Sunday Trading

The weather was pretty disgusting this morning.

The heat was oppressive and the hot winds made boating/fishing dangerous, so people were stuck on land with little to do apart from swim and perhaps fish off the banks of the river.

I figured that there might be people around, looking for something to do so I decided to open the shop for a few hours.

The first hour was busy with people looking to spend some cash. The second hour was full of people popping in for a look - people who were out walking but not carrying money and who might come back tomorrow. The third hour had a couple of stragglers come in while they waited for their food to be ready at the cafe nearby.

After that, Adoring Husband called to say that there were severe weather warnings about and he was worried about me getting home, so I decided to shut up shop and head home. He came to the shop to help me bring everything in and carry some of my paraphernalia home in the car, which was very helpful.

I stopped at the supermarket to pick up some nibbles and fruit, figuring that we would spend the afternoon playing trivia and possible seeing in the new year over food and fun while the storms swelled around us.

I made it home with plenty of time to spare, but Primrose was missing and had been for quite a while apparently, so I changed my plan for the afternoon and decided to use the time to set up my new camera.

A massive storm hit at about 5pm. Strong winds and 80mm of rain in about 20 minutes. There was intermittent hail, the size of golf balls, hitting the roof which was of some concern for a while, but it didn't get heavy thank goodness and I don't think we copped any damage, although we haven't checked our roof or solar panels yet.

The back yard had some minor flooding and the psychotic dogs, as well as Adoring Husband were panicking a whole lot more than I was. I could still feel the fear inside me, but it was much easier to control after I closed the blinds all through the house.

I didn't feel the need to stack my devices in the walk in robe and I was able to stand at the back door and watch through the sliding doors with Primrose. Even though the tornado hit us five years ago now, I couldn't have stood at the back door even a year ago because of the fear.

Adoring Husband was called out on a job for SES and I cooked up some chicken which Primrose and I ate on toasted bread rolls with salad. The rest was put on a plate in the fridge for AH to eat upon his return home.

I've set up my new camera now, so I will take it out for a test run tomorrow. Hopefully the storms will have cooled the weather down a bit and we can enjoy some beach time. Crabs, turtles and eagles are on my hopeful wish list.

I imagine that a lot of New Years Eve celebrations have been cancelled tonight and right now, at 10.42pm, there are still a few storms about and heading in our direction.

I wonder how all the campers have fared in this weather ... I know that some friends were caught at Woodgate in the camp grounds and were evacuated after the first storm caused more than 20 trees to be downed and cars damaged. The weather looks pretty nasty north of us, from Bundaberg to Rockhampton.

As Primrose stated this afternoon, 2017 is ending with a bang!

So I'm off to bed now.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2018 full of love, luck, happiness and prosperity. For those of you who need the message ... take control and make it as you wish it to be! I plan on having an amazing 2018!

Nite all.

Loving it!

This morning, before I left my bed, I went onto the website of Denise Duffield Thomas - one of the women who inspired me to create the website and start the business. I've been so busy since July, I've barely had time to read any more of her stuff, so I wanted to see what she was up to.

She had just announced a challenge for her followers - to write down 50 things that you're proud of from 2017.

I went in search of a little notebook and began to write.

It was so easy to think of 50 things! I was amazed at how wonderful 2017 was for me. I've achieved so much and tried new things and am in a completely different place to twelve months ago.

Here are my top twelve memories for 2017 ...

1. Attended two Journey workshops in Sydney and Byron Bay.
2. Attended the Health and Wellness Festival in Canberra by myself.
3. Attended the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney.
4. Created and launched my website.
5. Wrote a book.
6. Babysat Chicklet in Melbourne.
7. Created and launched The Happy Abode with The Motivator.
8. Celebrated Adoring Husband's 60th birthday in Big Bash style.
9. Experienced a fabulous road trip with my BFF.
10. Sold 17 of my photos!
11. After 30yrs as friends, had my first Christmas with Primrose.
12. Began designing my first photography course.
13. (I know I said 12, but this needs a special mention) Stood up and spoke at Mum H's funeral. 

Listing the 50 things certainly helped me start the day with a flourish and I was feeling pretty good about myself.

I was even ready early enough to visit the boys at the Seat of Knowledge before work.

I loved my time in The Happy Abode today. I always love my time there, but today was especially great, not for any reason except there were so many tourists who came in and were happy, smiling, laughing and relaxed.

It felt like a party was happening all day and I was in the middle of it.

So it was a good day and I reluctantly left the shop some time after 2pm.

My first job when I arrived home, was to put the beef curry on to cook. After that, I just had to lie down. I was feeling exhausted and needed a power nap, so I lay down on the bed and every time I dozed off, I got a cramp in the middle toe of my right foot.

Ugh.

Twenty minutes was enough for me to feel energised, but then realised that I didn't have everything that I needed for dinner, so I rode down to the shops with Primrose on foot beside me.

I did a grocery shop and she got herself a coffee, then we rode to where she last sat on the beach so that she could retrieve the empty coffee cup that she accidentally left behind earlier in the day.

By the time we returned home, it was almost 5pm. I had missed my date with The Blonde Bombshell and friends, so I served dinner up nice and early - 5.30pm - strung one thread of beads on my arty farty work in progress and then decided to watch some Youtube videos on how to set up my camera.

Well, it may have been a decision, but it never came to fruition.

I still don't know how to set up my camera!

It's now almost 10.30pm and I need to sleep.

Nite all.

A Busier Day

The caravan park is full and the tourists are finding their way into The Happy Abode.

It was even busier today, but a third of the customers bought very small, inexpensive items which didn't add up to much. A number of people came in for a look and didn't spend any money at all, and then there were the fun spenders who came in groups and who competed against each other to see who could buy the most snap buttons for their selected jewellery item.

And then there were the customers who returned later with friends or family to show off the shop as if it were their own!

Word of mouth has such high value and the tourists are telling each other all about us.

We even had a lady, still wrapped in all her hairdressing towels and cape, come in to shop while she waited for her colour to take and she selected a snap bracelet and two buttons! We may need to make a deal with the hairdresser to send all of her customers over to The Happy Abode while they are waiting for the timer to go off!

Primrose came to the shop this morning and got to work. She helped open the shop, she put hooks in the shelves for our paper bags, cleaned our kitchen, vacuumed the floor, cleaned the glass doors and did some dusting. She bought me a coffee for morning tea and then went home, made my lunch and delivered it to me.  What a champion.

Adoring Husband arrived at the shop just before 3pm to help me bring in the signs before closing, but right on 3pm, a customer walked in and began floating around the shop oohing and aaahing and singing our praises. She decided to buy some snap button jewellery, but couldn't make a decision until her daughter suddenly appeared.

Between them, they took an hour and twenty minutes to select three snap bracelets and a few buttons. They must have tried thirty buttons each on their selected jewellery.

At 4.10pm they asked what time I closed and I said "An hour ago."

Even though they apologised profusely for taking so long, they still took another ten minutes to make their final choices!

Needless to say, I arrived at the Bowls Club a little later than usual.

It was another losing night for our group and none of us won a single thing.

I was a winner when I arrived home to find dinner laid out on the table, so that all I had to do was sit down and eat.

I am spoilt.

I love having a number two wife in the house. Life has been a breeze for me this past month since we returned from our road trip. I will have to work on finding a routine again after Primrose returns home.

Tonight I'm feeling a bit lethargic and worn out, so I'm off to bed for an early night.

Nite all.  

A Busy Day

I worked the shop alone today.

The Motivator has family in town for a couple of days so while she is feeling the love, I will be feeling happy in The Happy Abode.

There were plenty of holiday-makers through the shop, each with their own story, and some of those stories were pretty sad ones today. I had to 'shake it off' after I left work, because the sadness felt like it was hanging over me a little.

While yesterday was a big snap jewellery sales day, today saw a much bigger variety of stock walking out the door.

There were people from Kingaroy, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Coffs Harbour and a farming couple from south west of Kingaroy.

Primrose came to the shop and did some display styling for some rings that we have for sale.

Adoring Husband delivered some fresh prawns for my lunch.

I decided to shut the shop right on 3pm so that I could drive into town with Primrose for an afternoon of shopping and clubbing.

Adoring Husband came to the shop and helped me bring all the flags and signs in so that I could get home quickly. We left the trike in the shop and he drove me home.

I enjoyed my afternoon with Primrose and it's now after 11pm so it's definitely time for bed.

Nite all.

So Much To Do ...

Our 'to do' list includes:

• creating two of our workshop/courses before the third week of January
• creating a questionnaire 
• contacting the people on the photography course list to ask them to answer the questionnaire
• advertising the workshops/courses
• having the training room finished and set up for the workshops/courses
• recruiting for both the meditation and the Qigong workshops
• signage ... oh the drama of signage!

That's just off the top of my head.

I think we are beginning to feel a bit pressured. We've both had so much happening this past month and that will continue for both of us for the next couple of weeks, so there is little time to commit to our 'to do' list.

Everything will fall into place, as it has ever since we began this journey, so I'm not too concerned at this point.

It has been a quieter than expected couple of days in town, but we've had some interesting holiday makers come through the doors and a few women who mistakenly came in with their husbands and who promise to return in the next couple of days WITHOUT their husbands.

We shut up shop right on 3pm today and I rushed home to prepare myself for a triple date.

Primrose, Adoring Husband and I drove straight into town to watch one of two movies - either 'Jumanji' or 'The Greatest Showman'.

We arrived at the cinema at about 4.20pm and both of those movies were to start at 4.30pm. As we walked in the door, the queue awaiting entry into the next movie was all the way back to the entry of the building.

I groaned and said "No way"

We got into the ticketing line and heard the person in front of us ask for Jumanji tickets. They were told "sorry, that movie is sold out"

We asked how busy/full 'The Greatest Showman" was and she told us 'not very full right now, but she expected to get a late rush'.

We got the tickets and bought our mandatory movie junk food.

We did not know that the movie was a musical - so when the opening 5 minutes was full of song/music, we were surprised and I think we all had low expectations - HOWEVER - it was amazing!

The music, the singing, the songs, the story, the acting, the dancing, the characters, the actors and most of all, Hugh Jackman ... just wow. So much energy throughout the movie. We would all go see it again and plan on buying the dvd when it's released. Absolutely brilliant.

Even Adoring Husband remained awake throughout the movie!

Primrose had prepared dinner before we went out, so we returned home and lay the food on the table to eat immediately. That was so quick and easy and meant we could sit and discuss and rave over the movie some more.

Now it's after 11.30pm and I need to sleep because I'll be in the shop by myself tomorrow.

So nite all.

Christmas & Boxing Days

It's been a lovely Christmas.

It began slowly with a lazy morning in bed with coffee.

When I finally felt the urge, I showered and made myself Christmassy presentable and headed to the kitchen to make our breakfast berry smoothy.

I played Aussie Christmas songs while I worked in the kitchen.

While I was doing that, Primrose woke up and poked her head round the corner looking decidedly bemused, before disappearing to also make herself Christmassy presentable.

Primrose made her second appearance in the room dressed and smiling and ready to face Christmas head on!

We all guzzled down our smoothies, decided to have breakfast food AFTER gift giving, and then got comfortable in the lounge room to start handing each other gifts from under the tree.

Adoring Husband was given his first gift and was ordered to wear it immediately ...

... then it was his job, as Chief Elf, to distribute the gifts to us all.

We had a lovely time opening all the thoughtful, meaningful, fun gifts from and to each other followed by hugs and thanks all round. Then it was time to cook up a big feed of bacon and eggs for a late brekky.

After the kitchen clean up, Primrose went for a nap in her room while Adoring Husband napped in his chair and I sat outside in the outdoor area beading some more of my arty farty creation that is going to take me weeks to complete!

It was almost 2pm before we decided to get lunch organised.

Roast pork done in the barbecue, ham, turkey, chicken with three different salads. We pulled bonbons and displayed the fabulous hand made Christmas/beachy twinkling table decoration that Primrose had created for this occasion. Much to the shock and horror of AH and Primrose, I even said 'grace'!

Once our bellies were full, and we had the table cleared, we set up for 3 sessions of Trivial Pursuit and ate copious amounts of potato chips, veggie sticks with guacamole dip and Turkish Delight. Primrose won 2 games of trivia and I won one.

After the games, we decided to watch a movie. Primrose recommended 'The Hitman's Bodyguard' so we watched that on Foxtel and even though it was very violent, the violence was secondary to the humour and the star factor of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson together.

Samuel L Jackson's signature phrase 'Mother-f____r' was prominent and apparently there are drinking games that people play so that every time he utters those words, it's a sign to scull an alcoholic drink. We kind of lost count, but he said it approximately 20 times.

We considered bringing a bottle of Tequila into the equation, but decided that I couldn't go to work with a hangover and Primrose couldn't shop the Boxing Day sales with a hangover. Aren't we clever considering the consequences of our actions like that??? Haha. Imagine the damage that 20 shots of tequila could produce?

Today was Boxing Day and The Motivator and I decided to work because the other business owners in town declared that it was the busiest time of the year in our town ... we didn't want to miss out on what that might entail, so we opened the doors at 9am.

Lady Lynn was the first of the Tuesday morning coffee girls to arrive and eventually there were seven of us chatting away and comparing Christmas Day stories. A few of the girls did some serious shopping before they left at around 11am.

It was 2.50 before we had our next customer and then more walked in the door at 3.10pm. That was it.

The other shop owners all complained that it was the quietest Boxing Day they'd ever seen.

Damn!

I left The Motivator and the Fisher King at the shop at about 3.45pm and arrived home to discover that Primrose had walked down to the beach, so I changed my shoes for a pair of thongs and pedalled down there to find her.

There were a hell of lot of people along the river bank and on the beach ... I wished I'd brought some postcards from the shop to hand out and let them all know that The Happy Abode was in existence and I might just do that tomorrow!

While dinner was cooking (and luckily I had Primrose to monitor the cooking process) I had two different phone calls and chatted with Number One son and Bubbles, which took almost an hour.

Of course, we all had to sit down and watch the Dr Who Christmas special tonight (I kept myself occupied on my laptop while AH and Primrose were engrossed in the show) and now that I have fulfilled my blog post requirements and made up for missing the Christmas night post, I am off to bed.

It's rapidly approaching 11pm and there are storms approaching so it may be a restless night with the dogs who are all still suffering from PTSD after the tornado in 2013. They stress when they hear thunder or rain or if the wind gets strong. If I'm indoors, I'm ok, but if I'm in the car or outdoors when a storm is approaching, I stress considerably too.

Anyway, that's it from me.

Nite all.

 

Christmas Eve

I think we are ready for Christmas.

There is enough food to feed us for a week, including a bit of junk food that only follows one rule ... gluten free.

The tree is looking abundant with both decorations AND gifts ...

... I can safely say that none of my gifts have arrived at their destinations in time for Christmas, so there will be post Christmas gift opening for my entire family.

The shop was surprisingly quiet as far as customer numbers go, but the few that came in certainly handed over plenty of cash.

It was a pleasant four hours of work and at the end, The Motivator and I poured a glass of champagne and 'cheers'-ed ourselves a Merry Christmas before heading home to begin our Christmas preparations.

I tossed a chicken in the oven and then sat down to watch 'Love Actually' with Chicklet and Vegan Chickie - them in Melbourne and me in QLD. It was, as always, a real pleasure with lots of texts and videos being sent back and forth between us.

A quick dinner of roast chicken and salad and then me declaring exhaustion after a very early morning to bed (2am) this morning. So this is my quick blog post before climbing into my welcoming bed for some much needed sleep.

A very Merry Christmas to anyone out there who cares ... and may 2018 bring everybody overwhelming love, luck, happiness, health and prosperity. I know it's going to be a hell of a challenge for some of us, but hopefully incredibly rewarding and satisfying.

Nite all.

Rush Job

Here we are on Christmas Eve (only just) and I am sitting here in silence in my lounge room trying to figure out what to quickly write in this blog post because it's so late and I need to go to bed because I'm working today.

The Happy Abode is open from 10am - 2pm on Sunday 24th December for last minute shopping before Christmas.

It was rather quiet in the shop this morning. We still had sales, but it was one of the more quiet Saturday mornings that we've experienced.

Having said that, we had quite a few people come in for long chats, so we certainly weren't sitting there twiddling our thumbs!

We locked the doors at 1.30pm and Adoring Husband picked me up so that we could drive into The Bay to do our last minute Christmas food shopping.

We concentrated on buying healthy options but got some potato chips, corn chips and a packet of GF crackers to dip into hummus and guacamole dip. You know, the mandatory junk food for Christmas Day without going over the top.

I also got all the crafty bits and pieces that Primrose and I needed to finish our fabulous creations, including hooks for our jewellery holders, tools to attach findings to the strings of beads, findings to hold groups of beads together and boards for the shop signs.

I printed out a photo for one of our special customers and bought a frame for it, as requested, as a special rush job for Christmas.

It was a fairly rushed trip to get everything done in a couple of hours and return home in time to unpack the car, pack the food away, clear the dining room table which had a build up of items dumped on it over the past few weeks, finish preparing dinner (Primrose had done all the salads), eat, clear the table, clean the kitchen and then sit down with a couple of alcoholic beverages while we played trivia.

Primrose won!

Now I need to get some sleep. It's almost 1am.

Before I go, here are some of the beautiful San Marco jewellery that we ordered last week and which arrived at the shop in time for Christmas.

They are tiny Mexican wildflowers set in resin and then the outer edge of the pendant capped in silver. Incredibly delicate and beautiful pieces. We sold three on the first day!

There is always something new to look at in the shop and we try to bring in something different and unusual whenever possible.

That's all for tonight.

Nite all.

Looking Good

So here are the BIG copies of my Tawny pics.

In my honest opinion, I think they look pretty good! They are now up on the wall in The Happy Abode and selling for $245. They cost a LOT to print and even more for the mat board for something that size. So worth doing and I think that some time this year, I will endeavour to have them framed properly and hang them up at home.

I spent a few hours at The Happy Abode today labelling, pricing and displaying the photos, I served a customer,  corrected the prices on a couple of items, checked the mail, delivered Christmas cards to businesses in town, picked up a chai latte for The Motivator, bought some meat from the butcher and chatted to a couple of locals who I haven't seen for at least a year.

The kitchen was all abuzz when I arrived home. Primrose was preparing some salads for lunch and instructed me to cook some meat balls to go with them.

We sat outside afterwards, she doing arty farty stuff while I attempted to learn about my new camera. It took me half an hour just to put the danged strap on the camera! But with a few interruptions to find batteries and sticky tape, search for special findings for our beading project, drive to the shops to buy batteries and coffee, there wasn't much time left for the camera.

While I began to get ready for the club tonight, I received a phone call from Vegan Chickie - which took about 40 minutes. It was a great chat but I only had 20 minutes to get ready after that.

It was a losing night all round and once again we came home empty handed.

The good part was walking in the door to see the table set with our plates and cutlery, along with a a few salads and the chicken wings that I'd cooked earlier in the day. Primrose had already eaten, so Adoring Husband and I sat down, lit a candle and ate dinner together.

It's almost 11.30pm so I'm off to bed because I have to work tomorrow.

Nite all.

Stupid O'clock

All three of us were awake at stupid o'clock this morning so that we could drive Adoring Husband to the train station to catch the 5.46am train to Brisvegas. He was visiting the Parkinson's Professor for a check up AND he was picking up this ...

Wahoo! Who's a lucky girl then????

I began to play this evening, but decided that I was way too tired to focus properly, so I packed it back into the box until I have the time to set it up properly.

This morning, after we dropped AH at the station, we drove home and parked the car, then walked to the shop for coffee and decided to visit the boys at the Seat of Knowledge for a little while.

Primrose spotted a couple of dolphins frolicking in the river - I was busy chatting with a friend and didn't get to see them, but Primrose was loud and animated in her excitement!

After a while, we walked home and the weather was already steaming hot at 8.15am, so we pumped up the air conditioner, cooked some bacon and eggs for breakfast, after which, Primrose was in need of some catch up sleep, so she climbed back into bed.

It was about 11am when we were ready to head into The Bay with our 'to do' list in hand.

It took almost all day to complete the list and we decided to do our small food shop at our local supermarket.

We arrived home and I prepared our dinner while Primrose rested.

To fill in time until we collected AH from the train station, we decided to leave the house early and look for more Christmas lights. There were a few new displays in our town, but we thought we'd drive to Howard early and go in search of their lights.

It was worth the early start because we found a few great displays, but the best one was in Burrum Town on the way to Howard and the house could be seen from the road with it's great Christmas spirit.

After such a huge day for us all, we are all exhausted and both AH and Primrose are already in their respective beds. 

Now it's my turn!

Nite all.   

Feeling the Effects

Three people experienced the positive and wonderful effects of our health practitioner today and each one left with a relaxed smile on their face vowing to return soon.

There are already two appointments booked for next week and I have a feeling that Wednesdays will soon be fully booked on a regular basis.

She is very good.

It was quieter in the shop than we expected. Our sales were still pretty good, just with fewer customers.

I didn't leave for home until just before 5pm and I rode the long way so that I could take advantage of the cool Summer breeze along the waterfront.

Primrose had prepared dinner again, so all we had to do was sit down to eat and then get ready for the Carols by Candlelight which was being held in the church grounds.

Adoring Husband decided not to come with us. He had to work this evening because he's leaving early in the morning to attend an appointment in Brisvegas and won't have time to do the work before he goes.

Also, our new super dooper whizz bang terrific couch arrived today so he was falling in love with it!

Primrose and I walked to The Motivator's house and we all walked together to the Church grounds. I had two folding chairs in my trike basket and two candles, while The Motivator carried her chair because it didn't quite fit in the basket.

We arrived a little bit late and we could hear the singing from quite a way down the street. We did catch the little nativity skit that the kids performed which contained quite a bit of good natured humour. We lit our candles, took a few selfies and sang along to a few songs and it was all over before we knew it. Just an hour.

It was very enjoyable. The night was mild with a soft breeze. The sky was clear and full of stars. The crowd were relaxed and happy, but the best bit was spending time with the girls.

I made a big berry smoothie when we arrived home and now it's time for bed. We have to be up bright and early in the morning to take Adoring Husband to the train station.

Nite all.

Joyful Day

There were only 4 of us at morning tea today, but it was almost midday by the time everyone left the shop. It was a fabulous morning full of laughs and snorts and catch ups.

Not a single customer came in during that time, but as soon as the girls left, the shop filled up.

Firstly, the lady who sold me the timber wall hangers at the markets last week, stopped in at the shop and asked if I'd like to buy some more.  She had three in the back of her truck that she was selling for $10 each, so I snapped them up.

After that, there were a string of ladies entering the shop in groups of three. Then a gentleman came in to pay for and pick up a previously ordered big ticket item.

Let's just say that it was a good day!

Adoring Husband drove into The Bay to pick up my printed photos and drop them at the framers to have the mat boards added. I'm looking forward to seeing the poster sized Tawny photos.

He also drilled another hole in the wall behind my desk so that I could hang the Mad Hatter quote that Primrose made for me.

It was a stinking hot day today - or so my customers told me - I was perfectly comfortable in the air conditioned shop haha.

I took delivery of three boxes of stock, including some lovely velvet lined shell trinket boxes - this is a shout out to someone special who wanted to know when they arrived - but I'll also send out a message tomorrow.

There are some beautiful San Marco pendants in stock now. Tiny delicate Mexican flowers encased in resin and sterling silver. They really are quite delightful. I'll post photos on our Facebook page tomorrow.

I didn't quite finish unpacking and pricing the stock and have left a bit of a mess in the shop so I need to get there bright and early to finish the job before we open the doors tomorrow.

As I put the bins out this afternoon and began bringing in the signs and flags, Primrose appeared from nowhere and was able to help me. She had been watching an eagle hunt for food at the beach and prior to that had prepared a bunch of mouth watering salads for dinner, so I got to sit down at home for half an hour before serving a delicious meal that I had no hand in!

I am lucky to have such a caring friend and she has made my life so easy while she has been on holidays. I need to think of a way to say thank her.

It's almost 10pm now, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Catch Ups

It was quite the day of 'catch ups' in the shop today.

The Publican came for a visit in a wheelchair and though she is very weak after some heavy duty treatment for her illness, she put on a brave face, was very chatty and even had a little twinkle in her eye.

I was so happy to see her and pounced on her for a big hug.

She gingerly removed herself from the chair and slowly made her way around the shop to look at our new stock. It was so good to see her and I really hope that her health improves quickly.

A group of three ladies came in today - the ring leader being a previous customer who purchased her first collection of snap button jewellery during her first visit. Today she was adding to that collection and quickly chose four beautiful buttons.

One of her friends took the opportunity to start her own collection of snap jewellery and got a little bit carried away, which was fun to see. I can totally relate to that!

A couple of mothers came in to buy birthday presents for their young daughters. A couple of women needed to purchase secret Santa gifts for work colleagues. One lady came all the way from Hervey Bay especially to shop at The Happy Abode for a Christmas gift for a friend. THAT was very cool.

Our last big clock went to a happy home today.

Lastly, at the end of the day, Woman of Many Talents walked through the door, so we had a great catch up between customers.

Adoring Husband arrived just before 3pm to help me pack everything away and lock the shop so that we could drive into town and have some photos printed. It was a quick trip and we did a little food shopping before returning home.

Primrose and I walked to the beach, took our shoes off and did some grounding by walking for about 30 minutes in the shallows as the tide came in and then made our way to the shop so that I could pick up my trike to bring home.

Primrose had already prepared three different salads for dinner, so it was just up to AH to cook our meat on the barbecue, which he did.

Now, it's already after midnight, so I'd best get some sleep.

Oh and here are a couple of photos to show how we've changed up the shop a touch - the narrow shelving on the walls, in particular, for my photos.

Nite all.

Happiest of Happy Abode

I did take advantage of my Sunday off by staying in bed and requesting my morning coffee.

But we had a big day planned at the shop, so I had to drag myself into action eventually.

Adoring Husband moved my white side board from our house to the shop and then spent the next few hours attaching shelving to the shop walls to display my photographs and other assorted wall art. He added a few hooks to some designated wall space and a mirror to the treatment room wall.

Primrose, The Motivator and I spent some time working out how to display our stock in the new layout and then stood back to admire our handiwork.

It deserved hugs all round!

The Motivator gave Primrose a lift home and she prepared lunch while AH and I moved the furniture back into place and cleaned up the mess we'd made.

It was a most satisfying day and I'm looking forward to going into work tomorrow to see the result with fresh eyes.

I'll take photos tomorrow (or today as you are reading this) so you can see how fabulous we look now.

I've spent the afternoon and evening trying to write up a flyer for our Vision Board workshops and printing out pages of symbols and pictures that can be used on the boards. I also found lots of examples of vision boards to help people get an idea of what they need to do.

Here is my draft -

What is a Vision Board?

A 'vision board' is a collage of your visions for your future.  It can be what you see for the coming year, 2 years or even longer term - an imaginative daily reminder of your wishes and dreams that usually swim around in your head and never see the light of day.

We will help you take those thoughts and dreams and put them where you can see them so that you can focus daily on your aspirations.

It's a sacred space that helps you be more proactive in creating a positive future for yourself, and to remind you of your goals in life.

Your vision board can cover all different areas of your life such as relationships, career, personal growth, health, finances, holidays and more.

You will create your sacred space to attract your attention from the robotic routines that normally fill your days.

Seeing your creation every day will inspire and motivate you to think about what you really want and helps you to both consciously and subconsciously work towards the goal and stay connected.

Your vision board will help you to notice opportunities and spur you to take action.

The workshop will be a fun, stress free way to recognise your dreams, hopes and desires. It doesn't have to be perfect because there is no right or wrong way to create your vision board. It just needs to 'be' to work.

So come and joins us, on your own or with a couple of friends. We provide all the materials for your vision board plus morning tea. You may have some pictures or quotes that you'd like to add to your board, so bring any special additions that you would like to add to your creation.

Where? The Happy Abode
When?  Thursday 4th January 2018  9am - 1pm
Cost?    $65 - all materials are provided plus morning tea

Phone 074193 4979 and talk to Roz or Tracey to book your spot

I did a lot of online research to help determine a competitive price and this is a very good price for what is provided.

I'm pretty excited about running the first workshop because I've created a few boards over the years and they have been really successful for me.

My first vision board helped me meet Adoring Husband. It helped me move from the country to the coast. It helped me manifest successful outcomes for my kids and it helped me find my creativity and artistry.

My last vision board helped me get my teeth fixed, lose weight, become healthier and stronger and spend more time with the Chicklet family.

My current vision board has already helped me create my website and start the business, travel for the 'journey' work, feel empowered and in control of my life and keeps me refocussing on my health when I stray slightly.

I love vision boards.

Now I need to focus on getting some sleep. I have a feeling that it's going to be a big week!

Nite all.

Fifteen Minutes

That's how long I've got until Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion starts on Foxtel and I am going to watch it (for the millionth time).

We all saw Star Wars at the cinema today.

It was like all the other Star Wars movies. Lots of action. Lots of characters. Lots of comedy. Lots of drama. Lots of killing. Lots of bad guys. Lots of good guys. Lots of special effects.

One notable difference - lots of strong female characters - which I liked a lot.

After the movie, we shopped and Primrose and I attempted to print out some photos from our USB sticks. I took the wrong one and Primrose's USB couldn't be recognised by the Harvey Norman computer, so that was a big fat fail.

Meanwhile, The Motivator was breaking sales records in the shop all by herself! We hope to break her new record tomorrow!

Primrose and I headed to the Bowls Club for the raffles tonight and neither of us had any luck at all.

Adoring Husband stayed at home and kept an eye on dinner which was a made up dish - chicken with garlic, chilli, honey and lemon. It was disappointing, but edible.

I think it's time for me to sleep now ... I can't even stay awake for Romy and Michelle.

Nite all.

Presentation Skills

I love 'The Happy Abode'.

The Motivator has had some time off to spend with her lovely Mum who is visiting from Sydney and today I was alone in the shop.

It was very busy in the morning and they were all lovely customers with big smiles and warm positive wishes for our success, all buying Christmas gifts for friends or family.

It was quiet enough in the afternoon that I could actually eat some lunch and go check the mail afterwards. I did some tidying up and put the extra stock away, replaced the buttons in the trays that I'd sold in the morning, made up some bracelets to replace the ones that I'd sold earlier, took some photos of the handbags and posted them on our Facebook page (as promised to one of the customers yesterday, who wants her daughter to choose one for Christmas) and messaged Primrose to come to the shop at 4pm.

That's the time that I closed the doors so that we could take the yellow cover off the display table and replace it with a blue one, swap the blue buddha for the white one and then change up the presentation of the stock on the main table. We also changed positions of some of my photos around the shop.

Adoring Husband will be mounting the photo display shelves on the wall this weekend so it will all change again after that.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the finished display because I think it looks pretty darned good. I think Primrose enjoyed the process and she has a pretty good eye for presentation so we left feeling good about our work.

We decided to take the long way home, walking along the river path. The tide was high and the water was very choppy with the moored boats rocking back and forth over the choppy waves.

Primrose had prepared dinner earlier, so we had a delicious cold meat dinner with three different salads before doing a quick clean up and retiring to our respective evening positions in the house. She, in her bedroom to watch the remaining ER series and me to the lounge room to do this blog post and watch some reviews on Canon Mark IV cameras.

In the middle of doing that, I had the inclination to clean the main toilet and bathroom - much to the horror of Primrose who is always disturbed when I do something out of character like that. Cleaning the bathroom at 10pm and still wearing my work clothes is definitely out of character.

We are all off to the cinema in the morning to see the new Star Wars movie. Primrose and Adoring Husband are very excited about this, so I'd best get myself some sleep!

Happy Friday!

Nite all.

    

Night Sky

It's 10pm. Primrose and I have just returned from the beach where we watched the sky for an hour to see some of the Geminids Meteor Shower in the night sky.

We saw four bright meteors shoot across the sky and a few small ones.

It was the most beautiful clear night and the sky was brilliant with stars. There was a soft breeze blowing and as the tide was receding, the water was gently lapping the beach. If I'd had a more comfortable resting place, I could easily fallen asleep in the mild night air.

It was well worth the effort, not just for the serenity of it all, but for the bright meteors that made us gasp in awe and if Primrose hadn't been here, I probably wouldn't have made the effort, so I thank her for her enthusiastic motivating pull (aka harassing lol).

I was booked in for a Zen Shiatsu session with Annemarie at the shop this afternoon. I took her last appointment for the day and it was my first experience with this form of remedial therapy. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew that I would be fully clothed and that it would be similar to acupressure.

It was wonderful and the hour went so fast! Into the first ten minutes and I was feeling very very relaxed. By the time she'd finished, from top of my head to the tips of my toes, I felt amazing. So many tight and tense parts of my body were relaxed and moving better than they have in years.

The base of my spine and my hips were moving easily and pain free and I felt so much lighter than before we began the process.

She gave me a few stretching exercises to do before getting out of bed in the mornings and then explained what to expect in the coming 24 hours with my emotions and moods. Releasing the pressure on so many parts of my body might trigger some unusual or unexpected 'feelings' and 'emotions'.

So far, the only emotion I've felt is pure wonder that the stiffness has gone from my hips and I can move freely!

I think I'll need to make a standing fortnightly appointment with her. The best part is that all I have to remove is my shoes.

Annemarie is both gentle and strong in her movements and actions. I felt safe and comfortable the whole time and I can confidently recommend her Zen Shiatsu sessions.

At the shop, it was a quieter than usual Pension Wednesday.

Adoring Husband and Primrose had dinner all organised, so I didn't have to put too much effort into it. We make a pretty good team!

I'm off to bed to take advantage of a relaxed and clear body. I feel that sleep will arrive quickly tonight.

Nite all.

Zawsted

I am exhausted.

In the last 2 days, I've opened eleven boxes of stock, checked them off against the invoices, priced each item and then rearranged the displays in the shop so that I could fit everything in.

There was not enough room for storage so I had to reorganise the snap jewellery drawers.

The new display trays arrived and that meant rearranging all the buttons and removing them from the old trays and putting them in some kind of order on the new ones.

It's bin day, so I had to cut up all the boxes to put into the recycle bin.

Of course, in between all of this, there were customers to serve.

Our new business cards, address stickers and other printed paraphernalia arrived today too.

There should be one more delivery this week and that should be all before Christmas.

We were very light on for the usual Tuesday morning tea. The lovely Tweedle Dee was the only one to appear and it was great to have some one on one time with her.

It's that time of the year when everybody has something going on, like babysitting duties, holidays, illness and other commitments.

Adoring Husband, Primrose and I drove to the river to check out the sunset, but it was a fizzer, so we drove around the parts of town that we missed last night, looking for Christmas lights.

Not many of the usual suspects have their lights up this year, so it was a disappointing drive.

Primrose had prepared all the salads for dinner and AH cooked our meat on the barbecue - so thankfully, it required little effort from me and I enjoyed a delicious, healthful meal.

Adoring Husband was kind enough to massage my feet for me while we watched a movie.

Now I'm off to bed because I can barely keep my eyes open.

Nite all.

Tourist Season

It has begun.

The first day of Queensland school holidays brought me a busy Monday at the shop.

Not only did the tourists come for a visit and buy lots of jewellery, but I took delivery of ten (10) boxes of stock!

I assembled the new hat stand which now displays many hemp hats and a bag or two.

... and then this happened ...

I've unpacked one and a half of those boxes, so there is much work to do this week!

It may seem like a difficult task, but it's FUN! It's like Christmas because we never remember everything that we order.

I got to spend a lot of time playing with the snap button jewellery today, which is always enjoyable for me. I don't even mind when customers take a long time to choose their buttons and it's so interesting to watch them create their perfect 'piece'.

It was after 5pm when I arrived home.

Adoring Husband had already left for an important SES meeting, so Primrose and I sat down to an early dinner and then jumped in the car to try and catch the sunset on the river.

It was worth the effort.

I've got to be at work bright and early tomorrow so I'd best get some sleep!

Nite all.

Date Day

Adoring Husband and I had a bit of a date day today.

I had a few errands to run in The Bay, including picking up a couple of Christmas gifts, so we left home at 9am only to realise that the places that we needed to go didn't open until 10am!

We decided to have some breakfast and tried the new Enzos on the Esplanade. It's certainly a lot different to what it was originally, but I love the style of the place and the food was prompt to our table and very tasty.

The view was pretty special and the restaurant was open and airy with lots of tall tables, high benches with stools and low benches facing the water with low stools. There was even a sand pit with bean bags to relax in.

There is a bar for alcoholic beverages, of which we didn't partake at such an early hour!

We shopped well and before returning home, we perused Harvey Normans for kitchen 'stuff' including ridiculously priced stoves, fridges and washing machines and selecting our next lounge suite which has all the bells and whistles.

We were home by about 12.30 and after lunch, Primrose and I spent the afternoon outside being creative and artistic.

Primrose painted, sanded it to a rustic appearance and then painted the words of a quote on a square timber board for me.  She also painted a "Come in, we're AWESOME!" sign for the front door of our shop. She's a marvel.

Adoring Husband drilled approximately 20 small holes into a piece of silverware that I got from an Op shop while on our road trip and I began threading beads and charms onto it. It was a pleasant surprise opening each container full of beads and rediscovering some of the special bits and pieces that I had stored away.

I needed a short nap this afternoon and afterwards, Primrose and I walked to the supermarket to grab a couple of things for dinner, which we threw together without too much effort.

Adoring Husband has not been feeling the best this afternoon so he napped on and off in his lounge chair and had a fairly early night.

It's now after 11pm and I'll be opening the shop in the morning, so I'd best get some sleep.

Nite all.

    

Market Day

My plan was to go to the local markets to check out a stall that sells snap button jewellery.

This was her second time at our markets and prior to that, she was selling at Howard markets.

I did not plan on spending any money!

Ha!

I didn't spend any money at her stall, but I DID support other stall holders, including a new person who was selling her hand made timber paling wall shelves that I totally fell in love with and bought two for myself and then went halves in another set of two with Primrose.

I purchased a piece of art from the same girl whose cards and artwork is displayed in our shop and I bought a bracelet and ring from her mother who has a permanent stall and who I visit every month. I love her jewellery and she has asked to provide her pieces on consignment for our shop, but we already have enough jewellery.

I found a set of four very large shells - they are bigger than my hand ...

... which I thought might be nice for presentation or displays in the shop.

I also found some more silverware that I'll drill holes in for the bohemian hanging beads that we hope to make tomorrow.

Lastly, we stopped at the fruit and vegetable stall and bought a few items there before we packed all our purchases into Adoring Husband's car and walked to The Happy Abode to see The Motivator for a quick visit.

It was a really warm morning and we were both feeling the heat by the time we arrived home, but I cooked up some bacon and eggs for Primrose, made a turkey salad for AH (who arrived home early feeling drained from the heat), mixed up a big berry smoothie and made myself a toasted turkey, avocado, cranberry and rocket sandwich.

AH and I sat and watched a movie together while Primrose got her Arty Farty on and painted a sign for The Happy Abode and prepared another for completion tomorrow.

I made up some fritters with the leftover lamb and veg from Friday night and we ate them with salad for dinner, followed by a fruit salad with stewed rhubarb and apple!

There is currently a very nasty storm skirting around us. It's windy and noisy but I think we've dodged a bullet this time round, unlike the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast who copped a lot of hail and nasty winds that caused damage.

Adoring Husband and I will be spending Sunday morning together and all three of us will be visiting Toogoom for their Christmas Fair in the afternoon.

So it's sleep time for me!

Nite all.

New Wardrobe

Primrose and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at Goody's on the Beach in Toogoom this morning. It was a bit breezy, but certainly pleasant enough.

With all the 50% off sales on in The Bay at the moment, we decided to make the most of them and we shopped til we dropped.

Our original plan to go to the movies to see Murder on the Orient Express kind of went out the window when our shopping frenzy took hold and we totally lost track of the time.

I now have a complete new wardrobe of clothes to wear to work for the coming year, including hair accessories and jewellery!

I also purchased a couple of Christmas gifts and some DVDs, checked my losing Powerball ticket and bought one for the next draw.

We didn't even have time to stop for lunch.

At 5pm when we were driving home, I phoned Adoring Husband and asked him to put the leg of lamb in the oven. We stopped at the supermarket and picked up some vegetables to make a big pot of baked veggies and we pulled into the driveway, removed everything quickly from the car, prepared the vegetables and threw them into the oven with the meat before rushing right back out the door attempting to reach the river in time for what we thought would be a fabulous sunset.

Unfortunately a big bank of cloud appeared on the horizon and blocked any chance of a sunset, so we packed up our cameras and sulked our way home.

We have a lot planned for tomorrow, so it's time for bed now.

Nite all.

Fun and Frivolity

Today was full of fun and frivolity.

We slept in and then had a lazy start to the day but eventually Primrose and I drove into The Bay.

I had a 'to do' list.

Firstly we had to pick up the framed photo that Primrose had made for Adoring Husband's 60th birthday and then we drove along the Esplanade to Aquavue for some food.

Primrose had breakfast and I had lunch, so between us we were brunching.

The weather was glorious, the tide was high and it wasn't too busy in the restaurant. I ordered salt and pepper calamari and it was melt in your mouth delicious.

From there, we walked a good distance along the Esplanade, visiting all kinds of shops, starting with a beautiful book store where you can get coffee and sit and read. It's new to that location, but was once in a busier part of town.  I bought a Christmas present while there, which I'm very happy with.

Our next stop was a hippy shop full of beautiful things like amethyst caves of crystal, all types of semi precious jewellery, dream catchers and other beautiful ornaments. I bought some jade and some apatite before Primrose pointed out to me that the shop acted as a wholesaler as well as a retailer, so I returned to the shop and asked the girl for some contact information so that I could speak to the manager about buying some products wholesale.

We walked a good distance, popping into a few shops here and there, until we decided to get on with marking off the 'to do' list.

Go Natural is where I picked up a big bottle of apple cider vinegar.

We drove to the Reject Shop to look for some wrought iron display stands that we first noticed down south during our road trip, but it seems that the Queensland shops don't stock these stands. I did pick up a white hat stand that might come in handy at the shop.

Next was HBW to pick up some paper bags for the shop.

Pialba was our next destination and that's where I got some new shoes!!

I tried on some clothes, we did some grocery shopping and checked out lots of sales in lots of shops and didn't even begin the drive home until after 5pm!

It was a long and happy day.

Tomorrow will be another.

Nite all.  

Make it Quick!

Look at this!

Almost midnight already and I'm only just starting this post.

It was a strange kind of day which started with a visitor to our shop that tainted our morning with some bitter, racist bigotry and it took a little while for the bitter taste to fade and for the nastiness in the air to dilute.

Thankfully, she is not a customer of The Happy Abode and will not be welcomed in the future.

Today was Wednesday, which is practitioner day and we have appointments available for massage, Bowen therapy, Zen Shiatzu, hypnotherapy, Cupping therapy and more.

I have booked an appointment with our practitioner for next Wednesday for Zen Shiatzu, which I have never experienced before and which I know she enjoys both giving and receiving, so I'll give my review here this time next week.

It was a busy day in the shop and we had lots of customers, all buying snap button jewellery. It's becoming more and more popular as word spreads and customers return to not only add to their collection, but they also bring friends and family with them.

Some of them have better collections of this jewellery than even 'I' have!

The Motivator and I spent the last couple of hours at work making more orders for stock from various wholesalers, which was fun, but also quite stressful because today is only the second day that we've had together since I returned and we haven't had much time to discuss any important issues with the shop or the stock.

I think we are missing each other's company in the shop. It's all about doing this 'together' so being 'together' in the shop is key to our happiness in the business.

At the moment, our lives are full with friends and family, and I think if we could afford to do so, we would just close the doors of the shop for a couple of weeks so that we could give our full attention to all the other great things in our lives.

Instead, we are working on finding the right balance and giving each other the time away from the shop so that we can each have quality time with our people.

I rushed home after work to make a quick dinner before heading out to the Bowls Club for the monthly trivia night. We met up with Tweedle Dee and the Garden Guru and put up a good fight for the night, coming 9th out of 22 teams. It was a good night and we had some laughs which included a few snorts from Tweedle Dee - always an indication of fun times.

Oh and I also received a phone call from Number One Son just before we left for the club and even though the phone call was brief and he was calling with the disappointing news that he wouldn't be able to make it for Christmas as planned, it was still good to talk to him and hear that he was doing ok.

Now, it's rapidly approaching 1am so I'm off to bed. No work tomorrow and I get to spend a couple of days with Primrose. We have quite a bit planned so hopefully, this blog will have some great photos and some interesting stories!

Nite all.

Tuesday

Why am I so tired tonight?

Probably all the well wishing visitors in the shop today.

While it was a steady morning with good sales, there were five visitors who didn't want to buy anything, but wanted to offer their good wishes and were 'in for a chat'.

I did learn some interesting information and confirmed some town gossip straight from the horses mouth. Things are certainly about to change in this town!

After yesterday's crazy rain, today was warm and sunshiny, so people were out and about and enjoying the day.

Our mate 'Stretch' came in to say goodbye and pick up the gift that he bought for his daughter-in-law last week. Luckily, the first thing that I did this morning when I arrived at the shop, was gift wrap it in  preparation of his final visit. We had a goodbye hug and he is heading south to live closer to family.

Coffee with the girls was light on this morning with only three ladies appearing with their coffee (and mine). I got to spend a little time with them before the morning rush when I had about eight customers in the shop at once.

Even though I'd planned on leaving the shop early so that I could go home and prepare for our monthly barbecue at the park, I didn't end up getting home until almost 4.30pm, by which time I just wasn't in the mood for racing around like a chook with it's head cut off to have our car packed with a prepared dinner in time to arrive there at 5pm.

It's been a few months since we attended a monthly barbecue and I miss a couple of my favourite friends. I need to try harder and be more organised in 2018.

This afternoon, I chose instead, to go for a walk along the beach with Primrose and my camera. We spotted a Brahminy Kite and a White Bellied Sea Eagle, which were both pretty special, although I was feeling a bit edgy about a storm that was lurking overhead.

Before we left home, Primrose had placed a potato bake in the oven and I had put a pan full of pork sausages on the stove for Adoring Husband to watch over.

By the time we returned home, dinner was cooked and all we had to do was bring last night's leftover salad out to the table to join the sausages and potato bake.

After dinner, we had a quick game of Trivial Pursuit - hoping that it would warm us up ready for trivia tomorrow night at the club. I was losing by a long way, but I won, by coming up the rear and stealing victory from both AH and Primrose.

I may have cheated.

Just a little.

Gosh, it's almost midnight again. I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Not With It

So I wasn't quite 'with it' last night when I wrote the blog.

I forgot to publish it so it was still sitting as a draft when I checked this afternoon. Adoring Husband asked me why I didn't do a blog post last night ... but I DID!

Apologies to the people who expect to see a new post every morning and who might have been disappointed to find nothing there this morning.

I won't bore you with much this time, since you will now have two posts to read!

How was the weather today?  One hell of day of bucketing rain. I believe we had approximately 50mm of rain in about four hours!

It kept the customers away for most of the day, but when the rain stopped, the last two hours were pretty steady and I sold quite a lot of snap jewellery.

It's quite a rigmarole to open and close the shop these days.

One A-frame sign to carry to the front of the driveway, three 4 metre flags to insert into pipes along the fence, one wrought iron sign with a sandbag to put outside the door, two chairs to place on either side of the door, the door mat to place at the threshold, three blinds to open at the front windows, one blind to remove and roll up to put aside for the day, two lots of lighting to switch on, the air conditioner to turn on, turning on the iMac desktop computer, turning on the JBL wireless speaker for music - connect it to the blue tooth on the computer and then select the music to play and then finally, connect the iPad to the Square reader for our cash register.

With just one of us in attendance, it takes a good 10-15 minutes just to open the shop!

Still, I wouldn't change it for anything. It feels good because it's ours!

When I finally got home from work this afternoon, at about 5pm, I ate half a kilo of lychees! If I had to choose just one fruit to live on for the rest of my life ... it would be lychees. I also LOVE mangos, grapes and watermelon, but lychees are the bomb!! Sooooooo delicious!!

THEN Primrose and I ate leftovers from last night + two delicious salads that she'd prepared earlier, while Adoring Husband cooked a couple of duck breasts on the barbecue for himself.

Jack the psychotic dog has been very happy since I drowned him in magnesium oil. Apparently he had a little cramp in one leg today, but it didn't cause him to scream or cry out, so it's almost not worth mentioning.

I'm happy with this outcome, but AH is still doubtful that we've fixed the problem ... he is still in that mindset where only drugs can fix medical conditions ... at this point I am feeling excited that we don't have to experiment with anti-seizure medication, and looking at Jack now, you wouldn't even know that he was doing so poorly just 36 hours ago.

Anyway, it's time for bed.

Nite all.

Full of Hope

So the Valium didn't work.

I gave Jack his second dose of Valium at about midnight, just before I went to bed. It was a struggle to wait that long, because his 'episodes' became more frequent and he was obviously in pain, and I gave it to him an hour earlier than it should have been. He staggered when he walked and had no strength in his muscles to even get up one step.

I hoped that the Valium would be enough to at least help him sleep through the night.

Unfortunately, this was not the case and he screamed in pain at 2.20am, waking us suddenly from a sound sleep. His body was stiff and his legs outstretched.

At 3am he needed to pee, so I began to walk him outside, but halfway along the hallway he began screaming again and his legs collapsed from under him as they went rigid with cramp.

It just didn't seem like a seizure to me, as the vet had suggested. Jack was fully aware of what was happening every time and he tried to shake the cramp out a couple of times, but it set in so that he had no control of his limbs ... just like us when we get a bad cramp.

At 4am, after Adoring Husband had left the bedroom because he was unable to sleep and was feeling traumatised by the whole Jack ordeal, I got my iPad out and did a search on Magnesium deficiency in dogs.

All the information that I could find showed that dogs have the same symptoms as humans when they are deficient in magnesium - cramps, muscle pain, muscle weakness, tics etc

So then I investigated what sort of magnesium was best for dogs and it seems that all forms are safe.

I got out of bed and found my bottle of pure magnesium oil in the kitchen - I sprayed it all over Jack's legs and feet, attempting to massage it in, but his muscles were still tender and he didn't like it, so I just sprayed the oil until it drenched the fur along the full length of his legs.

While he puffed and panted a lot, he stopped cramping up and I got to sleep for a couple of hours until Adoring Husband came noisily through the bedroom door at 6.30am asking if I wanted my coffee. I said yes, but I actually fell asleep once he left and I think it was about 8.30am when I opened my eyes again.

I got Jack up and let him walk through the house. Only once did a leg go a little stiff, but he continued to walk and it didn't cramp up. He was able to make it outside and while he was very slow on his feet, he did not appear to experience any pain.

Adoring Husband was supposed to sell Christmas cakes with his SES crew today, but instead, he decided to stay at home with Jack while Primrose and I drove into The Bay to do some grocery shopping and do the few chores that we were supposed to do on Saturday, until Jack's trauma prevented us from doing so.

AH was worried about spending the day alone with Jack because he was not confident about dealing with one of Jack's episodes. Luckily, there was only one moment, when somebody knocked on the door, when Jack got over excited and he had a bit of cramping, but nothing that AH couldn't handle.

Other than that, he's had a cramp free 16 hours. I put some more oil on his legs this afternoon at about 5pm and I've added a tiny bit of Himalayan salt to the dog's water bowl - as recommended by a couple of natural vets online.

I am very hopeful that this will be the answer to Jack's problem, because I do NOT want to resort to using anti-seizure medication. It bothers me a lot that we have to experiment with toxic drugs to figure out what is wrong.

We will test out the theory for another 24 hours before we decide about returning to the vet.

Fingers crossed.

Nite all.

Tested

It all started early this morning when we got Jack, the oldest psychotic dog, out of bed to go to the vet.

His body has been seizing up since last Thursday, at which time Adoring Husband took him to the vet in Howard and they couldn't find any reason for it, so they sent him home and advised that if it continued, to bring him back for an x-ray and a closer look.

This morning, his legs seized up and he collapsed on the floor unable to move. He cried out in pain and I had to massage his legs until he relaxed enough to walk again.

It didn't last long and he seized up again and was in obvious pain.

Adoring Husband could not cope seeing his favourite dog in pain and was pretty messy with emotion.

He didn't know how to physically handle Jack and he was struggling, so I phoned The Motivator and asked her to open the shop - this was supposed to be her first day off in more than 3 weeks - so that I could accompany Jack and AH to the vet.

We arrived at the Howard Vet clinic to discover that they were closed.

Adoring Husband phoned the Maryborough Vets and even though they were completely booked out, they said to bring him in and leave him at their clinic so that they could check him out between consults, then we could return later to pick him up.

He was with them for four hours and not once did he seize up! Not once did he have an episode! They performed all sorts of physical tests on him, followed by blood tests which all came back clear.

Nothing indicates that there are any problems with him, but she seems to think that these episodes are seizures.

Not grand mal seizures, but seizures on the lower end of the scale.

We didn't think they looked like seizures, but what would we know?

The vet suggested that we get video footage on our phone so that we could send it through to her on Monday and that way she could see what we were trying to describe.

In the meantime, the vet offered us two options.

Option One:  Experiment with Valium to see if that relaxed him and stopped his episodes.

Option Two:  Experiment with anti-seizure medication to see if that stops his episodes.

So, against my better judgement and not really knowing what to do next to get a quick result, we took option one.

I didn't give it to him right away though. We all left the house almost as soon as we got home to attend the community Christmas party.

Later, when Primrose and I were almost home, she suggested that I get my phone ready and allow her to video Jack as we opened the door - it was a good idea because the excitement of seeing us was enough to trigger another episode.

That's when I gave him his first dose of Valium.

He was 'drunk Jack' all afternoon, very slow on his feet, sometimes staggering just a little, but he didn't have an episode until 10.30pm tonight. He can only have the valium every 8 hours. He lasted 5.5 hours. Maybe once the valium settles into his system properly, the episodes will stop. Time will tell.

I will continue to research better methods and test those as we go ... like 'stress-less' essential oil ... of which I'll place a few drops onto his bed tonight.

So that was our quite stressful day dealing with a sick dog and getting no answers from the professionals.

In the middle of all that, I did get to work to relieve The Motivator of her duties and allow her to at least get SOME time off on her day off.

While Adoring Husband was performing SES duties at the community Christmas party, Primrose and I enjoyed lamb rack with pumpkin and spinach salad and pickled cucumber for dinner. Primrose prepared a delicious fruit salad for dessert.

Now, as it approaches 11.30pm, I am signing off so that I can give Jack some more drugs and get some sleep myself.

Nite all.  

Weeks End

It's the end of the week and time for The Motivator to have some time off.

I placed some of our postcards on the tables outside the supermarket today and it actually brought some curious people to the shop. They came through the door in a slow, but steady stream, which kept us well occupied until after lunch.

The remainder of the day was spent sorting through a very large box of snap jewellery items which arrived in the mail this morning.

More than a thousand snap buttons and more than one hundred bracelets, leather straps, pendants, keyrings, brooches, bookmarks, bag hooks, glasses hooks, snap button sunglasses, silver chains and the list goes on.

We don't have anywhere near enough display trays for the buttons, nor do we have enough room in the display cabinets to show off the jewellery!

We are, however, prepared for Christmas!

I am currently watching the oldie but goodie "Jaws" movie. I swear it is still one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I've gasped and cringed and groaned so many times and it has reaffirmed my fear of swimming in our river - never again will I splash, wade or swim in our river. No sirrreeee!

Having filled my tummy with a plate full of chicken, coleslaw, garden salad and the deadly potato salad, my body is complaining painfully, so I will go sleep it off now. Potato is not my friend. I know that now. I've known it for a long time, yet I am still a glutton for punishment. Self inflicted.

But I LOVE potato!

Ugh.

Ok, gotta go. Gotta be up bright and early for work and I've gotta be on the ball!

Nite all.

  

All Wet

There is a bit of wet stuff falling out of the sky right now, and it has been that way since about lunch time.

We had a steady morning at the shop until the rains came.

I must say that it was really nice sitting in the empty shop with the rain pelting down outside and the music playing softly in the background while I researched various wholesalers.

I pottered around, cleaned some display cases, loaded a display tree with jewellery, added snap buttons to some pendants, did a little dusting, cleaned some of the silver jewellery and researched some wholesalers.

Primrose arrived at the shop on closing time and offered to buy us a coffee, which was a lovely gesture. We had closed all the blinds and brought the signs, flags and chairs inside but just as she left to get the coffees, and before we had a chance to close the door, a customer walked in!

The customer turned out to be the lady from Salvation Army where we bought our furniture for the shop! We showed her the newly covered chairs and she was impressed. She's going to find out if there are more chairs in their storage area and let us know if other chairs come in.

The rain eased long enough for Primrose and I to walk/ride home without getting too drenched.

Psychotic Dog (Jack) had to visit the vet this afternoon because he was having trouble with his hind legs and had a little screaming turn. The vet couldn't find anything wrong and suggested that it might be a slipped disc or arthritis, but issued AH with a bag full of syringes and painkillers. If Jack continues to show these symptoms, then the vet will take x-rays and he might require surgery.

I have seen no signs of these symptoms this afternoon or this evening, so I think it was a 'one off' and he probably got his claw caught in the threads of the blanket when he jumped off the chair or maybe he slept the wrong way (just like we do sometimes).

Of course the vet pumped him full of painkillers and of course he hasn't eaten anything tonight.

Meanwhile, it's now 10.30pm and I'm off to bed. I've had two very late nights in a row and I need to get some solid sleep and NOT sleep in tomorrow, like I did this morning!

Nite all.