A moment ago, while I was zooming back from the fabulously quaint English Bookshop, I thought it might be nice to give a little blog shout out to the local bookstores who have all been helping to publicise the release of my new book this month.  Each of these stores have offered their windows to display my book as well as allow the use of their beautiful book-filled spaces to accommodate Amsterdam: Made by Hand enthusiasts for exclusive events. I am very grateful. As all new authors know, it’s a tough slog to get your book out there.

So, thank you to the American Book Center, The English Bookshop, and boekhandel van Rossum for your time, support and assistance in getting my book “out there on the streets”.

And thank you  to all the bookstores and boutiques around the world who continue to stock Paris: Made by Hand as well as place orders for Amsterdam: Made by Hand.

You’re. all. awesome.

xx

PS I’ll be sharing details of the next event with you momentarily…
PPS I have a strong urge for producing black & white images all of a sudden.

I’m still recovering from all the attention at Saturday’s book launch. It was a great success, I was (and am still) overwhelmed by the number of people who came along and the amount of books I signed.  I was so very nervous before the event, so many “what if’s” were running through my head. But as soon as I sat down at the signing table, all the nerves went away as I spent the next hour signing my little heart out and happily chatting away. Thank you so much to all who attended – you really made me feel like a star…

So would you like a re-cap of the launch? Okay, well, here is how it went: French Boy and I arrived at about 2:30pm. We went off to buy some flowers for the table, by then I was super anxious. It was a very hot day – quite unusual for Amsterdam so I was sure that everyone who had planned to come to the launch would instead, go to the beach. I had no idea if there would be any music, or if the nibbles would arrive in time, or if my publisher had made her flight. Yes that’s right, my publisher from New York! It was the first time I was going to meet her face to face – we have worked on 2 books together and have been in close contact via email for more than 2 years, and Saturday marked our first ever meeting.

Once French Boy and I came back to the American Book Center with the flowers, everything started coming together – within minutes of each other, 2 friends (who didn’t know each other at all) turned up with instruments! Arun (who is a freelance journalist here in Amsterdam and had recently interviewed me for an article in the June issue of Time Out – more about that soon) brought his guitar and Simone (who plays with one of my fave local bands,  Point Quiet) brought her violin. They decided to play together so off they went to find a little quiet alley to do some quick practice and then came back just in time for the first arrival of guests. Their music was INCREDIBLE. It was exactly what I had hoped for and envisioned, and as soon as they started playing I was filled with happiness. Thank you Arun and Simone!

Then came my dear friends Yvette and Sophie from Aan de Amstel with their absolutely gorgeous nibbles which were letter-shaped pastries spelling out “amsterdam made by hand” and “pia jane bijkerk”…

Aren’t they clever? They also made little savoury biscuits that said “pia!” on each one, it was really amazing. Thank you so much Yvette and Sophie!!

All the while I was signing books and when I did dare to look up from the table I noticed a long line going all the way back, I couldn’t believe it! There were so many people. I was thrilled to see familiar faces amongst the unfamiliar too – friends, local shop owners and designers, everyone made me feel very special. And everyone adored the barbara munsel dress I was wearing:  On the Thursday evening before the signing, Barbara came to Amsterdam to help fit a dress for me at YDU (which, as some of you already know,  is one of the stores featured in the book). The dress we picked suited me to a tee  – I’ll be sure to take a pic of it in it’s entirety so you can all get a good look at it, I’m completely in love with it, thank you barbara!!

Low and behold my publisher Angela and her husband Rea were sneakily standing in line, waiting to say hello, I was so happy to see them. We chatted for a bit and then I got back to the table to sign books and meet guests. What a rush, I was really on top of the world at that stage…

And throughout the whole afternoon, good friends & talented photographers Alan Jensen and Cath Conroy snapped photographs. You guys rock, thank you!!

I received incredible gifts as well, all of which I want to share with you here in the (blog)house in coming days. I’m overwhelmed by the generosity and encouragement I received on the day, I just cannot thank each of you enough…

Here is a little detail of my shoes and a gorgeous shot of one of my dearest friends and loyal fan,  Marie.

Thank you to the American Book Center for hosting the official book launch and for lending me your front window.

I’ll be back later to let you know about the other two events in Amsterdam that I’ll be a part of in celebration of the release of the book this month. For now though, I need some quiet time to catch my breath.

xx

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all photographs by Alan Jensen.

So. The window: it’s all done! I finished at about 6pm yesterday and had all intention to post pics for you as soon as I got home but when I sat on the couch I promptly fell asleep instead, it so happens I was pretty exhausted…

But now I’m refreshed and ready to get on with the rest of the week’s plans, starting with the last post in the series, the window display “in the making“ (if you’ve missed the first 5 posts, just scroll down this page to find them).  Are you ready? The first photo in this post is a little sneak peek of the finished display, but for now I want to take you all back with me to the beginning of yesterday, when I gathered all the little display items in my basket and headed to the american book center by foot. French Boy carried the large cardboard cutouts.  It was a rather grey day and about half way there I thought it might rain but it didn’t, thank goodness, because if it did well, let’s not think about it! Anyway, below is my basket of goodies…

As soon as we arrived I began attaching the banners overhead, and then began assembling the main display…

French Boy assisted me the whole afternoon, handing me tape, scissors, string, and taking pics of each stage – what a treasure. Then, we had two lovely visitors stop by to say hello: Marie and Yvette! That was quite a treat…

It didn’t take long to assemble the whole display, probably about an hour/hour and a half – with lots of chit chatting in between…

Then came the window painting…

In my sketch I was thinking of painting a tree but on the day I decided a tree would visually cut into the display so I decided to paint vines and flowers coming in from the sides instead. The painting was a lot of fun. I could have happily whiled away the entire afternoon doing this… oh, right, I did…

And that was that! Suddenly it was 6pm and I had to pull myself away from the window painting. While I was painting the window a number of passers-by remarked “mooi mooi” or “lekker” or “leuk”… which all translate as “nice!” so that was lovely to hear. Now, would you like to see some of the final result? Okay, first here are some close up details…

Each canal house has cut out windows and in the windows I taped some pages from the book. But not so you could read the pages in full – just enough with the hope to entice and inspire.

And overhead I attached word banners with taglines like “a little book of enchanting wanders” – Rani supplied me with a number of catchy taglines to use and this is one of them, thank you Rani! I also liked her flatmate’s suggestion which was “Amsterdam: Made by Hand – handier than your iphone”. Clever! I didn’t use that one though (sorry Rani’s flatmate, but I very much appreciate your input 🙂 ).

At first I was thinking that I’d write a tagline on the window but then I decided not to in the end as I felt it would be a bit messy. So at the last minute –  yesterday morning in fact  – I made these word banners and I’m really happy I did!

Also at the last minute – late Monday evening in fact – I decided to make little origami boats for under the bridges. I used left over bits of paper and tape.

On one of the canal houses I layered it with two different papers and then cut out butterfly shapes to expose the paper below. I wanted to make the window as layered as possible. Which wasn’t an easy feat since the window is actually only 26 cm deep. But with the painted window, the banners, and the colourful canal houses and bridges I think it does the trick. So would you like to see the window in full? Of course I’m going to tell you that it’s much better to go and visit it in person but for those of you who will not be in Amsterdam over the coming few weeks, here it is below. All you have to do is click on the image and a large version of it will open in another window…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of “in the making” posts showing my creative process from concept to realisation. Thanks for all your wonderful comments over the past week – you’ve made this project extra fun, your encouragement along each step has helped my creativity tremendously. Now I have to get cracking on the rest of the book launch plans for this Saturday – anyone know a musician who would like to play a little something at the launch? I’m still looking for someone so if you know of anyone, please let me know. I’m thinking violinist, or accordionist, or acoustic guitar – anything acoustic, and anything simple, soft and melodic.

In my next post I’ll be letting you know the other book events happening in June, so stay tuned…

xx

Today is the day that Amsterdam: Made by Hand is officially on sale around the world – hooray! To celebrate it’s arrival, I will be assembling the window display this afternoon at the American Book Center.  Yesterday and late into the evening I was busy with all the  finishing touches  a.k.a “the 20% that takes 80% of the overall time”. It’s tedious but also a lot of fun. I was able to use lots of left over scraps of paper and ribbon…

…so my next post will be the finished display, wish me luck!