How exciting is this: My talented friend Natalie has been accepted to attend an art fellowship called The Alchemist’s Shack II at Mildred’s Lane in Pennsylvania… you read correctly, Mildred’s Lane! Remember I wrote a post about this magical place run by J Morgan Puett & partner Mark Dion back in 2009? (click here to refresh your memory)…

In order to get to the States and pay for the fellowship, Natalie needs support and has cleverly created a fund raiser on indigogo. Here she shares a gorgeous video to give you an idea of her style and creative talents, and you can purchase all sorts of fabulous, unique wares made by her like hand embellished antique plates, tin type prints, and even handwritten letters which she will post to you from Mildred’s Lane…

I’ve just purchased one of the  hand embellished antique plates with an image of an Australian native flower. There are only 20 of these available.

Congratulations Natalie, I’m so excited for you and I can’t wait to hear all about your upcoming adventure!

xx

Note: there are only 34 DAYS LEFT to show your support for Nat, so please click here for more info, thank you dear friends.

from field guided: “heart shaped leaves on this plant as the result of lack of light. Thanks for the information, Plant Journal” {instagram username @fieldguided}

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Remember the old my heart wanders days, when we used to look for subtle hearts in unexpected places and share the images with each other? That was way before I embarked on the big adventure of writing and publishing  the book, and way way before I became a first-time mum (still blows my mind).

Well, the other day I decided to relaunch the original my heart wanders “collective” on instagram and I’m really glad I did -  since then we’ve collected over 150 images from around the world, and I wanted to share a few of those with you here today. I’ve also included blog links and instagram usernames so you can follow these fab fellow instagrammers. And if you’d like to see more, check out the growing collection here, and if you’d like to join in, add this tag to your instagram photo: #myheartwanders . Enjoy…

from me: “this afternoon I took Laly for a stroll in the sling to help settle her and I found this on our path, it made me smile & remember to take a moment to breath life in. #myheartwanders Tag your wandering hearts xx” {instagram username @piajanebijkerk}

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from nanette at rummage: “THERE ARE LOVE HEART TREES HERE IN BYRON! The girls keep finding these leaves on our travels.” {instagram username @nanettelf}

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from the lovely one claire day, featuring her daughter Lalie {instagram username @oneclaireday}

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on the left, from ingrid : “whilst exploring today, do you see what I see?” {instagram username @inkalaimages} & on the right,  from Kylie at paper boat press:  “my mums collection of heart shaped rocks in the garden of our rock house in the bush… where my heart has wandered this weekend @piajanebijkerk #myheartwanders quite divine me thinks dear friend… “{instragram username: @paperboatpress}

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on the left from azuree wiitala at xo, azuree:  “Heart splatter. #myheartwanders #ubiquitoushearts” {instagram username: @xoazuree} & on the right from lori moon studio: “found heart.” {instagram username: @lorimoonstudio}

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on the left from  pip wright: “I found a heart-shaped island of snow” {instagram username: @thehouseofpip} & on the right from marte marie: “My little heart found in an old drawer in Milano” {instagram username: @marte_marie_forsberg}

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from her library adventures: “sunday evening… under the maple tree, reading pia jane bijkerk’s my heart wanders, gathering fabric samples and drinking lady grey tea…” {instagram username: @herlibraryadventures}

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on the left, from loved handmade: “morning shadows” {instagram username: @lovedhandmade} & on the right, from mollys maison: “homemade kiss biscuit” {instagram username: @mollysmaison}

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and one more from me: “a little corner of my home with handmade heart many thanks to mady dooijes sweet children”

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instagram photo by sweet Caroline

“My little reader… I first saw this park on a page of Pia Jane Bijkerk’s, My Heart Wanders. The pink flowers, the book benches… I showed it to Clara and we dreamt of finding it, like a secret garden. With a little help from google and my bike riding parisian super boyfriend, we found it… And at the most perfect time, when there were still flowers on the trees, and petals on the ground like pink snow. “oh Maman, c’est le jardin du beau livre!”….”

“oh mom, it is the garden in that beautiful book!”

Finding this little story and image made my heart soar. Thank you sweet Caroline & Clara.

xx

PS Caroline has a fabulous blog with incredible images, one to add to your regular reading for sure.

Last month Country Style launched their very own blog on the beautifully redesigned Homelife website, and I’m thrilled to have been invited to be one of the contributors. So far on the blog fellow contributor Louise Marshall has taken readers to the Sydney Flower Market, Samantha van Egmond guides us through the fabulous Agrarian Kitchen in Tasmania, and gives us all a tour of Hobart, Country Style’s editor Victoria Carey takes us behind the scenes of some wonderful shoots and shares an inspiring video of basket weaver Harriet Goodall made by Annette Cohen, while Lara Hutton takes us to The Mornington Peninsula.

My posts featured on Country Style so far include:

some of my favourite country living blogs, as seen below…

Marte Marie Forsberg’s beautiful Le Voyage Créatif.
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Rohan’s delicious Whole Larder Love.
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Nadia’s ever-delightful La Porte Rouge.
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…my flower wall in Amsterdam which you may recall featured in Anthology Magazine some months back…

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… and a trip through Lamington National Park in Queensland.

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It’s been fun writing for their blog, I love that magazines and fellow stylists and photographers here in Australia are now getting into blogging, it makes our virtual community all the more rich and layered.

I have an upcoming post which features some behind the scenes shots from a story I styled that is in this month’s issue of Country Style. The article is about historical Hill End in NSW, photographed by Sharyn Cairns. I had such a blast styling the artist’s cottage featured in the story, and I adore Sharyn’s photographs. Look out of the May issue which is on sale now, and also my blog post about it which will go live on the Country Style blog some time next week.

In the meantime, enjoy perusing the new Country Style blog and be sure to leave comments on posts you like to encourage the contributors along.

Bon weekend

xx