That Time Again

I'm very happy to have reached Sunday.

Even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Happy Abode and love spending time there, in the last thirty days, I've only had two complete days away from Happy Abode business. I've even spent my Sundays either at the shop for a period of time or working on my photography course at home or going to The Bay to get things for the shop.

Yes, I had four days in Sydney, but it was all about Happy Abode business and was exhausting! I have to add that it was fun and worth the exhaustion, but I need to practice some rest, relaxation and self care, because I've used almost all of my happy energy and I need to generate some more.

This Sunday, I have to go to the shop with Adoring Husband to drill a hole in the wall to hang a mirror, measure up for some shelving for storage and then vacuum the floor. So it won't be my day to fill my cup, as I'd planned, but I can rest in the morning.

It's exciting that the football season has begun for this year. I'm already doing poorly in the footy tipping competition at the club and only have one correct out of five so far!

It's only 9.30pm but it feels like midnight! I'm soooooo tired.

For anybody who cares, The Blonde Bombshell is doing well. Her recovery will take 2 - 3 months at this stage. She has a broken bones in her neck and back, as well as a broken rib, but the doctors are happy with her progress and happy with the surgery that she underwent a couple of days ago. She is, apparently, in good spirits and her husband will be able to join her in Sydney by Wednesday. So that is good news.

We spent most of today pricing and displaying the 'Intrinsic' range of products on the main table in the shop and rearranging some other stock. We've added a small 'sale' table to the mix as well.

Our new line of watches will arrive next week, along with the Waterlyn journals and then the following week will see the delivery of the Serenade range of bags and purses, and hopefully the new Ivys range will arrive too.

The fun part will be figuring out where to put it all in the shop.

For now though, I'm off to bed.

Nite all. 

Happy Outcome

My mind was on another planet this morning.

I wanted everything to be perfect for my very first course.

I have trained people before. In the Public Service, I trained classrooms of staff in new work processes and new programs. I ran seminars three times a week for up to 20 people at a time educating people about their rights and obligations, about privacy and confidentiality practices and more.

But I have never designed, created and delivered a course myself.

So today was a pretty big deal!

Even more so because we are a small community and if my course sucks, the town will know about it pretty quickly, and nobody will sign up in the future and the grapevine would make my name mud in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

So this morning, I was running around like a chook with its head cut off, trying to set it all up perfectly, providing folders and pens for the participants, a plate of grapes in lieu of lollies, a jug of cold water and clean glasses.

I plugged in my laptop for emergency googling, set up some props for practicing photography, put my handouts in the right order and gathered the photographic examples.

I rushed through the supermarket to get milk for coffee and some sweet biscuits for morning tea and decided on two types, both of them gluten, egg, dairy and nut free - which in the end turned to be the perfect choice!

Fifteen minutes before the start I realised that the cold water bottle was almost empty and so was the box of filtered water, so I rushed back to the supermarket to buy a bottle of water. As I was returning to the shop, I patted myself to find the keys and suddenly realised that I had left the shop unlocked and the keys were sitting on my desk!

My head was somewhere far, far away.

This course is for three hours every Friday morning for 3 weeks, and initially I was wondering how the heck I was going to fill three hours, let alone nine! But surprisingly, the three hours went very quickly and I had the perfect amount of theory and practice to easily fill the time.

I love my class of students because they were engrossed and intrigued and happy with the information I shared today and they enthusiastically practiced their shots with my props and wandered through the shop finding other examples to practice on.

I gave them homework to complete this week, which they were very keen to do.

It was a great morning and we learned a lot about each other at the introduction part of the course and then at morning tea.

Afterwards I was incapable of doing much at all - my mental energy had run very low!

It was exciting to see our 'Intrinsic' stock arrive today (from the lady who I cried on at the fair). We unpacked it and checked it off. Tomorrow, we'll price it and creatively display it. It's just beautiful!

Now it's after 11pm and I need to rest my weary bones.

Nite all.

Time's Up!

I have the first part of my course complete and ready to present tomorrow morning.

I'm not feeling very confident but I'm also not feeling too disturbed by the prospect because it's a very small class of two.

With so many people originally on the list, there was not one date or set of days that suited every single person. They all wanted different combinations so I had to make the decision to set dates and then if people really wanted to participate, they would find a way.

I had three people lined up for tomorrow, but one has withdrawn. I'm very happy with the two ladies who will join me and I think it will be an enjoyable course and a great way for me to present my first ever Beginners Photography Course.

Anyway, it's almost 11pm and I need to be up early to get morning tea for the course ladies on the way to The Happy Abode, so I'm off to bed now.

Nite all.

Rearranged

We had a shop full of people this morning, six of us at one stage, rearranging the cabinets,  furniture and stock. Now we look as good as new and the shop even looks bigger!

I didn't think to take photos, but I will tomorrow and share them in tomorrow's post.

This week has been one full of sad and shocking news for me.

I was disappointed that nobody told me about my friend The Publican, who passed away while we were in Sydney, and I only learned about it on Thursday afternoon, which was the day of her funeral so I had missed it.

She is in a better place now and no longer in pain and I have paid my respects in my own way. May she rest in peace.

Today, I received a phone call about my good friend, The Blonde Bombshell (aka yip yip), who was involved in a bad car accident while towing a caravan near Cobar yesterday. She is currently in Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney where she had surgery on her spine today, while her husband is in Orange Hospital having surgery on his left hand.

We all feel so helpless up here and I know that we all wish we were closer to be able to help them in any way possible. Luckily their much loved dog Molly survived the accident too and is waiting to be picked up by family members.

If you get to catch up on this blog and you read this Yip Yip - get well soon, heal quickly and hurry home.  We missed you at trivia tonight and at coffee on Tuesday and at the club on Friday night. Do everything right and take good care of you xo.

It's getting close to midnight, so I'm off to bed.

I have approximately 24 hours to finish creating my photography course so tomorrow is going to be a big day!

Nite all.

Just Ask Me!

It has been five months since the first storm that caused water damage in The Happy Abode. 

2nd October 2017 was our first experience, but apparently there has been an issue with leaks ever since day one of this building's existence.

So it's now five months later, the problem has not been fixed and we have experienced our third rain event with water damage.

One of the annoying things about this situation is that today, they found where the main leak was ... and it was exactly where I said it was the first time.

This man doesn't like to take advice from females and he doesn't listen, choosing instead, to speak over the top of us.

I noticed today, that he also doesn't like to listen to the professionals, because the roofing guy wanted to do a couple of things today, and he spoke over the top of him and said "don't worry about that, it'll be right."

All I can say, is that it had better be right, because my patience is wearing very thin.

This is how we left the shop this afternoon - just in case of more heavy rain - it was looking very ominous all around us this evening, but so far we've only had light rain.

We met the owners of the other shops today and we told them that we were very interested in the shop JATOE. We had long discussions about nothing in particular but brought up the fact that we would like to be in a better position on the street.

You never know what might develop from those discussions.

We had more stock arrive today and there should be even more by the end of the week, so now we are rearranging the shop to accommodate more cabinets and we're ready to order a couple of tall glass cabinets to go with the three that we already have.

We're struggling to figure out where to put all the stock that will arrive in the coming weeks.

My photography course commences this Friday and I still haven't finished creating/designing it!

I've got 48 hours lol.

Don't worry. I do my best work under pressure!

Happy Hump Day.

Nite all. 

Pyjama Party

I have enjoyed a 24 hour pyjama party all on my lonesome.

I remained in bed until 4.30pm working on my business training stuff.

*As I write this, I have just received a phone call from The Motivator telling me that the shop is flooding! I can't even get there to help because Adoring Husband is at the Sandy Straits attending an SES meeting! Ugh! I feel so helpless and the rain is relentless and loud and so heavy!*

As I was saying ...

I got through two weeks of the training in one day and that included printing out some money mindset affirmations and sticking them all over the house where Adoring Husband and I will see them every day.

This will help me remain positive and motivated in my head while we build up the business and will hopefully stop me from slowing down or putting on the brakes ... as is known to happen.

It also included a lot of journalling/writing.

I am STILL in my pyjamas and am now on the couch ready to watch MKR before climbing back into bed ready for a big day at work tomorrow, which will obviously include some cleaning up from tonight's rain.

The landlord is going to cop it from us after this. The repairers came into our shop without permission, cut a hole in our ceiling leaving a mess all over the floor of the training room which we need to use and they STILL have not fixed the problem!

It's been 45 minutes since I heard from The Motivator and she hasn't responded to my text, so I'm hoping that things are ok. At least the rain has stopped ... for now.

I need to leave and wallow in my stress.

Nite all.

A Bit of Happy Work

I'm a bit tired.

I was awake at 4am and dozed on and off for a couple of hours until Adoring Husband delivered my coffee just after 6am. I got out of bed at 8.30am, showered and prepared myself for a trip into The Bay.

I was on a mission!

I had an idea to cover some of the less attractive parts of our new-old cabinets with washi tape, so we went in search of some teal coloured tape.

Our first stop was Spotlight. I found some teal tape, but it was in a pack with six other colours and each pack cost almost $20. I would need four packs to do the job because each roll was only two metres long. A total of $80 was much more than I planned on spending.

Our second stop was K-Mart. They too had washi tape which was MUCH cheaper, but none of the colours fit my brief.

Our third stop was Office Works (my favourite shop). The problem with Office Works, was that I found washi tape ALL OVER THE PLACE. There was no designated area for washi tape! We wandered all over the shop looking for it and found it in four different spots.

I selected a pack of five. Each roll was ten metres long and each colour was a different shade of teal. It only cost $4.97.

Adoring Husband found what looked like a big fat Texta of black ink, but was in fact, a container of water based black paint that seeps through a thick Texta type nib. So I bought that to paint the legs of the cabinets which were looking a bit the worst for wear.

I also bought some throw rugs, which I though might look ok laid over the base of the cabinets, but they turned out to be too narrow, so I'll take them back.

I think it took about 90 minutes to do the washi tape and the leg painting. I hope that The Motivator likes it! I believe that they look a whole lot better now, than when we brought them to the shop on Friday.

Tomorrow is my day off and I can't wait to spend the majority of the day in bed with my training stuff  and maybe doing some more of my photography course (which, incidentally, begins this coming Friday!)

We stopped off at Dan Murphys before we came home and stocked up on some alcoholic beverages.

We ate duck breast with salad for dinner and I whipped up a quick pineapple whip ice cream, of which AH ate two servings ... ok I admit it ... I ate two servings as well.

It's after 11pm and it's time for me to sleep and rest this weary body.

Nite all.

The New Abode

I'm done!

It was an interesting day.

So many people, new faces, came to the shop today, all singing praises about how beautiful it was, how reasonable the prices were, how it was like the secret shop tucked away, how did this town get so lucky to have such a wonderful shop?

Unfortunately, praises don't equate to sales.

It was The Motivator's day off and I spent the time in between customers/visitors cleaning the glass and polishing the chrome on the new display cabinets. They were all in pieces in the training room which made it easier to clean.

I didn't realise how grotty they were until I began to wipe and found some interesting spots, sticky tape, inky marks, thick dust in the tracks where the glass sliding doors fit, glue spots, sticky splashes, grease smudges and more.

With interruptions, it took three hours to clean them, but the sliding doors still need some work.

Adoring Husband came to the shop at midday and began helping me empty some of the old display cabinets and shelves so that they could be moved and rearranged to make way for the new ones.

We spent so much time agonising over where to place everything to maximise the space and have it still look welcoming. The original plan that was imagined in my head, did not work at all, so the process was painful! I almost tossed one of the cabinets altogether!

Eventually, we found a layout that was acceptable, however, it still needs to be approved by The Motivator. We removed the table that was at the front door to make way for a cabinet and then had to find space for all the stock that was on that table.

I rearranged a LOT of stock, but did not fill the cabinets. Some of the new stock that's being delivered in the coming weeks will find a home there.

We had to clear the training room and vacuum all the mess that was left by the roof repairer last week, in readiness for the meditation class on Monday morning.

Adoring Husband left the building at about 5.15pm and I arrived home on my trike at 6pm.

The job is still not complete, but I'll return tomorrow afternoon and tie up the loose ends.

Right now, we both feel like we've been hit by a truck!

Those cabinets were awkward and heavy and fragile, so it was quite difficult manoeuvring them through the space and we had to move other furniture to make room to squeeze through.

I'm looking forward to crawling into bed tonight and sleeping late tomorrow.

There will be a trip into The Bay tomorrow to find something that will dress up the cabinets and hide some flaws.

Monday is my day off, so I'll spend the entire day in bed! Can't wait!

Meanwhile, have a fabulous Sunday!

Nite all.

What do you practice everyday?

I just had a local gentleman (of dubious character) in the shop complaining very loudly and very aggressively about the new real estate agent.

The old RE had a direct debit system in place so that his rent could go directly from his bank account to their bank account and he never had to worry about it.

The new RE doesn't have that system in place and it means that he has to organise with his own bank to send his rent payment to their account, which in turn, means a bank fee that he has to pay.

I suggested that since he only lives around the corner, he could drop into the RE office once each fortnight and pay the rent over the counter. After all, he comes to the shops to buy bread and milk - it would be easy to do that and he wouldn't have to pay fees.

Without even pausing, he cut my idea down in flames stating "WHY should I have to do that? It's not my problem that the new RE hasn't got their act together! They should be accommodating their customers! If they don't fix the problem, I'm just not going to pay rent!"

My next suggestion was that he may need to begin looking for new accommodation for when they evict him.

He didn't like that idea either haha.

I know this gentleman (still dubious) quite well from his visits to the Seat of Knowledge and his life is filled with dramas. He plays the victim beautifully and his middle name should be 'negative' probably in capital letters. I generally like to avoid contact with him because he loves to spread his anger far and wide.

Right after he left the shop, I received this in messenger from a friend ...



Amazingly appropriate, and I almost ran out of the shop to chase him and have him watch the video!

Today (2nd March) marks the 39th anniversary of my oldest child's passing. He would have turned 40 this year in October.

I'm feeling a bit sad and melancholy, just momentarily as I remember.

At the same time, I'm trying to coordinate the purchase and pick up of some shop display cabinets in Maryborough this afternoon. It seems the Universe is conspiring against me, but I think that between Adoring Husband and myself, we might be able to work it out.

I had a very quiet morning in the shop but it's been much busier this afternoon - which is unusual because it's usually the other way around.

I'm feeling a bit peckish - might be time to order some lunch!

This is a very early post because I wanted to talk about the angry man and the video coinciding.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend.

Afternoon all and ...

Nite all.

Back to Work

Now that the carpet is dry, I started the day putting the shop back together.

It took a bit longer than I expected, but we got there in the end.

We took delivery of a small order that I'd made a few days before I went away, so those items needed to be checked off, priced and displayed.

I unpacked the few things that we brought back with us from Sydney, priced them all, set aside the special order for Tweedle Dee and placed the remainder on display (except a one-off chain that I fell in love with and had to buy for myself!).

We listed and tallied up all the orders that we made in Sydney and then audibly gasped at the total!

We also rubbed our hands with glee at the thought of all those lovely items arriving through our shop doors at staggered times in the coming weeks. It will be an entire month feeling like Christmas.

There were also a few customers to tend to during the day.

Between us, we were pretty much done in at the end of the day.

For me, looking after the shop on my own, dealing with the stressful weather event/damage and then tearing through three intense days at the fairs in Sydney, I felt a little low on energy.

For The Motivator, who endured long hours of travel, some incredibly intense emotional cleansing over 8 days, more long hours on the plane home, not being able to access our room for quite a few uncomfortable hours in Sydney and then tearing through three intense days at the fairs in Sydney, she too was feeling low on energy.

But we made it through the day, have each selected a day either side of Sunday to take off work and try to regain some of that energy that we're lacking.

I'll be in bed immediately after Gogglebox tonight. I love Gogglebox!

Happy Friday everyone ...

Nite all.

  

Jiggedy Jig

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig.

We were totally organised this morning and left the motel at exactly 8am as we planned.

Our taxi fares from the airport to the motel when we arrived were $42.50 for The Motivator and $57.00 for me. These totals included tolls.

We decided to use Uber to take us to the airport this morning. I ordered the Uber at 7.55am and our driver was putting our suitcases in the boot at 7.58am. Obviously, it was peak hour traffic and our driver asked us which way we wanted to go. We told him to go whichever way he thought was best.

If you're not aware, no money changes hands with Uber. When you sign up to use the service, you provide your card details and they take the money automatically when the trip is over. Uber send a confirmation email after every trip with the total of the trip and give you the opportunity to rate their service.

This Uber trip took twelve minutes during peak hour (my taxi trip from the airport via taxi on Sunday took 18 minutes and I'm certain that he went through every toll known to mankind) and the total cost today was $25.05!

Our driver's name was Yao and he was lovely. Very polite and helpful and efficient.

Every Uber experience that I've had (5 times now), has been positive and very satisfying. If I have a choice, I won't use the regular taxi services in future. Uber is always at the door within 5 minutes, always take the shortest most direct route and always costs about half the price of a taxi.

Anyway, there was hardly anyone (compared to my last visit to the Sydney airport) waiting in the queue to check in so we were fairly quickly checked in and also passed quickly through security.

We found a nice little cafe called 'Chur' for breakfast where we ordered avocado smash on GF bread with tomato salsa. I had a latte and The Motivator had peppermint tea. It was all nice except for the bread which tasted more like a cake than bread. I had two mouthfuls and decided to just eat the smash and salsa.

Before we went to our gate, I ordered a 'heartbeet' juice from the juice bar - pineapple, avocado, beetroot, apple and banana. It was divine!

It was a great flight home. Good weather and we had three seats between us to spread out and enjoy the flight. The landing was a bit 'iffy' because the pilot aborted on the first attempt and we circled around to try again and even the second attempt was quite a heavy landing.

Adoring Husband was waiting at the gate and once we collected our luggage, we drove straight home and dropped off The Motivator before doing some grocery shopping and grabbing a coffee and then heading home.

It was lunchtime so I went directly to the kitchen to cook up some chicken to have with a salad for lunch. I haven't removed my butt from the couch since.

It has been a lovely lazy afternoon catching up on my recorded programs like MKR and Married at First Sight. Adoring Husband cooked up some chicken wings for a snack-like dinner and here I am blogging early in the evening so that bedtime can also be early.

No photos today.

Have a happy Thursday and perhaps I'll see you at The Happy Abode!

Nite all.

The Next Fair

Honestly the last two days have been so long and so full and so busy, I can't even remember the order that we did things, but this is how I think it happened ...

We returned to the Reed Gift Fair this morning to find the Serenade stand. It was the most difficult stand to order from ... so many beautiful bags and wallets to choose from, we struggled to limit ourselves and ended up spending our entire budget in one hit!

Should I say that we have actually tripled our budget over the two days! OMG

After that stand, we went in search of the stand with those lovely silver chains that have been so popular. I searched for it yesterday to no avail and I couldn't remember the name of the company, so I was looking for the same layout as last year. It was no wonder I never found it, the guy who owns the business decided to do something completely different this year!

I must have walked past it three times yesterday and not recognised it!

Anyway, I finally found it and grabbed a business card and grabbed every chain that they had available, spending yet another fortune.

Next was an amazing company selling beautiful, yet reasonably priced watches for both men and women. Silver, Gold and Rose Gold with really lovely bands and styles. We are now concerned about display space and are wondering how we are going deal with that dilemma.

From there, we decided that it was time to head out to the other gift fair. It was already 11.30am and we walked out to the shuttle bus area to find a bus was leaving in 5 minutes - excellent timing.

It took 30 minutes to shuttle from one fair to the other, and unfortunately, we sat in the seats over the front wheels and within 15 mins I felt like I was going to throw up, so we moved back a few rows, which felt so much better.

When we arrived, we immediately went in search of The Motivator's friends, who had a stand there. We found them quickly and spent about 30 mins chatting and looking at their beautiful wares, before wandering off to check out the other stands.

We stood in the middle of the enormous building and said "Let the Universe take us to where we need to be" and began walking.

The Universe took us to an amazing stand called 'Intrinsic' and a lot of you might recognise the products ...

The gentleman working the stand told us about the products and showed us some of the lines and The Motivator asked "Did your mother design all of this?"

He replied "No! My wife." and pointed to a young lady standing across the way.

She immediately walked over and said hello. I tried to say how much I admired her work and out of nowhere, I burst into tears!! I was a blubbering wreck and I have absolutely no idea why or where that came from! So embarrassing.

This woman's name was Adele Basheer and she wrapped her arms around me and gave the longest, warmest most comforting hug that I've had for a long time. She was so beautiful and kind and then spent the next hour with us talking about her dream for her business and why she does what she does. All through the conversation, I struggled to hold it together - I just felt so much love emanating from her and felt that she genuinely wanted in some small way to change the world and make it just a little bit better.

In the end, we ordered a starter pack and I can't wait for her products to arrive and for us to display them prominently in our shop. She really was a beautiful soul and I love her work.

We went searching for some food after that and found the last GF offering as the food carts packed up - today was the last day for this particular fair.

We said our farewells to The Motivator's friends and caught the bus back to the Reed Gift Fair, where we walked around for yet another 90 minutes and found even more beautiful products - which we did NOT purchase, but took the details so that we can purchase in the future.

One funny thing happened - we were looking at the Oasis line of drink bottles and flasks, when a young man from the stand began chatting with us and giving us price lists and catalogues, when he asked where we were from and we told him the name of our town. He said "Oh I know that town! My Grandfather lives there!"

So I asked him who his Grandfather is and discovered that he lives right around the corner from me! We've had drag races between him in his mobility cart and me on my trike! What a small world it is. This young gentleman will come visit our shop the next time he comes to town.

We finally dragged our tired aching bodies back to the motel room, where The Motivator had a power nap (ten minutes) before freshening up and heading out to meet a couple of girlfriends for a social catch up. I was supposed to join them, but honestly, my body felt like it had been hit by a truck. I ached from the inside to the outside and couldn't bear the thought of moving another inch, let alone attempting to be friendly and social.

I think that the fact that I only had 3 hours sleep last night didn't help. I don't know why I couldn't sleep but I just lay there for three hours. My body was aching and I was cramping up and I felt really uncomfortable. Finally I fell asleep some time after 3 am and my alarm went off at 6am.

So I'm feeling rather battered and I wonder if my body is trying to fight off some kind of virus because I certainly don't feel myself.

On that note, I'm going to sign off and attempt to get some healing sleep.

We fly home tomorrow after our whirlwind shopping trip, and even though we totally blew our budget, we feel incredibly happy with our purchases and with the contacts that we've made. There are certainly fun times ahead!

Nite all.

Ten Thousand

That's how many dollars we could EASILY spend at the gift fair.

That's how many steps we walked today at the gift fair.

That's how many stands there are at the gift fair (perhaps I exaggerate slightly).

That's how many people made their way through the gift fair.

We are exhausted.

So far, we bought Cenzoni bags and purses, LOTS of Ivys bags and scarves, some beautiful SHE jewellery, lovely Cinnamon jewellery and we took the details from some amazing stands that we will order from after we return home.

It took us seven hours to do less than one floor of the gift fair. There is still another floor that we just touched on in the last twenty minutes of the day and which we probably won't get back to tomorrow because we have another gift fair to attend in another location.

We shared a mango this morning as we walked to the gift fair. At 1.30pm I had to buy a coffee because I had a raging headache from lack of caffeine in the morning. We only drank one bottle of water all day and only peed once! So we were absolutely running on empty by the end of the day, as you can imagine.

We sat down for dinner at 6.30pm and each had a crispy skinned salmon with fresh seasonal veg and a lemon butter sauce followed by creme brûlée with raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. We had two cocktails each and the final bill was hilarious!

Back in December, when we first decided to attend the gift fair, we discussed the costs involved and how much of the trip that the business, so early in the piece, could pay for. We decided that we would really be more budget conscious with our meals this time round. That idea went straight out the window!

However, we figured that since we didn't eat breakfast or lunch, the money we didn't spend on those meals could be added to our imaginary budget for dinners! The food has been divine and we have been indulgent and we have also enjoyed every bit of it!

Here is a photo of the clouds as we came in to land in Sydney ...

I need to sleep now. I can't believe it's already 11pm!

Nite all.

The Winner is ... Sydney

The day has gone pretty smoothly.

I arrived at the airport on time.

The plane arrived in The Bay early. The plane left The Bay early. The plane landed in Sydney early ... through heavy cloud, scudding showers and winds at 40kph. We had an excellent pilot and I wasn't scared at any stage ... some passengers applauded when we landed ... but I've had a lot worse landings than todays in my time!

I caught a taxi to our motel where I found The Motivator waiting patiently after she had rested up from her flight from Bali.

I unpacked my suitcase and caught up on some of her news and shared some of my news.

All the while that we were talking, we were attempting to get ready to go out in public, but by the time we walked out the door, it was too late to catch any of the gift fair, so we walked through the mall and did some clothes shopping.

We found a lovely Chinese restaurant and shared Peking duck, Twice cooked pork with hot spicy sauce and a huge bowl of garlic broccoli, which was to die for! The Motivator had a wine and I had a Margarita.

We talked and we talked and we talked and we talked some more. Then we talked and we talked and we talked. So much talking! So much to catch up on! So many ideas spewing out of our heads, hearts and minds.

Now we are in bed talking talking talking some more and I need to sign off because The Motivator keeps talking to me and I can't concentrate on what I'm doing.

I just read that last paragraph to her and she is laughing out loud.

I give up now lol.

Nite all.

Sleepy Saturday

It's easy to blame other businesses in town for our very quiet Saturdays.

When people know that the bakery is closed and they want fresh bread, they will go somewhere else for that bread ... if they also require meat or groceries, then they will do that shopping in whatever town they're getting the bread. They will browse other shops and spend their money away from their local community.

So our bakery, which doesn't open on Saturday mornings, is damaging business for everybody else in town.

However, instead of playing the blame game, we should be putting our heads together to come up with a way to attract people to our shops - the shops that are open on a Saturday morning - to improve  business for ourselves.

We need to band together and come up with a plan.

Watch this space.

It was a very sleepy morning with low sales, BUT I got two more names for my big DSLR workshop in June - the course that I am most excited about! It's filling up fast.

I also had a brief chat with The Motivator on messenger and I can't wait to see her tomorrow to talk about all the inner work she's done this week!

I drew the winner of the $25 Happy Abode voucher for this month.

I did a little work on the photography for beginners course.

I rearranged the displays while the shop is in a bit of disarray and emptied the bins because the shop will be empty for a few days.

I laid towels in all the danger areas just in case it rains before the repairs are done.

I filled a bag with some important stuff to bring home, just in case of a worst case scenario.

Adoring Husband picked me up at 1pm and we did a quick grocery shop, got some lunch (GF steak sandwich from the take-away - for which I'm developing a bit of a weakness!) and then came home to

• eat lunch
• unpack the groceries
• watch a quick movie
• prepare a baked dinner for the barbecue (lamb & veg)
• whip up a quick strawberry cream pie
• unpack the work stuff out of the car
• do a load of washing
• make the gravy & greens for baked dinner
• write up a packing list for tomorrow morning (See Lady Lynn? Still not packed lol)
• do the blog post
• go to bed!

It's right on 10pm so I'm off to bed now. I have much to do tomorrow morning and it will be a tiring day, so I need a good night's sleep to get me through it.

If you see anything that takes your fancy ... Reed Gift Fair ... text me and I'll check it out!

I will do my best to write a blog post every night while I'm away, but I can't make any promises.

Nite all.

Noooooo Not Again!

Adoring Husband had the car booked in for it's first service at 8am, so because of the terrible weather, I decided to get a lift with him to the shop at 7.20am.

We parked the car behind the shop and AH helped me carry all of my gear into the shop. Two Happy Abode bags containing the cash tin and lots of paperwork, folders and course work, my small suitcase on wheels that contains paperwork and my laptop and finally my handbag.

Within a matter of seconds after walking through the front door, AH said "Is that floor wet?"

It certainly WAS wet! So wet!

Such a mess and so much worse than last time, plus a whole new leak above our blue wall in the training room.

If we get the same sort of rain over the weekend that we had last night, I would not be surprised if the ceiling collapsed.

After the last event, our roof was replaced so I assumed that there would be no further problems.

The owner's best mate (who dealt with the problem last time) came today with the guy who replaced the roof and they inspected the roof and our damage. They said that our internal damage was not listed on the 'scope of works' that they were given last time, so they only repaired or replaced what was listed on that document.

They said that if they had known about the internal stuff, they would have know what needed to be fixed.

The Landlord's best mate knew exactly what the damage was internally last time because I walked him through the shop and showed him, so I am suspicious of his story.

Sadly, they advised that nothing could be done about this problem until the middle of next week. They also did nothing to protect the damage that had already been done nor to prevent further damage, and with the forecast of more torrential rain over the weekend, well, who knows what could happen.

We've moved all the furniture and stock away from where the ceiling could possibly collapse.

I've taken photos of all the stock and the displays and the cabinets and furniture and I took a video of the damage, the running water down the walls and the droplets of water coming from the ceiling.

I don't know what else I can do except bring home any important paperwork so that if the worst case scenario should occur, it will be safe n sound in my house.

Needless to say, AH cancelled his appointment for the car service, so that he could be with me and help move the stock and furniture as well as be present when the guys came to assess the damage.

It was a long day, but one exciting thing did happen ... I received the first advance payment from a lady who now holds the title of 'first student' for one of the photography courses! *happy dance* I knew that she would be the first through the door once the newsletter was published, but now I have to phone the other twelve people on the list to invite them in next week to register.

I also have to hope like hell that the training room will be repaired and dry by the 9th March. Ugh.

Anyway, it's almost 11pm so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Up n At Em

Well that was a most unpleasant evening!

But I slept well and I'm feeling 98% better now. Another early night should see me at a full 100%.

I just emptied our rain gauge and it had 94mm in it. Admittedly, we haven't emptied the gauge for quite some time, but Bundaberg (one hour north) received 81mm overnight, Hervey Bay (thirty minutes south) had 40mm and Maryborough (40 mins southwest) received 137mm so I'm guessing that our rainfall was pretty high too!

Unfortunately the heavy rain has stopped customers walking along the uncovered driveway to our shop, but this morning before the rain came, two ladies walked up with three puppy dogs. One of the ladies stayed outside with the dogs while the other came inside ... so I offered to stand outside with the dogs while the ladies looked around the shop together.

They were gorgeous dogs but obviously a little stressed that their owners had walked through a door without them! I sat with them for about ten minutes until one of the ladies came outside and took the dogs, telling me that the other wanted to pay for something.

My ten minutes of dog sitting proved very much worth it!

The remainder of the day was very very wet, so I got plenty of work done in my training course ... NOT my photography course ... I'll work on that some more tomorrow.

Adoring Husband drove psychotic dog, Colli, into The Bay to the beauty parlour. She was desperately in need of some beauty treatment and here are the results ...

AH brought her to the shop on the way home so that I could see how pretty she looked.

Two hours later, he returned to the shop to help me close up and we were home by ten past three. I put dinner in the oven (ginger, honey and garlic chicken Maryland) and AH had to leave early for SES duties.

I had bought two and a half pineapples from the supermarket yesterday, so I chopped them up, bagged them and put them in the freezer for our next batch of pineapple whip. The pineapples are so sweet and juicy at the moment! Yum.

I am now sitting in my pyjamas thinking about climbing into bed to watch MKR.

Three more sleeps til the Gift Fair!

Nite all.

  

Cancelled

Tonight's blog post is almost nonexistent.

I'm tired and my belly hurts and I have to package up my next batch of chicken broth before I go to bed.

All I want to do is climb into bed and sleep the night away.

Nite all.

Like a Baby

That's how I slept last night.

Thankfully, the psychotic dogs didn't wake at all during the night and we both slept soundly.

It was still a struggle rising this morning and even though I planned on getting to work early, I didn't unlock the doors until right on 9am.

Morning tea with the girls was nice, with Reality TV Queen joining us for the first time in months. She has been away and is soon going away again, so we won't see her for quite some time. She's happy and her life is full!

Unfortunately, Lady Lynn couldn't join us, Beauty is still away and Maid Marian is either away, or she forgot again haha.

But it was a nice group and Vampira (aka The Blond Bombshell or YipYip) brought a big basket of clothes that she was culling from her wardrobe and we all took at least one item to add to our own wardrobe.

I received an email from The Motivator today. Her retreat sounds amazing and I feel very envious of the emotional work she is doing on herself.  Even though she is feeling wiped out from the intensity of it all, she is also feeling positive about the impending results in a few days time.

I made a couple of small orders to tide us over until the gift fair. We currently only have two leather handbags in stock and the shelves are looking a little bare. It's funny though, how some items that we've had in stock for five months have suddenly walked out the door since I rearranged a few displays!

During our road trip in November, I walked into a shop full of beautiful big art pieces and struck up a conversation with the owner of the shop. He told me that he had JUST opened the previous day and we discussed the excitement of having a new business that we loved.

He asked me for advice and I told him to rearrange his stock regularly because customers have blind spots and may not notice the 'perfect piece for their wall' even though it's been on display up the back of the shop for 6 months ... until the day he moves it even two places along the wall ... and suddenly they are saying "Oh this is new!"

Like the red and black leather handbag that has been in the shop since day one and nobody even picked it up in that time, until a week ago when I created a new red and black display. Since then three people have picked up the bag and carried it around the shop to buy, but changed their mind at the last minute. Today it was bought and an hour later, one of those three customers returned looking to buy it! Alas they were disappointed.

The heavens opened this afternoon and we had some heavy rain for an hour or so and then another hour of steady rain, which was nice, but rain always stops people coming up the driveway to our shop.

I took advantage of the quiet and created the flyer/registration form for the Vision Board Course and filled one of our windows with the information flyers for all of the courses.

I registered with a couple of suppliers - like Serenade - the same company that my beautiful purse is from. They emailed through the catalogue and price list and I can't wait to see their stock at the gift fair and then being with Tracey to put in our first order!

Speaking of which, just five more sleeps until the trip to Sydney!

I'm trying for another early night and another sound 'like a baby' sleep. It helps that the temperature has dropped to a comfortable level.

It's good night from me.

Nite all.

Sleepless in the Heads

FOUR!!

That's how many times the psychotic dogs needed to go outside during the night between 11.30pm and 4.45am.

I got up the first three times, but on the fourth, I nudged Adoring Husband very heavily. His alarm would be going off at 5am anyway, so I figured he could do the honours for the final outing.

ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED!!

That's what I was when my alarm went off at 5.30am so that I could get to work early enough to open the shop for meditation classes.

PRETTY CREATIVE!

That was me when I realised that our meditation signage was looking tattered and unprofessional at our 6th week of classes. I created new signs and then laminated them ready for Monday week (we are closed next Monday).

TICKLED PINK!

That's how I felt when one of the meditation ladies said that she played the "Happy" song all week and danced to it with her grandchildren and it made her feel wonderful! That was the result of us dancing to that song at the end of meditation last week and of me telling them how I set my alarm to play it every hour on the hour so that I could feel good and dance just for one minute.

TOTALLY ENGROSSED!

Thats how I was when The Gypsy and I got into a really interesting conversation about life and all it's challenges and the choices we make and how we deal with the results of those choices ... and so much more.

FULL OF GRATITUDE!

I felt that from my heart when Adoring Husband heated up my chicken broth and brought it to me at the shop for morning tea. He also delivered my phone which I'd left in the bathroom this morning.

PROUD AS PUNCH!

Is how I felt when three ladies made a special trip to The Heads and came into the shop because somebody in The Bay had told them about the beautiful new shop in The Heads that they should visit.

SUPER SURPRISED!

When Adoring Husband walked through the door at 2.50pm and I looked at my watch, I was super surprised that it was time to shut up shop already! Some days just fly by so fast!

SELF SATISFIED!

Is the overwhelming feeling when I walked into the house and remembered that I had removed the curried sausages from the freezer this morning and they were thawed out ready to heat up for our early dinner. AH was being picked up early for an important SES meeting out of town, so an easy dinner, followed by the strawberry cream pie for the dessert, was just what the doctor ordered.

SLIGHTLY ORGANISED!

I have my outfit laid out ready for tomorrow, including accessories. My carry bags are packed with all of my work and course 'stuff' to take tomorrow morning. The folder full of paperwork for our Sydney trip is in my suitcase which is ready to be packed in the back bedroom. I am in my pyjamas ready to climb into bed as soon as MKR is finished.

STILL ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED!

With so little sleep last night, the day has caught up with me and I am back to feeling absolutely exhausted. If the psychotic dogs wake me up tonight, I'm going to give AH a swift kick to deal with them. Otherwise I'm going to be tired and crabby and he will have to take the brunt of that!

WARM AND FUZZY!

Is how I feel when I remember on Monday nights that it will be coffee morning with the girls when I wake up.

See you tomorrow girls!

Nite all.