Back in the swing?

I don't know where to start in talking about my amazing holiday trip to Vienna. We had so many great experiences, met so many wonderful people, spent time with people we love, ate so much yummy food...and, well - it was just the best. We have been to Vienna a few times now and just love the city - it's beautiful and feels accessible and safe. The holiday season there is especially nice - everywhere you go there are Christmas markets selling "punsch" - a hot alcoholic drink that is delicious and all sorts of yummy Austrian foods. Christmas traditions are taken really seriously with things like real candles on Christmas trees. I love the fact that people take the time to stop and relax in front of their Christmas trees playing music and having a drink - I think that so often we don't take the time to stop and appreciate all the work that goes into the holidays.


That brings me to another thing I love about Vienna - it's just a different way of life. People stop and linger in cafes (above is me and my brother-in-law Stephen at Cafe Dreschler - an art deco cafe), shop at fresh food markets - things are busy as in any city - but I feel that there is also an appreciation of all those little things that make life special.

We just had so much fun - the photo of us above during a visit to Graz sums it up - we goofed off - a lot. I'm just going through all my photos now (and editing some in Picnik and adding groovy effects, as in the first two above) and might post more soon and talk about some more experiences - but it's hard to put the whole thing into words. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things at home, but I'm not quite there yet.

In other news, I'm trying to photograph lots of the stock I brought back from OOAK to post on Etsy - have a look at ye olde shoppe to see what I've posted.