Photo key:
1. my 10 cent granny garage sale slippers, 2. untitled, 3. 觸及, 4. moc 18c dresses in store, 5. deadhavefriendsingoodplaces, 6. serenity 21, 7. serenity 31, 8. baby pink, 9. pistacho-rosewater cupcakes, 10. sprinkles and stars, 11. untitled, 12. 15, 13. wonderland, 14. neuschwanstein’s castle, 15. heart sugar cookies, 16. untitled, 17. calados, 18. paint the sky, 19. untitled, 20. Untitled, 21. look petite ‘explosion’, 22. untitled, 23. collecting old keys, 24. my bed, 25. magic machine.

This is my new desktop wallpaper… I love it!

Okay, well, I just returned from my holiday, so it’s time to get back into it! This is the last TiLT of 2007!

Our Christmas, otherwise known as “getting away from it all”. Simon & I decided that instead of just giving each other ‘stuff’ for Christmas, we would have shared experiences instead. We went out to Daylesford, the spa capital of Australia, where we spent several days getting massages & beauty treatments, as well as immersing ourselves in amazing hydrotherapy baths. It was truly marvellous & just what we needed. Instead of giving & receiving material things, we had relaxation, time together to plot our future, wonderful conversations, fabulous walks & lots of snuggling. We had the best time & I came home more in love than ever. Awwwww!

Gingerbread people! I love them! I looooove them! We bought some in Daylesford & munched merrily. I have always wanted to make gingerbread & I think I might do it in these few days before 2008. I will make one that looks like Salvador Dali & one in homage to Little Edie & one that looks like Diana Vreeland. Yes, I will take pictures!

Excellent service. I really adore giving money to people who actually know what real customer service is meant to be like. People who make you feel good & are happy to help you. There were lots of examples of that over our holiday — at The Lakehouse‘s restaurant & spa, at Cherry Tree Cottage where we stayed, & even at the information centre! “Tell them Jim the Irishman said to give you extra!”

Cheese platters & ensuing dreams! Hee! We received cheese & champagne on arrival & scoffed it… then had crazy cheese dreams. I adore crazy cheese dreams. In mine, I was working in a shoe shop!

Snuggling & nooking. ‘Nuff said!

Christmas dinner. We had ours at the Lakehouse — five courses, all incredible. Soup: Cucumber vichyssoise, smoked trout custard, house cured salmon, crème fraîche. Entree: Pressed duck terrine & morello cherry sauce. Main: Roast breast of free-roaming turkey, wild rice, cranberry & pine nut pilaf, miniature turkey pie (!), sweet potato. Dessert: Nougat parfait, berry sorbet & local berries. Then miniature plum pudding & mince pies… & Christmas cake to take home. It was like drool central. So tasty!

Being back in Melbourne… Daylesford is awesome, quaint, & magnificent (as well as being overrun with lesbians), but it’s nice to be back in the iCiNG Bowl, with my stereo & our own bed. Oh — & the internet, too! ;D

Honourable mentions: Second-hand bookshops (I went a bit nuts at the Daylesford Book Barn!); watching little ducklings (we call them “ducklettes”) swimming around in a group; dogs everywhere — guaranteed to make my face light up like a Christmas tree; the Late Show with David Letterman; strange radio stations on country roads; spa baths; industrial showers; excellent fish & chips; amazing pub lunches (chicken kiev with garlic butter all over the plate, aaaarrgghhh cardiac arrest but YUM!); watching the Dalai Lama speak on television; lavender farms & lavender lemonade; the new Atmosphere album released to fans (& the cute chess-playing video!)!; having a new set of goals & lots of excitement!

“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” — Dalai Lama

Please tell me what you’re grateful for! Plum pudding, boxes of chocolates, snow, the Rockefeller Center? Blow a huge kiss to all the wonderful things which have happened this year — make it count!