I Wonder?

How long do you think it will take to create a new schedule/routine that is manageable?

I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed and somewhat time poor at the moment.

I have messes to clean up at home. I'm falling behind in my 'to do' list at work. Our work hours are erratic while we establish the business and of course, you can't predict when customers will enter the premises or how long they will stay or how much attention each individual requires or how distracting they will be.

While our shop 'to do' list is a priority, so are our other work commitments, as are our home commitments and our social commitments.

Finding a balance is the trick and that, no doubt, will take time.

We are both looking forward to having Sunday away from the shop, but our day off won't be relaxing because we both have other important chores to attend to.

Just to clarify ... I am definitely NOT complaining! Just trying to figure it all out so that life can run smoothly and stress free. Not just for me, but for Adoring Husband too - especially as we inch closer to his big birthday bash and our attention will need to be shared between our very important guests (being family and beloved friends that we don't get to see very often).

There is much organising and house rearranging to do prior to the big event! Slowly but surely ... small steps.

The work day, today,  started with The Motivator planting beautiful flowers in our front garden after she and The Fisher King dug out all the dead plants and grasses last night. While she did that, I vacuumed the shop and put out our signs.

It's the first day of the September school holidays in Queensland and as soon as the doors opened, the shop was busy with holiday makers, some of whom come every year, some of whom grew up in the area and are returning and some of whom are first timers.

There were lots of interesting conversations with our customers about the history of our town, who they went to school with, who they know in the area from the old days and the things they enjoyed doing when the town was much smaller.

Everybody had good things to say about the shop and we had a successful Saturday morning, remaining open until well after 2pm, instead of closing at midday as planned. Quite a few of our customers said that they would return next week.

Luckily we still have stock arriving next week, because if it continues to move at this pace, we will be empty by the end of next week!

Like I always said "I LOVE tourists!" haha

Anyway, it's almost midnight and I need sleep. I intend to enjoy a very lazy and slow start to the day tomorrow.

Nite all.

Neeeeeed Sleeeeep

It's been a big day.

All up, we probably had about 35 - 40 people through the doors. There were early morning sales and names taken for the courses in the afternoon.  Photography and journalling seem to be the most popular at the moment.

The afternoon was spent ... um ... I guess you could say 'networking' 'promoting' 'connecting' with lots of customers who will return next week to foster/nurture our relationship.

The Motivator was out of the shop for the afternoon at an appointment and I was kept busy by the people.

I could hear the alcoholic beverages calling me by the time I got home this afternoon.

We had lots of new stock arrive today and there will be more coming next week, along with more of my photos to display.

It's just like Christmas when the stock arrives! We can never remember everything that we ordered, so as we unpack it, it's always a thrill to see what we've got to display.

We know that 64 people will be checking into holiday rental houses this weekend, so hopefully they are here for the holidays and ready to spend their money in our shop!

I'm off to bed because I neeeeeeed sleeeeeeeep.

Nite all.

A Bit Discombobulated

Both The Motivator and I were feeling a bit discombobulated today and weren't really managing our day very well at all.

I spent the morning negotiating a late (by 9 hours) inclusion of our ad in the local newsletter, but I won't know how successful I was until Monday. It was not a pleasant process and I was left feeling a bit blurgh by the end of it.

Having written a full page story over two days to go with our ad, I had to quickly redesign the ad to fit a smaller space and then negotiate a permanent ad space for future issues.

I phoned a man about some signs and he hasn't bothered to respond, so it's time to research other signage options.

We met with a few customers, a couple of people gave us their names for courses, The Little Mermaid paid us a visit with a friend, The Motivator covered a few chairs, we discussed how to hang my photos and at 3pm Adoring Husband drove me into The Bay to have some new photos printed - but I realised at the last moment that I didn't have the photos on my USB stick as I thought, so I had to spend the entire trip with my laptop open on my lap, desperately searching for the photos, which just so happened to be on my OTHER laptop.

Sigh.

Luckily, I was able to access some different photos to print, in place of the ones I wanted.

Tonight I've searched both laptops and put a lot of my photos onto the USB stick so that in future, I will have all of my photos in one place for when I need to print.

We didn't spend much time in The Bay. AH ran some errands while I was organising my photos and he will drive into town tomorrow to pick up the prints and take them to the framer for mat boards.

We had to get home so that AH could go to SES training, which meant that we still didn't get everything on my list. I guess the door mat can wait til our next trip into The Bay.

Right now, it's gone past 11pm, so I'm off to bed.

Tomorrow is going to be amazing and there will be no discombobulation!

Nite all.

An Oily Day

Sadly, our favourite holiday makers have left town.

I guess it's time for the next influx as the school holidays begin next week!

We are running low on stock, so hopefully all of the lovely things that we ordered last week will be here by next week, otherwise people will be very disappointed when they walk into the shop.

We had another good day today with a steady flow of friends and customers through the door.

The Motivator spent a few hours in The Bay organising paint for the training room and buying up on some more stock items.

I had a visit from the wonderful Sex Therapist and her husband the Lab Man. I haven't seen them for about 3 years, so I felt quite emotional when I saw them walking towards the shop. We spent a bit over an hour sitting in our lounge area, catching up on all of our news.

By then, Stephanie, the LeReve lady arrived and it was time to rearrange things to fit her products,  make room for our guests and prepare some nibbles.

The party started about 30 minutes later than planned due to a couple of late comers, but it was a success and we made a couple of bookings for more parties.

With all of that action today, we didn't leave the shop until around 5.30pm.

I brought home the nibbles that didn't get eaten and Adoring Husband ate a plate full of carrot sticks, green beans, celery, capsicum and cucumber, little blocks of cheese, rice crackers and a big bowl of freshly made guacamole for dinner! Very healthy, but very lazy on my behalf haha.

Currently, my mission in life is to remember to take photos of all the activity that happens in the shop - but so far, the only event that I've remembered to photograph is our launch party. I've really got to get my act together.

I think another good idea is to ask our customers to let me take their photo with their purchases, to post onto our Facebook page and then at the end of the month, draw one of their names to win a $10 voucher for the shop.

I still have so much to do. My 'to do' list has only had one item ticked off this week!

Busy Busy Busy.

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Drinking

I need to drink more water.

I haven't been drinking enough since we opened the shop.

My big plan for this morning was to go to work early and have some time to vacuum the floors and get some work done - design and order our signs, write the story for the next newsletter etc.

My big plan was thwarted at about 2.30am.

I was woken by the effects of raw chocolate (very similar to caffeine) and it kept me awake until almost 4am. Then, just as I was dozing off, the dogs decided they'd like to go outside for a toilet break. THAT was annoying.

I was asleep soon after 4.20am .

Adoring Husband's alarm woke me at 4.45am ... because he had trouble turning it off ... so it went on and on and on.

I fell back to sleep and woke at 7.10am.

My morning consisted solely of Adoring Husband huffing and puffing all over the house desperately searching for his glasses and then for a set of keys. Totally destroyed my morning and stressed me to the max. I'm relating this story in the blog for everyone to read so that he feels guilty ... just so you know. Haha.

By the time I got to work, just a little bit late, I was not at all in the right frame of mind to do anything and I was annoyed that I didn't get to work early to do all the things on my big plan.

Luckily for me, it was coffee morning with the girls, so even though the numbers were low, I got to spend a lovely hour and a bit giggling and chatting and enjoying the company of some of my favourite people in the lounge area of the shop.

We met some new customers today and had our first big burley man buy a secret gift for his partner, which was just a little bit nice.

Our treatment room got a workout. The Motivator covered a chair (very well I might add). I wrote the story for the newsletter. We ordered more stock. We had a meeting. We left work at about 4pm.

I'm going to try again for an early start tomorrow, to do all the things in my big plan from today.

Tomorrow at 2pm we are having a LeReve Fragrance and Essential Oil party. So I need to bring nibbles and I'm looking forward to seeing Best Cousin in the World and have her see what we've done with the shop since she was last here.

Right now, it's almost 9.30pm and that's about my time to go to bed.

Nite all.

Up and Away!

An amazing day at The Happy Abode today.

Many holiday makers who are returning home this week came in to spend all of their money before they leave lol - of course we were very appreciative!

Business owners who attended our launch on Sunday afternoon, came in this morning and also spent their money!

We received such good feedback from everyone, via phone calls and with personal visits, about how much they love the shop, it's energy and atmosphere and about our launch party. Every day gets better and better.

This weeks priority is finishing the design of our signs and ordering them. Writing up our story for the next newsletter. I also have to follow up getting us into 'The Independent' newspaper. THEN I have to design the photography course.

The Motivator and I held a GSD meeting on the beach this morning before work and wrote out a list of our priorities for the week, but then we got to work and were flat out with customers until lunch time!

Our GSD lists will be slow going at this rate.

Adoring Husband and I had a meeting at the Bowls Club this afternoon to discuss the menu for his 60th birthday bash in October. We left the shop at 3.10pm and were back at the shop by 3.35pm. That's how quick and easy our meeting was. We got exactly what we wanted for an excellent price, so we're all set.

The other big deal today, was a huge bushfire on the outskirts of town. The roads were closed and 40 homes were evacuated while 16 fire crews fought the fires and back burned to stop it from spreading. It was very scary for a while, but luckily, no homes or lives were lost.

This is how close it got to some homes ...

The fires are still burning, but the SES is no longer required because the fire fighters have moved on up the road.

I had big plans to be in bed by 9.30pm tonight, but AH was out supporting the fieries, and only got home at 9.30pm so I made him some dinner and now we realise how late it is and both need to climb into bed.

So it's good night from me!

Nite all.

Happiness at The Happy Abode

I love my friends.

Lady Lynn, Reality TV Queen, Old Speckled Hen, The Whinging Pom and Maid Marian are always here to support me during my highest and lowest moments. They make me feel warm and fuzzy and I know that they don't all read this blog, but to those of you who do ... thank you so much for being with me today. I can't tell you what it means to me. I love you all.

Others like Rebel Mardi, Tweedle Dee, Woman of Many Talents and The Blonde Bombshell were not able to be here because of other commitments, but you were all sorely missed.

It was nice to meet some new people, including a couple of new customers who we invited during the week. Other business owners came along to support us, which was a lovely surprise.

We even made some sales, including five of my photos!! That was the last thing that I expected and was completely blown away by the enthusiasm and positive comments about my work.

Today was definitely good for my ego.

The best part was sharing the love with my Biz Partner, The Motivator, and with Adoring Husband and the Fisher King.

I honestly feel on top of the world and I know the our future will be bright and successful because we fill our shop with love and we love what we do. It's a no brainer really!

Five others expressed an interest in the photography courses too! That could just give me the numbers to get started ... now to get that training room up to scratch!

Anyway, here are a few pics of the day. We even had a lucky door prize, which was a $50 voucher to spend in our shop :)

Now, I am absolutely exhausted and need to sleep!

Nite all.