Arty Farty

It was a busy morning in the shop! Much busier than our average Saturday morning for quite some time!

The Motivator was running a "paint pouring" workshop in the training room which was sounding like a lot of fun from where I was working.

Later in the morning, when things had died down, Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armour appeared. Bubbles did some shopping in The Happy Abode and then they walked to the supermarket to get coffee for Adoring Husband and I.

While they were gone, the workshop participants finished their pieces of art and had all left, when The Motivator asked "Do you want to come make some art with me Roz?"

"Do I??!!?? ABSOLUTELY!"

So she took me into the training room and began explaining what we were going to do, when Bubbles and KISA returned. Bubbles was invited to join us and KISA offered to take AH's coffee home to him.

Just as The Motivator began explaining again, her friend, Purple Fairy arrived at the shop! She too was invited to join us and she accepted.

Meanwhile, the shop remained open for the next two hours while we played arty farty games.

These were our results ...

Mine

Bubbles

Purple Fairy

The Motivator

I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. Not a single customer came through the door during that time, so we got to totally focus on our art. I think we were all pretty happy with our work.

It was really nice of Purple Fairy to give Bubbles a lift home because it was a stinking hot day, and I rode my trike home.

We arrived to find the four corner posts of the Bali hut in place! AH and KISA had been hard at work while we were being arty.

We've organised for four burly men to help us construct the rest of the hut tomorrow (Sunday) morning. I'm a bit excited.

Everybody but me went for a swim late this afternoon.

Tonight we enjoyed an early dinner of fish and chips from the cafe. It will be closing on Monday for twelve days, so we had to fit in a takeaway splurge before it was too late.

That was followed by a mean game of twenty questions before exhaustion set in for AH and he headed to bed. KISA chose Netflix as his companion of choice for the remainder of the evening and Bubbles was on her phone the last time I looked.

Me ... watching 'Pretty Woman' for the umpteenth time and still loving it while writing this blog post. I've put the psychotic dogs to bed and now it's time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

They Beat Us

We knew that the flight was delayed and that the plane would land in The Bay at least 30 minutes late, so we left the house 30 minutes later than originally planned.

Long before we got to our destination, the plane, flying low in the sky, flew over our car and quickly disappeared as it landed at the airport.

Of course, as Murphy's law would have it, we got every red light and every slow vehicle and every line of traffic preventing us from making right turns - Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armour had disembarked and were greeted by no-one. By the time we arrived, they were waiting for their luggage to come through the conveyor belt.

It was great to see their smiling faces, but these are the faces they gave me when I said "Show me how happy you are to be here!"

We lunched at Aquavue, I bought an amethyst rock and a citrine rock to put in my crystal bowl by the pool. We grocery shopped at Coles in Stocklands, made a stop at Dr Dans, I got a buddha from King Kong, we took a slight detour so that we could buy some pineapples from the truck on the back road, checked our mail before we finally headed home to face the psychotic dogs.

Ruby and Colli seemed to remember Bubbles and KISA very well, but Jack was suspicious and took a long time to settle. This is very unusual because he and Bubbles have been besties for 14 years. It was the end of the day before he decided they could be besties again.

After we unpacked the groceries, we all sat down together and opened our Christmas gifts, which was fun.

Of course the pool got a workout this afternoon and we spent about an hour under the shade of the umbrella, the girls floating and the boys sinking.

I cooked up a giant batch of crispy skinned chicken with potato chips for dinner. The kids had a bowl of raw carrot and snow peas before dinner was served. I made a big batch of fruit whip for dessert.

After dinner, we played a game of Twenty Questions. Bubbles won the first game and I won the second. It's a game that KISA gave us for Christmas and we love it! Good choice.

I'm working in the morning and it's already after 11.30pm so I'd best sign off and get to bed.

Nite all.  

Any Minute

Tomorrow (Friday) is the day that Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armour arrive!

We are ready!

Aside from one more small load, I have caught up with all the washing ... you know the things that you rarely use and they require some special kind of cleaning like hand washing or dry cleaning or separate washing or some pain the butt, time consuming cleaning ritual that you just keep putting off, so you leave it in the bottom of the basket for a year?

No?

It must be just me 🤪

Well, one more load and I will have a completely empty basket - for the first time in a long time.

In my mission to declutter the house, I still have to do the back room - which I call my ironing room - but in reality it is also a junk room, a storage room, a craft room and a 'just chuck it in there' room. I also have to declutter our bedroom and wardrobe.

I look forward to the day that it's done.

I made turkey meatballs for dinner with a chilli, ginger, tomato dipping sauce. I didn't make enough sauce and next time I'll add more chilli.

Adoring Husband returned all of his SES paraphernalia to the shed this evening.

It's now almost midnight. I need sleep.

Nite all.

Woeful Wednesday

What a horrible start to the day!

Instead of pressing 'snooze' when my alarm went off at 6 this morning, I accidentally turned the alarm off and fell back asleep until 7.30am!! When I opened my eyes, I looked at my phone to find a message from The Gypsy to say that she wasn't attending meditation!

This totally put me into panic mode because I'm always at the shop early enough to open the doors and let everyone in. It gives The Motivator leeway and depending on what she's got happening, she can choose whether to attend meditation or not.

I knew that with only 15 minutes to get ready, I would not make it to meditation this morning or get to the shop on time to open the doors, so I quickly messaged The Motivator to make sure she could get there.

Having a full house for meditation over the past few weeks, I felt sick to the stomach that I was letting the team down and my brain went into 'scramble mode'. The Motivator, at such short notice, was going to have to run the meditation class on her own.

😳

Not that it's a problem, because she has done it before and is good at it, but having had all those lovely days off, it's horrible to have to come back to work and face this semi stressful situation before the day even begins.

I sent through the song that she needed to end the class with and then my brain shut down, I fell into denial and I hibernated for the morning so that I didn't have to face the world in any way, shape or form.

Totally the opposite of how my meditation mornings usually leave me feeling.

After lunch, while Adoring Husband was clearing out one of the bedrooms, I washed some clothes, took some dry washing off the line, folded and put away - such a tedious job. When will The Jetson's laundry service come true?

Jetsons chores

I prepared dinner early because we had to attend trivia tonight. We picked up The Blonde Bombshell on the way and we were the Fab Five again.

There were 16 teams and we surprisingly came 6th - I say 'surprisingly' because our scores were pretty bad tonight. I won a bottle of wine for getting the 'Who Am I?' answer which was Leonardo Di Caprio. In six rounds, we usually get a perfect score for one of them, but not tonight.

Ah well, at least we got a few snorts of laughter from The Brains Trust - that's always how we measure a good time!

Now it's well after midnight and I am going to sleep away the terrible taste of this morning and wake up to a new day tomorrow. I hope it will have a more calm and positive beginning.

Nite all.  

  

Fun and Frivolity

My morning was a bit of a struggle I have to say.

My alarm went off at 6am but I kept hitting snooze ... for two hours!

Panic set in as I stepped into the shower and realised it was already well after 8am!

The weather was looking ominous and I knew that Adoring Husband would drive me to work, so that would give me a few extra minutes to get ready.

I was 'time efficient' and we pulled out of the driveway at 8.40am. He dropped me off to get my morning coffee while he took my very heavy bag to the shop and began opening up for me before I arrived.

Yes, I know. He is a good man.

The only hiccup for the morning was the number of ants at our front door. It seems that they had built a nest under the the metal strip in the doorway and there were tens of thousands of them swarming over the carpet and on the concrete out the front. It was like a horror movie!

I remembered that ants hate peppermint, so I grabbed the peppermint essential oil and sprinkled it where the ants were. Within 30 minutes all the ants were dead or gone. This afternoon when we picked up the doormat, there was a carpet of dead ants underneath it.

Success.

The girls began arriving at the shop for our coffee morning just as AH left.

It was a fun morning! A few extra snorts of laughter than usual and Lady Lynn attended for the first time in a few weeks which made it more special. It was almost 11.30am when the last of the ladies took her leave.

The last customer came through the doors at about 12.30pm and Woman of Many Talents came in to pay for her spot at the next Paint and Create workshop, but not another soul came near the place after that - except The Motivator who made a brief appearance.

I registered for all the gift fairs that we'll be attending in Sydney - just like me to leave it to the last minute!

I took a phone call from someone registering to attend my next photography workshop and another phone call to request a specific item in one of our orders while we are in Sydney and finally, a phone call confirming that we are donating to the Easter Fishing Classic this year.

AH arrived with coffee at 3pm and we closed the shop, bought some meat for dinner and drove home.

I got the washing off the line, hung out the washing that I'd put through the cycle this morning and then loaded the machine one more time.

I put together a fresh batch of coleslaw with my home made garlic mayonnaise. AH cooked the lamb chops on the barbecue and I made a light salad to go with them.

MKR and Married at First Sight got my attention tonight and now I'm ready for bed.

Swimming in the pool will be on my priority list tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be kind.

Nite all.

Surprisingly So

Even on the days when I think it's terribly quiet, after chatting with the other business owners, I discover and realise that we are doing comparatively well.

This is especially surprising, taking into consideration that we are a gift shop - so we are not selling necessities like the butcher, the baker or the supermarket.

Between the few customers that came through the door today, I did some dusting, rearranged the display on one table, posted on social media, created an event for the photography workshop and edited some photos.

The afternoon went very slowly.

Adoring Husband arrived just before 3pm to help me close the shop.

He had been very busy spring cleaning at home and earlier in the day, before I had even left for work, he had discovered what he called "an infestation" of "giant" red back spiders in the bottom of our pantry.

Translation: he found a couple of insects that were possibly spiders and maybe even red backs 🤪

I can imagine him sitting in his lounge chair reading this with steam coming out of his ears because I am doubting his red back infestation story 🤣🤣🤣

I'm just having a go.

He is arachnophobic, so it really was a big deal ... and the fact that he didn't come running into the bedroom asking for my assistance, means a lot!

The last time he found a spider in an unexpected place, he came running out of the bathroom naked and protecting his 'bits' either from my eyes or from the dangerous fangs of the spider in the shower recess and it was my job to be the hero and save him from that creature!

It was nice to come home to such a clean house today and I did a load of washing and then gave psychotic dog Ruby, a haircut.

Tempting though it was, we did not go for a swim today.

Chicken and vegetables - roasted sweet potato, pumpkin, capsicum and brussels sprouts for dinner. The usual dessert.

Now it's almost 11pm already!

Sleep time for me.

Nite all.

Torrentially Yours

My sister, Squirt, lives on Magnetic Island, which is 15kms from Townsville, which is where this horrendous weather event is occurring as we speak.

Between 31st January and the 2nd February she had emptied 950mm of rain from her gauge.

In the last 24 hours she has emptied 390mm from the gauge.

Townsville airport is now closed.

Townsville is about to be inundated with extra water that's being released from the dam and the flooding will worsen.

The area has been warned of possible tornados and Squirt tells me the winds are swirling and gusty sending the rain in all directions.

Boulders have fallen and landed on the winding roads on the island. The usually trickling waterfalls now have some power behind them and they are making thunderous sounds as the water gushes down the mountain. Roads have turned into rivers. Businesses have temporarily closed their doors.

Now it's a waiting game.

I'd be going stir crazy by now. No sunshine and relentless rain causing damage all around me. Ugh.

The first photo is of the street that leads to her street and the other is self explanatory.

Meanwhile, our Sunday included a few short sharp showers, but Adoring Husband and I still spent some time in the pool this afternoon, even through a light shower.

Our dinner was oven baked chicken pieces with sweet potato (thank you to The Garden Guru and The Brains Trust) and coleslaw. I made a delicious gravy with all the juices from the chicken. Dessert was the usual, but I coated the toffee nuts with melted chocolate. What a delicious feast that dessert was!

The remainder of my day was filled with photo editing, study, reading, washing clothes and TV.

It was quite enjoyable and a little, but not 'too' productive.

Did I announce yet that Adoring Husband has quit the SES? He is no longer an active member, so he has not only left the higher position that he recently took on, but he has left the organisation altogether.

He's now free to take on life as he sees fit. I hope he has a positive outlook and finds joy in the days to come. I hope he's excited about the possibilities.

His decision has my full support 👍

We've go this.

Nite all.