Hullo Russia!

I don't know why or how, but overnight, this blog received 600 views from Russia.

Russia was not interested in just one post, but shared the views over many of my posts.

So ... hullo Russia!!

It's been a Christmassy kind of day.

Firstly, I tidied one corner of my workspace so that I could fit my rebounder in the room. I spend so many hours sitting at my desk, I decided that I needed to break it up with some exercise. The last time I visited my doctor, he said that I needed to move more. So this is my way of doing just that.

Secondly, I turned on my salt lamp and diffused some 'Celebration' essential oil. I love the scent of celebration, especially the hint of spearmint and peppermint.

Next, I wrapped all the Christmas gifts that I'm sending in the mail. I used plain brown paper and wrote my Christmas messages on the paper, explaining why I chose these gifts.

My word for 2017 is "INSPIRE", so I chose gifts that I hope will inspire my friends and family to create a wonderful year for themselves. To follow through on everything that they began in 2016 and feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

We had two Christmas parties to attend this afternoon, but Adoring Husband did a bit more damage to his back this morning while rushing to clear the SES barbecue gear away as a storm hit, so one party commenced and continued in our absence, while the second party enjoyed my wondrous and joyful company for two hours.

The weather was overcast and quite windy, but at least the temperature had dropped which made it much more pleasant than the hot humid days we've been experiencing of late.

The guzzler

Windswept beauties

Half of the group

Adorning the table

Missy the wonder dog

The Quilting Queen

This was a street party for a street that we don't live on. Our house backs on to a house that sits on this street. That crazy lady in the last photo lives in that house.

It was a lovely group of people. It's a quiet street full of friendly welcoming faces and this is the third time that I've joined them for a festive occasion, but only the first for a Christmas street party.

I'm glad that I made an appearance. My contribution was the leftover lime and blueberry cheesecake from my party on Tuesday. It went down a treat.

I was home before 8pm and was able to dish up dinner to Adoring Husband. I've had a beef casserole in the slow cooker all afternoon, so it was an easy preparation tonight.

Before AH climbed into bed, I massaged some Do Terra Ice Blue Rub into his back. Hopefully, he will wake in a little less pain in the morning.

I still have the faintest hint of flutters, but very much improved from the last five days.

That was my Christmassy kind of day.

Nite all.

Fluttery Mess

I believe that I've figured it out.

It's possible that I have an allergy to nuts.

The last time I got these flutters, was when I made Adoring Husband's birthday cake, which was a chocolate brownie cake with nuts.

I had the flutters for five days, which is how long it took us to eat the entire cake.

Thirty nine days later (Monday just gone), I began making tarts which consisted of a nut base and which I did the taste test on.

That was when the flutters began this week.

We have been slowly eating the leftovers of the tarts all week and the flutters have remained with me all week.

As I ate the last slice today at lunch time, I made the connection.

So now I will avoid nuts for a month and do another taste test to see if I react the same way.

What a pain in the butt!!

I am drinking beetroot/carrot/celery/radish juice attempting to cleanse my system of the offending toxins quickly.

Needless to say, I am not well enough to go out tonight, but will have an early night to sleep it off and hopefully, by avoiding nuts, I will wake up refreshed tomorrow, flutter free.

Here are some of the photos from the town Christmas party on Saturday ...

This is an early post for me. I am off to rest.

Nite all.

Blurgh

I'm feeling blurgh.

No motivation. Discombobulated. Weak and lethargic. I can't seem to get comfortable. I don't want to lie down. I don't want to sit up. I don't want to stay standing.

I tried essential oils and the salt lamp. No go.

So I'm here to have a whinge and then quietly slide off to bed and hope that sleep will help me feel better tomorrow.

My essential oils that I ordered from The Motivator's party arrived today, which was exciting.

Even more exciting was a shipment of silver and semi precious gemstone jewellery that arrived from India in a sealed tin and then wrapped in calico which was sewn around the tin. It was all lovely.

I decorated the Christmas tree. Adoring Husband spent yesterday hanging decorations around the house, so it was my job to do the tree. It didn't take long and it looks very Christmassy.

That's it from me.

Nite all.

Brain Mush

I finally had a day to sit at my desk and do my thing.

But my brain failed me.

I couldn't focus.

Luckily, there were lots of little things that I could do, which didn't require focus, so my time wasn't completely wasted.

For the second time in two days, I needed a nap! It has been four years since I needed to nap in the afternoons, so I either really overdid it for the last two days, or I'm simply getting old.

I did edit one of last week's photos ...

The ladies all looking very bright and happy and enjoying their Christmas lunch.

After my nap, I was bright enough to go the trivia night with Adoring Husband. We only came 5th out of ten teams this week, so there is room for improvement next month. We had a good time and AH contributed well .. even though the chair made his back hurt.

It's well after midnight, so it's time for me to sleep (again).

Nite all.

Terrific Tuesday

Well, only four out of my thirteen guests did not attend today. I'm surprised by two of them not attending because they were very keen. Ah well.

The party was a success. I received $350 worth of products for $63 because two people booked a party and my guests spent more than $600. Now I get to attend another two parties to build up my delicious collection of essential oils.

Thank goodness my food was a hit and now I need to provide recipes to three different ladies for four different dishes. Even Reality TV Queen, our biggest critic of 'all things food' praised my spread and left with a full belly and a smile on her face.

After everybody left, Adoring Husband and I both cleared everything away and I got to have a power nap for about twenty minutes, which was just what the doctor ordered. My lower back is giving me a bit of grief, but that's from standing on the tiles in the kitchen for hours on end. I just need to rest it.

We hardly had time to sit down before it was time to pack the esky ready for our monthly barbecue at the Lions Park. I packed the leftover nibbles and dips, as well as the chocolate energy balls and we carefully arranged everything in the esky so as not to squish or spill the food.

For the second month in a row, the wind was unbearable at the park, and made it very uncomfortable for us all. It was difficult to keep things secure on the tables and our words were taken away by the wind making it hard to have a decent conversation.

Quite a few of our group were missing tonight, being out of town, so it was an intimate gathering.

As everybody began preparing the barbecue hotplates ready to cook the meat, I realised that we had left our meat at home! Ugh. So we didn't eat any dinner. We were still pretty full from the party spread, so by the time we arrived home, we decided not to bother with dinner at all.

It's now 8.30pm and I believe it might be time to lay my head on the pillow and catch up on some sleep. The psychotic dogs woke me twice last night during my five hours of sleep, and I feel that it's catching up with me.

We have trivia tomorrow night, but I'm looking forward to a quiet day at my desk where hopefully, I can edit all the photos that I've been promising for more than a week!

For now though ...

Nite all.

Crazy Monday

Well, I started at 9.30am, stopped for 20 minutes at 1pm, then for 20 minutes at 5pm - ish, and I just sat down at 8.15pm. Still, I have not finished!

Today, I've marinated 3kg chicken wings, made 15 devilled eggs, 12 apple and walnut muffins, 20 smoked salmon and cream cheese rollups, one key lime cheesecake with blueberry jus, one chocolate, vanilla and blueberry layered tart and 30 chocolate energy balls.

I still have to make the cheese platter, the fruit platter, the vegetable sticks with guacamole, cashew cheese and the fruit punch.

Just to top things off nicely, my heart flutters started again at about 1pm. Obviously, I've put myself under enough duress that my body is responding accordingly. Soooo annoying!!

So I've been diffusing Wild Orange essential oil, which has done a great job of settling things.

I should have taken a photo of my kitchen at the height of my productivity. Even Adoring Husband was scared!

This is my short break, so I thought I would do something productive while I was resting. A short blog post.

Oh, I received a big package of jewellery today! The first of my stock to arrive for my website shop!! How exciting! Now I have to set up my light box so that I can photograph it all. So much to do!

Well, enough of this frivolity. I'm off to continue my marathon. So much to do, so little time!

Nite all.

No Miracles

There was no miraculous healing of my tongue, but it IS healing. Thank you for asking :)

Not a lot has happened today.

I showed my website (what there is of it) to The Motivator, who loved the layout, the fonts, the colours and the content and she gave me some good advice to improve it and then some excellent marketing advice and ways to improve the value and presentation of my photography.

She also had some additional sales ideas that I really love.

So I came home and noted everything down before I forgot!

It took me two hours to figure out how I could ... I'm actually not going to tell you what it was that I wanted to figure out, because it was something so simple, I'm actually embarrassed that it took me so long to figure it out.

The point is - I figured it out and I'm excited!

I still didn't get to edit the Christmas party photos today, and probably won't get to them until Tuesday afternoon now, so watch this space.

Now I'm off for an early night because I have MUCH to do tomorrow!

Adoring Husband hurt his back again yesterday while on SES duty, so he is of no use to me at all right now. I may even have to work for him in the morning if he hasn't improved. That will require me waking and rising much earlier than usual!

Eep!

Nite all.

I Must Have Lied

I must have told a lie.

I've had a pimple on the end of my tongue for three days now. My mother used to tell me that if I told a lie, I would get a pimple on my tongue.

It hurts! It hurts to eat. It hurts to drink - especially coffee. It hurts to talk. It hurts to brush my teeth. It just plain hurts!

Tomorrow, I will wake up and it will have miraculously healed. Fingers crossed.

There was a meeting this morning at 10am for the 'Frack Free Burrum Heads' group.

I was supposed to attend.

Instead, I rode across town at 1.45pm and waited for everybody to arrive. At 2pm, I checked my emails on the phone, only to discover that the meeting was in the morning!

Such a doofus!

This afternoon the town held it's annual Christmas party in the grounds of the local hall.

I attended because one of our local ladies asked me to be there with my camera to take a photo of her with Santa, who just happens to be her neighbour.

There were more people there than usual. Definitely more kids than usual. Everybody was commenting that we don't have that many kids living in town, so I think we were catering for a lot of 'out of towners'.

Still, it was a very happy event. The kids were all having a ball. There were two giant inflatable slides, a jumping castle and a seat with a water bucket balanced above where you throw a wet sponge at a bullseye and if you hit, the bucket tips water over whoever is sitting in the seat. There were lots of kids lined up for that one.

Until Santa arrived.

That's when all kids dropped what they were doing and swarmed together in a huge moving wave towards the fire truck that he arrived in.

In a matter of ten minutes, all the kids had received their bag of lollies and a thank you handshake from Santa. Then it was time for all the adults to get their photos taken .. who knew there would be so many women choosing to sit on old Santa's knee to have their photo taken?

Thankfully, it wasn't me who had to take their photos! All I had to do was create the window of opportunity for Snow White to take her turn.

Having waited for over an hour to get this photo, I was disturbed by the fact that Snow White was totally distracted by everything that was going on around her and did not look at the camera. Even though I called out to her twice, to look at me!

I haven't had a chance to look at the photos and edit them yet, so you can expect a barrage of photos on tomorrow's post. Some from our lunch on Wednesday and some from today.

Instead, before I head to bed, I will share this!

Nite all.