Winner was Grinning

Conditions have not been conducive to fishing.

Some heavy rain, then some light misty rain, some strong winds, humidity to kill an elephant and to top it off a one hour long blackout to end the day.

The fishing classic raffles and presentations had to be put on hold while they frantically searched for a generator.

One of the raffle winners came into the shop with her Happy Abode voucher looking very pleased with herself!

It was a great day in the shop with a steady flow of customers almost from the minute that I opened the doors. I have to say, it's quite exhausting making small talk all day and on the busy days, by the time I get home, I'm all talked out and just need some peace and quiet for a while.

There are fireworks going off right now ... the pub has entertainment tonight and are obviously topping it off with some fireworks. The dogs are freaking out and we've brought them into the lounge room to cower on the storm chair.

I'm watching the end of Pretty Woman ... yes I know ... this has to be approximately the 56th time that I've watched it. It never gets old and I enjoy it every single sitting!

I added some photos to our Facebook page today ...

Gosh, it's only 9.30pm and it feels like midnight for me.

So I'm done for the day.

Nite all.

On The Ball

It was incredibly busy in the shop with people coming and going all day.

Few of them wanted to spend money.

Many of them commented on how wonderful the shop is.

Some of them said they would return later without their kids/husband.

Lots of people commented on my photography.

There were friendly people.

There were unfriendly people.

There were quiet people.

There were loud people.

The Motivator removed herself to the training room to finish some important work that needed to be put to rest for the weekend.

We laminated lots of signs and I rode around town stapling them to poles where foot traffic would see them and hopefully come for a visit.

I rode to the Lions Park to check out where our signs were posted. Unfortunately our big signs didn't arrive in time for Easter so we had to improvise and make smaller ones ourselves. They are dwarfed by the larger signs of other sponsors of the fishing classic but they've been placed in positions that hopefully will be beneficial to us.

I put new postcards on the tables outside Foodworks.

I took updated signs to the caravan park and pinned one to the notice board in the laundry and handed over some new postcards to put into their information stand.

Adoring Husband took some postcards to the SES shed to hand out to the dog show people who will be using the SES shower facilities every evening.

We can only hope that people will eventually find their way to our hidden little treasure.

We've decided to stagger our hours over Easter. I will open at 9am and work til 3pm while The Motivator will start at 11am and close at 5pm. That covers all bases.

So it's 10pm and I am off to bed.

I hope it will be a big and busy day tomorrow!

Nite all.

Classic Holidays

There has been a steady stream of cars, boats, caravans and trailers making their way into town all day.

They filled all the empty car spaces at the shopping centre and the caravan parks are almost full.

While there was slow stream of customers through the shop early in the morning, the rain made the stream much slower in the afternoon, but it gave The Motivator and I time to get a lot of 'stuff' done, some of which will need to be finished tomorrow.

There was also a lot of silliness going on with the two of us making strange sounds and singing weirdly and joking around with each other, but we still got stuff done.

We are prepared.

We hope!

A lot of those holiday people were at the club for dinner tonight and the queue was a mile long as they all waited to order their meals. Some were beautifully dressed and some much more casually, but you could definitely sense the relaxed and happy holiday mood permeating the air!

I had a losing night and even the usual winners in our group missed out, while there were lots of cheers coming from the less familiar faces.

It's going to be a big weekend - lets hope we survive intact. Let's hope the weather doesn't cause any problems - and if it does, may it bring the bored people who can't fish in the rain, to our shop for some shopping!

Meanwhile, I wish you all a very happy Easter. Be safe and be happy.

Nite all.

 

Lunch with the Ladies

It took me forever to figure out what to wear to the lady's luncheon today.

I've been feeling decidedly frumpy lately, so I'm not comfortable in many of my outfits. I haven't gained weight and they all still fit, but I don't feel right and I try five or six different outfits before choosing something and then, more often than not, my choice is just the best of a bad bunch.

I felt comfortable in my choice today though, so I was happy.

There seems to be more newbies than originals in the lady's group these days.

It was still a pleasant day at the Golf Club where the food was delicious (a good range of GF options), most of the staff were happy and friendly and the atmosphere was really relaxed and comfortable.

There were a couple of new Happy Abode customers in the group and I was seated near them today, so I networked and told a few other ladies about the shop. I'm still surprised when locals tell me that they don't know about the shop.

We are now seven months open and I really thought that word of mouth and 'time' would have spread the news to the far edges of town by now.

Apparently not.

I arrived home at about 2.45pm so I slipped into something a little more comfortable and took the time to set up my new iPad, which was pretty easy and interesting.

For dinner I caramelised some sweet potato, carrot, onion and zucchini mixed with garlic and cayenne pepper and which I then spooned onto a bed of baby spinach and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. I served that with crispy skinned chicken.

It was quite delicious but I didn't make enough because Adoring Husband was asking for seconds but the pan was bare.

My watch has just told me to get to bed, so I'm signing off right now!

Nite all.

Outta Control

It was a day that began with a plan, but ended totally out of control!

The Motivator had a lot of work to do - unrelated to The Happy Abode - and we set a plan so that she could get it done.

The plan was that she would sit, head down bum up, getting her 'stuff' done while I tended to the customers.

Unfortunately the first few customers that entered the shop made a beeline straight towards The Motivator! They were all in for long discussions and even though she did stop to share in the joy of opening a box that was delivered to the shop ...

... she still hadn't got to her work by lunch time!

Try as she might, there was distraction after distraction including a long and detailed conversation about our dreams/nightmares and some interesting dream analysis, a visit by one of our artists to deliver some new leatherwork for us to sell over Easter and then a visit by the Secretary of the Amateur Fishing Club to collect our donations to the Fishing Classic.

We realised that Easter was almost upon us and we needed signage, new information postcards and business cards so I left work at 4pm with The Motivator still being her creative self and getting all of that organised.

Needless to say, her other work was still awaiting her attention by the end of the day.

Late today, I received a deposit from a lady who is going to attend my next photography course in June, which was pretty exciting for me!

Even though we were both totally distracted from our original plans for the day, it was a successful day in The Happy Abode and quite a lot was achieved, even though it wasn't on the original plan.

Adoring Husband went shopping in The Bay today and returned home with two new iPad Pros. My iPad is almost 8yrs old and has been on it's last legs and struggling to make it through each day for some time. AH uses his iPad for just about everything so his old one was well used and also struggling.

By the time I arrived home from work, he had already set up his new iPad and will now be able to give me instructions for setting mine up when I'm ready!

Wednesday is lady's lunch day and I have the day off work to have some fun with the girls.

This means that I must get some sleep now.

Nite all.  

Soooo Tired

Is it the weather?

I can't seem to raise my energy levels.

Actually, it's my mental energy levels. Physically, I feel pretty OK, but I can't seem to motivate myself to do anything much at all.

This morning, when I had to be at work early for meditation, it felt like the morning was going in slow motion, or should I say 'I' was going in slow motion and the clock was moving super fast! I arrived on the dot of 7.30am just as meditation was beginning.

The work day also went really fast and we had a steady flow of customers to keep us reasonably busy.  We also had a visit from our local artists to discuss and accept some new artwork to sell over the holidays.

We are rapidly selling our range of Intrinsic products, which is understandable, because they are beautiful and have a way of moving people.

Holiday-makers are already filling the town and some of them were here during previous holidays and already knew our location, so we were their first stop, which was nice.

The Motivator enjoyed a treatment with The Gypsy this afternoon and I spent some time laying out my vision board which I hope we can do together tomorrow if we're not too busy.

Looking forward to coffee with the girls in the morning.

Now I'm off for a good night's sleep.

Nite all.

De-what???

What was that word I mentioned yesterday?

Decluttering?

Haha!

Noooooooo.

There was no decluttering done today.

The most effort I made today was putting together a salad to go with our protein tonight.

I accidentally stumbled across my suitcase in the spare bedroom (where Adoring Husband had put it some time ago) and it still contained some of my clothes from the trip to Sydney!!

One of those items was a kaftan that I bought at a temporary kiosk in the mall near our motel.

Those of you who know me, know that I am not generally a kaftan kind of girl - but it is was bought as my anchor - my anchor to the magnesium filtered pool that is in our future!

I wore it today and it's comfortable if you're sitting around doing nothing, but it kind of gets in the way when you're trying to do something like getting clothes out of the washing machine, wiping down kitchen benches or grabbing lots of food items out of the fridge.

So the plan is to get the pool, wear the kaftan and sit around the pool doing nothing! Kaftans are perfect for doing nothing!

I have nothing to show for today.

Nothing to share.

I'm looking forward to some early morning meditation tomorrow and a lovely day at work with The Motivator.

HappyMonday!

Nite sll.