I’m so excited to reveal the details of a very special and fun event that fellow author Kelly Doust (aka The Crafty Minx) and I have been planning…

Kelly has become a dear friend since I moved back to Sydney.  Although I’d heard a little about her from our mutual friend Catherine while I was living in Amsterdam, I first met Kelly when she came along to one of the My Heart Wanders book launch events in 2011. I was struck by her incredible presence, her beauty and style. We chatted briefly at the event, she was so open and honest and at that point, I hoped we would meet again. And we have, many times since, and I feel honoured to have her as my friend – she enhances my world and I can’t wait to share her with you if you haven’t already gotten to know her yourself.

Join us in quaint Rozelle on Saturday August 9 to stroll through one of our favourite flea markets of Sydney as we share our tips and advice for uncovering unique one-off finds in homewares and fashion. After our wonderful treasure hunt we will head over to Ungaro Raw for an intimate chat over delicious sweet treats. Each guest will receive a signed copy of Little Treasures: Made by Hand and A Life in Frocks.

For more details see the invitation above. Tickets are on sale now with numbers strictly limited to keep the event intimate and exclusive. To purchase, just click on the ‘buy now’ button below.

I hope you can join us! Have a beautiful weekend mes amis.

xx

…astound me. I found this yesterday afternoon, destined for the council clean up truck. It’s rather large and heavy, but there is something beautiful about it, non? I tried to fit it in the car but it wouldn’t squeeze in next to the baby seat, so I walked/dragged it home in the dark of night. I’m thinking it could go in Laly’s room. I’m still working on that room, it’s taking me a while, but that’s because I’ve been wanting to get to know my daughter to help create a room best suited to her sweet self. This perfectly imperfect floral addition seems fitting.

So there is this guy, his name is Lenny, and amongst other things he loves to comb beaches. With his findings he makes the sweetest little boats…

…are they not the most fabulous things you’ve ever seen? Anyway, he inspired Jeff from booooooom to host a community event in Vancouver this past Saturday where anyone and everyone could come along with their box of found beach/forest treasures to  make little drifters and set them sail on Trout Lake Beach. The event was then featured in The Vancouver Sun…

The little drifters featured here are all Lenny’s, but check out booooooom and The Vancouver Sun to see what everyone made on Saturday, they are all awesome.

I also thought this could be lovely inspiration for those of you participating in poppytalk’s collecting nature flickr pool. Wouldn’t this make a great project? I think I don’t even have to ask, or answer,  that question.

I have to do a summer clean up inside my houseboat this week because it’s just getting too cluttered, perhaps with my dried up flowers and collected bits of wood I can make some little drifters and send them off on the canal. If I do, I’ll take some photos to post here in the (blog)house – that idea is pretty much the only thing inspiring me to tidy and clean.

xx

PS I had a really great weekend, I hope you did too. I’ll tell you about mine a little later, for now I’d just like to daydream some more about these little drifters.

PPS I found out all of the above from dear Erin at Design for Mankind. She always knows about the good stuff.

sand dollars (and a sand penny!) by cori kindred

tomatillo skeletons by ottoman handmade

nature shelf treasures by brambly thicket and remembering sanibel by lindaolo

…Jan from poppytalk has started a fab new flickr group called collecting nature. Above are some of my favourites from the group thus far. If you have a flickr account and are an avid nature collector like so many of us are, then get in amongst it! I think it’s such a beautiful idea for summer.

emptied pockets by lindaolo

Read more about Jan’s inspiration for starting the flickr group here, and see more fab nature collections here. Nice one Jan! Can’t wait to see what you might create with some of your own found treasures in the fall.

This past month, I’ve been glued to BBC 2 every Wednesday night, blissfully absorbed in Alys Fowler’s world as shown in The Edible Garden. Each episode, Alys demonstrates through polyculture how she grows various fruit, vegetables and edible flowers in her small city back garden, with the aim to not only avoid shop-bought fruit and vegetables so she and her husband can live off their home-grown produce but also create a beautiful, inspiring garden. The misfortunes and mistakes are not edited, and her style is perfectly imperfect. In tonight’s episode, she planted strawberries, raspberries and blueberries; picked apples to make delicious apple rings; concocted a lip-smacking fruit infused vodka with friends; made gorgeous hapa-zome fabric lid covers for jam pots; and introduced a friend who lives in Bristol and forages for plums and berries in her local environment. Last week she focused on root vegetables, the week before, salads – each episode packed with extras.

While I have no soil patches on-shore or on-deck of my little boat home, I’m completely re-inspired to pot up some edibles again. I love walking passed the on-shore gardens belonging to the houseboats (also love spotting the adorable newcomers) along the Amstel, they never cease to inspire me as most of them are filled with wild flowers, tulips and untamed bushes. There is one that even has chickens.

Also, I’ve been reading up a lot lately on suburban foraging (a couple of episodes ago, Alys made dandelion fritters from foraged dandelions and I’d love to try it!) but really don’t know enough about northern hemisphere wild foods, nor the protocol for foraging here in The Netherlands. Plus, I have no idea where to go. I would love to have the courage to forage but I think it would take a series of workshops and guided tours before I got out there myself.

Anyway, Alys Fowler– wonderfully inspiring, just as much as Ray. Even though you can’t replay the episodes on bbc iplayer unless you’re in the UK, it’s worth reading the episode details and even better, buy Alys’ book. I haven’t got it myself but I’m sure it’s awesome.

xx

PS I just remembered this photo of me in the garden in vancouver island, rather fitting for this post…