i know, it is actually 22 days but i was called in to style for a shoot these past two days however, it’s the weekend and i can catch up on our My Heart Wanders countdown! Submissions are coming in fast and furious, thank you all, this is going to be one magical book I can tell you now! I will post some of the submissions later today so you can have a sneak peek at what is coming in, I hope it will inspire you with your own submission.

PS there is a little heart in each of these chalk drawings, have you spotted them all?

always in her portfolio.

It’s less than a month to deadline!! I am going to count down with this little chalkboard everyday from now until June 15… lets see how creative I can be with a piece of chalk over the coming days, while we see how creative YOU can be with capturing your little wandering heart.

I will still post as normal in between the countdown, and I will also try to post some My Heart Wanders submissions as I go too.

I would be so thankful for my fellow bloggers if you posted about the countdown to let all your readers know, and to all my non-blogging readers, please spread the word around your workplace/college/family and friends. We want this to be a knock out book, so let’s get cracking!

So, for inspiration for your submission, click here. For entry details and submission requirements, click here. And to send your submission, click here.

Good luck everyone! xx

Thanks for all the awesome comments about my new home, I feel like I’ve had you all over for a big housewarming party!

Here are the rest of the photos that I took for Design*Sponge along with captions. And now that I have let you in on my secret, I will be posting more photos of the boat from now on – as you can imagine, the stylist in me can’t help but change, rearrange and add things. And since I only moved in a few months ago, this is really just the bare basics of the space. I will be experimenting with new style ideas and I have a few great things to share with you in the months to come. The (blog)house and the houseboat have now fused.

Enjoy the rest of your visit my dear friends – I have the kettle on for you, and my choc & cranberry cookies are baking in the oven right now, awaiting your arrival…mind your step on the bridge…

Kitchen:

The kitchen is my favourite space in the boat – it has a great oven and stove top (hard to find in apartments here in Amsterdam), and the water reflections dance on the ceiling all day. It is very inspiring for when I am recipe testing and food styling. There are 7 windows in the kitchen and it is on a little mezzanine level as you enter the front door, then you step down into the main living space…

Can you see that it is all the same furniture that I had in the Paris apartment? See the wallpaper in the kitchen is the same, and you see the pallet bed?

My addiction is books. Mostly old books. and mostly about interiors, photographers, children’s books, and French literature. and French Boy is a comic fan – I also read his French comics as it is a really good way to learn and practice French I have discovered! You will notice some of my favourite books are listed in the library.

The bedroom is behind the screen that you can see in the loungeroom. It has a large storage space that is in the very front of the boat for clothes, and there are also lots of shelves. i will show you more of this space soon, it is quite interesting. It is very quiet, in the mornings we wake up to singing birds and ducks playing. This is me making the bed so that you see I do ocassionally make it. But that is the thing about being a stylist, you do get a bit lazy when it comes to doing your own ironing and tidying…

And the grand finale, the teeny weeny bathroom:

Yep, that’s the bathroom! Very tiny, possibly the smallest bathroom I have ever had, and I thought the Paris apartment bathroom was small! It was the only concern I had about living on the boat. But I have since fallen in love with it as the most beautiful light comes through the porthole and streams across the shower.

Here is the garden, and one of our neighbours below seeing “dag!” (“bye” in Dutch)…

PS did any of my regular readers guess already that I lived on a houseboat?

PPS the My Heart Wanders countdown will begin in the next post! So this is it, no more procrastinating, get your submissions in!!