Adoring Husband Rocks

I woke before my alarm this morning.

I was dressed for work 30 minutes early so I decided to check the pool water. It was perfect! I wished I’d checked it earlier because a swim would have been a fabulous way to start the day!

Adoring Husband dropped me at the shops so that I could have coffee with the girls while he went ahead and opened the shop and manned the counter for 45 mins. It would have been 30 minutes but I had to collect the mail and that took a bit longer than I expected.

While I was gone, he cleared the training room and folded the tables. Two of the workshop ladies picked up their paintings and customers actually entered the shop.

I arrived in time to serve the customers and after AH departed, I opened the mail, which was a box of hemp hats. 52 hemp hats ... because they gave us extra for free! I love bonuses.

The girls all came back to the shop after coffee, some of them having a little retail therapy, and I got goodbye hugs 🤗

The morning was incredibly busy, just like last Tuesday and I’m beginning to think that closing on Mondays has had an interesting affect on our sales.

At lunch time yet another stock delivery arrived, so I was busy checking that off. A gentleman came in for a chat - he’s a house sitter and will return in December to sit for 6 weeks - and by the time he left, I was rushed to empty the bins for bin night, finish setting up the training room for meditation, pack my stuff ready leave and get changed ready for hooping class.

AH came early to man the shop for the last ten minutes and then close for me so that I could head off to class. He even vacuumed the training room for me.

What would I do without him?!

It’s been 4 weeks since I hooped. I missed the last class and then The Gypsy was away for two weeks. Boy did my body feel it today! By the end of an hour, all my bits were hurting and I gingerly walked to the car park where AH was waiting to take me home.

I couldn’t even sit down when we arrived home because I knew I’d never get back up! I walked straight into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Spaghetti Bolognese with mung bean pasta. LOL yes you heard that right. The box of pasta was in amongst all the organic, GF food that AH’s son gave him to bring home after his visit to the Gold Coast.

He Manages a group of organic supermarkets, so we are lucky enough to be the recipients of some interesting produce after each of AH’s visits

The pasta really wasn’t bad. It’s not something I’d go searching for again, but it wasn’t awful.

Now I’m ready to watch some trashy “Love Island” TV before I head to bed.

Nite all.

The Way I Like It.

Today was just the way I like it.

Easy, relaxing and quiet.

After a less than sound sleep, I got out of bed at around 9.30am and went straight to the pool. I had to clean out all the little brown beetles first .. it seems that when the rain comes, the beetles appear ... then just like yesterday I swam some laps, danced and floated about until about 11.30am.

I sat around the pool until 12.30pm, had a shower, made a snack and I could hear the art room calling so I jumped under the shower and washed my hair before covering up with paint clothes.

Unfortunately I had some tidying up to do in the studio first and that took about an hour.

Ugh.

First I tried a ‘ring pour’ which did not go at all to plan. The colours didn’t come out very defined and I almost completely lost the beautiful metallic pink that I put in the mix. I used metallic gold, metallic pink, teal, peynes grey and white for this one ...

I decided to use the new Elmers Glue-all as my pouring medium for the next one. It was for this Halloween challenge ...

... and I did two pieces for the challenge ...

Dinner was smoked cod (poached in coconut milk) with salad.

We cleared furniture from the pool area as we anticipated a nasty storm heading in our direction, but it petered out to nothing. All we got out of it was a brief light shower.

Thank you Universe.

It’s now approaching 10pm so I’m off to bed. Big day at work tomorrow clearing out the training room in preparation for meditation on Wednesday AND hoop dancing tomorrow afternoon!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Nite all.

Not Bounding. Diving.

I slept until 9am!

Ten hours of sleep!

Unheard of.

Adoring Husband brought me bacon, tomato, avocado and coffee in bed.

I’m not sure what time I climbed out of bed, but it was after lunch and I immediately changed into my swimmers/togs/bathers and walked to the pool area.

I connected my new phone to the sound bar and played some oldies but goodies as I slipped into the cool water.

Perfection.

I swam.

I danced.

I floated.

About an hour later, I climbed out and sat in my pod chair. AH soon joined me with a plate of nibbles that he had prepared.

The psychotic dogs all joined us.

And THAT’S where the real fun begins.

Ruby walked to the edge of the pool a couple of times (I’m giggling just remembering this) and AH had little mini panic attacks calling her to come away in case she fell in.

She’s deaf and can’t hear him anyway.

At 2pm the filter, which is on a timer, came on and made a very loud sucking noise, so AH jumped up to check it out.

Before he even reached the skimmer box, there was a splash and Ruby, who is also blind, had fallen into the pool!

AH, who hasn’t even been for his first swim for the season because he thinks it’s too cold, had a bigger panic attack and immediately jumped into the pool fully clothed, to rescue Ruby!

Ruby is such a strong swimmer, he couldn’t even catch her lol.

I said to him “Don’t jump in, just wait for her to swim to the edge of the pool!”, but I was too late, he was IN!

I laughed and laughed!

It was a lazy, easy day filled with nothing else. A barbecued chop with salad for dinner.

Now there is a storm approaching and it’s almost 11pm so I’m off to bed.

I plan another lazy enjoyable day tomorrow 👍

Nite all.

More Bounding

I did bound out of bed this morning.

I bounded into the day with plenty of energy and lots on my mind to prepare for the art class.

Adoring Husband and I arrived at the shop a little after 8am and had everything ready to go by 9am.

The ladies all arrived on time and we made tea and coffee, introduced ourselves, discussed how excited we were for the class, what we loved about fluid art and paint pouring and THEN we got down to business.

We looked at a series of pictures that I had printed from the internet to demonstrate all the different colours in the water along various coastlines, the varied colours of wet and dry sand and also the whitewash from breaking waves on the beach. These are just a few of the 12 that I had.

Everybody chose the colours that we wanted and then we mixed our paint colours into 7 different cups. Three for the sand and four with the ocean colours.

Then we poured and we scooped and we swiped and we squeezed and we blew and we splashed and we dripped and we torched.

Half the class time was spent in complete silence as we all focused on the work at hand.

The other half of the time was spent giggling and singing in unison to old songs and laughing out loud because we all knew all the words and actually sounded pretty good as a group!

In the end, after a few re-dos and repairing and adding and removing and fluffing and such, everybody was finished and expressing their pleasure for what they had accomplished.

For a first go, they did incredibly well.

We took some photos, shared the cleaning up duties, had more coffee and chocolate biscuits, did a little shopping and everyone had left by 12.40pm.

The shop had been fairly quiet all morning and most of the sales happened between midday and 1pm, so AH had a pretty boring time at the desk.

He reheated some beef casserole for lunch and I had avo and tomato on toast.

That’s when I crashed.

At 3.30pm I lay down on the bed and slept for about an hour and a half. When I woke up, I stayed in bed and that’s where I am right now!

I’m looking forward to an early swim tomorrow and soaking up sunshine/Vit D.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Nite all.

Abounding

I didn’t quite bound out of bed this morning.

By the time I went to bed on Thursday night, I felt a LOT off ... as opposed to the ‘bit’ off that I’d  felt for the rest of the day.

Thankfully, I got a good night’s sleep and woke feeling much better, especially to the sound of “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” on my alarm.

Not good enough to bound out of bed, but good enough to ride my trike in the sunshine.

Not good enough to start my day at the shop with a smile, (because of a fruitless search for Adoring Husband’s lost glasses that he had actually left at home), but good enough to set up the training room in preparation for the art class.

Not good enough to finish my day feeling abundantly successful, but good enough to fill it with smiles and energy.

Not good enough to attend the club tonight, but good enough to prepare a nice version of Hainan Chicken for dinner.

Now I’m off to bed for an early night and hopefully tomorrow will feel good enough to do ALL THE THINGS!

It’s the weekend and I hope that you all have a fabulous couple of days of rest. I know I plan to swim, soak up some sunshine, do some art, catch up on my studies and maybe attempt a little housework ... maybe lol.

Nite all.

A Bit Off

That’s how I’ve been feeling today.

A bit off.

Low energy.

Foggy in the brain.

Aches in the body.

Little motivation.

I didn’t set up the training room.

I didn’t practice my art.

We closed the shop 5 minutes early ... with no last minute shoppers this time.

I tested the pool water but wasn’t enthusiastic for swimming (I know right!?).

I changed out of my work clothes and planted myself on the lounge chair. That’s where I stayed and where I am six hours later!

Lots of trash TV.

Adoring Husband had leftover beef casserole for dinner, which he reheated himself.

Now I’m off to bed to sleep off this funk.

Tomorrow I’m going to wake to the sound of my new alarm ringtone “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” and I’m going to start the day by bounding out of bed with renewed vim and vigor!

I’m going to ride to work in the bright morning sunshine and I’m going to fill my day with smiles and energy and then finish it with feelings of abundant success!

Are you convinced?

🤩😬🥳

Nite all.

Whiter Shade of Pale

I dragged myself out of bed at 8.10am, had a quick shower, got dressed, prepared a beef casserole in the slow cooker, found some jewellery to wear, put on my make up, packed my bag and pulled out of the driveway at 8.55am.

We opened the shop and it was 9.03am when I sat at my desk and Adoring Husband went to get a coffee for me.

A very efficient use of my time and excellent team work between AH and I 🥰

After a nice steady day at the shop and a fabulously fast and furious surprise visit from my girls after they’d attended the lady’s lunch, Adoring Husband and I were attempting to close the shop 5 minutes early so that we could get into The Bay for an appointment.

As Murphy’s Law would have it, two ladies came rushing up the driveway frantically announcing that it wasn’t yet 3pm! They claimed to have missed opening hours on two previous visits so we welcomed them inside explaining to them that we had an appointment in The Bay and hoping that they would take the hint and not hang around too long.

Seriously, if you missed opening hours twice before, WHY would you come a third time with 5 minutes to spare?

TWENTY MINUTES LATER, one of them left empty handed. The other lingered another 5 minutes and made a $10 purchase.

Any other time, this would not have bothered me in the slightest, but they KNEW we had somewhere to go.

Ugh!

Anyway, our appointment was to select the size and colour of the plantation shutters that we received a quote for last Friday. We had to make the selection today so that they would be ready before Christmas and the shop closes at 4.30pm.

We had to collect our FROG box at Craignish on the way, so we were cutting it fine.

We made it in time and got to choose between five different shades of white! We are only putting them on the windows at the front of the house, so it’s not a massive job.

From there, I needed some bits and pieces for the next art class, so it was off to a couple of my art supply shops.

It was almost 5.30 when we got home. I unpacked the FROG box and sat down for 20 minutes before  feeling incredibly grateful for the slow cooker. I thickened up some of the sauce and served AH a giant bowl of beef and veg. A small bowl for me.

It’s now time to watch some trashy TV in bed before I drift off to sleep listening to my healing meditation.

Tomorrow I need to set up for the art class and mix up some paints and possibly even have another practice run in the training room.

Gotta be well rested!

Nite all.

Kindness Matters

Adoring Husband was kind enough to open the shop and man it for thirty minutes while I had a coffee with the girls.

I told him to text me if customers came in and I would immediately return because I was literally just around the corner, but he chose to serve the two customers who came through the door during that half hour.

He’s a good man.

We had a big crowd of nine for coffee today and we were pretty noisy at the outside tables. Just like old times! As much as I was enjoying my time with everyone ...

I returned to the shop at 9.30am and the girls all came for a visit after morning tea at about 10.30am to check out the new stock.

It was a busy day in the shop with good sales.

Our Anabella Trends order arrived at lunch time ...

It’s a style straight out of the 80s and I remember wishing for a set like this when I had a young family but couldn’t afford it.

Now is my chance!!

There should be some more clothes arriving this week and I MUST order some more hats!

The day passed very quickly and I was worn out by the time I got home.

AH got reheated leftovers for dinner while I ate a mango 🥭

I’m currently watching trashy Love Island before bed.

I hope you all have a happy hump day!

Nite all.

Dramatic Start

Poor Adoring Husband.

It wasn't a good start to his birthday.

He went to work this morning and discovered a broken light above one of the shops with wires hanging down, which he was worried were live wires and he spent hours trying to get an electrician to attend.

It seemed like an impossible task because all the electricians in the area were too busy or out of the area!

When they finally arrived, even though the wires weren't live, the problem became more serious than first thought and now the task to complete the repairs becomes bigger than Ben Hur!

AH didn't make it home until after 9am.

Four hours wasted and the stress of it wore him out.

No birthday celebrations today.

A paleo pizza, beer and chocolate brownie slice with boysenberry ice-cream was the best we could do for the day.

No art.

No swim.

We did clear a lot of leaves out of, and from around the pool. That's the price we pay for choosing to have fruit trees (we have three) so close to the pool and these days with the big gusty winds, there's a lot of stuff floating around!

That's ok. I scoop out the leaves from the pool and AH vacuums them up from everywhere else.

Back to work tomorrow!

Best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Habitually Forgetful

That’s me.

But here I am.

Saturday morning was steady at the shop and we closed right on 1pm. I don’t even recall what I did for the remainder of the day ... oh I had a nap in the late afternoon and then was in bed early! I was exhausted!

Today I intended to create art all day, but I decided to check the pool water first and it was such a delicious temperature, I changed into my swimmers/bathers/togs and walked straight in!

There were lots of little brown beetles floating around and clinging to the creepy crawly hose, so I spent some time removing them before swimming a few laps and enjoying a float. I sat in the chair to dry off before making lunch.

We had smoked cod poached in almond milk and grass fed butter with a yummy salad. It took about 20 minutes.

THEN I created some art ...

My work table is not a very good height so my back was really telling me off after three pieces.

It was dinner time anyway so Adoring Husband cooked our Barker’s Creek pork loin chops on the barbecue while threw a quick salad together.

Tonight I watched the movie “Instant Family” and really enjoyed it. I even shed a tear 😢

It’s almost midnight so I’d best head to bed because we have a big 62nd birthday to celebrate tomorrow - yes AH has successfully reached another birthday! 

I hope we enjoy a happy celebratory day together! What’s the plan? Wait and see!

Nite all.

Missed Again!

I don’t know where my head is at!

I didn’t even realise that I missed Thursday night’s blog post.

With hindsight, I remember heading to bed with my iPad intending to do it there, but I must have got side tracked by Facebook or YouTube or Words With Friends or something. 🤪🤪🤪

So tonight I am sitting in my recliner and finishing this post before I go to bed.

I’ve had busy days at work with new suppliers, deliveries of jewellery and our linen clothing walking out the door so fast that I can’t keep up with it all. Gorgeous hand made solid silver bracelets and earrings that I absolutely love. White linen pants arrived today, along with linen mandala dresses in all colours.

Today was crazy busy with lots of visitors from out of town all wanting to chat and all wanting to spend money.

Adoring Husband and I both attended the club together tonight and our regular group was just about as big as it can get. We left early but I assume, from the lack of photos on social media, that nobody was a winner.

Thankfully, I had put a corned beef in the slow cooker before we left, so a few slices of that with a quick salad was the perfect dinner when we arrived home.

Now, it’s suddenly 10pm and I’m ready for bed.

I’m expecting a big morning with some last minute purchases before people start heading home after holidays, funerals and weddings.

Nite all.

The Reveal

It can now be revealed that nobody enjoyed the movie “Hustlers”.

Nobody.

Not even Adoring Husband. Not even with all those beautiful half naked women!

I had a busy day at work.

Not many paying customers, but plenty of tyre kickers and two deliveries to unpack, price and display.

I spent quite some time emptying, cleaning and rearranging the glass display cabinets to make room for the new jewellery range. THAT was a job and a half and the question remains ... whose stoopid idea was it to include glass cabinets for our displays? 😳

Some of the jewellery ...

I have to admit that I was feeling pretty exhausted by the end of the day. I even ordered myself a coffee at 1.30pm to attempt to feel some energy. It didn’t work.

After an hour sitting on my butt in front of the television, I decided to make duck a l’orange for dinner. It was delicious and served with buttered asparagus, fried mushroom and roasted cherry tomatoes.

It took about 40 minutes.

It’s almost 10pm so I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

How?

How did I get to this point without a day of rest?

Ok I had all of Sunday in bed, but I felt like I needed more than that to recover from the week that was.

Coffee with the girls was light on with just three of us at the table this morning. Medical appointments, family commitments and illness kept everyone away today.

Lady Lynn and The Welsh Wonder filled my morning perfectly with some good giggles and interesting chat.

Afterwards I followed up on a text that I received from The Motivator telling me that a new supplier had arrived at the shop if I wanted to drop in to look at the wares.

The wares were beautiful and it was difficult to control ourselves, but we did very well and ordered a small selection of her lovely jewellery. Having seen the collection, we know what we’ll be ordering next time and hopefully we’ll be flush with enough cash to spend up big!

It was after midday when I left the shop and I stopped in at the butcher to grab some of their remaining meat in the fridge. They have sold their shop to the butcher from Childers and Wednesday will be their last day of trading.

The new guys will be trading in a couple of weeks and will be extending their stock from meat to milk and cream and hot foods, so it will be very interesting!

I only had about 90 minutes at home before I had to return to the shop for a final meeting with The Motivator before she leaves for Sydney and to discuss our progress with the course we’re doing. It was a good meeting that I got a lot out of and I hope we continue them when she returns.

I cooked up a hearty chicken and vegetable soup for dinner.

It’s already after 10pm and I feel like I’ve not achieved all that I’d planned for the day. So many things still on my ‘to do’ list. I guess the list will live to see another day!

Now it’s time to sleep because tomorrow I’ll be a working girl!

Nite all.

THREE HOURS!

That’s how long it took to complete the requirements for NBN connection and to purchase our two new iPhones from Telstra.

Absolutely crazy!

Tammy, our service assistant, was lovely and helpful and efficient, but the process involved so much work on her monitor and half a tree (her words) of paperwork and was bloody long winded.

It takes less time to apply for a Centrelink payment!

This wasn’t part of our plan for the day which made the experience all that much more painful and made the day oh so much longer than I anticipated and prevented me from getting some jobs done on my list at home.

We had a movie date first up this morning and we saw “Hustlers”. No spoilers here because I know the girls are going to see it on Wednesday. All I want to say is that I would consider switching teams for 50 year old J Lo. Man, she is stunning!

From there we only had 4 things on the list.

1. Glue-all from Spotlight
2. T-shirts from Suzanne Grae
3. A cheap hairdryer from Target (for my art)
4. Getting a pedicure

That’s it!

My pedicure was done by 1.30pm. We arrived home at 5pm.

The last four hours have been filled with AH swearing, asking a million questions, expressing his frustrations and practicing his oppositional defiance as he attempted to set up his new phone by transferring everything important from his old device to the new one.

Kill me now 😳

I made a quick chicken and mushroom soup for my dinner and AH got the last of the barramundi with salad. It took me less than 30 mins to prepare both.

AH cut his leg open on the corner of our new bedroom suite, just as I predicted and the reason why we switched sides of the bed, so that we could avoid those injuries! He was illegally on my side of the bed! Ugh!

I didn’t sleep well last night so I’m off to bed now. Wish me luck.

Thinking of you Brains Trust 🥰

Nite all.

Losing It

We were in bed super early on Saturday night!

Our busy, labour intensive Thursday, followed by a busy morning in The Bay, followed by my small art class on Saturday morning all caught up with me so I was done. I didn’t even cook dinner that night and was in bed by 8pm.

No blog post. Thank you for your understanding.

I’ve spent all of today in bed.

I got out of bed at 9.30am to make a big bowl of berries, coconut yoghurt, paleo muesli, activated cashews and chocado while Adoring Husband reheated my coffee.

I took it all back to bed with me.

I didn’t get up again until 5.15pm when I was ready to prepare dinner.

Barramundi fried in lemon butter served with salad. Quick and easy.

We are watching an ABBA show on TV but I think I’m ready to return to bed now. 8pm again.

We have a biggish day planned tomorrow.

Nite all.