Once upon a time there was a little girl who heard about a beautiful, enchanting city in a land far far away where people wore berets, ate something called ‘baguette’, and spoke what she immediately decided must be one of the prettiest languages in the world. She learnt about all the ancient stone buildings that stood tall and magnificent along the long, winding river that ran through the middle of the city, and she listened to songs sung in this pretty language. The little girl fell in love with the idea of this magical city, and consequently spent many hours, days, months, and years dreaming about what it might be like to wander its cobblestones streets. Time went by and life went on but still, the idea of this city and the country it was a part of remained in her heart and in her dreams.

That was over 80 years ago, some time around 1930. As we all know too well, life goes on and dreams get put on shelves. For this little girl, wars came and went, lovers stole her heart, children were born, then grandchildren, and then great grandchildren, her body became more fragile but still, she never forgot about her dream and she never lost hope that one day she might see this beautiful city in person – she always dusted the shelf where her dream lay waiting for her.

Today, that little girl is 90 years old. Her name is Joyce and she is my beloved great aunt who, when I was a little girl, taught me how important it was to dream and how important it was to keep dreams alive. When I visited her back home in Sydney this past January, she told me that this year she was determined to get to Paris, the city of her dreams. I told her, “If you go, no matter where I am in the world or what I’m doing, I will be there with you – I will not miss it for the world.”

Yesterday was the day her dream came true.

Together with her daughter Kathy, myself and Romain, the four of us strolled through the jardin des plantes, took in the view of the notre dame along pont sully, had lunch at café Louis-Philipe, wandered along the surrounding streets all the while taking in the sights and scenery. She can’t quite believe it is happening, and I am beyond ecstatic to be here with her and show her some of the Paris that I have come to know and love.  This afternoon we plan to go to Montmatre to see the Sacre Coeur and have an aperitif in a little bar somewhere along the way. It’s not an easy feat with a wheelchair in tow, but so far we have managed. Countless times Aunty Joyce said to me yesterday, “Why has it taken me so long to get here?” and I said, “It doesn’t matter, you are here now, and it just goes to show you, dreams can come true” and she added “yes, and age is just a word”.

I’ll be back to show you some photos of our adventure in Paris some time next week, for now, let’s linger on the realisation that it is never too late to dust off your dreams and fly with them.  Bonne journee mes amis.

xx

…for a very special reason which I plan to reveal demain.  Today, I spent a large amount of time on the metro, it was fabulous people watching. x

Romina Bacci is a talented graphic designer and photographer born in Argentina with Italian heritage, residing in the US. Her photography is ethereal and so very soothing, I’m thrilled to be able to share some of her work with here in the (blog)house today…

Romina is currently working on a few books that will be available to purchase in the future, they all look to be beautiful but I am particularly looking forward to de la mesa al alma which will feature a collection of photographs, family recipes, and stories gathered from her and her sister,  from days growing up in la cucina, watching and helping their nona make pasta all day…

I asked Romina if there was anything in particular that she wanted to share here along with her photographs, and I love what she had to say…

“Something I’d like to point out is how important it is for any artist, designer, photographer, writer to find our own voice, our own way of doing things, to find ourselves in our work. It is difficult to focus on what we want to do when out there is a vast ocean of inspiration, and I enjoy watching other artists’ work too, but I think it is very important to stop looking outside and start searching inside when it comes to creating our work. I believe this is priority, it’s a way of respecting others as well as respecting ourselves.”

from wing stories, Romina Bacci

I thought that was a beautiful sentiment and something I feel very strongly about too, it reminded me of this post about derivation which I wrote back in the very early days of my blog (can you believe it’s been 2 1/2 years since the (blog)house was built? Time has flown by ever since, what a whirlwind).

This series above is from Romina’s new marina, a sea collection available in her etsy shop, Miles of Light. The sea treasures featured in this series were a gift from her friend Sarah, a fellow graphic designer.

And these above are from her forest series: “our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest, which co-mingle their roots in the darkness underground.”

Beautiful.

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All images courtesy of Romina Bacci. Vist her blog called photos, feathers, stories and dreams here, and her etsy shop, miles of light, here. View her portfolio here.

Thank you, Romina.

xx

a collection of some of my favourite photos from Amsterdam: Made by Hand.

Good morning mes rayons de soleil, I hope you each had a glorious weekend. If it wasn’t so glorious, then perhaps there was something special that lit up your heart at some point, some way, even just for a little moment. I worked for 36 hours straight, with a  few pit stops in between. The highlight of my weekend was a wonderful dinner on Friday night hosted by some new friends at their gorgeous apartment, north side. And then a wander along the Amstel with french boy yesterday afternoon to get some fresh air. Everyone who was anyone it seems, was out on their little boats, zipping about the canals – drinking, laughing, being generally merry  -  it was lovely to watch.

I have another busy week ahead of me although I plan to post about one particular adventure that I will be embarking on mid week. Until then, I’ll just pop in and out of the (blog)house as usual. Oh yes, and I have two bits of news for the moment: one is that dear Cath shared some more glorious photos with you in the guest quarters on Friday, click here to see where she takes us this time.

another collection from Amsterdam: Made by Hand.

And my second bit of news is that on Thursday last week, I spontaneously decided to activate my twitter account. I know, can you believe it?  I said some time ago that I would never ever twitter, but I don’t know, something just sparked inside me on that day during my tea break, it just felt right all of a sudden. So in I plunged and boy, was it fun to be welcomed into the twitter world by fellow bloggers – it’s like a whole other universe over there. The aftermath is that I must admit, I’m having some sort of reservations  about the plunge because I can see it does tend to suck the life out of you and since I’m struggling to maintain status quo as it is, perhaps it’s not the best thing for me right now. But lovely Susannah assured me this morning that I’ll find my comfy spot soon, so I’m going to take her advice and give it some time. So, if you are a twitterer and feel like following my tweets, then here is my twitter link - hope to see you there.

xx

…made by leslie from swarm.  She just finished a new batch and they are all insanely beautiful. I’ve been taking this one with me everywhere, it’s perfect as a ‘stylist on the run’ bag, you can fit so much in it! And I love that it will age the more I use it, so so special.

Anyway, I had to show you guys. This is just one side, the other side is also gorgeous, perhaps I’ll show you that side another day – it’s like having two bags in one. oh yeah.

Tales of a Junkaholic is one of the blogs in the spotlight this week (check out the others in the sidebar, they’re all so goooood), and its author, Artemis Russell, has the dreamiest backyard in South London, complete with her very own working shed where she sews up a storm. She posted this photo the other day and I just love it. If you are not already reading artemis’ blog, then click here to be whisked away to her world where you will no doubt become as enamored by her creations, life, and home as much as I am.

view from my window, one.

It all started with an accidental night out on Friday evening when french boy and I thought we were headed to a friend’s gig at cafe paradiso only to find out when we got there that we had our dates mixed up – the gig is actually tonight (come along if you’re in town, details here, entry is free). Being the homebodies we are, we automatically headed back in the direction of home but it occurred to me that since we’d made the effort to get dressed up  – something I find increasingly difficult to do these days  – that we should stay out, at least for half an hour. So we crossed the road and headed over to cafe alto, a jazz bar in the leidseplein that has been on our ‘must visit’ list ever since we moved to Amsterdam. We got there at around 9:30pm, and it was pretty empty. The bartender said the band would start at 10pm. So we picked out a table near the empty stage and ordered some wine. The band did indeed strike up at 10pm and they were fabulous. The pianist, Ramón Valle was mesmerizing, so incredibly talented, what an inspiration. Philip Harper was on the trumpet, he was also sensational, as was the rest of the band. Within seconds of the band starting up the entire bar was packed,  it had such a great vibe and I highly recommend you head there if you are in Amsterdam. I’m embarrassed to admit it took us this long to discover this great place.

view from my window, two. by the way, the above two photos have nothing to do with my weekend, I just like them.

So then came a lazy Saturday followed by our first Amsterdam picnic in the park! I know, a weekend full of firsts – again, embarrassing since we’ve lived here for nearly 3 years now. Anyway, this picnic was quite special because it was something we’d been trying to organise for a while now with good friends yvette and oof. Both yvette and I had been saving a couple of good bottles of champagne for celebrating the completion of her book and the launch of my book. We managed to lock in Saturday night and met them, along with lovely Marie, at the oosterpark (also the first time I’d been there). We had a little barbecue, some delicious salads, and lots of cheeses and fresh bread. And champagne! It was so so lovely, the park was not too busy which made me very happy as I’m not a fan of crowds. At the end of the night marie snuggled up on my lap as I whispered sweet nothings into her floppy ears.

proef, amsterdam

Sunday! French Boy and I went for an afternoon walk to the Nieuwmarkt and stopped in at the wijs & zonen on the zeedijk for some tea and homemade apple pie. Now I had actually been there before, in fact it was one of the first places fb and I discovered on our first trip to Amsterdam together when we were still living in Paris. It is such a hidden treasure and I’ve been meaning to tell you guys about it all this time. The teas and coffees on offer are phenomenal (they are purveyor to the queen which sounds super fancy). And I also noticed on their website just now that they offer city tours on Saturday afternoons, sounds like fun. Anyway, I digress, Sunday night we headed to proef (for the first time) to meet leslie for dinner and I’m here to report that it was deeeeelicious. I must be honest, I was a little hesitant to go last year as I’d heard mixed reviews about the ‘experimental’ food experiences. And I’m all for experimenting with food but I’m not too keen on paying a lot of money for a meal I’m not sure I’m going to really enjoy. But recently the restaurant opened to the public (they were only open in past years for special events, large groups of people, etc) with an easy going, tapas style menu. Apart from the setting and location being perfect, the plates and serving dishes were interesting and beautifully styled (vintage china plates combined with little jam jars for salad dressing and the likes). The accompanying wine was also very good, and the dessert was definitely the show stopper – I had the airy chocolate mousse with ice cream,  fruit and cedarwood cotton candy. yum.

So that was my quintessential amsterdam summer weekend. I hope you can take the time to click on all the links and find out some more about these awesome places.

xx