning of the wander – they are photos from Amsterdam: Made by Hand, with page references to the shops we visited.
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Thank you everyone who came along, I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed yourselves and I hope to meet you again soon! Thank you to all the studios and specialty boutiques for having us, and a special thank you to my friend Rani who helped set up the afternoon tea tables as well as helped keep the group together on the wander. A big thank you to van Rossum bookstore for hosting such a wonderful afternoon tea!! All of whom made this something I would definitely love to do again and again.
xx
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Please be sure to visit:
Lenneke from A Little Hamster to read her account of the wander (click here).
Linda from Ferrol Studio for her account here,
and Malwina’s blog post here. Thanks girls!!
Thank you for sharing! I thought it was such a wonderful idea for you to organize that wander when I first read about it – it’s very kind of you to be so close to your readers.
“Missing Old Lady Mystery” – really fun to read about. That’s a shame though that she didn’t come with – I bet she could have told you some really interesting things that none of you knew…
June 21st, 2010 | #
beautiful pictures,well done everyone.it looks like the perfect day out.i must admire your bravery Pia in taking a bunch of perfect strangers on a wander.but by the sounds of it,they turned out to be just so – ‘perfect’!
June 21st, 2010 | #
Lovely weekend plan. You look you enjoyed a lot.
June 21st, 2010 | #
You look like you put together an amazing day. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to be there. Keep going and bring us all along for the ride!
June 21st, 2010 | #
Pia – you hosted a great wander – lovely to rediscover the city! Let me know if you plan on any more wanders. Would love to join!
June 21st, 2010 | #
Looks like such a wonderful wander!
I will have to do the blog post wander this time;)
Have a wonderful day Pia.
June 21st, 2010 | #
What a wonderful day you all look to have had …. and what a stylish bunch of wanderers !!!!
June 21st, 2010 | #
Mandy, I completely agree! Every single wanderer was a bundle of inspiration unto themselves.
Marte Marie – it’s too bad you missed this one but who knows, there may be another opportunity, here’s hoping!
Leslie – it was awesome to have you on board, thank you for coming. Let’s hope for more!!
Cass – would so love to wander with you! one day.
ibabe – I did indeed.
jen – it was perfect, they were perfect, couldn’t have wished for more.
masha – you’re welcome!I agree, no doubt she could have told us all sorts of stories.
June 21st, 2010 | #
Pia, thank you again for such a wonderful Saturday afternoon! I am so grateful I was there. It was lovely to finally meet you, and of course I loved the wander, the shops and their owners, but you also collected a bunch of absolutely amazing women! I really had a great time.
June 21st, 2010 | #
My idea of a heavenly afternoon – thanks for sharing ladies! Wish I could have joined you.
June 22nd, 2010 | #
oh, this looks like such a lovely afternoon, and the pictures are great too.
June 22nd, 2010 | #
Pia, no boys?
Lovely afternoon.
This scones!!!
June 22nd, 2010 | #
I wish I could have come with you all!! It all looks so great, and I love your grey poncho! And Sophie’s little hat!! Terrific…oh it’s not fair..I’m here and I missed it all..aggh.
June 22nd, 2010 | #
it looks so wonderfully beautiful!!! & im wondering about the shop in the 4th photo, left hand side…the one with the gorgeous handbag atop the pouffe! id heart going to that shop!!! lovely thoughts
June 22nd, 2010 | #
Everything was wonderful about this afternoon; Pia, the artisans & shops, the wandering and my fellow wanderers (it’s so good to know you are all out there somewhere!), the tea & cake…And of course the book!
I’m still enjoying the afterglow. Nice, so nice 🙂
Thank you all.
June 22nd, 2010 | #
Sniff. So wish I could have been there! Looks like a fabulous time was had by all. My copy of your book arrived via Amazon and now I can hardly wait until my next visit to see all these places – and you, of course! xo
June 23rd, 2010 | #
pure loveliness pia!
just make sure the business doesn’t get the better of you –
vitamin b and c shots and some quality time with the pillow!
June 24th, 2010 | #
Oh, this just looks like the BEST time! Thank you for sharing it with all of us. We were there in spirit.
June 26th, 2010 | #
This looks like such a fun day! Congrats on your new book:)
June 29th, 2010 | #