Welcome to the Weekend

It was a fun Saturday morning at the shop with both of us on deck.

Lots of customers, not all in a buying mood, but definitely in cheeky, funny and talkative moods. A few from out of town ie Howard, Toogoom, Toowoomba and Childers. It's nice to know that the word about our lovely shop is spreading - even if the locals still don't know we're here!

As I left our house this morning, our neighbour across the road asked if I was 'off for a morning ride'. When I told him I was going to work, he said "Work?"

So I told him about The Happy Abode, and he was totally unaware of it's existence! My neighbour!

He knows about it now and tells me that he will come for a sticky beak some time soon.

The Motivator and I got a lot done today between customers and we both left right on closing time.

My first stop was at Pelican Manor for a family photo shoot. It was a spur of the moment, short notice gathering of many family members and I have to say they were the funniest, happiest group of people  to photograph.

I told them that we had a 30 minute window of opportunity so they were very compliant and moved quickly into each separate group. They were constantly laughing and smiling so the photos were quick and easy.

It took exactly 30 minutes!

I've had a relaxing afternoon and evening with Adoring Husband and I fried up some whiting fillets to have with salad for dinner.

It's now 7.45pm and I'm considering an early bed time. I've had no coffee today, so my body is running on natural energy alone. I must remember to drink LOTS of water while I'm detoxing from caffeine!

Have a fabulous Sunday!

Nite all.

Friendly Friday

It was a nice day at the shop today.

Very quiet in the morning, which meant that I could price and display the stock that arrived on Thursday. The Motivator did a lot of it yesterday and I still haven't finished, so we'll have to clean up the loose ends on Saturday morning.

The afternoon saw quite a few friendly customers, mostly people at the end of their holiday and almost all of them were in for a chat.

I didn't get to close the shop until about 3.15pm but it was worth staying open that little bit longer.

Adoring Husband appeared in his SES uniform just as I was leaving. He had been at a meeting all day in The Bay and came to see if I needed help to close.

Before I rode home, I had to go to the Post Office.

Our group was very light on at the club tonight. Beauty and The Beast were there, as was Grumpy Old Fart and Trivia King. That was it.

I was feeling quite unwell and almost called AH to come pick me up early. I started to feel a little better just before the raffle was drawn, so I stayed for that ... though none of us won a prize.

I had a bit of luck on the pokies.

It was wet and stormy as we left the club and we drove home in the rain. There were also a LOT of mosquitoes and I got eaten alive in the bus.

Of course I had to cook dinner when I got home, which was San Choy Bow made with pork mince. I haven't cooked this dish for about ten years and now that we've had it again, I think it will be a regular weekly meal.

Now I need some sleep. I have to work in the morning which will be followed by a quick family photo shoot on the way home.

It's going to be a big weekend!

Nite all.

 

Big Boost

I had the day off today.

My hair appointment was for 10.30am and I was trying a new hairdresser at my old salon. I'll call her Sely Scissorhands.

After three hours, this was my result ...

... Please excuse the 'selfie' (and I'm in my pyjamas!) but I'm very happy with the outcome and I will definitely return to Sely Scissorhands. She used three different colours for my foils, gave me a trim, blow dried and straightened my hair.

She was easy to chat with and the three hours passed surprisingly fast.

I felt totally boosted!

I left the salon and pedalled to the shop to see The Motivator to show her my hair, have a quick catch-up, check out the new stock that had just arrived - she will be having her day off tomorrow, so we won't catch up again until Saturday.

I did a quick grocery shop and returned home to spend time with Adoring Husband before he left for his SES training night.

It's only 8pm but I feel ready for bed already. I haven't done anything all day, but I feel like I've put in a full day's work! Bizarre.

Ok, I'm done.

Nite all.

Busy and Important

It's been a day and a half!

It all started at 5am when my alarm went off and I had to get up and get myself ready to be picked up at 6.10am for the Chamber of Commerce meeting at Arkarra Gardens.

I was expecting a small crowd and a boring event, but instead I found a HUGE crowd of people and an interesting morning packed to the brim with information and some Mayoral candidates actually worth listening to.

I followed The Motivator around while she networked and made valuable connections with different business owners and other important industry professionals, until we sat down for breakfast, which was enjoyable, followed by Q&A with the candidates.

They were five very different people, each with their own field of expertise and each with their own solid ideas about what they could bring to the table if they were voted into the position. They weren't given very long to answer each question so they had to provide a lot of information in their three minute response, which made for an informative meeting.

At the end, we had the opportunity to mark a ballot paper with our unofficial vote, to give them an indication of how they performed.

I'm really glad that we made the effort to attend because we got our name out there and even received some helpful advice which we will follow through on.

We arrived back at the shop before opening time and had the chance to debrief and discuss how we see our future as far as our involvement with TCOC is concerned.

The remainder of the day was quite slow because it's the usual quiet pension Wednesday where everybody travels into The Bay to do their shopping.

We did take delivery of a box of hemp hats which we'll price and display tomorrow. We should also receive one more delivery of La Vida stock tomorrow, which will be exciting!

After we closed the shop, we had just four hours to kill until we left the house again to attend the Progress Association monthly meeting at the hall.

It was our first meeting of it's kind and it was interesting to watch the dynamics of the members and see the 'power play' at work.

I don't see how they support the current businesses in town, and I know that they have encouraged 'out of area' businesses to compete at our local markets and other events, so they don't really have our best interests at heart.

It would take a lot of convincing for me to become a member or return for another meeting.

It's almost 11.30pm and I'm exhausted!

Tomorrow morning I have a hair appointment, so The Motivator is doing the early shift. I can't believe how quickly this week has flown!

For now, it's bed time.

Nite all.

All Alone

This was my Tuesday morning with the girls ...

... but gosh I got productive in that time!

At 11am, the Whinging Pom arrived with Whispering Jack and a tray of coffee because she knew that nobody had come for our usual coffee get together. I thought that was a lovely gesture!

Of course, everybody had a legitimate reason for not being at The Happy Abode ... not they even need one, because our gatherings are supposed to be fun and frivolity and nobody should ever feel obligated to attend.

It was a nice day at the shop, but it was a hot day outside of the shop! That was the general comment as people came through our doors.

The Motivator had the late shift today, so I got to leave at 1pm, which was nice.

We've decided to share paleo meals with each other. I cooked a spaghetti bolognese sauce to share with her and she cooked butter chicken for us!

I had already planned crumbed fish for dinner tonight, so it will be butter chicken for dinner tomorrow night for us, and I have some broccoli and cauliflower to make brocoflower rice to go with it.

Tonight I coated our snapper fillets with tapioca flour, then dipped them in egg and lemon juice, then coated them in almond meal/salt/lemon zest. I shallow fried them in coconut oil and served them with a garden salad and a wedge of fresh lemon.

Bloody nice!

On Wednesday morning, The Motivator and I have to attend a 'Meet the Mayoral candidates' breakfast at Arkarra Gardens. Under normal circumstance, this might be a pleasant experience, but in this instance, having to get out of bed at 5am to be ready to leave the house at 6am is not a prospect that I'm excited about!

I struggle to be 'nice' to people in the early hours of the morning, so it's going to be a hell of a stretch for me!

This being our first official event in our capacity as local business operators, means that we have to be on our best behaviour - not that it's a problem for The Motivator - but it's going to be a challenge for me! My advice to myself is "Smile and nod. Smile and nod." Ha ha.

It's now 9.30pm and I am already in bed, so it's time to sleep. Must be fresh for my early start in the morning!

Nite all.

The Beginning

It's been a great beginning to the week.

It all started with meditation this morning. More 'aha' moments for me. I learn something new about myself every week. I'm learning how to build on my strengths and work on weaker areas of myself to help bring more love and clarity to my life.

I think we all had some aha moments this morning which made the whole process more enjoyable.

There was a steady flow of customers in the morning and enough quiet time in the afternoon that we got a lot done.

I actually cleared another 3000 emails and only have 700 remaining! That's almost 8000 emails cleared in two days! I will work hard at keeping them under control from here on in.

We got to talk with a special customer who has the most amazing spiritual energy and she always makes us feel good while she's in the shop and even after she leaves.

The day was even better because we got to leave the shop at 3pm. In a business sense, the long days over the holidays were worth it, but they took a lot out of us and we are really happy to be doing the shorter hours again. It feels like we have control of our lives again.

Working from 9am - 5pm every day of the week is crazy. We love the work we do and we love being in our shop, yet working those hours was incredibly draining because there was not enough time in the day to do all the other things that we're responsible for, and no time for self care either.

Luckily for us, travel time is minimal, but people in the city have to travel about an hour each way (I remember it well) and that takes a big chunk out of your day. It takes away from your family, your partner, your social life, the housework, self-care and everything else in your life.

In this situation, we are lucky to have each other.

We take care of ourselves and we take care of each other and make sure we don't get bogged down with unnecessary stuff. We make sure we get extra time off when we need it. We've got each other's backs.

Now I'm going to bed because it's approaching 11pm and that's past my 'go to bed alarm time'! I had a late night last night and an early start, so I need to catch up on that.

I wonder how many will turn up for morning coffee tomorrow?

Nite all.

The Perfect Sunday

I can't imagine a better day off than the one I had today.

I woke at 7am, just because I was ready to wake up. No alarm, no startling sounds, no outside influence, just an easy, slow entry into the day. I lay in bed just thinking and breathing and looking and feeling for about twenty minutes.

Then I read for a while. I played Words With Friends.

Adoring Husband surprised me with breakfast in bed and a takeaway coffee. *LOVE*

I mucked around in Facebook for a long time (still in my pyjamas in bed!).

Study came to the fore at one stage and I did some work on stuff I've been avoiding for a while and using 'not enough time' as an excuse, so I'm very happy to achieved that today.

I listened to some music (still in my pyjamas in bed!) and I watched some long training videos. I created some extra content for my next photography course. I ate potato chips and I drank lots of water.

I got out of bed once to walk into the back yard and collect some chillies from The Leggy Blonde, my back neighbour and the second time, at 5.30pm, was to cook dinner.

We had pork sausages in onion gravy with potato and sweet potato mash and a big buttery fry up of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, bacon, garlic and cayenne pepper. Dessert was the usual fruit whip ice-cream.

I returned to bed at 7pm for a special reason.

There are three shows on TV at the same time. Bachelor in Paradise. My Kitchen Rules. The Voice.

So Adoring Husband watched My Kitchen Rules and recorded it at the same time as recording The Voice, while I watched Bachelor in Paradise in the bedroom.

Now I'm in the lounge room thinking back on my Sunday. So lazy and delicious and perfect.

I'm off to bed now - to sleep!

Meditation tomorrow morning!

Nite all.