Miss Me?

Not a lot happened on Friday.

I did some more cleaning in the dining room/studio and the back bedroom, continued on my plant based way of eating. I ate a baked jacket potato with mushroom, onion and spinach for lunch. I’ve passed through the caffeine withdrawals so my headache is gone.

I chose to stay home from the club and was in bed at 7.05pm - before the raffles had even started!

I had Wimbledon on TV so that I could keep an eye on all the games, while watching “ Good Omens” on Apple TV. I’m on a one week free trial so I’ll try to watch the entire series before the week is up. It’s only $3.99 per month if I stay with it, but I’ll check to see if their content is worth it before I decide.

Even though I was in bed early, it was 11pm when I went to sleep and 6am when I woke. A good solid 7 hours!

I worked today because The Motivator was running a paint and create workshop. Very quiet in the shop, but the workshop was a success and the ladies will be returning in two weeks for the next one. Lots of fun and laughter coming from the room and I kept popping in to sticky beak often!

As soon as I arrived home the back bedroom took my attention for a bit over an hour. After that, my back was telling me stop, so I did.

We watched movies for the remainder of the afternoon. AH had a paleo pizza for lunch and I ate 3 mandarins. I’d eaten a biggish breakfast of plain coconut yoghurt with blueberries, raspberries and cashew nuts for breakfast so I wasn’t hungry for a big lunch.

I cooked up a chicken and vegetable curry with papadums for AH’s dinner. I scoffed a few papadums myself and a coconut icy pole - not healthful, but just right for me.

As I type this, I am in bed again! Wimbledon is on the telly and I hope to stay awake long enough to watch Ash Barty play. I doubt I’ll last. I’m feeling too cosy and with the intermittent rain showers and the cool temperature, it’s perfect sleeping weather.

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday.

Nite all.

A Working Day

Gale force conditions all day.

So strong that our very heavy shop door was blowing open and sometimes it felt like the big window panes of glass were going to implode!

The winds blew a few people along the driveway to our shop and some of them made purchases while others didn’t.

I did some ironing, had a quick visit from The Brains Trust, purchased some business cards and priced some stock to display. I also took some photos and posted on our Facebook page and Instagram.

The day went quickly!

When I arrived home, I changed out of my work clothes and began cleaning my studio/dining area. I made a big impression in an hour, filling my new tool box and the two 3 tiered trolleys. Now it’s all clear ready for my next masterpiece.

That was one end of the dining table!

Tomorrow will be the other end which is also a shambles!

My cousin and her son will be arriving on Wednesday for the touch footy carnival so there is still some work to do in the bedrooms.

I cooked a big tray of baked veg - potato, sweet potato, cauliflower, broccoli and brussels sprouts for Adoring Husband to have with his chicken.

I reheated last night’s leftovers for me AND I took the loose leaves from all the Brussels sprouts, lay them on a baking tray, sprinkled flaked almonds and salt over them and then drizzled some maple syrup over them. Cooked in a hot oven for 20 minutes which made the leaves crispy, the nuts crunchy and the maple syrup and salt caramelised. I could have eaten a bucket full of that!

After our very late bed time last night (midnight-ish), we are ready for an early one tonight.

I have the day off tomorrow so it will be a lazy start to the day 😍

Have a fabulous Friday!

Nite all

Unfinished

I had my usual start to the day - in bed until about 10.30am.

Adoring Husband brought my celery juice and vegetable broth before he headed out to meet a mate for coffee.

Having listened to the beginning of an audio book called “Energy Medicine” by Donna Eden, I practiced some energy work on myself  until I felt energised enough to get out of bed and start on my ‘to do’ list.

I had to put some food in my belly first so I took last night’s leftovers and my water bottle out to the pool area, stood up to my ankles in icy waters and then sat in my egg chair to eat and drink.

Twenty minutes later I decided to get some more of the back room cleared, but twenty minutes into that and I remembered that there were sheets waiting to be hung on the line so I had to take clothes off the line first, to make room.

Part way through hanging the sheets I heard a delivery truck stop out the front, so I went into the house to check out the front window to see if we were the lucky recipients. We were!

AH had just arrived home so he greeted the delivery man, and the package was so big he had to get the trolley from the shed to wheel it into the house.

He then informed me that the package was for me!

He had ordered a very large tool box on wheels for me to store my art supplies!

We unpacked it, put the wheels on and brought it into the house for me to begin filling it and AH then left to pick up our FROG box of organic fruit and vegetables from Craignish.

He returned 20 minutes later and I stopped to check the goods.

I decided to make our afternoon smoothy - a mint condition with added kiwi fruit that came in the box.

At this point I had partly completed the bedroom, partly completed hanging out the washing, partly completed filling my tool box and partly completed emptying the FROG box!

There was now one hour left until I had to meet The Motivator for an appointment with a potential supplier, so I finished hanging the sheets and putting away the clean clothes while AH put the fresh produce in the fridge.

I made myself presentable. AH and I drove to the supermarket to do a quick shop and from there I walked to The Happy Abode. The Motivator and I drove to our appointment which took about an hour and she dropped me home.

It was a rush job to make dinner - potato and sweet potato bake, roasted brussels sprouts, carrots and eggplant with roasted chickpeas. Still no meat.

My head has been pounding from caffeine withdrawals so Panadol has been my friend!

I’m feeling pretty good meat free so far.

We picked up The Blonde Bombshell on our way to trivia and had a pretty lousy night at the table with little luck answering trivia questions. We came 8th out of 11 teams! Possibly our worst effort to date. It was still fun and the company was, as always, the best part.

It’s now well after 11pm and I’m working tomorrow, so it’s bed time for me.

Nite all.

Plans Changed

Woman of Many Talents has come down with the flu, so our lunch plans were changed.

After a great coffee morning, Mrs Bucket, Reality TV Queen and I headed into The Bay for lunch at the RSL. We ran a couple of errands before we got there and when we walked through the doors, our memberships needed to be renewed as well.

We had a flutter on the poker machines for 30 minutes before we ordered lunch. The only option for a plant based meal was a farmers salad, which was actually quite delicious. Cos lettuce leaves with quinoa, baby beetroot, cherry tomatoes, roasted pumpkin, Spanish onion, dukkah and dressing. It was very filling and tasted so good, I was quite disappointed that I couldn't finish it.

We all did a bit of a grocery shop before returning home and I bought myself the ingredients to make my own 'mint condition' juice that I usually get from Boost Juice.

I also made a quick trip into Truckloads and bought a couple more canvasses and some paints.

It was a really pleasant day with the girls and we arrived home before 3.30pm.

Mrs Bucket came inside to have a quick look at our pool area and was impressed, especially with the kitchen.

Instead of having an afternoon coffee, I made my mint condition juice.

For dinner, I made myself a guacamole dip to which I added grated carrot and chopped onion. I dipped some rice crackers and a couple of hot sweet potato chips into it. I was quickly full and had to put some of the dip back into the fridge.

There was still room for my coconut ice cream though 👍

AH cooked up some meat on the barbecue for himself and I made him a salad.

Now we are at 7pm and both of us are off to bed. I'm feeling pretty weary after my big day out!

I can feel the terrible caffeine withdrawals hitting me hard this evening - I may have to resort to drugs to relieve the headache if sleep doesn't come quickly.

I hope to spend another couple of hours in the back bedroom tomorrow and I could quite possibly do some art as a reward in the afternoon.

Tomorrow night is trivia at the club! Wahoo!

Nite all.  

Likin' It!

I got my art on today.

From this ...

To this ...

Followed up by this ...

And I love all of it.

Now I have to wait for some of my art to completely dry before I do any more because there are no drying spaces left in my house!

This afternoon, Adoring Husband and I watched a documentary on Netflix called "What The Health" and I was so impressed and amazed and convinced that I've made the decision to try a 'plant based diet' for three months just to see the effects on my body.

I see two difficulties.

1.  It means that I either have to drink coffee without milk (yuk) or give up coffee altogether (again). I've done it before for three months, so I know it can be done.

2.  I base all of our meals around meat so I need to rethink my meal plans. I'm not pushing Adoring Husband to go meatless. Perhaps I can make the main part of the meal plant based and have the meat on the side???

It will be an interesting experiment and I'm going to keep a diary - food and thoughts - to keep a record of the experiment.

Who knows? It may last forever! OR I may not make it to three months!

Wait and see.

I'm looking forward to a beverage with the girls in the morning and then lunch with Woman of Many Talents and Mrs Bucket.

A big social day!

Nite all.

Sunday not Funday

This was not my idea of a fun Sunday.

It started ok with Adoring Husband bringing celery juice, bone broth, tomato on toast and coffee during my first 90 minutes awake in bed.

He decided to mow the back lawns and do some maintenance work in the gardens, so I got up and spent almost 2 hours in the back bedroom making a start on the massive clearing that needs to be done in there.

I did a couple of loads of washing and changed the bedding, so I’m looking forward to sliding in between those cool crisp sheets tonight!

We watched two games of football, both of which had disappointing results for my tipping.

I cooked some chicken thighs in the oven in one tray and some veg in another tray. Brussels sprouts, red capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, onion, carrot, cauliflower, mushrooms, tomato, garlic and some little strips of bacon, all sprinkled with Himalayan salt and black cracked pepper. Ten minutes before they were ready, I drizzled two teaspoons of honey over everything.

With all of the scraps from the veg - core of the capsicum, head and tail of the carrots, onion, eggplant and zucchini, skins of the onion and garlic, the stem of the cauliflower and the outer leaves of the Brussels sprouts - I put them into a big saucepan with Himalayan salt and white pepper and simmered them for a couple of hours.

I strained the liquid and when the chicken was done, I added those juices to create a delicious broth which I had for dinner.

At one point, I walked outside and stepped into the pool. The water was cold but not painfully icy.

There is a dent in my ‘to do’ list, but there is also still much remaining 😳

On that note, I shall sign off and head to the shower. A clean body between clean sheets will be absolutely divine and make a nice end to my less than fun Sunday.

Welcome to a new week!

Nite all.