Mondayitis

It was a great day today.

One lady entered our shop to make some serious enquiries about our treatment room and how we were going to use it and promote it.

Other than that, not a single person entered our doors all day.

That's another first!

Three other shops in the shopping complex nearby remain closed, so we are wondering whether that is keeping people away.

JATOE is now closed permanently until sold, Jenny's Craft shop is closed until Wednesday and 'A Taste of Burrum' is closed until Thursday.

It gave The Motivator and I a good chance to catch up on all our news, both personal and business, so  we thoroughly enjoyed that.

This evening, I have edited a few more photos ...

... and I hope to have tomorrow off work, instead of Wednesday, to go to the movies with Bubbles and BGWLBH and spend some time with them before Bubbles leaves on Friday.

This afternoon, BGWLBH and I walked and rode to the beach, while Adoring Husband, Knight in Shining Armour and Bubbles drove and met us there so we could walk along the beach.

The tide was high and the wind was strong and the beach was short! So we walked as far as we could and then returned home. I had two chickens in the oven and did roasted veggies and gravy to have with them. It was quite a delicious meal.

Afterwards, we played pub trivia. The boys beat BGWLBH and I by 3 rounds to 2, however, when adding up all the points for the rounds, we defeated them by 6 points. Haha.

They had been into The Bay today to see the movie "Geostorm" which they all left feeling totally disappointed with. I hope tomorrow does not see a repeat of that feeling!

It's now fast approaching 10.30am so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Weekend End

Here it is... 11pm on Sunday night.

I have a couple of photos to share from Adoring Husband's party, but once again, I don't have time to give a detailed description of the party tonight. I promise that I will, at some stage, tell you all about it.

I will attempt to find the time to edit a few photos each day and share them here, but I'm just not going to get the time to do it all in one hit.

So here are a couple of photos...

I had a very early night last night and was in bed by 9pm and asleep very soon after that. Adoring Husband was kind enough to wake me at 6.30am on my Sunday morning sleep in, by noisily placing my coffee on the bedside table.

He woke me from a very angry dream which made my day begin on a bad note.

BGWLBH, Knight in Shining Armour, Bubbles and I attended the Village Voices Celtic Concert in the local hall this morning.

It lasted for about two hours and was quite entertaining, although Knight in Shining Armour declared that he now knows that this type of entertainment is not his cup of tea and he wouldn't attend another!

BGWLBH sang along with most of the songs and clapped very loudly at the end of each set. She had a lovely time!

Afterwards we all got coffee from my favourite coffee haunt and sat outside while we drank it.

We returned home for some quick nosh up lunch and then played some board games until 3pm when Adoring Husband and I walked to our rear neighbour's house to have a drink for AH's birthday. Unfortunately, they were called away at the last minute to attend a sick relative, so they couldn't come to the party last weekend as planned.

It was a pleasant way to spend 2 hours and we had some good giggles.

It was an easy barbecue dinner with some baked potatoes and salad and then another game of Trivial Pursuit, which BGWLBH, Bubbles and I won as a team.

They all have a big day planned for the movies tomorrow while I'm at work. I hope to have Wednesday off work to spend some time with the kids before they return home to Sydney.

Right now I need to get some sleep. I don't want to start the working week sleep deprived. I hate that!

Nite all.

Living Life

As I was informed this evening ... my life is completely full!

There simply has not been time for blogging.

I think I've watched about 2 hours of TV in the last 8 days and that was to catch up with The Bachelorette which I had recorded.

Every afternoon and evening is full of cooking and laughing and trivia and games and planning and catching up.

It's both exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.

Meanwhile, the shop is powering on and we have a steady flow of new customers on a daily basis. I took delivery of a huge box of new snap jewellery yesterday and it literally took me all day to cross check it and then rearrange stock so that it could all fit in the display cabinets and in the storage drawers.

We are still receiving lots of positive feedback and great support from the town locals, including other business owners.

We've introduced a 'sale table' which has brought great delight to a few customers ... the ones who returned to the shop to buy that purse they admired last week ... and discovered it on the 'sale table'!

We've also introduced a monthly draw. When customers agree to have their photo taken and then allow us to post that photo on our Facebook page, they go into the draw for a $20 voucher for The Happy Abode.

A lovely elderly gentleman won the first draw for October.

The numbers in our Facebook page are slowly increasing, which is also good to see.

We've had some pretty lousy weather which has caused our river to become an ugly brown colour and this is how it looked yesterday...

Strong gusty winds so bad that I really struggled against a head wind while pedalling to work. I almost hopped off the trike and wheeled it!

Later ...

I just had a call from my sister Squirt.

So much for my early night and writing a lengthy blog post ... a 2.5 hour phone call certainly put an end to that! It's now heading towards 1am and I am, once again, exhausted.

Nite all.

Lady's Lunch

Another late night and another short blog post.

I got the day off work today and spent my time on a day trip across the river to Woodgate for lunch at their local pub.

The GF options in the pub were limited and I had a choice of steak and salad or seasoned calamari and salad. It was a small meal and not very satisfying. I had to pay $9.60 for my vodka & tonic too, so I only had one drink.

Here are the only pics that anyone has shared so far ...

Now I am off to bed.

I hope to write a longer post tomorrow with pics from the big bash. Wish me luck!

Nite all.

Absence Makes ...

I must apologise for my absence over the last few days, but life has been pretty full on and the days have been long, with late nights and early mornings.

Some things had to be sacrificed, and unfortunately, one of those things was this blog.

Tonight is not the night that I'm catching up because it's already very late and I have things that need to be done before bed, but I thought I should pop in and let you know that we are all alive and kicking  and that the big birthday bash was a roaring success!!

At some stage over the next few days, I will post photos and tell you all about the few days that were full of family and friends and love and laughter.

For now, here are some photos posted by other people from the party...

We still have Bubbles, Knight in Shining Armour and BGWLBH with us, which is lovely.

The shop has been going incredibly well and we are pretty well prepared for Christmas with lots of stock arriving last week and more coming in this week.

For now, I'm off to finish my chores for the night and then climb into bed.

Have a happy hump day!!

Nite all.

Done Before It's Begun

I am exhausted!

I've used up all my spoons.

But I've got this!

Everything will be ok.

I feel a bit overwhelmed with everything thats happening and everything that needs to happen before the big night, but I've got a pretty good team beside me - especially BGWLBH and The Motivator, who are supporting me in so many ways. I would really struggle without them.

Friday is going to be a killer, trying to tie up all the loose ends and picking up people from the airport and the train station and meeting new people.

For anybody who cares, I won't be at the Bowls Club on Friday night, so I'll see you at the 'DO' on Saturday night.

It's now midnight and I desperately need to sleep!

Nite all.

So It Begins

Well, I met Adoring Husband's 'past' today and it was a very pleasant experience. Trotz and The Boot Scooter were lovely and down to earth and funny and warm and I thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon and evening with them.

In the middle of that visit, we parted ways for a while so that AH and I could drive into The Bay to pick up Vegan Chickie and Chicklet from the airport. They had a very long and very bumpy flight, but arrived safe n sound.

That beautiful bright smile when Chicklet saw me, was priceless, and I'm feeling the love! There's also nothing nicer than a long warm bear hug from Vegan Chickie.

There was quite a bit of water over the road in parts, but luckily it was all safely passable.

BGWLBH had prepared most of the dinner salads by the time we returned home so there was very little preparation required for dinner. AH cooked on the barby and our visitors returned to enjoy an easy casual dinner and we all sat around the dinner table for a few hours sharing stories from our past and present, as well as a few beverages.

After they left, VC, BGWLBH and I sat around chatting some more until we were too exhausted to stay up any longer.

The Motivator and I had a busy morning in the shop and I sold 2 more photos! Amazing!

Anyway, it's almost 1am. I need sleep!

Nite all.

Crazy Rain

More than enough rain for one event!

Will it never end?

Roads are cut. The ground is wet. The river is brown. The winds are blowing. The dogs are even more psychotic. Everyone is stir crazy. It's time to stop now.

If it doesn't stop soon, the flood waters will stop people from reaching us for the big birthday bash!

We discovered one leak in the shop. A slow drip from the ceiling in the kitchen. The other problem is the back door which isn't sealed and water accumulates and flows not only under the door but pours in through the gaps in the side of the door. That needs to be rectified.

There were a few people who braved the weather and came for a visit to the shop. Some paying customers, others just for a sticky beak, but it was a quiet afternoon when the rain really pelted down for well over an hour.

While I was expecting our first visitors to arrive today, nobody actually turned up, which was lucky because the Butcher closed early and I didn't get to buy any food to feed the hoards. I'll need to get in early tomorrow.

While I was at work, BGWLBH spent time in my kitchen to create this ...

It didn't quite look like the cake in the picture, but it sure tasted mighty fine!

We played trivia tonight (again) and I won! Woot! Unfortunately, BGWLBH continues to stay one game ahead of me! There is plenty of time to catch her.

I need to go to bed now. It's after 11pm and my body is aching a bit ... my back is struggling at the moment, but I don't know why. Probably the dining chairs where we play trivia for hours at a time.

Have a fabulous Wednesday!

Nite all.

Build an Ark

I haven't checked our rain gauge, but I think we've had about 150mm in 24 hours. Having said that, it is absolutely pelting down as I write this, and it has been for some time, so that number may be rising significantly.

The wind has gusted to 57kph and while I was at work,  the rain was almost horizontally hitting our front windows and blowing our door open into the shop.

On the plus side, the only water damage was under our back door, so none of the leaks from the last rain event happened this time. This indicates that the gutters that were blocked with leaf litter were probably the main culprits for the last problem because they have since been cleared and the leaks have ceased.

Considering the horrendous weather, the shop was busy today! I guess people were sick of being stuck inside because of the rain and decided to get out and have a look at 'the new shop'.

I sold yet another photo today and a 2nd photo was ordered! I am flabbergasted! And kind of chuffed.

That takes my total to sixteen photos in seven weeks! Who'da thunk?

The Motivator and I took some photos of some new stock and decided to post on Facebook that we can gift wrap (for an extra charge) and send gifts around Australia. We've already had 4 sales via the Facebook page, so we figured it would be worth advertising that we can do a little extra.

 

We are hoping that by tomorrow, we will get to use our shop PayPal account. They've made us jump through a few hoops - nothing is a simple process when you have a business. It's enough to drive you bonkers!

It's, once again, rapidly approaching midnight and I need to sleep. The Psychotic dogs kept me awake for half the night last night and I'm hoping they will allow me to get a good night's sleep tonight.

Nite all.

Sleepy Sunday

The weather has been very wet!

So it's been a lazy, sleepy Sunday.

BGWLBH has been binge watching ER while Adoring Husband and I have been watching rubbish TV like 'Love it or List it' and an Aussie movie called 'Not Suitable for Children'.

Lunch was a big bowl of pumpkin soup for BGWLBH and AH, while I made myself a big crab salad with fresh crab, avocado, lettuce, watermelon and onion with fresh coriander and lime juice. It was delicious but too large and unfortunately my body is beginning to react to crab. I think my crab days are almost over. I will push it to the absolute limit, but my limit is frighteningly close.

I suspect that I will be in bed bright and early tonight because doing nothing all day has left me feeling exhausted!

I introduced BGWLBH to spaghetti bolognese with zoodles tonight and it seems that she enjoyed it very much. Tomorrow night will be chicken curry with cauliflower rice.

Monday marks the beginning of a very big week for us.

Vegan Chickie and Chicklet arrive on Wednesday. Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armour arrive on Friday and many others will arrive from Friday onwards for the big birthday bash.

This means that I need to get plenty of sleep each night to be at my peak.

It's approaching 9pm and I think I can easily fall asleep if I climb into bed right now. The fact that the Higgins Storm Chasing mob have predicted that a significant rain even will be occurring tonight and tomorrow, means that I'd best sleep while I can because the Psychotic Dogs will get very stressed during the night. Up to 500mm inside 24 hours is very significant and a bit scary to think about.

Nite all.

The Week Has Ended

Thank God it's Sunday!

It's been a big week!

BGWLBH walked me to work this morning, but first, we bought coffee and then headed to the local markets at the hall.

I had commissioned a lady there to make me some drawer handle decorations because I'm going to refurbish our bedside tables and I want to hang these from the handle of the top drawer.

While I was there, I commissioned a gentleman to make two timber jewellery stands with whale tails as the main feature. I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out. I also bought some led light glass hanging ornaments from his wife.

I almost bought more jewellery from The House Sitter, but I showed restraint.

We bought a few bags of vegetables from a stall before we  returned to The Happy Abode and went our separate ways.

It was a steady morning in the shop and The Motivator invited one of the stall holders from the markets to come to the shop at midday to discuss selling her beautiful products in our shop. This person sells cards, postcards, affirmation cards, mugs and framed art, all of which is made with her own artwork.

I have bought quite a bit of her stuff in the past and still have some of her cards in my stash for when I need birthday or greeting cards. I use one of her notebooks at the shop. I love her work.

As does The Motivator!

So we now have a display of Lisa Hanrahan's products in our shop and this makes us very happy.

I didn't get home until about 2pm. and BGWLBH and I spent quite some time in the kitchen, while she made the most delicious pumpkin soup I've ever tasted and I prepared a roast dinner. Lamb, potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, onion, Brussels sprouts and asparagus. I also made gravy.

We played Cards Against Humanity and drank alcoholic beverages before dinner.

BGWLBH discovered our boxed set of the TV series 'ER' so she snatched it and hightailed it into her bedroom to hibernate and binge on about 15 series of ER.

It's now almost 11pm and I think it's time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

 

Friday Frenzy

I thoroughly enjoyed my day all round.

I worked until almost 2pm and during that time, served a number of customers, had some friends come through the doors and a surprise visit by The Lifesaver!! It was a very brief visit, but how lovely to see his smiling face!

Quite a bit of stock arrived this morning. New snap button bracelets and pendants, a few snap button rings and some tree of life snap buttons. I love it when new stock arrives, but today I was surprised to discover that I'd ordered 120 pieces of one item, when I thought I'd ordered 20.  Ugh.  Luckily the items are nice and will sell well!

The Motivator spent a few hours at a business appointment, so when she returned, I left.

I had to book Bubbles' train ticket for her trip from the Sunshine Coast to Burrum Heads next week.

It was around 2.30pm by the time I arrived home.

I received a phone call from Adoring Husband to advise that there were weather alerts in our area showing that we were expecting 150mm of rain every day for three days. That's a LOT of rain!  That's a LOT more than last week when the 200mm of rain fell in 12 hours and caused damage to our shop.

Let's hope that the repairs that have been done so far, are enough to keep our premises safe and clear of water this time.

BGWLBH and I chatted for a while about the shop and the sorts of things that we could sell. She showed me her photos on her laptop, some of which were pretty amazing and then we got ready for the club.

AH decided he was too tired to come tonight. He'd spent the afternoon on the phone co-ordinating different SES groups for the coming weather event and he'd had a late night the night before, so he remained at home and relaxed on the couch.

BGWLBH and I enjoyed just one beverage at the club and then spent the evening losing. I had a win on the pokies, but keno and raffles were not lucky for us. We made it for the first bus home and I'd put a beef casserole in the slow cooker, which was ready by the time we returned.

After dinner, while AH cleaned the kitchen, we set up the trivia game for another round. Tonight was BGWLBH's turn to win.

Now it's well after midnight and I need to leave early in the morning so that I can attend the markets and collect something that I commissioned a lady to make for me, and then get to work.

Bed time for me.

Nite all.

She's Here!

So I spent the morning at the shop while The Motivator sewed the covers for the backs of the training room chairs. She has done an amazing job. Doubly amazing because she has never done it before and created the pattern herself and so far, it's all absolutely perfect!

We pulled the covers over the backs of the chairs and then got to staple two of them into position so that they could be sewed, before I had to leave.

I had to leave because BGWLBH was on her way and due to arrive around 2pm. It turned out to be some time after 3pm, which was lucky because I didn't get home until 1.30pm and I wasn't quite ready for her arrival.

The Psychotic Dogs were very excited to see her and made lots of noise. Jack barked and barked (as he does) Ruby ran around in circles smiling and showing all her front teeth. Colli barked and snorted and fought to get through the others for attention.

It was good to see her and a relief to have her arrive safe and sound after such a long journey.

While she suffers a bit of jet lag trying to adjust to our non-daylight savings time, we tried for an early dinner of chicken and salad, enjoying an alcoholic beverage or two and then the standard game of trivia which I'm happy to report I WON!!!  Woot Woot!

Even more satisfying because Adoring Husband had all of his pieces of pie a long time before I did, but he couldn't answer the final question. He landed in the centre many times but we made sure we picked a subject that we knew he would struggle with and he couldn't quite get the final answer to finish us off.

When I landed on the centre the very first time, Adoring Husband chose his favourite subject (Science) for me because he knows that I struggle with it (I also struggle with History and Geography lol), but luckily it was one of the easier Science questions ... I can't even remember what it was now, because I was so excited about winning!

On BGWLBH's last visit I didn't win any games and she won them all, so we're off to a good start. Tonight she just couldn't get a correct answer for the Sports question (that's the orange piece of pie and the one that she is pointing to in the photo) to win her final piece of pie. Sports is her worst subject in trivia.

Go Me!

It's almost 11pm and I'm feeling decidedly weary, so now I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Drained

It's been a mentally draining day.

I have fought with the Progress Association, Telstra and The Jillaroo Motor Inn at Glen Innes.

I have worried about BGWLBH being messed around by motels after driving for 9 hours in one day.

I have created a full page ad for the newsletter and a signature for my business email.

I posted the new Happy Abode monthly draw information on the Facebook page.

I cleared some more of the office stuff that I took to the office from home.

I made a 'to do' list of things that I need to do tomorrow before BGWLBH arrives.

I did more, but I'm too drained to think and it's time to go to bed.

Nite all.

Coffee Visits

We started AND ended our work day with visits from coffee ladies.

Of course Tuesday morning is the usual coffee crowd + Molly the dog (despite her owner believing that she is not a dog but is in fact a person!) joined us this morning. The owner being The Blonde Bombshell ...

We had some great laughs this morning and we really enjoyed the company of the girls, but all good things come to an end and after a couple of them satisfied their need for retail therapy, they all said their farewells and went on their merry way.

The Motivator covered some more chairs and created a pattern to cover the backs of the chairs. She also vacuumed the floors and cleared some rubbish from the training room while I ate my late lunch and completed some orders for stock.

I attempted to clear my desk of some of my office 'stuff' that I'd brought from home, which is a hell of job in itself with very little storage room available. I'll get it sorted eventually.

This afternoon while The Motivator was having a phone appointment in the treatment room, and I was just about to walk out the door to head home, Shelly Shirl came peering through the door with a friend, so I invited them into the shop. Shelly Shirl declared that she had another four ladies finishing their coffee at the cafe and could she bring them in too.

Of course I invited them all in and they filled the shop with their laughter and happy chatter, also enjoying some retail therapy!

I didn't leave for home until 5pm!

There was a massive storm heading in our direction this afternoon. I could hear the thunder rumbling as I pedalled home and when I looked at the satellite view on the BOM website, it was a small but nasty looking storm with a black centre.

Reports had come through that a house in Boonaroo lost it's roof in the storm, and the SES were given two warnings to be on alert, so naturally I did my own risk assessment and cleared an area in our walk in robe, filling it with my electronic devices and then sat down to watch the BOM.

Miraculously, as the edge of the storm neared our town, the storm split in two. Part of it moved north and the half that moved over us simply dissipated! It was a fabulous relief and quite the anti climax.

I've just looked at the clock and discovered that it's almost midnight.

How did that happen?

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Wizard of ZZZZzzzzz

I'm off to see that Wizard of ZZZzzzzz

The Motivator and I started our morning by navigating our way past the tree loppers so that we could have our 'start of the week meeting' on the water front.

I don't think either of us have been there on time for a Monday morning meeting, but I was the worst culprit this morning. I got side tracked by the strong smell of smoke along the way, so I had to investigate to make sure there wasn't a house on fire!

There was a metal fire bowl in a front yard that was obviously in use the previous night, and that's where the smell was coming from. Better to be safe than sorry!

Our late meeting meant that we were late to open the shop. It was about 9.15am when we opened the doors.

We spent the day confirming large orders of stock to cover us for Christmas and the holiday period, which was kind of fun.

The Motivator covered the seats of the training room chairs and now we just need to cover the backs.

Adoring Husband took a load of my office paraphernalia to the shop for me, including my iMac. It's annoying packing and unpacking the laptop every day and it was taking me 15 minutes to pack everything up and clear the desk to go home, so the iMac was returned to the shop and I'll use it instead of the laptop.

We enjoyed a nice healthy salad for lunch, chatted with and served some customers, discussed our plans for the coming weeks with visitors and holidays and then I received a phone call from AH asking me to go home and lock the house and get the dogs out of the lounge room.

He'd been called out to deliver the defribulator to help someone and rushed out the door with no time to secure the house or the animals, so The Motivator drove me home to quickly to lock up and then we returned to the shop.

I set up my happy abode email on the iMac and then began packing up my goods to come home.

Luckily AH had prepared himself a good lunch as his main meal for the day, so I didn't have to worry about cooking when I got home. After he left, I made myself a quick salad of salmon, tomato, cucumber, onion and avocado with some of last night's leftover dressing.

Now I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Sunday Sad

Well, I started the day well enough.

I was out of bed early (for a Sunday) around 8 o'clock-ish.

A couple of loads of washing and then back into my old office to finish clearing it out. Remember last week when I said I only needed a couple more hours? Ha! I've worked an extra day and I STILL need a couple more hours!

I stopped clearing to make some lunch salads to go with the chicken wings that Adoring Husband had put into the oven.

I made a Kaleslaw, some pickled cucumber slices and a big garden salad with cos lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, red capsicum, mango slices, pear slices, fresh mint and coriander, toasted pine nuts and a home made dressing with chilli, coconut vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice and maple syrup.

Even if I say so myself, it was bloody delicious!

Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there.

I spent the afternoon in bed and slept for more than 2 hours.

No idea what was wrong, I just felt weak, my tummy was tender and I felt a bit light headed. I know better than to push through it. I took some time out to care for myself and it worked. I still feel a bit weak, but a good night's sleep will soon fix that.

Luckily I had some casserole in the fridge to heat up for AH and I served it in a bowl with leftover salad on the side.

I had a hand full of nuts for dinner.

Now we're watching The X Factor UK (which is sometimes making me feel sicker lol).

Anyway, enough of this frivolity.

Nite all.