Thank you very much for my surprise mint humbugs which arrived in the post today.

After writing that last post I hung out with Denni and Aliese and they cheered me up no end. In the end it was decided that trying to do too much and trying to be everything to everyone over the Christmas season was really stressful. As with everything it’s a matter of just being and doing our best.

So I looked through my grandma’s old stuff and put up a couple of very cool vintage Santa decorations. I’ve been smiling and wishing people a good Chistmas break.

And then I got around to tidying up the kitchen and I made the dough for piparkakut (Finnish gingerbread). They are pretty tasty and the special ingredient of dried and ground orange peel makes them taste extra special. Rather than trying to bake 3 varieties of cookies I let myself be happy with just one batch of gingerbread.

I told you that the mood would strike – and it has. Also it rained and rained and rained today which is the best present South Australia could get. That made me happy.

And I received surprise candy! I can’t really complain can I?

Love Pippa

You know what? I really am not getting into the holiday mood this year…

Maybe it is the result of too much work, living alone and not having anyone to decorate the house for, not having any small kids around to be excited for, feeling totally over the entire capitalist nature of contemporary “holidays” and having been away from family Christmas celebrations for three years. I just haven’t been looking forward to the entire experience at all.

Also, having recently spent the greater part of a year in a chilly Northern clime, I’ve come to the very firm conclusion that Christmas in summer is not just weird, it’s frustrating. In winter there’s nothing much to look forward to unless there’s a pagan festival smack bang at the darkest time of year. Christmas in summer just takes up valuable hanging out time and is the wrong traditional festival for summertime.

I’ve only just started my Christmas baking and the first batch of biscuits had their rice paper stick to the tray. That isn’t all bad as I’ll eat that batch and make another batch to give away – but it has reinforced my blase feeling about the next week.

Oh well, the mood will strike soon I guess… Happy Midsummer to the southerners and midwinter to those in the North, here’s a card I made to celebrate the solstice and associated religious holidays.

One of the reasons I haven’t been popping up so much on battlecat lately is because I’ve been spending most of my computer time doing freelance work for a few very lovely people. I was so lucky that day that I walked down Elizabeth St in Croydon just after quitting games work – I got a weekend job in my favourite store and from that I landed a bunch of freelance web and graphics work for clients based off Queen St.

A lot of the work I’ve done for Bek at one small room and sproutdesign is yet to see the light of day as we’re waiting for fabric to get printed up and content to be added to the website. But I can show off the Angel Chorus card which I based from an original screen print made by fabric designer Pamela Walker in the 1970s. You’ll have to scroll down a little to see the cards on this page.

Emily at The Purely Cotton Co (5 Elizabeth St, Croydon) asked me to get the website up and running for her organic and fair trade cotton shop. The website design is based on a look and feel developed by Carly of Nest Studio and is now working (credit card transactions are still to be setup).

Ben and Dom (owners of the Queen St Cafe) have just opened a new restaurant, Bistro Dom, at 24 Waymouth St in the city. They asked me to take the graphic identity by Grant Jorgenson and turn that into a basic website for them. Luckily this job’s required me to eat some of the food at the restaurant, so I can highly recommend Bistro Dom as a lovely inner city lunch venue.

Phew! Skills like freelance time management and business confidence are still works in progress for me, but I’ve learnt so much over the last 4 months! Now of course I need to get radelai.de up and running before I leave the country and maintain that as well as do some other freelance work while I’m away.

And to think that I thought I was giving up IT for good when I left Krome… Ah well, the universe obviously wants me still to be a geek. That I guess, is ok.

Yesterday I was the angriest and crankiest I’ve been in recent memory.

Seriously, it’s fortunate that I live alone otherwise I’d probably be up for manslaughter charges as a result of me destroying anyone who crossed my path earlier in the day.

For a young woman who is trying to increase the amount of happiness and joy in her daily life and making an attempt to spread positive feelings to the world at large – yesterday did not bring a good mental space at all.

You know what, I’m beginning to [re]learn that holding back from discussing issues for the sake of avoiding potential conflict is not always a good thing – even if it maintains a sense of order at the time. Those bits of frustration with the world at large and people nearby just build up and get stored away around one’s shoulders – kind of like the hump on a camel’s back. Of course – a camel’s hump has a positive moisture and fat storage purpose – but still, the irritation storage hump looks just as ungainly.

Oh! I admit that there was a whole lot more at work in yesterday’s hideousness than just held back conflict, boys of course, too much work lately and not enough sleep or good things like gardening and creating. I hold myself to some ridiculously stupid standards. And there’s always there’s the frustration that ‘most everyone else in the world is letting things get more fucked up and the few who make the effort are going to be left in the rubble with nothing to show for their lives. All of those things go into humps of their own – and not the sexy lady lump kind.

Eventually I guess you just have days when there’s too much stuff that you’re carrying around – and you just have to give into the weight and sleep the day away.

Luckily, [as this metaphor is getting kind of tired] – some of the particular straws that broke The Camel of Peace and Serenity’s back yesterday have been picked up and swept away. And you know what – The Camel of Peace and Serenity ultimately shouldn’t be burdened with a hump of negativeness, if it’s going to stockpile anything, it’s going to stockpile more goodness.