Photography by Ben Dearnley.
Food by Rodney Dunn.
Styling by Pia Jane Bijkerk.
For Gourmet Traveller.

I miss that spoon, it’s sitting in my props storage back in Sydney. Damn oceans, always getting in the way.

But who could it be?

Allow me to introduce you to my new guest and fabulous friend, photographer David Finato. David is a transplanted aussie like me here in Amsterdam. We met a few years ago on a shoot in Sydney and now just happen to be both living and working in these fine parts of Europe. It is so nice having a freelancing aussie buddy here with me, and whenever we both have a day off we catch up for coffee in De Pijp and yabba away in our aussie accents (sometimes I like to call him Davo to make myself feel at home). David shares my love for this incredibly beautiful city, and is busy shooting Amsterdam and it’s surroundings for his clients. He snapped this still life series recently and I loved it so much I insisted he come and stay in the guest quarters so I could show you his work.

Thanks for indulging me David and handing me your beautiful photographs. It is an absolute pleasure to have you here and I am so looking forward to shooting together in the future. I will be sure to show you all David and my stories in future posts but in the meantime, please make David feel welcome! Find more of this series by clicking here.

Yep, it’s time, and how heartbreaking these goodbyes are! So here are a few more incredible photographs from (blog)house guest David Knight and another gorgeous and quirky illustration from his wife and my best friend Michelle Verghis. Thanks for being wonderful guests, I miss you both very much and I can’t wait to see you either here or back in oz soon.

I love David’s dance and movement series above. And here are a few newbies from his yet to be released portfolio for 2008…

And I shall leave you with this illustration from Michi’s new portfolio – a fabulous take on the life of us freelancers, does anyone else relate to this image, I think it says it all so perfectly…

Next up is a new guest who I can’t wait to introduce you to. I just need to give the guest quarters a quick clean up as this handsome guest is arriving this afternoon!

Before I take you with me to my little snowy secret treat, today’s wander through the blogosphere took me far and wide, finding these three talented young things…

Josephine has just started a beautiful blog full of depth and style. She describes her blog as being named after the chinese legend that says that everyone is linked to others who have a significant impact on their lives via a red string. So this is her personal view of art+design, food+drink, books, fashion, and film connected by a red thread, or theme, each week. Her first week’s red thread is called ‘formative influences’ and she take us on a journey through a variety of influences from her life ranging from fashion designers, cooks, and favourite books. Beautifully written, well thought and very stylish. Awesome work Josephine!

Next up I followed the trail from a lovely recent comment, and it lead me straight to a stunning blog called Little Yellow Birds, filled with beautiful photographs as you see above, and also below…

Little Yellow Birds flickr collection is also full of inspiration. Thanks again for leaving a comment Jo and leading me to your beautiful work. I hope you are thinking about submitting something for My Heart Wanders.

And lastly, I would like to introduce you to the gorgeous photography of Sharon Vos. Her images say so much, go and take a wander through her portfolio…

It’s Monday again, and to counteract the effects of monday-itis it’s becoming a habit for me to go for a little wander around the blogosphere. I always come back to the (blog)house with a handful of goodies and a heart refueled with inspiration, ready to start my week. Today I must share with you the photography of Ms. Klea McKenna…

I love image series as you may have guessed, and Klea (what a beautiful name) has some stunning series that incorporate my creative philosophy of being real, raw and refined. These three photographs are from her series called ‘Long Story, Short’ where she endeavors to retell and remember women in her mother’s family by using herself as a model, attempting to take on each woman’s character by depicting a moment from the story of her life.

This is such a beautiful idea and Klea has got me thinking about such a project for my own family history – don’t you think this is a neat way of remembering your ancestry, of capturing memories? This is also a great thought to keep in mind for My Heart Wanders .

Next up on my inspirational finds for Monday-itis is this fabulous shot from Ali…

simple. elegant. sexy. Go and peruse Ali’s flickr and blog for some serious inspiration! I am so hoping she enters something for My Heart Wanders.

And this photograph from my guest in the guest quarters, is one of my absolute favourites from his collection. It reminds me that this Wednesday will be one of Australia’s most poignant and positive events as our new Prime Minister will be making an apology to the Stolen Generation – our Indigenous Australians. It has been a loooooooong wait for this moment, with our former Prime Minister stamping his foot and opposing the idea (he was part of the government way back when they took aboriginal children from their families and put them with white families to ‘breed the black out of them’). I have heard that there are still 36% of Australians who do not agree with saying sorry. This fact astounds me and makes me want to vomit. I can’t imagine that any of my readers are in this 36% but if you are I’d like to hear from you so please leave a comment to tell me why you are not with the rest of Australians in this matter, even if you want to be anonymous – I honestly can’t imagine who would oppose this and I wouldn’t mind some proof. For those who are not aware of the importance of this event, please rent out the movie Rabbit Proof Fence to give you an understanding of why it is so important we say sorry. I personally will be apologising this Wednesday and will be putting together a very special post for the event by celebrating the incredible creative talent of our Indigenous Australians. I would love you to join in with me on your own blogs and since Indigenous Australians are the oldest recorded surviving culture in the world (over 25 000 years and counting), this is not just an event for Australians, it is global.

Next: although I am sad to have to bid farewell to the absolutely delightful Momo who has been cooking up a storm with her cookies in the kitchen, I am pleased to be sharing a very romantic menu with you, and who knows how to romance the pants off us? The French of course!