Before I take myself off to bed I wanted to let you know that I am alive and (kind of!) well.

I’ve been working hard on all sorts of things, including a web project which has eaten up vast amounts of time over the last month.

Plus I came very close in the last several weeks to packing my whole life up and moving it to another city … only to realise that right now simply isn’t a good time to be going anywhere for complicated economic reasons.

So that I can help myself to feel okay about staying put, I have also managed to do some sorely needed re-arranging at home. In particular I wanted to have far more functional working spaces, seeing as I work entirely from home. I’ve found spending so much of my life working in one little and very cramped room isn’t really doing me much good.

I’ve now successfully separated my office from my jewellery studio by moving the office into the lounge room … which probably doesn’t sound like I’m heading for a more balanced life as I’ve been intending!

However, so far it’s working really well and surprisingly the lounge room - which previously had a lot of wasted space - actually looks better for it. Plus I’m finding it great to leave my work on my desk and go and sit on the couch in the other part of the room if I want to take a break, rather than taking work with me to the couch as I have in the past! It’s making me feel more functional and now that my little workroom/studio is vastly less crowded, I can easily open the curtains and window and that makes working a lot more pleasant too.

As part of changing and reorganising things, I’ve also painted some furniture, bought new cushion covers and art for the walls and in all home is looking more homelike. Although there is a lot more of that sort of thing to do and I also have to organise for a painter to come in to repair and paint the walls, which unfortunately are worst of all in my jewellery studio. I see a messy and irritating few days in my future …

Anyway, I hope to have some photographs of my new working spaces once I have everything finished. If you’re interested in seeing my bench and workroom as it has been in the past, you can find some images on Flickr.

In other news, I will soon be taking some time out from other projects to get to work on a new range of handmade jewelry that I have had bubbling away in my mind and have been idly sketching in my notebooks for ages now. I’m really looking forward to sitting in my revamped space and getting to work on some brand new pieces. So keep your eyes peeled!

And now it’s goodnight from me … and goodnight from … me.

Today I’m getting a fair bit of traffic from MySpace, Friendster and Hi5 users, amongst others, due to the fact that I have disabled hotlinking of images from my blog.

I am now referring any hotlinked image to another image which informs visitors that the user is stealing my bandwidth (quite apart from the fact that they are breaching my copyright!) … which causes layouts to look a bit like this:

It appears that a number of visitors are here to try to find the original image in order to copy it and upload it elsewhere instead. However, even if you are able to find it (many have been removed), this would be breaking the law and leaving yourself open to being penalised by your host, your ISP or even being pursued legally.

Instead, be aware of my copyright policy. Many of the images used in this blog are all rights reserved - meaning you cannot use them at all without permission. This also goes for all of the text of the blog and the design elements it uses.

However, the images of the jewellery I sell are covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

This means you must give me clear attribution (including a link) for any such image you use and the image must not be used in derivative works (this includes background or general layout images used in web page designs). Additionally you cannot use my images for any commercial application. If you are hosting a site providing free MySpace (or other) layouts and are earning money from advertising revenue, I consider this a commercial application. If you wish to do any of these things, you need my permission.

As for bandwidth theft: it sucks. It’s also risky: the person you are stealing from can very easily replace the content you are stealing with something deeply unsavoury which will cause great offence to your visitors and may even get your site shut down. I am currently considering what this might be if the theft continues, even in spite of my current referral image, so consider yourselves warned!

If you have up until now been unaware that you have been stealing or have simply been unaware that this is even a problem, it’s time to educate yourself about it. Copying and pasting code from elsewhere without looking at it is no excuse.

For those of you who are worried about falling victim to this sort of problem, I strongly suggest you have a look into Creative Commons licensing for your images. This doesn’t prevent theft, of course, but it does give you a clear policy and - depending on the license you choose - can leave the way open for people to legitimately promote what you do without breaching your copyright or needing to spend time getting your permission.

Additionally I suggest you have a look into hotlink protection for your blog or for the hosting package you may have.

I confess that I’ve been a bit slow to set up an email list for my business, but it was one of the jobs I managed to complete when I redesigned my website recently. I plan to use this mailing list sparingly, but will let subscribers know about new work, subscriber specials and any major developments for my handmade jewellery shop and business in general.

You can sign up on the home page for my website at www.simonewalsh.com (the form is on the right-hand sidebar).

I’m using a professional service to manage the list, so your details will most definitely be kept private and of course you will be able to unsubscribe if you wish. And I promise not to be spammy!

I’m now safe and sound back at home in Sydney - and despite still being unwell, I’m pleased to report that I’m mostly feeling much more clear-headed and refreshed after my trip to Bali. Phew!

This is the final in my series of mostly photographic blog posts featuring images from Bali. The images below are all from the wonderful and quite new Botanic Garden just outside of Ubud.

I spent a wonderful few hours roaming the six hectare site - and decided that I’d be doing so regularly if I lived there! The Garden has a wonderful diversity and plenty of dense, hidden spots to explore - and lots of shade to help keep you out of the piercing sun. There is an impressive collection of beautiful orchids, a very peaceful meditation space, a lotus pond, a great hedge maze, an Islamic garden and much more.

Also, unlike many other sights I visited in Bali, the Garden is very well organised and even features useful signage - but not in a way that is at all intrusive. All this and the Garden has been open for just a year!

Plus I enjoyed a delicious, fresh lunch in the Botanic Garden cafe which featured a number of veggies and a tall glass of juice from passionfruit all grown in the Garden itself.

So if you go to Ubud, the Botanic Garden is a must see! It was definitely a major highlight of my trip.

Finally, if you’re interested in seeing more images from my visit to Bali - or at least larger versions than I’ve posted on my blog - I’ve created some sets of them on Flickr, including a collection.

Today is my last full day in Bali - although I fly out at almost midnight tomorrow, so I get another day to do whatever I fancy.

Unfortunately I’ve spent the 36 hours up until this morning being extremely ill with a high fever (ironically making me *very* cold!) and lots of aches and pains, so that’s made me look forward more to the comforts of home, even though I think the illness has passed now.  Although I’m not remotely pleased about the long flight to get there!

So for now I’ll leave you with some more details from Bali.  This will most likely be the second to last of my photographic blog posts about my trip.

PS. Whoever spots the monkey gets a gold star!

This is the second in what I suspect will be a series of generally photographic blog posts so I can share a little bit of Bali with you - or at least the bits that have caught my eye (or my lens!).

Today’s installment features lots of the lovely plants and flowers I’ve captured over the last several days. I’m sure there will be more of these to come too! Enjoy.

I’m sitting in an airconditioned internet cafe on what is a hot and very sticky day in Ubud. So I thought I’d take the opportunity to cool down, drink some lemon iced tea, catch up on some emails and do a quick blog post to share some photographs.

So far I’ve been doing a lot of relaxing, including plenty of lounging by and swimming in the pool, enjoying exploring the beautiful hotel grounds and reading. I’ve amazed myself by slipping into relaxation mode much more quickly than I’d expected! To the left is the view from the private terrace outside my hotel room and what I wake up to each morning - click on it for a larger view.

I ventured into the centre of Ubud for the first time yesterday for a look around. My first visit was cut short by a thunderstorm of the torrential variety, but I’ve come back in again today to revisit a couple of spots I wanted to see in the sunshine as well as to visit the lovely museum of fine art and generally get my bearings a bit better.

So rather than write more about the place, I’ll instead share some photographs. I plan to do a few blog posts which are primarily photographs of different aspects I’ve been wanting to capture.

Today’s set of photographs are all details that have caught my eye as I’ve been wandering about.

Today it’s been officially announced that I will be taking up the role of Publicity & Promotions Manager for Mintd.com.

Mintd is a collaborative space for artists, designers and musicians from all over the world to sell their work and connect to new markets. The site is very new, but I think it has a bright future and it’s great to be getting involved at such an early stage.

This role will be to work several hours a week at this stage - and I will be doing it in addition to running my handmade jewellery business, undertaking freelance web and design work, continuing my part time web production job and even continuing with some voluntary Committee work with JMGA-NSW. Although I have decided to relinquish my role as the editor of Filings, the JMGA-NSW newsletter, having just sent my twelfth issue to print!

But before I continue with all of that, I’m going off on my very (very!) badly needed holiday to Bali tomorrow afternoon. And right now I must go and finish packing …