So this is Christmas … almost. Sales have finally slowed after an extremely frantic month or so and I have come to the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia (where my parents have unexpectedly moved to!) in order to celebrate Christmas with my family, but also to try to recover from the last few months - really from the whole of 2007, which has been truly exhausting all up!

View over the inlet at Port Broughton, including the jetty.

I’m staying in the little town of Port Broughton, which is about 150km north of Adelaide - so, yes, it was a very long trip to get here from Sydney with almost two hours flying time and over two hours driving time - not including the taxi trip to the airport through very busy Sydney traffic!

Normally it would be extremely hot here at this time of year, however, since I arrived we’ve had quite a bit of rain (to everyone’s surprise - the ‘worst drought ever’ is seriously bad here) and today it’s a very pleasant 19C (66F) - about half what I’d dreaded it would be! But while some of you will be having a white Christmas, I’ll be having a mostly brown one!

Looking back towards Port Broughton from the other side of the inlet over some farmland and the water.

Yesterday we went driving around the general area and I took some photographs, which you can see on Flickr. Unfortunately I forgot to pack my proper camera, which is a shame as I’d love to have taken some better photographs.

As for Christmas, we’ll be spending another two hours in the car on Christmas eve to travel to my brother’s home on a property in a little town near the Barossa Valley (you may have had wine from there!). I’ll be spending Christmas day with my little nieces which should be fun - and exhausting!

Once I return to Sydney in a little while I’m very much looking forward to getting my head around the challenges of a new year. Of key importance is clawing back my health, which is now very much worse for wear given that I have a few health issues that respond rather badly to working 100+ hours a week!

So, yes, I need to find a way to work less and look after myself more. However, I have lots of exciting ideas about how I might do that which I’m very much looking forward to exploring. I’ll tell you more about those soon.

Season’s greetings to all!

I’d like to wish everyone who I’ve been in contact with in one way or another (and any casual readers) a very happy festive season and a prosperous 2008. Thanks in particular to all of those who have supported me in one way or another during the past year - it’s very much appreciated.

Yes, Christmas is almost upon us! And things are rather overwhelming at Simone Walsh Central (aka my place!). But I thought I’d take a quick break to fill you in on shipping deadlines and more re my handmade jewellery shop over the next couple of weeks.

Shipping

Orders outside of Australia: The earlier the shop, the more guarantee you have that items will arrive before Christmas. However, if you order by 14 December then you should be fine in terms of delivery. After that date, orders may well still arrive, but you will be pushing your luck!

Orders within Australia: You will be fine to order up until 20 December for delivery within Australia. However, from 17 December at the latest you should select Express Post to ensure your items arrive on time.

Find out more about shipping.

Gift certificates

If you do run out of time or you’re really not sure what to get someone, I now have gift certificates available in various amounts.

If you purchase a gift certificate I will email it to you as a PDF that you can print out in either colour or black and white to give to the recipient - so you can buy them as late as you wish.