view from my window, one.

It all started with an accidental night out on Friday evening when french boy and I thought we were headed to a friend’s gig at cafe paradiso only to find out when we got there that we had our dates mixed up – the gig is actually tonight (come along if you’re in town, details here, entry is free). Being the homebodies we are, we automatically headed back in the direction of home but it occurred to me that since we’d made the effort to get dressed up  – something I find increasingly difficult to do these days  – that we should stay out, at least for half an hour. So we crossed the road and headed over to cafe alto, a jazz bar in the leidseplein that has been on our ‘must visit’ list ever since we moved to Amsterdam. We got there at around 9:30pm, and it was pretty empty. The bartender said the band would start at 10pm. So we picked out a table near the empty stage and ordered some wine. The band did indeed strike up at 10pm and they were fabulous. The pianist, Ramón Valle was mesmerizing, so incredibly talented, what an inspiration. Philip Harper was on the trumpet, he was also sensational, as was the rest of the band. Within seconds of the band starting up the entire bar was packed,  it had such a great vibe and I highly recommend you head there if you are in Amsterdam. I’m embarrassed to admit it took us this long to discover this great place.

view from my window, two. by the way, the above two photos have nothing to do with my weekend, I just like them.

So then came a lazy Saturday followed by our first Amsterdam picnic in the park! I know, a weekend full of firsts – again, embarrassing since we’ve lived here for nearly 3 years now. Anyway, this picnic was quite special because it was something we’d been trying to organise for a while now with good friends yvette and oof. Both yvette and I had been saving a couple of good bottles of champagne for celebrating the completion of her book and the launch of my book. We managed to lock in Saturday night and met them, along with lovely Marie, at the oosterpark (also the first time I’d been there). We had a little barbecue, some delicious salads, and lots of cheeses and fresh bread. And champagne! It was so so lovely, the park was not too busy which made me very happy as I’m not a fan of crowds. At the end of the night marie snuggled up on my lap as I whispered sweet nothings into her floppy ears.

proef, amsterdam

Sunday! French Boy and I went for an afternoon walk to the Nieuwmarkt and stopped in at the wijs & zonen on the zeedijk for some tea and homemade apple pie. Now I had actually been there before, in fact it was one of the first places fb and I discovered on our first trip to Amsterdam together when we were still living in Paris. It is such a hidden treasure and I’ve been meaning to tell you guys about it all this time. The teas and coffees on offer are phenomenal (they are purveyor to the queen which sounds super fancy). And I also noticed on their website just now that they offer city tours on Saturday afternoons, sounds like fun. Anyway, I digress, Sunday night we headed to proef (for the first time) to meet leslie for dinner and I’m here to report that it was deeeeelicious. I must be honest, I was a little hesitant to go last year as I’d heard mixed reviews about the ‘experimental’ food experiences. And I’m all for experimenting with food but I’m not too keen on paying a lot of money for a meal I’m not sure I’m going to really enjoy. But recently the restaurant opened to the public (they were only open in past years for special events, large groups of people, etc) with an easy going, tapas style menu. Apart from the setting and location being perfect, the plates and serving dishes were interesting and beautifully styled (vintage china plates combined with little jam jars for salad dressing and the likes). The accompanying wine was also very good, and the dessert was definitely the show stopper – I had the airy chocolate mousse with ice cream,  fruit and cedarwood cotton candy. yum.

So that was my quintessential amsterdam summer weekend. I hope you can take the time to click on all the links and find out some more about these awesome places.

xx

Yesterday, while watering the plants and cleaning the outside of the boat, I glanced out to the disarray of bikes that line the street and realised with a heavy heart that mine was no longer among them. For the first time since moving to Amsterdam almost 3 years ago, my bike has been stolen.  Last night I was frantically trying to remember the very last moments I had with my two-wheeled friend, it seemed vital that I recall these very last moments  – I wanted to make sure we parted on good terms.

Even though I always knew our time together would probably be limited since having your bike stolen is just a part of life in Amsterdam, I’m still sad. For Amsterdammers, our bikes are like best friends – they go everywhere with us, they are there at scary moments, and there at happy moments. They take us to new exciting places we never knew existed. They wait for us, carry things for us, ride through snow & rain,  and get us around the myriad of biking tourists.

My dear bicycle was beautiful to me – old and rusty, but full of spark.  And it was only Friday, after getting lost with it through the back streets of a new-to-me area of the city that I thought about how truly lucky I have been to have such a fab bike.

Now, I will always be looking out for it, hoping that it has embarked on another exciting adventure, albeit in the hands of another. Of course if I do happen to see it again, I won’t hesitate to take it right back. And yes, I am a bit pissed about it, but no one – especially me – knows why humans do what they do.

Goodbye my dear two-wheeled friend, I miss you.

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update: guys you are not going to BELIEVE this! French Boy just went for a walk and came back with my bike!!!!!! I am beyond ecstatic. He found it hiding behind an electrical box at the end of the road/canal. It seems someone stole it but decided it wasn’t worth it! Woohooooo!!! I love my bike even more now, what a true treasure! This is a serious cause for celebration. Thank you for all your commiserations, but let us be sad no more!

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Finally, the sun is out and the air is warm. It is blissful to ride my bike over bridges in the warm sunshine-filled air. I love having all the windows open in the boat and eating summer fruits on the tiny front deck while reading a book.

To celebrate the arrival of summer, I’ve gone through my amsterdam archives and picked out a selection of favourite amsterdam posts that I thought you might enjoy anew…

a meal of memories

hidden studios and secret gardens

summer rainstorm

summer weekends

my thoughts on amsterdam, after a year

a late night stroll

I’m also wrapped to let you know that I Amsterdam posted a little story about me and my book today. Click here to read it.  And I’m also super thrilled to let locals know that they are hosting a giveaway of amsterdam: made by hand on their facebook page today! To enter, you just have to post a comment on their page about what you’re most looking forward to at tomorrow’s urban arts festival. The competition ends at 4PM TODAY so that are only a couple of hours left, get in quick! Thank you I Amsterdam for spreading the word, you guys rock.

If I could enter the giveaway myself, I’d say I’m looking forward to Lotte Klaver’s drawing machine (I cannot wait to see this!) and also to see audrey wereen from label 3 making her fab bags (audrey is one of the artisans mentioned in amsterdam: made by hand, page 53!). On a personal note I’m also looking forward to meeting the lovely Anne who’s coming from Paris, and also fellow author Kate! And I’m absolutely looking forward to signing copies of my book, I hope the weather will be just as perfect as it is today so I can catch some rays while I sign.

Aaaah, June is Amsterdam. I told you it was gonna be good…

Wow, has this month flown by or what? I can’t believe it’s already time for the Urban Arts Festival!

This Saturday, June 26th between 1-6pm on the spui (the big cobblestoned square outside the American Book Center) is where you’ll find this giant outdoor atelier featuring a plethora of creative individuals displaying and creating work on-site, especially for the festival. The concept is to cross fertilize the world of design and crafts. There is a fabulous line up of artists and artisans including graphic designers, illustrators, graffiti artists, fiber artists, paper-toy designers, authors – all with an urban edge.

I’ll be there not only perusing the stalls to see what everyone is up to but also signing copies of Amsterdam: Made by Hand so if you have not yet got yourself a signed copy of the book then this is your last chance as the Urban Arts Festival wraps up my month-long book launch celebrations!

Click on the above collage to enlarge and see some of the creative people who will be there. Also check out the ABC treehouse calender for workshops scheduled for the day (just scroll down to June 26th and then click on the various event links to find out more). And for more detailed information about the festival and links to each artist, click here.

I’ll be at the book signing table at 3pm, hope to see you then!

xx

PS For those interested in Paris: Made by Hand, the American Book Center has ordered more, they should be in store now and yes of course I’m happy to sign copies as well on Saturday!

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!!