A Saturday of Fun

What a day!

I made the very poor decision to stay in bed until an hour before I had to leave for Art. Then I remembered that I had to provide a plate of food for the Le Reve party which was going to follow straight after Art! So, imagine that it's 8.30am and I have an hour to play with.

I got up, got dressed, organised everything that I usually take to Art, accepted Adoring Husband's offer to drive me to the shops - I needed the ATM to get money to pay for my class and I needed food to create a quick platter,

We returned home and I rushed into the kitchen to make an avocado dip similar to guacamole, chopped some carrot, cucumber and celery sticks to dip into the avocado and then made a fruit platter with watermelon, grapes, kiwi fruit and mandarine.

I wrapped a pottery bowl to take with me because I wanted to show Teach what I would like my next project to be, packed all the food into the cold bag, gathered the Le Reve gift bags for the girls who ordered at my last party, tidied the kitchen and was ready for my lift which arrived right on time at 9.30am.

What a rush!

I enjoyed three hours of art, which involved creating another clay tile. I traced my drawing over the leather tile, drew over the faint lines to make it easier to work and then began carving the shapes out of the leather. It's slow work, but very therapeutic.

I now have four projects on the go.

Two clay tiles. One with the Tawny Frogmouth face and the second, a house number tile with a fancy design around it. My clay bust still has to be fired, but we have to wait for the school Art class to finish firing their work before we can use that kiln. The fourth project is a clay bauble mobile.

I love working with clay. REALLY love it.

After we cleaned up the studio, we moved to the outdoor area and waited for the Le Reve hostess to arrive. There was plenty of food, none of which I could eat - except for what I brought myself - which didn't bother me one little bit.

The girls were all telling funny stories about how they met their husbands and OMG, I thought I was going to wet myself! They were hilarious! Everybody has a story, but it's the way they tell it.

After some great belly laughs and a belly full of food, we'd all ordered our Le Reve goods and headed home. Instead of going home with my usual girls, I left with The Motivator so that I could carry her clay bust on my lap and then help her set up her new TV before The Fisher King arrived home from his day out on the ocean.

I realised that I forgot to get some meat out for dinner, but luckily I had a freezer full of Hainan Chicken, so it was easy to thaw and heat it up in a saucepan.

Now we have an evening of football for Super Saturday, but honestly I'm so exhausted, I think I'll head to bed shortly ... and it's not only 8pm!

I hope that I can spend Mother's Day in my workspace adding something new to my website as well as loading some more items into my shops. So many plans spinning around in my head!

But for now ...

Nite all.

Fabulous Friday

Just in case you didn't get to take a look yet, here is the link to my website ...

Romance Your Life

I'm extremely happy with the progress so far. I've made three sales, I've received favourable comments, I have almost 40 subscribers in less than three weeks and 110 followers on Facebook.

I passed around my business cards at the Bowls Club tonight and the ladies there (outside of my immediate group) seemed pretty keen to check it out, so no doubt they will let me know what they think next week.

There is still a lot of work to do. My 'to do' list is a mile long and never ending. I still need to work on my time management. No matter how much I do, at the end of the day it still seems like a spit in the ocean.

I spent a grand total of one hour on the website today.

I added some jewellery to the online shop and I posted an update on Facebook with a link to the journal shop.

Tomorrow is already completely filled with my art class and my art teacher's Le Reve party, so no work will be done - unless I can make the great escape early from the party!

It's almost midnight. I'm off to bed.

Nite all.  

Hurtle Through Thursday

The day went so quickly!

We left home at 9.30am and returned at 2.30pm.

We picked up Adoring Husband's new reading glasses.

We did a little grocery shopping.

We paid a bill.

We met Best Cousin in the World and Marco Polo for lunch at the Bay Tavern.

We visited one of my most dangerous stores. I walked into Office Works expecting to spend $6. We left, having spent more than $120!! I seriously had to make a conscious decision to stop browsing EVERY aisle and go to the checkout!

We picked up the FROG box on the way home.

This afternoon we watched the animated movie 'Sing'.

As an adult with life experience and a reasonable amount of common sense, I enjoyed it, but I don't think it sends a very good message to children.

Buster Moon, the koala and main character, was an irresponsible business owner, who couldn't pay his bills and used every trick in the book to avoid his responsibilities. He not only lied, but made his secretary lie and pass on his pathetic excuses to avoid being accountable for his actions.

Johnny, the gorilla, was disowned by his father for 1. disappearing in the middle of a crime, the result being incarceration for the father 2. not being anything like his father - and the only reason that the father decided to love him again was because he was singing on television becoming famous.

Rosita, the female pig, was an overworked, unrecognised wife and mother whose 25 kids were out of control and whose husband took her for granted and either completely ignored her or made fun of her. The only way she received any positive attention from any member of her family was when she suddenly became famous in the show.

Ash, the porcupine, was used and manipulated by her overbearing and controlling narcissistic boyfriend, who then picked up another female porcupine 'because Ash had been selected over him for the show and consequently "was never there"for him. She suddenly got his attention when she became famous not just singing, but singing her own song.

Mike, the mouse, was a nasty bully who used violence and aggravation to get what he wanted from the physically and mentally weak. He was a liar and a cheat who got away with everything AND ended up with the girl!

Meena, the elephant, was mercilessly bullied and teased by her father for not taking her singing public and making herself famous (the way he would have IF he had a singing voice) and then she was used by everyone to do their dirty work until she eventually got to sing in the final scene of the movie.

The one small pleasant lesson that we learned right at the end of the move, was to not let fear get in the way of your dreams.

These are the movies that condition our kids to accept all of the negative qualities that each of those animated characters possessed.

It also teaches them that unless you are famous or doing something amazing, they should expect to be treated badly by the people in their world because they are not worthy of anything better.

Anyway, that's my 'take' on the movie SING and if I had children, I would be hesitant to take them to see it.

Don't hate me.

Here it is 9pm and I believe it's possible that I'm in for an early night, which would be great and make for an easy day of work tomorrow, because my brain might function close to maximum capacity!

Nite all.  

Wetter and Cooler

I think it's safe to say that everybody is happy with the cooler, wetter change that we are currently experiencing with our weather.

Everybody (except me) has brought out the long sleeves and the tracky dacks.

I *LOVE* this weather.

My whole day has been spent indoors - but NOT due to the weather.

I didn't even wake up until 9.30am - it was almost 1.30am when I climbed into bed and about 2am when I fell asleep, so I guess it's to be expected - but I actually woke up quite often during the morning and looked at my watch, which had stopped at 7.10am and my semi sleeping brain just didn't register that the hands had stopped moving and I kept thinking 'just 5 more minutes'.

Eventually, Adoring Husband brought my coffee in saying "At last. You're awake!"

I said "What do you mean 'at last'?" He replied "It's 9.30am"

I cursed.

However, I didn't get out of bed. Instead, I sat up in bed enjoying my coffee and checking my emails - which contained quite a few jewellery sales that I wasn't expecting! What a pleasant surprise!

It was an amazing way to start my day.

At 10.30am I got dressed and went straight to my workspace.

I priced, logged and photographed some more of my jewellery.

I selected the winner of my Leonie Dawson pack from the people who had subscribed to my website and followed the other instructions that were on my Facebook page.

I packaged up the jewellery to mail off to my new customers tomorrow.

I had a short visit from Lady Lynn and LL Mini Me, which was lovely. My rebounder got a workout while Lady Lynn perused my wares. It was a lovely visit but LL Mini Me was unusually quiet until it was time to leave.

This afternoon, I added a short post to my website to announce the winner of my give away.

I created some memes and quotes to add to Pinterest and Facebook.

I began planning my first photography lesson and challenge for Romance Your Life.

I cooked a quick crispy skinned chicken thigh fillet with a side of cucumber, capsicum, avocado, onion and grape salsa, some kimchi and a squirt of my special spicy tomato sauce.

After dinner, I watched a 30 minute preparation video for a course about building and increasing business online. It was more motivational, than factual .. but I tend to respond better to motivational stuff anyway.

I also watched Britain's Got Talent and sat here with tears rolling down my cheeks after watching those precious little Irish kids sing in their choir and then receive four 'yeses' to continue to the next round. They were so adorable.

Now, it's after 11pm and I really need to get some sleep. We have a big day in The Bay tomorrow and I don't want to sleep in until 9.30am again!

Nite all.

Rainy Tuesday

It started rainy and it's ending rainy.

I woke to the sound of rain on the rooftop this morning and I will be falling asleep to the same sound.

It did stop during the day and we experienced patchy showers.

The air is fresh and it finally feels like Autumn.

I enjoyed the usual Tuesday morning coffee with the girls and The Blonde Bombshell (aka yip yip) made sure that there were no silences, uncomfortable or otherwise lol. It was a two hour coffee morning during which we had a couple of ring ins stop briefly for a chat.

The Le Reve lady dropped off the orders late yesterday afternoon, so I was able to deliver the little gift bags to some of the girls at coffee.

After a quick visit to the butcher, I pedalled to The Motivator's house to drop off her Le Reve order and spent an hour having fun going over some of her work with her.

What a huge responsibility she carries with her lighting and design work. The difference between my imagination and the reality of what she does, is quite significant.

I believe I walked away with an extra line in my forehead from frowning, contemplating, imagining, re-imagining, considering numerous possibilities and generally hurting my brain!

I'm happy that I can walk away and not feel responsible for such decision! I'm happy to know someone so skilled and talented and well respected in that field. LA LA LA!!

I returned home and cooked up a big batch of sausages, pork and beef, and created a spicy and tangy tomato sauce to go with them.

I juiced enough pineapple, apple, grapes, dragon fruit, coconut water and water to fill a tall jug (it was  delicious!).

After lunch I headed to my workspace, where I completed another social media course, updated some  plugins on my website, priced and tagged all of my silver necklace chains and sorted through my 'snap' jewellery trying to figure out how I can efficiently photograph so my items for display on the site and I checked my emails.

Adoring Husband found his way home quite late from a big SES day, but had to leave immediately for another job. Needless to say I got a lot of work done this afternoon.

I cooked up a delicious dinner of lamb loin chops with broccoli, carrot, charred zucchini and some cauliflower puree.

The rest of my evening has been spent planted on the couch, deleting emails and monitoring social media.

Tomorrow will be another day of website work. There is a lot to do. Never ending and continuous. Prioritise. Time management. 'To Do' lists. Ideas. Follow up. Writing. Creating. Brainstorming. Blah Blah Blah.

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

  

Productivity at Last

It was an early start to the day because I had to work.

From work, I rode to get my coffee and for the first time in weeks, visited my boys at The Seat of Knowledge. Knowing that I had a couple of parcels arriving today, I stayed with the boys for more than an hour, killing time until the Post Office opened.

I picked up a large birthday parcel sent by Beautiful Girl With The Long Blonde Hair and it contained an array of perfect birthday gifts that included a cane woven heart, a framed quote, some bling, a boho bag and a hand made cushion cover. All perfectly suited to my tastes .. of course lol.

The second parcel was a DVD that I ordered about a week ago.

I returned home and headed straight for my workspace.

I completed a 5 lesson course on successfully using Pinterest for a business website and then put some of what I'd learned into practice. I'll work more on that tomorrow.

I added the final post for the subscriber's competition on the Romance Your Life Facebook page.

I used something that I created for Pinterest and added it to Twitter and Instagram.

I replaced the cover pictures for the different shops on the site with something more uniform.

I set out a plan to ramp up the social media posts and I've planned my next couple of updates on pages of the website.

This is a huge learning curve that sometimes feels so daunting, I'm almost afraid to take the next step. It's difficult not to rest on my laurels, enjoying the success of just launching the site, and I have to continue pushing myself and try to remember that this is supposed to be a business and I need to work it every day.

Important things like time management, strategic planning, marketing and communication all need to be studied, implemented and improved upon if this is going to be successful.

So it's time to get serious, get moving, and pump things along.

*raises fist in the air*

So let's do this!!

After a good night's sleep ha!

Nite all.

Not a Day of Rest

What a busy and productive day!

After yesterday's marathon effort to create an outfit for the 1920s Murder Mystery night, this house was a mess! It looked like another tornado had gone through INSIDE the house.

The lounge room had the ironing board set up and covered in my jewellery, while the floor beneath it was covered in threads from the fringing that I sewed onto my skirt.

The bathroom bench was covered in every item of make-up that I possess, plus yesterday's dirty clothes on the floor.

The kitchen bench was covered in my beading materials from where I made my long string of pearls.

The bedroom was full of the empty bags that once contained all the items that I'd bought to bring my outfit together.

The dining room table was covered with the stuff that I'd pulled out of my handbag on Friday night, plus the jewellery that I had toyed with wearing, raffle tickets and other bits and pieces.

My workspace was just horrendous from 3 weeks of neglect! Every time a delivery arrived, it was opened and then tossed into the room. After my photography marathon, all the jewellery was scattered over my desk, there were books, paperwork, catalogues, notes, magazines, pens, diaries, boxes and lots of other crap all over my desk.

Has your imagination created a vision of the havoc that was inside my house?

Well, here is my workspace 'before' the clean up...

I spent two hours cleaning the workspace and whenever I had to go to another room for any reason, I would do one small thing while I was there, so even though the house is not completely clean and tidy yet, at least I managed to get some of it done during the process of cleaning my most important area!

Here is my workspace after two hours ...

*happy dance*

I started my day with coffee and crab (thanks to The Motivator and The Fisher King).

I followed that with a huge jug of juice made with cucumber, carrot, celery, pineapple, kiwi fruit, ginger, turmeric, coconut water and water.

I then took my 'before' photos and by this time it was already after midday.

My afternoon was fabulous and I am finishing my day feeling very satisfied what I've achieved.

To celebrate, I pedalled to the shop for a coffee, but on the way home, I stopped off at The Motivator's house where I was offered, and accepted, a long tall glass of vodka and tonic! Now THAT is a true celebratory drink!

For dinner, I enjoyed Hainan Chicken, followed by a slice of raspberry pear bread.

It's quite possible that I could end up in bed nice and early, which means that I won't struggle to get out of bed for work in the morning.

A good day's work and a good night's sleep.

Nite all.  

A Flapping Good Time

It was a themed murder mystery night.

1920s New York Jazz was the theme.

Almost everybody was dressed in 1920s outfits, some amazing, some not so amazing, but the effort was admirable!

Our table of friends consisted of Leggy Blonde, The UPman, Beauty, The Beast, Lady Lynn, The Blonde Bombshell (aka yip yip), Tweedle Dee, The Garden King and last but not least, for the first time out and about at a social event, The Motivator!!

The Motivator looked fabulous in black sequins and pink feathers. Our ladies put in all the effort, while the men provided subtle touches that barely indicated fancy dress haha.

Even if I do say so myself, our table looked pretty good in costume. There were feathers and sequins and strings of pearls and fur and beading and fans and bling everywhere!

The mystery was tricky and even though I amazed myself and stepped forward after only one alcoholic beverage to introduce myself to the other characters and ask them about themselves, hoping to gather up some clues, at the end of the night I wasn't able to figure out who committed the murder.

It seems my Journey work in Sydney and Byron Bay has changed something inside me, because in my past life, I would never have had the confidence to walk up to strangers and initiate conversation the way I did tonight.

I even stepped up on the dance floor. I always sat out the dancing pre-Sydney.

So a good time was had by all and we were home around 9.30-ish.

I've watched the movie Conair and now it's well after midnight, so it's time for bed!

Nite all.

The Fast Day

I can't believe how quickly today passed.

I had a few errands to run this morning. I visited The Motivator very briefly. I did a couple of loads of washing. I rode to the Post Office. I put together my outfit for the Murder Mystery night. I put together my outfit for tonight. I made a few business phone calls and I sat for about an hour.

My new neighbour hand delivered a plate of beautifully presented mini carrot cakes with some kind of delicious looking cream frosting very artistically swirled on each cake and then topped with a walnut.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'm gluten free, so I accepted them graciously and will take them to my art class tomorrow for the girls to enjoy.

I made a big batch of Hainan Chicken that should last me the entire weekend. That makes meals easy!

Oh and when I spoke to the Manager of the Bowl's Club this afternoon, she told me that some people had dropped out of the Murder Mystery night and she invited both Lady Lynn and I to take on those characters for the night. This should make for an interesting night.

Our table was quite lucky at the Club tonight, with three prizes being won in the raffles. I was NOT one of them .. not that it matters, because I can't eat 90% of the prizes due to my dietary restrictions.

It was nice to have Tweedle Dee join us for the evening for the first time too!

So that was my day!

Now I need to sleep because I will be up bright and early to go to work. I pray for dry weather.

Nite all.

A Big Outing

The car had to go in for a big service today.

I accompanied Adoring Husband into The Bay so that I could shop for some items that could make up a decent costume for 1920s New York Jazz - which is the theme for the Murder Mystery night that I will be attending in the near future.

My 'fancy dress' wardrobe already includes a deliciously rich red feather boa and a black sequinned top that can easily fit into that theme. I have some long black beads and other pieces of jewellery that could fit the brief and I have a head piece as well.

So I needed some shoes that fit the 1920s style - I just happened to find a pair of red shoes, exactly the same red as my feather boa, in the style that I needed, AND they were on a sale rack for $15 and the only pair there were MY size.

How amazing is that? Ask the universe and ye shall receive.

Next, I needed a knee length skirt. I was thinking black, silver or beaded. I bought 3 skirts. One is shiny black and one is shiny silver - they were on a sale rack for $10 and then I found a black skirt with different coloured metallic beads and it only cost $7 so I bought it too - just so that I could stretch my options because I wasn't sure how any of them would look with my sequinned top.

I wanted some stockings or pantyhose with a seam at the back of the leg, but I couldn't find a pair like that anywhere, so I bought some plain black stockings and will draw the line either on my leg or on the pantyhose!

Finally, we visited Spotlight and bought some fringing, which I hope to add to one of the skirts - my sewing skills have been in hibernation for many years, so we'll see how that pans out!

I didn't even think about make up, so I'm a bit concerned about how I'll manage that side of it.

We bought some new DVDs - La La Land, Lion, Sing and 10 Things I Hate About You which is one we had, but it disappeared from our collection. I had leant a few to Mum H a few years back and some got sucked out of her lounge room by the tornado. I think it may have been in that collection. So now we will gradually replace the ones that are missing.

We enjoyed a delicious late lunch at Aquavue while we waited for the call from the car yard. Five hours is a long time to kill while you wait for a car to be serviced!

Since we still hadn't heard from them by the time lunch was finished, I bought some ice cream from Go Natural and some coconut water and kimchi.

Finally the car yard called and we picked up the car. By the time we checked the mail, picked up our butcher order and got our afternoon coffee, we didn't get home until 4.30pm!

So it's been a big day and I'm ready for a big sleep.

Nite all.

What Have I Done?

I'm not sure that I've achieved much of anything today!

I visited The Motivator this morning and we got excited about some ideas that we had. I made some phone calls to follow up on those ideas, which took about 45 minutes of my time.

I mailed my FIRST SALE from the website!! Wahoo!! I gift wrapped it and added my personal sticker and business card and wrote on a gift card with a personalised message.

On Tuesday, I put in an order with a bakery in The Bay. They advertised on the local news that they baked Gluten Free products. I ordered over $50 worth of cakes, breads and pies to try and because they only bake the GF on Wednesdays, we had to pick up the order at 2pm today.

Adoring Husband made the trek into town to pick them up and then bought coffee so that we could savour some of our haul.

I ate this ...

It was sickly sweet and made me feel like I'd taken drugs! I'm sure that a sugar addict would absolutely love it, but I won't be buying another one and Adoring Husband agreed that he would pass on that one for next time.

We tried their meat pies for dinner, but they were very bland. The pastry had no seasoning and there was no flavour in the meat mixture. So they too are a pass. I only ate half of my pie, but I thoroughly enjoyed the salad that I prepared to have with it.

The Pear and Raspberry bread is just as delicious as it was last week and I would buy that again in a heartbeat! We bought three loaves, so that AH could take two loaves with him to his family's place. One for them and one for him to eat on the way down haha.

There are two mini apple pies left in the fridge to try tomorrow.

This evening, as the sun was setting, I took a peek outside and saw some colour filling the sky, so I grabbed my camera and took off, bare foot, across the road and across the empty block to the lagoon, where I found this!

It was stunning. It didn't last long and I only took two photos before the colours faded quickly to nothing.

* No damage was done to my feet in the making of this photo.

I thought that it was only 9pm as I was writing this, but it's almost 11pm!! How did that happen???

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Terrific Tuesday

Another excellent start to Tuesday.

I was a bit late this morning because I didn't wake up until 8am! It was 9am by the time I met the girls and they were all wondering where I was because I'm usually the first one there!

We spent about 90 mins chatting and laughing and causing a ruckus, before we all said our goodbyes and headed off to greet our respective days.

Some of us had more stressful days than others. Some with Drs appointments and medical tests, some packing in preparation for long caravan trips away, some dealing with sick and sore husbands and others, like me, to do nothing but enjoy the company of my friend and then my husband.

The Motivator shared some magic formula with me, we talked some business, I bought some delicious sand crabs and I agreed to do something positive towards my website ... I think ... but somewhere between there and home, I got side tracked and distracted!

I came home and shelled the crabs, watched the previous night's episode of The Voice, made a salad for the monthly friend's barbecue at the park, constructed a gift box from the slabs of cardboard that I ordered at the Gift Fair (who knew they would arrive in separate flat packs that required constructing?! Ugh.) and I didn't once do any work towards my website.

It was a nice night at the park tonight with a brief, but beautiful sunset and the company of good friends to wile away another 90 minutes of the day.

I didn't have any alcoholic beverages tonight, but finished off my afternoon coffee and then drank water.

Tomorrow, I plan on spending the day at my desk. I still have a 'to do' list that needs to be completed!

And look at this! It's way past midnight!

Nite all.

A Bit of Everything

Ok, so I didn't get eight hours of work done today, but the three hours that I spent at my desk were very productive and I'm pretty happy with what I achieved.

My SSL certificate has been purchased, installed and tested, so my site is now safe to purchase from. I just need to learn how to install the little green lock which indicates to everyone that it is a safe site.

I watched a couple of tutorials and need to do some study and research on marketing via social media.

There are still lots more products to add to the site.

I need to promote the last week of the subscriber competition in Facebook!

I spent some time with The Motivator this morning and we have become GSD buddies.

GSD = Get Shit Done (excuse the language)

We will attempt to monitor each other's progress during the day and hopefully motivate each other to GSD!

Adoring Husband spent the day with the SES on a land search today, so he returned home feeling very sore and sorry for himself.

I ran an Epsom salts bath and added some extra magnesium oil for good measure and told him to 'STAY' for at least 20 minutes.

While he was in the bath, I cooked up the vegetables to go with the beef ribs that had been in the slow cooker for 6 hours. We had broccolini, bok choy, sweet potato, carrot, Brussels sprouts and last night's leftover mash.

That was our early dinner which we sat down to at 5pm.

I had also baked some apple and walnut muffins, so I served a couple of those up to AH with some fresh raspberries and chocolate cream.

It was just what the doctor ordered. It's been quite a while since I provided dessert and AH was pretty impressed, especially after his big day. He needed some extra sustenance!

Tomorrow is coffee morning with the girls and then our monthly 'friends' barbecue at the park in the evening.

I should be able to get some work done in between.

Off to bed now!

Nite all.

A Garden Sunday

When I say 'A Garden Sunday', I don't mean working in the garden.

I love gardens. I don't love 'working' in the garden .. actually, once I'm in the garden and working, it's quite enjoyable and very satisfying, but finding the motivation to actually get out there and do it? That's another matter altogether.

My garden Sunday was actually spent at Arkarra Tea Gardens enjoying a birthday lunch with my art teacher's daughter and nine of her friends.

The food was great. The service was friendly. The drinks were cold. The company was good. I very much enjoyed the almost 3 hours that we spent together. Us oldies decided not to join the girls (all in their 30s and 40s) for the afternoon, because there's no way we could keep up with the drinking games and frolicking that was on offer.

No time was spent at my workspace today, so tomorrow, while everyone else in Queensland is enjoying a public holiday, I am going to be working a full 8+ hour day.

Tonight I'm looking forward to sliding between some crisp clean sheets and sleeping soundly so that my brain is fresh and bright for a good work day.

Tomorrow morning I'll put dinner in the slow cooker and then I won't have to worry about anything except work!

I hope you all enjoy your public holiday. Stay safe.

Nite all.

Art for Art's Sake

Today was the first time that I felt a touch of disappointment in my art during class.

We painted our clay tile ready for firing and my Tawny Frogmouth just doesn't look the way I envisioned.

I was so disappointed that I didn't even take a progress photo to share here!

We are doing a second tile and I'm creating my house number inside a heart with some swirling curvy lines and patterns around the outside - however - that could change between now and next Saturday! I've brought my drawing home and could quite possibly change it completely between now and then.

On a more positive note, it was nice to have The Motivator join us today and she made a really good start on her clay bust. She obviously has arty, farty, crafty talent in her blood and I think she will fit beautifully with the group.

I returned home and made lunch before retreating to my workspace to get the work done that I deferred from yesterday when I did a Bay run with The Motivator.

I need to contact my domain host to work out what to do next to acquire a SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate, which will make my shop safe and secure for you if you want to buy anything.

I didn't even know that I needed one of those until I received an email this week, from an unknown source, telling me that my shop wasn't secure or safe for possible purchasers. So I did some research and still can't figure out why none of the instructional videos that I watched, made any mention of this.

Despite all of that, I do need a SSL, so that is my next mission.

One of the girls from Art is having a birthday lunch tomorrow at Arkarra Tea Gardens. There are twelve of us attending and it should be a nice afternoon, but I really need to spend more time on my website.

This is something that I need to work on. My work and life balance. My self discipline is, and always has been, a weakness that I need to work on.  That may have to be the next course I complete in the Academy.

My thoughts are that I should set myself daily work hours - although I expect my hours will need to be quite long in the first year, if I'm going to commit to making this a success. Like a marriage, the first year of business is the hardest.

I also noticed that even though my site looks good on my own mobile phone, some of the words in the titles are still overlapping on other people's phones. That's annoying too! I need to figure that out and fix it.

Anyway, I'm certain that you don't want to know the ins and outs of my website woes, so I'll sign off and head to bed for an early night. Adoring Husband took a while to turn off his alarm this morning and it startled me into a wakefulness that took me a while to recover from. I hate that.

I will use my essential oils to assist in a solid sleep tonight.

Nite all.

Food Glorious Food

Against my better judgement, I chose to spend the day in The Bay with The Motivator.

It was a foodie's dream.

We started at the Asian grocery store where I stocked up on fish sauce, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, coconut vinegar, coconut milk, tapioca and other assorted bits and pieces.

We then swooped on Go Natural and filled the shopping basket with hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, blanched almond flour, coconut aminos, some fresh pestos, raw cacao powder and lots of fresh fruit and veg.

The new Aldi store was next in line and what a pleasant shopping experience that was! So clean and fresh and so few shoppers! It was quiet and there was lots of space and some amazing products to choose from, like grass fed meats, fresh fruit and veg, maple syrup at a very reasonable price, more coconut milk, organic raw cacao powder at half the price of the one I got at Go Natural and lots of other lovely deliciousness.

The staff member at the checkout was very friendly, polite and helpful too.

We decided, before heading home, to go to Kauangan Bakery where a news story last night described the gluten free products that they bake every week. Unfortunately, they only had two GF products in the store because they bake on Wednesday and had sold out quickly because of the news story.

I bought a custard tart, which was lovely, and a pear and raspberry loaf - O - M - G!!! I would like to buy a dozen of them and sit down to a massive pig out!

We took a price list of GF items and were advised to phone in an order on Tuesdays to guarantee receipt. Apparently they sell out very quickly! Understandable, if everything tastes as good as that pear and raspberry loaf!

I had a lucky night at the club tonight and it was good to see everyone. Our table had no luck in the raffles and we were home in time to watch the second footy match .. not that it was very successful for me. I have only got 2 out of 3 correct so far this week.

It's moving towards midnight, so I'm off to bed. I've been up since 3am because I stupidly decided to drink a coffee at 7pm last night and the caffeine kicked in at about midnight. I slept restlessly until 3 am when my body decided to be wide awake.

Ugh.

I have art class tomorrow, so I need to rest.

Nite all.

Hit The Wall

I sit here on the couch watching the footy at 8pm and I cannot stop yawning.

I think I've hit the wall and I should go to bed before I get my second wind!

Adoring Husband woke me this morning from a a very deep sleep where I was dreaming - I can't remember now what I was dreaming about and when I went back to sleep, the dream didn't continue .. because I couldn't return to that sound sleep. I hate that.

My first job this morning was to ride to the supermarket to grab a few items for my party today, so I bought a coffee and spent fifteen minutes with the boys at the Seat of Knowledge. It has become a regular car park with three of them now in mobility carts.

I came home and cleared an area of the back bedroom so that I could put all of the clothes, shoes, handbags and jewellery that I'm clearing in there, and still provide enough room for the girls to try them on.

 I prepared some food. A couple of cheese platters, a fruit platter and two different flavours of marinated chicken wings.

Adoring Husband returned home in a loan car after he had dropped our car in at The Bay for repairs, so he cleaned the floor and the loo for me while I made up a couple of jugs of Margaritas and set out the tea and coffee area and tidied up the kitchen.

Much was achieved in the morning and I was dressed and ready to greet my guests as they arrived from 1pm onwards.

Maid Marian was the first to arrive and was able to take her pick of the goods available. Even though I had told the girls to come early to look at the clothes before the party, none of the others arrived until right on 2pm which is when the party should have started.

I believe the party started at about 3pm, which was ok because almost everybody knew all about Le Reve anyway. Stephanie didn't have to explain too much and everybody knew what they wanted to order.

This meant that the girls were all in the back room trying on clothes by 4pm, giggling and shrieking and falling over each other and pretending that it was a Boxing Day sale in Myers. They made a good dent in my stash and what remains will be taken to St Vinnies or another charity organisation in the next few days.

On my way to the shops this morning, I came across this very beautiful, but very dead python in the gutter. So sad :(

Well, 8.30pm and I'm heading to bed.

Thanks for listening.

Nite all.

Romancing it

What a big day!

I listened to an instructional audio book before I left my bed this morning. It was called "Buy Buttons. The Fast-Track Strategy to Make Extra Money and Start a Business in Your Spare Time"

I didn't get much out of it, because it was written by an American and talked more about resources available in USA and UK. He did mention Australia once or twice, but the information wasn't relevant to me.

Don't get me wrong, it provided some interesting information and I did take a couple of notes, so I'll see if I can apply any of it to my business.

Then I had to select an outfit to wear to our lady's luncheon!

I washed and blow dried my hair, made my face presentable and was ready with time to spare before my lift arrived.

We got stuck behind a tree lopping, wood chipping truck that was towing a wood chipper trailer. It did not drive faster than 80kph at any point during the trip to The Bay. The traffic was such that we never had the opportunity to overtake it, so the drive, which usually takes about 35 minutes took us 45 minutes.

It almost caused WWIII in the car while half of us dared the driver to overtake at risky points and the other half of us demanded that she keep us safe and alive!

Anyway, as you can tell, we made it! Safe and alive!

Thirteen of us enjoyed delicious meals (Except for one person .. and no it wasn't Reality TV Queen! She didn't attend today) and the range of GF options at AquaVue has improved considerably! I got to select salt and pepper calamari, which I've never been able to order before and it was very nice!

This will, once again, become my favourite place to eat in The Bay.

Before we left The Bay, we stopped at Dr Dan's so that I could stock up on my Margarita ingredients for the party tomorrow.

We stopped at the Bowls Club for a quick play of the pokies and then drove to Reality TV Queen's house to have goodbye drinks because she is heading off on a 6 week holiday!

The Blonde Bombshell (AKA YipYip) provided delicious South Australian oysters with lemon and caviar. I haven't had oysters for about 15 years because I had what I thought was an allergic reaction. It was around the same time that I developed allergies to sea perch and sea scallops, so I assumed that the allergy extended to oysters!

Well, I'm happy to say that six hours later, there has been no reaction!! I can eat oysters again!!  

*happy dance*

The Facebook page for my website is still doing very nicely, but I won't be able to do much with it tomorrow, with a big day ahead of me. I'm hosting a La Reve party and the ladies will be coming early to go through a huge stack of clothes, shoes, handbags and jewellery that I'm getting rid of.

I have to prepare Margaritas and some nibblies too.

So I'd best get some sleep. I think I'll get to bed before midnight for a change!

Nite all.  

Cool Bananas

I'm pretty happy that after less then 48 hours, I had more than 100 people 'like' and 'follow' the Romance Your Life Facebook page!

How exciting!

So I celebrated by announcing a competition where somebody can win a 2017 My Shining Year Workbook and Diary Planner.

I'll announce a winner on 9th May.

If you have a Facebook account and you're interested in entering the competition, go here to find out the details.

This has contributed to me having a really good day, which all started with the usual Tuesday coffee morning with the girls. There were only four of us and The Blonde Bombshell (AKA YipYip) talked a LOT. Even though I teased her incessantly, coffee mornings really have not been the same without her and we've missed her while she has been travelling. Don't tell her I said that though :)

It was 11am by the time I returned home and I prepared an early lunch and headed off to my workspace.

I was trying to figure out how to adjust my website so that it could be viewed on a mobile phone without the words in the headings overlapping each other. I KNEW that I KNEW how to do it, but my memory failed me.

I searched Youtube and couldn't find any familiar information and my frustration was welling, when I received a phone call from my friend 'Woman of Many Talents' asking me to go visit and help her make a decision about the colour of a kitchen tile.

So I took the opportunity to rest my brain and went for a trike ride to visit her. I was halfway to her house when I had an epiphany!!! I remembered everything!! I knew what I had to do to fix the site!

I had a lovely time catching up with WOMT and we chose the perfect tile for her kitchen.

I came home and fixed 95% of the site, but there is still part of it to which the rules that I remembered do not apply, so I still have to figure that part out yet.

Late this afternoon my FB page reached 100 likes and I worked on the competition details.

So, my day has been more than satisfactory and I'm looking forward to the lady's luncheon tomorrow!

Time for bed.

Nite all.

Seven Years!

Happy anniversary to us! Seven years today and going strong.

We both wished we could do something more romantic and adventurous together today, but without transport, we decided to make it a foodie day and also do romantic things like walk hand in hand along the beach. We like to make our anniversaries special and just be together.

So it all started with breakfast in bed ... and if you know me, I don't eat breakfast haha. I have coffee, which is exactly what Adoring Husband provided for me while I lay back in bed and enjoyed a slow start to the day.

It was nice to sit and watch as people logged into Facebook and saw my post about the new website. The encouraging comments and watching the numbers climb as people joined my Facebook page was quite exciting!

Adoring Husband gave me a lovely card in which he had written beautiful sentiments, as he always does on our special occasions. When I find the card that I bought for him 2 months ago, which I've hidden in a very safe place, I will present it to him hehehe.

I did spend some time in my office this morning.

We prepared a delicious smoked salmon salad with a home made dressing and a big container of fruit slices to take down to the park, where we were married seven years ago. We drank iced water, so no alcoholic toasts were made.

After lunch, on this very dull day, we decided to drive to the beach, kick off our footwear, and walk as far out along the sand as we could. It was low tide and our tide goes out for kilometres ... so far that you can't even see the water!

I attempted to take a panorama photo with my phone camera and just as I mastered it, Adoring Husband decided to be a fool and bounce around in front of me. This is the result!

He appears 'armless' lol

Here is the next attempt ...

We walked until Adoring Husband's legs hurt and then returned to the car. It was a competition to see whether the big black cloud or us would reach the car first!

Very dark and gloomy and threatening, but we won the race.

I had arranged to buy some sand crabs from The Motivator this afternoon to have for our anniversary dinner, so we picked up six sand crabs, which I spent almost an hour removing the meat from and made avocado and crab toast with the leftover salad from lunch. They were still warm, having just been cooked by The Fisher King. They couldn't have been any fresher!

It was a delicious dinner which we enjoyed very much. We've had a lovely day together. Happy Anniversary to us :)

Anyway, I forgot to show you my birthday gifts to myself yesterday! Here are all the gifts that I received - except for my jewellery organiser that Bubbles sent me (I will show you that tomorrow) -

The 'Clean Eating' recipe book and the Bambi and Thumper ornament were my gifts to myself. I've been very spoilt by my friends this year and I'm feeling the love.

This is the card that I gave myself.

I can't even explain the wonderful feeling that enveloped me when I opened the card on my birthday and read it out loud to myself. Who knew that something so simple could bring such warm happiness?

Anyway, it's time to be kind to myself and get to bed! It's way past midnight!

Nite all.