Eight moons ago, on a crisp winter evening, we made a little fire in our backyard to sit with the full moon. We ate our dinner around the fire and then made s'mores - one of Laly's favourite treats. She wrote love letters to the moon on the concrete patio with some of the fallen charcoal. While we were sitting around the fire, she began humming her song Stars, to the moon. We hadn't yet booked a time to record it in the studio but it was essentially ready for the big wide world.

While she was humming the song and dancing around the fire with her charcoal stick, inspiration came to me for her music video. I said, "Let's get some sparklers and you can dance in the moonlight while singing your song, I think this could be the video!" With a beaming smile she ran and got some sparklers, put on her dark blue jumpsuit and off we went into the night. Would we step on something slimy? Possibly, but she did not care! I filmed her with my phone while she danced to the song in her head, the vision of the music video coming to me as I filmed. I had Coldplay's Yellow in my mind as inspiration - remember the one continuous shot of Chris Martin walking in the rain on the beach as dawn broke?

We did 4 takes, and that was that! I wanted it to be as organic and playful as possible, just like her song. I had no idea if it would work but the moment was captured, and that's all that mattered for me at that moment. We giggled and laughed and it was the most wonderful memory-making time together, mother and daughter. I told her it might not be great, and it's on the phone so the quality isn't the best but she didn't care, she felt the buzz of it and knew it would become whatever it would become.

After we recorded the song in the recording studio in August, I started thinking again about how I could turn that footage into a music video. I wasn't confident about my editing skills at first - it's been over 20 years since I sat at a film editing suite at university, and technology has advanced so much since then. I decided to ask around for a video editor, and I did end up paying someone to put it together for me but I wasn't quite happy with the end result because I realised I already had a strong vision for it and needed to create it myself. So this past month while I had the time, I decided to give it a try myself. It was fun to learn a new software, expanding my photography skills into the moving world. And I am really happy with the result, it's the closest to what I envisioned that beautiful night, and even with the limited quality of the phone, not to mention it being shot at night, with no other equipment, I am really pleased with it.

It is now on you tube! I have a separate channel for Laly but it's on my account so she can't access it herself, and comments have to be modified by me before they are public so that she's as protected as possible but still able to share her creativity with the world.

I really hope you like it too, feel free to share it with your friends and family and online if you feel moved to. She's already working on her next song and it's a heart melter.

With love,

Pia xx

So much to share from this year and so many intentions to share it here! But here we are in December of 2022 already.

For now, I want to let you know that I’m having a flash sale on the digital version of Festive Season Reimagined as it’s the only book I have available for you all at this time of year!

And I love this book and everything it stands for, and if you are feeling the calling to add some wonder and depth to your end of year, this is the book for you. Click on the cover image below to order your copy now.

I have one more incredible something to share with you before the end of the year! Stay tuned. X

I’m calling this time The Overwhelm. But since everything is Great these days, it’s The Great Overwhelm. Are you feeling it? I’ve written a little about it on my Patreon page, The Everyday Alchemists, here is an except from the latest post…

Sunday
July 10, 2022

I feel like this period of time should be called The Great Overwhelm…

One of the collective feelings I picked up on the most while being back in Sydney was overwhelm.  I felt it before the pandemic, particularly in the area we were living in, in the Inner West, and then after the first lock down was lifted, the overwhelm was heightened. I still feel it in myself too but when I met with others while in Sydney who described their situations, I could feel the intensity of it. I don’t feel that intensity in me but I think it’s only because I have been able to keep it in check  - as soon as things get overwhelming – like this year during the time of the floods, and when Romain was so sick and needed emergency surgery, I have learnt - and am able to  - drop everything that creates overwhelm during these times. For everyone it’s different. In our case, not having the capacity to outsource support with Laly means I don’t have family to call on or a babysitter when times get tough, but I can drop other things to ensure I have the energy to attend to her and our needs. Socialising in large groups for example, is something that adds to overwhelm for me at the moment, so I often say no, and I’ve been able (and lucky enough) to not take on too much work since 2020, I only do what I can manage.  I learnt all this from the burn out I had after self-publishing Little Treasures: Made by Hand.

Part of my personal overwhelm – or what I call being ‘at capacity’ – is that it seems like I have less and less time to do things other than the everyday necessities – washing  the clothes, feeding the family, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, feeding and caring for the bunny, communicating and organising tradespeople and the landlord about house repairs from the storm damage, sorting, being emotionally present, and going for walks for exercise. And that’s just a sampling of what’s needed to be done in my every day.  Self-help gurus and life coaches will tell us that in this scenario, I’m not prioritising my time ‘properly’, that I need to set myself/simplify my goal (ie more exercise, more writing, more work time, etc) and focus on this, put it at the top of the list and let the other chips fall as they may. I’ve tried this, many times, in many eras of my life, and I can say with conviction that it’s bullshit. It’s one of those capitalist/colonialist/patriarchal idealisms that doesn’t work at all in practice, unless you’re a white privileged man. I know there are plenty of female life coaches and self help gurus around at the moment who sell this idea too, but they’re only keeping up the same illusion. They do not reveal the amount of support they have around them in order to achieve their work goals. And it is simply not sustainable (it doesn’t last).

Since the pandemic first began, I have felt at capacity. And it’s not easing. I know I’m not alone. Even being able to write and publish a post here on Patreon feels epic for me these days – I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve started posts over the past 2 months and have not been able to finish them, even though I’ve made time to come back to them day after day. Today, I am determined. I’ve been here writing this for 3 hours now, and I’m managing this chunk of time because everyone is exhausted from our trip and happy to do their own things in quiet peace. Although it’s 12:30pm, I’ll need to make lunch for everyone soon, so my time is running out.

Why is it like this? Are you feeling this too or are you feeling like you have time on your hands? I’d really love to know. Is everyone overworked – whether it’s an outside job or the job of managing a household, or both  - is this a collective experience or is it because I’m a mum to a ten year old, or is it health related? I’d love to learn about your life right now.

………………………………..

To read more, and about an idea I’m running by everyone in the collective that might help with the overwhelm, you can join the collective, The Everyday Alchemists.

Pia xx

PS Also, I made a new playlist the other day - I do love this new way of creating mixed tapes for like-hearted souls around the world! This one will be added to along the way, I hope you enjoy it. X

I do not know how this photographic feature slipped by without being shared with you (such is life over the past 2 years!) - it was featured in issue two for 2021 of Happinez. It is my favourite of all time & marks a very important change in my life - it is the first shoot in my new hometown, a ten year long goal actualised. To receive this brief from Happinez in the first month of moving up to the Northern Rivers was wonderful and felt serendipitous.

The issue is all about silence - harnessing the power of silence and stillness, listening deeply, listening within. And for this I was asked to focus on the circle, being the symbol of silence and stillness. The circle is also the hallmark of Happinez. There is always a circle on each cover and this story honours the circle as the center of silence. As Albertine wrote to me in our briefing, “Inside the circle it is quiet. The more you go to the middle, the more quiet it is. The circle is a symbol for eternity, no beginning and no end. A perfect nothing.”

I had so much artistic freedom with this shoot, playing with the elements of earth, fire, air and water and finding ways to express the circle & stillness. I wanted each photograph to be a work of art.

The first image above was harnessing the stillness in sound - using the Tibetan singing bowl as my inspiration. I just loved how it played off the texture of the rich soil and beach grasses.

The moon and planets were my inspiration for the second image above. The well-worn studio floor was my backdrop, with it’s beautiful paint tin rust stains. The plate and bowl are by Made of Australia from Shack Palace, and the Black Clay ball soap is from my favourite soap makers in the world, Est Australia - I have been buying their soaps and carrying them with me around the world for 20 years! I stocked their incredible soaps in my homeware store all those years ago, and have never stopped ordering from them as a customer since.

For this photograph I place a gorgeous handmade cast iron plate in the centre with seaweed from my local beach. I sprinkled sand on the dark surface along with dried flowers from my aged flower collection and inside the jar is gold leaf paint, sitting on the surface of the water. There are layers to this work and when you look closely you may see them.

Element: Water. I wanted to make a dream-like rock pool. I was inspired by my visit to Shelly beach which has so many beautiful rock pools, so I wanted to create something like this - the idea of looking into this water hole and wanted to dive into it. Laly and I call it the fairy pool. And this special creation became our outdoor table centrepiece for the following months, it was beautiful to look at and play with, contemplating which creatures - both earthly and enchanted - came to visit the fairy pool during the night hours.

Again I photographed this on my concrete studio floor, adding sand from our beach, and also some seaweed. The bowl I found a few years ago - someone had discarded it on the side of the road. So many of the most wonderful pieces in my home have come from the side of the road. The green colour of this bowl is gorgeous, I love it. Inside the bowl are barnacles, shells, dried flowers and moss. Floating on top of the water are a couple of dandelion heads - I love the symbol/message of the dandelion and also it’s circular/round form.

Element: Earth. This vine of dried grass was growing inside my studio, near the door. I absolutely loved the idea of shaping it into a circle form. I wanted an earth element but something surprising - I didn’t want to make a wreath or mandala which felt a bit obvious, and I love how this turned out - so simple but it took me a long time to try to get it right. The vase is handmade, it was given to me some years ago by my friend Zoë.

Element: Fire. This photograph for me weaves together my surroundings and heart space. I wrote to Albertine in my description for the photograph, “The clay dishes are very special - they were made by my friend, local artist Natalie Wilkin. Nat is one of the main reasons I moved up here, she is my closest friend, and she is incredibly talented. She makes a range of elemental wares, and this is part of her new collection. Here is her website. Some of the clay for these pieces was sourced directly from her home, a sacred piece of land in Moorang-Moobar Country.”

I hope you enjoy these special photographs and the creation stories behind each of them.

With love,

Pia x

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my published work here on the journal. There has been so much going on in the world and in our own personal lives - not just mine, everyone’s, everywhere. I won’t get into it, I need a break, we all need a break. So I’ve set myself the task to update this journal space with the work I’ve done with Happinez these past 6 months, and then I am aiming to get back into online journalling, with the hope to get a rhythm and flow with writing and sharing.

This visual story was special - I know I probably say that for all of them! And it’s true, they are all special, but I’ll explain what made this one special for me…

These photographs were featured in the Happinez Astrology edition, and the brief was to create and photograph six ideas that readers could make astrology-inspired objects. I shot it back in June 2021, so I had the beautiful soft Australian winter sunlight to play with. The reason this particular visual story is special is because it features so many of my friend’s incredible creations.

I commissioned Kaspia to make three of the ideas and I love what she made! I also shot two of the photographs at her house. Above, she is modelling the zodiac sign talisman necklaces she made - her beauty knows no bounds. And below, she made this gorgeous hand-stitched moon & stars embroidery hoop which nestled so well on the shelf in her sunroom…

I wanted to make this visual story dreamy. I loved playing around with the light and layers.

It’s such a pleasure to be able to work with the creation’s my friends make. This unique drinking vessel is made by Nat, using clay from the land she calls home, on Moorang Moobar Country, nestled into Wollumbin National Park. I added the stars inside the tea cup to symbolise the magic of drinking tea under the stars. But I also loved the idea of creating a constellation in the base of a tea cup - would any claymakers out there like to create this idea? If so let me know!

I am holding the cup - and taking the photograph - yep I like to make work challenging sometimes. It’s mostly because I come up with the idea and no one else is around so I have to figure out how to do it with what I have. It’s also a good reason to paint my nails gold.

The stunning top I am wearing? This is made by textile designer Joanne Broederlow. I urge you to check out her offerings, they are incredible, I’ve got a growing collection of her wearable art and I love using her textile creations for my photographs.

I created these zodiac rocks by borrowing some of the amazing fallen rocks on the beach of Broken Head near where we live. The colours of the rocks are amazing - rich red, yellow and orange. I used gold leaf to create the zodiac signs, and photographed them on my studio floor, with dried grass and water splashes to create different textures. After the photoshoot, Laly and I carried the rocks back to the beach and placed them around for beachcombers to discover. I wondered who might spot the gold shimmer and wished upon the stars for the discoveries to create some magic in their day.

Kaspia made these gorgeous little matchstick boxes with tiny copper moons and vintage gold velvet. Can we not reimagine matches this way, dipped in copper-coloured posphorous sulfide?

The shimmery fabric I’ve had in my textile stash for as long as I can remember - I think it was in mum’s collection, maybe she had an idea for it, I wonder what, I’ll never know.

And the last photograph in the story is this one above - creating a journal for your planetary learnings. I was so happy to be able to showcase Sam Mackie’s gift to me, her hand-bound Everyday Alchemy book which I absolutely cherish. Have a look here for more of her book creations and you can see her photographs here. I added a golden moon bookmark - I made it by wrapping some gold foil from my snack-time chocolate bars (yes I save all the gold foil and have a big pile of it for projects!) around a cardboard disc, then attaching some gold thread to it, and a pink stone pendant. The background is Jo’s hand-dyed velvet garment, the same as the one I’m wearing in the previous photograph - dreamy.

The gold moon you may have noticed, is my symbol - I use it everywhere. In my next book, you’ll find out what it means to me.

I hope you enjoyed this visual story and the stories behind the visuals! As always it was so much fun to create. Thank you to all the makers who I featured, you’re all amazing and I love that we can all inspire each other in our creativity, it’s truly what makes the world go around!

With love,

Pia

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This is my beautiful friend Renae and her sweet boy. Back in July, I had the pleasure of creating a collection of photographs for her new website. We took our kids down to the creek at the bottom of her garden and let them guide the visual story, no styling and minimal direction, as natural as can be. I’m thrilled to be able to share them with you here now…

I’ve known Renae for… well, let me say instead of how many decades, that we met when we were 15 years old, when I came back from my early teenage years overseas to finish high school on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Guringai nation, where I originally grew up. We now both live on the North Coast of NSW, Bundjalung nation, so it’s been great to see more of each other again. Renae has always had a calming, collected nature. She’s gentle and kind, warm and open. And supporting others in healing, when I look back, has always been present in her. It’s taken different forms over the years, but it’s consistently been there, and it’s been special to witness this part of her evolve and shine as she’s moved into her work in energy medicine up here in this incredible part of the world, surrounded by lush forest and sea breezes.

It was an absolute joy to get my camera out and capture some moments of her life in her own back garden, a very special place with meaning and personal connection for her family. There is a creek at the bottom and native bush everywhere. An orange tree which was planted by her mother-in-law many years ago, sits alone but not forgotten, the kids love gathering the fruit to eat, no doubt connecting with their grandmother every time they dance and play around it.

Renae is a bioresonance therapist, which you can read more about on her website, but simply put it’s working with energy in the body. Emotional energy is something I’ve been interested in over the past decade, and I am open to trying different techniques and ways to connect to them within our bodies to be able to shift that which is stagnant and supressed. I’ve had two sessions with Renae so far, and both were really relaxing experiences for me. I felt my adrenals calm within minutes along with a release of grief. I loved feeling the sensations moving through my body, and Renae is such a beautiful soul, her calming presence supports the process.

Here is Renae’s beautiful website, and you can find out more about her work here at The Health Lodge.

Renae and her husband have added a stunning cabin on their property for guests, overlooking the garden and creek, you can check it out here too, some of the images above are taken within the cabin and cabin surrounds.

xx

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“This became my new way of surviving, contentedly, the emotional turmoil of leaving the known for the unknown. I would spend my time looking for subtleties that connected me, subtleties that would touch and inspire me…” pg 30, My Heart Wanders.

Where is all began.

A powerful wave of gratitude to every soul who was drawn to the wandering heart collective when I sent the idea out into the ether 13 years ago, which then turned into the book 10 years ago. The words & wisdom in this book have been a companion to me all these years and with all we are going through in the world, we need them more than ever. I’ll be sharing excerpts from all my books in coming months as I celebrate the work I’ve put out into the world, as a backdrop for the work that is coming. A new collective has been found, my dear like-hearted souls. Magic abounds.

More on instagram.

Letting them make their own teas with different ingredients, like little alchemists.

"Brewing potions from vegetables and herbs, it looks like witchcraft"

This shoot was for Happi Kids, shot this time last year, August 2020. The brief was "a winter tea party for kids, with 5 different themes" and "very little or no sugar, with gluten and dairy free options" and also "unisex, so that boys can get into the idea of enjoying tea time too". Challenge accepted!

"Don't throw a bag into a cup of water and you're done. We go into the kitchen together and then, just like the English, take the time for it: tea with lots of goodies. For example, on a rainy Sunday afternoon or when grandparents come to visit. There are four themes - which one do you choose?"

I do love using google translate! This is the opening paragraph. While living in Amsterdam, we realised the Dutch have their very own version of English, complete with its own rhythm and word scrambles. And I do feel google translate has captured it rather well in this translation!

While on the Patreon collective in December last year I posted the whole story as well as a PDF of all the recipes - because they are all delicious and easy, and so great to make with kids, especially now if you’re needing some inspiration while we stay-at-home - here I’m going to share some behind-the-scenes stories for you. First of all as I mentioned in the caption above, I commissioned Peacharoo to make this mini tea set for the shoot, it was such a joy to play with on set, and reminded me of the joyful days working with Peach on commercial shoots a decade ago when I was an interior stylist, and she was an art director. It was always so much fun working with her, my favourite art director for sure.

This was ‘high tea for all’ so I made it rustic and earthy, using rocks as platters and some plates and cups hand formed by Laly and I over the years. Featured here are chestnut cookies dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt - these were absolutely delicious, the recipe is on Patreon. The black bean brownies have become a staple at our house ever since my friend Penny introduced them to me, so I had to include these in the story. And one of my all-time favourite treats, since living in Rovereto, Italy as a teenager and having them straight from the street stall in a newspaper cone every Winter - castagne… roast chestnuts with sea salt.

Mini Matcha Ceremony, anyone? How fun to create this for a little tea party! Laly and her friends taste test all the recipes for me so I know how they go with younger tastebuds and these too were a hit, more than I thought they would be! I topped them with a pistachio yoghurt icing.

This shot was epic. The concept was “three ingredient cookies” and it needed to be in one photograph. I was the only one on set - recipe testing, baking, styling, photographing, and art directing. This capture tested my multi-tasking and organisational skills to the max.

For this I made Tahini, Honey and Oat Cookies, Cocoa, banana & peanut butter fudge cookies, and Pumpkin cookies with cream cheese filling. All recipes are on my Patreon collective, dated December 21, 2020.

I have saved my favourite to last - the Winter White Tea Party for Two. Do you recognise the background? Who knew this vintage chair I picked up at Rozelle Markets 6 years ago would get so much attention!

On the menu for the winter white tea party…

Wild Blueberry and "White Chocolate" Bark

White Chocolate popcorn

Snow Drops

Milky Chai

White Tea

A big thank you to all the makers and creators who have contributed to these feature stories over the years and are inspirations in my every day. I feel like there is just never enough gratitude expressed and communicated, so I won’t hesitate to keep sharing the love. I have more visual stories to catch up with you here. This one, as it turned out, was the last shoot in my Balmain studio, before we relocated to our new home up north, and my new studio.

For the recipes and more about shoot production, head over the the wandering hearts collective on Patreon. Pia xx

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The following text is an edited excerpt from my Patreon post about it in November 2020, where I share a more raw/in depth look at the process from receiving the story brief from the art director, and how I go about creating the scenes. In the Patreon post, I shared the whole article, and translated it from Dutch to English. I’ll share a couple of these translations with you in this post too…

Excerpt:

This, literally, was a dream shoot for me, on every level! I absolutely loved making this, it was one of those briefs that sent tingles through my body when I read it.

I love conceptualising the ideas for each of these feature stories, it's one of the best parts of the process - something seemingly intangible, and turning it into something tangible. The very first shoot with them back in 2016 was this too - the Christmas shoot which was about finding a visual way to gift experiences rather than objects. So not easy, but so up my alley!  I see clearly now too that part of my joy is in being able to make tangible the intangible. When someone comes to me and says "I don't know how to connect with my intuition" or "I want to create art but I don't know exactly what" it feels like standing by the shore looking out to the vast ocean, I love that place that is on the edge of the unknown, it excites me, I am not in fear of it, I am in awe of it. 

Anyway, I digress! Back to the shoot. 

I was sent a list of dreams, and I had a few of my own from Laly's dream journal (with my help and encouragement she's been writing down her dreams since she was little), then I let my intuition begin it's work, dreaming up dream-making ideas! This is my idea of bliss really. 

It is written in Dutch by Nicole Van Borkulo. I think you'll really enjoy the words as much as the imagery for this, and it's my hope that it will spark some ideas in your own life, not just for the kids but for your inner child, to become aware of your dreams as they are a vital part of connecting with your intuition. Enjoy...

DIY DREAMLAND
Text by Nicole Van Borkulo
Photography and Styling by Pia Jane Bijkerk
For Happi Kids, issue 3 2020

Intro:

We process the impressions of our day into the night. Dreams feel very real and can range from super funny to scary. Whatever dream your child has had, it is important to take it seriously. If you make a craft together, the fantasy becomes manageable and the dream can have a place... 

The Monster Pot

Dream type: Monsters, ghosts & witches The top three most common nightmares include chases by monsters or other dangerous creatures. Before these lead to fear of going to sleep, work with your child to come up with a solution to outsmart the monsters. If you let your child contribute ideas, it has a greater chance of success. For example, ask your child if he likes the idea of drawing or cutting the samples he fears from cardboard. As detailed as possible. Put them in a jar, saying a co-invented "monster spell" and put a big lock on it. Because the monsters have now received attention during the day, they no longer have to speak up at night.

The Comfort Hug

Type of dream: Getting lost, losing mum, or dreams that you have lost your way or cannot find your parents occur regularly.

A hug can help with the feeling of being alone:

especially if it is specially made for that. A feeling of safety when there is something nearby that can be firmly grasped when things get overwhelming. Ask your child to draw a creature that she feels connected to, that makes her feel safe - it doesn't have to be a real creature. As to material, you can use whatever you have on hand - an old knitted sweater for some warmth, or soft cotton for cuddling - no washing is necessary, the scent of mum also works wonders.

...............................

Dream flying

Dream type: Flying and falling.

Dreams about flying are often about freedom and liberation from something, falling can indicate insecurity, the fear of letting go of something. It can be scary, so high in the sky, especially when you are out of control. If it is a recurring dream, you can come up with a more pleasant ending to the dream or come up with a tool, in this case, for example, that there is always a cloud nearby that you can land on when it gets too intense, or a nest of a bird where you can make a stopover. You can do this by making a messy ball of white wool and filling it with real flowers from the garden. Literally making something related to the dream makes a fantasy more manageable.

..........................

The rooms in your head

Dream type: The house.

Houses in dreams often represent the dreamer's self-image. All rooms represent something else: the attic can represent the mind, the cellar the subconscious. The condition of a house also says a lot: some rooms may need renovation and others are in very good order. It's fun to imagine what it means, but keep it playful and light, for example by recreating the house in the dreams. Using a box as a base, paint it in a nice color and make curtains from an old piece of fabric. For the props you can cut and paint characters from thick paper, use dollhouse furniture if necessary. Hang the dolls on a string through small holes in the top, or leave it open so you can make them move. The house can be adjusted if something has been "processed".

..........................

If you’d like to read the full article translation, you can do so by joining my Patreon wandering hearts collective.

With Love, 

Pia xx

Bonjour, it’s been a while.

Around 14 months or so since my last journal entry here, by the looks of it. A lot has happened since then. So where to begin?

When a lot has transpired in such a short space of time and it feels overwhelming to write down, I know it’s best to start from where I am, rather than try to make sense and order of all that has been. This is my third attempt at writing this catch up post, the first two did begin with a summarisation of sorts, but I know it’s not possible to sum up events when the aftermath is still in effect, reverberating and spinning, creating new events, piling on top of each other. Have you felt this too?

The world as we have known it is wobbling, and it’s not easy to keep your feet on the ground, especially for those of us who feel a lot: There is currently a lot to feel. I’ve learnt the best thing to do is be still. To rest. To do your absolute best to not do much at all.  That’s why, in hindsight, I see that posting and updating what I’ve been up to hasn’t happened. Something had to give for me to make room to rest, to breathe, and it was letting go of these particular ‘doing’ things. It also helped me to make some space to adjust my focus on supporting our family of 3 through the various stages of staying-at-home, keeping healthy, and maintaining a sense of joy.  

I have been quietly creating, continuing to divide my working hours between photoshoots for Happinez, mentoring long-time clients, writing, shooting commissions, sharing ideas and ways of sparking joy and connection on patreon, and supporting women on their creative journeys. So, I’d like to try to catch up as best I can now, sharing some of what I’ve been working on, let’s see how I go.

It’s still such a surreal time for most of us, and there is so much grief. I hope as you read this, you are able to take a moment to breathe and rest in this stillness, releasing the resistance to the unknown that is still upon us.

Pia xx

PS I just discovered you can create spotify music playlists, so I made one called Vivent Les Artistes if you’d like to listen while you create.

Dear Wild Hearts,

Twelve years ago I embarked on my first online, global collective art project, inviting readers of my blog  - enhance the everyday - to submit photographs of wandering hearts found in their homes and environment. It was called My Heart Wanders: Finding subtle hearts in unexpected places. The intention of the project was to encourage us all to be more present, to connect with the nature around us no matter where we lived, and to connect with our hearts: the intuitive part of us that often gets forgotten about, lost and can go unheard for years.

For months I had submissions pouring into my inbox and shared as many as I could keep up with on my blog, there was incredible beauty in the work I received from so many places in the world – not only did it turn out to connect us with the hidden magic wherever we happened to live, it connected us to each other. We met people we would never have known about, had our hearts not found this way to communicate through this project.
 
And there was one more outcome that I had not anticipated  - not only did this project become an integral part of my own creative career but it was a catalyst for many others too. In 2011 My Heart Wanders became a beautiful photographic book about my own personal journey of following my heart, and over the years since I have received emails from people all over the world letting me know my book has touched their hearts in a way they didn’t know was possible, and launched them into transforming their lives, turning their dreams into their reality.
 
This is the Everyday Alchemy that I love.  

Not only is the heart central to all that I create, colour has always been a huge part of my career, my life’s work, my offerings and service in the world. My love and connection to the colours in nature are what ignite my creativity everyday.

Without the power of colour, I would not be able to do what I do.



Colour, particularly in abundance, has the power to create radical transformations in our lives. In my photography and visual storytelling, I use colours to evoke certain emotions, and in my mentoring, I assign certain colours to clients for a period of time as a way of connecting them to their intuitive centres to transform their everyday lives into the one they’ve been dreaming about...

For the past two months, my heart has been beckoning me to extend this colour wisdom to you and with you, starting with one of the most powerful colours that exist as a way to assist us in the shift we are collectively going through at the moment. 

Are you ready for another adventure together? 

Today, in the darkness of the new moon, I invite you all to embark on this journey to transform our everyday by invoking the power of the colour  GOLD.

Gold is known as the master healer. It opens us to truth & transformation. It strengthens us in all areas of our lives and releases fear, making space for hope to grow. Using social media, we are going to flood our feeds with the power of gold...

This is not so much about the gold mined out of the earth - unless its been beautifully crafted by your own hands or that of an artisan you love - but the gold in our everyday lives: gold in nature, gold in light, gold in the food we make, and gold in what we make with our hands. 

There are many layers to this, which I will explain in my instagram posts over the weeks to come, but mostly its about healing, transforming, and authentic connection. This is an opportunity to become visible, to anchor ourselves into the earth & ether as the waves around us ebb & flow; to share our own light and to share each others light through intentional re-sharing whatever we resonate with and brings us joy. By flooding our feeds with the power of the colour gold we will be creating an alchemical process within ourselves and with the world around us. Just like we once looked for hearts in our everyday made by light and shadows and with our own hands, now we search together for the gold in our everyday. It's subtle and it's simple, like the heart shapes, but it's powerful. 
 

So how will we do this? 

• Using instagram and facebook, we will use the hashtag #everydayalchemyingold (that's: Everyday Alchemy In Gold) every time we post an image that has gorgeous golden hues. I'll start posting lots of my own photographs as well as those of others so you can see the effect of the images coming together in the feed. 

• Re-share or repost any and all images you love - whatever sparks that sense of joy in you, no matter how subtle (we want to build on this within us and create it in others) so that other people can see who we are inspired by, and it will create the colour flood - the more involved the more powerful the alchemy. To start with you can re-share my images as they come up, and then you'll start to see others come through and you will start to see the gold in your own images to share... 

• Take photographs of gold in your life, particularly focussed on nature and food and all things made by hand. Are you an interior designer? Post images of gold things you love. Are you a jeweller? You know what do to. Artist? Cook? Nature lover? Share your photographs on social media and use the hashtag #everydayalchemyingold

• Follow the hashtag #everydayalchemyingold on instagram if you have an instagram account so that you will start to see other peoples golden images come through on your feed and benefit from the collective energy. 

• If you don't have an instagram account but want to join in with your own images and/or colour knowledge, send them to me in an email, and any images I intuit as having an energetic impact I'll share on my instagram account with your permission, and I'll be including your name and any links you wish to send people to so they can find out more about you and what you create. 

Let's immerse ourselves in each other's knowledge and wisdom of the colour gold, what we already know and what we learn along the way - share what you know, what you've read, what you've experienced (you might even start having dreams in gold, if so let us know!), and always credit where you've got your information because it helps others to find out more too.  Make an effort to find the original source and give gratitude by crediting. It’s a simple, important step in how we can all benefit from this collective transformation. This is about sharing your own work –stepping into your own light – and equally sharing others.
 
So, let the alchemy begin!  We will start with gold because gold is the ultimate alchemical process and we are going to make it our own, transforming it from what it has represented in the past to what it truly symbolises now and for the future. Let’s flood our feeds with gold & immerse ourselves in the healing power of this incredible energy. So that no matter what is happening in our lives, what healing processes we are needing to go through physically, mentally, or emotionally over the next coming months, you can use your eyes to breathe in the healing of this colour, anytime you need. For those who are aware of the ancient Buddhist meditation of Tonglen, this in a way is an expression of that practice using the power of visual storytelling.  I'll move us onto the next colour when I get the calling to, but for now, it's all about gold. I cannot wait to see what you post and I am so eager to share your incredible world with others. 

Please know that you are always welcome to share my images on social media as long as there is a link to me so people know where to find me. So to get you started, you can scroll through my website and find any gold images you like, save them on your device and post them onto your social media feeds with the hashtag. I have also begun a pinterest board for us titled Everyday Alchemy in Gold that we can have a look at for inspiration and repost on social media any of the links we love, and also tag me in your finds so I can add them to the board too. Invite your friends to join us, and don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions or suggestions, ideas or thoughts! 
 

Until next time, dear Hearts, may this new moon reveal what needs to be revealed, and heal what needs to be healed...

With love,
Pia xx

In the latest edition of Happi Kids, looking into the wisdom of the knomes, imp, elves and other creatures of nature. what can we learn?

I loved shooting this story. It was challenging but absolutely delightful, I was lost in this world while creating it. So much fun.

I’ll be posting behind the scenes and directors notes in the Wandering Hearts Collective for you in coming days.

xx

Publication: Happi Kids
Published: March 2020
Photography & Styling: Pia Jane Bijkerk

At the end of last year, I held another art workshop for 50 students in year 2 (age 8) at Laly’s school. This time, I focussed on colour and chatted to the kids about the power of colour in our lives. I was inspired by my faraway friend, artist & educator Lisa Solomon’s new book A Field Guide to Color - it is full of fantastic techniques on understanding colour through watercolour. And the paper throughout the book is ideal to apply watercolour paint, so you can do the exercises directly in the book which I love…

I took the book in and taught the children a little about Lisa’s art, what I personally love about her work, and some of her colour work techniques like Colour Meditation.

They were all very excited to be making colour! They knew the basic principles of making different colours (red + yellow = orange etc) but I wanted to stretch this a bit further, to get them to experiment, to not just take a colour from a tube and go with that but to adjust it according to their mood, and to use their intuition when creating a new colour.

We created a few different stations in the classroom so that the kids could go from one to the other, allowing a few children at a time a few minutes at my station - the colour making station. As I mentioned, one of the many things that Lisa does is create colour meditations with watercolour, it’s a wonderful activity so I used this idea as one of the stations for the kids. At this table, they were to repeat a marking on their paper over and over again using a different coloured marker for each one. Another station I set up with a whole bunch of colour samples from the paint section of the local hardware store. These I had gathered over the previous months for my own photoshoots, as I use them to create colour palettes in my storyboarding. For this station, the idea was to look at the names of the colours to gather inspiration, and to then come up with a name for their colour that they will be creating. They came up with so many creative names!

At my station, it was all about the mixing. It was no easy feat to manage this to accomodate 50 kids in two hours! Their excitement and gratitude though was worth every drop of sweat as I frantically prepped for each round of children. I let them choose a base colour from a group of mixing vessels I’d prepared before they arrived at the table, and then we got adding - I asked them what colour they would like to add to see what happens, and off they went. I tried my best to teach them that the more colour they added, the more it could become brown, but at the same time I also know that they need to learn this from trying themselves. Stepping back to allow their own lessons to transpire while also being available to teach them when they need it is a challenge. I have always had immense gratitude to the teachers of the world who manage this daily, in their own journey to find their own balance.

After they’d mixed their colour, they went to the painting station to paint their colour onto a piece of paper and write the name of their colour and their name onto the paper. So. much. fun.

Meanwhile at home, I’d been making my own colour palette for a backdrop and painting I was working on. I’ll be sharing the process in detail of developing a shoot from start to finish on the Wandering Hearts Collective in the coming week, as this process is transferrable to how I design intuitive websites for my mentoring clients as well as intuitive business practice.

Although I hosted this workshop for children, it’s an activity I would recommend to my clients and anyone at all who is needing to connect with their intuition, creativity, and inner child.

And if you’ve been wanting to learn how to play with watercolours and deepen your knowledge of colour, then Lisa’s book is definitely for you.

With love & colours,

Pia xx

Looks like it’s been 6 years since I’ve made playdough! This recipe is from my original blog, and Laly asked me the other day if we could make some, which we will do this week. I remember the colours being so vibrant, so I’m looking forward to trying this out again.

I thought I’d repost it here so it’s easy to find.

Here is the original post…

February 4, 2014 (Laly was almost 2 years young):

So I've been having a bit of fun making all natural play dough lately. This batch of coloured fun is my third or so experiment and I'm rather happy with it. Though I've got some ideas for the next batch which I'll share with you in case you'd like to try.

Since I want to use only natural colour, I've adapted this recipe from best recipes, minimizing quantities and introducing soaking selected ingredients to create coloured water. Here is my adapted recipe:

1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 tablespoon (or so) of cooking oil (i've been using sunflower)
1/4-1/2 cup of cold, coloured water

To make the coloured water, soak a handful of your chosen ingredient (spinach for green, beetroot for deep purple, mixed frozen berries for rose/light purple) in a ramekin or glass container of 1/2cup water, preferably overnight. Strain the liquid and pop it in the fridge for a little while to make it cold, or add an ice cube.

In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt together well. At this stage if you are making yellow, add a good sprinkling of tumeric powder. Then add the cooking oil and 1/4cup of coloured water. Mix then knead until well combined. Add more water if needed to get the right consistency.

....................................................

I then put each ball of play dough into clear, recycled plastic containers and leave them in the back of the fridge. To allow them to soften slightly, I take them out about 1/2 hour before we are ready to play with them  (yes, WE - Laly and I both love playing with play dough - yesterday I made a fantastic collection of funny looking dinosaurs which Laly promptly invited all to a tiny tea party). This batch was a little crumbly when I took them out, so I just added splashes of water and kneaded them a bit more and they were perfect. Adding flour and water makes playing with it all the more fun for Laly, so I don't mind if I don't get the consistency spot on when I make them. And yes, the colours do come off ever so slightly when you play with them, but barely - and honestly, who cares? It washes off with a dab of a cloth.

The other thing I'd like to say is that I soaked beetroot skins in some water overnight, hence the gorgeous intense colour. However I didn't soak the spinach or the mixed berries but next time I will to get more intense colour, though if you like it subtle, soak for less.

My last batch of yellow and rose lasted many months - basically until the colours get all smooshed together and the ball diminishes to a tiny size, as happens when little hands get hold of it.

I hope you'll give this a try. I can't wait to try out more ingredients for more colours!  Any suggestions?

xx

(this is one of my latest instagram posts that has had much interest through shares and comments - March 30, 2020)

One of the things we are all prone to forget at times, and for some it’s always - depending on the level of awareness - is that our understanding of the world is based on our perspective. And our perspective is formed by our personal life experiences. Which is absolutely of value, but is of no more or less value than someone else’s.

There is still very much an overarching & unconscious belief that some know better than others, and this is based on messaging - subtle & overt, level of education, religion, or simply ego. Without awareness we can move through life, conversing with people from this singular perspective, instead of coming to the conversation or public forum with the knowledge that what we have to share is based on the accumulation of our personal life experiences, but that doesn’t mean our ideas or understanding is ‘the right way or the only way’.

Heart Prompt:

When you converse with someone, are you asking them questions about their life experience or thoughts about what’s happening now? Or are you telling them how it is and what you believe the answer is? How much time do you dedicate in a conversation to ask questions about the other person? And actually listen?

While in solitude we can reflect on this, and practice asking more questions, especially if we reflect and realise we haven’t learnt much about someone we’ve just spoken with, about what their life is like right now.

There is a romantic notion that we are all in the same boat at this time. But we are not - we are in very different boats on the same incoming tide, and some are in no boats at all but swimming like mad in the open ocean with no life raft. It’s not to say that by having a safe boat we should feel shame or guilt over it, but it means that when we are aware that we are not all in the same boat we develop empathy, and we begin to change our mindset into not just serving ourselves but how, if we have the means, can we serve others - and not in a way that satiates our egos, but satiates our hearts.

If you’re experiencing boredom at this time, this is the space you need to open the door to your heart. It’s a very different way of living & now is a great time to explore it.

With Love,

Pia

Find more on the Wandering Heats Collective.

Faaaaaaaar out. Who is writing this story? 

It's an intense time to be in the world. Have you noticed how difficult it is to connect to your heart with this much chaos, distraction, disruption, panic and fear around? To stay true to your creative work?  It's nearly impossible. Which makes it such a good way of seeing how much fear disconnects us from ourselves on a daily basis, this is the extreme. 

I've continued writing but have noticed this weekend was more challenging as the fear on social media and in the area increased, and we made the decision to pull Laly out of school now instead of waiting for the government to announce it. That has meant a huge reshuffling of how we structure our day, and how I will manage to work while she is home. But if there is one thing my mother taught me (of course she taught me many things but this is certainly one), its how important it is to create a very strong daily rhythm and structure when you are confined at home. She taught me this when we lived in Northern Italy,  I was 14, and she essentially homeschooled me for that year and a half. It was a huge change for me - I had no friends, I barely left the apartment, I had no family except my mum and dad who I rarely saw because he was so busy working, and it was entirely different culture and language - the locals looked at me like I was an alien.  But Mum took the challenge by the horns and excelled. She gave me a solid daily routine that got me through, making sure we connected with nature everyday with a walk to the river, even if I was so down and didn't want to, she'd practically drag me out - I'm so glad she did. And now, it looks like it's my turn. So like her, I'm taking the challenge by the horns and doing what she taught me through example. It means this week will be a bit of an experiment, but hopefully we will get into a healthy routine that suits us all. (addition: I’ll be sharing our days and activities so subscribe, follow on the socials, I’ll be spreading it out on different platforms so everyone can access something).

I have been thinking of ways to create this space (Wandering Hearts Collective on Patreon) to suit us at this crazy time, I know this is a vital time for us all to get connected to our true selves, for those of us who are not suffering in health at this point and our only real challenge is our isolation, it's an opportunity to do the very thing our intuition has been relentlessly on about for years, it's the very time to open to our heart calling.  As we know, most people don't start their own businesses or get their idea going because they don't have time away from their full time jobs, or they're too tired at the end of the day, or they simply don't have enough time. It's because we are always so busy. Now, the busy-ness is coming to a halt. And we can breathe. Centre. And find out who we really are without all the noise and control and do what we need to do. 

I want to create quick, short posts here that will be simple, fun tasks to connect us to our hearts. And I'll also be creating things we can do for others in our communities. I'd love to make this a daily check in point. Instead of writing long posts (which will be hard for me, I'm a chatterbox!), I will try to make them very short, maybe just simple pictures or notes. 

And if there is something specific you feel you want let me know, let's make this place a refuge for the chaos out there, a space we can tap into anytime we want and know there will be something here to guide us gently on our own heart path. 

Sending love to each of you, let me know how you are, how you're feeling, what's happening around you, and anything else you feel like sharing. 

Pia xx

Well I need to let you know, it’s not quite new work, it’s just taken me this long to get around to posting it! This story came out in the Winter edition of Happi Kids in November, and it’s all about drinks that are focussed on the vitamin content, to boost the vitamins our kids need. It was as always, a lot of fun shooting food, and coming up with the recipes was as much fun as the rest of the production. And just for you, I’ve attached the recipes with each photograph so you can try them out, they’re also nice and easy for kids to join in making too - I have to say my absolute favourite was the carrot soup. In fact, I think I’ll make it this weekend again, it was a hit - both Laly and her friend Eloise loved it when I served up the left overs from the shoot that weekend. It’s delicious warm or cold.

Keep in mind that all my recipes are intuitive, which means you don’t need to follow them precisely - I tend to make them up as I go so you can do the same and I recommend it!

Also for this story I focussed on colour, so each recipe was as much about the vitamins as it was about the colour because colour is a powerful healer.

The first elixir above is of course, all about…

Vitamin C: dark orange/red

INGREDIENTS:

A bottle/half bottle of clear apple juice
Sparking water or plain water
3-4 citrus fruits of choice – orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime
Juice of one lime
1-2 cups beetroot juice

ASSEMBLAGE:

Place the beetroot juice into ice cube trays to freeze.
Put the apple juice, water and lime juice in a large jug.
Slice the citrus fruits and place into the jug as well as the glasses.
When the beetroot ice cubes are ready, place them into each glass and pour the drink over the ice cubes.

Vitamin A: orange

Chilled (or warm, your choice) carrot soup

INGREDIENTS:

A bunch of baby carrots, carrot tops removed or 3 large carrots, peeled and cut
½ onion
1-teaspoon turmeric powder
Drizzle olive oil
Salt
1-teaspoon honey
Coconut milk (optional)
1-2 Litres of vegetable stock

ASSEMBLAGE:

Preheat oven to 180C.
Place carrot and cut up onion on a baking tray and drizzle with the olive oil, honey, turmeric and salt – mix together so that the carrots and onions are well coated.
Bake in the oven until tender and roasted – about ½ hour.
Remove from the oven, allow to cool and then place in a blender with the veg stock – start with ½ litre of veg stock and then add as you go so you can check the consistency. Blend altogether until smooth.
Chill in the fridge and then serve! You can add a dash of coconut milk to serve if desired.  Bunny face created with micro herbs and edible flowers.
Makes 2-4 (depending on whether you serve it as an entrée or main)

Vitamin E : purple

 INGREDIENTS:

½ avocado
Handful of baby spinach  - optional
½ cup coconut milk (or try other non-dairy milks)
1 cup frozen blueberries
2 teaspoons honey
Beetroot powder – optional (makes it more purple)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1-tablespoon nut butter – optional

 ASSEMBLAGE:

Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. To make it thicker, you can add ice, to make it less thick, you can add more coconut milk.

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If you’re child is not keen on eating anything green, this recipe below is great, as the colour is so vibrant and making the animal faces on top makes it playful. I recommend starting with very small bowls, even if it’s 3 big spoonfuls of the smoothie and then they can enjoy the fruit shapes. Even if they only have a small amount, you can then gradually increase the amount of smoothie you put in the bowl when you make it again. Let them play with the fruit to make faces. You can make one of the bowls up for them to see (that one can be yours), so they can see the face on top for inspiration, then let them make up their own with their own bowl. Kids love assembling, so this is a great recipe for that.

Vitamin K: green

INGREDIENTS:

Bunch of kale
Bunch of baby spinach
1 banana
A handful of grapes
½ cucumber
½ lime  - juice
1 tsp. psyllium husk (optional)
½ cup water
1/2 cup apple juice

ASSEMBLAGE:

Blend on high until smooth, place in bowls and decorate with pieces of cucumber, lime wedges, or any left over fruit to make green monster faces.

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This one is another hit! Of course, it’s got chocolate. But it’s fantastic for adding some extra powders for added minerals, see below…

Vitamin B: brown/chocolate

INGREDIENTS: 

Small handful of cashews
Small handful of almonds
A teaspoon sunflower seeds
1 medjool date
½ banana
1 tablespoon cocoa powder or cacao
Small handful of baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon unhulled tahini
1-tablespoon peanut butter
1-2 cups rice milk
Sprinkling of buckinis - buckwheat for the top

ASSEMBLAGE:

Soak the cashews overnight in water – simply put the cashews in a glass jar, and cover with water and leave on the bench. Do the same with the almonds and sunflower seeds.
Put all ingredients into the blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy.

This is a great recipe to add any extra powders to boost the immune system – you could add maca powder, zinc, pea protein, slippery elm, psyllium husk etc.

I hope you try some of these recipes and for the full story, it’s in Winter edition of Happi Kids (the issue before the latest).

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Production, styling & photography: Pia Jane Bijkerk
Publication: Happi Kids for Happinez

My next post is going to be all about the power of colour!

xx

PS There is a new post on Patreon too, for the Wandering Hearts Collective, and another delicious recipe there for this month as we strengthen our immune systems for what’s happening in the world. I’ll be writing more about what I’m doing this year on Patreon soon X

Last Saturday, I was honoured to be one of the guest speakers at this year’s Creative Women In Conversation event held at the fabulous North Sydney Community Centre. I’d heard so many wonderful things about it from past speakers and audience members, and it certainly lived up to its reputation, I had a fabulous time! I felt so completely nurtured while up on stage, and I’m so grateful to everyone for sharing their enthusiasm for all I had to share, and for the incredible feedback I received throughout the day. This was Shona Smith and my first official live event together which we eagerly announced on our podcast at the end of last year, and we had such a great time. Having been in dialogue for a year now on It’s All Up From Here, we were ready to try our hand at opening the dialogue with a live audience, it was such a treat…

We talked about what it means to live a creative life; how ideas form; what some of the most common creative blocks are and what mine have been; how to manage being a multi-passionate creative; the importance of mentoring and using our intuition; and how global events affect the creative flow. We had so many great questions from the audience, each one sparked new ideas and topics that we’d love to extend on in future podcasts and live, intimate events.

I absolutely loved listening to the other speakers, learning more about their work and how they manage their own creative blocks and life experiences while still engaging their creative passions. Sharing this day with them was a wonderful experience.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Joanna Goodwin, the centre’s director, for inviting me to participate this year, she truly is incredible at connecting people and bringing creativity into the everyday, not just through this fabulous yearly event in celebration of International Women’s Day, but also through the centre’s workshops, hosted by incredible artists.

The talks were recorded for the North Sydney Centre podcast, and Shona and I will be adding our talk as a special episode of It’s All Up From Here too, so you can listen then, I’ll let you know on social media when it’s live.

Thank you again to everyone who bought books on the day, and those who expressed interest in mentoring, you can check out the mentoring packages here, or send me an email.

xx

Loved creating this collection of photographs for the Autumn edition of Happi Kids which is well and truly out now in The Netherlands! The story is all about ways of expressing friendship and love. I’ve captioned each image so you can learn more about the ideas in the visual storytelling. I love how conceptual this is, and how the focus is once again not on purchasing things but creating things - making something from ‘nothing’, truly alchemical in process, it’s what I love doing! Aside from the backdrops and a few little props, everything in each image are from objects and foliage around my home. Each tells a story within a story.

I especially loved creating this photograph, because the three women in the polaroids are my grandmother (top left), my mother (middle left) and me with my mother in the bottom polaroid. My grandmother died earlier this year, and my mother passed away four years ago. Creating this tree was a beautiful way to reflect on the gift of life and how I now share that with my daughter. I added the emu feathers as the emu is a significant symbol for my daughter, and there is a piece of indigo-dyed textile made by my dear friend Nat. Messages, memories and stories can be written on pieces of card and hung over time to create layers of meaning.

I absolutely loved making these friendship code stones! It’s the best idea, I can imagine kids loving doing this. It would be such a fun thing to do with your own child or grandchild - a collection of coded stones that you can create messages for them to find in places in the garden.

I really wanted a compass for this photograph, as a way of symbolising direction to each other. I could not find one anywhere on short notice and it was driving me crazy. I sat for a moment of quiet, thinking about the present moment, which lead to me thinking about my family. I wondered how Laly was enjoying her day out with her friend Mya and Mya’s Aunty Tash, who lovingly takes the girls out on fun adventures together. I thought about their day out on this particular day, as Tash had taken them to the Maritime Museum. I wondered what they might be doing, and if they were on one of the ships, or were they looking in the shop? Then it dawned on me: they are at the Maritime Museum!! Surely there are compasses there! I called Tash to ask and when she got to the shop., they took a photo for me - there were over 3 dozen beautiful, old style compasses to choose from! I couldn’t believe my luck, I would never have thought of the Maritime Museum if the girls were not there at that very moment. So Tash helped me choose the one I wanted for the shoot and Laly brought it back with her. What a successful prop scout! A big thank you to Tash for her input on this photograph, the compass is the star of the shot. The piece of textile is from my friend Nat, who comes to stay in the studio whenever she’s in Sydney. And I realised this is what I have with her, this special bond of sharing my creative space with her.

With love,

Pia xx

Season Four is in full swing on the podcast, I can’t quite believe it, we are already up to episode 5! We have gone deep on lots of fantastic topics already like finding your purpose; the importance of self-belief; healing through connection…unless you’re dealing with a narcissist (funny but not funny! we’ve both had quite some dealings with it this year!); and feeling lonely. It’s such an incredible season of conversation, there is so much more to come. As usual Shona & I are raw, unscripted and honest. Here is a little snippet from the first episode of Season Four so you know what’s happening this season…

Shona: “Season Four has a new tag line!  This season we are getting to the core. Our tag line was ‘helping bring the joy back to families’. First, it was ‘helping bring the joy back to parenting’, now it’s still about the joy, but we’ve decided that our new tagline is ‘empowering women, empowering families’. Really what we’ve been talking about all this time is supporting women to a point where they can be more whole; emotionally healthy; be themselves; and feel inspired & empowered which then in turn they pass on to their children, their families and their partners and friends.”

Pia: “As women we birth the next generation, and we need to be empowered to support that, that sense of thriving and learning – if we don’t give it to ourselves, we can’t offer it to anybody else. So it’s the core of what we are doing – bringing out that female energy and empowering it, for everyone’s sake. Some of the topics are going to be: intuition; a journey with self belief – a deeper exploration from self-acceptance which we spoke about last season, and also what external validation has to do with it; creativity; feeling not good enough and unworthy – we are going to work a little deeper with that because again we end up reacting from that place without realising it, without being conscious of it; and we will be talking deeper about intimate relationships….”

If you are interested in living intuitively and are eagerly awaiting my next book then I encourage you to take a moment to listen in as every topic we open up in discussion this season is part of the book, The Alchemy of Intuition. So by listening in on the podcast, you’re getting a glimpse of my creative thought process in conversation with Shona as I write the book.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been listening, sharing, reviewing and messaging us about each episode, we are so thrilled you love it and are looking forward to a live event early next year! Details to come soon.

Pia xx