Got Arty

"Growing up my mother would let me put on anything I wanted to wear and dance around the house. And I still believe in that. I made this hat from toilet paper rolls."

I wish I was brave enough to be like that woman 🫤

I almost drowned today.

Harley wanted me out of the pool no matter what! He out swam me (and I am a strong swimmer) and attempted to put his mouth around every and any part of my body to get me out. He caught me at the deep end in the middle of the pool and tried to grab me causing me to go under and it didn’t matter which direction I moved, he was onto me.

Far out! I had to physically shove him away from me to give myself a few seconds to reach the edge of the pool. He would not let up!

He was even putting his whole head under the water in order to grab my wrist.

I kept pushing him toward the steps but he just turned right around with that crazed look in his eyes and kept coming for me.

We fought for a good 20 minutes before he finally gave up, exhausted.

Crazy freaking dog.

I finished my umbrella art today …

A couple of swims, some games of fetch and tug of war, some training, an afternoon walk and some discipline and by 8pm Harley was begging to go to bed. He stepped through his crate door and plonked himself flat out on the floor falling asleep almost instantly.

I crumbed some chicken for dinner tonight and served it with boiled potatoes in their jackets, coleslaw and beetroot.

We played trivia and finished last nights game. Adoring Husband was winning and I came up from behind and pipped him at the post! Then we started another game with the ‘baby boomer’ questions.

Some of those questions were before our time but we’re giving it a good crack.

Looking forward to coffee with the girls tomorrow and starting some new art in the afternoon.

Nite all.

Harley Turdburger

That’s his name when he’s naughty - Harley Turdburger - and that’s usually during the witching hour where control is nonexistent. He can’t control himself and I can’t control him either.

It’s an impossibly frustrating hour or two during the day and during those hours I could easily return him to the farm from whence he came.

Ugh 😩

Today he had many swims in the pool, played fetch and tug of war multiple times and had lots of training time to reinforce sit, come and stay.

Tomorrow I’ll take him for a walk in the morning and possibly in the afternoon as well, just to take some of the energy out of the witching hour.

We played a lot of trivia today but didn’t finish any of the games. The first was boxed trivia of the 2010 - 2020 but was 95% USA based so we struggled for a couple of hours getting nowhere. The second was the original box and we stopped halfway through because Harley was a bit out of control and I needed to get him into bed. We’ll finish it tomorrow.

The water in the pool was nice this morning and I swam a few laps and floated around for a while. Harley joined me and swam a couple of full laps too! He’s a strong swimmer.

Nothing else to report. I’ve avoided the main part of town but things should start to quieten down by the end of this week and pretty soon we should be back to normal. Thank goodness.

I felt a little better today than I did yesterday but still not 100% - just feeling a bit elderly and lethargic at the moment. I need a boost of energy but I’m not sure where I’m going to get it. Maybe I need to get into some fruit smoothies in the mornings.

It’s almost 9pm so I’m off to sleep.

Superhero holiday season …

Nite all.

Un Hung Over

NZ Silent No More on Covid Vaccine Injuries

Today was a terrible day!

I haven’t had alcohol for about a month (when my sister was here) and for 2 months prior to that, but this morning when I woke up, I felt hung over. My head hurt, my body ached, I couldn’t think straight and felt very discombobulated.

I got up with Harley at 5.20am and lay on the couch in the family room. I couldn’t even make my usual tea and toast for breakfast.

At 7.30am I felt well enough to make bacon and eggs for Adoring Husband and BGWLBH and I sat at the table with them eating a mango.

Then I returned to bed where I slept until I heard Harley barking which was about an hour. He had, apparently, been behaving like a crazy creature getting into all sorts of mischief and upsetting the household.

I put my swimmers on and took him into the pool area. He chose to swim in the pool with me but was trying to bite my face and attacked me when I touched him - not in an angry way but like he had no control over his mind. It was a bit freaky!

I got out of the pool and played fetch very briefly with him before he fell asleep at my feet.

I was feeling peckish so I made myself some breakfast but only ate half of it.

My head hurt and I was still feeling very lethargic so I sat in front of the TV with AH and we watched an old Aussie movie called ‘The Black Balloon’ which I quite enjoyed - a bit intense - but it had a light ending. It starred Toni Collette.

BGWLBH spent a lot of time in the art space but I wasn’t the slightest bit motivated so I remained in the lounge room getting up every so often to check on Harley who stayed outside for most of the afternoon and didn’t get into too much trouble.

Dinner tonight was wild caught barramundi with coleslaw, boiled potatoes in their jacket and a tomato/onion/avocado/pear/lettuce salsa.

We played some trivia after dinner which was nice.

Now it’s almost 10pm and my head is hurting again. Time for some water and sleep.

Nite all.

PS Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

2022

• Closed my business
• Attended a “Know Your Rights” rally
• Reconnected with a (deceased) x-boyfriend’s family
• Created a new art space in the double garage
• Created 6 new pieces of art
• Spent LOTS of time with my BFF
• Created a number of raised garden beds full of fruit and veg
• Spent five days on the Sunny Coast with my BFF
• Spent a day with Bubbles
• Built the new carport
• Gained Harley the Border Collie
• Had a surprise visit from my sister who I hadn’t seen for 9 years
• Lost Colli, the not so psychotic dog
• Remained proudly unvaccinated and in excellent physical health

I have to say that I am not a fan of 2022 and I struggled to find positive things to put on that list. In previous years I’ve been excited to list all the great things that happened but 2022 was a non event.

I’m going to gently ease my way into 2023 and at the end of it I hope to have much to celebrate!

My word for the year is “EQUANIMITY” - mental calmness, composure and evenness of temper.

I am yet to create my vision board but I’ll give myself a week to manifest that one.

In the meantime my hope is that you face 2023 with an open heart and an open mind, that you discover truth where you least expect it and that your body finds a way to strengthen the weaknesses that befall it. Let there be happiness and contentment in your life and enough positive challenges to keep you interested and excited. May your friendships strengthen and allow love into your heart.

Hugs to you all.

Nite all.

Touristy

Our town and The Bay are absolutely chockers full of tourists!

The caravan parks are bursting at the seams and there are a million kids tearing around on scooters and bikes, most of them not wearing helmets or protection.

While checking the post office this afternoon, I feared for my safety as eight kids of varying ages swept past me in very close proximity on the footpath outside the local supermarket.

I think I will avoid the area for the next couple of weeks and venture back out when the crowds thin.

BGWLBH and I went to the nail salon today and were very impressed with our new manicurists. Very professional with much better care taken than the previous salon.

My pedicure was the best I’ve had for a couple of years. Maytwo gave me an amazing leg and foot massage and she was very friendly and just the right amount of ‘chatty’.

We will definitely return.

We did some shopping before and after our appointments but I didn’t get to spend my vouchers. There were just too many people (aka tourists) to contend with.

Adoring Husband babysat Harley who apparently was a very good boy.

I took Harley out to the pool soon after I arrived home and he sat in the water on the top step for about 5 minutes before stepping out, shaking himself off and then rolling in the grass (as they do).

Just enough to cool down.

After dinner I played fetch with him until he gave up.

I had a stack of beef mince, ox liver and brisket bones to divide up into Harley meal sizes which took about 30 minutes and three loaves of bread to divide into 2 slice per ziplock bag to freeze, which also took some time.

AH cooked up the usual chicken wings for Friday night dinner.

It’s now after 9pm and I’m exhausted.

I’m pretty sure we’ll be having a playful time in the art room tomorrow so I need a restful nights sleep - unlike last night which was very restless for me - courtesy of a coffee I’d had at 11am. Caffeine runs through your system for about 12 hours so it was around 11am when I fell asleep but I woke up 3 times during the night.

I’m yawning like crazy so it’s sleep time for me.

Nite all.

Christmas Gifts

This evening, BGWLBH and I opened our Christmas gifts to each other.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to do so on Christmas Day or Boxing Day and then we wanted to wait until the stars aligned.

Today, they aligned.

Having received very generous gift vouchers from my two favourite shops - Tinkerbell’s and Office Works, I feel very spoilt and can’t wait to spend them! She knows me so well.

I did some more of my art today but forgot to take a pic.

Harley and I spent some time floating around the pool …

We played fetch a lot.

Adoring Husband spent a good portion of the day mowing lawns for work and at home.

Basic chicken and salads for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow we have nail salon appointments again (at a different salon) so let’s hope that goes more smoothly than last week!

It’s way past my sleep time now.

Nite all.

On The Up

Today was an improvement.

At 6am I took Harley for a short walk on the leash. He behaved well.

I made some tea and toast for breakfast and spent about 30 minutes in the art space starting this …

At 8am a message came through from the art girls to see if anyone was going to the park, so I decided to pop down for a bit. 

At 8.40am I rode to the park with Harley sitting in the rear basket of my trike. He was very good and I think he quite enjoys it but I’m worried about him slipping his paws into the spokes of the rear wheels.

He likes to put his paws on the top edge of the basket so that he can see where we are going and it wouldn’t take much for them to slip.

We met a couple of the art girls and chatted for about 90 minutes.

Harley was very good because being school holidays, there were lots of dogs, kids on bikes and scooters and adults with strollers. He was very inquisitive but sat watching it all with his tail wagging happily. No barking and no pulling on the leash to chase.

I was impressed.

We rode home a bit after 10.30am.

I made BGWLBH some bacon and eggs and did some more art with my new pastel pencils for about an hour. So far …

I made a fruit smoothie for everyone and took Harley out to the pool where he had a short swim and we played fetch for a while.

I did some washing and sat to watch my quiz shows.

Harley had another swim and played more fetch before we started dinner.

He hasn’t slept much today and has been a bit more active than usual so I hope he sleeps longer tonight. He’s been sleeping a bit longer each night and it was after 5am when he had me up this morning. He also doesn’t cry to get up, he moves around in his crate and waits til I’m ready to get up.

He has very good bladder control for a puppy.

Bangers and mash for dinner and we should be in bed in the next 30 minutes.

I hope that tomorrow will be an art day before I win $100million in Powerball in the evening!

Nite all.

Meh

I hope that 2023 brings a positive light on our lives.

This year has really sucked.

I usually have a long list of achievements and experiences to brag about and to be proud of, but this year has been quite the opposite and I have felt like a complete misery guts for almost the entire year.

There have been some dark days and I have really struggled trying to act like a normal human and it has taken real effort but I guess the fact that I have even attempted to make the effort says a lot.

I’ve avoided most human contact but have pushed myself to connect with my art girls on a weekly basis. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to make up an excuse to not go.

Anyway, I need to change my attitude and find some reasons to look forward to 2023.

Perhaps I’ll make a bucket list.

I spent quite a lot of time with Harley today …

I also spent time in my art space hoping for inspiration … it eluded me.

Now it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Nothing Changed.

Boxing Day sucked.

Finished this …

Nite all.

Whatever

Christmas sucked.

Nite all.