Emotionally Charged

Today was my last opportunity to spend quality time with my friend and work colleague, The Gypsy, before she ends her time as our resident Natural Therapist. She only has three more days of work before she finishes on 28th Aug.

This is great for her future plans of focussing on all of her groups and classes and reducing her work hours, but very sad for me, because even though she will still be running our meditation classes and the hooping, our quality time will be minimal and I will miss our deep, meaningful, philosophical and spiritual discussions.

Still, I feel like we share a special connection and I doubt that we will completely disappear from each other’s lives.

We made the most of today and shared an emotional farewell 😢

It was a steady day of sales and a couple of our artistic ladies dropped in to pick up their artwork.

At 3pm Adoring Husband arrived to help me close the shop and we headed into The Bay. We picked up our FROG box on the way to Tinkerbell’s where I had this beautiful pink and green tourmaline ring that I’d asked them to hold for me during my last visit.

I placed the ring in a silver soup spoon so that it would sit right for the photo.

I really must stop looking in their display cabinets because I instantly fell in love with this gorgeous sterling silver, clear quartz and blue kyanite pendant. I wore it out of the shop.

Spotlight had a sale on their canvases and some paints, so we popped in there to add to my art stocks.

After a couple more stops, we chose the perfect time to drive directly into the afternoon sun to get home! Luckily a big solid cloud placed itself in the perfect position to ease our discomfort.

We had to stop at The Happy Abode on the way home to turn off some display lights that I forgot to switch off before we left.

The Motivator is now home safe n sound so we’ll be working together tomorrow before I take a well earned break.

I cant believe that it’s already 9.30pm. Time for bed.

Nite all.

To Not Do

I had a ‘to do’ list that didn’t get touched today.

That’s how busy the shop was.

I missed most of our coffee morning because I was serving and I got to sit down at about 1.30pm for all of 20 minutes.

At about 3.10pm I left Adoring Husband to close the shop so that I could get to hooping class in plenty of time.

It was an intense class and my body was just about done in by the time I finished! I think I push myself a bit too hard ... I think we all do really ... because we are so eager to learn the next trick!

Now that I have my own hoop I’ll get to practice every day and hone my newly learned skills. One day I’ll take a video of my tricks so you can see me in action! Ha!

There was nothing easy to prepare for dinner so we had toast. I had last night’s leftover mash with tomato on mine. AH had ham and tomato. Minimal effort for these tired muscles.

It’s 7.30pm and I am ready to greet my cosy bed because it’s an early morning of meditation tomorrow.

I believe that The Motivator returns from Sydney tomorrow and should be back in the shop on Thursday. It’ll be nice to have a few days break, catch up on some cleaning, shopping, art, study and work on my health course.

Right now, my yawning is out of control, so I bid you farewell.

Nite all.

Hippified

I dressed quite hippy-ish today and felt very comfortable in doing so!

Between hers and my customers, I had some nice chats with The Gypsy, but there were a lot of people in the shop and they all spent small amounts of money as well as being in for a chat.

We have visitors from Yamba, Coffs Harbour, Mt Gambier, Brisbane and Gympie at the moment.

The Gypsy presented me with my newly made hula hoop!

I had a little practice and successfully showed AH one of my tricks. 

While I wanted to create some art this afternoon, all my drying space is taken with varnished paintings drying! So I had to show some self control and watch more YouTube videos of art instead. I’m building a long bucket list of methods that I want to try.

I cooked a mash of potato, sweet potato and cauliflower with chopped shallots added. Cabbage and leeks cooked in butter and all of last night’s leftover veggies added to that. Adoring Husband had leftover chicken and gravy with his veggies.

It was all quite tasty.

Now I’m ready for bed.

Nite all.

Short Sunday

My Sunday felt very brief.

I watched some YouTube paint pouring videos.

I did some study.

I ordered some art supplies online.

I purchased an intense treatment plan for building a strong, disease fighting immune system.

I made breakfast and took it back to bed.

I had a short nap.

I varnished three more paintings.

I created this ...

I baked a big tray of vegetables for dinner - potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots, onion, brussels sprouts, cherry tomatoes, red capsicum, garlic, fresh rosemary, him salt, cracked pepper and a drizzle of honey.

I served it with Hainan chicken for Adoring Husband.

I served fresh berries with coconut ice cream for dessert.

I am now off to bed so that can start a fresh new week feeling fresh and energised!

Nite all.

What a Team

Adoring Husband did a stellar job manning the shop today while I took the art class.

It wasn’t overly busy, just average for a Saturday, and he sold one of my photos!

We arrived at the shop early to fill the table buckets with water, add silicone oil to the paints, set up morning tea and make some last minute purchases.

Everybody was on time for the class and all paid upfront, finding their seats and chatting amongst themselves while I checked my notes.

The art class was a lot of fun with some new faces and they were so clever, following directions and instructions so well, that we were finished an hour early! Most signed up for the next class and all were happy with their results.

I used that extra hour to clean up most of the training room so we’ll only need to fold the plastic sheeting and the tables on Monday.

AH and I closed the shop right on time, picked up our order of hot chips on the way home and parked our butts on the couch for the remainder of the afternoon.

We are both done for the week and I am so looking forward to a lazy day at home tomorrow. A bit of R&R is definitely in order.

I’m off to bed now.

Nite all.

Short and Sharp

I spent the morning in the training room finishing the setup for Saturday’s art workshop.

Not a soul came through the doors until after 11.30am and the first six people who walked in, walked out empty handed.

By 12.30pm I had sales totalling $24 and was feeling quite dejected. It has been such a good week and I didn’t want to finish it on such a low.

At 12.32pm there was a sudden influx of spendthrifts!

For 90 minutes I was hammered! By the time I got to sit down, I was exhausted!

The change of fortune helped me end the day on a high and I definitely needed to attend the club tonight for some down time to zone out. I was lucky enough to have a small win on the pokies.

I still have a couple of things to do in preparation for the workshop so I need to arrive at work a little earlier in the morning, but I’m excited about leading the class. Four of our usual ladies cannot attend so there will be some fresh faces and they are very keen to try this method of painting for the first time.

Adoring Husband is coming to the rescue to man the shop for me and it’s market day in town so there may be a few more customers than usual! He can handle it 👍

It’s 9pm and I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

Go to Woe

This was my day ...

• Opened the shop
• Checked the mail
• Set up the tables for art on Saturday (with Adoring Husband’s help)
• Drew diagrams and instructions on the whiteboard for art class
• Lay out the rotating tables (lazy Susans) at each place setting
• Gathered all the tools for each place setting
• Assigned a canvas at each setting
• Served customers ... all day
• Mixed 2 small containers of paint for each colour and lay them along the centre of the table
• Wrote out a ‘to do’ list for what still needs to be done before Saturday morning
• Cleaned my paint mixing mess and tidied the room
• Came home and checked all the food that came with our first Coles delivery
• Sat on my butt for an hour
• Gathered the newest paintings to take to the shop tomorrow
• Cooked dinner
• Made dessert
• Folded clothes and put them away
• Made the bed (a bit late)
• Wrote this blogpost 

Now I’m off to bed to watch the footy.

I’m exhausted!

Nite all

Manifesting Again!

It was a special meditation morning where The Gypsy announced that she was ending her time as a massage therapist at The Happy Abode at the end of this month.

The initial reaction was horror because everyone thought she was leaving meditation as well! But once they realised that she would still be running the med class every Wednesday, there was a collective sigh of relief, and everyone was excited for her next venture.

It was a much more interactive session than usual and a few of the ladies went for coffee together afterwards.

The Gypsy and I got to chat until her first appointment and from that time on, it was very busy in the shop.

I had set my predicted sales total in the morning and by 3pm I was $17 short of that total.

AH and I locked the doors and as we began to walk away, a car with two ladies sitting inside pulled up to the door. With distressed looks on their faces they asked “Are you closed for the day?”

I asked “Are you desperate?”

One of the ladies would be returning home tomorrow and hadn’t got to see the shop while she was here so I invited them in.

Thirty minutes and more than a hundred dollars later, they left the shop and we again locked the doors. My predicted total was smashed! Wahoo!

I was feeling absolutely exhausted by the time I got home, but I had to cook up some dog food before I could sit down.

It was difficult not falling asleep but we had to attend the monthly trivia night at the club so there was not enough time for napping. It was worth attending because we came third, which is the best we’ve done for a while. Not the we received any prize for our effort, but it was a good night with The Brains Trust and The Garden Guru. We make a good team 🤗

Now it’s 11pm and you know where I’m going next.

Nite all.

Eventful!

Knowing that I had hoop dancing class this afternoon, I rode to the shop this morning.

Most of the girls were late for coffee this morning and the most we had at any stage was eight talking, laughing and snorting ladies.

I got to enjoy the first hour, but then I got busy in the shop and I missed out on the second hour. It certainly sounded like they were enjoying themselves anyway and it was after 11am when they all left the building.

It was incredibly busy until 1pm and I’m pleased to say sales were good!

In the afternoon I had a visit from a lady whose husband has Parkinson’s and she just needed to vent. She comes to see me about once a month to get stuff off her chest and she’s a lovely lady and doesn’t expect me to fix anything - I’m really just a sounding board, which I don’t mind.

I also had a visit from ‘Beauty’ who apparently had forgotten about coffee this morning! She’s been away for a few weeks AND she has her very elderly mother in law staying with her at the moment, so her mind was obviously elsewhere.

Adoring Husband came to help me close the shop and I rode to hoop class.

It was a lot of fun and we laughed hysterically through a good part of the hour. I’ve got most of the tricks mastered and I can’t wait to receive my own hoop so that I can practice at home! We definitely worked up a sweat and I had to rest twice because I pushed myself harder than usual. I love it.

I pedalled home and I knew that if I sat down, I’d never get back up so I headed straight into the kitchen to make dinner. I still had rice leftover from Sunday, so I threw together a quick fried rice and we sat down to dinner at 5.30pm.

I’ve been sitting on my butt ever since.

I’m exhausted!

Now I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

Uneventful

A busy Monday with lots of sales, but all of low value.

I took three of my varnished paintings in to display for sale in the shop.

The Gypsy was in and, as per usual, we chatted non-stop between hers and my customers.

The day passed quickly and happily.

I came home and put the first coat of varnish on six more of my paintings, spent some quality time in the kitchen chopping a heap of raw veg to put into rice paper wraps and then prepared a dozen of them for our dinner, as well as a hot chilli dressing.

Now it’s 8pm and I’m feeling very weary.

But before I go, I’m publicly thanking my Adoring Husband for washing the shop windows on the weekend and for vacuuming the floors. I had told him that I wanted to get in early on Monday morning so that I could vacuum, but he took it upon himself to do it on Sunday.

Every day he makes me feel like one lucky lady (and I use the term ‘lady’ loosely). Thanks darling 😘

Now I’m off to my warm and snugly bed for a good night’s sleep so that I can be bright and breezy for coffee with the girls in the morning. Oh! And for hooping tomorrow afternoon!

Nite all.

Sweet Sunday

It was so nice to stay in bed this morning, but I did get up to make breakfast - mushrooms, leeks, baby spinach, garlic on toast - and then took it back to bed to eat it!

I watched paint pouring videos on youtube until I heard music coming from the lounge room which I recognised as “A Star is Born” and it lured me out of bed. It was already an hour into the movie, so I set the reminder for the +2 channel and went to my studio to kill an hour until the movie started.

Adoring Husband watched the movie with me and he too was impressed with Lady Gaga’s acting.

After making a 3 day batch of dog food, I made us some fried rice for dinner.

So I didn’t use my brain very much at all today. I didn’t use my body either! I just vegged all day.

I’m ready for bed now.

I reckon it’s going to be a big week at The Happy Abode and I’m going to be ready for it!

Nite all

About Average

Today was about average for a Saturday.

The cafe was crazy busy, but none of their customers came to see me.

I spent the afternoon watching ‘Pillow Talk’ the fabulous movie with Doris Day and Rock Hudson and then I varnished some more paintings and created some art.

I did a big tray of roasted veg for dinner. Cauliflower steaks, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, red capsicum, onion, mushrooms with pesto and sun dried tomatoes. I added avocado and fresh tomato to my plate. Chicken thigh to AH’s plate.

We’ve spent the evening watching Super Saturday football. I’ve only got 3 out of 6 so far. My tipping has been pretty abysmal this year.

I’m looking forward to a lazy day at home tomorrow. It will be a self care day after a big week of work and socialising.

Nothing exciting to report.

Have an amazing Sunday 🌻🌻🌻

Nite all.

Tyre Kicking

There were a LOT of people through the shop today and most of them were either tyre kickers or in for a chat!

That made my day busy, but not very productive.

I did little bits of money work, some brain work, some business work, some course work, but not enough of anything to feel a sense of achievement.

Upon arriving home, I made up the healthy option of dog food, adding home made chicken stock (chicken carcass, celery, carrot, turmeric, ACV), grated carrot, crumbled cauliflower, diced zucchini, celery, hemp seeds and Himalayan salt to 1kg of beef mince, half of which was cooked and the other half raw.

I gave about 2/3 cup each to the psychotic dogs and I can’t remember the last time they hoed into their food so ferociously! Jack and Ruby have been a bit under the weather of late and off their food a bit, but today they loved what I served.

I feel like this batch of mince from Aldi is a bit off because even the magpies turned their noses up!

I had to batch up the chicken stock in sizes that will work for future bulk meals for the dogs.

I parked my butt on the couch for an hour before deciding to varnish a couple of paintings while AH made me some toast with avocado and tomato for dinner.

Coconut ice cream with blueberries and cashews for dessert and now I’m off to bed to fall asleep watching the football!

I’m looking forward to my weekend and plan on doing not much at all! It’s been a pretty full week of activities outside of work so I opted to miss raffle night at the club tonight and have some down time.

My pillow is calling me.

Nite all.

Slow to Fast

It was a slow day in the shop but there were a couple of welcome visitors in the morning and the afternoon. People who are on my wavelength where health and wellness are concerned and we shared some excellent information.

I paid some bills, tidied behind the counter, tidied the kitchen, noted an order for stock, did some bookkeeping, made some phone calls, served some customers and did some research for my health challenge.

At 3pm the work REALLY started.

We shopped for groceries and drove home.

THEN ... I took some dog food out of the freezer so that tomorrow, I can experiment on creating something more healthful and delicious for the psychotic dogs.

THEN ... I got changed out of my work clothes.

THEN ... I put on a load of washing.

THEN ... I peeled and chopped pumpkin and beetroot and put them in the oven to roast for tonight’s salad.

THEN ... I made a Mint Condition juice with celery, cucumber, apple, mint, coconut water and water.

THEN ... I hung out the washing and put on another load.

THEN ... I put all the ingredients for bone broth in the slow cooker so that I can use it in the dog food tomorrow.

THEN ... I made a fresh coleslaw to have with dinner.

THEN ... I went to the studio to add the final coat of varnish to the table and a painting.

THEN ... I put dinner together - baby spinach, sun dried tomatoes, pear, avocado, roast pumpkin, roast beetroot, pesto, balsamic vinegar and toasted pine nuts.

THEN ... I made dessert - strawberries, blueberries, coconut ice cream and cashews.

THEN ... I tidied the kitchen enough for AH to finish the job.

THEN ... I hung the second load of washing.

THEN ... I watched The Bachelor online because I CAN’T BELIEVE I MISSED THE FIRST EPISODE LAST NIGHT!!

NOW ... I’m writing this blog while watching the second episode of The Bachelor.

LATER ... I will update my food diary, write in my gratitude journal, make my ‘to do’ list for tomorrow, meditate and then hopefully sleep soundly until tomorrow morning.

Whew!

That’s a whole lot more than I would normally do after work. It’s nice to be sitting down!

I hope tomorrow will be much busier in the shop. I will make it so!

Nite all

Christmas in July

I really dislike getting out of bed early.

REALLY.
As much as I love meditation 🧘‍♀️, the wonderful souls who attend and The Gypsy’s words of wisdom, it still doesn’t make me want to jump out of bed 90 minutes earlier than usual to be ready to open the shop at 7.15am.

To add a bit more pressure, I had to make myself presentable for our Christmas in July lady’s luncheon. I was getting picked up from the shop at 11am while Adoring Husband manned the shop for the afternoon.

Despite that, I made it in time.

For the hour after meditation The Gypsy and I yabbered on about all manner of things ... as we do.

AH arrived and we went over a few things before my lift pulled up at the door of the shop.

The lunch was great. The food was fresh and delicious. There were bonbons and decorations and glitter and Christmas candles. The service was friendly and full of smiles. The alcohol was free flowing (but not free). The weather was perfect. The company was interesting and funny and sad and informative and cheeky and sometimes full of sexual innuendo (I won’t name names, but you know who you are! 😲).

The three hours passed quickly and before I knew it, I was back in the shop packing up with AH and preparing to go into The Bay to run some errands, as well as pick up our FROG box.

I couldn’t get everything on my list, but I got the most important items.

It was 5.30pm when we arrived home, but I got changed and went straight to the studio to begin varnishing my table and a couple of paintings.

AH organised his own dinner and once finished in the studio, I prepared dessert of fresh organic strawberries, sliced banana, coconut ice cream and activated cashews.

Now I feel exhausted!

So I’m outta here.

Nite all.

Unexpected That Was!

I had a crazy busy day today.

I hardly spent any time with the girls for coffee because there were customers through the door constantly.

Unexpected that was.

Fifteen minutes after the last of my girls left, two mini buses drove into our parking area out the back and twenty elderly ladies came through the doors!

Unexpected that was!

Almost all of them purchased something just for the sake of it. All of them wanted to be served at once, and a couple of them got a bit snooty because they had to wait!

Unexpected that was.

Before I’d finished serving them, a group of ladies from Woodgate walked through the doors.

Expected, that was.

At one point, I had about 30 people in the shop!

It was a frantic hour and a bit and I didn’t have time to write anything down between customers, so I had to rely on my memory to list the sales after everyone had left.

Even after that, I had a steady flow of people and the last customer left at about 2.55pm.

Unexpected that was.

Adoring Husband arrived right on time to help close the shop so that I could get to hooping class by 3.20pm. It was a lot of fun and we all laughed a lot, but it was also exhausting!

Expected, that was.

I rode my trike today, for just the second time in almost 3 months. I must get back into the habit of riding every day. It felt good.

I began cooking dinner as soon as I got home and made a quiche. We had leftover fried rice and some potato chips with the leftovers of sliced potato. That took an hour.

Now I am feeling absolutely exhausted, but I have to finish painting my little wine stand because I sold it via Facebook this evening!

Unexpected that was!

Best get moving otherwise I'll never get to bed tonight and I have an early start tomorrow for meditation.

What a day!

Nite all.

On The Table

Some friends of ours are currently travelling through Europe and recently took a tour through the Sagrada Familia, Temple of Antony Gaude.

I had a very vague knowledge of this colossal piece of historic religious architecture, so I did some research and discovered, just like all Roman Catholic money spinners, this obscenity costs a fortune to construct and maintain. $47million every year, to be exact, for construction and maintenance. This is paid for by the 23 million visitors every year.

Imagine all the good that could be done in this world with $47million every year.

Gullivers Gate, a miniature metropolis that is housed in the middle of Times Square New York, cost $40million. It serves absolutely no purpose.

A herd of camels in Saudi Arabia cost $40million.

An Australian woman won a divorce settlement of $40million, I believe the highest ever in Australia.

All of these totals are for trivial things, are obscene, and all of those amounts could eradicate any number of world problems. Instead, it all slides into the pockets of greedy, power hungry humans.

Australians raise $46million every year just for breast cancer research ... that's just in Australia ... that's just for breast cancer.

The top three pharmaceutical companies in the world each make an annual profit of approximately $12trillion. Why isn’t THAT money funding all cancer research?

The Catholic Church, just in Australia, makes an annual profit of $30million. Where does that go?

More money has been spent on mammoth churches, temples and places of worship than has ever been spent on the souls that they are supposed to save or help.

I don’t understand how anyone can excuse that kind of blatant opulence while those powers watch human suffering at their doorstep.

I feel even more offended by pharmaceutical companies. The little people, mostly friends and family of those who have succumbed to a terminal illness, work and slave to raise money for cancer research, accepting donations from people who can least afford it, while those companies sit on their annual profit of $12trillion, a good percentage of which comes from cancer treatment alone.

THAT is just criminal.

There is nothing wrong with making millions of dollars 💵 but DO GOOD THINGS for humanity and contribute to finding cures for diseases and creating a peaceful and healthy planet for our future.

Thank you for allowing me this safe space to voice my opinion. It saved me from using social media and upsetting people that don’t need to be upset.

Now I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

A Fizzer

We were up bright and early and left home ten minutes later than we'd planned to drive to Childers for the big festival.

Then we hit the fog, which slowed us down somewhat.

Then we hit two separate lots of roadworks on the road to Howard, which slowed us down a little more.

Instead of the usual 30 minutes, it took us 45 minutes to reach Childers. Today, we were the seventh car to park in our favourite carpark. Last year, we were the first.

Two weeks ago I contacted 'Elemental Formations' via their facebook page, to make sure they would be selling their hand made wire wrapped gems at the festival. They told me that they WOULD be there and gave me their stall number.

I have two of their pieces already and I was excited at the prospect of owning another.

After we walked from one end of Childers to the other, looking at all the stalls without success, I went into the 'Events Management' room to ask them where I might find this particular stall and I was informed that Elemental Formations withdrew last week.

This is my sad face ...

I bought two t-shirts, two silver bracelets, some tomatoes, some lime and mint iced tea and a hippy vest with fringes. Adoring Husband didn't even need to make a trip back to the car with my purchases like he usually does!

There were at least one third less stalls there this year. We didn't get to listen to our favourite bands play because the stoopid Army bands were playing both on stage AND up the Main Street. Our favourite food stalls were not there either.

The entire day would have been a complete fizzer except that the cheapie shop was open and I purchased a stack of canvasses and paints with the money that I had saved for my Elemental Formations jewellery.

We left the festival an hour earlier than usual because we just ran out of stalls and activities!

On the way home, we decided to pop into Bambooland for a cuppa. Adoring Husband didn't like the look of their little coffee machine, so instead we just wandered around admiring the plants, statues and the new construction going on overlooking the river.

I got some chips and salad from our local cafe for lunch.

We watched some footy.

I did some art. I had two fails and one good one ...

Yoghurt, blueberries, banana and roasted cashews for dinner.

Here we are at 9pm and the memory of a disappointing Festival has left me hoping that next year will be different because I would hate for such a great event to fade away into nothingness.

Now I'm tired and it's time for bed.

Nite all.