After a (long) pause, she returns .....

Right, I think it's fair to say that my break turned out to be a slightly longer hibernation than I had anticipated. Where does the time GO, people??? Any minute now it's going to be Easter, and then my birthday will come roaring up, and then it'll be the middle of the year, and before you know it, I'll be buying Christmas presents again. Cripes.

So where to start? It's been a month since my last post (egad!), and I have MISSED IT and MISSED ALL OF YOU. Perhaps I should start with an apology, in fact. I am deeply sorry.

A lot has happened in the past four weeks. As Innigo Mantoya says in The Princess Bride, "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

First, without really trying, I got offered a new job. Then, to my surprise, I got offered another new job. Both of them good, in very different ways. So then I had to decide between the two new jobs - one with a big schmicky law firm, and one with a small credit union. I thought I had decided - credit union - when my current job came to me and offered me an Amazing, Incredible Opportunity in the form of a five-week secondment to the East Kimberlies. Asotnishing stuff. The kind of secondment that can be transformational - working with a remote Aboriginal community organisation in Kununurra, how cool is that?

So I had to decide between both brand-new sparkly jobs and a five-week secondment. Readers, I chose the secondment, which means that on 27 April I'll be flying to Kununurra to do something that totally scares the pants off me. It's going to be great! Was I crazy, though, to give up both new (permanent) jobs in favour of a short five-week secondment?? I'm trying to take the perspective that when one door closes ..... you know the one.

More on the secondment later. What else have I done in the past months?

My One True Love and I spent our second wedding anniversary traipsing up and down the Grampians, which was absolutely wonderful (though my knees thought it slightly less than wonderful, I'll admit). Lots of Grampians stories for further posts, I promise.

I also have my first retailer, Tender Vuillermin in Auburn Road Hawthorn, which currently stocks my Hoots, Ellyfumps, birds and snakes - I seem to have an animalistic vibe going on right now. I am super excited about this news and will do a post solely on Tender Vuillermin in the days to come. Hooray for me! This is a milestone in my Flickettysplits development, and I am very proud.

Oh, and I made a new Ellyfump pattern of which I am VERY proud! Now Ellyfump stands up by herself, which is great - previously she was only two-dimensional and had to lean against something. Now, she stands up by herself, even if her gusset is not quite the work of art it needs to be just yet, and requires a little bit of tweaking.

So on that note, I would like to welcome myself back into the fold and hope that I haven't lost every single reader I ever had. My huge thanks to those of you who are still here!