Suggest a Camera

It seems only yesterday I upgraded from my 1 (yes, folks 1) megapixel camera to my much-loved Canon Digital Elph.  and went from this accidentally decent picture:

To my first fumbling pictures with the Elph:
 
And, although I love the Elph, I think it's time to take the leap into the SLR world.  And this is where you come in, dear readers.  Who has a camera-related opinion?

Here are my criteria, and please keep in mind that I really know nothing about cameras.  Even though my father is a photographer, I never learned anything about it, so please keep your super specific camera-related comments in "camera for dummies" language:
Since I will still be using the Elph when I'm out and about in restaurants, thanks to its size, the main thing I'd like the new camera for is taking really good macro pictures.  That being said, I don't really want to spend a thousand dollars on a macro lens. 

Furthermore, the Elph seems to have no shake control.  I either have to set it at 400 and have a grainy picture or set the camera on something to have a clear image.  This is maddening when I, say, just want to take a picture of one of cats or something in nature, or a macro shot outside, so I would like something where I can use a slow film speed and not have the picture look like it was shot through wax paper.

I would like the kind of focus where I can focus in on on thing and make everything around it slightly out of focus, like the picture of the madeleines above, which happened completely by accident.

I rarely, if ever, use a flash; however, a few photographers have come to my house doing photoshoots for articles I've written, and atop their giant cameras, they have a sort of flash which will flash in other directions, so you don't have that horrid flash look to your pictures.  I can't stand that.

If you are offering an opinion, would you mind sending a link to some of your pictures, like a flicker link, perhaps?  Just so's I can see what kind of pics you like to take? 

Oh!  Budget, that's very important.  This camera will probably take awhile to save for, in the $10 a shift method; I'd like to keep it under $1000.

Thanks for your help, readers!  Now I think I'll make some madeleines. . .