Arty Farty

I believe that it was a huge success.

The Motivator's 'Paint and Create' morning resulted in some beautiful art work and left me feeling very envious!

The paying guinea pigs - being the first participants in the first workshop - left feeling very happy with their pieces of art and happy to return next week for the next instalment.

It was also a good sales day in the shop, thanks to a frenzied one hour period, otherwise I had time to make up two gift packs and wrap them and do a few other chores including follow up of phone sales.

Somebody from Bundaberg bought one of my calendars via phone call and I will mail it to her on Monday.

The weather was looking ominous this morning so Adoring Husband drove me to work, which meant that he had to also pick me up after work. He helped us close the shop and bought our afternoon coffee.

I was supposed to have a date with The Blonde Bombshell this afternoon, but I accidentally (or should I say 'foolishly') ate some dip with gluten while I was at work, so my afternoon was spent purging the unwelcome gluten from my body instead.

Ugh.

No swimming today due the inclement weather and Adoring Husband laid some sleepers as an edging for a garden bed, which he will fill with some kind of mulch. I will take a photo of that tomorrow, along with the rose quartz crystal rocks that I forgot to photograph today 😳🙄😲.

I am watching "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" with Jerry Seinfeld. It's a bit of everything - funny, deep, ridiculous, interesting, quizzical, questionable, normal, warm, stupid ... I've seen some of the re-runs, but I never watched Seinfeld back in the 90s and I've never been a big Jerry Seinfeld fan. I do like the Jerry Seinfeld of today and I like the way he relates to the other comedians.

I need to go to bed now so that my body can heal from the gluten contamination.

Nite all.
 

The Waiting Game

I've had two days off work and for one and a half of them, I've been waiting for electricians who never turned up and the delivery of the Bali hut that was two hours late.

This left me half a day to get done what I had already put off for two weeks because of other commitments (not mine) and this also meant that I had less time to enjoy the process and had to move my butt much more quickly than I'd have liked so that we could squeeze everything in.

I found some beautiful big rose quartz rocks and purchased three of them to place strategically around the pebble garden beside the pool. (I'll take photos tomorrow)

I also found a stunning giant Citrine crystal cave reduced from $3600 to $1800.

I did NOT buy it.

If I'd had a spare $1800 to toss around, I would DEFINITELY have bought it ... but I already have a fabulous pool in my back yard with a Bali bed, a giant umbrella, fabulous outdoor furniture, stunning garden pots yet to be filled, a water feature to bring peace and tranquility to my world and a Bali Hut in pieces waiting to be constructed.

For ten years I have imagined a pool in my back yard, but not once in my dreams, did it look as fabulous as it does right now and it's not even finished yet!

I visited Tinkerbell's on the Esplanade in search of a blue kyanite ring and while it's not quite what I had in mind, I found this little beauty ...

I absolutely love it.

Adoring Husband purchased a wireless speaker for the pool area ...

... and it sounds great.

I decided to attend the club tonight and just as I was about to walk out the door to get a seat on the bus to come home, one of my numbers was called and I won a $50 meat pack! Right in the centre of it was crumbed steak, which means that every piece of meat in the pack was contaminated with gluten so I can't eat any of it!

We will save it for our first pool party to feed the hoards. (You know who you are 😁🤪😍)

It's almost 11pm and I have to work tomorrow, so I'm off!

Nite all.

Bit of a Waste

Adoring Husband and I spent the entire day at home waiting for electricians who never arrived.

Apparently they'll be here on Monday. This has been a wasted day and we could have been in The Bay getting a lot done from our 'to do' list.

The other disappointing news was that the stirrups to hold our Bali Hut securely to the concrete can no longer be provided to us by the company from whom we purchased the hut. The hut will be delivered tomorrow (Friday) but we need to have these special stirrups made for us by an engineering company - we hope the one in The Bay can do that, and we hope they can do it before Christmas!

Bugga.

My first box of calendars arrived today! They're now at the shop. Adoring Husband purchased one, as did The Motivator. I wasn't expecting that lol.

I've been editing some of the wedding photos. A small sample ...

There are still so many to get through! So far the brides are happy with the photos that I've given them - about 40 to this point - there will be at least another 60 or more. They have made the photos their profile pic and page headers on their FB pages, so that's a good sign. People have made favourable comments and that's always a relief.

Weddings are so stressful! I don't think I'll do another.

Anyway, I'm all worn out. I did get to have a swim today in the gale force conditions and between downpours - then I dried out and warmed up in the Bali bed with Adoring Husband and two psychotic dogs.

We had a delicious dinner of corned beef and cabbage with mash and white sauce. I made an extra large batch of cabbage hoping to have bubble and squeak for breakfast but AH decided that it was so delicious that he had to eat the entire pan of it!

I can't complain about him pigging out on healthy food can I?

Time for bed.

Nite all.

Treatment 4 Me

I only worked half a day today but most of our sales came in the afternoon when I wasn't there!

We sold three more calendars, sight unseen! How weird is that!?

I ordered another batch before the sale ended on the print site but I feel like (and I hope) that we haven't printed enough. This was really just an experiment to gauge local interest and to give us an indication fo how many to budget for with next year's print. It's been a promising start!

When The Motivator arrived at the shop, I shouted myself a treatment with The Gypsy so I relaxed for an hour and let her do her stuff - which she does so well.

We discussed the tightness and problem areas that she found and she gave me dietary and stretching advice to help resolve those issues. She warned me of some emotional release that may be experienced tomorrow (or today as you read this).

I rushed home knowing that Adoring Husband was at a meeting and that our Bali Day Bed was due to arrive any minute.

Thankfully, it didn't arrive until after Adoring Husband returned home and between us, we were able to assemble it in it's permanent position in the corner of the pool area.

It is SO comfortable and I can't wait to laze in it tomorrow on my day off!

By the time we'd finished that, I had no motivation to make dinner, so Adoring Husband and I attended the monthly trivia night on an empty stomach.

It didn't make any difference to our mental abilities ... we were still ... the word 'stupid' might be a bit harsh ... we both had our moments but our scores were average and we had no success with any of the prizes. Between the four of us, we certainly did NOT shine and we missed Blonde Bombshell, who I'm certain would have helped us smash the 'alcohol' round!!

Now it's heading towards midnight and I'm feeling a touch weary, so I'll sign off.

Nite all.

Stormy Change

The day began hot and steamy and as the girls arrived for our coffee morning, they had worked up a sweat and needed some cooling down, so the air conditioner was set to low.

I believed that almost everyone was out of town and that I would be either on my own or only have one lady to chat with, but in actual fact, I had seven ladies in attendance and it was one of the noisiest mornings we've had!

They looked through my clothes, took and/or bought the items that they liked and it was around 11am when the last lady left. It was a good morning, as usual, but we missed The Brains Trust and Lady Lynn.

The shop was quite busy until around 1pm when weather began to develop into a nasty storm, so people were smart enough to remain indoors.

The Motivator had come to the shop to get some work done, but was distracted by talkative customers and ... me.

She too had ridden her trike, so we both had to park the trikes inside the shop and Adoring Husband drove us home as the weather deteriorated rapidly.

AH and I chose to miss the monthly barbecue at the Lions Park, but about ten of the usual group attended despite the rain, which seemed to pass just in time for the event.

We chose to get grilled barramundi and chips from the local cafe. It's been a while since we did that and it was quite delicious.

I now have a corned silverside in the slow cooker so tomorrow's dinner will be ready to reheat ... I hope to have mash, cabbage and white sauce to accompany it.

It's time to begin thinking about my 'word' for 2019. I've started a list and I have one in mind, but it still doesn't feel like 'the one', so I'll keep searching.

Last year's word was 'fearless' because I was terrified of running the photography workshops - I overcame my fear and the workshops were a hit. I will work harder at recruiting for 2019 and make them a more integral part of The Happy Abode space.

It's only 8.30pm and I think I'm ready for bed. I only work for half a day tomorrow and I'm booked in for a treatment with The Gypsy after that. I may even go for an early morning swim in the morning before work!

I'm still trying to edit wedding photos.

Nite all.

New Week

Happy Monday to you!

Although, as you read this, it's Tuesday!

It was a steady day in the shop.

Lots of chatting with The Gypsy between her appointments and my customers.

A nice visit from The Motivator and Mama Mia.

I got some jobs done.

I did some phone sales (they phoned me - not the other way round). Weird huh?

I didn't get home until 4pm and I didn't even go into the pool because I had too much to do.

I'm still trying to finish the wedding photos.

I also had to finish creating and ordering the calendars.

At this point, I've ordered a very limited number of calendars, and I expect them to sell quickly - there won't be any re-orders/reprinting because the price is due to increase by a LOT in two day's time.

A sneak peek ...

Numbers will be down for coffee in the morning - in fact, I might even be alone. We'll see!

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Mighty Hot

It was 32C at 9.30am today.

Adoring Husband spent the entire day between his shed and the new kitchen rearranging things, tidying things, culling things and putting all of his tools and 'stuff' that he's been using in the pool process back into the shed to make room in the kitchen for actual kitchen stuff.

It was a job and a half.

I spent more than two hours in the pool.

I made lunch for us.

I watched 'Slumdog Millionaire' for the very first time and I am very disappointed that I didn't watch it sooner, given that it's ten years old! What an amazing movie ... and I do love Dev Patel.

I edited some wedding photos. SO many MORE to do yet.

I did some washing.

AH found a box of goodies in the shed and I sorted through it. Half of the goodies weren't that good, so they got tossed. The remainder were special items that belonged to Mum & Dad, like coffee cups, a teapot and sugar bowl. There was also a breakfast tray - stainless steel and timber - made especially for eggs and toast.

It all needed sterilising after being in the shed in a simple cardboard box so I boiled the kettle a few times and soaked them, scrubbed them and soaked them some more.

I was lucky enough to find a container of frozen spaghetti bolognese sauce in the freezer, so I heated that for AH's dinner and made some zoodles to have with it.

I have no more frozen meals left in the freezer now, so I need to spend a day in the kitchen and build my stock up again.  

I'm ready for bed now, so I leave you with these ...

That last one was just to keep you on your toes.

Nite all.