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.