Even I think it’s still a tad early to start shopping for the festive season! However, as someone running a micro business I can tell you that having everyone go shopping in the last few weeks tends to result in a Christmas day where I’m so exhausted I just want to fall over!

Not that I’m complaining of course, but I thought I’d offer people a temptation to get shopping in earnest a bit earlier this year.

I’m offering a 15% discount across my entire range of jewellery for purchases made before 28 November. Just enter the code earlybird09 when you checkout to receive your discount.

Feel free to pass it on to friends and family – especially if you’ve got your eye on something for yourself, of course!

Also make sure you check out my new range of handmade jewellery. I’ve added a few more pieces in the last couple of days.

Note that this discount is valid in both my international handmade jewelry shop and my Australian and New Zealand handmade jewellery shop. It is not valid in other outlets.

I’m a day late, but I would like to wish all of my friends, customers and anyone who happens across this a happy festive season, whatever it is that you may or may not observe.

I’m spending the season with my family in rural South Australia. Above is a photograph of my family’s traditional Christmas pudding, as devoured after a long roast turkey lunch on Christmas Day. The pudding is a bit different to the regular ones as it’s quick and easy to cook, can be made on the day and – being a recipe from clearly poverty-stricken times – it has no eggs, no suet and cold tea for flavouring rather than alcohol. And, oddly enough, it’s delicious – especially when smothered in brandy sauce!

As the new year looms I hope all of you have a wonderful 2009. I’m certainly hoping for some major improvements on 2008, which has been a very difficult year for me personally.

Some succulents in my parents’ garden and their lovely bird tap – taken on Christmas Day.

Well, nearly – Christmas is almost here! And once it arrives I shall be collapsed in a heap after a few very busy weeks involving lots of jewellery making.

I thought I would provide a quick update about festive season shipping for those of you who are still shopping for gifts.

It’s now getting very late in terms of delivery outside of Australia, but it’s not yet impossible that your gifts will arrive in time as I find the post office to be very efficient at this time of year. However, as each day passes it becomes less likely. If you’d like to take a chance, visit my handmade jewelry shop to make your purchase asap.

For Australian customers, you should be fine to order by standard delivery until around 17 December. From then on I strongly recommend that you upgrade to Express Post, which you can do when you checkout from my Australian handmade jewellery shop.

Note that my suggested cut off date for Express Post within Australia is for orders to be placed by the end of Sunday 21 December. After the following day I will be away in an area where overnight delivery is not guaranteed – I can still post your items, but it’s not certain that they will arrive in time.

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.

I pretty much have no life at the best of times. But at this time of year I really have no life at all. My existence pretty much entirely involves working, sleeping a bit, working some more, eating hurried meals, working again, etc..

Funnily enough, I realise that I could probably get more done more efficiently if I worked less. But because I work too much I have to keep working too much because I’m less efficient than I should be because I work too much. I’m sure that makes perfect sense!

Anyway, I thought I would share the above photograph with you after a few days of hard work to catch up on handmade jewelry stock for Christmas. I did actually get a bit more done than this, but some was put away already and other pieces had already been sent to customers.

And now … back to the grindstone!