Full On

Yes, today was full on.

Lots of customers. Bookings for treatments with The Gypsy. With the roof in the process of being replaced, SO MUCH NOISE! Rearranging the jewellery displays. Visiting a prospective supplier and selecting some items for the shop. Ordering online from a new supplier. Repackaging some jewellery items for display on the table. It was a big day.

The Gypsy gifted me a scobie for making kombucha and a 'starter mix' to make real sour dough bread, which, because of the natural fermentation process, is supposed to remove the gluten and make it safe for celiacs and gluten intolerance.

I'm excited to get started on both of those, but they have to wait until tomorrow when I can get the remaining ingredients while I'm in The Bay. I need some unbleached flour for the sour dough and some organic raw sugar for the kombucha.

The Gypsy also gave us some dried celery leaf in a ziplock bag and has offered us a number of herbs that she grows in her garden - all organic of course. I'm feeling healthier already!

It was 5.30pm by the time I arrived home this afternoon and luckily for me, Adoring Husband had roasted some chicken wings and all I had to do was make up a salsa salad with mango, watermelon, cucumber, onion, baby spinach, rocket, mint, coriander, the last little bit of feta cheese crumbled over the top and then dressed with ACV. It was delicious.

This evening I've done two loads of washing and brought in the load that I hung out this morning, folded it all and put it away - such a boring, time consuming chore.

I watched a 30 minute video on manifesting in business and life, cleared some emails (so many to get through) and I almost created my vision board, but the tennis won out in the end.

It's now after 11.30pm and I'm feeling exhausted - again - so I'm off to bed. It will be another early start tomorrow.

Nite all.

Thanks for Nothing

The world of business is competitive.

It seems that we have inspired people to compete with us in our field. One local business owner has changed her line of stock, which puts her in direct competition with us and has completely changed the original focus of her business which has been in existence for years.

Another has just started a new business that directly competes with our most popular range of stock. This one hurts the most because we have supported her and held her art work in our shop, promoting her and selling her wares.

Competition is always a good thing, and it will make us work harder to get it right and keep it real for our loyal customers. It will also make us a little more wary of the people with whom we do business in the future.

You live and you learn and hopefully the lessons along the way don't hurt too much!

I will RELEASE the initial negativity that has swamped me this evening.

I will wish her well and send love and acceptance her way.

Everything happens for a reason.

I will move on and only focus on my own destiny.

I will fill my world with love and light.

Meanwhile, we had a quiet sales day in The Happy Abode, but a productive day with business appointments, business planning and rearranging stock.

Now that we get to spend some quality time together, The Motivator and I can focus on the business and make some solid plans about how we are going to grow and improve and get our name 'out there'.

We have some exciting times ahead if we get this right.

But first, I have to clear my desk!

I spent the day dumping onto my desk, anything that I wasn't sure what to do with, and now it looks like a disaster area.

An early start tomorrow should get it cleared and ready for hard work for the remainder of the day.

I arrived home so late and so tired today, that Adoring Husband suggested take away! I had a GF steak sandwich which was delicious and very light. Then he made me a cup of tea, which was lovely.

I think it's time for bed!

Nite all.

Remembering

First of all ... Happy Birthday to Number One Son!

I took a video of myself singing happy birthday to him and sent it - which I won't share with you because it's quite embarrassing.

I had the day off work today and drove into The Bay with Adoring Husband to pick up some supplies for our Vision Board Workshop, which was a lot of fun because it meant visiting my favourite shop 'Office Works'!

We did an Aldi shop. They had a lot of school supplies on sale there too, so I was able to stock up on some folders and felt tip pens and other such fun stuff.

Go Natural took some of our money for some healthful items of my choosing. After watching a seminar on gut health, it was recommended that Slippery Elm, Aloe Vera, probiotics and fermented foods should be included in a diet full of whole colourful natural foods to help heal any gut issues.

It doesn't take much these days to flare up my gut issues. Every so often I have a slip up and feed on sugar - very bad move - or on carbs like potato, rice & bread (which the body converts to sugar) - also a very bad move. These are the foods that cause inflammation in my gut and digestive tract. These are the foods that cause discomfort and pain. It takes a couple of weeks for my insides to settle and then it takes extra help to heal the damage.

Of late, and over Christmas/New Year, I have been particularly bad with these foods. The pain has been 'almost' unbearable causing disturbed sleep and difficulty in focussing even on conversations. Sometimes it's difficult to even find a comfortable sitting position.

So I've decided to get serious and take better care of my health. I don't know why I felt the need to punish myself that way, but it stops today. I have all the healing tools in my kitchen and I'm going to hit the peak of health again soon!

We stopped in at Tinkerbells, on the Esplanade across the road from Enzos, to check out their selenite lamps which they have on sale ...

I fell in love and bought it. Selenite is good for cleansing and clearing the negative emissions that come from technology and in a business should be kept near the cash register to clear the way for incoming prosperity.

While I was there, I found the most amazing and beautiful large circular pendant of turquoise. For the entire time that I was in the shop, my eye kept being drawn to the pendant until eventually I had to ask how much it was and if I could get a closer look. Once it was in my hands, I couldn't bear to part with it. I put it on lay-by. It's going to take a while to pay off, but it will be worth it. It almost looks like our Happy Abode logo!

Just as we were about to return home, I decided to stop in at Stocklands so that I could get a pedicure. It's been more than three months since I had my last pedicure - I got sparkly red nail polish for Adoring Husband's big bash birthday party back then. My feet have been looking pretty terrible the last few weeks.

Now they look fresh and clean. I chose to have clear polish this time - I prefer shiny clear nails to colours.

We stopped at The Happy Abode on the way home to drop off the new white board for the training room. The Motivator was still there working hard and we caught up with each other's news, of which, surprisingly, there was a lot!

It's been a pretty big day and I STILL didn't get my chores at home done!  

Does anyone remember Val? The very elderly lady who played piano at Zabe coffee shop in Tewantin? The first time I saw her play, I went next door to the florist and bought a Gerbera to present to her with thanks for her beautiful music. This may trigger your memory ...

There was a notice on the Zabe Facebook page today that Val had passed away. She lived a full and honourable life with music at the very heart of it. She will be missed.

Rest in Peace Val.

Nite all.

Sleepy Brain

I stayed in bed until after 2pm today!

Not sleeping.

Even though I woke at 6.30am, I spent all of my time in bed watching business development videos as well as some motivational videos of Oprah (she's pretty amazing). I also caught up on some Denise Duffield Thomas manifesting exercises.

I decided that I should probably make an entrance into the living room and join Adoring Husband for part of the day.

I prepared dinner nice and early and set it aside for later while Adoring Husband and I watched a DVD from our collection. "A Knight's Tale' with Heath Ledger. It was a good movie.

Surprisingly, it's just 8.30pm and I'm feeling incredibly tired!

I think I over used my brain this morning and it just can't take in any more information or give OUT any for that matter.

All the things on yesterday's 'to do' list didn't get touched today, so I may have to fill tomorrow with those errands and chores. Nothing like a good dose/case of procrastination to make things not happen lol.

I'll be going in to work early for our Monday morning meditation class before taking the remainder of the day off to GSD.

So for now, I'm off for an early night. My pillow is calling me.

Nite all.

It's HOT!

The weather is ridiculously hot.

Uncomfortable.

Oppressive.

Steamy.

Blurgh.

Tomorrow will be even worse.

Thank goodness for air conditioning.

We had another quiet, but also productive day in the shop and again, it was good to be working together! We make a good team.

I rode directly home, because it was too hot to do anything else.

Ironically, I made a curry for dinner!

It was only Butter Chicken, but it was made from scratch and it was delicious, especially with a generous scattering of fresh coriander on top.

We watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory before Adoring Husband went to bed.

I then watched 'Mean Girls' - I've never watched the entire movie before and there are a lot of famous actors in it. I had a few aha moments, when I recognised scenes that have been stolen for various TV series over the years. Surprisingly, it's been fourteen years since the movie was made.

Tomorrow is Sunday and will be my first day off in ten days. I also have Monday off. I have quite a bit to catch up on, a few things that I've put off, a few errands to run in The Bay and some chores to do around the house.

So I guess they won't really be days off will they?

It's 11.30pm and feels much later.

I'm done for the day.

Nite all.

Sis Time

There I was, sitting on my couch, watching the movie "Jerry Maguire" (even though, as a rule, I refuse to watch Tom Cruise movies) and about to start writing my blog, when up popped the 'FaceTime' icon and my sister's name!

She has been trying to FaceTime me since Christmas, so it was fabulous to finally come face to face with her looking so relaxed and happy in her new house on Magnetic Island.

We chatted for about an hour - until her phone went completely flat. It was good to catch up.

It was nice to spend the day in the shop with The Motivator. We had a lot of catching up to do and a lot to plan for the next couple of months, including some workshops, courses and some business travel.

Luckily it was a slow day in the shop so we were able to achieve quite a lot. I phoned the people who had expressed interest in our meditation classes and ticked their names off the list, while The Motivator booked our flights and accommodation for Sydney. She also made up some new signs. I posted our vision board information sheet on our Facebook page and started a newsletter for our email list.

I spoke to a few people who are interested in the photography course and had them fill in my questionnaire, but I still have a few more to contact yet.

It was another nice, but losing night at the Club. The same lucky people still winning while the rest of us watch on!

Now, it's after midnight and I need to sleep. I have work tomorrow!

Nite all.

On Leave

Mother Nature is still on leave.

There is nothing to photograph with my new camera. I spent another hour this afternoon pedalling around town looking for subjects - to no avail!

Frustrating.

It was a beautiful sunset this evening, but I was already in my pyjamas so the camera remained in the bag and I remained on the couch!

No dinner tonight because Adoring Husband had SES duty and I wasn't hungry.

It was quite busy in the shop today but mostly with people who were in for a chat and a look around. No big sales but lots of compliments.

I had a photo shoot this afternoon for a customer who wanted a photo of himself wearing all of his finery from  an organisation with which he has been a member for 40 years. His finery was looking all 40 yrs of its life and had certainly seen better days.

I don't, as a rule, do private photo shoots, but this was a special case and only took ten minutes.

The Motivator will be back on board tomorrow and we will begin our 2018 as a team.

Now I'm off to bed.

Tired azzzzz!

Nite all

Old Times

Just like old times, I pedalled back and forth along the river path this afternoon with my new camera.

Before I got to the river path, I spotted some Corella in a pine tree, so I stopped and took my first pic with the camera.

Looking at those pics 'in camera' - I am very impressed and can't wait to see them on a big monitor, but the connection that I need for the camera to the computer is at work, so I can't look at them properly until tomorrow! Ugh!

Other than the Corella, there was absolutely nothing else to photograph.

No birds.

No creatures.

No beautiful light.

No sunset.

Three rides back and forth along the path, looking up into the trees, looking out into the water, looking along the ground.

Nothing.

I sat on a shaded bench seat overlooking the water, hoping that if I waited long enough, something might happen. The only thing that happened was a local came and sat beside me and we chatted for about an hour.

Way off in the distance, out on the water, there was a Tern dive bombing the water over and over again, but it was too far out even for my long lens to capture the action.

It was after 6pm when I finally headed home and as I pulled into our driveway, I noticed a bee buzzing around the Murraya flowers on our front lawn, so I stopped and pulled out the camera.

In the 30 seconds that it took me to get the camera out, the bee disappeared. There were no other bees to be seen either. Disappointed, I packed away the camera and gave up for the day.

Needless to say, it was 7pm by the time I'd finished cooking dinner - unheard of in our household, to be eating so late!

It was a good day at the shop and we had some more happy smiling and laughing customers. Of course, most people are happy when they're on holidays aren't they!?

I love our shop!

It's 9.45pm and I'm off to bed.

Now that I've felt the new camera in my hands, I'm ready to get right back into photography. Hopefully, I can leave earlier tomorrow morning and go for a little trek with the camera before work!

Nite all.

Girl Power

It was a great day in the shop.

It all started with my girls filling the shop with the sound of their chatter and laughter - which I always love!

The last of them left quite late in the morning but that seemed to open the energy flow for lots of customers to walk through the door.

Those customers were all lovely and were in for a chat and a laugh.

I stayed open for an extra hour and the last customer left well after 4pm.

Adoring Husband was there to help me bring everything inside and close the shop - he is honestly a champion and I wonder what the hell I would do without him some days (most days).

On my way home, I pedalled along the river path and came face to face with a beautiful goanna, which, as if on cue, stood on it's hind legs and looked around like it was surveying it's kingdom! Of course, no camera to be found!

I think it's time for me to get into the habit of carrying my camera bag with me again and give my new camera a workout. I'm certain that Mother Nature is calling to me!

I am feeling decidedly tired this evening, so I'm off for an early night.

Have a happy hump day :)

Nite all.

Early Start

It was tough getting out of bed so early this morning!

I arrived at the shop five minutes before the meditation began.

It was obviously too early for the kids who were going to attend the meditation but decided that the comfy spot in our lounge area would help them get the extra sleep they needed ...

Annemarie was fantastic explaining the benefits of meditation and showed us with examples how we can feel the changes in our body through the different elements that we can practice on a daily basis anywhere, anytime.

The session took an hour and we came to the end feeling calm, relaxed and motivated to put into practice what we'd learned.

There was a steady flow of customers through the door today, some just for a look, some to add to their snap button collection and others looking specifically for gifts.

In between customers, I got to work on our ad for the next newsletter as well as gather some more info for the workshops.

Everything is coming along slowly but surely.

This afternoon, our new screen was delivered ...

It makes me smile every time I look at it!

Adoring Husband picked me up early and The Motivator took over at the shop at 2.30pm so that we could drive into The Bay and check out some new cars. The trip in was supposed to be for me to look at the three cars that Adoring Husband had narrowed it down to, but in the end, we made a decision and the paperwork was signed.

On a practical level, I'm very happy with the choice the we made.

By the time we returned home, it was getting late, so we decided to get some grilled fish and chips from the takeaway. While we waited, we walked to the beach. The conditions were equal to gale force on the water, so we decided not to walk along the beach. We stood cuddling and enjoyed the view for a minute before returning to the shop. Just one street away and not a breath of wind!

It's been an easy night and suddenly it's almost 11pm.

You know what that means ... time for bed.

Nite all.

The Reason

I decided to open the shop today (Sunday).

I supposed that the holiday-makers were still around and it might be worth the effort.

I had a back up plan. If the the customers didn't come, I could spend time working on the two courses/workshops that we'll be running very soon.

The courses and workshops got a lot of attention.

At the end of the day, I did meet a new town resident who lives on my street. We seemed to click and spent a lot of time chatting about everything and anything. We got along so well that I invited her to our Tuesday morning coffee so that she could meet some lovely ladies. She has a neurological disorder, so she doesn't get out often because it takes her days to recover. I thought I should offer her a safe option to meet people that wouldn't take too much out of her.

I hope she can make it.

It was after 3pm by the time I got home. Adoring Husband came to the shop to help bring everything inside and we did a small grocery shop before he played the role of 'security' again.

I rode home and took the long way so that I could ride past where my new friend lives. Stalker much??? Nah, just curious lol.

After about thirty minutes of doing a quick tidy up, I spent the afternoon on the couch.

I wasn't hungry but I threw together a quick dinner for Adoring Husband.

Suddenly it's after 11pm and I have to be at the shop at 7.30 tomorrow morning for our first meditation class, so I'd best get to bed!

Nite all.

Slow Start

It was a slow start to Saturday morning at the shop, but it ended well. Some late customers who walked through the door just as we were about to close all excitedly chose some snap jewellery to make our total for the day look quite healthy.

It was nice to have The Motivator and her SIL drop in for a chat late morning.

Mid afternoon the Blond Bombshell and her visitor dropped by after they had been to the movies.

Adoring Husband was kind enough to come to the shop as I was closing to help bring everything inside and to play the role of security for me.

I spent some time working on the 'vision board' workshop, which includes creating my own vision board for 2018 to use as an example. I'm making some minor changes to the way I designed last year's board with my word for the year taking pride of place in the centre.

There is still much to do.

Adoring Husband and I took down the tree, all the Christmas lights and the decorations today and this evening - 12 days after Christmas - as it should be.

Primrose is suffering through 40C+ temperatures at home as we speak. Sounds dreadful!

I'm considering opening the shop for a few hours on Sunday, so I think I'll head to bed and see how I feel in the morning.

I'm tired.

Nite all.

Friday Frenzy

There was no frenzy.

It was my first day back at work this week and I had a total of 5 people come into the shop.

One of them was a lady who came in last week, and today she brought some family members with her, including her sister who proceeded to take photos of a couple of things that she liked - her father then quietly told me that she would be unhappy to hear him telling me that she has her own shop.

I thought it was strange that she had been into the shop three times and hadn't bought anything. She has asked lots of questions and asked to look more closely at many stock items but always leaves empty handed.

Ah well.

Three others came in and looked around, had a short conversation about where they were from and how long they were staying and how they had learned about the shop, but also left empty handed.

One gentleman came in to tell me how great the shop was and then began to ask many questions about whether we'd had Feng Shui advice before opening the shop, whether we had burnt sage or used sound healing and if we have crystals for energy healing.

To look at this man, you would never believe that he was a new age kind of guy with any knowledge on this subject, but I was curious to hear what he had to say, including the fact that he had bought a book at a library sale that contained 'spells' for all different areas of your life such as business, relationships, luck, health etc.

He phoned me a while after he had left the shop to give me the name and author of the spell book lol.

So the majority of my day was spent checking off the new stock against the printed order page and then placing the buttons on display sheets so that I could photograph them for our Facebook page and THEN reorganising all of the buttons on the display sheets and THEN reorganising the storage drawers under the counter.

We have approximately 1000 different snap buttons which equates to 1000 plastic bags with any number of buttons in them to store and hopefully find easily when needed.

It took me all day to do that and tomorrow I need to do the same thing with all of the snap jewellery items. Storage will in the future, be a bit of an issue, so we have to be smart.

At least I got to shut the shop early this afternoon and Adoring Husband came to help me bring everything inside. We were driving away from the shop at 3.05pm - unlike last week when a customer came through the door at 2.55pm and didn't leave until 4.20pm!

It was a nice night at the club, but the same old people won raffle prizes as always and we losers sat and applauded their success, as always.

AH and I had another easy dinner and now it's almost 11pm and time for bed.

Nite all.

 

  

Ciao Baby!

Primrose left early this morning. Quickly and without fuss.

She had to leave quickly because it would have been a sob-fest. Instead, it was like ripping off a bandaid. See ya bye GO!

While I originally thought I'd go to work, I decided that I needed a day to myself doing nothing, going nowhere, seeing no-one, sitting beside Adoring Husband on the couch and planning my upcoming week at work.

It was just what I needed.

I did get quite a bit of niggly washing done. You know, those annoying things that need to be either washed separately from everything else, or hand washed or soaked or whatever.

Primrose texted me mid afternoon to let me know that she would be in Armidale for the night and could I organise some accommodation for her. So I got online and booked a room for her and texted her the details.

Not long after that, AH drove me to the shop and told me to call him when I was ready to be picked up. So I got to spend some time with The Motivator discussing business and life.

A fabulous package of snap buttons and snap jewellery arrived today, so I began to check them off against the printout while The Motivator served customers.

By the time we shut the doors for the day, her family arrived for their week holiday, so we showed them around the shop and I called AH to pick me up. I left them all to catch up and The Motivator will have some time off work to spend with them.

AH and I had an easy dinner and he went off to bed early.

I too, am going to bed early! It's now 10.00am and my only coffee for the day was at 7am so I have no caffeine in my system to keep me awake half the night!

Hopefully, after a solid night of sleep, the shop will be very busy tomorrow and I will cope admirably. I'm a bit excited about sorting through all the new buttons tomorrow, so I'll be at the shop bright and early to do that without interruptions.

Meanwhile, you could try just a little challenge for 2018 ...

That's it for now.

Nite all.

One More Sleep

That is all, until Primrose climbs into her car and heads home.

She has packed her bags and cleaned her room, washed her bed sheets and done a walk through double checking every room and piled everything into the car.

There has been much 'accumulating' on the road trip and holiday. Many sales were attended. Many Op shops gave us joy. Many markets were visited. Many gift shops were judged. Therefore many more bags need to be loaded into the car to go home!

I did some more beading today. This is the mess that has 'accumulated' on our outdoor table while I'm creating my beading masterpiece...

Each night this week, there has been a mad panic as the storms approach to move the table in closer to the house so that my beads didn't get picked up and carried away with the strong winds.

Speaking of storms. This one came for a quick visit this afternoon ...

For her final evening here, we all played trivia at the Bowls Club with Tweedle Dee, The Garden Guru and The Blonde Bombshell. We came 6th out of sixteen teams, which we were pretty happy about.

I'll decide tomorrow whether I'll go to work or not. I'm not sure how I will be feeling after Primrose leaves. For now, it's time for bed.

Nite all.

 

More Broken Records

The Motivator worked the shop today while I had a day off.

She broke her previous sales record! By a LOT!

Obviously, she has the gift. She has a natural talent for sales and for people, among many other things!

She makes me proud.

Primrose, Adoring Husband and I saw TWO movies today.

We watched "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" and we all loved it.

There was ten minutes between when that movie finished and when "Pitch Perfect 3" started, so we came out and stood in the queue and walked straight in for the next one.

The only thing I didn't like about Pitch Perfect, was the terrible Australian accent that the American actor John Lithgow, who played Rebel Wilson's father in the movie, used. It was cringe worthy and totally distracting.

So that took up five hours of the day and left little time to do anything else.

We drove over to Stocklands and got a ticket in tonight's OzLotto draw and I bought a pair of blue 3/4 length pants. We also got some half price calendars from the the stand in the middle of the walkway.

Three coffees later (that's one each) and we were on our way home.

Having discussed buying fish and chips and heading to the beach for dinner, we realised that there were more storms about, so we stopped and got some grilled fish and decided to make a big salad and eat at home in the comfort and protection of the house.

Now I'm watching the new season of 'The Ranch' on Netflix and wondering if I can wake up early enough to catch the sunrise tomorrow. It would be a good opportunity to test out the new camera.

We'll see.

Nite all.    

Fearless!

That is my word for 2018.

"FEARLESS"

I am going to push through all of my niggling little fears and make things happen!

These have been my words since I began choosing:

• 2015 - Peace
• 2016 - Mindfulness
• 2017 - Inspire
• 2018 - Fearless

I'm proud of my 2017. I found lots of inspiration and I think I inspired others in various ways too. I was artistically inspired when I did the art classes. I found inspiration to create my website and even though I haven't maintained it very well to this point, it had to be set aside as I was inspired to create a new business with The Motivator.

There was inspiration bursting forth from all areas of my life and the 'journey' work that I did earlier in the year helped me find the courage and inspiration to really achieve so much. It was a year for 'me' and I'm feeling pretty excited about what is still to come.

Primrose, Adoring Husband and I spent the first day of 2018 taking it easy. We watched previews of all the movies that will be released in 2018 and wrote down a list of the ones we want to see. My top pick for this year and which I'm most excited to see is "Ocean's Eight"

"Mama Mia! - Here We Go Again" is another that I'm pretty keen to see!

By mid afternoon, we sent Adoring Husband to get coffee and while he was gone, we set up the Trivial Pursuit board. The entire afternoon and evening was taken up with two games of trivial pursuit, both of which Primrose won easily.

I cooked dinner in the middle of all that and we sat through a long storm that brought lots of heavy rain and a bit of lightning and thunder but no damaging winds. I haven't checked the rain gauge yet.

Psychotic dog Jack had another cramping episode this afternoon. It's been a while since I rubbed the magnesium oil into his little legs so I guess we need to do it on a regular basis to avoid those painful cramps that stress Adoring Husband to the max.

It's after midnight and I have the day off work tomorrow and Wednesday. We are going to the movies tomorrow to see Jumanji, so I'd best get some sleep!

Nite all.

Sunday Trading

The weather was pretty disgusting this morning.

The heat was oppressive and the hot winds made boating/fishing dangerous, so people were stuck on land with little to do apart from swim and perhaps fish off the banks of the river.

I figured that there might be people around, looking for something to do so I decided to open the shop for a few hours.

The first hour was busy with people looking to spend some cash. The second hour was full of people popping in for a look - people who were out walking but not carrying money and who might come back tomorrow. The third hour had a couple of stragglers come in while they waited for their food to be ready at the cafe nearby.

After that, Adoring Husband called to say that there were severe weather warnings about and he was worried about me getting home, so I decided to shut up shop and head home. He came to the shop to help me bring everything in and carry some of my paraphernalia home in the car, which was very helpful.

I stopped at the supermarket to pick up some nibbles and fruit, figuring that we would spend the afternoon playing trivia and possible seeing in the new year over food and fun while the storms swelled around us.

I made it home with plenty of time to spare, but Primrose was missing and had been for quite a while apparently, so I changed my plan for the afternoon and decided to use the time to set up my new camera.

A massive storm hit at about 5pm. Strong winds and 80mm of rain in about 20 minutes. There was intermittent hail, the size of golf balls, hitting the roof which was of some concern for a while, but it didn't get heavy thank goodness and I don't think we copped any damage, although we haven't checked our roof or solar panels yet.

The back yard had some minor flooding and the psychotic dogs, as well as Adoring Husband were panicking a whole lot more than I was. I could still feel the fear inside me, but it was much easier to control after I closed the blinds all through the house.

I didn't feel the need to stack my devices in the walk in robe and I was able to stand at the back door and watch through the sliding doors with Primrose. Even though the tornado hit us five years ago now, I couldn't have stood at the back door even a year ago because of the fear.

Adoring Husband was called out on a job for SES and I cooked up some chicken which Primrose and I ate on toasted bread rolls with salad. The rest was put on a plate in the fridge for AH to eat upon his return home.

I've set up my new camera now, so I will take it out for a test run tomorrow. Hopefully the storms will have cooled the weather down a bit and we can enjoy some beach time. Crabs, turtles and eagles are on my hopeful wish list.

I imagine that a lot of New Years Eve celebrations have been cancelled tonight and right now, at 10.42pm, there are still a few storms about and heading in our direction.

I wonder how all the campers have fared in this weather ... I know that some friends were caught at Woodgate in the camp grounds and were evacuated after the first storm caused more than 20 trees to be downed and cars damaged. The weather looks pretty nasty north of us, from Bundaberg to Rockhampton.

As Primrose stated this afternoon, 2017 is ending with a bang!

So I'm off to bed now.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2018 full of love, luck, happiness and prosperity. For those of you who need the message ... take control and make it as you wish it to be! I plan on having an amazing 2018!

Nite all.

Loving it!

This morning, before I left my bed, I went onto the website of Denise Duffield Thomas - one of the women who inspired me to create the website and start the business. I've been so busy since July, I've barely had time to read any more of her stuff, so I wanted to see what she was up to.

She had just announced a challenge for her followers - to write down 50 things that you're proud of from 2017.

I went in search of a little notebook and began to write.

It was so easy to think of 50 things! I was amazed at how wonderful 2017 was for me. I've achieved so much and tried new things and am in a completely different place to twelve months ago.

Here are my top twelve memories for 2017 ...

1. Attended two Journey workshops in Sydney and Byron Bay.
2. Attended the Health and Wellness Festival in Canberra by myself.
3. Attended the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney.
4. Created and launched my website.
5. Wrote a book.
6. Babysat Chicklet in Melbourne.
7. Created and launched The Happy Abode with The Motivator.
8. Celebrated Adoring Husband's 60th birthday in Big Bash style.
9. Experienced a fabulous road trip with my BFF.
10. Sold 17 of my photos!
11. After 30yrs as friends, had my first Christmas with Primrose.
12. Began designing my first photography course.
13. (I know I said 12, but this needs a special mention) Stood up and spoke at Mum H's funeral. 

Listing the 50 things certainly helped me start the day with a flourish and I was feeling pretty good about myself.

I was even ready early enough to visit the boys at the Seat of Knowledge before work.

I loved my time in The Happy Abode today. I always love my time there, but today was especially great, not for any reason except there were so many tourists who came in and were happy, smiling, laughing and relaxed.

It felt like a party was happening all day and I was in the middle of it.

So it was a good day and I reluctantly left the shop some time after 2pm.

My first job when I arrived home, was to put the beef curry on to cook. After that, I just had to lie down. I was feeling exhausted and needed a power nap, so I lay down on the bed and every time I dozed off, I got a cramp in the middle toe of my right foot.

Ugh.

Twenty minutes was enough for me to feel energised, but then realised that I didn't have everything that I needed for dinner, so I rode down to the shops with Primrose on foot beside me.

I did a grocery shop and she got herself a coffee, then we rode to where she last sat on the beach so that she could retrieve the empty coffee cup that she accidentally left behind earlier in the day.

By the time we returned home, it was almost 5pm. I had missed my date with The Blonde Bombshell and friends, so I served dinner up nice and early - 5.30pm - strung one thread of beads on my arty farty work in progress and then decided to watch some Youtube videos on how to set up my camera.

Well, it may have been a decision, but it never came to fruition.

I still don't know how to set up my camera!

It's now almost 10.30pm and I need to sleep.

Nite all.

A Busier Day

The caravan park is full and the tourists are finding their way into The Happy Abode.

It was even busier today, but a third of the customers bought very small, inexpensive items which didn't add up to much. A number of people came in for a look and didn't spend any money at all, and then there were the fun spenders who came in groups and who competed against each other to see who could buy the most snap buttons for their selected jewellery item.

And then there were the customers who returned later with friends or family to show off the shop as if it were their own!

Word of mouth has such high value and the tourists are telling each other all about us.

We even had a lady, still wrapped in all her hairdressing towels and cape, come in to shop while she waited for her colour to take and she selected a snap bracelet and two buttons! We may need to make a deal with the hairdresser to send all of her customers over to The Happy Abode while they are waiting for the timer to go off!

Primrose came to the shop this morning and got to work. She helped open the shop, she put hooks in the shelves for our paper bags, cleaned our kitchen, vacuumed the floor, cleaned the glass doors and did some dusting. She bought me a coffee for morning tea and then went home, made my lunch and delivered it to me.  What a champion.

Adoring Husband arrived at the shop just before 3pm to help me bring in the signs before closing, but right on 3pm, a customer walked in and began floating around the shop oohing and aaahing and singing our praises. She decided to buy some snap button jewellery, but couldn't make a decision until her daughter suddenly appeared.

Between them, they took an hour and twenty minutes to select three snap bracelets and a few buttons. They must have tried thirty buttons each on their selected jewellery.

At 4.10pm they asked what time I closed and I said "An hour ago."

Even though they apologised profusely for taking so long, they still took another ten minutes to make their final choices!

Needless to say, I arrived at the Bowls Club a little later than usual.

It was another losing night for our group and none of us won a single thing.

I was a winner when I arrived home to find dinner laid out on the table, so that all I had to do was sit down and eat.

I am spoilt.

I love having a number two wife in the house. Life has been a breeze for me this past month since we returned from our road trip. I will have to work on finding a routine again after Primrose returns home.

Tonight I'm feeling a bit lethargic and worn out, so I'm off to bed for an early night.

Nite all.  

A Busy Day

I worked the shop alone today.

The Motivator has family in town for a couple of days so while she is feeling the love, I will be feeling happy in The Happy Abode.

There were plenty of holiday-makers through the shop, each with their own story, and some of those stories were pretty sad ones today. I had to 'shake it off' after I left work, because the sadness felt like it was hanging over me a little.

While yesterday was a big snap jewellery sales day, today saw a much bigger variety of stock walking out the door.

There were people from Kingaroy, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Coffs Harbour and a farming couple from south west of Kingaroy.

Primrose came to the shop and did some display styling for some rings that we have for sale.

Adoring Husband delivered some fresh prawns for my lunch.

I decided to shut the shop right on 3pm so that I could drive into town with Primrose for an afternoon of shopping and clubbing.

Adoring Husband came to the shop and helped me bring all the flags and signs in so that I could get home quickly. We left the trike in the shop and he drove me home.

I enjoyed my afternoon with Primrose and it's now after 11pm so it's definitely time for bed.

Nite all.

So Much To Do ...

Our 'to do' list includes:

• creating two of our workshop/courses before the third week of January
• creating a questionnaire 
• contacting the people on the photography course list to ask them to answer the questionnaire
• advertising the workshops/courses
• having the training room finished and set up for the workshops/courses
• recruiting for both the meditation and the Qigong workshops
• signage ... oh the drama of signage!

That's just off the top of my head.

I think we are beginning to feel a bit pressured. We've both had so much happening this past month and that will continue for both of us for the next couple of weeks, so there is little time to commit to our 'to do' list.

Everything will fall into place, as it has ever since we began this journey, so I'm not too concerned at this point.

It has been a quieter than expected couple of days in town, but we've had some interesting holiday makers come through the doors and a few women who mistakenly came in with their husbands and who promise to return in the next couple of days WITHOUT their husbands.

We shut up shop right on 3pm today and I rushed home to prepare myself for a triple date.

Primrose, Adoring Husband and I drove straight into town to watch one of two movies - either 'Jumanji' or 'The Greatest Showman'.

We arrived at the cinema at about 4.20pm and both of those movies were to start at 4.30pm. As we walked in the door, the queue awaiting entry into the next movie was all the way back to the entry of the building.

I groaned and said "No way"

We got into the ticketing line and heard the person in front of us ask for Jumanji tickets. They were told "sorry, that movie is sold out"

We asked how busy/full 'The Greatest Showman" was and she told us 'not very full right now, but she expected to get a late rush'.

We got the tickets and bought our mandatory movie junk food.

We did not know that the movie was a musical - so when the opening 5 minutes was full of song/music, we were surprised and I think we all had low expectations - HOWEVER - it was amazing!

The music, the singing, the songs, the story, the acting, the dancing, the characters, the actors and most of all, Hugh Jackman ... just wow. So much energy throughout the movie. We would all go see it again and plan on buying the dvd when it's released. Absolutely brilliant.

Even Adoring Husband remained awake throughout the movie!

Primrose had prepared dinner before we went out, so we returned home and lay the food on the table to eat immediately. That was so quick and easy and meant we could sit and discuss and rave over the movie some more.

Now it's after 11.30pm and I need to sleep because I'll be in the shop by myself tomorrow.

So nite all.

Christmas & Boxing Days

It's been a lovely Christmas.

It began slowly with a lazy morning in bed with coffee.

When I finally felt the urge, I showered and made myself Christmassy presentable and headed to the kitchen to make our breakfast berry smoothy.

I played Aussie Christmas songs while I worked in the kitchen.

While I was doing that, Primrose woke up and poked her head round the corner looking decidedly bemused, before disappearing to also make herself Christmassy presentable.

Primrose made her second appearance in the room dressed and smiling and ready to face Christmas head on!

We all guzzled down our smoothies, decided to have breakfast food AFTER gift giving, and then got comfortable in the lounge room to start handing each other gifts from under the tree.

Adoring Husband was given his first gift and was ordered to wear it immediately ...

... then it was his job, as Chief Elf, to distribute the gifts to us all.

We had a lovely time opening all the thoughtful, meaningful, fun gifts from and to each other followed by hugs and thanks all round. Then it was time to cook up a big feed of bacon and eggs for a late brekky.

After the kitchen clean up, Primrose went for a nap in her room while Adoring Husband napped in his chair and I sat outside in the outdoor area beading some more of my arty farty creation that is going to take me weeks to complete!

It was almost 2pm before we decided to get lunch organised.

Roast pork done in the barbecue, ham, turkey, chicken with three different salads. We pulled bonbons and displayed the fabulous hand made Christmas/beachy twinkling table decoration that Primrose had created for this occasion. Much to the shock and horror of AH and Primrose, I even said 'grace'!

Once our bellies were full, and we had the table cleared, we set up for 3 sessions of Trivial Pursuit and ate copious amounts of potato chips, veggie sticks with guacamole dip and Turkish Delight. Primrose won 2 games of trivia and I won one.

After the games, we decided to watch a movie. Primrose recommended 'The Hitman's Bodyguard' so we watched that on Foxtel and even though it was very violent, the violence was secondary to the humour and the star factor of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson together.

Samuel L Jackson's signature phrase 'Mother-f____r' was prominent and apparently there are drinking games that people play so that every time he utters those words, it's a sign to scull an alcoholic drink. We kind of lost count, but he said it approximately 20 times.

We considered bringing a bottle of Tequila into the equation, but decided that I couldn't go to work with a hangover and Primrose couldn't shop the Boxing Day sales with a hangover. Aren't we clever considering the consequences of our actions like that??? Haha. Imagine the damage that 20 shots of tequila could produce?

Today was Boxing Day and The Motivator and I decided to work because the other business owners in town declared that it was the busiest time of the year in our town ... we didn't want to miss out on what that might entail, so we opened the doors at 9am.

Lady Lynn was the first of the Tuesday morning coffee girls to arrive and eventually there were seven of us chatting away and comparing Christmas Day stories. A few of the girls did some serious shopping before they left at around 11am.

It was 2.50 before we had our next customer and then more walked in the door at 3.10pm. That was it.

The other shop owners all complained that it was the quietest Boxing Day they'd ever seen.

Damn!

I left The Motivator and the Fisher King at the shop at about 3.45pm and arrived home to discover that Primrose had walked down to the beach, so I changed my shoes for a pair of thongs and pedalled down there to find her.

There were a hell of lot of people along the river bank and on the beach ... I wished I'd brought some postcards from the shop to hand out and let them all know that The Happy Abode was in existence and I might just do that tomorrow!

While dinner was cooking (and luckily I had Primrose to monitor the cooking process) I had two different phone calls and chatted with Number One son and Bubbles, which took almost an hour.

Of course, we all had to sit down and watch the Dr Who Christmas special tonight (I kept myself occupied on my laptop while AH and Primrose were engrossed in the show) and now that I have fulfilled my blog post requirements and made up for missing the Christmas night post, I am off to bed.

It's rapidly approaching 11pm and there are storms approaching so it may be a restless night with the dogs who are all still suffering from PTSD after the tornado in 2013. They stress when they hear thunder or rain or if the wind gets strong. If I'm indoors, I'm ok, but if I'm in the car or outdoors when a storm is approaching, I stress considerably too.

Anyway, that's it from me.

Nite all.

 

Christmas Eve

I think we are ready for Christmas.

There is enough food to feed us for a week, including a bit of junk food that only follows one rule ... gluten free.

The tree is looking abundant with both decorations AND gifts ...

... I can safely say that none of my gifts have arrived at their destinations in time for Christmas, so there will be post Christmas gift opening for my entire family.

The shop was surprisingly quiet as far as customer numbers go, but the few that came in certainly handed over plenty of cash.

It was a pleasant four hours of work and at the end, The Motivator and I poured a glass of champagne and 'cheers'-ed ourselves a Merry Christmas before heading home to begin our Christmas preparations.

I tossed a chicken in the oven and then sat down to watch 'Love Actually' with Chicklet and Vegan Chickie - them in Melbourne and me in QLD. It was, as always, a real pleasure with lots of texts and videos being sent back and forth between us.

A quick dinner of roast chicken and salad and then me declaring exhaustion after a very early morning to bed (2am) this morning. So this is my quick blog post before climbing into my welcoming bed for some much needed sleep.

A very Merry Christmas to anyone out there who cares ... and may 2018 bring everybody overwhelming love, luck, happiness, health and prosperity. I know it's going to be a hell of a challenge for some of us, but hopefully incredibly rewarding and satisfying.

Nite all.

Rush Job

Here we are on Christmas Eve (only just) and I am sitting here in silence in my lounge room trying to figure out what to quickly write in this blog post because it's so late and I need to go to bed because I'm working today.

The Happy Abode is open from 10am - 2pm on Sunday 24th December for last minute shopping before Christmas.

It was rather quiet in the shop this morning. We still had sales, but it was one of the more quiet Saturday mornings that we've experienced.

Having said that, we had quite a few people come in for long chats, so we certainly weren't sitting there twiddling our thumbs!

We locked the doors at 1.30pm and Adoring Husband picked me up so that we could drive into The Bay to do our last minute Christmas food shopping.

We concentrated on buying healthy options but got some potato chips, corn chips and a packet of GF crackers to dip into hummus and guacamole dip. You know, the mandatory junk food for Christmas Day without going over the top.

I also got all the crafty bits and pieces that Primrose and I needed to finish our fabulous creations, including hooks for our jewellery holders, tools to attach findings to the strings of beads, findings to hold groups of beads together and boards for the shop signs.

I printed out a photo for one of our special customers and bought a frame for it, as requested, as a special rush job for Christmas.

It was a fairly rushed trip to get everything done in a couple of hours and return home in time to unpack the car, pack the food away, clear the dining room table which had a build up of items dumped on it over the past few weeks, finish preparing dinner (Primrose had done all the salads), eat, clear the table, clean the kitchen and then sit down with a couple of alcoholic beverages while we played trivia.

Primrose won!

Now I need to get some sleep. It's almost 1am.

Before I go, here are some of the beautiful San Marco jewellery that we ordered last week and which arrived at the shop in time for Christmas.

They are tiny Mexican wildflowers set in resin and then the outer edge of the pendant capped in silver. Incredibly delicate and beautiful pieces. We sold three on the first day!

There is always something new to look at in the shop and we try to bring in something different and unusual whenever possible.

That's all for tonight.

Nite all.

Looking Good

So here are the BIG copies of my Tawny pics.

In my honest opinion, I think they look pretty good! They are now up on the wall in The Happy Abode and selling for $245. They cost a LOT to print and even more for the mat board for something that size. So worth doing and I think that some time this year, I will endeavour to have them framed properly and hang them up at home.

I spent a few hours at The Happy Abode today labelling, pricing and displaying the photos, I served a customer,  corrected the prices on a couple of items, checked the mail, delivered Christmas cards to businesses in town, picked up a chai latte for The Motivator, bought some meat from the butcher and chatted to a couple of locals who I haven't seen for at least a year.

The kitchen was all abuzz when I arrived home. Primrose was preparing some salads for lunch and instructed me to cook some meat balls to go with them.

We sat outside afterwards, she doing arty farty stuff while I attempted to learn about my new camera. It took me half an hour just to put the danged strap on the camera! But with a few interruptions to find batteries and sticky tape, search for special findings for our beading project, drive to the shops to buy batteries and coffee, there wasn't much time left for the camera.

While I began to get ready for the club tonight, I received a phone call from Vegan Chickie - which took about 40 minutes. It was a great chat but I only had 20 minutes to get ready after that.

It was a losing night all round and once again we came home empty handed.

The good part was walking in the door to see the table set with our plates and cutlery, along with a a few salads and the chicken wings that I'd cooked earlier in the day. Primrose had already eaten, so Adoring Husband and I sat down, lit a candle and ate dinner together.

It's almost 11.30pm so I'm off to bed because I have to work tomorrow.

Nite all.

Stupid O'clock

All three of us were awake at stupid o'clock this morning so that we could drive Adoring Husband to the train station to catch the 5.46am train to Brisvegas. He was visiting the Parkinson's Professor for a check up AND he was picking up this ...

Wahoo! Who's a lucky girl then????

I began to play this evening, but decided that I was way too tired to focus properly, so I packed it back into the box until I have the time to set it up properly.

This morning, after we dropped AH at the station, we drove home and parked the car, then walked to the shop for coffee and decided to visit the boys at the Seat of Knowledge for a little while.

Primrose spotted a couple of dolphins frolicking in the river - I was busy chatting with a friend and didn't get to see them, but Primrose was loud and animated in her excitement!

After a while, we walked home and the weather was already steaming hot at 8.15am, so we pumped up the air conditioner, cooked some bacon and eggs for breakfast, after which, Primrose was in need of some catch up sleep, so she climbed back into bed.

It was about 11am when we were ready to head into The Bay with our 'to do' list in hand.

It took almost all day to complete the list and we decided to do our small food shop at our local supermarket.

We arrived home and I prepared our dinner while Primrose rested.

To fill in time until we collected AH from the train station, we decided to leave the house early and look for more Christmas lights. There were a few new displays in our town, but we thought we'd drive to Howard early and go in search of their lights.

It was worth the early start because we found a few great displays, but the best one was in Burrum Town on the way to Howard and the house could be seen from the road with it's great Christmas spirit.

After such a huge day for us all, we are all exhausted and both AH and Primrose are already in their respective beds. 

Now it's my turn!

Nite all.   

Feeling the Effects

Three people experienced the positive and wonderful effects of our health practitioner today and each one left with a relaxed smile on their face vowing to return soon.

There are already two appointments booked for next week and I have a feeling that Wednesdays will soon be fully booked on a regular basis.

She is very good.

It was quieter in the shop than we expected. Our sales were still pretty good, just with fewer customers.

I didn't leave for home until just before 5pm and I rode the long way so that I could take advantage of the cool Summer breeze along the waterfront.

Primrose had prepared dinner again, so all we had to do was sit down to eat and then get ready for the Carols by Candlelight which was being held in the church grounds.

Adoring Husband decided not to come with us. He had to work this evening because he's leaving early in the morning to attend an appointment in Brisvegas and won't have time to do the work before he goes.

Also, our new super dooper whizz bang terrific couch arrived today so he was falling in love with it!

Primrose and I walked to The Motivator's house and we all walked together to the Church grounds. I had two folding chairs in my trike basket and two candles, while The Motivator carried her chair because it didn't quite fit in the basket.

We arrived a little bit late and we could hear the singing from quite a way down the street. We did catch the little nativity skit that the kids performed which contained quite a bit of good natured humour. We lit our candles, took a few selfies and sang along to a few songs and it was all over before we knew it. Just an hour.

It was very enjoyable. The night was mild with a soft breeze. The sky was clear and full of stars. The crowd were relaxed and happy, but the best bit was spending time with the girls.

I made a big berry smoothie when we arrived home and now it's time for bed. We have to be up bright and early in the morning to take Adoring Husband to the train station.

Nite all.

Joyful Day

There were only 4 of us at morning tea today, but it was almost midday by the time everyone left the shop. It was a fabulous morning full of laughs and snorts and catch ups.

Not a single customer came in during that time, but as soon as the girls left, the shop filled up.

Firstly, the lady who sold me the timber wall hangers at the markets last week, stopped in at the shop and asked if I'd like to buy some more.  She had three in the back of her truck that she was selling for $10 each, so I snapped them up.

After that, there were a string of ladies entering the shop in groups of three. Then a gentleman came in to pay for and pick up a previously ordered big ticket item.

Let's just say that it was a good day!

Adoring Husband drove into The Bay to pick up my printed photos and drop them at the framers to have the mat boards added. I'm looking forward to seeing the poster sized Tawny photos.

He also drilled another hole in the wall behind my desk so that I could hang the Mad Hatter quote that Primrose made for me.

It was a stinking hot day today - or so my customers told me - I was perfectly comfortable in the air conditioned shop haha.

I took delivery of three boxes of stock, including some lovely velvet lined shell trinket boxes - this is a shout out to someone special who wanted to know when they arrived - but I'll also send out a message tomorrow.

There are some beautiful San Marco pendants in stock now. Tiny delicate Mexican flowers encased in resin and sterling silver. They really are quite delightful. I'll post photos on our Facebook page tomorrow.

I didn't quite finish unpacking and pricing the stock and have left a bit of a mess in the shop so I need to get there bright and early to finish the job before we open the doors tomorrow.

As I put the bins out this afternoon and began bringing in the signs and flags, Primrose appeared from nowhere and was able to help me. She had been watching an eagle hunt for food at the beach and prior to that had prepared a bunch of mouth watering salads for dinner, so I got to sit down at home for half an hour before serving a delicious meal that I had no hand in!

I am lucky to have such a caring friend and she has made my life so easy while she has been on holidays. I need to think of a way to say thank her.

It's almost 10pm now, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Catch Ups

It was quite the day of 'catch ups' in the shop today.

The Publican came for a visit in a wheelchair and though she is very weak after some heavy duty treatment for her illness, she put on a brave face, was very chatty and even had a little twinkle in her eye.

I was so happy to see her and pounced on her for a big hug.

She gingerly removed herself from the chair and slowly made her way around the shop to look at our new stock. It was so good to see her and I really hope that her health improves quickly.

A group of three ladies came in today - the ring leader being a previous customer who purchased her first collection of snap button jewellery during her first visit. Today she was adding to that collection and quickly chose four beautiful buttons.

One of her friends took the opportunity to start her own collection of snap jewellery and got a little bit carried away, which was fun to see. I can totally relate to that!

A couple of mothers came in to buy birthday presents for their young daughters. A couple of women needed to purchase secret Santa gifts for work colleagues. One lady came all the way from Hervey Bay especially to shop at The Happy Abode for a Christmas gift for a friend. THAT was very cool.

Our last big clock went to a happy home today.

Lastly, at the end of the day, Woman of Many Talents walked through the door, so we had a great catch up between customers.

Adoring Husband arrived just before 3pm to help me pack everything away and lock the shop so that we could drive into town and have some photos printed. It was a quick trip and we did a little food shopping before returning home.

Primrose and I walked to the beach, took our shoes off and did some grounding by walking for about 30 minutes in the shallows as the tide came in and then made our way to the shop so that I could pick up my trike to bring home.

Primrose had already prepared three different salads for dinner, so it was just up to AH to cook our meat on the barbecue, which he did.

Now, it's already after midnight, so I'd best get some sleep.

Oh and here are a couple of photos to show how we've changed up the shop a touch - the narrow shelving on the walls, in particular, for my photos.

Nite all.

Happiest of Happy Abode

I did take advantage of my Sunday off by staying in bed and requesting my morning coffee.

But we had a big day planned at the shop, so I had to drag myself into action eventually.

Adoring Husband moved my white side board from our house to the shop and then spent the next few hours attaching shelving to the shop walls to display my photographs and other assorted wall art. He added a few hooks to some designated wall space and a mirror to the treatment room wall.

Primrose, The Motivator and I spent some time working out how to display our stock in the new layout and then stood back to admire our handiwork.

It deserved hugs all round!

The Motivator gave Primrose a lift home and she prepared lunch while AH and I moved the furniture back into place and cleaned up the mess we'd made.

It was a most satisfying day and I'm looking forward to going into work tomorrow to see the result with fresh eyes.

I'll take photos tomorrow (or today as you are reading this) so you can see how fabulous we look now.

I've spent the afternoon and evening trying to write up a flyer for our Vision Board workshops and printing out pages of symbols and pictures that can be used on the boards. I also found lots of examples of vision boards to help people get an idea of what they need to do.

Here is my draft -

What is a Vision Board?

A 'vision board' is a collage of your visions for your future.  It can be what you see for the coming year, 2 years or even longer term - an imaginative daily reminder of your wishes and dreams that usually swim around in your head and never see the light of day.

We will help you take those thoughts and dreams and put them where you can see them so that you can focus daily on your aspirations.

It's a sacred space that helps you be more proactive in creating a positive future for yourself, and to remind you of your goals in life.

Your vision board can cover all different areas of your life such as relationships, career, personal growth, health, finances, holidays and more.

You will create your sacred space to attract your attention from the robotic routines that normally fill your days.

Seeing your creation every day will inspire and motivate you to think about what you really want and helps you to both consciously and subconsciously work towards the goal and stay connected.

Your vision board will help you to notice opportunities and spur you to take action.

The workshop will be a fun, stress free way to recognise your dreams, hopes and desires. It doesn't have to be perfect because there is no right or wrong way to create your vision board. It just needs to 'be' to work.

So come and joins us, on your own or with a couple of friends. We provide all the materials for your vision board plus morning tea. You may have some pictures or quotes that you'd like to add to your board, so bring any special additions that you would like to add to your creation.

Where? The Happy Abode
When?  Thursday 4th January 2018  9am - 1pm
Cost?    $65 - all materials are provided plus morning tea

Phone 074193 4979 and talk to Roz or Tracey to book your spot

I did a lot of online research to help determine a competitive price and this is a very good price for what is provided.

I'm pretty excited about running the first workshop because I've created a few boards over the years and they have been really successful for me.

My first vision board helped me meet Adoring Husband. It helped me move from the country to the coast. It helped me manifest successful outcomes for my kids and it helped me find my creativity and artistry.

My last vision board helped me get my teeth fixed, lose weight, become healthier and stronger and spend more time with the Chicklet family.

My current vision board has already helped me create my website and start the business, travel for the 'journey' work, feel empowered and in control of my life and keeps me refocussing on my health when I stray slightly.

I love vision boards.

Now I need to focus on getting some sleep. I have a feeling that it's going to be a big week!

Nite all.