A Bit Short

I came up $25 short of my prediction today. A little disappointing, but still very close!

It was a good day for sales and for the people who were all lovely and friendly.

The weather was glorious outside and everyone was enjoying the sunshine.

Today was certainly not as eventful as yesterday, although I took two new names for our next art class which is almost full now.

I came home at 1pm and made a delicious spinach and sun-dried tomato quiche with a sweet potato base for lunch, which I served with a pear and cucumber salad with micro greens and sweet potato chips (made with the leftover sweet potato from the base).

Egg is not 'plant based' but now that I've reached the four week mark, I'm giving myself permission to test the waters to see how my body reacts to different foods.

I've been keeping a food diary where I also list how my body is feeling with the changes, and I have to say that the changes have been remarkable. I can actually do all 'the things' which before, I certainly could not, because I was too busy trying to find a comfortable sitting position.

It used to hurt to lift things.

It used to hurt doing anything physical.

It used to hurt to bend over.

It used to hurt to sit.

My painful mid section stopped me from doing most of 'the things' and it was difficult to focus on much at all. Along with the pain, came breathlessness which sometimes had me gasping for air. I'm sure there are a lot of you out there who understand the constraints of constant pain.

I no longer have the pain. I've been pain free for 18 days, and the breathlessness has also gone (19 days).  I feel like a normal human being again.

So, once a week, I'll test a food that's not plant based, just to see how my body responds/reacts. Eventually, I'll have a list of foods that my body responds well to, and a list to avoid.

Ah the joys of being your own health care advocate!

This afternoon, I ducked into the studio to create some art. A set of three small canvases.

After today, I simply must clean out my bucket of tools! I have a large bucket of water under my work table, where I throw all the tools, the cups and the stirring sticks once I'm done. This stops the paint from drying and sticking to everything. The bucket is now full!

I must clean the tools before I start my next painting!

We've spent the afternoon watching the football.

I'm excited that tomorrow is Childers Multicultural Festival day! We'll be off bright and early in the morning and the weather forecast is probably the best it's ever been for the festival. It's usually a tad warm and we end up searching for some shade to sit in while we eat lunch.

So I'm off to bed for an early night ... ready for a big one tomorrow.

Nite all.  

Visitors

This day was as full as it could possibly be!

My morning at the shop was very busy with paying customers.

Three of the art ladies came in at different times to pick up the piece of art that they had created in the last workshop. Each f them stopped for a chat and even made a purchase.

I confirmed the dates for my next photography workshop with a lady who has been trying to get a place in one of my weekends for about six months.

I received a text from Best Cousin in the World reminding me that she was coming to visit with family at lunch time! We had made the arrangement a couple of weeks ago and I had forgotten all about it, so it was a pleasant surprise to know that they would  be here soon!

It was lovely to see J & P The Inveterate Travellers again. It’s been a couple of years. It was especially nice to see the gorgeous smiling face of The Duchess as she came through the door. She just lights up the room and warms my heart. It has been almost ten years since we last saw each other!

After a joyful spending spree by everyone, we all sat around the little table in the training room eating fish and chips from the cafe and catching up on our news.

In the midst of that, I had a visit from Rebel Mardi and we arranged for her and The Lifesaver to come to our house this afternoon to inspect the new pool area. Meanwhile, she wandered through the shop while the rest of us finished our lunch and then said our goodbyes.

Rebel Mardi made her own purchase and we filled some time chatting until she left for her coffee date.

The only quiet time in the shop was the final 30 minutes, which helped me catch up on some paperwork.

Yes, this morning I wrote down my sales prediction for the day. I had reached the halfway mark before lunch. My visitors took the total way beyond it, and the final customers of the day well and truly smashed it!

So the bills will be paid next week! Wahoo!

I rushed home from work after going to the bank. We are going to Childers Multicultural Festival on Sunday and I want my wallet full of cash for the occasion. I have one particular stall in mind.

When I arrived home, I changed into my presentable clothes for the club while talking to The Motivator on speaker phone. RM and TL arrived and Adoring Husband greeted them while I finished my call.

We had half an hour together relaxing by the pool and sharing family news.

They left to get ready for the club and AH and I finished getting ready too. No luck at the club for any of us tonight in the raffles or keno or lotsapots or the membership draw or ‘spin and win’ or pokies. So many opportunities to be winners!

When we left the club, everyone else was either on the bus waiting to go home or in the restaurant waiting for their meals.

AH cooked some chicken for his dinner and I had toast.

We’ve watched the footy and now I’m off to bed. I think I’m done for the day!

Nite all

Long Afternoon

The morning was busy but from noon onwards, the shop was empty.

I failed in my effort to manifest my desired sales total for the day.

The lovely Brains Trust visited me briefly.

I was pleased to leave the shop right on 3pm, go home, step into the icy waters of the pool up to my ankles, sit in my egg chair for 5 minutes, check out the growth on all the plants in the pool garden, inspect the plumbing work completed by Adoring Husband today and then return indoors.

Once inside, I ripped apart our first soursop fruit which we picked off the tree a week ago and which is now ripe, to taste it. They call it ‘sour’sop for a reason! I don’t think I could eat one fresh, but I think it would be very nice in our home made ice cream or in a smoothie.

I cleaned up that mess and high tailed it to the studio ...

Where that white lid sits, is where my moon will be. In case you can’t tell, it’s an ocean wave at night 😳
Adoring Husband made himself chicken wraps for dinner. I had toast with avocado, tomato, coleslaw and micro greens.

Now, we are off to bed to fall asleep while watching the football.

Nite all.

A Happy Day

There were many highlights to my day.

1. Meditation was full of happy peaceful souls taking in all of The Gypsy’s wise words and involving themselves in some great discussions.
2. I had an amazing 90 minutes to talk all things spiritual and life affirming with The Gypsy. The days that I get to spend extended time with her always leave me feeling uplifted and energised and sometimes on a new path exploring inner peace.
3. Lots of happy customers all loving The Happy Abode.
4. I set a goal (just like yesterday) and surpassed it by almost $100!
5. I had a visit from my favourite love filled customer who I shall name ‘Love Bug’ and she spent time telling me all the special qualities of The Happy Abode.
6. I had a visit from one of our regular bubbly art ladies and we talked all things art and giggled a lot.
7. I lost count of how many hugs I received.
8. Adoring Husband drove into The Bay to run some errands and brought me home a Boost Juice - my favourite - Mint Condition.
9. The BIGGEST highlight of my day was a quick visit from Rebel Mardi and The Life Saver. More hugs and special sparkly smiles from them both and we’ll catch up again on Friday 😁

I came home to unpack the FROG box, partially clear out the fridge, tidy the tupperware cupboard (I don’t actually own any Tupperware, but you know what I mean) to match up the lids, get clothes off the line and fold them, watch 30 minutes of The Chase and then prepare dinner.

All of that left me no energy or motivation for art and we are both about to make our way to bed.

Have great Thursday!

Nite all.

Manifesting Me

I arrived at work just in the nick of time this morning, because it was difficult to get out of bed ... I think I overdid the motivation thing on Monday because I had none left today!

I wrote the date on our daily sales sheet and beside it I wrote "I predict ... " and put a figure beside it. The first figure that came into my head without thinking about it.

At 1pm, I was still $200 short of that figure. I stood at the door and called out "Come on Universe! I still need another $200!"

At 2.36pm I was $6 short of the figure that I predicted!

A warm feeling of satisfaction overcame me. Sometimes I can create a bit of magic!

Coffee with the girls was, as always, lovely. It makes my week to spend a couple of hours cackling away with the ladies, making fun of ourselves and each other.

It was after 11am when they left, but I had spent quite a bit of that time with customers, who at one stage kept coming through the door like clowns coming out of a yellow mini minor at the circus!

The customers came in waves all day, so I didn't have a chance to even take my laptop out of it's bag.

I had to phone Adoring Husband to bring my casual clothes, which I'd left on the bed, for hooping classes this afternoon and after we'd shut up shop, he dropped me at the hall for my hour of fun!

I have to say that it was much more difficult this week than last week! All my bits hurt and I couldn't quite get into the same rhythm as my first effort. I think I need to get myself a hula hoop so that I can practice at home between classes.

The hour finished just before it wasn't fun anymore!

By the time I got home, I was starverated! So I walked straight into the kitchen and made some fried rice with the leftover rice from yesterday's dinner and a big salad for AH. I toasted a GF bagel for me and put coleslaw and tomato on it.

After I tidied the kitchen, it was straight to the studio.

We were looking forward to watching House Rules Grand Final tonight, but I still had 90 minutes to kill until it started, so I filled the time making this ...

I really like this one. I love the colours, the cells, the swirls and the vibrancy. I'd like to do more like this but in different colours.

I think I'll go to bed to watch the last half hour of House Rules now.

Nite all.  

Productive Plus

I found a large dose of motivation and had a very productive day.

In between the three paying customers, I cleared the training room tables of all the art paraphernalia, emptied out all the drawers, cupboards and boxes in the art cupboard, cleaned them out and rearranged everything in a reasonable kind of order, rearranged the paintings along the walls and removed 16 of my paintings to take home.

Adoring Husband came in the afternoon, folded the tables and helped me rearrange the chairs. Now the room looks as good as new.

The gentleman customer who ordered the photo of the kookaburras last week, returned today to pay the balance and pick up his purchase.

A lady who became a customer this time last year, has returned for her annual holiday and was very excited to come into the shop to buy something small but meaningful.

A young woman spent time selecting the perfect gift for her 14 year old step daughter who was not happy about being left at home while her parents left for holidays!

Another lady came in looking for a specific wine cooler which she claims we had in the shop a few months ago. I was stumped because as far as my brain can determine, we've only ever had one type of wine cooler, but she looked at them and was certain that it wasn't the same.

I dunno.

I paid a bill.

I contacted a customer about her order that has arrived.

Our order of 500 business cards was made through Vistaprint on 4th of July and still haven't turned up,  so I made contact with them and discovered that our order was lost and in limbo. They have now corrected the problem and will process it send it out express post at no cost to us (I should think so) and should arrive on Thursday.

We've never experienced problems with Vistaprint before and their deliveries are usually very prompt, so I was happy accept their sincere apology and their efficient fix.

At the end of the day, I was excited to return home and devote an hour to the studio to create these ...

Our dinner was curried vegetables with fried rice, of which AH took two servings! I must say, it was bloody delicious.

I think I'm just about ready for bed now and looking forward to coffee with the ladies, as well as hoop dancing tomorrow!

Happy Tuesday!

Nite all.

Sweet Sunday

I stayed in bed watching youtube art videos this morning.

It was around 10am-ish when I got up, got dressed and went straight to the studio.

I made this first ...

... and then Adoring Husband was desperate for some sustenance, so I stopped to make some rice paper wraps. I wrapped home made coleslaw, fresh mushroom, snow peas, shallots, avocado, capsicum, sun-dried tomato and beetroot, with a hot and spicy dressing. They were damned good!

While I ate lunch, I watched "You've Got Mail".

Then it was back to the studio where I made these.

For dinner, I made some sweet potato and cauliflower fritters and served them with a hot and spicy relish and a big salad with avocado, tomato, beetroot, cucumber, capsicum, lettuce, shallot, snow peas and coleslaw.

Very filling and full of nutrition.

Day 21 of plant based eating. I have gained 1.5kg and my knees are beginning to ache (maybe too many tomatoes). All my other problems have disappeared, like the breathlessness and abdominal pain and discomfort and my digestion/elimination has dramatically improved. My insides now feel normal.

I don't miss coffee. I don't miss meat. I'm eating way too many potatoes! Potatoes have ALWAYS been my biggest weakness. I have plenty of energy and except for that one strange night, I'm sleeping soundly for 6-8 hours every night.

So I'm happy to continue on my three month experiment and remain on a plant based diet for a while longer. If I continue to gain weight however, the story may change significantly! Back to Paleo I will go!

I spent a good 30 minutes cleaning my studio late this afternoon. I don't want any reason to avoid going in there to experiment some more. I want it to be welcoming every time I open the door!

Today, I attempted to create string pull feathers like this ...

Sadly, mine did not look anything like this and I certainly did NOT nail it. It was so bad, I scraped the paint into the bin. But I will try again ... and again ... and again ... until I get it right. So watch this space!

Now it's time for bed. Work tomorrow ... which will include cleaning the training room after our epic class on Saturday.

Nite all.