Productivity Plus

I moved straight from my bedroom to my workspace this morning.

Well, I had my lemon water first.

There was much to do while the internet was moving quite a bit faster than yesterday.

I researched packaging for different sized photos framed with mat board and mounted on padded board. There was really nothing suitable, although I could have some packaging taylor made for a price.

During this research, I trawled through many many photography websites, from little known photographers, to well known photographers, to Etsy photography shops and international photographers.

All of them send their prints through the mail rolled up inside cardboard cylinders - except for soft canvas prints and stretched canvas prints and fully framed limited edition prints.

I also discovered that my prices were way lower than any of the other photographers! So I changed my prices, which meant a lot of editing on 20 different pages.

I doubled checked my sizes and discovered that I had one measurement incorrect on my larger pics, so I had to edit them too.

By this time, it was 1pm and I had a Le Reve party to attend at 2pm, so I made myself presentable and pedalled to The Motivator's house. I was a bit concerned to pull into the driveway and discover that the party presenter had not arrived yet! I was hoping that this wouldn't be a repeat of the last party that I attended where she didn't turn up at all.

The Motivator soon put my mind at ease when she explained the situation and twenty minutes later, Forgetful Jane pulled into the driveway.

There were six of us in attendance and we all had fun trying the different scents in the perfumes and roll on blends. It was very difficult to decide on what to buy and I'm glad that I have three more parties to attend in the coming months so that I can spread my spending. I really love the essential oils and the different blends.

The Motivator put up a beautiful spread at the end of the presentation with some delicious chicken wings, a cheese and veg platter, a fruit and chocolate dip platter and a GF chocolate mud cake. I filled my belly with all of that deliciousness and didn't need any dinner when I got home!

After everybody left, we discussed our flights and plans for the Sydney trip coming up soon and before I knew it, it was 6.15pm! Poor Adoring Husband was sitting at home waiting patiently for me to return and cook his dinner! It was a nice easy steak with eggs, tomato, avocado and kimchi.

Now I am enjoying the tennis with the Australian, Gavrilova playing the Swiss girl Bacsinszky. So far, a great match!

I hope that tomorrow, the internet is moving efficiently and I get to spend time getting more checked off my 'to do' list.

Tonight I'm feeling enthusiastic and motivated .. I hope the mood remains upon waking tomorrow!

That's it from me.

Nite all.

Internet Hell

That's where I was today! Internet hell!

I had a lot on my 'to do' list and I was so keen to get moving and check off as many items as possible.

The stoopid internet did not play fair at all.

It was taking at least two minutes for pages to load. It took 6 minutes to load the photography site that I needed. On the Flickr site, I couldn't even load my photos! They just froze mid load.

I attempted to create a business card on the Vistaprint site, but even though I made it to the size that they requested, it didn't fit in the frame they provided. I tried, unsuccessfully, three times ... but tomorrow is another day!

Nothing seemed to go right and I complained loudly to Adoring Husband, who wasn't the slightest bit sympathetic to my woes.

Ruby, number two psychotic dog, decided that my light box was a perfect place to sleep. I really must put that away tomorrow, so that she doesn't dig a hole in the bottom of it, the way she has with her real bed.

I registered with the Reed Gift Fair, which is being held in Sydney, and which I will be attending with The Motivator straight after the Health and Wellness Festival in Canberra. They ask for a LOT of documentation to prove that you own a business before they approve your Pass.

I hope to get some good ideas for my online shop and make some helpful contacts. A bit of networking and marketing never went astray. Hopefully, my website will be up and running by then so that I can hand out business cards (if I ever get over that little hurdle) and look like I've got my act together!

Well, it's safe to say that I don't have my act together at all tonight because it's already 11.30pm and I still have stuff to do in the kitchen before I go to bed.

So on that note, I shall bid you good night.

Nite all.

Checked Off

The Seat of Knowledge enjoyed my company for a short while this morning. There was another female there when I arrived, whom I shall name Manic Mermaid. She lives on a boat on the river and obviously has some mental issues, among other problems. She provided some entertainment and some uncomfortable moments.

In future, if she is there when I arrive, I shall continue riding and not stop. She gave me a very bad feeling and she seems to be quite volatile, so I believe she is a good person to avoid. She didn't even speak to me directly while I was there, but still I felt uneasy. Alway follow your instincts, I say.

We had to drive into town to pick up our FROG box this afternoon, so I decided to take the opportunity to have a couple of my photos printed. One in the small size and one in the large size.

We then visited my framing guy to get some quotes on mat board frames and backing. I was pleasantly surprised by his quote and left the two photos there to be mounted and framed with mat board.

I want my photos to be presented professionally, so this is the test. I just have to figure out how to ship them!

So that's another task checked off the 'to do' list.

While we were in The Bay, I received a text informing us that the FROG box was going to be delayed by at least 90 minutes! What a pain.

We drove to Go Natural to see if they had restocked their fridge with peppermint choc chip coconut ice cream, but alas they hadn't. The owner apologised because he had been away on holidays and told me that it would be the 29th January before the next order came in.

I almost fell to my knees in despair! I told him that this simply was not acceptable and that I couldn't possibly wait that long!

He then made me an offer that I couldn't refuse. He said that if I ordered at least six tubs of it, he would give it to me at a great discounted price. He didn't tell me what the discounted price would be, but I didn't care. I simply opened my eyes really wide with delighted surprise and said "Yes please!"

I still have to wait til 29th January, but now I wait with eager anticipation!

While Adoring Husband shopped at his favourite, and my most despised store, Bunnings, I shopped at Stocklands for a few grocery items. I forced myself to avoid all other shops, however, I did shop at one of the kiosks in the the walkway and bought some TurmeriX. I've heard amazing things about this product, so I'm excited to try it.

After all of that, we still had 45 minutes to kill before our FROG box would be ready, so we found a coffee shop for AH to get his afternoon fix and I downloaded the tennis app on my phone and began watching some tennis! We sat in the car with the deliciously cold air conditioning and relaxed while we waited.

By the time we arrived home, I think it was after 5pm and the house was like a sauna! Ugh! We threw open all the doors and windows to let some fresh air in and thank goodness there was a good cooling breeze coming from the south and soon the house had cooled down to a comfortable level.

We are, at last, on the list for our new air conditioner to be installed, however, we have to wait until 10th February! That's still three weeks away.

It's already after 10pm and as much as I'd like to stay awake and watch Jordan Thompson complete his match against Dominic Thiem in the Australian Open, I want even more, to get a good night's sleep so that I can be fresh for the website tomorrow. After a lost day today, I have some catching up to do.

So ...

Nite all!

What a Day!

The energy is surging in our town at the moment, and it's all bad energy.

I don't know if it's the heat or what it is, but it's not good.

The Reality TV Queen lost her husband yesterday, who succumbed after a very long illness, for which he refused treatment. So sad, but it's a blessing that he is no longer in pain. May he rest in peace.

In the street behind her house, there was a stabbing! A long running feud between neighbours came to a head when a dog belonging to one of them, escaped from the yard and trespassed onto the neighbour's property. This triggered a fit of rage and as he'd previously promised would happen, he took a knife and went on a rampage attempting to hurt the husband and wife AND dog.

He stabbed the man, and police, ambulance and news reporters were all soon on the scene.

Unbelievable.

This morning, my watch told me that I slept for 7 hours and 21 minutes. This made me happy, however, I only slept deeply for 2 hours, slept 'restfully' for about 3 hours and the remaining hours were 'restless'. I did wake up feeling good though, and I've had plenty of energy all day, so I'm happy with that.

I will attempt to make that a habit.

Now, my watch is telling me that I walked more than 4kms today and rode for 4kms, so that's good too!

I saw my boys this morning and then rode to the beach, where I walked for more than thirty minutes as the tide came in. The water was lukewarm, so it wasn't very refreshing and by the time I got to the end of my walk, I could feel the bite in the sun on my back. It was going to be a very hot day!

I decided to pick up bags full of fresh fruit from the supermarket, imagining that I would make up a refreshing big bowl of cold fruit salad. Cherries, black grapes, rockmelon, pawpaw, mango, bananas, strawberries, passionfruit and apple. It sounded like a great idea to help ease the heat.

No fruit salad was made, but I did eat half a tub of cherries and a bunch of grapes! Tomorrow is another day.

The Motivator has been home for a week and I finally got to catch up with her today. We spent two hours spilling all of our news. She gave me some more motivation and some great ideas and advice for the website.

Her house was beautifully air conditioned and I'd forgotten how hot it was until I opened the door to leave. Ugh!! I begged her to let me stay! Haha.

I was actually surprised when I returned home, to find that the house wasn't too hot. My workspace had a nice breeze blowing through the window and that, combined with my little fan on the desk, was enough to keep me comfortable.

I ate a light lunch. I edited and resized some of the photos that I'd taken on Monday and Tuesday. I priced all of the jewellery. Checked my emails and by then, it was time to cook dinner.

It was a full day.

It's almost 10.30pm and if I want to get 7.5 hours of sleep again tonight, I'd best move my butt in the direction of the bedroom!

Nite all.

Monitor Everything

I believe that there is an app for everything.

My watch has an app that monitors my exercise, my heartbeat, my activity (different to my exercise apparently), my breathing, how long I've been sitting (always too long). It tells me to stand up for a minute, and then times me. It also congratulates me for a job well done after one minute.

It tells me when to breathe and then provides a blossoming flower, accompanied by a vibration for every time I inhale. I also receive praise for one minute of breathing.

It gives me a list of various exercises and activities, which, when I select one, counts me down 3-2-1 and runs a stopwatch for the duration of that exercise. I can choose from walking, jogging, cycling, rowing, elliptical and swimming - both pool and open water. There is also an 'other' option where you can put your own exercise or activity in there.

It can tell if I'm stationary, so I can't cheat by pressing the button while sitting in my chair.

Now I have an app that monitors my sleep! It can tell 'when' I fall asleep, how long each stage of my sleep is, including REM and deep sleep. It can tell when I'm restless and when I wake up. Last night I slept for total of 4 hours and 50 minutes, thanks to a barking dog, that got tired of barking after 30 minutes and toileted where she was.

So I was out of bed in a dazed state at 4am, letting her outside, while I spent 10 minutes cleaning up her messes, toileting myself and climbing back into bed. Of course, the crappy stimulation (pardon the pun) was enough that I couldn't easily fall back to sleep and it was almost 5am by the time I did ...

... only to be woken by Adoring Husband's alarm at 5am, which he struggled to turn off, and so the further stimulation woke me up completely.

It was nice of my watch to let me know that I slept for 4 hours and 50 minutes, was restless at 3.30am (probably when the dog started barking) and only had just over 3 hours of sound sleep for the entire night.

I really didn't need to have that confirmed for me.

Well, being up that early, gave me plenty of time to iron my clothes, shower, wash and blow dry my hair, paint on my face and make myself presentable firstly for coffee with the girls and then for AH and my trip into The Bay where we met with the financial advisors.

I had lots of questions, which they answered satisfactorily, although I was left feeling like they resented the female half of this equation asking all the questions and giving them directions. It was nothing specific that they said, just their manner, however I held my ground and got the answers that I needed as well as changing part of their original plans for our finances.

I am mighty and fierce!!

Adoring Husband needed to visit my most hated shop on the universe ... Bunnings ... so he dropped me off at Stocklands where I spent money on things that I didn't need.

We were home by about 2pm and AH spent the entire afternoon in his shed working. He had bought a couple of $10 pedestal fans from Bunnings so that he could work in a degree of comfort out there.

I went to my desk where I had planned on editing the jewellery photos from yesterday, but discovered that I had thousands of unwanted photos that had synched from my other devices, so I spent an hour deleting about 2500 of them. There are probably another 4-5000 that need to go, but I'll get to them another day.

It was nice to be with Adoring Husband today and have a break from my desk, but I'm looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow.

Here I am at 8.45pm, an early mark for a change, so I hope to get a bit more than 3 hours of deep sleep tonight and wake up fresh and energised, ready for a productive day.

Please let the stars align!

Nite all.

It's Tennis Time!

I didn't watch any tennis during the day today, because I must confess, I forgot that it was on!

I'm disappointed because there were some young Aussies that won their first round matches that I really would have liked to see.

Tomorrow will be another miss for me because we have a lot planned for the day.

Right now I'm enjoying a Roger Federer match.

I spent the day in my workspace, making an absolute mess of the room.

I took everything off half of the desk so that I could take photos of the jewellery. I set up my tripod, then spent half an hour trying to remember how to use my Canon 5D MarkII (my MarkIII is out of action). They are vastly different cameras to use.

I took all of the photos and then realised that the card in the camera wouldn't fit into the slot of my desktop, so I had to find the camera cord so that I could download the photos.

That meant making an even bigger mess in the room as I emptied cupboards and drawers in my frantic search. In the end, I stole the one out of Adoring Husband's camera bag. Don't tell him will you?

Finally, I was sitting at my desk ready to download, when the photos program on the computer decided it needed updating! Thirty minutes later and it had only updated 7%. I figured it was a good time to make lunch.

An hour later, I was back at the desk and my computer was ready for me. I checked the photos. Saved the ones I liked,  noted the crappy ones and did them again.

By now, it was mid afternoon and I was feeling the heat. Dripping again.

Now I have an open Lightbox on my workspace floor, my rebounder is covered in books and paperwork off my desk, my desk is covered in jewellery and cameras and my tripod is taking up one of the few clear floor spaces near my desk.

Wednesday morning will obviously be spent cleaning the entire room before I can get started again on my 'to do' list.

I'm still trying to source inexpensive, but good quality ring boxes, bracelet and pendant boxes.

This was dinner tonight. It's titled 'His n Hers' ...

It was Number One Son's 35 birthday yesterday. He spent it recovering from birthday drinks that he over indulged in the night before and preparing to return to work after 3 weeks on a yacht in Sydney Harbour. It's a tough life for some haha.

I had a chat with Vegan Chickie tonight, which was lovely. She and Chicklet have been very very busy socialising and enjoying life in Melbourne.

Well, it has just ticked past 10.30pm so I'm off to bed.

Much to do tomorrow!

Nite all.

What a Stinker

Today was a stinker of a day.

I woke to the sound of heavy rain this morning, which was lovely and very much needed, and I used it as an excuse to laze in bed for an hour or so, not that I EVER need an excuse! But the rain made it hot and steamy and muggy and humid. Blurgh!

Even though I began the day with enthusiasm and good intentions, it seems the universe was against me and my productivity levels were way down on yesterday's.

While I was at the stage of setting up shop, I came to a standstill when I realised that I had not photographed any of the jewellery to display on the site. I figured that today was as good a day as any to get that job ticked off the list.

I spent half an hour using my camera to photograph the pieces against the white desk, but I discovered that the camera's focusing mechanism is not working. I tried two different lenses and hit the same problem.

The light just wasn't right, but then I had an epiphany! I remembered that I actually own a light box. I bought it specifically for this kind of photography! So off I went in search of the light box, trying to remember the last time that I saw it and wondering where I should look first.

I looked in the spare room first without success, so I decided that before I wasted too much time, I would ask Adoring Husband if he knew where it was. That was a good move, because he did know exactly where it was and led me straight to it.

It had been tucked neatly between the kitchen cabinet and the filing cabinet that holds the printer. I'm pretty sure that it has been there for about three years. Maybe more!

So I took it into my workspace and opened it up, to discover that it had become a nesting ground for cockroaches. Ugh. What a mess. I'm not even going to describe the state that it was in.

I walked out of my room and slumped on the lounge chair next to Adoring Husband telling him my tale of woe. He said "Can't you just clean it?"

Yes I can and so I did.

"I will not let this beat me!!" I fist pumped the air as I walked out of the room.

After cleaning it as best as I could, I set it up on my desk and attempted a few shots. The camera was still failing me. The next best thing is my phone camera!

Clearly, my photography needs work. After thirty minutes of playing with the phone camera, I was dripping with perspiration, so I gave up for another day. I will try outside with better light tomorrow. I think the rings will look nice reflected in the glass of the outside table. A bit of experimenting won't go astray.

I spent some time itemising the jewellery, and then realised that I don't have any boxes for presenting and sending them, so time was spent online searching out some prices on those.

There is always something new to go on the 'to do' list!

I had a short but lovely visit from Woman of Many Talents today. We spent about half an hour catching up. It's been a few months since we saw each other so both of us had plenty of news to share.

Before I sign off, I'd like to thank Rebel Mardi for being my long distance 'quality control' person today. Big hugs to you.

I can't believe that it's already 11.30pm!! So much for an early night.

Nite all.