this is a photo I took of myself while styling and photographing the front cover.

The book has received such an incredible response! It’s very exciting. I will tell you more about what’s been happening soon but in the meantime I’ve been inundated with inquiries about it’s availability in Europe and Australia and I thought it best to let you know what I know thus far…

The book should be available here in Europe and in Australia in the next week or so.

But that’s all I know!

My publisher will keep me informed of when and where, and as soon as I find out I will let you all know in a special post.

So, for those of you in England, France, The Netherlands, and Australia – please keep an eye out at your local bookstore but know that I will tell you as soon as the books land in your country. Inquiring and ordering a copy from your local bookstore will help ensure the books are sold in your area.

I can’t wait to see the book in an actual bookstore. Last week when I received the list of independent booksellers in the US and Canada, I was overjoyed. But then, as I started to try to list them on the book’s webpage (the list is too long to do so as you can see I only made it through a couple of dozen, but if you live in a particular city and let me know I will put it on the page as requests come in) and looked up their addresses on the internet, I was overwhelmed to find that the quaintest, most beautiful bookstores dotted all over the continent were stocking my book. I shed a private tear… is this really happening?

In the lead up to mother’s day when I had my homeware boutique (eons ago), I had a signwriter write on the window “mum’s the word”. Then, written on my cafe window which was on the next pararellel street, I had written “yum’s the word”. I thought that was really clever, even though no one seemed to notice.

This year I say, how about a lovely book, a little bunch of peonies and yummy breakfast for your mum on sunday?

Kimberly from the gorgeous blog mimi charmante suggested to her readers that Paris: Made By Hand would make a great mother’s day gift. And I thought, yeah what a great idea! So thank you dear Kimberly for suggesting this.

I now have a list as long as my arm of independent bookstores in various states in the US that I haven’t yet been able to update on the book’s webpage, so if you leave a comment on this post asking for your local stockists, I shall reply.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful moms out there, that includes you mum!!

xx

PS I received an awesome email this morning from my dear friend michi, in Sydney, who had ordered my book as soon as she found out it was available. The email said “… your book arrived!!” and there was a photo of her holding it, with a huge smile on her face. I was totally chuffed.

…i took this photo from a friend’s apartment while in paris shooting the book. The apartment had the most amazing views over the city, and at night it was just “wow”. When I was there it was rather chilly but I stood out on the balcony for ages, taking long exposures to try to capture the ‘brilliance’. I just adore the eiffel tower when it sparkles at night… you can be walking along the street somewhere near it and then bam! the whole thing sparkles and it is so captivating, it makes my heart sing.

The lovely Victoria over at sfgirlbybay reminded me of this photo from my paris photo collection in her post yesterday – did you happen to catch it? It was filled with treasures from my blog – soundscapes of Paris, old photos, and wonderful memories of times I was writing the book. She also included four top secret boutiques from the book – so if you want a sneak peek of what you will find inside Paris: Made By Hand, head over to read her post.

Thank you Victoria!!

On Tuesday beautiful Grace from Design*Sponge posted a fabulous interview about me and the book, including some exclusive pics and lots of juicy details about what it was like to write Paris: Made By Hand. Please check it out here if you haven’t already. Thank you so much Grace!

And yesterday dear Holly from Decor8 posted a very intimate interview about me and my styling work – she asked me heaps of personal questions about my work, and I gave her very candid and open answers. So if you’ve ever wanted to know how to get into the styling world, or what my work involves, this interview is for you! It also includes some exclusive pics of me styling the front cover of the book. Check it out here. Thank you Holly!!

And a big thank you to every one of you who has extended the invitation to blog about my very first book. I still have email requests to fulfill and I thank you for your patience.

Some quick questions to be answered:

1. I’ve been informed that the book will probably not arrive into Europe or Australia for another couple of weeks, so please be patient – I hope to have a list of stores that will sell the book in all sorts of different cities soon. I have updated a list of bookstores on the book’s webpage here, and will continue to update it as I hear about more bookstores.

2. If you have a store in Australia and would like to stock the book, please contact Random House Australia via email here.

3. If you feel so inclined to write a review about the book on Amazon I would be absolutely thrilled. Thank you!

4. I have a question of my own: wouldn’t that photo be great blown up? i might try it!

I’m all a fluster with the book being released so quickly! I thought I had another month up my sleeve and I was going to plan this whole lovely slow launch of the book.

You know, what the professionals do.

But alas, I am but a newbie at this book release thing so together, we will just have to go with this crazy flow…

I want to thank each of you for your incredible comments on my first posting about the book. I’m so glad to hear you have all ordered your copies, what a thrill. Please tell all your friends and family, and even when you are walking in the street, don’t hesitate to just tell the stranger next to you! Who knows, that stranger may be a Paris/handmade/boutique aficionado for all we know and say “wow, I’ve been waiting for a book like that my whole life!” wouldn’t that be great?

I also want to thank those of you who have already blogged about the book – wow! You guys are fast as speed lightning! I had planned to get a little blog photo package together for each of you but many of you have beaten me to it.

If however you would like to blog about my book some more, please let me know and I’d be delighted to send you a couple of sneak-peek photos from the book and whatever extra information you might like to know.

Some of you may have noticed I’ve just created a blog page about the book via the little book button in the right side bar (as seen above). Please click on that button (or here) to read more about the book.

I’ll be back next week with OH SO MUCH MORE.

Thank you again, and please have a wonderful weekend mes chers amis!

xx

PS Yay!!!