Sleeping In

I slept so soundly last night!

It was 8am when I first opened my eyes but I drifted straight back to sleep until 9.30am!

It was 10.30am when I got up to make my breakfast and Adoring Husband was outside working, tidying up in preparation for Best Cousin in the World arriving on Monday with Harley.

Every so often he called upon BGWLBH to assist him.

I took my breakfast into the lounge room and set myself up to watch the new Jason Mamoa movie “Slumberland” which I loved. Apparently it’s a typical kids movie along the lines of Narnia or The Princess Bride.

I don’t normally watch that kind of movie so I have nothing to compare it to, but I very much enjoyed this one.

After the movie I moved my butt to the old art room to continue clearing - it’s impossible for me to do this quickly because I’m a perfectionist and I need to go through every drawer, every folder of paperwork, every diary and journal, every box of papers etc with a fine toothed comb. Then I have to reorganise the paperwork into a better system.

This is why I’ve already filled the inside recycle bin.

I spent about three hours sorting and clearing and reorganising and moving stuff to new locations throughout the house.

AH and BGWLBH hung some Christmas lights around the outside of the house and all the boxes are outside ready to set our front garden up for Christmas lights and decorations.

I sat down and watched some more Portrait Artist of the Year before cooking dinner. Spicy chicken bits, nice and simple.

After dinner, AH and I watched an episode of Virgin River.

I came to bed and did a quick sketch …

The lighting is terrible in my room so I think I’ll start doing my sketches during the day in better light so that I can do more detailed work. Perhaps I need to wear my glasses? 😳🤓

Tomorrow is final preparation day for Harley!

Now I need to sleep with hopes of waking earlier tomorrow morning. I want to start the day productively and end it with some art - maybe even squeeze in a swim, although I think there is rain forecast.

Nite all.

Out The Window

I got up early with good intentions of finishing the old art room and then rewarding myself by doing some art.

Before I’d even finished my breakfast, BGWLBH suggested we watch a new Netflix movie called ‘Slumberland’ so we made ourselves comfortable and went into Netflix to search.

Unfortunately, the movie was due for release today … but in USA … so it wasn’t available for us yet.

Of course, now that I was seated in my comfy recliner, I was not getting back up so I browsed through Netflix and stumbled upon the new Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie. Nice and fluffy requiring no brain power whatsoever - perfect for a lazy Friday morning.

I followed that with the new season of ‘Dead To Me’ but I only got through two episodes.

I did absolutely nothing all day until around 4.30pm.

Adoring Husband decided to finally remove his clothes from the walk-in robe, which cleared space for me to put my clothes that had been hanging on racks that were hooked over my ensuite door and wardrobe door.

I’m so happy!

After that, we took the canvases out of the wardrobe in the old art room and put them in the new art space, which left room for AH to put his extra clothes.

We both really have too many clothes!

I prepared pumpkin soup for BGWLBH’s dinner.

AH and I chose not to eat dinner tonight BUT I made an avocado chocolate mousse with chopped up blueberries and strawberries which we DID partake! Very rich but very delicious. BGWLBH and I could only eat half of ours so we have leftovers for tomorrow.

I’ve been playing around with my art and did these yesterday afternoon …

I’ve also begun a year long challenge to sketch/paint/pastel something in my art book every day. This should help me improve and by the end of a year I should be looking pretty good on paper.

This is number one …

Yes! I have some improving to do!

During our clean out today, I found a couple of canvasses that I’m going to embellish over the weekend so watch this space.

So today has been a lovely indulgent rejuvenating kind of day for me.

Only three more sleeps until Harley enters our lives.

This is what he looked like as a new puppy …

We are getting excited.

Anyway, it’s rapidly approaching midnight. Sleep time for me.

Nite all.

Lunch!

Adoring Husband and I spent the morning shopping for our new addition who is arriving on Monday.

We bought two new beds for Colli and two new beds for Harley, a harness, a collar, a leash, a grooming brush and some training treats.

We also did a grocery shop before we drove to Salt Cafe where we sat together and had tea and coffee before the girls arrived for lunch.

There were seven of us because two dropped out at the last minute. One had a broken rib! The other had babysitter issues - obviously she is the youngest in our group and has a 3yr old daughter to prioritise so she often can’t attend our gatherings.

Anyway, it was a lovely group and we were all very animated discussing art and craft and husbands and pets and shopping and family and food and our upcoming Christmas lunch among other things.

It was two and a half hours well spent and we all enjoyed the food, the service, the drinks and the company.

My lunch was particularly nice …

On the way home, the Silver Fox and I stopped at the jewellers in Urangan and perused the beautiful hand crafted jewellery inspired by the local marine life as well as pieces made with Australian opal and pearls as well as precious gems all designed and made on site with a big glass mirror where you can watch the craftspeople creating before your very eyes.

The jewellery was gorgeous and I took photos of the pieces I liked. The first is a ring inspired by the seahorse and has sapphires, peridot and cubic zirconia …

The second was an octopus pendant, but looking at it now, I’m not sure I’m so keen on it …

Can you believe that I did not spend a single cent on anything other than my lunch today? Unheard of!

I even splurged on a margarita cocktail but I haven’t had alcohol for 3 months and I must confess that I really struggled to finish it. I figured at $15.50 a pop I shouldn’t let any of it go to waste.

The Silver Fox dropped me in my driveway at 3pm and I plonked myself on the couch to open my box of art supplies that was delivered in the mail today.

Also in the package was part of BGWLBH’s Christmas present so I had to be sneaky with that.

BGWLBH had another visit to the dentist today so she is feeling quite the worse for wear again and is on the soft food diet for a few days. Tonight she was served a very big bowl of home made chicken soup.

AH cooked up some full chicken wings for our dinner and I ate 2 of them while he scoffed a LOT of them.

I watched a few episodes of Portrait Artist of the Year before my silly reality TV shows came on and now it’s almost 11.30pm! I’m feeling very weary.

Nite all.

Portraiture

We had a pleasant morning at the park but left much earlier than usual because the truck of concrete was due to arrive to lay the new path and we didn’t want to be there for the noise and the smell.

So we said our goodbyes knowing that we’ll all be catching up for lunch tomorrow.

At home I decided to make myself comfortable and binge watch all the series of “Portrait Artist of the Year”.

I am completely obsessed with the talent and skills that these artists possess and I desperately want to try painting a portrait so my next trick is to watch some YouTube videos and then have a few practise runs. 

I know my work is going to be pretty crappy to begin with but practise makes perfect right?!

I made toasted sandwiches for lunch - roast chicken, tomato, onion and beetroot followed by a berry smoothie.

An afternoon of binge TV.

Dinner was spaghetti bolognese for BGWLBH and I, while Adoring Husband had a pork loin chop with sweet potato chips, roasted cherry tomatoes and roasted zucchini. Some nights it’s like a restaurant in my kitchen!

No dessert.

I watched The Real Love Boat and Love Island and now it’s almost midnight! I have to be up early in the morning!

Nite all.

Hot n Bothered

She was a warm one today but we didn’t even make it to the pool.

I got up, made breakfast which I ate in the art space, sharing it with not so psychotic dog Colli.

She smells the toast and appears at my side waiting for a morsel so I cut it into triangles and break off the crusty corners for her. With very few teeth left in her head, it takes her a long time to gum it to death until it’s soft enough to swallow!

I was just beginning to feel inspired to get creative when BGWLBH invited me to The Bay, so I made myself presentable and off we drove in the oppressive heat.

We went in search of more photo frames from the op shops but unfortunately we were out of luck today. It looked like nothing had changed since the last time we cleaned them out.

We did some shopping at Coles and decided on tuna Patties for dinner as well as leftover quiche and Adoring Husband ate the leftover chicken from last night.

After dinner, BGWLBH and I selected the next lot of seeds from our stash for her to propagate. 

Unfortunately our garden is absolutely riddled with fruit fly, caterpillars and white moths and we’ve had to dispose of so much of our produce. The netted covers have been ineffective but the netted tie bags have been great for protecting the tomatoes. We just have to get the bags on early enough.

Tomorrow is coffee at the Lions Park and it’s almost midnight so I’d best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Time Well Spent

I made a good start in the old art room today, spending two hours clearing drawers and moving ‘stuff’ to new, more appropriate locations.

There is still a way to go but I expect to get most of it done tomorrow.

Once it’s finished, I’ll start decluttering my bedroom and hopefully move Adoring Husband’s clothes out of the walk in robe and into the back wardrobe so that I can fit my clothes in the robe. Currently, I have hanging racks hooked over the ensuite door and wardrobe door to hang my clothes because AH is a wardrobe hog!

I got to spend a little time in my new art space dreaming about what I’m going to do when my supplies arrive this week - unless the floods down south cause a problem with delivery, in which case I’ll have to spend a torturous week wishing I could get started!

That’s just me being selfish because there are so many people down south suffering and struggling through those dreadful floods and it’s just ongoing - as predicted and which I mentioned in this blog a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile our weather here has been delightful. Perfect swimming and washing weather.

I prepared barbecue oven baked chicken for dinner with tomato and garlic string beans, grilled banana and zucchini and sweet potato chips which all went down very well.

I’m feeling pretty weary now after far more daily activity than I’m used to!

Nite all.

Slight Inspiration

I read this today and was inspired to share it here …

THIS REALLY MAKES YOU THINK HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS!!

The $50 note.

It's a slow day in a small country village and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.

A tourist visiting the area drives through the village, stops at the hotel, and lays a $50 note on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night. As soon as he walks upstairs, the hotel owner grabs the note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

(now... pay attention)

The butcher takes the $50 and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $50 and heads off to pay his bill to his feed supplier.

The guy at the supplier takes the $50 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

Now, the hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.

The hotel proprietor then places the $50 back on the counter so the traveller will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveller comes back down the stairs, stating that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $50 note and leaves.

No one produced anything and no one earned anything!

However... the whole village now thinks that they are out of debt and there is a false atmosphere of optimism and glee!

And that, my friend, is how a government works!

I had a restless night while not so psychotic dog Colli was behaving a little psychotically between the hours of 3.30am and 5.30am. I woke to pee at 2.20am and did not sleep again until 5.30am.

Ugh 😩 

I slept until 9.30am but didn’t have the energy to drag myself out of bed until 11am.

I made breakfast and ate it in the art space which inspired me to play around with some ideas, which then inspired me to order some supplies.

I spent too much money but if I play my cards right, I’m hoping to make some back with sales.

In the afternoon when I took Colli outside for a toilet break, I dipped my toe in the pool and the water was divine, so it was a no brainer, straight inside to change into my swimmers and I took an hour to swim some laps, exercise and float.

Between the water and the sunshine, it was a perfect way to spend an hour.

Eventually, I had to move inside to prepare dinner.

Roast chicken with baked vegetables and home made gravy.

Yum.

We watched the Pakistan vs England World Cup Cricket final tonight. It was a great match and a well fought win to England.

I have plans around the house tomorrow. Today I began sorting through all of my journals and reorganising my bedroom as well as clearing some more crap from the old art space.

My niece and her partner may be spending a night here in a couple of weeks, so I need to clear out the remaining art paraphernalia and set the beds up for them.

I hope to have it done before Harley arrives next week.

We’ll see how that pans out.

Nite all.