Workshopping

It was midnight when I finally got to sleep last night.

Having visitors the night before running a workshop is not necessarily a good idea.

Still, I got to work at about 7.30am and had everything set up and prepared before the participants arrived.

I've got a couple of young ones in the class who are very clued up. They are beginners but amazingly quick learners and I had used the whole day's material before lunch time and had to dip into Sunday's material just to fill the day for them!

They had completed the exercises quickly with excellent results, practiced all of the methods a number of times on various subjects and were very confident and very happy with their own progress.

They said that they had learnt a lot in one day and were pleased with the first day of the workshop, so that's always a good thing.

They are also lovely girls and easy to teach, so I too, am enjoying the class and then to top it off nicely, one of them posted on Instagram how much she has enjoyed the workshop so far and mentioned The Happy Abode.

The older participants are not so impressed because the young ones are making them feel a bit slow and inadequate. I had to convince one in particular to return tomorrow and that I'd give her some one on one attention to catch her up.

Anyway, it was a good day, but I'm exhausted and am heading to bed as soon as I've finished here.

I was sad to say goodbye to my cousin Nellie Noo today. I thought she was staying tonight as well and was hoping to have some more D&Ms with her before she left, but circumstances changed and she left today. I hope she visits again soon.

It was handy having so much leftover food from yesterday and Adoring Husband and I pigged out on all of that for dinner. Little to no effort by me after such a big day.

I've had to spend some time creating some more course content for the young ones so my brain is feeling a bit frazzled now and I'm already looking forward to having Monday off!

The Motivator has to leave on Thursday to attend a funeral down south so she'll be gone for about a week. Not a happy time at all, but it's good that we can be here to cover for each other when the need arises and that we are happy to do it.

Now, I need some sleep. Have a lovely Sunday!

Nite all.

Biggie

I’m exhausted!

I walked into the kitchen at 11am, didn’t stop until 3.30pm when I had to go to the shop to set up for my photography workshop on the weekend and returned home to continue in the kitchen until our guests arrived at 5pm.

I made a chocolate tart with a nut based crust and a Ferrero rocher flavoured filling, a chocolate mousse made with avocado/melted dark chocolate/coconut cream, some salted toffee nut crunch, whipped cream, strawberry sauce and mixed fresh berries.

On the main menu was potato salad, seaweed noodle Thai salad, coleslaw, cherry tomatoes, beetroot, capsicum/cucumber/avocado salsa, guacamole dip, toasted some Turkish bread slices and Adoring Husband cooked some steak and sausages on the barbecue.

We had some beverages and chatted around the table until 11pm when I had to go to bed. Oh and in the middle of the evening I had to photocopy some sheets and put my course material together ready for the workshop!

Luckily I had started the day eating breakfast under the Bali hut and enjoying some peaceful time, so I was energised to get through the hard work.

I’m pretty sure my efforts were appreciated, and there’s plenty of leftovers to keep our bellies full for a couple of days.

Now I’d best get some sleep so that I have my wits about me to teach tomorrow!

Nite all.

Token Offer

Because I’ve just come to bed at 1am and haven’t the time nor the energy to write anything much, I thought share this with you all instead. It’s a very interesting read!

An interesting take on alcohol consumption

Have a wonderful Friday!

Nite all.

Two For

NSW have won two State of Origin series in a row and they (and by ‘they’ I mean Adoring Husband) seem to be very excited by this success!

I think they have a long way to go before they reach EIGHT series in a row, which is QLD’s record. Not only that, but NSW won the ninth series and QLD won the next three after that.

So when NSW get close to that, they will definitely have a reason to be bragging/celebrating. Enjoy this mini success while you can AH.

We started our day in The Bay having breakfast at Aquavue. They have a delicious vegan option for breakfast. Baby spinach leaves, roasted sweet potato, seasoned chickpeas, roasted cherry tomatoes, hash brown, avocado, capsicum coulis and GF toast. I couldn’t eat it all!

We did a grocery shop and some art shopping for me AND the shop. I got the new Pete Evans book ‘Heal’ and some tools for art. We purchased some Boost Juices and headed home.

I finished clearing the dining table, which means my art studio is currently nonexistent and everything has been packed away and is being stored against the back of the kitchen bench until next week.

Sad face.

I made the bed in the rear bedroom, finished cleaning the shower recess, scrubbed all the paint off the tiles in the dining room, did two loads of washing, ironed some clothes, unpacked the groceries, stored away my art purchases, got washing off the line and folded it.

Sat outside in the pool area for about 40 mins.

Did baked potatoes in their jackets and a salad for dinner. When cousin Nellie Noo arrived with Big Bird, AH cooked up some steaks on the barbecue and we ate dinner and had everything cleared away before State of Origin began.

Noo and I have much to catch up on! Luckily Big Bird’s touch footy games don’t start til late in the day so we will have long mornings to chat.

For now, I need some sleep.

Nite all

Faux Coffee

Day nine of my plant based eating and today was coffee morning with the girls, but not many girls turned up and as The Motivator calls it now ... a 'faux coffee morning' because I don't actually drink coffee!

There were only six in attendance including The Motivator and I and I only stayed for a bit over an hour because there was much to do at home.

I cleaned most of the bathroom. I sprayed the shower recess with Oil of Cloves and have left it overnight to clean in the morning when I have a shower.

I emptied out the fridge and cleaned the shelves.

I cut open 42 empty paint tubes to scrape out the remaining paint and ended up with four small tubs full of paint! Two tubs of white, one of aqua, half of blue and half of greenI still have another 29 tubes to cut open.

I did some washing.

Tomorrow, we need to go into The Bay for some food shopping and some paint shopping and run some other errands.

Then I have no choice but to completely clear my dining room/studio because Adoring Husband thinks it's too cold to eat outside. He's right. 😳

Late tomorrow afternoon, my cousin and her son will arrive and we plan on an easy barbecue for dinner. Their touch football games are quite late this season and there will be games that don't even finish until 6.30pm, so I expect we'll be having some late dinners (we usually eat at 6pm) and some late nights, especially Friday night when we'll have other visitors here overnight.

This weekend is my photography workshop, so I need to get a good sleep on Friday night.

It was an excellent day of sales in the shop today and there seems to be a lot more people out and about this week, so we are breathing easy again.

We had a fun dinner tonight. Fun because Adoring Husband struggled with the finer points of wrapping a fiddly, wet rice sheet. We had a plate full of julienned avocado, red capsicum, cucumber, carrot, spring onions, snow peas, beetroot, mushrooms and mint leaves. We wrapped little piles of food in the wet rice wraps with a drizzle of chilli dressing.

It was bloody delicious and I think I ate about 8 of them! Adoring Husband had chicken with his, which he'd cooked on the barbecue.

For now, it's time for me to sleep because we have a big day ahead of us.

Nite all.

Down and Out

Adoring Husband has come down with an injury of unknown origin in the region of his mid section.

It came on suddenly and is causing him considerable discomfort.

He's been working very hard and it could be a muscle strain but it seems to be growing. We'll see how it is after a (hopefully) good night's sleep.

The rooms are prepared for our visitors. We may have to eat outside because although the dining room/studio is quite clean, it is not completely clear and there is nowhere to put all the stuff - desktop computer, 5' high tool box, two 3-tier trolleys, stack of canvasses, drying boxes, lazy Susan, blue tarp and other stuff.

Having given AH a small hand with some chores, I concentrated my efforts on creating some art with the leftover paint in the little tubs and using two old canvasses that I didn't like the results of.

It was a pleasure to spend some time at the table and the new chef's blow torch that AH bought for me works a treat to bring out the cells in the paint...

I had to stop to prepare dinner. We had stuffed mushrooms and stuffed tomatoes. Stuffed with tiny cubes of cooked potato, sweet potato, zucchini, onion, capsicum, spinach, garlic and chilli, then topped with dukkah and cooked in a hot oven. A side of snap peas and green beans. I had some beetroot as well. AH cooked his steak on the barbecue.

AH headed to bed soon after dinner to hopefully ease the pain in his mid section.

So now I need to go clean the kitchen and make my way to bed. Luckily, there is a TV in the kitchen so that I can watch Ash Barty play while I work.

I hope to see all the lovely ladies in the morning for coffee.

Nite all.

Like a Dog

Adoring Husband has been working like a dog today, preparing for our visitors next week.

I spent the entire morning in bed, reading, writing, studying and watching information videos - NOT about art for a change!

It took me a couple of hours in the afternoon to finish off the back bedroom and do some more at the other end of the dining room/studio. Almost done.

I really miss my art and I think I'll have to spend some time doing something tomorrow because I'm having withdrawals - I've just recovered from the caffeine withdrawals and now I'm having art withdrawals!

Speaking of which, seven days into my plant based diet and I'm feeling pretty good. I feel lighter and emptier, in a good way. I also don't feel as hungry. That is, I feel satisfied for longer.

Before, when I ate meat with my meals, I felt uncomfortable, but never realised HOW uncomfortable until I stopped eating it.

Now that the caffeine withdrawals are over, I feel clearer in the head.

I'm sleeping more soundly and for 6-8 hours each night, but that could be because I'm not having coffee in the afternoons.

I need more than a week to determine if these changes are related to the eating or just co-incidental. I'll keep you posted each week.

For dinner tonight, we both had a repeat of my lunch the other day. Baked potatoes with a gravy of mushrooms, onion, spinach, chilli, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes with roasted flaked almonds on top. Broccoli and zucchini on the side.

I enjoyed watching Ash Barty win her match convincingly last night. Thank goodness she won it quickly because I couldn't have stayed awake any longer!

I like the look of the young 15yr old Cori (Coco) Gauff from the USA and I hope she goes a lot further.

Now, I'm watching The Voice finale! Cya. Bye.

Nite all.