Who Knew?

Who knew that this time of year would be so busy?

September was our first month of business last year and it was crazy busy for two weeks of the school holidays, but this past three weeks has been totally unexpected and so much better than we could have hoped for.

Thankfully, it has come in the form of a steady flow of customers through the door, and at no time was there a long queue of people becoming impatient with me because they weren't getting served quickly enough!

So even though it's been busy, it has also been easy and enjoyable and quite fulfilling.

The fact that it's all been so manageable without The Motivator on board is both a surprise and a relief.

Today was another great day for business.

Adoring Husband came to cover for me at The Happy Abode this afternoon when I had to attend the Friendship Group at the local hall to give a talk on photography. I was gone for an hour and by the time I'd returned, he had taken a sale and closed the shop.

What a legend.

I think my talk went well. There were a few questions and everyone was keen to look at my photo book and touch my camera. There were a couple of enquiries about the workshop this weekend, so maybe they will come see me tomorrow to book in and fill my class.

I had a rough night last night with cramps. The toes on my left leg were all sticking straight up, my foot was cramping to the right, my calf and my shin were cramping to the left and my thigh was cramping to the right.

I couldn't walk, I couldn't stretch anything because all the muscles were cramping in opposite directions and try as I might with breathing and focussing, I couldn't relax any of the muscles. It lasted for about fifteen long minutes and I almost woke Adoring Husband to help me!

While sitting on the couch tonight, I've had some more cramps in my feet, so AH has filled a small square tub with warm water and dumped some of the magnesium mineral salts that our pool guy gave us into it and my feet are now soaking.

It feels so nice.

AH also made a hot honey and lemon drink to help with this stupid runny nose that is annoying me. It comes and goes during the day, so it doesn't even feel like a cold ... it feels more like an allergy of some sort, but I can't pinpoint what it could be. It seems to be worse at home, so I need to be more aware of what I'm doing and where I'm doing it!

We're watching the first NRL game of the week and my Broncos are losing at half time to a team that is equal second last on the ladder! I'll watch the second half and then head to bed.

Big day tomorrow, so hopefully cramps won't disturb my sleep again tonight.

We didn't win OzLotto OR Powerball this week, but they've jackpotted and are now worth $70million and $80million so I'm willing to win one of those next week. I still promise to share with a LOT of people.

Nite all.

  

Quietly Does It

After Monday and Tuesday madness in the shop, it was a very quiet Wednesday.

I priced some new stock and rearranged some displays, chatted with The Gypsy, met some new customers and this afternoon I welcomed The Motivator for her first, but brief visit to The Happy Abode, since she returned from Sydney with the flu.

Adoring Husband helped me close the shop and I rode home to make an early dinner so that we could attend the trivia night at the club. I have no idea where we came out of the eleven teams, but I have one thing to say to Adoring Husband ...

CUBA!!! (you had to be there)

He did a really good job on the final round, which was a picture round of 'tools' and he named them all.

We've come home to watch the iconic movie 'Mean Girls'

Tomorrow, I have to give a talk to the local 'Friendship Group' so Adoring Husband will look after the shop from about 2.40pm so that I can walk over to the hall and talk about photography! I have no idea what I'm going to say, but as usual, I will wing it and it will all work out in the end.

I think it might be time for me to climb into my warm bed ... there is a definite chill in the air tonight.

Nite all.

Not According to Plan

My day did NOT go according to plan.

I mentioned yesterday that I would leave early enough to visit the Seat of Knowledge this morning, but it was so cold, I wasn't prepared to slide out from under my toasty warm doona until the very last minute.

So, I arrived at work with just enough time to go buy a coffee before opening the shop.

Three of my girls arrived right on time - just as I received a phone call from OzCare confirming that they were bringing a group to the shop for morning tea and a shopping trip!

What?

It seems that 'someone' had spoken to The motivator about whether we had the facilities to accommodate a morning tea group which would be followed by a shopping spree in the shop. She confirmed that we did, but there were no concrete arrangements made.

A month ago, The Blonde Bombshell told me about the OzCare newsletter that stated there was going to be a trip to Burrum Heads to have morning tea at The Happy Abode, followed by shopping, followed by lunch at Lions Park.

The Motivator and I had a discussion and I assumed that someone from OzCare would contact us to verify the trip before the date.

That did not occur. Instead, they phoned the shop at 9am today, to confirm that they would arrive for morning tea at 10am!

*Panic*

No need to panic. They brought their own food/tea/coffee/cups, so all I needed to do was set up a table in our training room, and they did the rest. They cleaned up their own mess and then filled the shop with their walking sticks and wheelie walkers as they shopped until they almost dropped.

One gorgeous lady, who was wearing a big purple woolly coat, was a hugger and she and I shared three very long cuddly hugs before she bought one of our little frog ornaments.

Another lady wanted a snap button glasses hanger but the conversation consisted of :

Her - 'I would like a glasses hanger with that owl button'

Me - 'Yes of course. Here you are' as I handed it to her.

Her - 'So I just wear it as a necklace?'

Me - 'No, you wear it like this' I demonstrate on myself how it is worn.

Her - 'Oh how marvellous! So I just wear it as a necklace?'

Me - 'No, it's a glasses hanger. You wear it like this' I demonstrate again.

Her - 'Oh what a wonderful idea! So I just wear it like a necklace?'

Me - 'No, you wear it like this.' I put it on her blouse and hang her glasses on it.

Her - 'Oh that's wonderful! Do you just slide the necklace through the hook?'

Me - 'No, you just wear it on your blouse. It's like a brooch with a loop to hang your glasses from'

Her - 'Oh what a marvellous idea. It's such an unusual necklace.'

She was such a lovely thing and terribly happy to have a new necklace that wasn't a necklace at all.

Having said that, both of the carers saw the glasses hanger and decided that they needed one each for themselves.

Three ladies chose bright colourful scarves and put them on before they walked out the door.

One of the ladies dropped her wallet on the floor, which I discovered just before they left the carpark, so I was able to run outside and hand it back before they disappeared.

During all of this, Reality TV Queen arrived late for morning tea and sat in our lounge area waiting patiently for everyone to leave so that we could catch up. It's been a long time between visits and there was plenty to discuss, but we were interrupted often by a regular stream of customers.

Adoring Husband visited as she was leaving and did a lunch run.

The Telstra guy arrived to instal the new NBN modem which won't be connected for some weeks yet.  He gave me a list of worst case scenarios and what I should do if they occur.

I received a phone call from a lady wanting to enrol in my photography workshop.

All the while, I was rapidly using up a box of tissues as my nose was running like a tap! It's ok because I feel well enough, I just have a runny nose. Most annoying!

My last customer left the shop at about 3.30pm. I cleared the table and chairs from the training room in preparation for meditation tomorrow morning. I priced some new jewellery stock and rearranged some displays to fit them in the shop. I added up the takings for the day. I dropped off some mail to The Motivator on the way home.

Adoring Husband had helped me close the shop, checked the mail with me and we grabbed a late coffee. He brought home a bag of goodies for me and dropped off our signed contract to the pool builder.

I arrived home and sat for an hour before making a roast pumpkin/roast cauliflower/spinach and pine nut salad with crispy skinned chicken for dinner. What a bloody mess I made of the kitchen!

I broke my own sales record in the shop today, so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself, but it was so busy and mostly unexpected and unplanned.

In spite of all that, I loved every minute of it. It was a great day that had me smiling most of the time and I am feeling incredibly grateful for the life that I have right now.

My Adoring Husband is amazing and every day I feel lucky to have him as my partner and friend. He makes everything so much easier (most of the time), he fills my life with love and I feel totally nurtured.

While the word 'Fearless' had centre spot on my vision board this year, the word 'Happy' has been pretty much first and foremost and centre stage in my life.

Life is good.

Nite all.

Manic Monday

I assumed that today would be very quiet in The Happy Abode.

I thought that everybody would have spent all their money at the Childers Multicultural Festival and that people would be having a very quiet week, not spending money and staying at home to recover.

I was wrong.

Today was non stop busy until the afternoon. Not a soul walked through the door in that last 90 minutes, but it didn't matter. It was nice to just sit and breathe and tidy up and fill the gaps that the customers had made in the displays when selecting their purchases.

Adoring Husband brought the vacuum cleaner to work this morning so that I could vacuum the very leafy floor. The guy from the real estate office chopped down some branches from the trees last week and for some reason, dragged them to the front of our shop to put them in a trailer, which left a trail of dead leaves to blow through our doors.

It felt much better to have a clean floor.

Some more snap buttons arrived in the mail, as did some lovely earrings.

The Gypsy had a busy day and is almost booked out for Wednesday as well.

We are having perfect Winter weather at the moment and I might make a quick visit to the Seat of Knowledge on the way to work tomorrow, so that I can check out that gloriously crystal clear water in the river.

I'm looking forward to seeing the girls at coffee tomorrow and at the end of the day, I'm looking forward to winning $50 million in Oz Lotto. No, really! I can feel it in my bones! I promise to share!

The Motivator is still under the weather and won't be at work for a few days. I visited her this afternoon and got her up to speed with what's been happening while she has been away, caught up on some gossip, swapped some important 'stuff' and hugged her germy body!

I'm off to bed now - after a quick dose of warm lemon and honey - just as a precaution haha.

Nite all.

Multi-fun Day

The 'Happy' song blasted me awake this morning at 6am ... and I mean BLASTED! It was a sudden awakening and there was no going back from there.

We showered and gathered our goods, drove to our regular coffee haunt (just in case we couldn't get a  good coffee at the festival) and then headed off to Childers for the Multicultural Festival.

Our usual parking area was open and we were given the perfect parking space which was beautifully shaded when we returned three hours later.

We (meaning 'I') spent a lot of money on some wonderfully unique, hand crafted pieces that were obviously made with love, and for the creators I feel much respect and appreciation.

Adoring Husband bought me a fork.

A fork lovingly treated and polished and shaped into the most beautiful bracelet ...

I love it ... even though AH declared "it's a &%#$ expensive fork!"

He also bought me a clay fish ...

... to replace the fish that suffered an unfortunate accident at The Happy Abode recently. I couldn't get exactly the same colour, but I think I prefer this colour anyway. It can be used to burn mosquito coils or citronella candles and it will look fabulous in the area around our new pool when it's built!

We made the decision, just this afternoon, to purchase a concrete pool and the build will commence at the end of September. How exciting!

Back to the Festival ... I bought myself a new wallet, which can also have a strap attached to make it a cross body bag. It's hand crafted leather and I looked at these last year, but didn't buy. I'm really happy to have this one now ...

I also bought a new evening bag.

I found a deliciously big citrine crystal, a blue kyanite and a jade buddha. I've been searching for a jade figurine for a while, so I was pretty chuffed to find this one today.

I also bought a few gifts for special people, which of course, I won't share here.

We ate German Kransky for lunch and drank fresh iced lemon and ginger tea (AH had mixed berry).

It was a glorious day and thank goodness we got there so early because by 11am, the crowds were crazy and it was difficult to move freely, so we escaped and arrived home by midday with a fresh coffee, again, from our local.

The Motivator arrived home from Sydney today, but sadly, she is sick with the flu and won't be at the shop for a couple of days.

Psychotic dog, Jack, has been having trouble with muscle cramps again and the magnesium oil wasn't working as well or as quickly as we hoped, so our pool people gave us a bucket of mineral salts. We gave Jack a warm bath in the laundry tub with half a cup of the mineral salts in it and he seems to have settled considerably since then.

I think he might be having regular swims in our pool once it's in the ground.

Now, I think it's time for bed. It's been a big day.

Nite all.

Productive

I was up bright and early this morning with the intention of checking out the blood moon/eclipse, but there was a heavy fog and I couldn't see any moon from any point in my back yard.

Adoring Husband said he saw it earlier in the morning when he was out and about.

So, instead, I cleaned the bathroom.

I just want to put it out there ... I hate cleaning ... ugh ... I want a cleaning fairy to come to my house every night while I sleep and make my house immaculate. Walls, windows, blinds, floors, cupboards, bathrooms, dusting, ironing, decluttering, pantry, fridge, fans etc etc etc.

I don't think that's asking for too much.

I still had time to visit the boys at the Seat of Knowledge on my way to work, grab a coffee and then walk into the shop at 8.50am.

I hugged The Happy Abode ... I always have that warm and fuzzy feeling when I walk through the door ... and I thanked the Universe for helping us create such a wonderful space ... it's all about the gratitude.

The day was crazy busy!

The staff at the supermarket complained that it was incredibly quiet, but I had people through the door all morning and took almost double what we usually do on a Saturday. If I wasn't committed to an appointment, I would have stayed open til at least 3pm.

After I did a grocery shop, I arrived home and put a batch of bone broth in the slow cooker (I had my last container of broth yesterday and there was none for me to have for breakfast this morning) and then cleaned the glass corner table, cleaned the handles on the fridge and the freezer and washed a window before that 2pm appointment arrived.

We had a third pool company come in to do a quote, which should be sent through to my email tomorrow. So far, just going by the meeting, I prefer this one, but it's all about the price, so we'll wait and see.

After they left, we made our way into the lounge room to watch the footy. I was one of three people in the footy tipping who picked Manly to defeat Penrith and I was excited momentarily when Manly was winning by a BIG margin and I believed that I had moved closer to AH n the footy tipping ladder. Alas, in the final seven minutes of the game, Penrith scored four tries to surpass Manly's score and I was left feeling disappointed and frustrated.

Between football games, I hung out two loads of washing, put another load in the machine, brought in the dry clothes and folded them,  bathed one of the dogs, cooked dinner and then parked my butt permanently on the couch.

I'm feeling pretty energised today. I hope it lasts for tomorrow because we are driving to Childers for the Multicultural Festival. We LOVE this yearly festival and I'm hoping to get some natural crystals while we're there.

I guess this means that I should get some sleep!

Nite all.    

Surprise Surprise

I sold a photo today!

That's two photos in a week!

It was a very slow day in the shop.

I met a crystal healer and a holistic healer - not together - one of them was a big talker and spent 40 minutes talking to me while booking an appointment to see The Gypsy for next week.

The other was very softly spoken and selected one of our lovely selenite towers to add to her healing collection.

There was some gift selections by a couple of customers, and one asked me to set hers aside, promising to return tomorrow to pay for them. We often have people pop in during their daily walk without any cash on them and they either ask us to put something aside or they return later with money to purchase.

We donated some gifts for the big Heart Foundation raffle being run by the Bowls Club which will be drawn next weekend. The gentleman in charge of that dropped by to pick up the package.

I printed out some leaflets for my photography workshop and put them on the tables outside the supermarket.

I spoke to Telstra about our appointment next Tuesday to have the NBN connected.

I booked three appointments for The Gypsy.

I ate a punnet of raspberries.

I filled an online shopping cart with Ivy's products - we are almost out of Ivy's bags and purses!

I was out the door at 3.30pm and pedalling home to prepare for my Friday night at the Club.

I was a winner tonight, winning a variety meat pack!

Now I need to sleep.

Nite all.

Australia's Got Talent

I posted this on Facebook and it was the  highlight of my day ...

*** Weirdest thing just happened ... you know how all of you who know me have told me, at some time, to shut up when I sing? Yes, pretty much every single one of you!

Well ... I was singing a Carole King song in the shop this morning while two ladies were browsing.

I was thinking to myself "Poor things .. but it's my shop and it's the price you pay for walking through the door."

One of them walked up to the counter and looked me straight in the eye. She said "You have a beautiful tone when you sing. Even when you hum, it sounds lovely!"

I looked at her and waited for the punch line and she could see the disbelief in my eyes, so she said "I'm serious!"

She made my day - which is why I'm taking this moment to brag.

Thank you very much (in my best Elvis Presley voice)***

The reason I make such a big deal of this is because I KNOW I have a terrible singing voice. I recorded myself singing "I Honestly Love You" when I was a teenager. Until I heard that recording, I believed that I could sing.

I remember the devastating disappointment when I realised that I was tone deaf and would never be a famous singing star!

Many people, during my life, have laughed hysterically at my singing.

Many people have told me to 'not give up my day job' when listening to my singing.

Even Adoring Husband, who loves me, has asked me to NOT sing.

This is why I make such a big deal of today's experience with the lovely lady who told me I have a beautiful tone.

Aside from that, for the first time, I've signed up a male to my next photography workshop. There should actually be two or three males in this class, so that will be interesting ... and very different.

It was a good day in the shop, with quite a few new customers ... and still the locals' catch cry "I didn't know you were here" is echoing in my ears.

I made an appointment for a third pool quote. This will be a concrete pool, instead of fibreglass, and they're coming to see us on Saturday afternoon. A decision will be made very soon after that.

Now I'm going to watch the second half of the footy between my team and Adoring Husband's team. Fingers crossed that my team wins!

Nite all.

Happy Hump Day

Lots of new snap jewellery arrived today, including the new glasses hangers ...

... everybody wants the glasses hangers and the last customer bought seven of them. She wanted ten, but I only had seven left! Now we have seventy of them!

We have around 900 different buttons to choose from, including these lovely new rose gold buttons on the bottom half of this tray.

I spent a lot of time unpacking and pricing and separating and rebagging and rearranging the trays. Tomorrow I will rearrange the button drawers and the jewellery drawers, because there was a box of new pendants and bracelets delivered today and the drawers are all looking a bit out of control at the moment!

It's just like Christmas when the boxes arrive - there are always surprises because we can never remember everything that we ordered.

Meditation was great this morning and it seems Wednesdays are much better for me, for The Gypsy and for others - especially starting fifteen minutes later than usual. It's amazing the difference fifteen minutes can make.

I enjoyed my chats with The Gypsy between customers today. We always have lively conversations analysing and making fun of ourselves and the strange ways that our minds trick us. Always enlightening and insightful!

The afternoon was VERY quiet and not a soul walked through the doors after 1.30pm. I still had a lot to do so I didn't close the doors until almost 4.30pm, but still ... nobody came!

The Butcher only had five customers all day and he was complaining about how quiet it was. Even The Happy Abode had more than five customers and we're hidden up the back!

As every customer leaves our shop, I ask them to spread the word and it seems that they are all doing exactly that. Some take extra business cards to pass around, some take our postcards and some just walk out the door excited to tell all and sundry about the beautiful little shop hidden behind Elders.

But still the locals are coming through the doors saying "We didn't even know you were here!"

After TEN MONTHS!

If I had a secret that I didn't want anyone to know about, the whole town would know in matter of days! But when we WANT the whole town to know about our little shop, it takes a year or more for the word to spread!

Go figure!

Anyway, it's after 10pm so I'm off to bed. Sleep time for me.

Nite all.  

The Craziness Continues

It was crazy busy in The Happy Abode today with lots of new customers.

A customer on Saturday asked if she could take a handful of our postcards to hand out at the caravan park, so I handed her about twenty postcards.

She returned to the shop on Monday and told me that she had handed them all out to everyone she saw in the park.

I'm certain that all of those people who received a card came into the shop today, all gasping in awe at our shop and all of them wanting to spend money.

I sold one of my photos to a lady who had just moved into her brand new house in town and needed something special for her entry area. What an honour!

It was a big day and I had to draw the winner of our '300 likes' on the Facebook page celebration. The winner won over $100 worth of beautiful products from The Happy Abode.

It's now almost 11.30pm and I need to be up really early for meditation in the morning, so I'm outta here.

I've done my Deepak Chopra meditation for the night - I'm doing a 21 Day challenge - The Energy of Attraction - to bring health and happiness to our lives. Today is day two. There is a message for each day, a twenty minute meditation with Sanskrit Mantra and three or four journal entries where a question is asked and we write our thoughts, experiences and desires.

I do like Deepak Chopra and fall asleep to his 'Perfect Health' meditation every night.

If I don't go to sleep now, I'm going to struggle to get out of bed in the morning.

So ... nite all.

Local Connection

How strange that in the last few days, I've had three different locals tell me that they hadn't been to The Happy Abode because they thought it was a hippie new age type of shop and that's the type of thing that they're not interested in.

There were quite a few locals who came into the shop today, straight from 'craft' because they admired some jewellery that one of the ladies was wearing and were told it came from The Happy Abode.

As usual, they were pleasantly surprised by what they saw and heaped praise in our direction.

Another lady said that we had obviously worked hard to create a harmonious and welcoming environment with a warm atmosphere and that she loved being in the space.

On the weekend, at the markets, I commissioned a lady to create a bracelet for me and today, she delivered it to me at the shop ...

... the light is not good because I took the photo tonight beside a table lamp, but I *LOVE* it so much!  It's blue and silver and I especially love those big shiny silver dragon heads to remind me of Chicklet!

Here is the updated photo of the display that I changed last week ...

I did some more rearranging today and I spent some time with a lady who came especially to see me because her husband has been diagnosed with Parkinson's. Somebody told her that I might be able to offer some advice.

We chatted for about half an hour and then it got busy in the shop, so she left with an open invitation to return any time. We had a good chat and I think she was relieved to get a lot off her chest.

The Gypsy was in today and was booked out for the morning, but had to leave early to run an errand in Gympie. She's almost booked out for Wednesday too.

Adoring Husband was kind enough to come to the shop and do some 'lunch' shopping for me - an avocado, some shallots, a lemon and some smoked ham with a coffee. He then returned at 3pm to help me close the shop.

Some new snap jewellery arrived in the mail today and there should be more arriving every day this week and next.

Before I head off to bed, I must offer some birthday wishes!!

Happy birthday to my 'much cleverer than bubbles' daughter who reminds me of my favourite AA Milne quote ...

I hope you have the most fabulous day ever!

... and to The Motivator who still hasn't caught up to me ...

I hope you have an amazing day in Sydney with your family and you get to feel the love.

Obviously 24th July is a very special date producing very special people!

Nite all.

Super Sunday

I've had a super Sunday.

My only achievement was getting my washing done.

Adoring Husband found this in Facebook, which describes my Sundays perfectly!

Who knew that other people do this cocooning thing on Sundays?

I gained two points on Adoring Husband in the footy tipping comp!

There was a blackout during the night. I got out of bed at around 4.30pm to go to the bathroom, but when I switched on the light, nothing happened. In my sleepy head, I though to myself "Damned light has blown. Must tell AH in the morning."

I realised as I opened the bathroom door to return to the bedroom, that the street lights were out and it was VERY dark in the bedroom. No idea why the blackout occurred and I'm not even sure what time the power came back on, but that's the only thing of interest that happened during my Sunday.

So I'm off to bed for an early night. No early meditation tomorrow because we've changed it to Wednesdays.

I thought I'd share these before I go ...

Nite all.

Super Saturday

Beautiful Winter's day today!

It was busy for a Saturday, which was surprising considering the big Coal Fest was on in Howard today.

I met and had a long chat with an amazing 85yr old woman. I guessed her to be in her early seventies, so when she told me her age, I was truly amazed! Very strong and fit. Sharp as a tack and bright as a button, with fabulous stories to tell about her life ... and what a life she's lived! We only talked for about 30 minutes but I could have comfortably spent the day with her.

I thanked her for coming into the shop (she contributed nicely to our takings for the day) and told her how much I enjoyed our chat and how pleased I was to have met her. She said that she would return and wished us the best of luck with our shop.

She was the best part of my day.

Adoring Husband and I closed the shop a little after 1.30pm and did some grocery shopping before he drove off for home.

As I was pedalling back past the shop, two ladies came out of the cafe and were walking towards our shop and expressing regret that they were too late and the shop was closed, so I stopped and offered to open up for them.

They happily came inside and did a little shopping with the money they had with them and one of the ladies asked me to set aside a couple of items promising to return on Tuesday to purchase them. It was worth the effort to open up and we had some good laughs, making fun of husbands and old friendships.

I arrived home in time to put away the groceries, watch the end of a movie with AH and then settle in for Super Saturday football.

Sadly, I was unlucky with he first game and my selected team lost, but the game I was most looking forward to was first place on the ladder, South Sydney Rabbits, playing 10th placed Wests Tigers. I tipped the Tigers for an upset win because I felt like their two top players had found their mojo in their last couple of games and had a big win in them.

I was right!

I was the only one in the tipping comp to select the Tigers, so their win helped me move up a position on the ladder. Wahoo!

Now I'm off for an early night. The big week has worn me out.

Nite all.

Under the Weather

My apologies for not posting last night, but I was feeling a bit under the weather.

I climbed into bed well before 7pm and was asleep by about 8.30pm.

After a good night's sleep, I woke up feeling refreshed and healthy, so here I am!

Adoring Husband had a trip down to Brisbane today for a 2yr bladder cancer checkup.

He got the 'all clear' *happy somersaults and cartwheels*

It was another big day at The Happy Abode with lots of tourists spending their money today but a sales rep cancelled her appointment with me, which was disappointing.

This is the second time a sales rep has cancelled our appointment - I think it's when they realise how far out of the way we are, they decide to put it off til next time.

It didn't really matter to me because it gave me a chance to restyle one of our displays ...

Actually, those two bags on the right were removed after this photo and replaced with a purple/orange backpack and a small purple leather bag.

I also packaged up about 30 silver chains into ziplock bags to sell with the snap pendants.

The snap buttons were very popular today, which I love, because my favourite thing to do is play with the snap button jewellery!

It was about 3.20pm when I locked up the shop and pedalled home to get ready for my evening at the club.

Having been without AH all day, the psychotic dogs were excited to see me arrive home and I fed them before they chewed my leg off.

It was an unlucky night for all of us with no wins in the raffle or keno or pokies. One lucky member won the $600 membership draw, but it wasn't one of us!

It's almost 10pm so I'm off to bed. My beloved Brisbane Broncos have had a good win tonight so I can sleep with a smile.

Nite all.

This ...

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won't feel 

insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others

permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically

liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

The Gypsy introduced me this author today and I had to share her inspiring quote because it moved me.

Today was much busier in The Happy Abode and people were still strolling in until about 3.30pm. I didn't wait for more and locked the door after that. 

The other businesses on the street were complaining about how quiet it was, but they got the traffic early in the week when it was quiet for us.

The Gypsy was fully booked and speaking of 'authors', she sold five copies of her own book today! She was so busy that we hardly had any time to chat.

I was definitely ready for home and rather than sit down, I went straight to the kitchen to get started on a big pot of parsee curry chicken. I knew that if I sat, I wouldn't get back up! 

Dinner was delicious served with cauliflower rice and followed by fruit whip ice cream.

It's now 9pm and I'm off to bed.

I've slept soundly for the last couple of nights, but it's difficult to get out of bed in the mornings because it's so chilly! It was 2C this morning and I have a very limited selection of warm clothes. I still didn't wear sleeves today, but I did wear a light vest over my shirt.

Anyway, I still love the cold nights because it's so much easier to sleep snuggled down under the bedcovers.

Nite all. 

A Lull in the Season

After two big and busy weeks, there seems to be a lull in the season.

QLD public school holidays are over, however, private schools still have another week of holidays and NSW schools are still on holidays, PLUS the grey nomads are still booking out the caravan parks.

So there are still a lot of people in town, but they haven't visited The Happy Abode in the last two days.

Morning coffee with the girls was much more enjoyable for me today because it was so quiet in the shop and I wasn't interrupted by customers. The last few Tuesdays have been so busy, I haven't got to spend much time with the girls.

Luckily for me, this afternoon, I got a delivery of new stock, so I was able to spend the afternoon unpacking, pricing and displaying the new stuff!

That's it for the big deliveries, but over the coming three weeks, there should be lots of snap jewellery stock dribbling in each day.

I had to rush home before 4pm to be here for an appointment with a 'pool guy'.  We spent more than an hour with him getting a quote and having him answer all of our questions. The quote was still the same as 16 months ago but we had lots more questions.

We will get more quotes, but combined, Adoring Husband and I have some ideas that might look pretty good together. The tricky part will be doing it on a budget - "champagne taste on a beer income" comes to mind haha.

This company can't commence the project until October, but expect it to be complete inside 4 - 6 weeks, so we can be dipping our toes by November.

Aqua-aerobics at my place everyone!!

After the pool guy left, AH and I spent some time in the garden discussing our ideas and taking some measurements. We had another look at the quote and two styles of pools for which we were quoted.

Now we need to research all the landscaping ideas that we have and try to get the best prices for everything. We are going to recycle all the sleepers that we built the raised garden beds with, so we will save a lot of money just by doing that.

This new project is going to keep Adoring Husband very busy over the coming weeks!

I'm off to sleep on it.

Nite all.

Monday Meds

We had eight ladies in our last Monday meditation class this morning.

As of next week, our meditation classes will be held on Wednesday mornings ... because it's too hard to start the week so early on a Monday!

The ladies were all lovely and shared some really personal stuff today. It was a real hug 'fest' at the end of the session and we were all feeling the love.

It was a slow day in the shop which gave me a chance to do some more dusting and cleaning, pay a couple of bills, create a new sign for our changed meditation details, display some more stock from in our drawers and I was even able to make myself some lunch!

The Gypsy and I had some more interesting psychological chats - ALWAYS enlightening!

It was a beautiful sunshiny Wintery day, so I guess everybody was out making the most of it instead of shopping. We DID have a couple of people drive all the way to our town especially to come to The Happy Abode because, they said "We love your little shop."

That's a feel good moment.

By 3pm, every shop except the butcher and the supermarket was closed. There were three groups of people walking along the street looking for something to do and complaining about the fact that the street was dead.

Hopefully, they'll return tomorrow.

Adoring Husband helped me shut up shop and we did some food shopping before coming home.

We had an easy dinner of lamb chops cooked on the barbecue and salad.

I declined an afternoon coffee and am feeling decidedly tired tonight.

For the first time in a long time, I used my Sweet Sleep essential oil last night and slept soundly for over seven hours, so I'm going to do the same thing tonight. I don't understand why I stopped using it a few months ago. It's been sitting on my bedside table the whole time and for some reason I ignored it. I've had very broken sleep lately, so I'm pleased to have found the solution.

I need to sleep well so that I can enjoy morning coffee with the girls tomorrow. I always look forward to Tuesdays with the ladies.

Nite all.

Oops!

I’m in bed and have just realised that I forgot to blog!

So just a quickie to say that my day was pretty normal for a Sunday.

A few hours in bed.

We briefly visited friends who have a new pool, so that we could check out the handywork of the company we are using.

I made a big batch of spaghetti bolognese sauce.

Watched three games of football and was bitterly disappointed in my team who spoiled my perfect round.

Came to bed early, but now it’s late and here I am!

Early meditation in the morning so it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Cold Brrrr

As tough as it was to climb out of bed this morning - apparently it was 1C - I was up early enough to ride to the markets and spend almost an hour looking around and spending too much money.

I even had time to make my lemon water and then heat up my chicken bone broth to drink during the ride.

At the markets, I bought some raw honey, some coconut hand cream, a kitchen hand towel, two lead light whales, two planter pots, a necklace and I commissioned a lady to make a bracelet with a silver dragon clasp.

Luckily I had my trike with a big basket to carry all of my goodies back to the shop.

Adoring Husband left the SES breakfast stall to come help me open the shop and it took about ninety minutes for the first customer to come through the doors.

It was a relatively quiet morning which gave me the chance to do some rearranging and some dusting and some fluffing.

Today appeared to be a change over day for the caravan park as quite a few vans left their positions to make way for the next batch of holiday makers.

I guess that, paired with the markets, was enough to keep people pre-occupied and less inclined to shop at The Happy Abode.

AH returned to the shop at 1pm to help me close, so that I could leave and attend a LaReve party which started at 1pm. I was a little late, but the room was full of friendly smiling faces who all welcomed me loudly when I walked in the room.

The entire class of my last photography workshop was in attendance so I got to hear what they've been up to with their cameras since the class. One of them has learned how to do night photography since then and showed me some of her pics on the camera.

They are all still keen and excited about what they learned with me, so that makes me feel good.

The hostess of the party was lovely enough to make sure there was gluten free food available for me to partake, which also made me feel good. I am always grateful for the extra effort that people go to for my benefit when it comes to food.

I arrived home at about 4pm, just in time to watch one of the old Jurassic Park movies with AH.

Dinner was reheated beef casserole for AH. I'd had enough to munch on at the party so I didn't need any dinner.

AH and I are now researching pools and pool landscaping. It's been more than 18 months since we received our first quote, and now we are ready to create a little magnesium filtered oasis in are back yard - for our health as well as our pleasure.

We are on a mission!

Anyway, I plan on having a reasonably lazy Sunday - I drew a Journey card yesterday and it told me that REST was most important this week and that I needed to breathe deeply and meditate my way to sleep - which I do every night anyway - and to rest my body. Tomorrow, I will rest!

For now, it's bed.

Nite all.



  

Friday Frenzy

It was a crazy busy morning in The Happy Abode, but after 12.30pm, not a single solitary soul came through the doors.

I picked up the Cenzoni order from the Post Office and within five minutes of putting the first backpack on display, it was sold! It was my favourite - exactly the same as the one I use as my regular bag except this one was a 'smoke' colour.

Here is a selection of the Cenzoni bags that arrived today.

Tomorrow is market day and I really want to check the markets out before I open the shop in the morning, so I should get to sleep.

Apparently, it's going to be icy cold in the morning. For all of you southerners, icy cold in our town is 6C. Yes I know that it's -6C down south. Winter is perfect up here in Queensland. I just wish it lasted longer than a couple of weeks.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Nite all.