Homecoming, baby stone, exact

Camera shy swans (and you thought

swans were graceful birds)

Luke's back! Yay! And he bought me presents, my favourite of which is a trio of small, smooth stones he picked up on the beach at The Needles on the Isle of Wight. One is a like the baby of the stone Luke found on the beach when we visited Cape Schank on Good Friday.  Oh, he got the card I sent too. He liked it a lot.

Yesterday I had exactly the right cash in my wallet to pay for my lunch.

I got another delivery at work from Etsy.com - a black and white striped bolero (I'm a little obsessed with B&W stripes). It's my first custom made item and it fits. It came from a designer in Latvia too, which makes it extra special, I think.

The days are getting longer. It was still light at 6.00pm when I was on my way home from work. Not long until daylight savings starts now...

Smile, spring, birthday

The moon is a smile tonight

Today is the first day of spring and that means Gleeful is 3 years old. Yay!

I was a bit grumpy when I left for work this morning, but my mood lifted when I saw new growth appearing on the trees beside the river. It was a grey morning, but it turned into a beautiful sunny day.

My cards from Curly Girl Designs arrived today.

It's not long until Luke comes back from his travels. I can't wait.

A compliment a day keeps grumpiness at bay

We have a new internet-based business services tool at work which I have used a few times now to get work done by our print room. I emailed the project manager today to tell her how much I like it and to pass on my compliments to her team.

She replied and said she sent my email to the team and they all had smiles on their faces courtesy of me. Yay! That put a smile on my face. It's just SO easy to make others feel good that there's no reason not to do it every day.  A genuine compliment is a powerful thing. I'm going to compliment someone every day (not that I didn't already pay compliments freely).

I got a delivery from etsy.com today - a handmade shrug (the super-cropped jacket-type garment, that is!). I love getting that "you have a personal delivery to collect" email from the mail room. The Etsy seller also put a (yet to be inflated) red balloon and a little packet of lollies in with my order.  How sweet.

How do you like my big red sausage?

She also enclosed a thank you card with a cute little embossed kitten on the envelope.

More comments are coming in on my 39 Secrets of Adulthood post via The Happiness Project. This makes me very happy - the connectiong with like-minded people most of all. I've got a few new followers as well, which is a bonus.

Tonight's blogging beverage: tonic, lime and mandarin juice and vanilla sugar. Tasteee. 

Puzzle, Temptation, tickets

Hurrah! My jigsaw-in-a-suitcase was delivered to work this afternoon. Check it out. Can't wait to get started on it. ('It' being an illustration of NYC, complete with King Kong, Superman and Spiderman among the skyscrapers).  

I downloaded The Waifs' new CD Temptation last night. It's more mellow and bluesy than their recent albums. I like it. I'm looking forward to seeing them live next week.

I booked tickets to Next to Normal  today. Yay, i'm off the the theatre! Not for six weeks or so though.

Robots, dinner for two and Next to Normal

My robots are here! So cute!

I'm cooking dinner for a friend tomorrow. I bought my provisions tonight and can't wait to throw them all together into a (hopefully) delicious meal.  It's so nice to have someone to feed instead of just myself (I've been eating a lot of cheese and tomato on toast so it will do me good to have a proper meal for a change too).

I found out today the hit Broadway show Next to Normal is coming to Melbourne next month. I'd never heard of it until my US friend J, who visited in September, played me the music in the car during our Great Ocean Road sojourn. It was fantastic - and extremely moving. I had to try really, really hard not to cry. I think I will need to take a box of tissues if the music alone had that effect on me.

A present for myself

I didn't get any flowers today, but a CD I ordered from Amazon aaaaages ago finally arrived. It was delivered to my work this afternoon. It's Holly Golightly and The Brokeoffs' second album, Dirt Don't Hurt (which strangely isn't on iTunes). I'm uploading it to my iPod now....

I've bought so much new music lately my ears are overloaded. Overloaded with awesome.

Home, sweet home

It's great to go away, but it's always wonderful to get home. Hello, Melbourne! Hello, flat! Hello, bed! I missed you. I had a restful time away, but now it's time for the productive bit of my break - I have an extensive list of stuff to do before I go back to work next Monday. I started today by clearing out six bags of clothes and clutter from my bedroom (and disturbing a huntsman spider, which I safely deposited onto the fire escape with the aid of a mop).

I arrived home to find the photos I'd had printed onto canvas had been delivered. Yay!  Believe it or not, these are the only photos of mine that I've ever had printed for display at home. They look great hanging in my lounge room. I feel inspired to get more photos done now, but it's so hard to choose which ones. (Oh, if you're wondering, the photos are close-ups of reflections of the Skywheel on the Yarra River at night). 

I bought some fresh basil today and now my kitchen smells like basil. I just love the aroma and there's no substitute for fresh basil when it comes to taste either. I'm making a pizza - well, I'm topping a pre-prepared gluten-free base with ham, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, basil and pine nuts. I'm currently roasting pumpkin and garlic for the pizza sauce. 

While at the supermarket I was a party to someone else's little moment of glee and it was just about as good as having one of my own. I asked for 250 grams of ham at the deli and when the staffer placed the meat on the scales, it was EXACTLY 250 grams. All right! She was pretty pleased with herself and rightly so.