A Saturday of Fun

What a day!

I made the very poor decision to stay in bed until an hour before I had to leave for Art. Then I remembered that I had to provide a plate of food for the Le Reve party which was going to follow straight after Art! So, imagine that it's 8.30am and I have an hour to play with.

I got up, got dressed, organised everything that I usually take to Art, accepted Adoring Husband's offer to drive me to the shops - I needed the ATM to get money to pay for my class and I needed food to create a quick platter,

We returned home and I rushed into the kitchen to make an avocado dip similar to guacamole, chopped some carrot, cucumber and celery sticks to dip into the avocado and then made a fruit platter with watermelon, grapes, kiwi fruit and mandarine.

I wrapped a pottery bowl to take with me because I wanted to show Teach what I would like my next project to be, packed all the food into the cold bag, gathered the Le Reve gift bags for the girls who ordered at my last party, tidied the kitchen and was ready for my lift which arrived right on time at 9.30am.

What a rush!

I enjoyed three hours of art, which involved creating another clay tile. I traced my drawing over the leather tile, drew over the faint lines to make it easier to work and then began carving the shapes out of the leather. It's slow work, but very therapeutic.

I now have four projects on the go.

Two clay tiles. One with the Tawny Frogmouth face and the second, a house number tile with a fancy design around it. My clay bust still has to be fired, but we have to wait for the school Art class to finish firing their work before we can use that kiln. The fourth project is a clay bauble mobile.

I love working with clay. REALLY love it.

After we cleaned up the studio, we moved to the outdoor area and waited for the Le Reve hostess to arrive. There was plenty of food, none of which I could eat - except for what I brought myself - which didn't bother me one little bit.

The girls were all telling funny stories about how they met their husbands and OMG, I thought I was going to wet myself! They were hilarious! Everybody has a story, but it's the way they tell it.

After some great belly laughs and a belly full of food, we'd all ordered our Le Reve goods and headed home. Instead of going home with my usual girls, I left with The Motivator so that I could carry her clay bust on my lap and then help her set up her new TV before The Fisher King arrived home from his day out on the ocean.

I realised that I forgot to get some meat out for dinner, but luckily I had a freezer full of Hainan Chicken, so it was easy to thaw and heat it up in a saucepan.

Now we have an evening of football for Super Saturday, but honestly I'm so exhausted, I think I'll head to bed shortly ... and it's not only 8pm!

I hope that I can spend Mother's Day in my workspace adding something new to my website as well as loading some more items into my shops. So many plans spinning around in my head!

But for now ...

Nite all.

Fabulous Friday

Just in case you didn't get to take a look yet, here is the link to my website ...

Romance Your Life

I'm extremely happy with the progress so far. I've made three sales, I've received favourable comments, I have almost 40 subscribers in less than three weeks and 110 followers on Facebook.

I passed around my business cards at the Bowls Club tonight and the ladies there (outside of my immediate group) seemed pretty keen to check it out, so no doubt they will let me know what they think next week.

There is still a lot of work to do. My 'to do' list is a mile long and never ending. I still need to work on my time management. No matter how much I do, at the end of the day it still seems like a spit in the ocean.

I spent a grand total of one hour on the website today.

I added some jewellery to the online shop and I posted an update on Facebook with a link to the journal shop.

Tomorrow is already completely filled with my art class and my art teacher's Le Reve party, so no work will be done - unless I can make the great escape early from the party!

It's almost midnight. I'm off to bed.

Nite all.  

Hurtle Through Thursday

The day went so quickly!

We left home at 9.30am and returned at 2.30pm.

We picked up Adoring Husband's new reading glasses.

We did a little grocery shopping.

We paid a bill.

We met Best Cousin in the World and Marco Polo for lunch at the Bay Tavern.

We visited one of my most dangerous stores. I walked into Office Works expecting to spend $6. We left, having spent more than $120!! I seriously had to make a conscious decision to stop browsing EVERY aisle and go to the checkout!

We picked up the FROG box on the way home.

This afternoon we watched the animated movie 'Sing'.

As an adult with life experience and a reasonable amount of common sense, I enjoyed it, but I don't think it sends a very good message to children.

Buster Moon, the koala and main character, was an irresponsible business owner, who couldn't pay his bills and used every trick in the book to avoid his responsibilities. He not only lied, but made his secretary lie and pass on his pathetic excuses to avoid being accountable for his actions.

Johnny, the gorilla, was disowned by his father for 1. disappearing in the middle of a crime, the result being incarceration for the father 2. not being anything like his father - and the only reason that the father decided to love him again was because he was singing on television becoming famous.

Rosita, the female pig, was an overworked, unrecognised wife and mother whose 25 kids were out of control and whose husband took her for granted and either completely ignored her or made fun of her. The only way she received any positive attention from any member of her family was when she suddenly became famous in the show.

Ash, the porcupine, was used and manipulated by her overbearing and controlling narcissistic boyfriend, who then picked up another female porcupine 'because Ash had been selected over him for the show and consequently "was never there"for him. She suddenly got his attention when she became famous not just singing, but singing her own song.

Mike, the mouse, was a nasty bully who used violence and aggravation to get what he wanted from the physically and mentally weak. He was a liar and a cheat who got away with everything AND ended up with the girl!

Meena, the elephant, was mercilessly bullied and teased by her father for not taking her singing public and making herself famous (the way he would have IF he had a singing voice) and then she was used by everyone to do their dirty work until she eventually got to sing in the final scene of the movie.

The one small pleasant lesson that we learned right at the end of the move, was to not let fear get in the way of your dreams.

These are the movies that condition our kids to accept all of the negative qualities that each of those animated characters possessed.

It also teaches them that unless you are famous or doing something amazing, they should expect to be treated badly by the people in their world because they are not worthy of anything better.

Anyway, that's my 'take' on the movie SING and if I had children, I would be hesitant to take them to see it.

Don't hate me.

Here it is 9pm and I believe it's possible that I'm in for an early night, which would be great and make for an easy day of work tomorrow, because my brain might function close to maximum capacity!

Nite all.  

Wetter and Cooler

I think it's safe to say that everybody is happy with the cooler, wetter change that we are currently experiencing with our weather.

Everybody (except me) has brought out the long sleeves and the tracky dacks.

I *LOVE* this weather.

My whole day has been spent indoors - but NOT due to the weather.

I didn't even wake up until 9.30am - it was almost 1.30am when I climbed into bed and about 2am when I fell asleep, so I guess it's to be expected - but I actually woke up quite often during the morning and looked at my watch, which had stopped at 7.10am and my semi sleeping brain just didn't register that the hands had stopped moving and I kept thinking 'just 5 more minutes'.

Eventually, Adoring Husband brought my coffee in saying "At last. You're awake!"

I said "What do you mean 'at last'?" He replied "It's 9.30am"

I cursed.

However, I didn't get out of bed. Instead, I sat up in bed enjoying my coffee and checking my emails - which contained quite a few jewellery sales that I wasn't expecting! What a pleasant surprise!

It was an amazing way to start my day.

At 10.30am I got dressed and went straight to my workspace.

I priced, logged and photographed some more of my jewellery.

I selected the winner of my Leonie Dawson pack from the people who had subscribed to my website and followed the other instructions that were on my Facebook page.

I packaged up the jewellery to mail off to my new customers tomorrow.

I had a short visit from Lady Lynn and LL Mini Me, which was lovely. My rebounder got a workout while Lady Lynn perused my wares. It was a lovely visit but LL Mini Me was unusually quiet until it was time to leave.

This afternoon, I added a short post to my website to announce the winner of my give away.

I created some memes and quotes to add to Pinterest and Facebook.

I began planning my first photography lesson and challenge for Romance Your Life.

I cooked a quick crispy skinned chicken thigh fillet with a side of cucumber, capsicum, avocado, onion and grape salsa, some kimchi and a squirt of my special spicy tomato sauce.

After dinner, I watched a 30 minute preparation video for a course about building and increasing business online. It was more motivational, than factual .. but I tend to respond better to motivational stuff anyway.

I also watched Britain's Got Talent and sat here with tears rolling down my cheeks after watching those precious little Irish kids sing in their choir and then receive four 'yeses' to continue to the next round. They were so adorable.

Now, it's after 11pm and I really need to get some sleep. We have a big day in The Bay tomorrow and I don't want to sleep in until 9.30am again!

Nite all.

Rainy Tuesday

It started rainy and it's ending rainy.

I woke to the sound of rain on the rooftop this morning and I will be falling asleep to the same sound.

It did stop during the day and we experienced patchy showers.

The air is fresh and it finally feels like Autumn.

I enjoyed the usual Tuesday morning coffee with the girls and The Blonde Bombshell (aka yip yip) made sure that there were no silences, uncomfortable or otherwise lol. It was a two hour coffee morning during which we had a couple of ring ins stop briefly for a chat.

The Le Reve lady dropped off the orders late yesterday afternoon, so I was able to deliver the little gift bags to some of the girls at coffee.

After a quick visit to the butcher, I pedalled to The Motivator's house to drop off her Le Reve order and spent an hour having fun going over some of her work with her.

What a huge responsibility she carries with her lighting and design work. The difference between my imagination and the reality of what she does, is quite significant.

I believe I walked away with an extra line in my forehead from frowning, contemplating, imagining, re-imagining, considering numerous possibilities and generally hurting my brain!

I'm happy that I can walk away and not feel responsible for such decision! I'm happy to know someone so skilled and talented and well respected in that field. LA LA LA!!

I returned home and cooked up a big batch of sausages, pork and beef, and created a spicy and tangy tomato sauce to go with them.

I juiced enough pineapple, apple, grapes, dragon fruit, coconut water and water to fill a tall jug (it was  delicious!).

After lunch I headed to my workspace, where I completed another social media course, updated some  plugins on my website, priced and tagged all of my silver necklace chains and sorted through my 'snap' jewellery trying to figure out how I can efficiently photograph so my items for display on the site and I checked my emails.

Adoring Husband found his way home quite late from a big SES day, but had to leave immediately for another job. Needless to say I got a lot of work done this afternoon.

I cooked up a delicious dinner of lamb loin chops with broccoli, carrot, charred zucchini and some cauliflower puree.

The rest of my evening has been spent planted on the couch, deleting emails and monitoring social media.

Tomorrow will be another day of website work. There is a lot to do. Never ending and continuous. Prioritise. Time management. 'To Do' lists. Ideas. Follow up. Writing. Creating. Brainstorming. Blah Blah Blah.

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

  

Productivity at Last

It was an early start to the day because I had to work.

From work, I rode to get my coffee and for the first time in weeks, visited my boys at The Seat of Knowledge. Knowing that I had a couple of parcels arriving today, I stayed with the boys for more than an hour, killing time until the Post Office opened.

I picked up a large birthday parcel sent by Beautiful Girl With The Long Blonde Hair and it contained an array of perfect birthday gifts that included a cane woven heart, a framed quote, some bling, a boho bag and a hand made cushion cover. All perfectly suited to my tastes .. of course lol.

The second parcel was a DVD that I ordered about a week ago.

I returned home and headed straight for my workspace.

I completed a 5 lesson course on successfully using Pinterest for a business website and then put some of what I'd learned into practice. I'll work more on that tomorrow.

I added the final post for the subscriber's competition on the Romance Your Life Facebook page.

I used something that I created for Pinterest and added it to Twitter and Instagram.

I replaced the cover pictures for the different shops on the site with something more uniform.

I set out a plan to ramp up the social media posts and I've planned my next couple of updates on pages of the website.

This is a huge learning curve that sometimes feels so daunting, I'm almost afraid to take the next step. It's difficult not to rest on my laurels, enjoying the success of just launching the site, and I have to continue pushing myself and try to remember that this is supposed to be a business and I need to work it every day.

Important things like time management, strategic planning, marketing and communication all need to be studied, implemented and improved upon if this is going to be successful.

So it's time to get serious, get moving, and pump things along.

*raises fist in the air*

So let's do this!!

After a good night's sleep ha!

Nite all.

Not a Day of Rest

What a busy and productive day!

After yesterday's marathon effort to create an outfit for the 1920s Murder Mystery night, this house was a mess! It looked like another tornado had gone through INSIDE the house.

The lounge room had the ironing board set up and covered in my jewellery, while the floor beneath it was covered in threads from the fringing that I sewed onto my skirt.

The bathroom bench was covered in every item of make-up that I possess, plus yesterday's dirty clothes on the floor.

The kitchen bench was covered in my beading materials from where I made my long string of pearls.

The bedroom was full of the empty bags that once contained all the items that I'd bought to bring my outfit together.

The dining room table was covered with the stuff that I'd pulled out of my handbag on Friday night, plus the jewellery that I had toyed with wearing, raffle tickets and other bits and pieces.

My workspace was just horrendous from 3 weeks of neglect! Every time a delivery arrived, it was opened and then tossed into the room. After my photography marathon, all the jewellery was scattered over my desk, there were books, paperwork, catalogues, notes, magazines, pens, diaries, boxes and lots of other crap all over my desk.

Has your imagination created a vision of the havoc that was inside my house?

Well, here is my workspace 'before' the clean up...

I spent two hours cleaning the workspace and whenever I had to go to another room for any reason, I would do one small thing while I was there, so even though the house is not completely clean and tidy yet, at least I managed to get some of it done during the process of cleaning my most important area!

Here is my workspace after two hours ...

*happy dance*

I started my day with coffee and crab (thanks to The Motivator and The Fisher King).

I followed that with a huge jug of juice made with cucumber, carrot, celery, pineapple, kiwi fruit, ginger, turmeric, coconut water and water.

I then took my 'before' photos and by this time it was already after midday.

My afternoon was fabulous and I am finishing my day feeling very satisfied what I've achieved.

To celebrate, I pedalled to the shop for a coffee, but on the way home, I stopped off at The Motivator's house where I was offered, and accepted, a long tall glass of vodka and tonic! Now THAT is a true celebratory drink!

For dinner, I enjoyed Hainan Chicken, followed by a slice of raspberry pear bread.

It's quite possible that I could end up in bed nice and early, which means that I won't struggle to get out of bed for work in the morning.

A good day's work and a good night's sleep.

Nite all.  

A Flapping Good Time

It was a themed murder mystery night.

1920s New York Jazz was the theme.

Almost everybody was dressed in 1920s outfits, some amazing, some not so amazing, but the effort was admirable!

Our table of friends consisted of Leggy Blonde, The UPman, Beauty, The Beast, Lady Lynn, The Blonde Bombshell (aka yip yip), Tweedle Dee, The Garden King and last but not least, for the first time out and about at a social event, The Motivator!!

The Motivator looked fabulous in black sequins and pink feathers. Our ladies put in all the effort, while the men provided subtle touches that barely indicated fancy dress haha.

Even if I do say so myself, our table looked pretty good in costume. There were feathers and sequins and strings of pearls and fur and beading and fans and bling everywhere!

The mystery was tricky and even though I amazed myself and stepped forward after only one alcoholic beverage to introduce myself to the other characters and ask them about themselves, hoping to gather up some clues, at the end of the night I wasn't able to figure out who committed the murder.

It seems my Journey work in Sydney and Byron Bay has changed something inside me, because in my past life, I would never have had the confidence to walk up to strangers and initiate conversation the way I did tonight.

I even stepped up on the dance floor. I always sat out the dancing pre-Sydney.

So a good time was had by all and we were home around 9.30-ish.

I've watched the movie Conair and now it's well after midnight, so it's time for bed!

Nite all.