Mosaic Madness

Well! I can't say that it's finished yet, but I actually got to bring home one of my projects today. It still  needs another layer of grout and then I'll coat it with a layer of clear resin.

Considering that it's our first attempt, both Creative Cath and I were pretty happy with our efforts.

We are both very critical of our own work because we can clearly see how differently we would do it if we had the chance for a do over.

On the day that Teach announced this project, she told us to bring plant pots in for our first mosaic project, and there were plenty of tiles available for us to break up and use, but "I" was the instigator with the table top and when CC saw mine, she returned home to get hers as well.

This was not even close to what Teach had in mind and all the tiles that we took to the class were of different thicknesses, which is not ideal for grouting.

It means that our table tops are very uneven, which is why I plan on putting the clear resin on top, to hopefully even out the surface, so that it can be useful as a table.

So we were our own worst enemy.

A few pics to show some of the process.

Smashed up some tiles with a rubber hammer. The action was quite therapeutic, but the noise was disturbing!

Used a special silicone to stick the tiles to the table top.

A bucket and cloth used to wipe the excess grout from the table top.

This is what I've brought home ...

So, now we are on a break for about seven weeks. I have a couple of mosaic-ing ideas in my head, however, I doubt that I will get to start them, because there is always something else, more important to do, before time can be spent on such frivolous matters.

I'll spend the first 2-3 weeks focussing on the website and after that, we'll see.

I know you're thinking "It's only three hours on a Saturday morning", but for me, because of the strange way that my brain is wired, it wipes out the entire day. I simply don't have the motivation to do anything else when I get home and usually spend the afternoon on the couch watching meaningless TV with Adoring Husband.

It means that for the duration of the break, I will have approximately 56 extra hours to play with .. and I should be able to accomplish a LOT in that time. "SHOULD" being the operative word.

It was a very pleasant morning at Art and we learnt a lot about each other. There were only two students, including myself, so there was a lot of personal information shared and we had some good laughs too.

Everybody has a story.

I think I'll head off for an early night now.

Nite all.

 

Desk of Strength

Earlier in the week, I booked Adoring Husband to assemble the new sit/stand desk that he picked up from IKEA for me, on his way from holidays last week.

While I was relaxing in bed this morning with my coffee, I heard the annoying sound of power tools, which sounded way too close for comfort. After about ten minutes, I realised what Adoring Husband was doing, and remembered that the annoying noise was for my benefit!

Soon enough, he appeared in the bedroom declaring that he had done as much as he could at this point and he was waiting for me to clear the area in my workspace so that he could continue.

Remember the photo that I posted on Wednesday?

This is the 'after' shot ...

I must admit that my legs got quite tired after about two hours of standing and bouncing on the rebounder while I worked, so I wound down the desk and sat on my exercise ball on the rebounder.

Even though I spent many hours at my desk today (not even stopping for lunch), as far as work goes, I was very unproductive.

Tomorrow is Art class - Woot! Woot!

Hopefully, the remainder of my weekend will be highly productive at my desk. I feel like I have just a few small gaps to fill with my technical education before I can surge forward and make headway with the website. Once I've filled in those gaps, I can get started on other important business opportunities.

Anyway, enough of this frivolity.

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Muddy No More

What a grey, wet day.

I enjoyed my usual slow morning in bed reading and drinking coffee.

Before we drove to Scaryborough, we stopped to pick up our mail, which included the package I've been waiting for!! Woot! Woot!

We drove in the very strong wind along the highway to Maryborough, to meet with Best Cousin in the World, who was delivering my Lorraine Lea order, while I returned the recipe book that she loaned me a couple of weeks ago.

We met at 71 Wharf, which was once Muddy Waters Cafe. I was disappointed in the food. I had the only gluten free option that didn't include bread and was told that it was gluten free because it contained rice noodles. Honey Prawns and Calamari noodle salad. The calamari was very leathery, there were no noodles, the salad was limp and drowning in the honey dressing and there were only four small prawns (which were delicious).

The coffee was delicious and both Adoring Husband and Best Cousin in the World enjoyed their meals. BCITW had Moroccan Chicken Salad and AH had steak with chips and salad.

Anyway, I'm prepared to give them one more chance ... I always give cafes and restaurants a second chance.

It was nice to catch up with BCITW. We had some good belly laughs, as we do when we get together.

We left at 2pm and headed for Hervey Bay where it was raining very steadily and looked like it had been for quite some time.

We parked at Stocklands and spent about an hour inside buying lotto tickets (I must check to see if I'm 30 million dollars richer tonight), two tops and some groceries. It was still raining when we left and it rained the entire trip home. We stopped at Craignish to pick up our FROG box on the way.

There has been no rain since we arrived home.

Adoring Husband is off on SES duty tonight, so I've watched a wonderful movie called 'Lion' which I bought on DVD ages ago. It was still sealed in the plastic! Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman were both fabulous. I have a real soft spot for Dev Patel and he's one of those actors that draws me to a movie ... I would go see any movie that I knew he was in.

Now I'm watching GIRLBOSS until AH returns home.

Have a fabulous Friday!!

Nite all.

Good and Proper

It was raining this morning, so instead of riding to the Post Office, Adoring Husband was kind enough to drive me there.

I was a bit disappointed to discover that none of my orders arrived in the mail today. I was certain that the important one would be there. Maybe tomorrow.

After spending about 30 minutes doing some random housework, like removing the dry clothes from the line, decluttering the seat beside where I sit on the couch (I tend to accumulate a lot of paperwork, books, pens, jewellery and other crap), and making the marinade for our chicken wings for lunch, I made a beeline for my workspace.

Let me think what I achieved in my productive day.

I completed the first part of a mini 'Get Rich Lucky Bitch' course. Funnily enough, Part One was all about decluttering. Decluttering your house. Decluttering your relationships. Decluttering your health.

There is much to declutter!

I finished the Social Media course from the Academy, which I'd begun about six weeks ago, and then commenced the Product Marketing course, which is interesting and from which I have a LOT to learn!

I almost ordered some books from the recommended reading list. Some under the 'Business' heading, some under 'Marketing' and some under 'Business Biographies'. I decided that I already have about six books that I need to read before I consider purchasing any more!

I printed out the 'Magic Money Making Kit', which is basically a monthly checklist of tasks to do to run a successful online business. Both 'simple' and 'amazing' ideas that need to be done religiously to keep momentum and improve business.

I added more to my book ideas and now I need to create some sketches and artwork to use in the book. This has to be a priority now, while maintaining the website a bit more efficiently than I have been of late.

I decluttered my desk and sideboard. I removed my flaking office chair and replaced it with my exercise ball on top of my rebounder - much more fun to sit upon!

In the middle of all that, I cooked the chicken wings for lunch and then tonight, made some meat patties to cook for home made hamburgers. Lots of onion, zucchini, capsicum, tomato, kimchi and home made spicy tomato sauce.

So this is my desk 'before' and you have to wait until Friday to see the 'after' ...

We've got a trip to Scaryborough tomorrow to meet with Best Cousin in the World. She has some LorraineLea stuff for me to pick up and I have to return her recipe book.

So I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Awkwardly Easy

It's been an easy day.

I didn't want an easy day.

I wanted a full day jam-packed with an intense workload that, in the end, would be perfectly completed.

It all started very pleasantly with Lady Lynn and Maid Marian over coffee. We enjoyed a relaxing ninety minutes having a great catch up. It's been a long time since LL could manage a leisurely morning with us, so I think we made the most of it while we could.

I returned home to my workspace, but felt quite discombobulated at my desk.

So many things to do, but where to start?!

I kind of just clutched at straws. I did a little bit of this and a little bit of that, all the while thinking I should be doing something more important.

I watched a couple of webinars on creating passive income, business coaching, upgrading certain areas of your business, decluttering, manifesting - all the totally non-productive stuff that I didn't need to know about, on a day when I should have been super productive!!

By late in the afternoon, I decided that a 'to-do' list might be necessary, so that's what I did next.

Tomorrow should be more productive.

One very fun thing happened today! One of my jewellery orders was delivered!

Some new snap buttons and a few different bracelets/bangles (my apologies for the crappy phone photos) ...

A small selection of the new buttons ...

This was Adoring Husband's handiwork yesterday ...

It was a birthday gift from The Motivator (which was in April) that has finally found a home.

Adoring Husband, at my request, purchased this new skinny cupboard from IKEA on the way home from his trip away last week. It's to replace the ugly old brown one that has been in our bathroom for the last 9 years.

Next on the agenda will be my new desk that AH is booked to assemble on Friday. Watch this space for photos of that!! I'm excited!!

I guess I should get some sleep so that I CAN BE SUPER PRODUCTIVE tomorrow!!

Nite all.







 

Abundantly Clear

It's abundantly obvious that I have money blocks that I need to clear.

You could probably spend a good deal of time writing down many stories from your childhood, youth and adult years where money was a problem.

Can you hear your parents or your partner or even you saying "No, we can't afford it." or "That's too expensive." or "We've got three bills to pay this month, so we need to be careful with our money." or "You've got enough pairs of shoes." or "We can't touch our savings." or "Don't be so extravagant!" or "Turn off the air conditioner or our power bill will be too high."

Do you remember scrounging around in the bottom of your bag to find enough money for that loaf of bread?

Do you worry about breaking that $50 note because it will disappear faster?

Do you wait until that beautiful dress is on sale, only to discover that your size has gone?

Do you have memories of your father getting into trouble for spending the last of the house money on a horse race or a bottle of beer?

Did your parents struggle to find the money for you to go on a school excursion?

Did you wish that you could afford to give your kids the $200 Nike shoes like all the other kids had, instead of the $20 daggy K-Mart runners?

Did you ever have to live in Government Housing because you couldn't afford anywhere else?

Did you ever have to choose between health insurance or house and contents insurance because you couldn't afford both? Or perhaps you couldn't afford any?

Did you ever have to go to the emergency ward at the hospital because you couldn't afford to go to the doctor's surgery?

On the opposite end of the spectrum ...

Did you ever have to miss out on something amazing, like a weekend away or a show because your friend couldn't afford it?

Have friends or acquaintances made the "Life is tough for SOME people." comment because you have regular holidays, or buy a lot of shoes, or wear expensive jewellery or eat at nice restaurants?

Do friends or family often ask to borrow money because they think that you are 'well off'?

Do you listen to people make judgements and derogatory comments about others who appear to be wealthier than the average person?

Honestly, there is so much negativity surrounding money, earning, saving, spending, budgeting etc.

One of my courses required me writing down every money memory that I could think of. I filled ten pages in an hour and every day, I think of more. Both positive and negative .. but mostly negative.

Those are the memories that need to be let go. Decluttering and cleansing the negative money memories and creating new positive beliefs and plans for future money experiences.

There are so many opportunities to create personal wealth and brilliant ideas just waiting for action, but money blocks prevent or limit forward movement.

On top of money blocks, are the self beliefs. Not smart enough. Not good enough. Not fast enough. Not pretty enough. Not skinny enough. Not qualified enough. Not competent enough. Not talented enough. Not strong enough. Not brave enough. Blah. Blah. Blah.

These imagined failings are mostly believed by older women, of themselves, because history has given us roles that were usually caring or supportive roles and we rarely cared for, or about ourselves. We Baby Boomers were always looking out for the men and children. Women held everything together or worked the menial jobs, while the men went out and paved the way for future generations of other men.

Well, guess what ...

The times have changed. With today's technology, opportunities are there for everyone to take hold and create an abundant future for themselves. I want to grab my opportunities and break down my self built barriers every time I hit them ... and I know there will be many along the way ... keeping the momentum will be my challenge.

I have a 'shit to do' journal. It will help keep me on my forward path.

One of the best things to help keep me energised on my forward journey, is a good night's sleep!

So ...

Nite all.    

G & F Sunday

What a perfectly divine Sunday.

Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) when I bought my arvo coffee, I bought two and put one in the fridge so that I could reheat it this morning (Sunday) and climb back into bed.

My morning lasted for it's entirety - it was noon when I decided to greet the day properly.

I completely took over the king-sized bed with my stable table, laptop, iPad, iPhone, journals, books, pens, paperwork, water bottle, glasses, TV remote, fan remote (I had to turn on the fan last night!) and of course, my coffee.

It was heavenly!

Considering it was after midday by the time I rose, I heated up some beef vindaloo curry for lunch, which was extra delicious after 24 hours in the fridge.

I had a quick visit from The Old Speckled Hen and Dirty Old Man when they delivered a birthday invitation to his 80th birthday in August.

After that, I sat down to Netflix and watched (for the third time), Series 3 of Grace and Frankie.

Adoring Husband arrived home from his weekend in Bundaberg just before 5pm, so we caught up with our news before watching some more G & F and eventually, I found my way to the kitchen where I prepared lamb rack with vegetables (beans, peas and broccoli) and fried potatoes. It was delicious and satisfying.

Tonight, I've watched Bridget Jones's Baby (also for the third time) and thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

So, that was my perfect Sunday :)

I hope to spend the next couple of days at my workspace ... I have been very neglectful of my website for almost two weeks and I need to change that.

So ... time for bed.

Nite all.

Ready For Bed

Gosh, I feel like my day has been full on.

I worked first thing this morning, after which I pedalled down to get my morning coffee.

When I arrived home, I drank my coffee, did a quick tidy up, made my lunch to take to Art class and then sat down to order some jewellery that some of my ladies have asked for.

At 9.30am, my lift arrived and we drove to The Motivator's house to pick up her pottery bust. She can't attend the classes for the next couple of weeks, so 'Teach' is taking care of it for her.

We only have one class left next week, before a six week break ... which I'm a bit sad about ... but one of the girls is going on a cruise for a month and then 'Teach' will be away for five weeks, so looking on the bright side, I may even get to sell my wares at the markets next month because I'll have a Saturday free!

My time in class was spent attaching some more tiles to the table top and 'Teach' showed me how to mix the grout, so I grouted all the tiles that were in place, which was about a quarter. Hopefully, I will finish the whole thing next week and MAYBE even get to bring it home.

Once again, the three hours flew by and it was time to leave.

No sooner had I arrived home, when the doorbell rang and Beauty was at my door for a quick visit to pay me the last little bit of her order and look for a gift for a friend.

After she left, I enjoyed a slice of key lime pie and then decided to pedal to the shops to get myself an afternoon coffee. I was almost tempted to buy some junk food, but instead I chose to be kind to my body. I'm pleased that I made that decision now and I'm going to be even kinder, by having another early night.

Adoring Husband drove home from Bundaberg this afternoon to get his medication and immediately left to return to Bundy for the second half of his course tomorrow.

I'm watching the football at the moment and there have been some good games on today. Unfortunately, I have not got any of my tips correct today. In four weeks, I have gone from second on the ladder to about second last!! Ugh.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Have a happy Sunday!

Nite all.

Oh My Goodness!

Can you believe it? I was in bed by 7.30pm and after reading for a while, was asleep by 8.30pm. I woke at 12.19am for a visit to the bathroom and then slept soundly until 5.30am. How fabulous!

While I sat up in bed this morning, in my summer pyjamas, drinking coffee and reading some more of my book, with the window open and enjoying the crisp breeze floating across the room, Adoring Husband was wandering around the house all rugged up as if it was snowing outside and berating me for being so weird.

When I finally decided to greet the day, I pedalled to the Post Office to pick up a delivery. It was one that I had hoped would be here by last Wednesday, because it contained all the presentation stands for my snap buttons and jewellery. Better late than never.

On the way home, I stopped at The Motivator's house to deliver her jewellery that she'd bought during the week and we had about 40 minutes before some friends of hers arrived for a brief visit. After quick introductions, I ducked out the back door and headed home, where Adoring Husband was packing for his trip to Bundaberg.

He's participating in a 4WD course for SES, but he has gone off without his medication, so he's feeling a bit annoyed with himself right now.

He's also just put the mockers on my footy team, The Broncos, by saying that with ten minutes to go, they should beat the Rabbitohs with the current score of 22-12. No sooner had we finished our phone conversation, and the Rabbitohs scored! Whenever AH makes a rash statement about what he believes will happen ... the OPPOSITE happens!

I told him that if Broncos lose because of his rash statement, I won't go to work for him in the morning.

Time's up ... Broncos won ... lucky for him!!

It's almost 10pm and I think I will head to bed for another reasonably early night.

Just want to say that I have these kinds of people around me ...

You know who you are :)

Nite all.

Run Down

Today, I felt very lethargic and a bit run down.

It's 7pm and I'm yawning my head off, so this is a quick post and I am off to bed.

That probably means that I'll be awake before midnight and then be out of bed at stupid o'clock, but I really need to sleep right now.

Adoring Husband also needs to sleep the last of his illness off.

I've spent the day providing fresh juice, home made soups, fermented vegetables, Vitamin C, essential oils, probiotics and sending him outside to get some midday sunshine. I also had to remind him to drink water. He should be as good as gold by morning (haha).

AH is supposed to be attending a course this weekend, so I plan on spending every waking moment at my desk. I have a lot to catch up on, so I need to be re-energised.

So enough of this frivolity.

Nite all.

A Happy Event

I know!!  Yell at me!!  Slap my forehead!! Grunt in disbelief!! Groan in dismay!!

I did not take any photos today.

Ugh!

I honestly did not expect the day to go as it did.

I imagined ten ladies coming through my door, spending $10-$15 each, sharing drinks and nibbles with me while I delivered a well planned speech to describe my website, who it was aimed at and what I hoped to achieve with it.

What actually happened, was that sixteen ladies came through my door, another three ladies gave me an order over the phone and each of them spent a LOT more than the $10-$15 that I imagined.

Between greeting my visitors, pouring drinks, taking money, putting food out and chatting with everybody, by the time my overwhelm had passed and I could stop and think, half of the ladies had left and the photo opportunities were well and truly gone.

I have to say, it was such a nice day. Everybody was happy and chatting away, giving and receiving advice about their choices. The Motivator was motivating everyone, using her design expertise, to select the perfect snap buttons to accessorise. The Margaritas, Cosmopolitans, Chardies, SBs and non alcoholic punch all went down a treat.

The nibbles got nibbled, the chicken wings and pork/chicken meatballs were gobbled up. I forgot to serve the key lime pie (it's still in the freezer).

So, I forgot to take photos, I forgot my speech and I forgot to serve sweets. They say things run in threes lol.

Speaking of threes, my entry into the Flickr challenge came third this month. The theme was 'Red' ...

I'm off to bed. I'm exhausted.

Nite all.

Very Busy and Important

This will be a very short post because I am busy getting things organised for tomorrow's gathering.

I need to marinate some chicken wings so that I can cook them first thing tomorrow morning. I also have to cook up some mini meatballs with a dipping sauce.

I'm making a key lime tart and some energy balls for sweets to have with tea and coffee.

There'll be a cheese platter, veggie sticks and two dips with crackers.

My new punch bowl will be filled with a non-alcoholic punch, and I'll have two pitchers, one with margarita mix and the other full of cosmopolitan mix.

So much to do, so little time!

I guess I'll see some of you tomorrow (or today as you are reading this now), but I'll be sharing photos here in tomorrow night's post, which I hope will show what a fabulous time everyone has had!!

*happy dance*

Nite all.  

Cleaning Bug

Instead of Spring cleaning, I am Winter cleaning.

Today, my focus was the oven, but I must admit that it was a half hearted effort.

Judge me if you will, but I rarely clean my oven. I do a LOT of my cooking in the oven too, because I hate standing over the stove and wasting time in the kitchen. This is why the slow cooker and the oven are my best friends .. because I can do the preparations, shove it in the oven and then walk away.

The state of my oven is/was pretty disgusting.

I used the Enjo cleaning paste which removed almost all the baked on dirt and grease with just a chux wipe! There was a little muck left over that needed scrubbing, but I didn't put much effort into it and only spent 80 minutes to get a decent result.

Cleaning the sliding doors to the outdoor area was on my 'to do' list today, but I just couldn't be bothered. I guess I'll add it to tomorrow's list.

I made a cauliflower and broccoli soup for dinner tonight, which was lovely, but jeez I made a mess in my clean kitchen! I'm about to give it a good clean before I go to bed. It's not even 8.30pm and I'm hoping to be in bed by 9.30pm.

The only other cleaning that I did, was the floor in the kitchen/family room.

This was my view while chatting with the boys at The Seat of Knowledge this morning...

There is still plenty to do tomorrow, so I'm off!

Nite all.

I'm SO done!

It was difficult getting out of bed this morning.

I'd slept for a solid eight hours and woke up to spend an hour reading, and enjoying a slow start to the day, but eventually, I needed my morning coffee and since Adoring Husband is not here, I had to go get it myself!

Lucky for me, it was a glorious day, so it was an enjoyable ride to the shops.

It was 10am by the time I got home and I sat down to enjoy my coffee before beginning the tasks on my 'to do' list. I turned on the TV to discover yet another terrorist disaster in England. Ugh. The world is now on notice .. expect the unexpected .. anywhere and anytime. It's so horrible and the ripple effect touches us all.

I can't even comprehend how devastating it must be for the friends and family of those who were attacked. Strength, love and light to them.

When I couldn't watch any more on TV, I switched off (so easy for me to walk away - unlike those who are directly affected - and I felt shame) and started working in the kitchen.

Before I started cleaning, I seared a rolled lamb roast and popped it in the oven. That will be my lunch meat for the next few days.

I listened to 80s music on the radio while I cleared out my fridge, cleaned all the shelves and drawers, restocked with the still fresh food and then cleaned the outside as well. I filled a medium garbage bag with everything that was out of date or rotting.

Next I started on the pantry. It was chockers full of bags of flours and sugars and grains and seeds and nuts and cooking chocolate and powders and dried fruits and goodness knows what else! It took a long time to sort through it all and combine bags and store them in sealed containers.

There was plenty of out-of-date packets to toss out and I filled another medium bag to put in the sulo bin. By the time I'd finished, three hours had passed since I began my kitchen cleanout.

After that, I needed a break, so I sat down to watch the football .. a very stressful game where the team that I had chosen in my footy tips lost by just one point UGH!! It was my only incorrect tip for the week, so I missed out on a perfect round because of it.

I desperately wanted that game win, to have even a remote chance of catching the tipping comp leader (who just happens to be Adoring Husband) in the near future.

After the footy, I headed back to the kitchen in disgust and began scrubbing the stove and exhaust fan, clearing the bench tops and decluttering paperwork and recipe books, scrubbing tiles and building up a sweat.

Very satisfying to finally have a clean kitchen, although I should clear out the drawers, but that can wait til another day.

I was pretty happy with my Enjo cleaning products during this process. The cleaning paste for the stove and tiles was fabulous and made the job so much easier. The fibrous cloth for wiping it afterwards was also amazing.

Good enough that I am now looking forward to attending an Enjo party this month and will check out the other products available.

Adoring Husband has been having such a good time down in Armidale with his mate, that he has spent a total of six minutes on the phone with me since he left. This is my passive aggressive way of making him feel guilty enough to spend eight minutes talking to me tomorrow *wink wink*

I can't believe that it's already 10.30pm!  I'm off to bed!

Nite all.

Arty Farty Day

I had a great day at Art again .. although it was my turn to provide lunch, but I didn't realise it .. and on top of that, we discussed last week about me providing my own lunch because the girls don't understand the complexities of 'gluten free' well enough for my tummy to be safe from harm.

So I took a delicious chicken and vegetable soup, which I made myself .. FOR myself .. and the others had nothing haha .. until the teacher was generous enough to make some curried egg sandwiches for the others.

Oops.

We all arrived at the class with arms loaded with tiles and our item which we had selected to mosaic.

I was originally going to do the bird bath, but then at the last minute, I decided to pull the legs off one of the little round side tables in the family room, and mosaic that .. which was funny because when I brought it out to the car, one of the other ladies said, "Oh I have one of those! I might go back and get it so that I can mosaic it too!"

So there were two of us mosaic-ing round tables. The top one is mine and the other belongs to Creative Cat.

When we arrived at the class, our first twenty minutes was showing each other all of the tiles that we'd acquired during the week and pointing out the tiles that were for 'sharing' and the tiles that we wanted to use ourselves.

Then we chose our colour pallet ... and we were all VERY different.

Arty Annie selected browns and oranges.

Sassy Hugger chose lots of earthy tones

Creative Cat wanted creams, greys, blacks and browns with little pops of colour.

I'm certain that you can guess my choices were teals, aquas and soft blues with yellow, white and black.

By the end of the three hours, I was the furthest behind, as usual! Sassy Hugger had been in during the week and broken her tiles and selected her colour pallet already, so she got started right away.

Artistic Annie was very quick to complete her pot, but my phone camera decided to play up and I didn't get any photos at the end of the class. I'll be sure to take them as soon as I arrive next week so that you can see progress shots.

I had only siliconed the outer edges and one small patch inside, when I looked at the clock and there was only ten minutes remaining of the class. Ugh!

It's funny how on Saturday mornings I almost find excuses NOT to attend the class because I have so much to do at home, but then when I'm there, I have such a good time and I just DON'T want to leave when 1pm rolls around!

So that's what's happening with mosaics. I still have a clay mobile to complete and Teach still has to press my house number tile so that I can paint that and have it fired. Our busts still haven't been fired either. Still a lot going on mid-project, but that's ok.

I'm having an easy night so that I can focus on a solid 'to do' list tomorrow.

Nite all.

Bookem Rozzo

One table completely covered with journals, notebooks and books.

I love my journals and notebooks. That empty space that you see in this pic is no longer an empty space.

I've typed up and printed the price lists for this table and also for the purses and wallets.

The tiles that I ordered online arrived today ...

just in the nick of time for Art tomorrow! I'm not even sure what it is that I'm going to mosaic yet. I have the bird bath, but I'm thinking that a plant pot might be better to do first, until I get a feel for the process.

I'll decide tomorrow.

It's almost 11pm so I'd best get some sleep. I have an early start for work in the morning and then I need to ride to the shops for my coffee before getting ready for Art. Oh and I have to prepare my lunch to take with me as well.

My pillow is calling my name.

Nite all.

My Brain is Resting

We started today by spending an hour with our financial advisors. Pleasant, but hardly necessary. A phone call would have been easier and just as effective.

Before we came home, we stopped to check our mail, and I was pleased to receive a package that I've been waiting almost 2 weeks for. From there we came directly home so that Adoring Husband could pack the car and head off on his road trip.

I spent part of the day setting up the tables in my dining area, covering them with my new velvety teal blankets and then walking three kilometres (my watch measured it!) back and forth from my workspace to the dining room to display my wares!

There is still a lot to display yet! It feels like it's never-ending!

I have a lot planned for the next few days including grooming the dogs, cleaning out both the fridge and the pantry, getting the washing up to date, chalk painting the bedside tables, cooking a roast and bulk batch of Hainan chicken, finishing my display and possibly cleaning the windows if I feel like it.

It's almost 11pm and I need to be up with the sun tomorrow for work, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Origin Time

Congratulations to all Blues supporters for an awesome win in the first State of Origin game of the series. Great game. Great team. Great win.

I did not like the score line very much at all ...

I've had a great day today (apart from the State of Origin loss) and it all started with breakfast at Aquavue with Adoring Husband. French toast with bacon, banana and maple syrup. YUM! However, I was advised, after I had already eaten some of it, that the icing sugar that had been sprinkled over the banana, contained gluten. Ugh! I had already ingested it, so that was disappointing.

We heard on the news last night that the Pier Markets were on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so after breakfast we headed down to Urangan Pier.

The markets consisted of 6 stalls, none of which had anything worth handing money over for their goods. We were very disappointed.

Next, I wanted to go browsing through a clothes shop called Luxe, but we discovered that it doesn't open until 10am and it was only 9am. I was very disappointed.

We stopped at Go Natural to get some coconut sugar, which cost about $8. We left with $105 worth of fruit, veg and kombucha!

Because Go Natural didn't have the nut butter that I need for those delicious cookies that I baked yesterday, we drove to Nana's Pantry, but they too, didn't have any. So I bought the three types of nuts  - almonds, Brazil nuts and cashews - so that I could make my own.

Our final stop was Stocklands, to stock up on dog food so I don't run out while Adoring Husband is away. We left the supermarket with quite a bit more than that, but we were headed home before 11.30am.

I spent the afternoon laying out the majority of my jewellery on the dining room table ...

There is not enough room for it all and I'll have to set up two more tables. One for more jewellery and one for the wallets and bags and the journals.

So much stuff.

At least everything will be set up, so whatever is left after the party next week can be photographed where it is and I will finally be able to load everything onto the website.

Oh! I also received a package in the mail today with an order that I made just over 24 hours prior to receiving it! Amazing!!

New Business Cards that are SO much nicer than the old ones.

Thank you postcards ...

And a sign to use at the markets or at my (our) shop, if/when it finally becomes reality.

I love it all!

So half of our day had some disappointments and the other half had some happy wins!

Anyway, it's after midnight, and we have an early appointment tomorrow. Best get some sleep!

Nite all.

Achievable

It's been a full day.

Two hours with the girls this morning over coffee and it was lovely to see Lady Lynn join us for a short time. There was a fair bit of snorting happening, a sooky fur baby in the mix, a quick visit by another friend and way too much coffee!

I did some grocery shopping before riding off to The Motivator's house where we sang and danced our way through three hours of decluttering and cleaning. Even though I suffered concussion when half a window fell on my face (I am exaggerating this minor incident), I enjoyed putting my back into it and felt very productive.

I returned home at about 2.30pm to do some ironing for Adoring Husband, but by the time I'd made myself some lunch and ate it, my body had seized up and my brain said 'Nope!'

Instead, Adoring Husband and I discussed which route he would take on his road trip this week and spent half an hour looking at maps online, trying to figure out the quickest and easiest roads.

Between us, we made a really quick spaghetti bolognese for dinner and then while I was browsing through my emails, I found this delicious cookie recipe, which looked so easy that I went straight into the kitchen and it took me 15 minutes to mix it up and get it in the oven. Ten minutes to bake. Twenty minutes to cool down and set. Ten seconds to gobble one down.

Adoring Husband pleaded for a second cookie and then stole a third one, just to make it easier for them to fit into a container.

So AH and I have a breakfast date in The Bay tomorrow morning, which means an early start. It's already rapidly approaching 11pm, so I'd best get to bed.

Nite all.   

I'm All Set

It was a busy day today, with The Motivator and I heading into The Bay in pursuit of some appropriate tiles for our next art project.

I was lucky enough to discover a website this morning that was selling some perfect tiles for the project that I have imagined in my head and there was a clearance sale, which was a bonus!

We acquired some offcuts and one-offs from a shop that had a table of inexpensive bits and pieces for sale and also some bigger broken tiles for free from a crate outside the back door, which was headed to the recycle centre once it was full.

We went to Bunnings (YES! 'I' went to Bunnings voluntarily!) and found some terracotta birdbaths that were reasonably priced and will look amazing when when we're finished!  I like these ...

We had a busy, but enjoyable day together and I feel like we achieved a lot. Not as much as our original plan! But we'll fix that tomorrow.

Officeworks was one of our destinations where I bought some more price tags!!  Wahoo!! So we arrived home and as soon as I walked in the door, I said my 'hellos' to Adoring Husband and headed straight to my workspace where I got some more pricing done.

Even though I didn't get much time at my desk, I'm happy with today's productivity. 

Now I need to sleep so that I'm ready for another big day tomorrow.

Nite all.