Changing Energy

Nil energy.

That’s what I had today.

I attempted some art.

Hated it so I scraped all the paint off the canvas and into the bin.

Tried again.

Felt blah.

Watched a dozen YouTube videos on painting koi. None of them inspired me.

Couldn’t eat.

Drank half a coffee.

Dipped my feet in the pool.

Sat in the sunshine for 20 minutes.

Watched a movie. Can’t remember what it was.

Cooked honey and lemon chicken with spinach, pumpkin and pine nut salad.

Raspberries, blueberries and strawberries with coconut ice cream for dessert.

Decided to eat.

Preparations for tomorrow, when I hope that my energy and enthusiasm increase considerably ...

Nite all.

Too Old to Party

It’s been a big day and it’s 9pm and I’m ready for bed!

The Motivator ran her art workshop this morning, so I worked a very busy morning in the shop. Actually, It may have been a record breaking Saturday!

In the middle of serving I got all of the new stock out on display, although for all of that hard work, not one new stock item was purchased! That’s gotta be a good thing, because it’s good to sell the old stock too.

Adoring Husband arrived on time to close the shop while TM cleared the training room and I finished putting the stock out and clearing the mess I made around TM’s desk.

I just had to sit down when I got home and we watched a movie until it was time to get ready for TMs birthday dinner in The Bay.

AH and I were the first to arrive at Enzos and found our reserved table.

Everyone else arrived soon after and it was a lovely mild evening to sit outside on the waterfront to have dinner and listen to some fabulous music and enjoy good company, good food and good drinks.

I remember in years gone by (MANY years gone by!) that after a couple of drinks and a meal, we’d be ready to party on! Tonight, we were all looking at our watches at 8pm and discussing how it was past our bedtime!

Too old to party these days. Too old to care about partying!

For us, it was a very different Saturday night and both AH and I enjoyed the evening very much. It was the right amount of time with the right people and in just the right place to belatedly celebrate The Motivators birthday 🎁.

Now I’m off to bed because I’m all worn out!

Nite all.

Old Age

I’m using old age as his excuse, but psychotic dog, Jack, had me up six bloody times during the night so that he could pee.

I’ve threatened them all (namely Adoring Husband, Jack and Ruby) that if this becomes a habit, I’ll be moving into a new bedroom and they can all deal with it together.

Needless to say, I stayed in bed this morning and after AH brought my celery juice and then some toast, I went back to sleep until after 1pm!

I still couldn’t  find the enthusiasm to go to my studio, but instead, I found the white pen that was gifted at the water colour workshop that The Motivator and I attended earlier in the year and I drew some koi on an old canvas.

This was one of my first fluid art projects, so it’s not very good on its own, but will serve as a great background for some swimming koi!

I want to add colour to the fish and then some watery affects.

There will be no time for me to play until Sunday now and I’m both nervous and excited about the possibilities, so watch this space.

Now I’m off to bed feeling disappointed that my team lost against the Rabbitohs tonight by two points. Bugger.

Nite all.

Working Day

My work day passed surprisingly fast!

From the first customer, here on holidays, who bought two of my photos, to the last customer, who bought three snap buttons there was a steady flow of happy faces through the door.

Adoring Husband arrived right on time to help me close the shop and we came straight home, so that I could make a beeline straight to the studio - actually I made a brief detour via the laundry to do some washing.

I created three pieces today, but two of them I’m not sharing yet. I’m going to embellish them after they’re dry and then I’ll show a ‘before’ and ‘after’ shot.

This one I like a lot. The colours and the composition really appeal to me.

Nothing else happened!

My day is done and tomorrow I sleep in! Tomorrow I do more art! Tomorrow I embellish!

Nite all.

Mission

My mission today, which I accepted, was to purchase a new Square Reader for the shop because our original decided to to cark it yesterday.

While we were in Office Works, I also found some giant push pins and some clear plastic sheets for swiping my paintings. It was still my least expensive trip to that store in a long time.

We drove to Stocklands so that I could get a Boost juice, price some AirPods and buy some shoes - actually I didn’t plan on the shoes, but they’re lovely 😊

We picked up our FROG box on the way home and then dropped the Square Reader off at the shop. It was a quick catch up with The Motivator and The Gypsy before coming home to do these ...

I cooked up some Hainan Chicken, some pork sausages and some pumpkin & cauliflower soup. I put together a lovely salad with our fresh FROG produce and for dessert, strawberries and raspberries with coconut ice cream.

Now there are meals in the freezer for our future lazy selves 👍

I’m working tomorrow, so I’d best get some sleep now.

Nite all.

Verrrrry Interesting!

Surprisingly, nobody turned up for coffee this morning - including me!

I arrived early for my appointment with the clairvoyant and she came out to the car to get me so that we could start early.

I am still very much on the fence.

She was very nice, but as with the last clairvoyant that I saw about 20 yrs ago, she focussed on so many people in my life and NOT me!

I’M THE ONE PAYING $120 FOR AN HOUR OF YOUR TIME!

All she knew about me was my name and my mobile ph number.

She mentioned that my first baby died of ‘cotdeath’, which was strange in itself because most people call it SIDS.

She said that my mother was behind me saying that I am very resilient and strong, but that her death is still very fresh in my mind.

She said that Adoring Husband has the brain of a child (meaning that it is more susceptible to damage from radiation and electromagnetic energy than the normal adult brain) and that he needs to be protected. She asked if he has problems with his neck, shoulders and back and if he has trouble
swallowing (yes, yes, yes and yes)

She said stuff about the kids that in some cases was correct, some not so and some that was possible and also interesting.

She said stuff about The Motivator.

She said stuff about The Gypsy.

She said stuff about my Grandmother, AH’s father and brother (all of whom have passed).

She told me that I had such a strong, positive and high spiritual energy that I should study Reiki and practice it professionally.

She told me I was a writer and that I should finish my book and publish it because it will be used in the future by professionals in the field of mental health.

She told me that TM and I are not using our knowledge and expertise in ‘positive energy and movement’ properly, or enough with The Happy Abode. She gave me some suggestions.

The hour went quickly and instead of talking to her while she wears her professional clairvoyant’s cap, I would like to chat with her as a regular person because I think we share a lot of common ground.

She didn’t, or couldn’t tell me much about me, which I was disappointed about.

Anyway, from there, AH and I went shopping for art supplies for the shop as well as for me. We did some grocery shopping and arrived home with time to spare before attending hoop dancing, which I loved and learned a couple of new tricks.

Now I’m tired and ready for bed. I haven’t decided whether to attend the lady’s lunch tomorrow or not. I’ll decide in the morning.

Nite all.

Getting it Together

Confession time.

Today was day three since I showered or brushed my hair!

I forced myself to make a plan for today. Get out in the sunshine, speak to people and get some exercise. This meant that I had to make myself clean and presentable and this morning’s shower was enjoyable, but the hair brushing was more time consuming than usual!

I got clean, dressed, minimal make up and then pedalled in the sunshine to the post office first and to visit The Motivator at our shop.

I was out for about 3 hours and had a great catch up with TM.

I also picked up a parcel from the PO full of paints and varnish which was exciting!

I was feeling a bit annoyed because there was no space left for me to paint in the studio. My table and my drying area was all full of drying paintings. My crankiness was leaching into my conversations with Adoring Husband so he decided to remedy the situation by clearing space in a second bedroom for me to put my ‘almost dry’ stuff.

So after dinner, I quickly produced this ...

It was enough to ease my tension.

Now I need to sleep because tomorrow I have coffee with the girls, followed by an appointment with a clairvoyant, followed by shopping, followed by hooping class. It’ll be a big day.

Nite all.

Sloppy Sunday

It took me an hour to clean my bucket full of cups and tools from under my art table in the studio.

The job was long overdue and I had to clean 32 plastic cups, 12 lollipop sticks, 2 small shovels, 2 strings of pearls, 6 bamboo skewers, 2 plastic sheets and 4 plastic lids, all of which, even though they had been sitting in water, had dried paint stuck fast that had to be scraped off grain by grain.

I have another bowl with about 30 lollipop sticks soaking and I’m trying to decide whether to clean and reuse them or just chuck them and be done with it.

By the time I’d finished, I was well and truly ready to do some art!

I decided to participate in an online art challenge that required us to use these colours in a dirty flip cup (which means layering these colours many times in one cup and then flipping it onto the canvas).

While I was squeezing the brown paint from the tube to a container for mixing with pouring medium, the tube slipped out of my hand and knocked the container to the ground slopping paint all over the floor, 6 of my paintings, my camera bag and the doona cover!

It took me 30 minutes to clean THAT mess up.

Finally, I got to create this ...

And I LOVE the colours!

Now I have no drying space left so I need to take a break from painting until some of them dry.

Tomorrow I’m going to practice my hooping!

Nite all.

In His Absence

Adoring Husband is doing the first aid course this weekend, which means he is out of the house between 8am and 2.30pm.

At 9.30am I got out of bed and made myself pancakes with banana and maple syrup, which I then took back to bed with me, along with a cup of tea.

That’s where I stayed, trying to figure out what sort of art to create, by watching YouTube videos.

Yesterday, I had posted the photo of my rescued art in an acrylic art Facebook page and as we speak, it has had 459 views and 108 very positive comments! Quite a surprise to get so much positive feedback so I was inspired to get back into my studio today.

Neither of my attempts turned out the way I expected, but one has been sold already. That’s four sales in less than four months!

Imagine what I can do when I get really good at this!?

Anyway, now it’s time for bed. I just realised that I forgot to eat dinner 😳 AH went out for dinner with the first aid trainers tonight so I wasn’t required in our kitchen unless I wanted to eat. Ah well, looks like it’ll be another big brekky for me in the morning!

Nite all.

Triple Fail

I attempted a Dutch Pour this afternoon.

A ‘Dutch Pour’ is a method of fluid art. Watch Here for what I was trying to accomplish.

All I succeeded in doing was blowing paint all over the wall behind the table (much to Adoring Husband’s dismay) so I thought I could save it by swiping.

‘Swiping’ is another method of fluid art. It should have looked something like this ...

This too failed because there wasn’t enough colourful paint remaining on the canvas for it to be effective.

I thought that some balloon kissing on the canvas might save the day. It should have looked like this ...

Due to the fact that there were not enough cells OR enough paint, this was my third fail.

In my desperation to save this painting and not have to scrape all the paint off to start again, I decided to add some ‘chain pull’ stems to the circular blobs that I had created and then draw some swirls, squiggles, spikes and dots to create some sorta, kinda but not really flowery type things.

It looks a little Winter Wonderland-ish and even though it’s not amazing or fabulous, it’s passable and I’m happy that I don’t have to trash it!

The finished product ...

I think I’m ready for some sleep now. I have thoroughly enjoyed my day off and I think my creativity will improve even more tomorrow 👩‍🎨 🖼🎨

Nite all

Catch Up

It was a quiet day in the shop which worked out well for The Motivator and I because we had a LOT to catch up on!

We spent the day talking, opening birthday presents, talking, checking out the new clothes steamer, talking, ordering stock, talking, viewing all the art in the training room, talking, talking and more talking.

We left the shop right on closing time and while I considered doing some art, my body, knowing there is no work for a few days, is slowly shutting down and I lost the energy and the motivation to do anything except cook dinner.

It is just after 7pm and I’m ready for bed. I’m going to watch The Bachelor in bed and then fall into a coma until whatever time tomorrow morning.

That’s all I have say for today ... except ... it’s good to have The Motivator back. The Happy Abode is whole again 🤗

Nite all.

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