Well mes amis, this is it, 2009 has rolled on by. I cannot believe it is December and that the end of the year is near. I am about to hop on a plane to the other side of the world, to “my other life” down under and so I will bid you farewell for the year, here, today, as I have decided to take a little time off. I will only be taking a couple of weeks holiday as I have lots of work to do in 2010, but two weeks is two weeks and I am very much looking forward to it. I have had an extraordinarily busy year and my body, mind and spirit are in need of some serious rest and recreation.  I will begin posting intermittently at the beginning of the new year while I am in Sydney.  I’ll be there for a couple of months this time ’round. I’m so excited to be heading to sunshine, sea and sand.

click here to see the original post for this image.

But this is not the only “something wonderful” I have to tell you. Cast your mind back to well, around the beginning of this here blog, two years ago. In January of 2007 I announced an idea I’d been forming for an art project that involved you. I asked you to send in photos of your wandering hearts. Do you remember? Well the idea took off, and went completely out of control – I received so many images that I lost all ability to keep up to date. All the while I was consumed with the task of writing my very first book Paris: Made by Hand, and then my second to be published this coming April  – Amsterdam: Made By Hand, as well as keeping up my freelance styling work here in Europe. But it got crazier – in between all that I was asked if I would write another book. A book about my own personal journey of how I got here: the journey of  following my wandering heart. Today is the first time I’ve been able to tell you this “something wonderful” that I’ve known for a while now, I was just waiting to catch my breath.

And although at this early stage I cannot reveal much, I wanted to let you know about it since you have all been such a wonderful part of this journey – dear friends who have been encouraging me every step of the way, lifting me up, holding my hand, and guiding me gently.

So, what will this book be about? Well, here is a little description…

“This is a beautiful, lavishly photographed, illustrated and designed book by Pia Jane Bijkerk. It is a travel memoir, a love story, a story about searching for home and making homes in new places, a photographic love letter to the charms and delights of Paris, France, Amsterdam and Italy, and a story of finding inspiration in the everyday.”

I am very pleased to announce that My Heart Wanders will be published by Murdoch Books and will be released in 2011.

While I am writing and shooting it over the coming months, I thought it might be a lovely idea to open up the initial blog project again, and post images that you sent in as there were so many that I was not able to post and now that the book has evolved into a more personal journey that marks the beginning of it all, I will be able to share the first fabulous group of images sent in from around the globe.  So starting in 2010 I will re-open the artist studio as a place for wandering hearts. I will post an image every day or so that was sent in during the initial project, and then you will be welcome to send in more images throughout the year.

I also want to take this opportunity as my last post for the year to say thank you: for everything. Your kindness, your encouragement and constant presence this year here in the (blog)house has been overwhelming. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that this blog would be the catapult for so much wonder in my life. You are without doubt, the best readers a blogging girl could ever have.

Have a fabulous festive season. See you in the New Year!!

xx

That is actually the title of a book, published in the ’50’s, written by Lorna Hill. My mother passed it on to me when I was a young girl… a beautiful book I recall it to be… old, and interesting looking, and well, I never read it. And in my growing wisdom and hindsight I know why – this would be a girl I could never relate to.

So patience is not one of my virtues. But I am hoping it is one of yours…My Heart Wanders feels like it has been and gone right? Wrong. It is still in it’s baby phase. My dear, patient readers, I’m here to confess that my workload, and all those little unexpected life changing scenarios that have occurred over past months took precedent over my gathering of all your beautiful images. And, well, another bit of wisdom I found is that I can’t write two books at once. Who knew. So, while my other yet-to-be-revealed book is now in the hands of my publisher, and my life seems to have calmed for the moment, I am going to pick up where I left off and gather the images together for the My Heart Wanders judges. I want this book to be fabulous, just in case you didn’t already know that. And fabulous things take a while to create, even though I want everything done yesterday. And as you will see from the above picture, this project has been in the works for quite some time! I did this drawing over a year ago, well before I even knew I would have my very own blog, or before I knew that each of you would be such an integral part of my wandering heart journey. This piece is sitting near the piano at my parent’s place, and when I was there I walked past it a number of times each day – a nice reminder of our journey together.

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Some My Heart Wanders news to tell you: As from my time back in Sydney, I made a little decision: to bring on board a special guest as one of the judges. With the other judges all in accord, without further delay I would like to announce that the new guest judge is… my Mum! So, welcome aboard Mum, thanks for accepting the invitation, and I do hope you will enjoy the journey with us.

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So, this weekend, it’s either dedicating my time to catching up on my accounting or My Heart Wanders – hmm, which should I choose?

xx

PS yes there is a heart in that rambling tree, it might take you all weekend to find it though, perhaps if you fuzz your eyes it will stand out more – let me know if you find it!

PPS how about a song to launch us into the weekend? I pick this one, from one of my all-time favourite female singer/songwriters/poets. Enjoy.

There are still so many submissions I have not yet viewed. Thank you all for your incredible patience. This morning I had a quick peek and found this one amongst all the amazing entries. It is another beauty from Maggie of 22 butterfly.

This has been so much fun. I’m thinking we might just have to do it again sometime.

read about it here. see inspiration here. send your submission here.

view some of the latest submissions here, here, here, and here. and here!

This is it everyone. This is it!!!! xxx

read about it here. see inspiration here. send your submission here.

view some of the latest submissions here, here, here, and here.

read about it here. see inspiration here. send your submission here.

submission from jeska. who commented on my blog this morning, which directed me to her blog, which lead me to this lovely image. thank you.

there are so many wonderful submissions flowing steadily in, my desktop is a mess. but oh how i am looking forward to sorting and organising it all!!

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and I just had to include this handwritten letter that Anne-Maree’s 10 year old son composed yesterday. He left it on her pillow so that she would read it before she went to bed…

you will have to go over to her house to enlarge, it’s a beautifully written piece that deserves a huge amount of attention. Now I tell you, what is it with the influx of wonderful men coming into our blogging worlds? From my one male reader writing emails about the subtleties and wonders of women, to Joanna’s post about this guy, and now A-M’s son… I tell you boys, we are all swoooooooning. May this kind of behaviour spread across the globe like wild fire.

Many mornings I wake up with pages and pages of some yet-to-be-conceived book being written in my head. Some mornings it is a script. and other mornings it is a series of images, most likely inspired by dreams. I look forward to waking. It is one of the most creative times of my day, and it the only time of the day that I just let it be. I nestle into the pillow, pull the covers around me and just let my mind play quietly.

In other news, apparently I do have one male reader. He emailed me yesterday to let me know. It was such a beautifully written email that I wanted to share it with you all and asked if I could write it as a comment to my post, but I had no reply. And I realised at that point, if he wanted to write a comment he would have. Silly girl. But hey, it’s not the first time I’ve scared a male away.

Speaking of males, the Dalai Lama is in town, but not this town. He has just landed in Sydney and will be giving a series of talks, check them out here. Of course I will not be attending since I am on the other side of the world, again. Happens every time he arrives in my part of town, somehow I am elsewhere, what is with that? My friends will be having some special private audiences with him and I hope to be able to share more about all that with you soon. There is also an awesome concert going on as well, this Sunday at the magnificent Angel Place recital hall. If you are in Sydney or near Sydney, do go, you won’t regret it.

In not so interesting news, my outfits du jour have been becoming a little crazy since I have put a ban on leaving the boat until I get my book finished. Yesterday I was wearing this peacock blue dress with gray tights and a cream aymara cardigan, with my hair shoved up on top of my head, dishevelled curls sticking out everywhere, a blue ribbon wrapped around it and one of Marie’s crochet pins in my hair. I was so tempted to show you, but I chickened out. Cooookooo.

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The above pic I took this morning, it is my little tea collection. Oh and a tin of Milo, it seems no one can take the aussie out of me.

I know I know, back to work already. I hear you.

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Well with Manda’s approval below, I am going to keep going, la pipelette is out of the box today. I suspect this could be another never-ending post.

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10:58am: We were all blown away when Australia finally said sorry. tears were shed. lost hearts were found and healing began. I was hoping with all my heart that it was going to be the beginning of a domino affect to spread across the globe. well guess what? it’s Canada’s turn. Go Canada!! I am so so pleased to hear this news, this is another momentous occasion for the survival of humanity.

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11:06am: I’m listening to him. And my favourite song is down the line.

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5:43pm: is 5:43pm too early to pour a glass of wine?

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6:54pm: yes, i’m still working. i think i can see a light at the end of the tunnel. i mean, i think it’s a light. oh wait a minute, ah yes, the brightness button on my screen has been bumped to full capacity. oops-a-daisy.

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7:12pm: i made this today with my dying peonies and astilbes (did I get it right this time? merci à tout!) – a bright little still life for a dreary weathered day…

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7:54pm: French Boy has gone out to hunt. straight to the local indian diner for takeaway. just to give you a clue of what is in the pantry: no bread. no cheese. that about means starvation for me.

and just in case you were wondering, there are now only four days left to send in your submission. just FOUR…

can you tell i cheated today? yep, i just erased the apple core via photoshop.

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and i promise this will be the last entry of the day. i bought jose’s album because it is just that good. and i’ve decided it is not enough to just send you to his myspace, so i have brought you the video of my latest favourite song right here. i advice to turn it up loud as i have been doing all day.

Have a lovely evening, and thank you sooo much for your awesome comments today, i shall respond tout de suite!