Not so Super Saturday

Today marked the 14th year since my Mum passed. I felt a bit sad at times and while I was alone in the shop, I spoke to her.

As usual, she didn't listen. I think she's ignoring me because my life is good. I think she's spending more time with other, more needy family members ... just as she did in life really.

It's been a while since I received a Mum sign or maybe I just haven't recognised them lately. Who knows.

Anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge the date.

As for The Happy Abode, eighteen people came through the doors today (yes I kept count) and not a single sale.

What's going on?

I feel the need to Feng Shui the joint, burn some sage, make the brass bowl sing, bring in an exorcist, perform a spell or two and do some chanting!!

In reality, every business except the cafe are complaining about how quiet this week has been, so I won't take it personally. Obviously the people's priorities were fish and chips this week!

It gave me the opportunity to do some more clearing and re-organising. I rearranged the display on the main table and moved the chairs and some boxes to the back room for The Fisher King to pick up before Wednesday.

There were a lot of males through the shop this week and all of them were up for a chat while their wife or girlfriend looked around.

Experience tells me that women don't spend money when their husband's are with them or if they do, they always firstly ask permission and then if there is a choice to make, will always choose the item that their husband likes best.

Women class themselves as the least important one of the team OR they are trying to make their partner feel like their opinion is important to them. Same same really.

If they're here on holidays, the woman often returns alone a few days later to buy something, but sometimes they're only here for the day or passing through, so I never see them again.

It's strange that women of all generations don't feel empowered enough to spend joint finances on their own personal wishes/needs/desires. Men will always prioritise 'spending' differently to women, and women always accept that ... even if they disagree with it.

It's something that I've always known, but it has definitely been reinforced since opening the shop and I've had many discussions with women about the phenomenon. Almost all of them willingly admit that they can't openly spend money on themselves because their husbands hold the purse strings and have set/strong ideas on how the money should be spent.

Most of these women also have a sneaky kitty that their husbands don't know about.

Sadly, it's a thing. It shouldn't be, but it is.

If there are any men out there reading this ... and I know of two (you know who you are) I expect that you will respect this 'secret women's business'! Never to be repeated out loud!

Unless ... it's to tell your wife that because you have now been awakened, it's important for her to know that she is free to spend as she pleases.

😍🤩😁

That being said ... it took a long time for Adoring Husband to convince me that what's ours is ours. He may be sorry now that he did!

I was well trained by previous partners to hand my financial power over to them too.

As for the remainder of my day, I had a lovely afternoon with friends watching the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' movie, drinking vodka and tonic (only one), munching on delicious nibbles and playing with cute puppies.

I was home with enough time to cook up a chicken curry with papadums for AH's dinner.

My belly was full enough with the afternoon's delights, but I still found room for an icy pole.

It's now 9pm and I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, spending the morning in bed enjoying the cool Autumn air and catching up on some reading/studying/youtube art and anything else that takes my fancy.

I hope you enjoy your Sunday.

Nite all.

No Show

I’d like to think that Saturday will make up for a very quiet week at the shop.

On the plus side, I got lots done. There is still lots to be done! So I guess, no matter what, there will be advantages for busy days and slow days.

Today was Show day and that meant most shops in our town were closed. Plenty of people came through The Happy Abode again, but all were browsing except for the last customer of the day.

Strangely, a few solo men had some strange requests. One was looking for a 300mm crochet hook. One wanted a tall plain vase. Another wanted a string of 5 pointed flags 😳

We just can’t be all things to all people.

I decided to close the shop 2 hours early, but the last customer was there for an hour, so it was 2pm when we left.

I decided to go to the club tonight and had a nice little win on the pokies. No other wins for me or anyone else.

AH had dinner prepared when I arrived home and we munched on chicken wings in front of the telly.

Now I’m off to bed because AH has control of the TV remote and I’m not keen on watching his choice.

Nite all.

Moving Day

I spent the first two hours at the shop moving stuff.

I moved the small hat stand to the other end of the small glass cabinet and replaced the hand made cards with the blue stand holding my photographs.

I moved the timber bread and cheese boards to the rear of the shop.

I moved the clocks from the back of the shop to the front of the shop.

I removed all of the stock, including the big white buddha from the big cube wall unit and slid the cabinet back about 30cm.

I moved the big glass cabinet situated in the middle of the shop back about 30cm.

I moved two clothes racks to the back right corner of the shop, where the sitting area used to be, then transferred the 'pre-loved' clothing to another rack and moved it to the same corner.

I moved the hanging shell mobiles across to the opposite wall.

I realised that I could not move the glass cabinet by myself in the direction that I wanted so I phoned Adoring Husband to help.

We moved the glass cabinet left then right.

We moved the round table to the clothing area, stacked another table on top and then I displayed some bags and jewellery on it.

We moved the big display table back about 30cm.

We emptied a small cube cabinet of bags and placed it on it's side at the end of the big table in the middle of the shop.

We moved the tiny cube cabinet from the back left corner of the shop to the front window.

Adoring Husband left to order some lunch on his way home ... he delivered mine before he went home.

I displayed the Ivys bags in the cabinet at the end of the table. This photo was taken half way through that process.

I hung all of the scarves on coat hangers and then hung them on the smaller clothes rack.

I changed the display on one of the tin cupboards and arranged some beautiful Intrinsic products there for colour.

I cleared the top of the large glass cabinet and found a spot for the hand made cards.

I began replacing and rearranging some displays in the empty cubes of the big display cabinets.

During all of this, I had a visit from Lady Lynn, four browsing customers, three paying customers and a visit from The Fluid Artist who delivered a triptych that she had completed. One of the browsers will be looking at my photography on Flickr and possibly ordering three large prints for her home.

AH returned at 3pm to help me close the shop. We visited the butcher and I came home to collapse on the lounge in a state of exhaustion. My head was aching, my back was tired and my feet were sore  - I didn't even sit down to eat my lunch and my body is not used to being upright all day long!

I threw some chicken thighs cut into quarters, tomatoes cut in half, chopped chunks of onion, half a red capsicum into a baking tray and put it in a hot oven for 30 minutes. When that time was up, I added almost an entire jar of artichokes to the pan and cooked it for another ten minutes. Meanwhile I reheated the sweet potato mash from last night.

I made a gravy with the juices in the bottom of the pan and added some more home made stock from the fridge.

AH suggested that he would eat it often if I wanted to make it again.

We ate TWO icy poles each for dessert!

Now it's 8pm and I'm off to bed to watch the footy. I doubt that I'll see it to the end of the game.  

There is still much to do at the shop but I'll probably not push it tomorrow - just fill some cubes with displays.

Nite all.

Halfway There

I had left my phone at work yesterday, but didn't realise it until 10.30pm by which time Adoring Husband was asleep so I couldn't get to the shop unless I wanted to ride the trike in the cold darkness.

The problem with this dilemma is that my evening meditation is on an app on my phone. The same meditation on the same app on my iPad asks for payment, to which I wasn't agreeable.

I searched for another meditation and found one that seemed appropriate, but the change of voice, music and guidance took me out of my relaxed comfort zone and I just couldn't relax enough to fall asleep until well after midnight.

I set my alarm on the iPad, which didn't go off, so I was lucky that Adoring Husband brought my celery juice in at 6am and I woke when he came into the room.

I felt a bit discombobulated after a poor night of sleep so it took a while to gather my wits and prepare for work.

Meditation was amazing, as always, and we had eleven in attendance. The time went quickly and everybody had something to share so there was lots of discussion and we went over time, but everybody left with a big smile on their face.    

There still seemed to be a strangeness in the air ... for me.

Visitors were high but sales were low.

Everybody comes through the doors gasping with the surprise of finding such a fabulous shop in this neck of the woods. They wander around for ages and always make a point of commenting about the beautiful 'things' and the calming atmosphere and how lucky I am to be working in such pleasant surroundings.

But they don't spend any money.

This has been a strange occurrence since the school holidays finished.

Don't get me wrong. There are always days here and there where this happens, but rarely does it happen so many days in a row, like I've rewound the day before and replayed it.

Groundhog Day!

At least The Gypsy and I got to catch up in the morning. She was fully booked out for the remainder of the day so I got to be productive for the afternoon.

I was home by 3.30pm and because Adoring Husband restocked some of my art supplies today, I played around with some paint ...

... the results were a bit disappointing, but it felt good to play after work.

I'm definitely having an early night and I'm looking forward to my favourite meditation to put me to sleep.

Nite all.

Love You All

Not much to report today.

A quiet day at the shop.

Coffee with the girls.

A few laughs.

A few snorts.

A couple of sales.

A bit of rain.

Paid some bills.

Made an order.

Few customers.

A quiet lunch.

A couple of business calls.

Closed at 3pm.

Ate 3 icy poles!! (GF coconut icy poles similar to the old Pine Splice)

Did some washing.

Watched some youtube art.

Made a shopping list for Adoring Husband's trip to The Bay tomorrow.

Cooked a quick, delicious, nutritious dinner.

Ate another icy pole 😳

Watched House Rules.

Decided to open The Happy Abode this Friday (Show Day).

Thought about another icy pole, but decided against it.

Felt grateful for my life.

Going to bed early (got meditation early in the morning)

Have a great hump day!

Nite all.

Quietly Does it

The combination of today being a Monday and some crazy heavy intermittent showers kept people in their homes today and certainly NOT in The Happy Abode!

Aggie was the first person to walk through the door today, so we took advantage of the 'quiet' and she led me through my Nutrimetics website, explained a few things and we watched an educational video so that I could register for my gift.

So I have signed up to be a consultant for Nutrimetics, but I'm not certain how involved I want to be. I like the idea of having signage in the shop so that people can come to us to order their products or perhaps have a gathering in our training room every now and then.

Since I don't have a driver's licence, I don't think it's feasible for me to attend homes for parties, so my involvement will probably be limited.

I am looking forward to adding to my own Nutrimetics collection.

Only three customers today. One of them was a visitor who has lived and travelled on a yacht for the last four years and will continue to do so indefinitely. She looked and sounded very happy and very healthy.

I spent some time paying bills and setting up a couple of orders for the near future ... especially the linen clothing line because there are only four pieces remaining from the last order.

Adoring Husband helped me open the shop and then had to wait at home for the 'blind guy' to turn up to instal this ...

... it's to provide protection during the last hour of the day before the sun sets below our neighbour's roofline.

He was free to help me close the shop this afternoon and I considered some more art play when I got home, but I was feeling a bit weary due to a lack of sleep last night. For some reason I couldn't get to sleep until around 2.30am so I was running on 3.5 hours of sleep.

Not enough.

This popped up on my Facebook feed the other day and I found it amusing - I thought you would too.

I'll try for an early night again tonight. Wish me luck.

Nite all.

Oh What a ...

... beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day!

The movie "Oklahoma" was on today.

I tried to sing along, but Adoring Husband turned the volume up on the TV so that he wouldn't have to listen to me 😳

Rude bastard (excuse my language).

So I went into my dining/art room to be creative and use up all the paints that I had in containers from previous stints at the table. Mostly blues and greens ...

I had slept until 8.40am and then watched art videos on youtube for a couple of hours. Adoring Husband brought my celery juice, coffee and toast during the morning.

I got out of bed after 12.30pm so that I could put the lamb shanks in the slow cooker, then I spent an hour cleaning all the tools and cups and stirrers and paraphernalia so that I had all of my resources available and at my fingertips for working without interruption.

These five pieces took about three hours all up.

I had to stop to finish cooking dinner and after dinner became distracted by House Rules and then The Voice.

The battery in this MacBook Pro is running very low, so I'm signing off before it dies on me.

I need a reasonably early night to prepare for another big week at work ... at least I hope it will be another big week. I know that I need to order some more linen clothes because they are walking out the door!

Who knew!?

Have a great week!!

Nite all.

Vote Me Out

Considering it was voting day, it was not as busy in The Happy Abode as I expected.

At one point there were about eight or ten people wandering around, but by the time they'd all left, they had spent a total of $23.

As happens often, ten minutes before closing, a customer walked in stayed until ten minutes after we would normally close, but she boosted our sales by a LOT and made me a happy Chappy celebrating a good sales week.

From there, Adoring Husband and I had to vote on the way home.

Nobody was worthy of my vote, and while I really wanted to insert an unmarked ballot paper into the box, mine was a valid vote for what I considered the best of a very bad bunch.

At home, I made lunch and sat by the pool while I ate it, went knee deep into the icy waters just to get the blood circulating and then sat with AH to watch the football.

Chicken with baked veg and greens for dinner.

I've looked at my art a number of times and considered doing something, but my heart wasn't fully in it, so I chose to steer clear. Tomorrow will be another day.

Now we decide whether to watch the election results or go to bed and read.

I vote 'read'.

The TV is on and all I can hear is BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH.

May election week be over before we know it.

Nite all.

Winners!

Who’da thunk hey?

Nobody would have tipped my Broncos to defeat the Roosters tonight! What a fantastic game!

I’m thinking of Happy Harry who is a big Broncos fan too, and whose position on the footy tipping ladder was precarious. If he had tipped his team (which I know he won’t have) his position would have improved exponentially . His only saving grace is that nobody else would have tipped Broncos either.

This is another short post.

Quiet day in the shop.

I decided to attend the club raffles tonight (for the first time in about 6 or 7 weeks) and I had a nice win on the pokies. No raffle wins though.

I’m off for an early night because I’m hoping for a big Saturday to end the week on a high!

Nite all.

So It Begins

The Motivator got away quite late, but she popped into the shop to say goodbye which was nice and she caught me up on a few notes that she had left in the day book and then headed off.

It was a VERY quiet day in the shop with just two customers all day. Not even a browser to brag about!

I sent our ad through for the local newsletter.

I made an order for some snap buttons to fulfil a customer's needs.

I checked our financial situation.

I ordered lunch from the cafe.

Adoring Husband arrived at 3pm to help me close the shop.

I came home and started some art. I know it's not finished, but I'm not sure how I'm going to finish it yet.

Adoring Husband cooked dinner of steak on the barby, baked veg, cauliflower, broccoli and home made gravy.

It's going to be an early night and we'll watch Britain's Got Talent in bed.

AH has a bit of nasty cough at the moment and we're trying all sorts of natural things to alleviate it, like essential oils, raw honey, lots of water, extra fruit and veg, chicken broth etc. He's already on a very strong antibiotic for another problem, which has weakened his immune system, so we might have to go hard on this one and I'll need to creates some strong witchy poo potions to help fight this one.

Anyway, time for bed.

Nite all.

Three out of Five

Three out of five ain't bad.

This is our fourth lunch together. Two of us are currently away travelling, so there were three of us today.

We went to the cinema and watched "Top End Wedding". There is a story attached to that, because there were four movies from which to choose and we gave the original decision to The Brains Trust, but she chickened out at the last minute, fearing fallout if she didn't choose wisely.

So I jumped in with a decision because I don't care about fallout lol.

I have to say that the first twenty minutes were very slow and I was concerned that I'd chosen poorly, but the movie picked up after that and I really enjoyed it. It was funny in parts and sad enough to produce a tear in parts.

After the movie, The Brains Trust and I wandered the shops while Aggie went for a dental x-ray.

Aquavue was our restaurant of choice for lunch and even though it was a grey overcast day and the tide was out, it was still pleasant and not too crowded. The food, as always, was good.

The Brains Trust had to pick up her car from being serviced, so Aggie and I dropped her off at the car yard and drove to King Kong where she met up with us soon after.

We all drove to The Brains Trust's house with hopes of enjoying a coffee from her brand spanking new coffee machine that she received for Mother's Day but alas there were some hiccups that prevented that from happening. I enjoyed a lemon and ginger tea instead, which was much nicer than I expected.

Aggie dropped me home at about 4.30pm and Adoring Husband had bought me a coffee earlier, so I reheated it and got to have my afternoon caffeine hit anyway.

I'd planned on doing some art, but by the time I'd unpacked my art shopping and then spent time putting our bedroom back together after spreading almost my entire wardrobe over it trying to find something to wear this morning, I just wanted to sit with my feet up.

So I did.

AH and I both had big lunches today, so we decided to not make dinner tonight.

Sadly, I didn't get to say goodbye to The Motivator before she leaves for her big road trip to Sydney early tomorrow, so if you're reading this TM ... "Safe travels and enjoy your road trip!! Make the most of your solo time! Big hugs from me."

Now it's time for another early night. Big work days ahead and I'm hoping for some record breaking, amazing sales days this month.

Nite all.

Girl Power

We were light on numbers at coffee this morning.

Just six of us including The Motivator and I but it was still a good morning.

Everyone had left around 11am and I stayed to chat with The Motivator til around noon.

I did some grocery shopping and then pedalled home to spend some time with Adoring Husband. We watched the new Ted Bundy movie "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile" starring Zac Efron as Ted Bundy.

It was interesting to see Ted Bundy from a different angle and hear the story from his partner's point of view.

Poor woman.

Then it was time for ART.

I added more to the canvas from yesterday ...

... and this is what the floor beside the dining table looks like ...

... and this is what the dining table looks like!

Adoring Husband wants the dining table back BUT I NEED somewhere to create!! So it's either the back room or a new studio *insert evil witch laugh here*

I've got a big girlie date tomorrow, so an early night is on the cards again for me.

But first I'm watching House Rules.

Nite all.

Beautifully Brief

Just a quickie so that you know I’m alive and well.

A very slow day as far as sales go, although there were quite a few people walked through for a ‘browse’.

The Gypsy and I caught up on our news for the week.

I finally priced the ‘pre-loved’ clothes and wrote the sign.

Created some art ...

Adoring Husband cooked dinner - chicken Maryland, baked veg, cauliflower, broccoli and gravy while I continued creating.

I’m going to add more to this one tomorrow. It’s a big one!

Now I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

A Day for Mothers

I hope you all had a happy Mother's Day.

I was asleep before 10pm on Saturday and slept soundly until 7am today. NINE glorious hours!

When I woke, a voice kept telling me to open the shop.

I didn't want to open the shop! I wanted to stay in bed and enjoy my Sunday!

The voice nagged me. It was after 8.30am when I got up, got ready and Adoring Husband drove me to the shop.

In two hours, three people came through the doors. Not one of them bought anything.

As AH began bringing in the flags, five people walked through the door. They browsed happily and walked out empty handed.

We were just about to give up again, when two males sped up the driveway on their bicycles, parked at our front door and came inside.

They were the husband and son of a very sick friend of mine who has been so ill, she hasn't left her house for months. Her husband told me that she was at home feeling very disappointed because she hadn't received even a card for this special day.

This was the reason for that voice in my head this morning.

This could be her last Mother's Day and now because I opened the shop, she received two beautiful gifts to make her feel special ... on a day when she really needed to feel special.

So even though that was my only sale for the day, I'm very happy that I spent that two hours in the shop.

Just as we pulled into our driveway, I realised that there was nothing at home for lunch, so we reversed out and returned to Foodworks for food.

We ate lunch, watched the footy and I am now considering doing some art.

This came through in an email today. Dr Terry Wahls was diagnosed with MS and when top drugs under the top specialists did nothing for her condition and she was so bad that she used an electronic wheel chair and needed help to eat, she changed her diet with miraculous results.

This is her story.

She is amazing.

My Mother's Day included a very long and very interesting phone call from Vegan Chickie. Nothing from my other kids yet, but I expect they'll call later. They usually do.

This is an early post because I plan on another early night for another nine hours of sleep.

Nite all!

Saturday is Super

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nite all.  

Busy Business

My day did not start out as planned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

My stress levels rose slightly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nite all.