Hello lovely people,

This week's glimmers nearly didn't happen.

I keep a note on my phone where I jot things down as they happen, and by Friday I looked at it to find... one lonely item.

For a moment I thought perhaps this wasn't a very glimmery week after all.

Then I started thinking about it.

Maybe that's the point.

The happiest people are often said to be those who practice gratitude, not because life is always easier for them, but because they've trained themselves to notice the small things that might otherwise pass by.

Years ago I started a project called 365 Days of Grateful. Friends joined me in a Facebook group where we'd each share one photograph or a few words every day about something we were grateful for. I loved opening Facebook knowing I'd be met with hundreds of little moments of joy instead of doomscrolling.

Perhaps it's time to bring something like that back.

Because once I started looking, it turned out this week had been full of glimmers after all.

1. ☀️ Winter sunshine

Melbourne has put on one of those glorious winter weeks where the days are bright, the nights are icy and everything feels crisp.

One of the things I'll never take for granted is being able to wrap up warm, walk down to the beach, soak up a little sunshine, then come home to a cosy house. Winter has its own kind of magic.

2. 🔥 Electric blankets deserve awards

If you don't live in southern Australia, you might imagine our winters aren't really that cold. You'd probably be right... outside.

Inside, however, is another story entirely.  

Working from home means our heating bill can be eye-watering, so our heated blankets from Kmart have become absolute winter heroes.

I don't know how we'd survive without them.

Mabel the dog would wholeheartedly agree.

3. 🍫 Excellent news for chocolate lovers

This week brought two very important developments.

Whittaker's Berry & Biscuit is finally being stocked here in Australia after years of me relying on my daughter bringing blocks back from visits to Auckland.

And Tim Tam has released an Iced Vovo flavour.

Purists may disagree with me, but I stand by this opinion: anything involving raspberry jam immediately has my attention.

4. 🤍 An unexpected gift in grief

This one might seem like an unusual glimmer.

Since Mum died, I've received so many messages from friends offering hugs, kind words and simply letting me know they're thinking of me.

For a long time I've carried around a story that I don't really have many friends.

This season has gently shown me that perhaps the story isn't true.

Maybe I've been surrounded by wonderful people all along.

Perhaps it's me who needs to get better at letting them in.

5. 🎨 Sometimes good things simply take time

This week one of my paintings sold after waiting patiently in a gallery for almost two years.

Artists can quietly convince ourselves that if a painting doesn't find a home quickly, perhaps it wasn't good enough.  But I don't think that's true.

Sometimes art is simply waiting for the person it was always meant to belong with.

This sale couldn't have come at a better time. It's helping me pay one of the larger bills for exhibiting at the Affordable Art Fair next month—a leap that's required quite a bit of investment, financially and emotionally.

I'm choosing to see it as a little nudge from the universe.

Keep going.

The right things often arrive exactly when they're needed.