Catch Up

I'm still attempting to catch up.

I didn't realise how far I'd fallen behind with everything in the last month and how many things I'd put off until I had more time.

Not only that, but trying to fit in all the 'things' that we want to do in the time that we have available is positively wearing me out!

Knowing that I'll have another three days to play with next week certainly takes the pressure off.

Today, while Adoring Husband ordered our coffee, I spent a short fifteen minutes at the local markets where I supported some local stall holders (aka spent money!).

We drove to Springvale plant nursery where we priced some big buddhas, water features and plant pots for landscaping around the pool. We found a large water feature buddha that we love and it currently sits on top of our wish list.

While we were there, I fell in love with a mirror that I simply had to have! You know ... sometimes you see something and you know it was meant for you? This was it for me ...

I know that you're a little surprised by this purchase because you probably don't consider me to be a 'bee' person. This is my symbol for 'Lucky Bitch' and I am definitely one of those!

After we finished viewing and pricing their vast array of garden statues, water features and pots, we drove to another location where we checked the prices of some of the same items. I was surprised to discover that the supposedly cheap shop "Truckloads" (you know ... the equivalent of Flash Harrys) was $300 dearer than any of the other five suppliers so far!

They did however, have an amazing metal dragon almost as tall as me, made out of shiny silver metal. If the price was more reasonable OR if it doubled as a water feature or did something interesting, it would have gone to the top of my wish list. The price was astronomical for what it was.

While we were at the shopping mall, which is one that we rarely get to on our trips into The Bay, I simply had to slip in some personal shopping so I bought myself three tops and two pairs of shoes.

A quick trip to Stocklands to purchase some desperately needed bras, then a stop at Harvey Normans to pick up the photos that I ordered yesterday and we rushed home to make it to Blonde Bombshell's house for her La Reve party which began at 1pm.

I did enjoy myself while I was there - of course a couple of glasses of wine helped! I ordered some more reed diffusers and a couple of gifts to put away for Christmas. I made a wish list for the next party which will probably be at The Happy Abode in September.

There was good food, good friends, some good laughs and more than two hours later, The Motivator dropped me home.

I'm feeling pretty exhausted after such a busy day. I've been awake since 5.45am and tomorrow we are taking our chooks to Gundiah, where Best Cousin in the World is going to take possession of them. Lunch will be served and we'll have to return mid afternoon for Adoring Husband to meet a commitment.

It's only 8.30pm but it feels like 10.30pm. That'll teach me for drinking wine! It's been a long time since I drank wine.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Nite all.

Day Out With My Man

There was no sleeping in this morning.

I had to put all the photos that I wanted to print onto a USB stick to take into town with me and I had to hang a large load of washing on the line and then write a 'to do' list so that we didn't forget anything while we were in The Bay.

The 'to do' list was left at home *rolls eyes* so I had to rely on my memory, which surprisingly, did not let me down!

First on our agenda, was to go to the cinema to see 'Mama Mia! Here We Go Again'

It was amazing and I loved every second of it! I can't wait to see it again!

From there, Adoring Husband and I went in search of some interesting things to add to the landscaping of our pool. I've decided that, if possible, I want something completely different.

My original plan was to have a big buddha in the corner, but I'll try to find something else that is unique and beautiful that still invokes a feeling of peace and harmony. We'll see what pops up.

Tomorrow, we will visit a couple of the big plant nurseries that stock large water features and statues to see what they have to offer.

Eventually, time was running out, so we did some grocery shopping and then headed to Harvey Norman so that I could order some new photo prints for the shop. It's time to change things up a bit and add some new prints to our walls.

It's also time for me to get out and about with my camera to capture some more local images, as well as put together a calendar of local pics for 2019.

So much to do!

We arrived home in time to feed the psychotic dogs, make a quick change and AH drove me to the club for my usual Friday night.

I had some luck on the pokies and it was a quiet night up there for the raffles with lots of empty tables.

I posted my sunset photo onto the Flickr website yesterday and as I type this, it has had 23,000 views!! My phone buzzes every time somebody adds it to their 'favourites' and almost 300 people have done that. The buzzing is becoming quite annoying ha.

It's just gone past 10pm so I'm off to bed. I have a big day planned tomorrow, including a party at 1pm.

Nite all.

New Hair Day

I didn't have to get out of bed until 11am.

I had a midday hair appointment, so I had to get up at 11am to make myself presentable for public viewing.

Adoring Husband dropped me off at the hairdressers so that he could pick me up afterwards and drive to Bambooland to price their bamboo sheets, with which we are going to line two of our existing fences around the pool.

But firstly, I have to say that my visit to the hairdressers was fabulous. I love my hair, but I just happened to run into a lady that I met almost a year ago, who lives in our street, but her illness keeps her indoors the majority of the time.

She had her back to me but heard my voice and called me over, introducing herself to me again. We spent the next two hours chatting up a storm, talking about everything and anything. It was thoroughly enjoyable and it was very noticeable how the energy in the shop changed when she left.

My hairdresser told me that she thought my son was 'hot'.  She saw him with us outside the cafe one afternoon and then she almost accidentally ran him over as she left her driveway another time. She said it wouldn't have mattered because she'd have gladly given him mouth to mouth to save him!

Almost three hours later, I left the salon with my lovely new hair and feeling very happy.

At Bambooland, AH and I found some stunning planter pots and I selected three different sizes, a 'possible' buddha water feature and a Bali bench seat that is also on the 'possible' list.

If I was 'into' elephants, there was an amazing elephant water feature that was reasonably priced.

We weren't there very long but saw and priced everything that we were interested in and can now compare prices elsewhere.

When we returned home, we did some grocery shopping and then I spent the next hour and a bit in the kitchen making cauliflower patties and a chicken curry. The cauliflower patties took a lot longer than I expected, but they were delicious.

Adoring Husband headed off to SES for the evening and I did some washing, cleaned up the kitchen and then sorted through my photos so that I could put them all on a USB stick and will decide tomorrow which ones I'll print for the shop.

My hairdresser said that she is interested in doing my next photography workshop and she thinks her girlfriend would do it with her. But first, she needs to get a camera!

Anyway, it's now after 11pm. Adoring Husband is home and trying to sleep while I tap away on my keyboard, so I'll sign off here.

Nite all.

On A Break!

That's me.

I'm officially on a break.

How funny that I'm hesitant to take this break! I love The Happy Abode and while I know I NEED to take this break, I certainly don't WANT to take it.

It's a forced, self imposed break so that I don't reach a point where I'm not having fun.

It was a slow day for sales in the shop until the last half hour, when a few customers came in and then right on closing time, one lady asked if she could have a look. She found much to fall in love with, so piled the items on the counter and lifted our sales to better than acceptable!

The Motivator and I had some fun and practiced some silliness. We made another stock order and listed some stuff from another supplier. I think we're going to busy next week when all of this stock arrives at the shop. Trying to figure out where it goes will be fun.

Adoring Husband made a casserole in the slow cooker today, so I didn't have to prepare dinner at all and could spend the afternoon and evening relaxing. He's definitely a keeper.

I had another look at the photos of the sunset last night and came up with this ...

Now I think it's time for bed. I have a hair appointment at midday tomorrow and I intend on staying in bed until the very last minute!

Nite all.

This Close!

We began our Tuesday in the usual way ... enjoying coffee and a good laugh with the ladies in our lounge area. There were eight of us in attendance.

It was 11am when the last lady left and by then I think we'd had one small sale in the shop.

One of our suppliers of local art/craft came into the shop at that point and spent some time chatting and showing us some of his new work.

It was after he left that things began to pick up big time.

We were so close to breaking our highest sales record today.

It was such a slow morning, I wondered if we might break our lowest sales record!

By late afternoon, we were feeling confident enough to begin an order with a new supplier, so we did a quick search and selected some items that we thought would serve us well for Father's Day.

At the end of the day, we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, so it was hugs all round and smiles on our dials as we said our goodbyes.

This is the first Tuesday of the month, which means our monthly neighbourhood barbecue at the river, so Adoring Husband and I did a quick grocery shop and headed home to prepare our salad and stack our esky with all the goodies to take with us.

Because I'd had the photography workshop on the weekend, my camera gear was all packed in the bag and ready to go, so I took it with me hoping that our sunset would be worth the effort.

Just when it felt like the cloud cover might smother the colour, it gradually changed and became brighter and more fiery by the minute ...

What a spectacle! With every minute that passed, the colours and the light kept changing.

There were lots of people out with their phones and their cameras capturing the beauty of it. It triggered lots of conversations between strangers and all of us agreed in the glory of Mother Nature.

Soon enough after we ate our barbecue dinner, it began to get quite cool and we headed home, but it was nice to catch up with our neighbours, who, surprisingly, we really only see once a month at these barbecues!

It's after 11pm and I need to be up early for meditation tomorrow, so I'd best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Let's Go Shopping!

The Motivator has returned!

It was the slowest day in the shop that we've had for weeks, so The Motivator and I went shopping!

We spent the entire afternoon online ordering new stock. Some to replace the stuff we've sold out of and some new stuff to cater to Father's Day and some new stuff 'just because'.

Some Pure Essential Oils, new handbags and wallets, a new black and red scarf for someone special, some Intrinsic affirmation cards and some men's wallets, man bags and bumbags.

The Gypsy was booked out today, but customers were few and far between. The two who came rushing into the shop just after 3pm when we were closing, made up half of our sales for the day!

The supermarket and the butcher complained loudly about how quiet it was for them too, so it wasn't just us.

I'll probably take a couple of days off at the end of the week to catch up on some housework, deliver our chooks to Gundiah and set out a plan for Adoring Husband to start clearing the yard in preparation for the pool.

I'm looking forward to coffee with some of the girls tomorrow morning and probably ordering some stock from some new suppliers with The Motivator.

Meanwhile, I'm off for an early night *yawn*

Nite all.

Missing in Action

This month's photography workshop originally had seven people listed, a family of three pulled out due to a death in the family, one woman had to withdraw due to her work roster, one man pulled out but asked to do the next one and another lady just never returned my calls. This meant that just three days before the workshop was to commence, I had ONE person left!

After a few phone calls, a few emails and an announcement at my talk the other day, two more came to the party and I could still run the workshop with three fabulous participants ...

It was another great workshop and they were lovely people whose company was a real pleasure, which made the weekend really enjoyable.

I would like to share this story highlighting my weak (some might say 'complete lack of') organisational skills.

I was running a 'Photography for Beginners' workshop this weekend.

On Thursday afternoon, I began setting up, but couldn't find my worksheets or course material.

I searched all through the shop to no avail, but wasn't too concerned, believing that I had taken it all home after the previous workshop.

That evening, I searched all through the house to avail, and this time I was very concerned because I had no idea what had happened to it all!

Nowhere to be found.

Back to work on Friday where I logged into the Photography Course file on my iMac and discovered that only about one third of it is stored there.

Ugh.

So I printed out what was there, knowing that the remaining two thirds was on my MacBook at home.

Still not concerned, I came home on Friday afternoon, got ready and went out for my usual Friday night at the club.

We came home from there a bit after 7.30pm and cooked dinner, sat down to eat it while watching the football, after which (by this time, it's 10pm) I put my MacBook on my lap and began the search for the remaining course material.

To my dismay, the information sheets were there but my 'example' photos were not.

Ugh.

Seriously?!

I spent the evening printing the info sheets and then searching for new photos to print. My originals were not on file, so I had to search for and print new example photos.

Then I had to put it all in order in preparation for day one of the workshop.

I made extra copies to set aside for future emergencies.

It was 1am when I finally made it to bed.

Hence no blog post for Friday night.

Day two of my workshop is always only partially planned because the participants always ask at least one question on the first day, for which I do not have an answer, so I write the question/s down, research the answer and provide new information sheets on day two.

One of the participants this weekend was a little more advanced than the others and asked questions that a true beginner would not think of, so Saturday night was about creating a new information sheet for day two.

While I was doing that, I thought of something else so I worked on that to add to day two.

It was after 11pm when I headed to bed, hence no blog post on Saturday night!

Ask me where all of my course material is right now? Right now, as I sit here writing this blog post, I have no bloody idea where my course material is ... not even the extras that I printed for emergencies!

There is no hope for me.

Nite all.