a collection of some of my favourite photos from Amsterdam: Made by Hand.

Good morning mes rayons de soleil, I hope you each had a glorious weekend. If it wasn’t so glorious, then perhaps there was something special that lit up your heart at some point, some way, even just for a little moment. I worked for 36 hours straight, with a  few pit stops in between. The highlight of my weekend was a wonderful dinner on Friday night hosted by some new friends at their gorgeous apartment, north side. And then a wander along the Amstel with french boy yesterday afternoon to get some fresh air. Everyone who was anyone it seems, was out on their little boats, zipping about the canals – drinking, laughing, being generally merry  –  it was lovely to watch.

I have another busy week ahead of me although I plan to post about one particular adventure that I will be embarking on mid week. Until then, I’ll just pop in and out of the (blog)house as usual. Oh yes, and I have two bits of news for the moment: one is that dear Cath shared some more glorious photos with you in the guest quarters on Friday, click here to see where she takes us this time.

another collection from Amsterdam: Made by Hand.

And my second bit of news is that on Thursday last week, I spontaneously decided to activate my twitter account. I know, can you believe it?  I said some time ago that I would never ever twitter, but I don’t know, something just sparked inside me on that day during my tea break, it just felt right all of a sudden. So in I plunged and boy, was it fun to be welcomed into the twitter world by fellow bloggers – it’s like a whole other universe over there. The aftermath is that I must admit, I’m having some sort of reservations  about the plunge because I can see it does tend to suck the life out of you and since I’m struggling to maintain status quo as it is, perhaps it’s not the best thing for me right now. But lovely Susannah assured me this morning that I’ll find my comfy spot soon, so I’m going to take her advice and give it some time. So, if you are a twitterer and feel like following my tweets, then here is my twitter link – hope to see you there.

xx

There are a number of lovely readers who have subscribed to my rss feed these days (thank you!) who I wanted to remind about the blogs in the spotlight feature in the right side bar.  This is updated every couple of weeks, it’s my way of trying to be ‘time management savvy’ – instead of writing complete posts (like this one you’re reading right now) about some of the blogs I’ve recently discovered and am loving as well as oldies but goodies, I just pop them in the sidebar so you can click on them whenever you like. It’s also my way of highlighting some of the blogs in my blogroll (which is another important feature of this blog). But I’m realising you may have forgotten about this feature which can only be accessed by visiting my blog directly so this post is a reminder but also, I’m about to change the list so be sure to check out these spotlighted blogs before I do so.

Above is a peek at my scandanavian retreat – filled with luscious Scandavian interiors. Pippi is the author of the blog and she has her very own scandanavian summer cabin – it’s beautiful, click here to see it.

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Then there is Kristina Klarin’s blog color stripes which is full of Kristina’s latest creations (like the one above) as well as colour inspirations she gets from various sources, it’s really interesting – a visual feast for those of us who love getting creative with colour.

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And missed connections which I’ve been reading for a while now (with thanks to my dear friend Liz who introduced me to sophie’s work – thanks Liz!). Sophie’s illustrative interpretations of missed connections are so so gorgeous, I can’t get enough of them and if you haven’t already read about her work, I’m sure you’ll become as addicted to them as I am. Also, here is a neat video about sophie and how she makes her illustrations.

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Next up is a thing for – stunning mosaics of gathered inspiration, complete with image links and original source information (something I’m a stickler for in the blogosphere)…

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And last up is of paper and things – a blog full of all things paper related, and some. Beautifully curated by it’s author, monica.

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I do hope you enjoy this collection of blogs in the spotlight – tomorrow I will be changing the list so don’t forget about this feature of the (blog)house. If you’re reading my posts daily through the rss feed only, then make sure you visit the blog once a week or so to see what else is new that you might be missing out on (you know I like to play around with my nice clean blog page often). I’ll try to remind you by adding a little mention of the blogs in the spotlight at the bottom of upcoming posts.

It’s been a busy few days for me, thank you for your patience in waiting for me to announce the lucky recipient of the above! You do not have to be patient for a minute longer. The lucky recipient is…

comment #74: Terry! Congratulations!

Thank you everyone who participated, you made this giveaway extra fun and special. And a big thank you to Cassandra from haven workroom for giving away such a gorgeous treasure.  Terry if you could please send me an email with your address details so that I can let Cassandra know, and for the rest of us who missed out, Cassandra has offered a 15% discount off everything in her store, click here to read her post with code details. I have my eye on the peacock cushion, and the tropicals, and the stripes and…

Thank you again mes amis. I’ll be back here again in uno momento…

xx

I’m not the least bit bashful to admit that I’m quite alot in love with haven workroom.  This wonderful atelier based in London is run by New Zealander Cassandra Ellis who creates custom-made contemporary quilts, cushions and lampshades from vintage silks & cottons, as well as restoring and up-cycling vintage furniture. It’s a dreamy space (both online and offline) of inspiration, great ideas and loads of gorgeous fabrics for making all kinds of marvelous…

Cassandra runs quilting workshops at the papered parlour (i’ll write more about this fab place in coming weeks), and has also recently started taking orders for quilts made with your own personal collection of fabrics (read more about it here)…

…a little montage of inspiration I compiled from haven workroom.

A couple of weeks ago while I was in isolation-writing-retreat mode, Cassandra wrote to me with a very special thought: she wanted to offer you guys, my dear readers, one of her beautiful handmade cushions in lieu of my absence. I thought that was the sweetest and most thoughtful idea ever!

So we chatted back and forth (a bit of “no don’t be silly!” from me and a little of “it’s my pleasure, don’t think twice about it!” from her and so on) and I decided that instead of announcing her offer to you then when I was not blogging so much I decided to wait until today, in celebration of me (and hopefully you) being back regularly here in the (blog)house…

Cassandra even let me pick out the cushion to offer you from the haven workroom online boutique and since I know how much we all love shades of aqua, turquoise and ruby red combined, I thought this one would be utterly perfect…

This gorgeous cushion is made from vintage japanese silk backed in hand-loomed cotton and measures a generous 50 x 50cm, for more of a look-see, click here.

Now I must admit, I’m a little envious that you guys get a chance at owning this cushion! But I know you will love it as much as I would and that makes me happy. So what do you have to do to be the lucky recipient? Well I’ve decided that it would be wonderful if you could all visit cassandra’s blog, website, or shop – have a browse, have a wander and then all you have to do is leave a comment below: It’s about sharing the love really.

That’s it!! That’s crazy good.

I will choose and announce a winner randomly via some fancy-random-selector-computer-application-thingo this Friday, May 7th. But you have to make sure you have left a comment on this here post otherwise you will not be in the draw. Cassandra will send the cushion to you the following week.

As you know, giveaways don’t come by here regularly (the last one – and first one – was over a year ago!) so you know then that this is super, super special.

Thank you dear Cassandra! And thank you, my dear readers,  for your company, generosity, enthusiasm and encouragement over the past 2 or so years that I’ve been a blogging lass.

xx

PS tomorrow I will announce the details of the amsterdam: made by hand book launch! Oh, this week in the (blog)house is already so gooooooooooood…

Here for you is an incredibly dreamy photograph taken by narumi of the Meguro canal in Hanami, Tokyo. See more images & read about the cherry blossom lined canal in the original post here (note: narumi’s blog is utterly gorgeous, you will want to make a pot of japanese green tea and linger).

Now I feel like taking my bike and camera out into the city to chase cherry blossoms. Perhaps you would like to, for me? I’d love to see the cherry blossoms blooming in your neck of the woods.  I instead, must. keep. writing.

xx

PS I’ve decided to post sporadically until the end of the month (or thereabouts) as I am still in isolation-writing-retreat mode. So, every now and then over the coming couple of weeks  I will post a little inspirational image like the one above (and in the previous post) – it will be like taking a short but sweet tea break together.