Right now my dining table is a still life vignette bonanza. Why? because I’m working on something! which you will see soon enough. But above is a little snapshot of part of what’s going on – a jumble of ceramic letters (from one of the gorgeous ceramicists featured in my book), a pair of dinosaur designs servers, and figs which i found yesterday: a tray of 8 for just 2 euro!! heavenly. as you can see there are already 2 missing. That’s because French Boy and I ate them for dessert last night with some goats cheese and a drizzle of delicious honey.

In other news I am busy answering emails, getting lists of stockists together, and trying to get a blog photo package together for those of you who have asked – thank you so much for wanting to spread the word about my book! I’ll be in touch with you soon. But in the meantime, did you see my third dialogue piece on Design for Mankind yesterday? Its about the future of art and design, and as you can imagine, I’m pysched! My enthusiasm for our future as artists & bloggers is apparent in the video, check out what I have to say, along with faythe levine and craig atkinson (warning: craig seems to think that handmade has been and gone. no way man!!) right here.

For me Spring is all about nesting – this is the time of year that I naturally dedicate my spare time to working on my home, and it seems I’m not the only one – the canal birds are at it again, working feverishly on their elaborate nest outside my kitchen window. While they are busy bringing leaves and all sorts of goodies into their nest, I’m pottering around the houseboat, planning, designing, and re-interpreting the space.

On the weekend I whipped up some fresh new cushion covers from a vintage blue striped piece of fabric I found at the markets a little while back (it was only 3 euro!). It was lots of fun, and I have plenty more to do. Ideas are circling around my mind, inspiration abounds, and I find myself obsessed with making this space just right for the coming months.

So for the next few weeks, the (blog)house will be dedicated to nesting. Yay I hear you say! I know, even though I work as an interior stylist I tend not to overload this space with interiors. So I know many of you will be thrilled that I have a truckload of interior-related posts up my sleeve, just for you!

So sit back, relax and enjoy the coming posts. I even have one on it’s way in a few hours…

xx

PS Do you like these photos? I had fun shooting them especially for this post.

PPS Thank you for all your comments and emails about my new blog design! I am so so glad you like it. I can’t wait to play around in all the rooms!

thank you for your encouragement for my ribbon girls! Your comments are so appreciated. I often wonder if you catch my smiles when I read your comments, I wish you did as you always manage to brighten my day. in such a special way. don’t ever stray. (sorry! couldnt’ help it)

I will think about the print idea but at this stage it would be another thing on my to-do list and that list is already rather full. Don’t forget I’m still working my little heart out on My Heart Wanders. Which I hope to be able to tell you more about soon. Perhaps when I finish that I can think about other things like these ribbon girls as prints. Oh but I still want to make a book about Harriet too! Pff!! Oh well for now I just offer you my drawings and creations as they come – a first peek at what I’m making.

I’m on a shoot for the remainder of this week and the beginning of next so I will not be able to hang out here in the (blog)house until its all wrapped up. So for the next couple of days please feel free to dive into the archives. Here are a few posts picked randomly to get you started…

my heart lingers still

interlude

crazy street art of paris

Come next week I have something planned for you! Until then mes amis, I give you ribbon girls ‘fancy pants clogs’. These were just plain children’s wood clogs that I painted the other day. I hope you like.

xx

I bought these beautiful ribbons at the noordermarkt yesterday morning. They came in little bundles and I selected these particular colours because I was so drawn to them. I love that dusty plush rose combined with the soft cream lace. But what do I plan to do with them? Well, alot. I bought them for one idea I have to create here in the houseboat, but I think I want to try lots of things with them.

I was supposed to create an etsy favourites and blog favourites for this week but I’ve been distracted making things. Do you mind? I hope not because I do like to take you with me on my wanderings. or scribblings, as the case may be…

for starters, mini polenta cakes with goats cheese, palmaham and sage, miam… i used maramiki’s tulip screenprinted fabric as a loose tablecloth…
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So here is Yvette, Jeroen and my food story for the 4th issue of Maria magazine (see the spreads for issue 1, 2 & 3 here, here and here).

Yvette’s idea for this shoot was to create a winter buffet as a housewarming present for some friends who have just moved into a new home here in Holland and are a very busy working couple with two gorgeous girls names Luna and Madelief. We initially moodboarded a golden yellow palette, with warm brown tones, soft whites, and a touch of bottle green. It was a beautiful palette and as it happens sometimes, when I started propping something else came forth… I found a gorgeous old wooden board at my favourite antique boutique that I wanted to use as a backdrop to the buffet table and the colour of the board was this incredible soft turquoise. I just fell in love with it and so Yvette and i decided this would be our main inspiration (this sounds like we decided all this over a series of meetings over a series of days – but it was a series of phone calls over a series of minutes that started with me speed-talking something along the lines of…”oh my god i’ve found the most beautiful piece for our story but its not the right colour but i want to use it anyway i think it will look fabulous and i have this incredible fabric that will compliment it beautifully and so what do you think?!?!? her answer was something along the lines of “you go girl!!”).

On I continued, wandering around Amsterdam collecting props with a skip in my step from finding this maginficent piece of art to use as my inspiration palette. So, along with the above photograph, here it what we created…

… a buffet setting that is rustic and wintry but warm, carefree & inviting. This is a double page spread in the magazine (it’s ALWAYS best to see the images in print as they are much bigger, so if you live in The Netherlands, check out the latest issue of Maria to see the whole story and have all the recipes)…

white winter vegetable soup with brown butter and cashewnuts

portobello pizza

almond apple muffins – aren’t those little apples cute? the girls loved making and eating these!

pineapple and coconut upside down cake.. which we ate for dessert than night for dinner and it was scrumptious.

and here is Yvette cooking with Luna and Madelief.

Do you remember the sneak peek collection of props I showed you last month? Well now you can see what I created with them. The lovely props come from Juffrouw Splinter and my own props cupboards, with special thanks to Julie Arphi for lending me her gorgeous artwork for the day.

photograph credits…

magazine: maria
food and production: yvette van boven
photographer: jeroen van der spek
stylist: me

xx

Happy weekend everyone! Tonight French Boy and I are off to see Emiliana Torrini at the Paradiso and I can’t wait. I’ll see you fresh and energised on Monday, with another truckload of posts for the week which I hope will both inspire and delight. until then!