Supporting the Arts

Adoring Husband had SES duties from very early this morning.

This meant that I was responsible for accessing my own morning coffee.

I had a good night's sleep and was awake at 7am, enjoyed my usual morning ritual of reading and working my way slowly into the day, before showering and making myself presentable for a public outing. I spent the entire day in my pyjamas yesterday, so there was plenty of prep required to face the world today!

The priority was to get my morning coffee and with coffee cup in hand I rode to the local markets and parked my trike at the front of the hall.

While I drank my coffee, I watched the stalls on the front lawn and noticed that the fruitnveg stalls were very busy, but the two stalls on either side which held hand made craft items like bag bags, pot holders, aprons, embroidered hand towels etc., were getting no traffic whatsoever.

I purposely didn't take too much cash with me, so that I wouldn't spend too much money, but I like to support the stall owners, especially the ones who create the wares that they sell.

As I walked towards the first craft stall, the married couple looked up at me and smiled. I checked out the aprons first - I do love a good apron because I often cook with turmeric which spills and splashes all over the place, staining my clothes. I selected a beautiful aqua blue apron with big white daisies all over it (a splash of yellow turmeric can only enhance such a lovely pattern!)

I wasn't going to purchase anything else, but then I noticed the bag bags and the one in our kitchen is so old and bedraggled and made of pinks, purples and oranges which just look silly in our colour scheme, so I selected a lovely aqua bag bag.

Before I'd finished, I'd added two more items to my imaginary shopping cart and  by the time I'd left, this couple were both smiling like Cheshire cats, as was I, with my little stash of home made goodies!

I visited Adoring Husband at the SES barbecue stall. He was desperate for a coffee, so I bought him a cappuccino from the coffee van on site, before searching out my next purchase!

There is another couple who always have a stall set up just outside the hall. He makes timber products like bread boards and lazy Susans, while she creates lovely leadlight and stained glass hanging decorations.

I always buy something from her because I love leadlighting and her prices are reasonable. Today, I bought a double peace sign to hang in my frangipani tree in our front yard. I'm certain that she made it especially for me! She knows that I have a 'thing' for peace signs.

Because of art classes, I haven't been to the markets for the last four months and as soon as she set eyes on me, she smiled brightly and said "Gosh I haven't seen you for ages! Where have you been?"

I made my way inside the hall and was greeted by a lady who is house sitting just up the road from us. She too had a stall, and the tables were covered in her hand made jewellery. It was beautiful! Very expensive, but the quality and the workmanship was obvious, so the prices that she asked were not at all unreasonable.

I totally fell in love with a necklace that was made with Brazilian Amazonite. I tried it on and felt a warm and fuzzy tingle as I looked in the mirror. There was a matching bracelet and earrings. It was my destiny to own these beautiful pieces!! Alas, I had spent all of my money!! I had to return to the shops to the ATM!! Ugh!!

I've been wearing the necklace since I arrived home. I love it. I love how it makes me feel. So I looked up Brazilian Amazonite, to see what this beautiful stone was bringing to my life, and this is what I discovered ...

Brazilian Amazonite protects against unfair business practices, attracts new customers and assists you in being in the right place at the right time for new business opportunities. (Who knew?! That's exactly what I need!)

It is a soothing and calming stone which imparts balance and harmony and quiets the mind. (Oh how my mind needs quieting!)

It is also empowering, facilitating self discovery and self awareness. It  helps you to shrug off the harsh judgement of others and helps you set clear, firm boundaries, as well as provide you with the strength and resolve to protect those boundaries when they are challenged by others.

It balances your intellect and intuition. With this balance, it gives you a healthier state of mind with more realistic and rational perceptions. It strengthens your self belief.

It provides spiritual healing in the areas of love and forgiveness, helping you release anger, jealousy and resentment.

It supports the heart and throat chakra, strengthening your heart, throat and thyroid.

It's especially good for people born between March 20th - April 19th (I am 4 days off!)

Who knew it was such a fabulous stone?! It was much loved and respected in Ancient Egypt and with the Amazon Tribes in Brazil.

This makes me even happier with my purchase!

I also bought these ...

... and I ordered some drawer handle decorations, with which I hope to adorn our bedside tables, after I've chalk painted them - I've had the tools and resources to do that for a whole year now!! I must get on to that!

After I'd spent all my money, it was such a glorious day, I ordered myself another coffee and rode to the beach, where I sat for 30 minutes in the sunshine, on a bench seat and remembered why I love where we live.

By the time I returned home, Adoring Husband wasn't far behind me and I made some lunch for him, then made a smoothie with carrot, cucumber, spinach, apple, mandarine, fresh turmeric and fresh ginger, coconut water, coconut kefir and water. It was delicious!

I spent the rest of the afternoon at my desk where I created the next question/meme for the RYL Facebook page and posted it.  I printed out some more paperwork for a course that I'm doing and watched a couple of webinars.

I ALMOST bought a ticket for a Women's Entrepreneur Business Conference on the Sunny Coast which is running in early September, and even though it would probably be amazingly helpful and a brilliant investment, I need to budget wisely for the remainder of the year. So I'll put it in next year's budget and definitely attend in 2018.

So obviously, I am feeling much better after yesterday's health hiccup and my intention is to have another early night so that I can spend the day at my desk tomorrow - allowing my amazonite to help me find business opportunities!!

Nite all.

One Two Three Blurgh

It is 6pm and I am still in my pyjamas.

Adoring Husband bought what he thought was a box of gluten free chocolate ice creams from Go Natural yesterday. We didn't check the package because it was in the fridge with all the other GF ice creams, so we assumed ... and you know what assuming does???

Yes you do.

While Adoring Husband was at SES, I helped myself to one of these ice creams. I was down to the final bite, when I decided to check the packaging. They were not GF.

I suffered through the night and all day today, but it was much worse than my usual reaction to gluten, so I'm wondering what else I had during the day to contribute to my discomfort. It has been incredibly unpleasant and even prevented me from attending the Bowls Club for our usual Friday night social outing.

My big plans for the markets tomorrow have also been cancelled. Even though I hadn't made contact with the market organisers, it was my plan to do so today. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

I have spent all day in bed reading and watching Netflix.

Today, my body is not my friend.

So I have nothing else to report.

Nite all.

Winter is Lost

We are five weeks into Winter and our minimum temperature has not dropped into single figures yet.

I am sleeping in Summer pyjamas without bed covers some nights!

It's almost 10pm and I am sitting in the lounge room, wearing a sleeveless top, with my laptop on my lap and the fan is on high and blowing directly on me.

It is currently 19C.

It's 10C in Sydney. It's 3C in Canberra. It's 8C in Griffith and Melbourne. It's 6C in Wagga Wagga.

I miss Winter.

Adoring Husband and I had a lovely day in The Bay together today.

I bought some hand woven fair trade baskets for presentation of my jewellery, some green bangles and a gift card made out of elephant dung! At the florist next door, I bought three beautiful fresh sunflowers, which are now in my workspace.

I bought some kefir grains to make fermented coconut water kefir from Go Natural, along with some other organic and healthy stuff - including three giant cookies which I haven't tried yet!

We decided to have lunch at EAT @ Dan & Steph's. We ate there once before, soon after they first opened and obviously we weren't overly impressed because they've been open for about two or three years now and we've only just returned.

Adoring Husband had Beef short ribs with garlic Brussels sprouts, beans and bacon which he loved and I ordered Pork belly and sand crab salad - it was HUGE and I just couldn't eat it all, but it was delicious and the dressing was amazing.

We drank cold pressed juice of apple, pineapple and lime which was fresh, cold and refreshing.

With our bellies full, we walked next door to the shop recommended by Tweedle Dee. There was not a lot in the store, but the clothes were beautiful and very expensive. I tried a top on which was priced at $140. I have one exactly the same, which I bought in Suzanne Grae's for $19 - the only difference in the two is that the SG top has a better lining.

The young woman who owned the shop was very friendly and obviously proud of her little establishment. She had a lovely range of scarves and hand made jewellery too.

Our next stop was Stocklands. I bought a necklace from Noni B's to replace one that I broke a couple of months ago. They had a 30% off sale on jewellery, so it was a bargain.

I bought what I hope will be the winning ticket in the $40 million Ozlotto draw for next week.

After we got our groceries, we drove to Craignish to pick up ours and Chandelier's FROG boxes. Quite some time ago, Chandelier picked up our FROG box when Adoring Husband was called away unexpectedly and I had no way to get it. So, this week, we were able to return the favour as she was without a car.

It was a light dinner for us tonight, after such a hearty lunch and AH had SES duties, so I've had a quiet evening at home watching the tennis.

With all but one Aussie out of the competition already, my interest has waned somewhat, so I don't think I'll have too many late nights this year. I like to follow Djokovic and Federer but with three different stations airing the tennis, it's difficult to choose which games to watch! The ladies matches and the doubles have been good to watch so far too.

It's not quite 11.30pm and I will watch the end of the Djokovic match and head to bed.

I've enjoyed my day very much. I hope you all have a happy Friday!

Nite all.

No Wonder!

Well, what an interesting turn of events!

While checking out the stats on my website, I couldn't figure out why I had so many views in my shops and so many of them filling their cart and then cancelling before getting to the checkout.

After much analysing and frowning and questioning what might be causing it, I decided to pretend to be a customer and selected an item to buy and push through the process ... to discover ... that a warning was popping up with a security error telling people that the security on this site was questionable and my security certificate wasn't valid!

It took me another hour of investigating, to figure out why that was happening and then more time to work out who I should be contacting to fix the problem ... could it be the company who provided the certificate, my host who installed the certificate, Wordpress who requested the installation of the certificate or WooCommerce who advised that the certificate was necessary in the first place?

That crease between my eyebrows is much deeper this evening, than it was this morning!

I've printed out eight pages of stats and will spend the next couple of days googling and Youtubing trying to work out what they all mean!

I need to know what they mean to understand what is attracting the most views and hits on the site and what isn't.

Anyway, that was my main dilemma today. I'm glad I found it, although I'm a bit sad that my original plans for the work day got side walled.

In between all of that, I made a batch of tomato sauce and four meals of Hainan Chicken to freeze.

We had corned beef and home made tomato sauce on GF rolls for lunch.

For dinner we had lamb rack with vegetables. The vegetables were delicious!

I used the leftover liquid from the Hainan Chicken to par boiled some small cubes of pumpkin, as well as cauliflower and broccoli. I fried some onion and garlic in ghee in the frypan, then added the pumpkin, frying a bit longer until they caramelised, stirring well, and then added one chopped tomato and tossed in the cauliflower and broccoli. Added some salt and pepper at the end. Very very tasty.

We've got a day in The Bay tomorrow. There's nothing worth seeing at the movies, so we might have a nice lunch somewhere.

An early night is on the cards for me ... and when I say 'early night', it only means that I will be in bed early ... I may still read or watch TV or play solitaire on my iPad for two hours yet!!

Nite all.

Kitchen Therapy

I enjoyed my morning coffee with the girls and there were six of us sharing the love today.

Before I returned home, I decided to visit the butcher, buy a shipload of meat and then spend the day in the kitchen cooking up a storm.

On the days when I'm working hard at my desk and I'm totally focussed on the task at hand, I get quite annoyed when I have to take 40 minutes to an hour of that time to prepare our dinner. I've had so few of those focussed days lately, and every minute of them are precious.

Today I made:

• 4 Meals of Tomato & Turmeric Chicken Casserole.
• 4 Meals of Lemon, Honey and Chilli Chicken Casserole.
• 7 Meals of Beef Casserole.
• 4 Meals of Pork Sausage in Onion Gravy.
• 3 Meals of Chicken Wings for lunches today and tomorrow.
• 1 x Corned beef which will be used for cold meat and in Bubble & Squeak.
• 2 Containers of rich sauce to add to barbecued steak or another casserole or create gravy.

Including the cleaning up, it took more than four hours, but now I have more than three weeks worth of meals in the freezer, so on my 'focussed on work' days, I can take minimal time reheating an easy meal and either steaming some veg or making a quick salad to accompany it.

By the time I'd finished, my body and my feet were protesting severely, but after a couple of hours with my feet up, it seems to have returned to it's 'pre-cooking' state and the creaks and aches have gone. Thank goodness!

At 4pm when we should have been preparing for the monthly barbecue at the park, Adoring Husband and I looked at each other and said "Nah. Can't do it. Brains and bodies will not co-operate."

Apparently it was very windy on the river, so I'm glad we decided not to go.

I'm not sure if my body will last out for Wimbledon tonight, but I'd really like to spend the day at my desk tomorrow. I'm feeling motivated with lots of ideas that I'm ready to put into practice, so I'm even willing to forego Wimbledon for a few nights before my motivation wanes again lol.

And on that note ...

Nite all.

All Clear

I believe that I have figured out what was blocking my forward progress with the website!

In the beginning, I had a plan for the site. A plan that began as a tiny spark of an idea and my imagination fanned the embers in a place deep inside of me. I wanted people to see me as 'real' and I wanted to share our health and lifestyle story, hoping that it would be helpful and maybe a little bit inspiring for others.

I wanted it to feel like they were coming for a visit before I had a chance to tidy up and maybe while I was still in my pyjamas! No airs and graces.

It wasn't long before I realised that there was more to creating a website, including utilising social media, marketing, building a tribe of followers and a database of subscribers and SO MUCH MORE! So I began to educate myself ... and that's where I went wrong.

The facts and figures, the dotted 'i's and the crossed 't's and all the theory and the instructions issued by each person whose expertise fell into one of those fields that I mentioned above. It all led me in a direction far from that place of love, where I began.

So many different people telling me what to do next and none of it felt natural. With each step, it felt like I was trying to be somebody else, following in somebody else's footsteps - very inauthentic and way too perfect.

This is what caused me to lose motivation. It blocked my imagination and caused me to avoid going any further because it was too far from my original dream.

Somehow, two days ago, I was led to a lady by the name of Eva Gregory, and in a few short paragraphs, accompanied by a twenty minute video, she steered me back to my original path and told me to focus on my 'inner guidance'.

So I went back to that place, back to the spark and the embers and I feel like I can breathe again. Amazingly, I've been more productive on the site and with social media in the last twenty four hours, than I have been for the last thirty days!

I'm feeling the love and the ideas are flowing, the wheels are turning and I'm putting pen to paper and everything suddenly feels easier again!

I did my first photography post today. It was short and sweet. You can see it here.

I also posted the first of many questions for the Romance Your Life followers on Facebook...

There was such a great response, at first from the usual friends and family, but also some names that I don't recognise, so it's nice that my tribe are learning about each other.

This will be a weekly event for the next ten weeks or until my book is finished.

This week I'll also be announcing the next prize on offer for subscribers.

I had a quick visit from Tweedle Dee this afternoon (always full of giggles), which gave me a break from my desk, where I was perched for most of the day.

It has been a great day and to top it off, Wimbledon began tonight! It's well after midnight now and there is an Aussie playing currently (Ashleigh Barty) and she's not having a great match, but hopefully the short rain delay will have helped her!

I'm going to bed to watch the remainder of her match (or fall asleep to it!). I can't stay up all night because I have a very important coffee date in the morning!

Nite all.

Big Fat NO.

Considering how late I went to bed last night - 1.30am - I was awake far too early at 7.30am!

Adoring Husband brought my coffee to me in bed, before he prepared himself for a big day of fishing.

I watched a couple of educational videos on my iPad until it was time to get ready for my movie date with Lady Lynn. We arrived at the cinema with time to spare and Lady Lynn was kind enough to shout my ticket in for the movie "Rough Night".

An hour into the movie, Lady Lynn leaned across and said "Are you finding this funny?"

"No. Not at all." I replied.

After another few minutes, I leaned over and said "If, at any stage, you wish to leave, I will be right behind you."

She said "I'll leave the decision to you."

I looked at my watch and said "We are halfway through it already. I don't think it's going to get any better. Let's go."

We left the other five patrons in the cinema - there didn't seem to be any laughter coming from them either.

Lady Lynn and I agreed that it was not the slightest bit funny and was quite offensive in some parts. Kate McKinnon, who I absolutely loved in Ghost Busters, played an Australian and her attempt at our accent was a combination of Kiwi, Aussie and American. Very off putting.

We were so disappointed and I sent a text to The Blonde Bombshell berating her for her high recommendation last week.

The best part about the day was spending some quality time with Lady Lynn who is a shining gem in my world.

We arrived home at the same time as Adoring Husband who'd had an enjoyable, but unsuccessful fishing trip. I was hoping that we would have fish for dinner! Instead, it was curried beef!

This afternoon, I've watched some football, I've done some reading and there was a touch of study.

It's already after 11pm so I think I need to be in bed before midnight.

Nite all.

Who Cares?

It was the usual lazy start to the day with coffee and reading in bed.

Adoring Husband had won a tray of pork in the raffles on Friday night, so he cooked up a breakfast of bacon and sausages with GF toast, tomato, avocado and onion and we sat outside in the warm Winter sunshine enjoying our morning sustenance, which was lovely.

While Adoring Husband cooked, I tidied my desk and emptied my waste basket in preparation for some quality work time.

We didn't finish breakfast until quite late in the morning, so it was about 11am by the time I got to my desk, where I made a 'to do' list and got started immediately.

It took me a few hours, but I finished a blog post and published it. You can read it here. It's very long, so you might need a cuppa before you start. I thought twice about posting it. I'm worrying and second guessing everything I do in this site.

I worry that I might say too much. I worry that I might reveal too much about myself or about Adoring Husband. I worry about people hating it. I worry about people thinking it's boring. I worry about people questioning my motives. I worry that people will judge me. I worry that people will love it. I worry that people will want more.

I worry that the site is not good enough or not improving quickly enough. I worry about the sort of people it will attract. I worry about so many things!

For the first time ever, I went into my host account to check out the stats and discovered that the site is receiving about 1000 hits each day, but nobody is signing up or subscribing, so I need to figure out how to get those people to hang around, to subscribe and to buy stuff!

I also need to study up on how to understand all those stats. They have weird names and are collated in strange ways and I don't understand the pie charts properly or the graphs or all the columns and I don't understand how I can use this information to my advantage.

This means I have some further studying to do and I'm hoping that my host has all that information in their video library, the first of which is titled "How to get started" haha.

So that was my Saturday.

Sunday will be less worrisome because I'm off to the movies to see Rough Night . I'm predicting some good belly laughs!

Best get to bed. It's midnight!

Nite all.