Surprise Saturday

It was a very quiet Saturday in The Happy Abode.

Luckily I had a visit from The Motivator and Mama Mia to bring some interest to the day.

Adoring Husband spent the morning in The Bay.

There was a big surprise party that I had to aim for this afternoon, so I rushed home, wrote out the birthday card, did a quick change and AH drove me to the address.

The guests all had to be there before 3pm because the birthday girl had been taken out for lunch and was returning at 3pm - not knowing that there would be a house full of people awaiting her arrival.

The Blonde Bombshell is celebrating her 65th birthday - and celebrate she should! Considering she almost didn't make it after the terrible car accident earlier in the year. She survived to tell the tale and is still working on her rehabilitation, but always with a smile on her face and a positive attitude.

A good time was had by all and Grumpy Old Fart did a remarkable job keeping the secret and preparing enough food to feed the hoards without Blonde Bombshell ever knowing.

It started with plate after plate of nibbles - crab meat on crackers, layered guacamole dip, cheese platter, home made sausage rolls, asparagus and cheese slice (with a little help from friends).

He cooked up a feast of sticky pork ribs, sweet and sour chicken, beef and beans and fried rice, followed by a huge birthday cake made by Blonde Bombshell's carer and two big platters of fruit.

It was a very successful afternoon and we all had some good laughs and caught up with a few friends whom we haven't seen for a while ...

I arrived home with about thirty minutes to spare before the rains came. There is a storm and lots of rain passing over us as I write this.

I am absolutely exhausted and tomorrow AH and I will be hunting for plants for our pool area, so I'd best get some sleep. It seems so much later than 9.15pm!!

Nite all.

Friday Frenzy

I had big plans for editing wedding photos today.

You know how most of my big plans go.

It was just busy enough in the shop to prevent me from following through or completing any of my plans.

It was another good day of sales. More return travellers. More birthday and Christmas gifts sold. Another milestone birthday announced.

Adoring Husband helped me close the shop and did some grocery shopping, mailed an important birthday parcel before the last mail run and then returned home to construct one of our outdoor settings ...

... pic courtesy of Adoring Husband.

He spent the day in The Bay. He had to drop the car at the repairers to have the rear door repaired. They will keep it there until next Wednesday.

Meanwhile they've provided a car for us that has seen better days. Fraying seatbelts, windows with winding handles (who knew there were any cars like that left on the roads?!), clear glass windows that provide undesirable heating, but at least it has working air conditioning.

He purchased the water feature which will be delivered next Thursday, some boardies and rashies for himself to protect his delicate sun sensitive skin, some coat hangers for our new clothing that should arrive at the shop on Monday, he did a Bunnings stop and plant nursery stop and made phone calls to organise the extras for the Bali hut.

He has been a very busy and productive young man today and is currently snoring his head off in his recliner chair beside me.

This weekend, we will take the time to select some plants for our big plant pots.

It all seems to be coming together nicely and I can't wait for it to be complete so that we can have a 'come and see our pool' party!

Time for me to go to bed. It's almost 10pm and tonight at the club, I was told by some prospective customers that they are coming to the shop bright and early in the morning!

Nite all.

The Second Round

This is one of the fun parts of having The Happy Abode.

Returning holiday-makers who have looked forward to seeing us again on their annual holiday and who are excited to see us still here and doing well.

Not only that, but another travelling couple who are on their way to the Cape, saw us on the Google map when they were looking for accommodation in The Bay and they made a special trip to see The Happy Abode before continuing their journey!

How cool is that?

They spent up big too!

There are some special birthdays coming up in town this week, so I sold quite a few birthday gifts today.

Christmas parties for various social, sporting and crafting groups are about to begin and they all have secret Santas with a maximum monetary value, so I'm guessing our less expensive items will soon be flying out the window.

The Motivator brought her Mum to the shop for a visit. It was lovely to see Mama Mia again. She's a sweetie and obviously excited to spend some quality time with The Motivator while she's here.

It was after 3pm when I realised it was time to close the shop. I was very involved in printing out some important information for tax purposes and the time flew by!

Adoring Husband arrived a little late but we got some groceries for dinner and then hurried home for a swim in the you-know-what.

I love our pool.

I swam, floated, kicked, stretched and noodled for an hour and then imagined how the area will look when everything is finished and we can use the space as a living area instead of just a swimming hole.

AH cooked some snags on the barbie and we had sweet potato mash, broccoli, asparagus and onion gravy for dinner.

It's after 10pm so I'm off to bed.

Tomorrow will be another fabulous day in The Happy Abode.

Nite all.

Fabulousness

Today was full of fabulousness!

I woke up bright and early after a solid night's sleep and made it to work with plenty of time to spare before the meditation class began.

We had the usual crowd there and it was another inspiring session with some good tools and advice to  bring more peace, love and light into my life.

The Gypsy only had two appointments booked today so we had lots of time to discuss our lives and the challenges and tests that the universe has put in our paths, the way we handled each of those situations and together we celebrated our successes. Every conversation with The Gypsy is a learning experience and I feel a strong connection with her. I always look forward to Mondays and Wednesdays.

It was a steady day for sales in the shop and I got time to finish our new Christmas advertisement for the next town newsletter. I made a lot of changes to our usual ad and it was quite time consuming, but hopefully it will attract the right attention.

It was well after 3pm when I closed the shop and after Adoring Husband and I did a bit of grocery shopping for dinner, I returned home hanging out to jump in the pool!

I knew that Adoring Husband had already been in for a swim today, so I was dreaming about floating around in the water all afternoon. I feel like a mermaid with a new home! I was in the water for about an hour and all my digits were wrinkled like prunes by the time I climbed out. The only reason I got out when I did, was because I needed to pee really badly!

It's now 9pm and I'm off to bed. It's been a fabulous day and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Nite all.

On The Job

Back to work today.

What a great day it was.

It started with coffee morning and only three of us in attendance until The Motivator arrived to make it an even four.

Fun was had when firstly, I showed the girls our new clothing line and made a sale.

More fun was had when a delivery of stock arrived before the girls left, so we all had fun opening that box, but no sale was made this time.

The Motivator and I had some good chats after the girls left, including some business discussions which make our future look pretty bright.

We made arrangements for someone to come put our new sign on the big wall ...

The Motivator came in on her day off to spend the afternoon supervising the job and it looks fantastic.

While I was at work, the pebblecrete was laid at home ...

I love the finish and I was relieved at the size of the area ... I was worried that my idea of measurements would be way out, but it's just right and I can't wait for the rest of it to come together.

Late this afternoon, The Motivator and I made some big orders which should arrive next week and I think we might need one more order of snap button jewellery before Christmas. Then we'll be done for a while!

Right now, I need to rub some oil into Adoring Husband's back, so I'm outta here.

Nite all.

Freddie and Me

A BIG THANK YOU to Lady Lynn for coming to my rescue today so that I could attend the cinema to finally watch 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

She was able to give me a lift into The Bay and was even able to bring me home afterwards.

Lady Lynn is my champion.

The movie was everything I'd imagined and more. Rami Malek was amazing as Freddie Mercury and of course the music had me wanting to sing loudly! So I lip synched loudly!

While I was gone from the house, the concreter levelled our back yard ready for concreting, which meant that the black powdery sand was blown in all directions and filled our beautiful crystal clear pool.

Obviously no longer crystal clear!

It filled the new kitchen.

It filled our alfresco area.

It filled the house - I could slide on our tiles!

He will be back tomorrow to begin pouring the concreting and we will order the new turf to cover the remaining area of the yard that was chopped up in the pool process. Hopefully, that can be laid on Friday.

We had a little problem with our creepy crawly but with good team work, Adoring Husband and I got it sorted. There may be a few problems until all of our landscaping is finished because there is extra dirt, extra stones, extra pebbles and general mess which is putting pressure on everything.

Meanwhile, we had some clothing arrive at The Happy Abode today, so I had to rush to the shop to check it out. I've already purchased two of the items myself! How exciting!

Now I need to make up the dog food to freeze and then hang my washing on the line before I head to bed.

Tomorrow, it's hi ho hi ho it's off to work I go!

Nite all.

First Swim

Don't ask me what I did on Saturday ... I did not work ... that much I know for sure.

I spent a lot of time waiting for Adoring Husband to decide whether he was going to drive into The Bay to wait in the hospital emergency department to have his back looked at. It was THAT painful.

Instead he lay back on the recliner lounge to keep the weight off his spine and allow it some time to rest and recover.

I climbed into bed early and couldn't find the motivation to write a blog post.

This morning (Sunday) it was after 8am when I awoke.

I made myself breakfast to take back to bed with me and I stayed in bed until lunch time.

That was when I walked outside to check on the pool.

It was quite warm outside, so I sat on the edge of the pool and dangled my legs in the very cool water. I moved down one step and sat in the water.

That was the moment that Adoring Husband decided to jump in the water. Luckily, I had an inkling that he was about to jump and I reminded him to take his glasses off!

That would have been a big OOPS!

I was still fully clothed and decided to go 'all in' myself.

After a while, the psychotic dogs became curious and wandered to the edge of the pool, so one by one, we introduced them to deep water and watched them swim for the very first time. They seemed to enjoy it!

Ninety minutes later, we decided that it was time to get dry.

Of course ... we were in the water ... in the middle of the day ... without shade ... for ninety minutes.

We are both a brighter shade of pink for the experience.

I'm looking forward to the umbrella being installed so that I can float in the shade.

I'm looking forward to the Bali hut being erected so that I can sit out there in the shade and give my pruned skin time to reach plumpness again before I dive back into the pool.

I'm looking forward to the pebblecrete being laid so that dusty black sand doesn't float all through the house, through the pool, coat our feet, change the colour of the psychotic dogs from white to black.

After their swim in the pool, the psychotic dogs played in the black sand and I had to bath all three of them - it took a lot of work to get them clean.

I figured I should use my dirty situation to clean the toilet straight after that haha.

We considered swimming again this evening, but the air temperature dropped considerably, so that was out of the question.

Tomorrow, I am off to watch Bohemian Rhapsody (at last) but I'll be alone. Adoring Husband's back wouldn't allow him to sit in the cinema seats for that long ... and he needs to be here for the concreter in the morning. This will be my only day off for a while because The Motivator will have her Mum here for an extended period and I don't know when the movie will be removed from the viewing list.

BUT you know how I enjoy solo movie dates!

It's 11pm so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.