Believe it or not, this is a Winter’s afternoon in ol’ Sydney, in my parent’s backyard. I took these photos at around 4pm, astounded myself, at how penetrating our light is down here. Back in The ‘Dam when I’m on shoots I talk alot about the light in Australia. Especially when I’m on food shoots as Australian food photography is the talk of the industry, and our Aussie food photographers are (amongst) the best in the world (hmm, can you tell I’m a bit proud?). Anyway, I tell everyone about the light and I describe it as “being so strong it even penetrates the walls”. French Boy laughs in disbelief, and thinks I am exaggerating but here is the proof in the puddin’, blossoms, check it out for yourself…

Need I say more…

Back in Amsterdam, I had a few Sydney-based blogs that I would love to peruse to get my Sydney-life fix. And it’s perfect timing for me to share them with you, since you are all here with me for the next few weeks and you can get more of a feel for this fabulous city with the help of these awesome dudes…

First of all, the above pic doesn’t look like Sydney, does it? Well, it’s not, I must confess, but I love that photo and it comes from the website of one of my all-time favourite bunch of architects whose organisation is called Bricks + Cartwheels. As architects they “seek to act as facilitators to empower and engage communities not normally served by good design.” They believe in the potential for young designers to play a critical role in the improvement of peoples’ lives and they work in various impoverished areas around the world to implement the design and construction of schools and community buildings. Right now they are working with the community of Katolo in Kenya building a secondary school for girls.

But beside them being a fabulous bunch of architects, they have a wonderful blog with lots of cool design stuff that is a must to have in your blogroll! And they tell you a bit about what they get up to – like discovering new restaurants in Sydney (and in turn convincing me I must go while here!). Please go and say hello, you will love it I just know it.

And just to prove how in the know the Bricks + Cartwheels team is, it was they who led my straight to the incredible work of this young Sydney lass…

I’m talking of jewellery and textile design student, Felicity Gleeson. Not only is she very talented, she has an impeccable eye for style and cool things, and lucky for us she blogs about all of them! If you go now, you can check out the post about her talented sis too.

Next up is something that many of us already know about, but I just can’t help but add to the applause for this Sydney-based magazine…

Dumbo Feather, pass it on rocks. A copy of Issue 14 appeared in my little cubby hole at the House of Orange a few months back, with a note from Kate the editor. She had read that I was an Aussie ex-pat and thought I might like a little slice of home. Boy, was she right. I devoured that copy from front to back, back to front, and I’m sure I even read it sideways a couple of times. It’s awesome. Dumbo Feather ‘s blog is also a must for your blogroll as they tell you what’s coming in their next issues, and they even sell cool design items. Read about it here, or view a sample issue here, or better still, just subscribe.

Well, that’s only a few of my favourites. No doubt I will share more with you soon, also don’t miss out on Anne’s Regional Round Up of Sydney on Design*Sponge coming next week!

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Oh and one more thing, my pal and favourite blogger Joslyn at Simply Lovely posted a list of my 10 favourite things/things I can’t live without last week. Thanks for including me Jos! Although I can’t help but notice my list looks a little different to the rest, perhaps I got a bit carried away?! Hmm, it’s not the first time the pipelette in me strikes, oops.

xx

I know, this have been a long wait. But it can all be explained by my mystery location…

… once upon a time, this was home…

and perhaps now you know why I am such a water baby: i was brought up by the seaside, on the sea shore, feet in sand and little body bobbing up and down between these beautiful waves…

and once upon a time i dated surfers, and sea men, I wrestled with sharks (okay, not) and dived with dolphins (okay once)…

isn’t it time for a soundtrack? lets pick this one ( you know the rules by now: click here, and come back to my post as you play this soundtrack in the background)…

This is Newport Beach, in Sydney, Australia. And I just landed. It’s been a whirlwind trip. A very unexpected one.

You see, I’m here to be with my Mum. You know the woman I’m talking about: I’ve mentioned her here, here and here (read bullet point number 4).

I am very thankful to my agency, and my clients back in Amsterdam for being so understanding and letting me postpone my shoots, to be with her.

So for the next few weeks, there will be no harriet (she is waiting for us back in amsterdam), there will be no soundscapes (although I will be collecting some and posting them with French Boy’s help when I get back to Amsterdam), and there will not be a whole lot of time to post. But will you still stop by as I show you where my other home is?

It is a rather emotional time as I meet with friends I have not seen for so long, as I catch up with family that I adore, and as I attempt to enhance my mum’s everyday. Will you come with me?

I have a few ideas of how to enhance my mum’s everyday, and one of them involves you (I shall reveal soon). Also, I’d like to show you the rest of the beaches of where I live – this is just one – there is a whole bunch of them that I call home, and I will show them all to you in the days to come. This next month will be water filled, and author’s note: this is where my dreams were born.

to be continued…

harriet knew that she always made the best decisions while sitting on her favourite chair, with cup of tea in hand. meanwhile, alfred remains to be the best butler a girl could ever want.

You are about to notice a 48 hour lapse in my posts starting from now. Why? Because I’m in transit. There has been no time to organise guest bloggers. There has not even been time to say pollypickedapocketfullofpoppiesforherpuppy. I have needed to make a swift change of plans which I will fill you in on the details once at my destination. I hope you don’t mind that you will all be coming with me.

So there’s no time to dawdle: just grab your toothbrush, grab your bagel, blow everyone a kiss and get moving! I promise to fill you in on our whereabouts once there. In the meantime, I shall leave you with my second drawing of Miss Harriet.

xx

PS. oh I meant to do the proper blog thing and say “meanwhile, feel free to leaf through my blog archives”. When will I get this thing right?