It was my blog-anniversary giveaway back in December, with many thanks to Dinosaur Designs. The lucky winner was Devi, and I’m happy to announce that it finally arrived to her home in Germany. Devi absolutely adores it and says it’s a perfect little reminder of how much she loves visiting Australia. I’m so glad the vase has found it’s owner! Home sweet home dear vase, I do hope you will enjoy each other’s company.

xx

…living in a treehouse. again. I know, its as if living in un bateau isn’t interesting enough. But you know, it’s the ol’ grass is greener thing, right? I can just imagine lazing quietly about in such a place, reading a book while eavesdropping on the trees talking amongst themselves. the ultimate escape…

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the above beauties are from cherry coloured and country home magazine, who has even supplied a rather perfect menu for dining in a treehouse. pimm’s anyone?

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ooh i just realised that i wrote my first post about living in a treehouse exactly a year ago! how coincidental is that?! weird.

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actually that is really weird, non?

I’ve been out on a treasure hunt this morning. With Emiliana’s Me and Armini album as my soundtrack, I’ve been jiving, skipping and flying through the blogosphere and now I have (blog)baskets filled with (blog)treasures. So then, who’s ready for another round of blog favourites?

the beautiful aesthetic of {this is glamorous}

First up I want to take you over to {this is glamorous} (as seen above) whose posts titled seaglass and endless possibilities have my mouth watering at the sight of such gorgeous colour combinations. soft, simple and elegant.

a montage of photographs taken by nicola at concrete and honey

Then take a wander over to a new blog discovery for me called concrete and honey by Sydney lass Nicola, which I found via The Design Files. Nicola has a beautiful aesthetic and fills her blog with inspirations, splashed with her own incredible photographs as you see above. Her blog is only young, so be sure to give her a nice welcome and leave lots of comments. Welcome to the blogosphere Nicola!

This story about the old guy and his workshop on the blog of Melbourne-based musician Martin Kennedy (aka the “nerdy muso with thick glasses” from All India Radio) really moved me. I have a number of similar observations throughout my own life, and I loved finding that someone notices the same things. Martin’s quick snaps of the place reminded me to take photos of such observations. I won’t say anything more about the post, just take a moment to read it here and lets just make this an ode to the old man, wherever he may now be.

I’ve been ogling Chelsea’s flickr set from one of her recent photo sessions at a beautiful place called luscher farm. She took a plethora of polaroids that I think are fit for a catalogue, check them all out here. But wait, here are a few more, just because…

Well there you have it, I do hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of…

Emiliana Torrini’s concert on friday night at the paradiso was sublime. She had my eyes filled with tears during many a song. With her sweet Icelandic accent, she has a way of telling a story that draws you right in, lifting you up on her lyrical wings and guiding you gently through the night air.

I was alight with inspiration and found myself documenting my emotions at my mind’s writing desk throughout the performance. I managed to remember most of it the next morning to materialise it in my journal. Like many pieces of my writing, I’m not sure what I will do with them but one day, I imagine them to be set free, somehow. If not always here, then somewhere.

With the aid of Emiliana’s sweet voice, I’d just like to start this week here in the (blog)house gently. To do so I give you a song which I heard for the first time on Friday night. It’s from her new album, Me and Armini. The song is called Birds, and Emiliana described it as a moment when her and her band were sitting out in the garden in Oxford one night under a tree, listening to the night birds, sipping wine and generally relaxing. It was such a beautiful night that she never wanted the moment to end. Please click here to listen, then sit back, close your eyes and enjoy.

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click here to find out if Emiliana is touring near you sometime in the future.

for starters, mini polenta cakes with goats cheese, palmaham and sage, miam… i used maramiki’s tulip screenprinted fabric as a loose tablecloth…
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So here is Yvette, Jeroen and my food story for the 4th issue of Maria magazine (see the spreads for issue 1, 2 & 3 here, here and here).

Yvette’s idea for this shoot was to create a winter buffet as a housewarming present for some friends who have just moved into a new home here in Holland and are a very busy working couple with two gorgeous girls names Luna and Madelief. We initially moodboarded a golden yellow palette, with warm brown tones, soft whites, and a touch of bottle green. It was a beautiful palette and as it happens sometimes, when I started propping something else came forth… I found a gorgeous old wooden board at my favourite antique boutique that I wanted to use as a backdrop to the buffet table and the colour of the board was this incredible soft turquoise. I just fell in love with it and so Yvette and i decided this would be our main inspiration (this sounds like we decided all this over a series of meetings over a series of days – but it was a series of phone calls over a series of minutes that started with me speed-talking something along the lines of…”oh my god i’ve found the most beautiful piece for our story but its not the right colour but i want to use it anyway i think it will look fabulous and i have this incredible fabric that will compliment it beautifully and so what do you think?!?!? her answer was something along the lines of “you go girl!!”).

On I continued, wandering around Amsterdam collecting props with a skip in my step from finding this maginficent piece of art to use as my inspiration palette. So, along with the above photograph, here it what we created…

… a buffet setting that is rustic and wintry but warm, carefree & inviting. This is a double page spread in the magazine (it’s ALWAYS best to see the images in print as they are much bigger, so if you live in The Netherlands, check out the latest issue of Maria to see the whole story and have all the recipes)…

white winter vegetable soup with brown butter and cashewnuts

portobello pizza

almond apple muffins – aren’t those little apples cute? the girls loved making and eating these!

pineapple and coconut upside down cake.. which we ate for dessert than night for dinner and it was scrumptious.

and here is Yvette cooking with Luna and Madelief.

Do you remember the sneak peek collection of props I showed you last month? Well now you can see what I created with them. The lovely props come from Juffrouw Splinter and my own props cupboards, with special thanks to Julie Arphi for lending me her gorgeous artwork for the day.

photograph credits…

magazine: maria
food and production: yvette van boven
photographer: jeroen van der spek
stylist: me

xx

Happy weekend everyone! Tonight French Boy and I are off to see Emiliana Torrini at the Paradiso and I can’t wait. I’ll see you fresh and energised on Monday, with another truckload of posts for the week which I hope will both inspire and delight. until then!