photo by rani nugraha

I’m super excited to reveal that we have our first guest of the year settling into the guest quarters: She’s young, she’s hip, she’s a fabulous friend, and she’s ridiculously knowledgeable on all things amsterdam. Her name is Rani, you may recall I wrote about her here, here and here. Last year, Rani was a wonderful help to me during my book launch. But this year, Rani is embarking on her own creative ventures, and has just launched a new website all about Amsterdam. I have no doubt that it will very soon become the online guide for getting to know the city. But I won’t tell you another thing about it, instead I’d like to send you into the guest quarters to meet her so she can tell you all about her new project.  Then, over the next few weeks, Rani will share lots of great Amsterdam goodies with us, I can’t wait. Welcome to the (blog)house, Rani!

Click here to read Rani’s first guest post.

Dutch stylist & jewelry designer Miranda van Dijk has just created a beautiful new collection called hidden memories. I’ve known about it for some time, and have found myself going back to Miranda’s website to take ‘one more look’ a number of times over the past couple of months. Drawn to her new work but again last week, I figured it was about time I share it with you here in the (blog)house…

Inspired by the connection between nature and humankind, Miranda has fashioned brooches and necklaces from cotton fabric printed with old photographs. Above are some of the designs she has been working with, and I’m captivated by all of them, but especially love the necklaces. Miranda sells her work in markets around Holland (she was just part of the Swan Market in Rotterdam this weekend), but her work is also for sale online here.  And you’ll be rapt to know that Miranda is also offering custom creations as part of this collection, just send her an email.

Now I’m inspired to rummage through my old family albums and email some photos to Miranda… mother’s day is just around the corner.

pear, blueberry, and rhubarb. wow.

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see more here.
and in this post I wrote last year about my visit to droog.

Beautiful photo stories on brooklyn-based artisans by Jennifer Causey. The Makers Project already features jewels of new york, lena corwin, reverie and saipua among others – each story is so gorgeous, I hope you’ll take the time to view each gallery. I can’t wait to see what + who The Makers Project features next. Congrats Jen on another fab project!

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found via sweet odette new york.

what: the bay (a.k.a ‘summer bay’ on tv). where: palm beach, sydney. why: the water