I know, this have been a long wait. But it can all be explained by my mystery location…

… once upon a time, this was home…

and perhaps now you know why I am such a water baby: i was brought up by the seaside, on the sea shore, feet in sand and little body bobbing up and down between these beautiful waves…

and once upon a time i dated surfers, and sea men, I wrestled with sharks (okay, not) and dived with dolphins (okay once)…

isn’t it time for a soundtrack? lets pick this one ( you know the rules by now: click here, and come back to my post as you play this soundtrack in the background)…

This is Newport Beach, in Sydney, Australia. And I just landed. It’s been a whirlwind trip. A very unexpected one.

You see, I’m here to be with my Mum. You know the woman I’m talking about: I’ve mentioned her here, here and here (read bullet point number 4).

I am very thankful to my agency, and my clients back in Amsterdam for being so understanding and letting me postpone my shoots, to be with her.

So for the next few weeks, there will be no harriet (she is waiting for us back in amsterdam), there will be no soundscapes (although I will be collecting some and posting them with French Boy’s help when I get back to Amsterdam), and there will not be a whole lot of time to post. But will you still stop by as I show you where my other home is?

It is a rather emotional time as I meet with friends I have not seen for so long, as I catch up with family that I adore, and as I attempt to enhance my mum’s everyday. Will you come with me?

I have a few ideas of how to enhance my mum’s everyday, and one of them involves you (I shall reveal soon). Also, I’d like to show you the rest of the beaches of where I live – this is just one – there is a whole bunch of them that I call home, and I will show them all to you in the days to come. This next month will be water filled, and author’s note: this is where my dreams were born.

to be continued…

I know it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed your company. And of course I do miss you, you know that. But right now I need your advice. Well first of all, do you mind that I drew all over you? You see, I’ve now discovered I can draw all over my photos. And, well, you know how I’ve always wanted to draw all over you but I wasn’t allowed? So you understand right?

But, well, let’s not dilly dally as time is of the essence and your advice means alot to me. You’ve been such a wonderful friend – you’ve always been there when I’ve needed you. You’ve never judged me, nor did you protest when my boyfriend(s) used to sneak through your window. When I was upset, you comforted me, and when I was scared, you wrapped me up like a cocoon, only allowing luscious streams of sunshine in, you made me feel so safe. However you must not be biased, okay – try not to let your emotions get in the way of your good sense. Because I know how much we love each other’s company, and this is really not about you. Or me.

I need you to tell me what to do: Is my place here, in le petit bateau, or right now, do I need to be there, with you, close to her.

Thank you, dear room. I look forward to your reply.

PS Thank you for looking after all my books while I’ve been away. You know how much that means to me since I have never let anyone else near them.

PPS and most of all, thank you for sharing yourself as a refuge. I know how much she loves your company too. She’ll be back soon. She will.

PPPS perhaps I took a little too much artistic license with my floral arrangement? It’s not exactly like the protea bouquet I left you with. I’ll try to be more subtle next time.

xx

This beautiful girl is so talented, every word she sings is straight from my own heart… how does she do that?! on a side note, i miss listening to triple j on my way home from work in my little white starlet, cruising along the rainforest-lined wakehurst parkway…

There are lots of things I miss in August. More about that soon! For now, it’s bed time for me, and this song is this posts soundtrack. Enjoy. Perhaps I’ll see you in the a.m? Sweet dreams.

xx

I get excited about things that may seem rather unexciting to others. Like this new servingware range from Wheel & Barrow Homewares that has me smiling…

Why, you may ask? Well, there is just one simple reason:

This new range is made from the fabulously renewable natural material of bamboo and degrades within a year of it being tossed away, making it pollution-less. Yep, this is all it takes for me to get very, very excited.

Wheel & Barrow has been one of my favourite stores for sourcing servingware while I’ve been styling in Sydney over the last few years. So I’m thrilled to hear they have this new range on their shelves. Bravo Wheel & Barrow!

Read more about it here.

It has been raining here all night and although it is very soothing to listen to the rain splash over the rooftop of this petit bateau, it’s 5am and I am wide awake. Perhaps I can’t blame the rain entirely – my mind has been racing with the amount of work I have on my plate at the moment. Will I get it all done? Will all my clients be happy with what I create? It’s funny that no matter how long I’ve been working in this field, anxieties about whether my work is good enough are still as strong as ever. But I remember one of my favourite photographers told me it never goes away. And another one told me that is the sign of a great artist – he said that it fuels one’s creativity and that the moment you become overly confident that everything you do is better than the rest, you might as well blow your creativity a goodbye kiss.

So I keep those wisdom’s close to me while I wipe the sweat from my brow.

Meanwhile, this fabulous umbrella design you see above just came into my inbox via a newsletter from one of my favourite stores in Sydney, Top 3 By Design. It’s called the stand up umbrella and it was designed in Japan by Hironao Tsuboi…

I love simple design that makes you wonder, why didn’t I think of that?