On a Roll

I expected three deliveries today but received just one, which means that I’ll have to be at the shop on Monday when the other two arrive.

Bugger.

My first task this morning was to replace the ink cartridges in the new printer. The cartridges that it comes with are the equivalent of samples so they didn’t last very long. It was a surprisingly easy task so it was a good way to start my work day.

Next, I put together three more Imagine Ellie stands, rearranged the main table to create a space to fit one of the new stands.

I unpacked and priced the small package of new stock.

Photocopied a bunch of receipts and filed them.

Created three new files.

Spoke to a supplier and changed an order.

Served a steady flow of customers - it was an average day of sales.

Took more stock from the Men’s Shed and paid them for a couple of sales.

Paid one of my consignment ladies AND Sassy Duck for a big order that should arrive in about ten days.

Tidied my desk - which lasted all of one hour 😳

Had a visit from The Motivator. She brought some pre-loved clothes in, picked up some items that I‘d ordered for her and took home some things that she’d left behind in June.

We discussed her using the treatment room starting in November.

AH and I arrived home after 2.30pm and all I wanted was to sit down, put my feet up and not think about anything except TV entertainment for the remainder of the day. Mind numbing, vacuous and restful for the brain.

It’s 7.30pm and I’m about to play the BBC2 radio quiz. After that, I’m off to bed to fall asleep watching the 2nd footy game!

I’m looking forward to my weekend off with nothing planned except resting.

Nite all.

Slow But Productive

I remember looking at the clock at 10.30am and feeling impressed with myself for achieving so much in such a short time.

Do you think I can remember now, what I actually did?

I got nothin’

It was a very slow sales day. There were LOTS of people through the door from the minute it opened til the minute we closed, but very few wanted to spend money.

I priced 3 boxes of stock and put it out for display, priced and hung the preloved clothing, filed the invoices, actually made some lunch and ate it, wrote out an Intrinsic order in my “Wish List” book and packed up ready to leave at 2pm (I think I’ve remembered everything 😳)

Adoring Husband and I drove into The Bay.

We stopped off at the vet to pay her for the visit to our house when she took care of Jack.

Cartridge World was the only place with my printer ink in stock, so that was our next stop.

I decided to top up my stock of small canvases, so we stopped briefly at Spotlight before doing a small shop at the supermarket.

I decided to buy a blender to keep at the shop so that I can make my green juices and berry smoothies during the day.

Finally, we came home, both exhausted! 

Barramundi fillets cooked in butter and served with a big salad for dinner.

Now I am ready for bed. I fit a lot into today!

Nite all.

Out of Time

It was a very emotional meditation this morning with at least half of the attendees shedding some cleansing tears. 

One lady picked up her keys and almost left but The Gypsy gently asked her to “please stay” and that person waited patiently at the end of the class to give The Gypsy a warm hug.

I appreciate these classes more and more as I see the changes occurring in people who are ready to heal. It’s awesome to be a part of something so remarkable.

I got to spend a good 30 minutes with The Gypsy after the class and she showed me how to set up the massage table that I bought from her. It will be much easier to massage Adoring Husband’s tight and aching muscles if he’s on the table as opposed to the bed.

A handful of ladies stayed behind for coffee and didn’t leave until well after 11am. There was lots of laughter and noise coming from the training room which created a great energy in the shop. 

They’ve decided to form a craft group that meets on Wednesdays in the training room a couple of hours after meditation has finished - for a small cost. They will do all the work setting up the room so I don’t have to do anything. I like the idea.

As those girls walked OUT the door, a bag of preloved clothes walked IN the door, closely followed by two boxes of stock from the courier, which remain unopened in the training room as I write this.

There will be more stock arriving tomorrow and Friday, so I’m going to be a busy little bumble bee this week!

I spoke to a couple of suppliers, served a lot of customers (a good sales day) and spent a lot of time trying to figure out why ‘some’ of my emails aren’t landing in my laptop inbox. That’s still a work in progress.

AH picked me up at 2pm and we drove directly home where I changed out of my work clothes, parked my butt on the couch and began watching a Netflix series called ‘Good Girls’. It was recommended by the girls doing the journaling class. It’s a good one!

We had pork loin chops with salad for dinner, compared our footy tips, watched The Bachelor and came to bed.

The day has passed quickly!

Nite all.

Big Day In

Just as I suspected, I was not impressed about having to wake up early to do all the ‘things’ that I didn’t do yesterday! I pushed it to the limits and got up 30 minutes earlier than usual.

Adoring Husband and I arrived at the shop, cleared the art stuff away and set the tables up for the journaling class AND for morning coffee with the girls.

He was also kind enough to watch the shop while I ordered my coffee and checked the mail

There were five of us for coffee but I have no idea what time the girls left because I was serving a strange young man who took more time than I’d have liked. We’d all had a nice morning together anyway ... as we do.

Which reminds me ... the link to Bamboo sheets and towels that we were discussing today.

Considering how wet the weather was today, sales were better than I thought they’d be, but I still had time to finish off the class sheets for journaling, clear all the washed up art tools from the kitchen and chat with a couple of suppliers about orders I’ve made.

I took delivery of the Imagine Ellie order, but didn’t have the time to unpack it all. AH helped me put one of the stands together but the rest was put aside for tomorrow.

Two ladies joined me for journaling this afternoon. I must say that I enjoy hearing their stories and they are both around my age so I can relate to everything they talk about. There’s a bit of raucous laughter, a touch of shame, quite a few “me too!”s and some “ahas” scattered about.

The process is quite cathartic and it triggers lots of forgotten fun memories and some not so fun, but always worth writing about.

While we were in the training room, the new cleaner was dusting. She did a very thorough job on the small section that she got done in the hour. She probably got through about one third of the shop, but that third is very shiny clean!

At 3.30pm AH arrived to help me fold up the tables, vacuum and set up the room for meditation tomorrow morning. It was almost 4.30pm by the time we pulled into the driveway and I was ready to put my feet up.

Sausages and salad for dinner. AH is good with that barbecue!

I’ve gotta be up early for meditation tomorrow so here is where I sign off.

Nite all.

Not Much

So much for having a lot to do on my day off!

I DID have a lot to do ... I simply chose not to do any of it!

Because I can 😬

I stayed in bed until midday, ordered some stock, printed some ‘decluttering’ sheets, checked my emails, added some more content to Tuesday’s journaling class, created some ‘then’ and ‘now’ photos of the shop to celebrate three years of operation and added them to a long post for the Facebook page.

I got out of bed to make lunch and even though I intended on adding more to the painting, I chose instead to watch a Netflix movie with Adoring Husband ... of course he chose to find other things to do, so I watched it mostly on my own!

It was, nonetheless, a pleasant distraction.

Together we began watching the series “Lucifer”. After just one episode, I’m not sure what I think of it yet. I’m willing to watch more before I make a judgement.

It has been a very lazy rainy Monday afternoon which I have thoroughly enjoyed.

My punishment for not doing all the ‘things’ today, is having to get up early in the morning to do some of those ‘things’! Which is ok right now, but tomorrow morning I’ll be kicking myself 🥴

On that note ...

Nite all.

Artfully Deliberate!

So, last week, somebody asked me If I knew an artist who could create a particular painting for him, which he wants to gift it to his wife for Christmas.

I thought about it for a while and replied “I’ll give it a go!”

😳

What was I thinking?

I actually told him that I would make an attempt and if I failed I would give him a couple of names to follow up.

So I started today.

It’s the largest piece of art that I’ve ever attempted and this canvas has been sitting in my studio for a year because I was too afraid to use it.

Even though I can show you this stage, I can’t show you any more until after Christmas, but I’m happy with the progress so far.

As you can see, I did NOT spend all day in bed as planned!

Even though I sent Adoring Husband to the shop to pick up my diary and a couple of other books and a folder that I forgot to bring home yesterday, I didn’t actually do any book work or paperwork or studying or ordering or ANY of the ‘things’.

I did a baked chicken and vegetables for dinner, which was delicious.

Because I had to stop and let the paint dry before beginning the next stage, I sat in the lounge room with AH and watched the classic old movie “The Court Jester” with Danny Kaye. An oldie but a goodie.

I dipped my toes in the pool ... still a bit too chilly for a swim, but it’s getting close!

Nothing more to report for Sunday, but I’ve got a lot planned for Monday. I hope I can squeeze it all in.

Nite all.