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Well mes amis, this is it, 2009 has rolled on by. I cannot believe it is December and that the end of the year is near. I am about to hop on a plane to the other side of the world, to “my other life” down under and so I will bid you farewell for the year, here, today, as I have decided to take a little time off. I will only be taking a couple of weeks holiday as I have lots of work to do in 2010, but two weeks is two weeks and I am very much looking forward to it. I have had an extraordinarily busy year and my body, mind and spirit are in need of some serious rest and recreation.  I will begin posting intermittently at the beginning of the new year while I am in Sydney.  I’ll be there for a couple of months this time ’round. I’m so excited to be heading to sunshine, sea and sand.

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But this is not the only “something wonderful” I have to tell you. Cast your mind back to well, around the beginning of this here blog, two years ago. In January of 2007 I announced an idea I’d been forming for an art project that involved you. I asked you to send in photos of your wandering hearts. Do you remember? Well the idea took off, and went completely out of control – I received so many images that I lost all ability to keep up to date. All the while I was consumed with the task of writing my very first book Paris: Made by Hand, and then my second to be published this coming April  – Amsterdam: Made By Hand, as well as keeping up my freelance styling work here in Europe. But it got crazier – in between all that I was asked if I would write another book. A book about my own personal journey of how I got here: the journey of  following my wandering heart. Today is the first time I’ve been able to tell you this “something wonderful” that I’ve known for a while now, I was just waiting to catch my breath.

And although at this early stage I cannot reveal much, I wanted to let you know about it since you have all been such a wonderful part of this journey – dear friends who have been encouraging me every step of the way, lifting me up, holding my hand, and guiding me gently.

So, what will this book be about? Well, here is a little description…

“This is a beautiful, lavishly photographed, illustrated and designed book by Pia Jane Bijkerk. It is a travel memoir, a love story, a story about searching for home and making homes in new places, a photographic love letter to the charms and delights of Paris, France, Amsterdam and Italy, and a story of finding inspiration in the everyday.”

I am very pleased to announce that My Heart Wanders will be published by Murdoch Books and will be released in 2011.

While I am writing and shooting it over the coming months, I thought it might be a lovely idea to open up the initial blog project again, and post images that you sent in as there were so many that I was not able to post and now that the book has evolved into a more personal journey that marks the beginning of it all, I will be able to share the first fabulous group of images sent in from around the globe.  So starting in 2010 I will re-open the artist studio as a place for wandering hearts. I will post an image every day or so that was sent in during the initial project, and then you will be welcome to send in more images throughout the year.

I also want to take this opportunity as my last post for the year to say thank you: for everything. Your kindness, your encouragement and constant presence this year here in the (blog)house has been overwhelming. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that this blog would be the catapult for so much wonder in my life. You are without doubt, the best readers a blogging girl could ever have.

Have a fabulous festive season. See you in the New Year!!

xx

That is actually the title of a book, published in the ’50’s, written by Lorna Hill. My mother passed it on to me when I was a young girl… a beautiful book I recall it to be… old, and interesting looking, and well, I never read it. And in my growing wisdom and hindsight I know why – this would be a girl I could never relate to.

So patience is not one of my virtues. But I am hoping it is one of yours…My Heart Wanders feels like it has been and gone right? Wrong. It is still in it’s baby phase. My dear, patient readers, I’m here to confess that my workload, and all those little unexpected life changing scenarios that have occurred over past months took precedent over my gathering of all your beautiful images. And, well, another bit of wisdom I found is that I can’t write two books at once. Who knew. So, while my other yet-to-be-revealed book is now in the hands of my publisher, and my life seems to have calmed for the moment, I am going to pick up where I left off and gather the images together for the My Heart Wanders judges. I want this book to be fabulous, just in case you didn’t already know that. And fabulous things take a while to create, even though I want everything done yesterday. And as you will see from the above picture, this project has been in the works for quite some time! I did this drawing over a year ago, well before I even knew I would have my very own blog, or before I knew that each of you would be such an integral part of my wandering heart journey. This piece is sitting near the piano at my parent’s place, and when I was there I walked past it a number of times each day – a nice reminder of our journey together.

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Some My Heart Wanders news to tell you: As from my time back in Sydney, I made a little decision: to bring on board a special guest as one of the judges. With the other judges all in accord, without further delay I would like to announce that the new guest judge is… my Mum! So, welcome aboard Mum, thanks for accepting the invitation, and I do hope you will enjoy the journey with us.

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So, this weekend, it’s either dedicating my time to catching up on my accounting or My Heart Wanders – hmm, which should I choose?

xx

PS yes there is a heart in that rambling tree, it might take you all weekend to find it though, perhaps if you fuzz your eyes it will stand out more – let me know if you find it!

PPS how about a song to launch us into the weekend? I pick this one, from one of my all-time favourite female singer/songwriters/poets. Enjoy.

There are still so many submissions I have not yet viewed. Thank you all for your incredible patience. This morning I had a quick peek and found this one amongst all the amazing entries. It is another beauty from Maggie of 22 butterfly.

Lost for words. This morning I woke up to a rocket-load of incredible submissions, many of which I have not yet had the chance to view. But WOW! The boat is almost flooded with tears. This is so wonderful. I cannot wait to have a look at all the submissions and get them organised for the judges. It will take a little time, and I will reply to each of you as soon as I view your images. But please accept this message for the moment, written to you by my own wandering heart…

This has been so much fun. I’m thinking we might just have to do it again sometime.

read about it here. see inspiration here. send your submission here.

view some of the latest submissions here, here, here, and here. and here!

This is it everyone. This is it!!!! xxx