Saturday is Super

I drank a cup of tea at the art class last night. Drinking tea at 9pm is NOT a good idea.

The last time I looked at the clock, it was well after 1.30am and I certainly didn't fall asleep immediately after that.

Surprisingly, I woke five minutes before the alarm went off this morning, at 5.50am and I was alert and fresh to start the day! Weird.

I was in the shop by 7.30am clearing what we had left in the training room on Friday afternoon, so that The Motivator had a clean room to commence her class.

There was still lots of stock to unpack and price and display. Other stock to re-price and re-display. Other displays to fill with stock. Clothing to price and move onto a different rack.

There are so many empty spaces now that we have moved furniture and stands around and it's tricky finding the right spot for the right items.

There was a steady flow of customers through the day and our takings were better than most Saturdays which was satisfying.

The Motivator held a great workshop for paint pouring with some fantastic results ... I was inspired to come home and make my own art...

After work, she headed home so that she could attend a big concert in The Bay with a bunch of excellent old bands and some excellent old friends.

AH and I sat in the pool area for a while, I in my egg chair which has been removed from the shop and I don't even think AH actually sat down. He cleaned the pool with the scoop net because we had a really windy night and there were a few stray grasses from the Bali hut floating around and a couple of leaves.

The psychotic dogs always get excited when we go into the pool area. No idea why but they run outside to the gate wagging their tails and jumping up and down waiting for me to open it. It's not like they go into the water or do anything exciting.

After I did my art, we sat in the lounge room to watch Super Saturday football, which has been enjoyable. AH had a simple crispy skinned chicken and salad for dinner. I wasn't hungry.

It's now 8.15pm and I am off to bed to hopefully catch up on the sleep I missed last night. I haven't had any caffeine since 11am so there should be nothing in the system to keep me awake. Wish me luck.

Nite all.  

Busy Business

My day did not start out as planned.

I went to bed early last night, I slept soundly all night for probably 7 hours and when my alarm went off at 6am I hit the snooze button twice before turning it off.

The trouble was that after I turned it off, I fell back into a deep sleep!

It was 7.39am when I woke. That meant I had slept for almost 9 hours! Unheard of!

So my intention of getting to work early so that I could unpack some stock that had arrived on Thursday before I opened the doors for business, did not come to fruition.

I was so stressed and panicked that I'd woken so late that I forced myself to stay in bed to do a ten minute relaxation meditation so that I could start the day with some control.

Thankfully, Adoring Husband drove, dropped me off to get my morning coffee and then opened the shop for me while I collected the mail. Two more deliveries of stock were waiting to be picked up so that meant I now had three lots of stock to mark off, price and display.

My stress levels rose slightly.

Fifteen minutes later a supplier arrived with some more stock and to discuss how we would do business with her in the future. I phoned The Motivator to come in for the meeting too, which was lucky because customers needed to be served so she took over with the supplier while I served.

After the supplier left, TM and I spent some time trying on the beautiful linen clothes that had arrived. TM spent up a storm and I must say we enjoyed modelling and mixing and matching the different items.

I finally kicked TM out the door at about 12.30pm (on her day off mind you) and between a steady flow of customers, Adoring Husband and I rearranged some of the display stands in the shop and I priced some stock and displayed it.

We gave up after 3pm, which was when the last customer walked out and it was almost 3.30pm when we arrived home.

TM and I had an art date in The Bay and we had to leave at 5pm. I hadn't had lunch and needed to shower and wash my hair, so there was a lot to do in a short period of time.

We attended a 'Shiny Happy Art' class which was being run by a lady from Toowoomba and her speciality is water colours which TM and I have minimal experience with.

It was a great class and we enjoyed it very much. There were nine of us.

Anna was the teacher and was very good. She was passionate and confident and gave us lots of information.

It went for 3 hours so we didn't arrive home until almost 10pm. Now it's almost 11.30pm and I need sleep because tomorrow I'm DEFINITELY leaving early for work. TM has a PaintnCreate workshop and there is much to do before it starts.

Nite all.  

Time Please?

Where does the time go?

My days off just seem to speed past with little to show for them ... although today wasn't that bad as far as productivity goes.

I did some more study and research in bed this morning and while doing so, I missed a phone call telling me that our IKEA packages had arrived, so Adoring Husband gave them a call and headed into Dundowran to pick it all up.

With a few long interruptions, it took AH almost all day to put this together ...

I helped put one nut/bolt into one table and then announced that I helped AH put it all together!

This one is so much nicer than the crappy old grey aluminium framed, glass topped monstrosity that we had before. It's three tall bar tables bumped up against each other so they can be moved to the pool area separately, if necessary.

It also matches perfectly to the timber panelled walls that AH designed and built in this outdoor area.

While he was putting this together, I was putting this together ...

I love the colours and the delicious cells that came up in the paint.

I made myself presentable and AH dropped me off at the shop so that The Motivator and I could catch up and I could look at the changes that she has made so far.

The space looks so much bigger now! It really changes the flow of energy and feels good, but it also feels like we need more stock to fill up the gaps!

Still more changes to happen yet, but I'm confident that it will be fabulous when we're finished.

TM had already set up the training room in preparation for Saturday's workshop.

We discussed the next step in the changes to the display area and our office area.

AH pulled everything into the shop and closed for us, then pulled apart the clothes hanger to take home and loaded the car with some of my belongings that are no longer required in the shop.

It's all happening in The Happy Abode.

Tomorrow is a work day for me and tomorrow evening, TM and I are attending an Art Class in The Bay with Shiny Happy Art.

So I'm off to get some sleep.

Nite all.

Middle Day

I was inspired to begin creating my online health challenge today, which I hope will also be a weekly workshop in our training room.

I watched a video on how to move forward with my ideas, took lots of notes, made lists, ran out of paper, worked out some logistics and some content and then sought some advice on which platform to create the challenge.

Who knew that there were so many choices for designing and creating online courses and challenges?  The costs involved also varying on many different levels.

I have some research to do and some decisions to make, but I HAVE made a start.

Adoring Husband drove into The Bay while I was busy and then phoned to say that the plumber was coming today to fix the new toilet that came loose.

Luckily he didn't arrive until after AH returned home, but I took all my electronic devices and paperwork to the pool area with the psychotic dogs so they wouldn't go ... psychotic ... when the plumber turned up.

I waded knee deep into the icy waters of the pool. Too cold to go any further than that, but it certainly got the blood circulating!

At 4.30pm it was time to come inside because the midgies were on the bite.

AH and I watched a movie and he had brought a cooked roast pork home from Woollies. I have to say that it was delicious! Very tender and full of flavour. We only had salad to serve with it, but it didn't matter.

I am off work tomorrow and The Motivator has already started rearranging the shop to make room for our new stock, so it's all beginning to happen at The Happy Abode.

It's 10pm and I believe my brain needs to rest now.

Nite all.

Energy Plus

There is no logical reason for my lethargy yesterday.

Today was completely different and I had energy to burn.

I did my kinergetic exercises before I got out of bed ... which for the first time in about ten days, I forgot yesterday! Perhaps that's why my energy levels were so low?

I also did a ten minute energy meditation before I rose.

Good thing I did because it was a hectic morning!

I checked the mail while I was ordering my coffee and found two parcel slips. One needed to be "returned to sender" because it was from a company whose order we had cancelled back in February, but they decided to charge our card and send the package anyway.

They received some stern words in an email from me and they apologised promising to refund our money as soon as we returned the goods. How rude!

So I had to use a trolley to take the other big box of stock, which I knew was Go Girl clothing, to our shop and parked it in the training room while I enjoyed morning coffee with the girls. After a while, The Motivator opened the box so that everybody could have a look and try things on.

We sold two tops (or four, if you count the two that The Motivator and I bought!). Almost the entire morning was filled with half a dozen ladies trying on clothes left right and centre and the rear of the shop looked like a tornado had gone through it by the time we finished.

In the middle of all that, another lady arrived for a pre-arranged appointment (which we had obviously forgotten) to show us her home made hats - she is a Milliner - which were very colourful and very well made. So we accepted her offer and took them on consignment.

Then the little fruit and veg man arrived with his esky of goodies. I purchased some Roma tomatoes from him.

The last of the ladies left the shop at 11am.

TM and I hung half of the clothes on one of the new clothes racks and stored the others in our new drawers.

We placed the newly constructed cube cupboard (TM constructed it before I arrived this morning) in position and put together the drawers that went with it.

We screwed together the IKEA hat rails ready for Adoring Husband to attach to the walls some time this week.

Then it was time for me to leave - around 12.30pm - so that AH and I could drive into town to run some errands, including restocking some art supplies for both the shop AND myself.

I was keen to get started on some art when I got home because I wanted to try my first triptych and this is the result ...

I quite like it.

I'm wondering if there will ever be a day that I am absolutely over the moon happy with something that I do. We are our own worst critic but I still have a lot to learn and I reckon it will take a lot of practice before I start producing fabulous art, if ever.

I love doing it so I'll continue to do it until I no longer enjoy it.

Our dinner was leftover meatloaf with sweet potato mash and zucchini. I made a chilli mushroom sauce to go with it.

Tomorrow is my day off and I'm considering whether to attend meditation in the morning or whether to stay in bed and enjoy the coolness of the morning air.

I'll decide in the morning.

Nite all.

Labouring the Day

I have to say that today was hard work!

I opened the shop from 9am - 1pm and it was pretty quiet - unlike Sunday which was, apparently, almost as busy as Easter!

The first two hours today were ok because a steady flow of customers came through the door, but the last two hours were the slowest ever.

I could barely keep my eyes open and I was counting the minutes until I could come home and put my feet up!

Adoring Husband dropped me at work because I was running late and so he returned to pick me up and helped me close the shop ... as he does. We did some grocery shopping and I came home to lay in my recliner chair.

I didn't want to sleep this afternoon because the last time I tried that trick, it was after 1am by the time my body was ready to sleep again.

The Gypsy was booked out today so we didn't get to chat much.

Aside from that, it was a glorious day outside! The sun was shining. The birds were singing. The air was clear and cool.

Adoring Husband was feeling the cold weather this morning. He tells me that it was 13ºc outside but I still had the fan going and had the windows open. I thought the weather was perfect, especially for sleeping.

Now, it's 7am and I'm ready for sleep. It would be terrible to get my second wind!

To BGWLBH who is too far away to celebrate her birthday with properly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY,  I raised a glass of cool filtered water to 'cheers' you today 👼🏻 🕊 💐 🥂

To Grannymus, I hope that you are recovering well from your surgery and are feeling healthier and stronger by the minute.

To Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armour, congratulations on successfully preparing my crispy skinned chicken for dinner yesterday.

To my brides in Melbourne, thank you for loving the photos that I finally finished and sent to you in April and thank you for being so patient with me!

To Adoring Husband, thank you for being you.

I am respecting my body and going to bed.

Nite all.
 

An Anxious State

Today is Sunday.

I spent this morning sitting up in bed watching youtube videos to work out what method of paint pouring I wanted to spend my day attempting.

It was 1pm when I finally made my decision, excitedly got up, changed into daggy paint clothes and announced to Adoring Husband as I opened the blinds and slid the windows open ...

"I am going to open all the windows to let fresh air into the room so that I don't suffocate on paint fumes while I create art."

Within five minutes he was outside starting up the whipper snipper.

😳

Chopping up the grass. Raising the dirt and dust.

I slammed the windows shut.

I cursed like a wharfie.

I moved myself to the lounge room feeling resentful that I now had to wait, not just until he finished mowing, but until the dust settled.

So I found a movie and a big packet of crisps and sat down to enjoy some emotional eating for an hour!

I should have spent the entire day there because my resentment obviously remained in my body and there was no love in the art that I created ...

Disappointment.

So I headed to my fifth favourite place in the house ... the kitchen ... and made a meatloaf and a spaghetti bolognese sauce.

Roz's favourite places in the house:

1. The pool area
2. The bedroom
3. The lounge room
4. The art space/dining room
5. The kitchen
6. The family room
7. The toilet
8. The bathrooms
9. Bedroom two
10. Bedroom four
11. The laundry
12. The ironing room/bedroom three

Ok, it's after 10pm and I'm off to bed because tomorrow is Labour Day and I will be opening the shop for four hours.

I promise to focus on happier thoughts tomorrow and not be so petty about such small things. I will act like a grown up instead of like a spoiled child.

Nite all.