Signed and Sealed!

Signed the lease!

It's all about to happen!

Exciting times ahead!

We had a great time at the lady's lunch today. It was very loud for a lot of the time and the conversation was often incredibly animated.

The food was good, although the cooks obviously didn't understand the concept of gluten 'contamination' because the meat was all together on one plate, so the stuffing from the chicken contaminated the other meat on the plate. That was disappointing, but they did provide me with a plate of steamed vegetables separate from everyone else's baked vegetables.

They also provided a delicious gluten free dessert which looked a whole lot better than the regular dessert!

The service was very warm and friendly too.

Some of our ladies were wonderful walking advertisements for the jewellery that I sell and they looked fabulous!

  
A good time was had by all!

An early night again for me, because the dogs decided they needed to get up two times for a toilet break last night. It was not enjoyable climbing out of that warm bed to walk on the cold tiles, open the door to the cold breeze, wait for them to do their jobs and then get back into bed and warm up enough to relax into a deep sleep!

If they do it again tonight, I'm going to give Adoring Husband a dig in the ribs and he can get up to them!

The next couple of weeks are going to be FULL ON, and tomorrow will be the start of it all!

Wahoo!! *happy dance*

Nite all.

Here's To Us!!

Well, the landlord has approved our application and the lease has been issued, so all we have to do is sign it and deliver it to the real estate office tomorrow.

The Motivator and I are now business partners and as of 1st August, will take over the lease of our chosen commercial premises.

We have a fabulously perfect workspace in which to run workshops, courses and classes, sell our lovely wares, run our respective businesses and websites and a lovely area to relax and socialise with our friends and lovely community members.

The Motivator has already drawn up the floor plan, and with her skills, figured out the perfect design for the space, so now we get to furnish and decorate it to our liking.

We have many items on our 'to do' list before we even move in and one of my most important tasks is to create a 'Photography for Beginners' course! That's going to be an interesting little exercise and yet another huge learning curve ... seems to be the story of my life these days!

Anyway, I am ... that is ... WE ... are very excited about the opportunities that will present themselves over the coming months and we plan on putting our heart and soul into this venture.

Raise your glass and toast to our success!! Cheers to us!!

I'm looking forward to our lady's luncheon tomorrow, which will be Christmas in July at the Woodgate Pub and will involve a boat ride across the river. It should be a fun day.

All this excitement has worn me out and I'm off to bed for an early night!

Nite all.  

Birthday Girls

This morning, I had three, yes THREE parcels to pick up!

Some new shoes ...

... some snap jewellery bracelets, another bracelet, a couple of things to put away for birthday and Christmas gifts and a big catalogue of journal prices.

So that was fun!

After I got my second coffee for the day, I rode to the beach and sat in the sunshine for 30 minutes watching this ...

I posted this pic in a Facebook group that practices gratitude and wrote a little story about how grateful I was for this view and what it means to me.

Because the day was so beautiful, it was a slow and steady ride home.

After lunch, I spent a lot of time in my workspace but didn't seem to get a lot done. Obviously, my productivity relates totally to whether or not I write a 'to do' list!! That's a lesson I really need to learn and absorb!

I drew the winners of the Romance Your Life challenge and made two people very happy.

And speaking of 'happy' ...

Big fat happy birthdays to two special women in my life.

Happy birthday to Bubbles, my baby girl.

Happy birthday to The Motivator, my friend.

I spoke to Bubbles and I know all about her day - exhausting as it was - she had to work, but at least she got to spend the evening with Knight in Shining Armour and his family, where she was spoilt rotten - as usual!

I hope that The Motivator was equally spoilt by The Fisher King during their day together.

It's now the end of my day. I'm happy.

Nite all.

Gratitude Abounds

How amazing was today?

I love my friends. Old and New.

So much support and positivity wrapped up in one day and I feel so grateful and happy.

I didn't have to rush into the day, although with hindsight, I probably should have! I planned some easy snacks and figured slow and steady would do it for me, but with an hour to go, I realised that I had more than an hour of work remaining.

So that last part was a bit stressful.

It all got done in the end. The Margaritas went down a treat. Not all of the food was eaten. Lots of jewellery was bought. New friendships were made. Old friendships were strengthened. There were lots of laughs and I had a really good time.

Another bonus for the day was that I didn't have to cook dinner because Adoring Husband ate some of the leftovers from the party.

The biggest bonus of them all, was Adoring Husband cleaning up all that mess!!

I'm a lucky girl.

I'm also exhausted!

Nite all.

What a Day!

It all started so simply.

I met with The Motivator quite early this morning for a short business meeting, which led to a pot of tea in the local cafe, which led to breakfast with a third person. We finally parted company at about 11am!!

From there, I spent my $30 bakery voucher on a bag full of glutenous, sugary, disgusting sweets that I will serve to my party guests on Sunday (tomorrow, as I write this).

My next stop was the supermarket to grab some dips and crackers and cheese. I'm not going over the top with food for this party, as I have for previous parties because I don't need the stress of all that mad preparation. I want to have a relaxing and enjoyable time with my friends because it will be the last party of this kind, that I have at home.

I bought myself another coffee before I pedalled home, but stopped at a nearby neighbour's house to invite her to the party. She is house sitting at the moment and I really like her a lot. It will be nice for her to meet some more people and she can do some networking for her jewellery which she sells at the markets. She would like to teach others how to make her beautiful pieces and she may even use our new space some time in the future to do that.

It was well after midday by the time I arrived home and Adoring Husband had already made his lunch and was enjoying it as I walked in the door.

AH was happy to hear about my morning while I unpacked the groceries and then I sat down for about half an hour for a quick break.

I quickly cleaned the toilet and bathroom, while AH vacuumed the floors, so that the house was presentable for The Blonde Bombshell and Lady Lynn, who arrived at different times to select their purchases for tomorrow. Sometimes you need to get in early!! I've already had four pre-party sales!

Quite some time was spent sorting, reorganising and rearranging the stock that will be for sale tomorrow. I'll need to spend more time tomorrow doing that. It's not a chore, because I love everything so much, I never tire of touching it and creating different pieces that people might like ...

How could you fall out of love with that? In case you haven't seen this type of jewellery before, each of those buttons are removable, so you can swap and change and create whatever you like. There are bracelets, pendants and rings. You can dress them up or dress them down. Right now, they are my favourite pieces to play with :)

Anyway, tomorrow should be a lot of fun with good food, margaritas, wine, shiny sparkly things and plenty of good company! I'm looking forward to it!

Once again, it's after 11pm so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

 

The Happy Abode

I can't help myself!

It's not finalised yet and probably won't be until Monday (hopefully), but I'm too excited to keep it to myself any longer! If it all falls through, you're going to be the ones listening to or reading my sobs and distress anyway, so here is my announcement...

My good friend 'The Motivator' and I have begun negotiations and have signed the first lot of paperwork to lease a commercial workspace here in town.

We intend running training courses, workshops, meditations, practitioner appointments, social gatherings, a retail store and also running our respective businesses/websites from that space.

It's large and spacious and perfect for two imaginative and creative humans to design their own little patch of paradise to work from.

We can't wait!

I'll show you a pic of the empty space after we have signed the lease and then, after we've worked our magic, I'll show you the finished product.

One day soon, I'll describe and explain how this all came about ... but not tonight. It's already 11pm and I need to be up early tomorrow morning.

Have a fabulous Saturday!!

Nite all.  

It's Happening

By Friday evening, all things going to plan, I should be able to announce to the world exactly what the next big venture is!!

It's exciting!

So I can't tell you about the first half of my day.

The second half of the day was filled with phone calls! I spent over an hour on the phone with Vegan Chickie and then almost an hour with Mrs Bucket. After that, I spent almost another hour in the kitchen clearing out the fridge and cooking all the meat that was in the fridge before it was too late!

This evening, I've answered emails and chatted in Messenger with a few people. I've corresponded with a couple of customers who were asking questions about some jewellery I'm selling, but which isn't on my website yet.

It's all happening and I think I might require another early night! After my 11 hours of sleep on Monday night, I've had a couple of late nights, so I've got to catch up again.

Right now, I'm watching my Brisbane Broncos defeat the Bulldogs ... well they are winning by ten points at half time ... fingers crossed they continue playing that well.

Adoring Husband is at SES training.

Oh a reminder to all my local friends, that the Childers Multicultural Festival is on next weekend (30th July).

Well, my Broncos, with two minutes left of the game, are winning by 24 points. Ya gotta be happy with that!

Nite all.

Fine Tuning

Happy Hump day!!

I have nothing to share today.

I've had a big day full of exciting ideas and planning and my brain hurts, but I'm excited and happy! It's my time and I'm ready for the next step! Ha!

Keep watching this space.

Nite all. 

Opportunity Knocks

I wish that I could spew forth all the exciting things that are tumbling around in my head right now, but all I can say is that something is in the works and I'll let you in on the secret in a couple of weeks.

I hope.

Haha.

I just want to thank the universe for providing an opportunity like this and also for giving me this chance to leave the people reading my blog on tenterhooks wondering what the hell I'm talking about. hehehe

Last night, I climbed into bed at 7.30pm. I really felt dog tired after so few hours sleep the previous night ... because of the dog, and even though I was in bed that early, I expected that I would read or watch some Netflix for an hour or two before falling asleep.

How wrong I was!

Within 20 minutes, my eyelids were struggling to stay open, so I turned off all of my devices and settled down to sleep. I was asleep in an instant!

I woke needing to use the bathroom (as you do) and I looked at my watch to see that it was only 10.30pm and Adoring Husband was lying in bed watching TV. I thought to myself "Please fall back to sleep quickly." I was so worried that I would be awake for hours. But I hardly remember putting my head back on the pillow!

I slept for eleven hours!! Yet still I struggled to get to coffee on time lol.

There were four of us at coffee this morning and we were without The Blonde Bombshell, because she had organised a morning tea at her house - to which we were NOT invited - SO rude! She needs to make it up to us.

I would suggest providing some home made gluten free food for our next coffee date. Just sayin'.

The remainder of my morning and early afternoon was spent following up this opportunity, so I have nothing else to share there, BUT after I returned home I did some manifesting.

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to explain 'manifesting' in more detail.

There are some concepts that I believe in, almost immediately upon hearing about them. For example, without even experiencing it, my mind could understand and believe in the concepts of 'the placebo effect' and 'the power of positive thinking' and 'self fulfilling prophecies'.

One that I was doubtful or unsure of, was 'manifesting'.

However, I am always prepared to give the benefit of the doubt and I'll try just about any concept that's presented - because more often than not, I find that the concept ends up having substance.

So I will tell you all about the joys of manifesting soon.

I'm off to bed now, to get less than eleven hours sleep.

Nite all.

Droopy Eyes

Yay for Roger!!

I stayed up until well after 2am watching Roger Federer win the Wimbledon Final, followed by the trophy presentation and interviews afterwards. 

There would be no deep sleep for me, and even though Adoring Husband tended to her, Psychotic Dog number 3, Colli, became very uncomfortable during the night, with her ingrown claw and required regular and constant attention until we were able to reach the vet.

Needless to say, we are both feeling very tired this evening and are looking forward to an early night and catching up on some sleep.

Colli had her claw cut back, along with all of the claws on her feet. Her leg, where the claw had pierced the skin, is infected, so we've been given antibiotics for her, as well as pain killers.

She is much happier now and hopefully will also sleep soundly.

I finished grooming Colli before she visited the vet, so all of the dogs have clean faces now and it feels weird having six eyes following us around the room ... before this, it was just three hairy heads moving from left to right as we passed by!

My brain simply wasn't functioning well enough to focus on my website today, although I did listen to a couple of webinars and wrote up a rough draft of the 'Gratitude' post that I talked about yesterday. 

I sit here with very heavy eyelids and I'm wondering if I'll beat Adoring Husband to bed! I think I may!

I figure that this is appropriate for my day ...

Nite all.

   

Beyond Negativity

It's been a lovely lazy Sunday for us.

I groomed both Jack and Ruby, although I still have some of Ruby's claws to clip. I groomed half of Colli because she is very skittish with her ingrown dew claw and won't let me go near her legs or belly. Poor thing. Hopefully we'll get that all sorted this week.

So there really isn't anything to report for the day!

I found this video and am sharing it here because I'm going to base my blog post in Romance Your Life around it, next week. I found it very interesting!



This will trigger a 365 Grateful campaign on my Romance Your Life Facebook page as well!

I'm looking forward to watching the Men's Wimbledon Tennis Final tonight. It was disappointing to see Venus Williams lose her final last night and I'm hoping Roger Federer wins tonight.

I watched the last of the available episodes of The Ranch this morning, only to discover that the next season won't be released until DECEMBER!!!! Ugh!! The series ended on a real cliff hanger too. I hate that!

It's time to put the kids to bed and I will watch the tennis in bed myself.

Nite all

Memory Lane

I wish I could remember how I filled today!

Let me think ...

I woke up quite early, and tried to go back to sleep, but my body decided it wanted to remain awake, so I watched two episodes of The Ranch in bed until Adoring Husband brought my coffee in and I watched one more episode before facing the day.

Adoring Husband asked me to check number three Psychotic dog, Colli, and she appears to have an ingrown dew claw. This means yet another trip to the vet because it's way too far gone for me to attempt a fix. I need to give her a good grooming tomorrow so that she looks presentable for Monday.

My workspace called to me and the first thing I did was install a new plugin to analyse and monitor traffic that comes to my site. That was an interesting experience with a couple of hurdles along the way. I seem to have ironed out the kinks now and have become a bit of a stalker watching numbers come and go ... I can even tell which pages they are looking at, in real time! The novelty will wear off eventually.

I got to chat with The Motivator, my GSD buddy, who gave me some good advice on which S to get done first!

Then I got to chat with Number One Son, who is in the process of moving to Sydney to take up a new position on Garden Island. That's an exciting and fresh start for him, that I hope will bring him happiness and great satisfaction. Being in Sydney, he will be closer to his father, sister and other brother, so that has to be another bonus.

My next job was to choose some more photos to add to the website. It took me almost two hours to search through the archives and download 60 photos, which are all possibilities for the site. It was a real trip down memory lane for me!

Tomorrow, after I've groomed Colli, I'll put a selection of them onto the site and time permitting, I'll add a blog post.

Thought I'd share a couple of the photos here ...

We all know that Saturday afternoon and evening is footy time! Super Saturday only provided two games this week because of State of Origin during the week.

I prepared a quick and easy dinner combining some leftovers from last week, followed by some of the ice cream that I made on Thursday and we settled down to enjoy the games.

Psychotic dog number one, Jack, is recovering well from his surgery. He has a good appetite and is drinking lots of water. He is also enjoying being spoilt much more than usual, by spending time in the lounge room on his chair or on one of our laps.

No doubt Colli will receive the same TLC after her visit with the vet!

Right now, both Jack and I are looking forward to climbing into our respective beds.

Nite all.

I Laughed and Laughed!

Because I watched the Venus Williams match last night, I didn't go to sleep until about 2am, so waking at 7.30am was not ideal.

Adoring Husband took Jack (No 1 Psychotic Dog) to the vets today for his teeth extractions and hair cut, and had to leave at 7.45am. Jack doesn't like to get out of bed unless I'm getting out of bed, so it was a bit of a struggle for both of us!

After they left, I returned to bed and was still there when AH returned from dropping Jack at the surgery.

It was definitely time to get up and make myself presentable for public viewing, so I showered and washed my hair, added a touch of make-up and headed out into the big wide, sunshiny Winter's day on my trike.

I had mail to collect, groceries to buy, more coffee to drink and soup and jewellery to deliver to a sick friend.

It was really nice to catch up with The Motivator. It's been more than 6 weeks since we've seen each other, so there is a lot to catch up on! A couple of visitors dropped in while I was there, so we still didn't get a lot of time together. She needs to rest up and recover from her nasty cold. There will be plenty of time for catching up later.

I came home and put my next batch of chicken broth into containers and prepared our Hainan Chicken dinner.

There was only an hour to play with before I got ready to go to the club and Adoring Husband dropped me off on his way to pick up Jack from the Vets. Unfortunately, we received a phone call from them as we drove into the carpark, so say that they were running late, so he had to kill another hour before driving out there.

I had a lucky night at the club winning on the Pokies and then winning the final raffle prize of the night, which was a voucher for the local bakery.

Surprisingly, Adoring Husband was only just picking up Jack as I was leaving the Club!! So I arrived home before him.

As he pulled into the garage, I opened the door to greet he and Jack. I took one look at Jack with his shaved face and burst into laughter!! He looked so different and his face looked so tiny and his eyes looked so big and he had such a pathetic look. I laughed and laughed.

I'll wait until he has recovered and his mouth is not feeling quite so tender before I groom the rest of his body.  How sad does he look? Awwww.

I wonder if I can stay awake long enough to watch Roger Federer play tonight.

It's already 10pm and I'm feeling a bit weary. I think 5 hours of sleep last night, was not quite enough.

Nite all.

In a Flash.

The day has gone in a flash!

I spent the first two hours of the day writing a four page inspirational letter to a friend's daughter with an accompanying card, after which, I rode to the post office and sent it in the mail with a parcel containing a gift that I hope will cheer her up.

While I was at the shops, I picked up our regular order from the butcher, as well as some chicken pieces and some pork chops.

The kitchen is where I spent the next hour or so, preparing a paleo chicken dish that Adoring Husband had found on Facebook and making some chicken soup in the slow cooker, which I hope to deliver to The Motivator who has been sick for the last couple of days. So full of organic goodness, she should be pepped up in no time!

I was sitting in the lounge room with Adoring Husband when he threatened to turn on Star Trek or Dr Who, so I retreated to my workspace where I finalised the challenge/competition details for Romance Your Life and I posted it to the Facebook page.

I added a photo to Images by roz g Facebook page too ... something that I haven't done for quite a few months!

I finished listening to a webinar that I'd started on Tuesday afternoon and then served up that paleo chicken dish for an early dinner so that Adoring Husband could attend SES training. It was delicious!

After Adoring Husband left, I watched a training video on creating videos for marketing, taking a gazillion notes and completing the work sheet that was provided. That will be my next challenge ... creating a video ... although it might be quite a while before I build up the courage for that one!

One of the psychotic dogs, Jack, is headed to the vet tomorrow morning for some surgery to remove some teeth and while he's under, the vet will give him a bit of grooming. Adoring Husband is fretting and worrying over it. We all know there are risks involved when anesthetic and surgery are involved and Jack is 12 years old. Fingers crossed that all goes well.

I will attempt to be the strong one, or the rock, to support AH until it's all over.

Right now, I am watching the Women's Semi Final tennis match at Wimbledon, between Venus Williams and Johanna Konta. I hope the match is fast with an early result because I'm ready for bed!

It's already midnight.

Nite all.

Bingeing fun

Remember how I said I wanted earlier starts to the days?

Well, I've managed that, and this morning was a 6am start. I should clarify that I WOKE UP at that time, but I did not get out of bed. It was too lovely in that room, with the delicious cool breeze floating through the window and all my pillows piled around me.

I read for a while and then I watched a few episodes of 'The Ranch' on my iPad through Netflix. I got out of bed to get my coffee and then returned to my nest for another hour of shows.

When I decided it was time to start the day, I emptied the clothes line of Adoring Husband's entire wardrobe ... or so it seemed ... folding as I did it! Did my own washing and then as I filled my water bottle, I noticed a pineapple sitting on the bench.

It had been there for almost a week and those little fruit flies were hovering around it, so I decided to make some fruit juice.

Ninety minutes later I had before me:

• a jug of pineapple, orange, apple and lime juice. 
• a tray of Pina Colada coconut ice cream.
• a tray of pineapple, apple and orange sorbet ... which has ended up as a big ice block because it's frozen solid haha. Ah well.
• a clean kitchen.

After a phone call from AH to say that he would be home later than expected from his SES duties, I made myself some lunch and sat down in AH's recliner to watch the 'Beauty and the Beast' DVD, which I LOVED!!

I didn't have any motivation to go into my workspace, so I headed back to my nest and watched some more episodes of The Ranch until it was time to cook dinner.

So I'm feeling very happy and very rested this evening and I'm all decked out in my Queensland gear to watch the final State of Origin game tonight, which is just about to begin.

So it's good night from me and ...

QUEENSLANDER!!!

Nite all.
 

Black Lace - Agadoo

At the request of Adoring Husband, I am posting this Youtube video of Black Lace singing Agadoo, because he has NEVER heard the song before! I don't know what planet he has been on since the 80s when this song was released but he doesn't believe many others would have heard of it either!



So feel free to add a comment here or PM me in Facebook if you know this song, just so that I can show AH that EVERYBODY knows it haha.

I've had quite an excellent day!

It started at coffee with the girls - the usual Tuesday morning ritual - which I always enjoy.

At 11am, the World Champ picked me up so that we could drive into The Bay and have the photos printed ... or so I thought!

We DID get the photos printed and they looked great! From there, we drove to Stocklands where she hoped to get some photo frames from Target. Unfortunately, that was an unsuccessful shopping trip, however, we found the perfect frames at Kmart! The photo frames cost $15 less than the photos! Ya gotta love Kmart!

Just when I thought it was time to go home, she surprised me with "I'm going to shout you some lunch."

We ate at the Bay Central Tavern.

It was such a lovely day and we got along so well! The conversation never stopped the whole time and we talked about all sorts of things.

Her story is amazing and I discovered that ten years ago, she was involved in a very serious car accident that broke her neck. She was told that she was a quadriplegic and would never walk again!

That was a prognosis which she would prove very wrong!

She left the hospital after a whole year of surgeries and hard work, but was still in a wheel chair. She worked so hard that she was able to walk in callipers and NOW is both the Australian AND World Champion Lawn Bowler (for people with disabilities).

She walks with a limp, but I had trouble keeping up with her!

What an inspiring story and as she said "The mind is a very strong and powerful thing!"

I absolutely cannot agree more!

We were home before 2pm which gave me three hours in my workspace. I listened to a webcast, typed up my next challenge to post tomorrow and wrote out my health schedule - which was given to me in February while I was in Canberra and I have never put into place!

I did all of this while rebounding at my tall desk! Three hours is a long time to rebound, even with stops and slow rebounds. My body is now complaining and seizing up while seated! I've really got to learn to pace myself!

Time for bed.

Nite all.

Feeling Insulated

I haven't even stepped outside the house today, however, I have been quite productive in the short time that I spent at my desk.

I was up and about at 9.30am ... I'm working on earlier starts to the day ... as much as I enjoy my leisurely mornings, I've decided that if I put some structure into my day, I can create good habits, reduce procrastination and fit some activity, sunshine and real study into my day, as well as keep my website moving forward with some new, more time efficient ideas that I'm thinking of.

My first chore was to edit the photos from yesterday. Here is one of them ...

When I'd finished, I did a ten minute meditation to clear my head and calm my mind.

I then wrote the next post for the website blog and dreamed of my afternoon coffee which never arrived ... because Adoring Husband and I are reducing our caffeine intake.

I created and designed my dream house, from the double white front doors filled with oceanic lead lighting, to the commercial style kitchen with plumbed coffee machine and built in slow cooker, to the massive timber deck containing a fire pit and overlooking sandy beach to the huge top story studio room that serves as my office, my studio and my workshop where I'll run all kinds of workshops and classes.

All the beautiful furnishings, pillows, cushions, rugs, artwork, colour schemes, landscaped pool area and the piece de resistance of course ... the Carrie Bradshaw-esque walk in wardrobe, something along the lines of this ...

I made my 'to do' list for Wednesday. Tuesday is already a full card and I doubt that I'll get much time in my workspace. I hope that my beautiful sunflowers last a few days longer yet, so that I can enjoy them some more on Wednesday and onwards.

At dinner time I cooked up some duck and vegetables, followed by berries and ice cream for dessert.

Now I must iron AH's good SES trousers ready for his big meeting tomorrow!

Nite all.    

Breakfast in Bed

I think Adoring Husband got sick of waiting for me to get out of bed this morning!

He brought my coffee to me, as he always does, and soon after, he brought breakfast to me as well! I think he was hoping that would motivate me to rise! Alas it did not!

Midday was when my feet touched the floor of my bedroom for the first time.

On my way out the door, I spied my new jewellery organiser and decided that I should show it to you!

How cool is that!?

I love all the little compartments and it fits all of my bracelets perfectly.

Having spent the first half of the day in bed, I didn't get as much time at my desk as usual because I was booked for a photoshoot this afternoon photographing the Multi-disability Lawn Bowls Women's National and World Champion! Who knew that we had one of those in our community!!?

She was a very easy subject - I'll show you the pics tomorrow - but she was so concerned about other bowlers thinking she was 'up herself' and 'bragging' because of her many wins. She had about 7 gold medals for various major tournaments and should have been feeling proud of herself, but instead was worried more about what negative thoughts people had about her.

I hope that my photos will do her justice and I look forward to seeing the framed result on the wall in the club. I hope that she will feel proud of herself and wallow in the glory of it all!!

Thankfully, my camera behaved itself for the shoot, although, I am a bit rusty and I can see things that I wish I could do again. Hopefully, the pics will pass ... if not, I guess we can always have another shoot!

Totally loving my new necklace, which I wore all day today. I don't want to take it off!

I used a sketch filter over the photo and then added some bokeh stars. I remembered, after editing the photos from today's shoot, and this one, how much I hate editing photos. Sad but true.

Anyway, I must get some sleep. Adoring Husband has injured his back and I may need to get out of bed early to work for him.

Nite all.    

Supporting the Arts

Adoring Husband had SES duties from very early this morning.

This meant that I was responsible for accessing my own morning coffee.

I had a good night's sleep and was awake at 7am, enjoyed my usual morning ritual of reading and working my way slowly into the day, before showering and making myself presentable for a public outing. I spent the entire day in my pyjamas yesterday, so there was plenty of prep required to face the world today!

The priority was to get my morning coffee and with coffee cup in hand I rode to the local markets and parked my trike at the front of the hall.

While I drank my coffee, I watched the stalls on the front lawn and noticed that the fruitnveg stalls were very busy, but the two stalls on either side which held hand made craft items like bag bags, pot holders, aprons, embroidered hand towels etc., were getting no traffic whatsoever.

I purposely didn't take too much cash with me, so that I wouldn't spend too much money, but I like to support the stall owners, especially the ones who create the wares that they sell.

As I walked towards the first craft stall, the married couple looked up at me and smiled. I checked out the aprons first - I do love a good apron because I often cook with turmeric which spills and splashes all over the place, staining my clothes. I selected a beautiful aqua blue apron with big white daisies all over it (a splash of yellow turmeric can only enhance such a lovely pattern!)

I wasn't going to purchase anything else, but then I noticed the bag bags and the one in our kitchen is so old and bedraggled and made of pinks, purples and oranges which just look silly in our colour scheme, so I selected a lovely aqua bag bag.

Before I'd finished, I'd added two more items to my imaginary shopping cart and  by the time I'd left, this couple were both smiling like Cheshire cats, as was I, with my little stash of home made goodies!

I visited Adoring Husband at the SES barbecue stall. He was desperate for a coffee, so I bought him a cappuccino from the coffee van on site, before searching out my next purchase!

There is another couple who always have a stall set up just outside the hall. He makes timber products like bread boards and lazy Susans, while she creates lovely leadlight and stained glass hanging decorations.

I always buy something from her because I love leadlighting and her prices are reasonable. Today, I bought a double peace sign to hang in my frangipani tree in our front yard. I'm certain that she made it especially for me! She knows that I have a 'thing' for peace signs.

Because of art classes, I haven't been to the markets for the last four months and as soon as she set eyes on me, she smiled brightly and said "Gosh I haven't seen you for ages! Where have you been?"

I made my way inside the hall and was greeted by a lady who is house sitting just up the road from us. She too had a stall, and the tables were covered in her hand made jewellery. It was beautiful! Very expensive, but the quality and the workmanship was obvious, so the prices that she asked were not at all unreasonable.

I totally fell in love with a necklace that was made with Brazilian Amazonite. I tried it on and felt a warm and fuzzy tingle as I looked in the mirror. There was a matching bracelet and earrings. It was my destiny to own these beautiful pieces!! Alas, I had spent all of my money!! I had to return to the shops to the ATM!! Ugh!!

I've been wearing the necklace since I arrived home. I love it. I love how it makes me feel. So I looked up Brazilian Amazonite, to see what this beautiful stone was bringing to my life, and this is what I discovered ...

Brazilian Amazonite protects against unfair business practices, attracts new customers and assists you in being in the right place at the right time for new business opportunities. (Who knew?! That's exactly what I need!)

It is a soothing and calming stone which imparts balance and harmony and quiets the mind. (Oh how my mind needs quieting!)

It is also empowering, facilitating self discovery and self awareness. It  helps you to shrug off the harsh judgement of others and helps you set clear, firm boundaries, as well as provide you with the strength and resolve to protect those boundaries when they are challenged by others.

It balances your intellect and intuition. With this balance, it gives you a healthier state of mind with more realistic and rational perceptions. It strengthens your self belief.

It provides spiritual healing in the areas of love and forgiveness, helping you release anger, jealousy and resentment.

It supports the heart and throat chakra, strengthening your heart, throat and thyroid.

It's especially good for people born between March 20th - April 19th (I am 4 days off!)

Who knew it was such a fabulous stone?! It was much loved and respected in Ancient Egypt and with the Amazon Tribes in Brazil.

This makes me even happier with my purchase!

I also bought these ...

... and I ordered some drawer handle decorations, with which I hope to adorn our bedside tables, after I've chalk painted them - I've had the tools and resources to do that for a whole year now!! I must get on to that!

After I'd spent all my money, it was such a glorious day, I ordered myself another coffee and rode to the beach, where I sat for 30 minutes in the sunshine, on a bench seat and remembered why I love where we live.

By the time I returned home, Adoring Husband wasn't far behind me and I made some lunch for him, then made a smoothie with carrot, cucumber, spinach, apple, mandarine, fresh turmeric and fresh ginger, coconut water, coconut kefir and water. It was delicious!

I spent the rest of the afternoon at my desk where I created the next question/meme for the RYL Facebook page and posted it.  I printed out some more paperwork for a course that I'm doing and watched a couple of webinars.

I ALMOST bought a ticket for a Women's Entrepreneur Business Conference on the Sunny Coast which is running in early September, and even though it would probably be amazingly helpful and a brilliant investment, I need to budget wisely for the remainder of the year. So I'll put it in next year's budget and definitely attend in 2018.

So obviously, I am feeling much better after yesterday's health hiccup and my intention is to have another early night so that I can spend the day at my desk tomorrow - allowing my amazonite to help me find business opportunities!!

Nite all.

One Two Three Blurgh

It is 6pm and I am still in my pyjamas.

Adoring Husband bought what he thought was a box of gluten free chocolate ice creams from Go Natural yesterday. We didn't check the package because it was in the fridge with all the other GF ice creams, so we assumed ... and you know what assuming does???

Yes you do.

While Adoring Husband was at SES, I helped myself to one of these ice creams. I was down to the final bite, when I decided to check the packaging. They were not GF.

I suffered through the night and all day today, but it was much worse than my usual reaction to gluten, so I'm wondering what else I had during the day to contribute to my discomfort. It has been incredibly unpleasant and even prevented me from attending the Bowls Club for our usual Friday night social outing.

My big plans for the markets tomorrow have also been cancelled. Even though I hadn't made contact with the market organisers, it was my plan to do so today. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

I have spent all day in bed reading and watching Netflix.

Today, my body is not my friend.

So I have nothing else to report.

Nite all.

Winter is Lost

We are five weeks into Winter and our minimum temperature has not dropped into single figures yet.

I am sleeping in Summer pyjamas without bed covers some nights!

It's almost 10pm and I am sitting in the lounge room, wearing a sleeveless top, with my laptop on my lap and the fan is on high and blowing directly on me.

It is currently 19C.

It's 10C in Sydney. It's 3C in Canberra. It's 8C in Griffith and Melbourne. It's 6C in Wagga Wagga.

I miss Winter.

Adoring Husband and I had a lovely day in The Bay together today.

I bought some hand woven fair trade baskets for presentation of my jewellery, some green bangles and a gift card made out of elephant dung! At the florist next door, I bought three beautiful fresh sunflowers, which are now in my workspace.

I bought some kefir grains to make fermented coconut water kefir from Go Natural, along with some other organic and healthy stuff - including three giant cookies which I haven't tried yet!

We decided to have lunch at EAT @ Dan & Steph's. We ate there once before, soon after they first opened and obviously we weren't overly impressed because they've been open for about two or three years now and we've only just returned.

Adoring Husband had Beef short ribs with garlic Brussels sprouts, beans and bacon which he loved and I ordered Pork belly and sand crab salad - it was HUGE and I just couldn't eat it all, but it was delicious and the dressing was amazing.

We drank cold pressed juice of apple, pineapple and lime which was fresh, cold and refreshing.

With our bellies full, we walked next door to the shop recommended by Tweedle Dee. There was not a lot in the store, but the clothes were beautiful and very expensive. I tried a top on which was priced at $140. I have one exactly the same, which I bought in Suzanne Grae's for $19 - the only difference in the two is that the SG top has a better lining.

The young woman who owned the shop was very friendly and obviously proud of her little establishment. She had a lovely range of scarves and hand made jewellery too.

Our next stop was Stocklands. I bought a necklace from Noni B's to replace one that I broke a couple of months ago. They had a 30% off sale on jewellery, so it was a bargain.

I bought what I hope will be the winning ticket in the $40 million Ozlotto draw for next week.

After we got our groceries, we drove to Craignish to pick up ours and Chandelier's FROG boxes. Quite some time ago, Chandelier picked up our FROG box when Adoring Husband was called away unexpectedly and I had no way to get it. So, this week, we were able to return the favour as she was without a car.

It was a light dinner for us tonight, after such a hearty lunch and AH had SES duties, so I've had a quiet evening at home watching the tennis.

With all but one Aussie out of the competition already, my interest has waned somewhat, so I don't think I'll have too many late nights this year. I like to follow Djokovic and Federer but with three different stations airing the tennis, it's difficult to choose which games to watch! The ladies matches and the doubles have been good to watch so far too.

It's not quite 11.30pm and I will watch the end of the Djokovic match and head to bed.

I've enjoyed my day very much. I hope you all have a happy Friday!

Nite all.

No Wonder!

Well, what an interesting turn of events!

While checking out the stats on my website, I couldn't figure out why I had so many views in my shops and so many of them filling their cart and then cancelling before getting to the checkout.

After much analysing and frowning and questioning what might be causing it, I decided to pretend to be a customer and selected an item to buy and push through the process ... to discover ... that a warning was popping up with a security error telling people that the security on this site was questionable and my security certificate wasn't valid!

It took me another hour of investigating, to figure out why that was happening and then more time to work out who I should be contacting to fix the problem ... could it be the company who provided the certificate, my host who installed the certificate, Wordpress who requested the installation of the certificate or WooCommerce who advised that the certificate was necessary in the first place?

That crease between my eyebrows is much deeper this evening, than it was this morning!

I've printed out eight pages of stats and will spend the next couple of days googling and Youtubing trying to work out what they all mean!

I need to know what they mean to understand what is attracting the most views and hits on the site and what isn't.

Anyway, that was my main dilemma today. I'm glad I found it, although I'm a bit sad that my original plans for the work day got side walled.

In between all of that, I made a batch of tomato sauce and four meals of Hainan Chicken to freeze.

We had corned beef and home made tomato sauce on GF rolls for lunch.

For dinner we had lamb rack with vegetables. The vegetables were delicious!

I used the leftover liquid from the Hainan Chicken to par boiled some small cubes of pumpkin, as well as cauliflower and broccoli. I fried some onion and garlic in ghee in the frypan, then added the pumpkin, frying a bit longer until they caramelised, stirring well, and then added one chopped tomato and tossed in the cauliflower and broccoli. Added some salt and pepper at the end. Very very tasty.

We've got a day in The Bay tomorrow. There's nothing worth seeing at the movies, so we might have a nice lunch somewhere.

An early night is on the cards for me ... and when I say 'early night', it only means that I will be in bed early ... I may still read or watch TV or play solitaire on my iPad for two hours yet!!

Nite all.

Kitchen Therapy

I enjoyed my morning coffee with the girls and there were six of us sharing the love today.

Before I returned home, I decided to visit the butcher, buy a shipload of meat and then spend the day in the kitchen cooking up a storm.

On the days when I'm working hard at my desk and I'm totally focussed on the task at hand, I get quite annoyed when I have to take 40 minutes to an hour of that time to prepare our dinner. I've had so few of those focussed days lately, and every minute of them are precious.

Today I made:

• 4 Meals of Tomato & Turmeric Chicken Casserole.
• 4 Meals of Lemon, Honey and Chilli Chicken Casserole.
• 7 Meals of Beef Casserole.
• 4 Meals of Pork Sausage in Onion Gravy.
• 3 Meals of Chicken Wings for lunches today and tomorrow.
• 1 x Corned beef which will be used for cold meat and in Bubble & Squeak.
• 2 Containers of rich sauce to add to barbecued steak or another casserole or create gravy.

Including the cleaning up, it took more than four hours, but now I have more than three weeks worth of meals in the freezer, so on my 'focussed on work' days, I can take minimal time reheating an easy meal and either steaming some veg or making a quick salad to accompany it.

By the time I'd finished, my body and my feet were protesting severely, but after a couple of hours with my feet up, it seems to have returned to it's 'pre-cooking' state and the creaks and aches have gone. Thank goodness!

At 4pm when we should have been preparing for the monthly barbecue at the park, Adoring Husband and I looked at each other and said "Nah. Can't do it. Brains and bodies will not co-operate."

Apparently it was very windy on the river, so I'm glad we decided not to go.

I'm not sure if my body will last out for Wimbledon tonight, but I'd really like to spend the day at my desk tomorrow. I'm feeling motivated with lots of ideas that I'm ready to put into practice, so I'm even willing to forego Wimbledon for a few nights before my motivation wanes again lol.

And on that note ...

Nite all.

All Clear

I believe that I have figured out what was blocking my forward progress with the website!

In the beginning, I had a plan for the site. A plan that began as a tiny spark of an idea and my imagination fanned the embers in a place deep inside of me. I wanted people to see me as 'real' and I wanted to share our health and lifestyle story, hoping that it would be helpful and maybe a little bit inspiring for others.

I wanted it to feel like they were coming for a visit before I had a chance to tidy up and maybe while I was still in my pyjamas! No airs and graces.

It wasn't long before I realised that there was more to creating a website, including utilising social media, marketing, building a tribe of followers and a database of subscribers and SO MUCH MORE! So I began to educate myself ... and that's where I went wrong.

The facts and figures, the dotted 'i's and the crossed 't's and all the theory and the instructions issued by each person whose expertise fell into one of those fields that I mentioned above. It all led me in a direction far from that place of love, where I began.

So many different people telling me what to do next and none of it felt natural. With each step, it felt like I was trying to be somebody else, following in somebody else's footsteps - very inauthentic and way too perfect.

This is what caused me to lose motivation. It blocked my imagination and caused me to avoid going any further because it was too far from my original dream.

Somehow, two days ago, I was led to a lady by the name of Eva Gregory, and in a few short paragraphs, accompanied by a twenty minute video, she steered me back to my original path and told me to focus on my 'inner guidance'.

So I went back to that place, back to the spark and the embers and I feel like I can breathe again. Amazingly, I've been more productive on the site and with social media in the last twenty four hours, than I have been for the last thirty days!

I'm feeling the love and the ideas are flowing, the wheels are turning and I'm putting pen to paper and everything suddenly feels easier again!

I did my first photography post today. It was short and sweet. You can see it here.

I also posted the first of many questions for the Romance Your Life followers on Facebook...

There was such a great response, at first from the usual friends and family, but also some names that I don't recognise, so it's nice that my tribe are learning about each other.

This will be a weekly event for the next ten weeks or until my book is finished.

This week I'll also be announcing the next prize on offer for subscribers.

I had a quick visit from Tweedle Dee this afternoon (always full of giggles), which gave me a break from my desk, where I was perched for most of the day.

It has been a great day and to top it off, Wimbledon began tonight! It's well after midnight now and there is an Aussie playing currently (Ashleigh Barty) and she's not having a great match, but hopefully the short rain delay will have helped her!

I'm going to bed to watch the remainder of her match (or fall asleep to it!). I can't stay up all night because I have a very important coffee date in the morning!

Nite all.

Big Fat NO.

Considering how late I went to bed last night - 1.30am - I was awake far too early at 7.30am!

Adoring Husband brought my coffee to me in bed, before he prepared himself for a big day of fishing.

I watched a couple of educational videos on my iPad until it was time to get ready for my movie date with Lady Lynn. We arrived at the cinema with time to spare and Lady Lynn was kind enough to shout my ticket in for the movie "Rough Night".

An hour into the movie, Lady Lynn leaned across and said "Are you finding this funny?"

"No. Not at all." I replied.

After another few minutes, I leaned over and said "If, at any stage, you wish to leave, I will be right behind you."

She said "I'll leave the decision to you."

I looked at my watch and said "We are halfway through it already. I don't think it's going to get any better. Let's go."

We left the other five patrons in the cinema - there didn't seem to be any laughter coming from them either.

Lady Lynn and I agreed that it was not the slightest bit funny and was quite offensive in some parts. Kate McKinnon, who I absolutely loved in Ghost Busters, played an Australian and her attempt at our accent was a combination of Kiwi, Aussie and American. Very off putting.

We were so disappointed and I sent a text to The Blonde Bombshell berating her for her high recommendation last week.

The best part about the day was spending some quality time with Lady Lynn who is a shining gem in my world.

We arrived home at the same time as Adoring Husband who'd had an enjoyable, but unsuccessful fishing trip. I was hoping that we would have fish for dinner! Instead, it was curried beef!

This afternoon, I've watched some football, I've done some reading and there was a touch of study.

It's already after 11pm so I think I need to be in bed before midnight.

Nite all.

Who Cares?

It was the usual lazy start to the day with coffee and reading in bed.

Adoring Husband had won a tray of pork in the raffles on Friday night, so he cooked up a breakfast of bacon and sausages with GF toast, tomato, avocado and onion and we sat outside in the warm Winter sunshine enjoying our morning sustenance, which was lovely.

While Adoring Husband cooked, I tidied my desk and emptied my waste basket in preparation for some quality work time.

We didn't finish breakfast until quite late in the morning, so it was about 11am by the time I got to my desk, where I made a 'to do' list and got started immediately.

It took me a few hours, but I finished a blog post and published it. You can read it here. It's very long, so you might need a cuppa before you start. I thought twice about posting it. I'm worrying and second guessing everything I do in this site.

I worry that I might say too much. I worry that I might reveal too much about myself or about Adoring Husband. I worry about people hating it. I worry about people thinking it's boring. I worry about people questioning my motives. I worry that people will judge me. I worry that people will love it. I worry that people will want more.

I worry that the site is not good enough or not improving quickly enough. I worry about the sort of people it will attract. I worry about so many things!

For the first time ever, I went into my host account to check out the stats and discovered that the site is receiving about 1000 hits each day, but nobody is signing up or subscribing, so I need to figure out how to get those people to hang around, to subscribe and to buy stuff!

I also need to study up on how to understand all those stats. They have weird names and are collated in strange ways and I don't understand the pie charts properly or the graphs or all the columns and I don't understand how I can use this information to my advantage.

This means I have some further studying to do and I'm hoping that my host has all that information in their video library, the first of which is titled "How to get started" haha.

So that was my Saturday.

Sunday will be less worrisome because I'm off to the movies to see Rough Night . I'm predicting some good belly laughs!

Best get to bed. It's midnight!

Nite all.