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.