So there is this guy, his name is Lenny, and amongst other things he loves to comb beaches. With his findings he makes the sweetest little boats…

…are they not the most fabulous things you’ve ever seen? Anyway, he inspired Jeff from booooooom to host a community event in Vancouver this past Saturday where anyone and everyone could come along with their box of found beach/forest treasures to  make little drifters and set them sail on Trout Lake Beach. The event was then featured in The Vancouver Sun…

The little drifters featured here are all Lenny’s, but check out booooooom and The Vancouver Sun to see what everyone made on Saturday, they are all awesome.

I also thought this could be lovely inspiration for those of you participating in poppytalk’s collecting nature flickr pool. Wouldn’t this make a great project? I think I don’t even have to ask, or answer,  that question.

I have to do a summer clean up inside my houseboat this week because it’s just getting too cluttered, perhaps with my dried up flowers and collected bits of wood I can make some little drifters and send them off on the canal. If I do, I’ll take some photos to post here in the (blog)house – that idea is pretty much the only thing inspiring me to tidy and clean.

xx

PS I had a really great weekend, I hope you did too. I’ll tell you about mine a little later, for now I’d just like to daydream some more about these little drifters.

PPS I found out all of the above from dear Erin at Design for Mankind. She always knows about the good stuff.

sand dollars (and a sand penny!) by cori kindred

tomatillo skeletons by ottoman handmade

nature shelf treasures by brambly thicket and remembering sanibel by lindaolo

…Jan from poppytalk has started a fab new flickr group called collecting nature. Above are some of my favourites from the group thus far. If you have a flickr account and are an avid nature collector like so many of us are, then get in amongst it! I think it’s such a beautiful idea for summer.

emptied pockets by lindaolo

Read more about Jan’s inspiration for starting the flickr group here, and see more fab nature collections here. Nice one Jan! Can’t wait to see what you might create with some of your own found treasures in the fall.

This past month, I’ve been glued to BBC 2 every Wednesday night, blissfully absorbed in Alys Fowler’s world as shown in The Edible Garden. Each episode, Alys demonstrates through polyculture how she grows various fruit, vegetables and edible flowers in her small city back garden, with the aim to not only avoid shop-bought fruit and vegetables so she and her husband can live off their home-grown produce but also create a beautiful, inspiring garden. The misfortunes and mistakes are not edited, and her style is perfectly imperfect. In tonight’s episode, she planted strawberries, raspberries and blueberries; picked apples to make delicious apple rings; concocted a lip-smacking fruit infused vodka with friends; made gorgeous hapa-zome fabric lid covers for jam pots; and introduced a friend who lives in Bristol and forages for plums and berries in her local environment. Last week she focused on root vegetables, the week before, salads – each episode packed with extras.

While I have no soil patches on-shore or on-deck of my little boat home, I’m completely re-inspired to pot up some edibles again. I love walking passed the on-shore gardens belonging to the houseboats (also love spotting the adorable newcomers) along the Amstel, they never cease to inspire me as most of them are filled with wild flowers, tulips and untamed bushes. There is one that even has chickens.

Also, I’ve been reading up a lot lately on suburban foraging (a couple of episodes ago, Alys made dandelion fritters from foraged dandelions and I’d love to try it!) but really don’t know enough about northern hemisphere wild foods, nor the protocol for foraging here in The Netherlands. Plus, I have no idea where to go. I would love to have the courage to forage but I think it would take a series of workshops and guided tours before I got out there myself.

Anyway, Alys Fowler- wonderfully inspiring, just as much as Ray. Even though you can’t replay the episodes on bbc iplayer unless you’re in the UK, it’s worth reading the episode details and even better, buy Alys’ book. I haven’t got it myself but I’m sure it’s awesome.

xx

PS I just remembered this photo of me in the garden in vancouver island, rather fitting for this post…

xx

PS and happy weekend! I thought I might get a chance to squeeze one more post in before the weekend but alas, it will have to wait until Monday. Still so many things to share with you…

Yesterday I was going through some of my old photo albums in search of something in particular for inspiration, but instead of finding what I was looking for, I found this…

My heart stood still for a moment as I looked at it, whisking me back in time to a place, people, and land that I so dearly love. In this photo I am picking beans for dinner in my ex-partner’s parent’s home (gees, try to say that fast ten times), on Vancouver Island, in Canada. I remember asking my partner if he’s be so kind to snap a photo of me in this moment, because I wanted to remember it for always. I’m so glad he did. thank you m.

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It’s been a busy week here in le petit bateau, with lots of wonderful things happening that I hope to be able to share with you very soon. This weekend I would like to try to spend some time outside as it is forecast to be beautiful weather. It’s a long weekend to boot, so I will be back in the (blog)house on Tuesday with a very special week for you – it will be dedicated to my weekend in Paris, complete with soundscapes. In the meantime, if you would like to get a little bit more behind-the-scenes, you can join in the fun on my facebook page, where I write what I’m up to, and chat with friends.

Thank you everyone, for being here. My world would not be complete without you.

xx

Here is my box of goodies for Sofia’s Autumn Swap! The person I am sending it to is a secret – neither you, nor her will know until she receives the package. I do hope she likes it. I had fun getting to know her through her blog, and I tried to create my parcel with her likes in mind, as well as my likes, with a little taste of my home town of Amsterdam. Do you want to know what she will receive?

Well Sofia’s idea is that we are to include 4 things – comfort food for the soul, a comfort drink, comfort food, and a comfort surprise. So mine are as follows…

1.comfort food for the soul… A little book of postcards of love story book covers from the 20′s and 30′s, called Bandit Love, published by The Little Bookroom (my favourite publisher, you’ll soon learn why!)

2.comfort drink… my favourite tea (it’s the package that is wrapped up). I enjoy this every day with a little spoon of honey and a dash of soy milk. I hope my swapee will enjoy it too, I think she likes tea

3.comfort food… How could I send off a package without chocolate, right?! So I went for a little walk yesterday to a Chocolatier and Tearoom that caught my eye months ago and I’ve been wanting to go in ever since. It is called Pompadour and is in the antique quarter of the city, on the very quaint Kerkstraat (Church Street). I thought this would be the perfect place to find my swapee something a little special and boy, did I ever! I selected a few chocolates for her, they are in the little chocolate brown box.

4.comfort surprise… This is a soap from the very awesome soap boutique called La Savonnerie here in Amsterdam.

And also some butterfly tags from Royal Buffet which I totally adore, and I think the colours are perfectly autumnal.

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And that’s it! Oh and a postcard I bought at de hortus gardens when I was there, I love that card. Do you think she will like this package? I am about to head to the post office now to send it on it’s way. Bon voyage little package, please arrive safe and sound across the seas!

xx

PS would you like a peek at some of the other gifts being sent for the swap? Check out Josephine’s from Red Thread based in San Fransisco here, and Kate’s beautiful package from Love You Big in my other hometown of Sydney, here. Oooh I wish I was receiving these goodies!

I find this title,’hunter gatherer pia’ pretty funny, I have no idea why but there must be a large part of me that is one of those bizarro-world nerds that finds humour in unfunny things. Speaking of bizarro, I don’t recommend seeing ‘The Golden Compass’ at the cinema which we did yesterday, maybe rent it out on dvd but the adaption just doesn’t work, of course with incredible effects, but that is it – all these special effects are leaving children’s imaginations stale, I’m sure of it. Nicole’s role is not strong or believable, rather disappointing. The best part about it is the animal ‘deamons’, that concept is awesome and very inspiring.

But onward and upward, let’s go gathering! Here are a couple of my favourite recent shots…

Shot by Chris Chen for Home Basics.

I am a great fan of the found object as you are probably well aware by now. The beautiful antique saw is from Garden St Bazaar (I will be taking you on a guided tour of this treasure trove trés soon). The little yellow plant tags I found in a brocante in Paris, the keys are also from my Paris apartment. The little water spray vessel is something I found at Ikea years ago. The glass pouring jug is from Bodum.

another one…

The ruler I found in my parents tool drawer in their garage (I am known to raid my parents, aunts, cousins and grandmother’s house in the late hours of the night before a shoot to look out for any ‘wow’ objects I may have forgotten about! I do return all their items I promise!). The ribbons I gathered along my travels – whenever I come across ribbon I like I buy a few metres of it, regardless of whether I have a use for it at the present moment or not as it always comes in handy for shoots, gift wrapping and also for colour-combination inspiration. The antique string I also found at a Paris brocante and the scissors I bought years ago when I had my store, I think they are from Acorn Trading. Oh and another old tool from Gary at Garden St Bazaar . And the copper pot, I have no idea where I found that but it was amongst my prop collection in Sydney. I love that pot, it is one of my all time favourite finds. Oh yeah that’s right, I used it for a Delia Smith Christmas magazine shoot a couple of years ago.

I love the colour combination with the yellow – teaming it with these rusty blues and reds makes it warm and rich and brings all the objects out and off the wall. It makes me want to pick up each item and study it’s beauty.