A Touch Productive

Got some storms zooming by at the moment ...

We were lucky that the worst of them skirted around us. We got some heavy rain for about twenty minutes and lots of lightning and thunder, but thankfully, no wind.

Apparently the storms will continue through the night, so it might be interesting.

It was so hot today, the pool water was luke warm, but by the time I got home from the shop, the storms were building and I wasn't prepared to risk a lightning strike in the pool!

We were also supposed to attend an outdoor Christmas party, but the impending storms scared us away from that too.

We had a good day in the shop and closed the doors at 3pm instead of the usual 1pm for a Saturday.

We did this!!

... and I did this ...

We've decided to open the shop tomorrow (Sunday) from 9am - 1pm so I'm off to bed. Feeling a bit weary.

Nite all.

Pouring the Paint

I didn't see it in action, but I did see the final results. (The Motivator took photos that haven't been posted yet, so I'll share them as soon she puts them on our FB page).

The paint pouring exercise was a success and the artwork that the Paint Pourer created was amazing.

The Motivator is now motivated to practice what she learned today!

The other ladies enjoyed the experience too and we already have names down for the first paint pouring workshop in 2019.

I arrived at the shop at 7.20am and finished pricing and displaying most of the stock that had arrived yesterday, then The Motivator and I cleared the mess ready for the paint pouring group.

It was a huge sales day in the shop and The Motivator stayed late to accommodate the straggling shoppers.

While I had every intention of swimming this afternoon, time slipped away and it was time to get ready for the club.

It was nice to have Adoring Husband join me tonight.

Lady Lynn was the only winner at our table ... because she touched my new citrine pendant and took away all my luck

🤪🤪🤪

I thought a swim might be nice tonight after we got home, but by the time I cooked dinner and finished watching the original 'Planet of the Apes' movie, I had lost the will to swim and now it's almost 11pm and I have to work tomorrow, so it's probably not worth the effort.

I'll save it up for tomorrow.

I really love that last one.

Actually, I really love all three of them.

Time to sleep.

Nite all.

Day Off

My day began at Stupid O'clock.

I could have slept until my alarm went off. I had set it for 4.50am.

Adoring Husband decided that 4.25am was a much better time for me to wake up and made sure there was enough noise and enough light happening in the room for me to wake up 25 minutes before necessary.

The Motivator arrived right on time and all of us sat in our sleepy brain blurs all the way to Howard.

I hugged AH goodbye and we left him at the station and headed home.

We made easy conversation and were home before 6am.

I rode to the shop to get coffee and then visited the boys at the Seat of Knowledge for a short while.

I returned home, sat on the couch and watched the movie "Crazy Rich Asians"

I loved it!

Money and power. Abundance. Female empowerment. Acceptance. Breaking traditions. Lots of strong female characters and if they're not strong in the beginning, they certainly are by the end.

I watched it twice.

At 10am, I rode to the Post Office and then to The Happy Abode, where I stayed, unpacking the new stock while The Motivator took care of the very busy morning of customers. I hadn't finished, but I left to ride home at 1.30pm. I'll finish it off in the morning.

The Paint Pourer was setting up the back room in preparation for her demonstration on Thursday.

I spent the afternoon lying in bed watching Netflix - The Ranch - when suddenly it was dark and Adoring Husband was tapping on the garage door to get in! I had planned on going for a night swim, but that didn't happen.

We had cheese and tomato toasties for dinner - AH had already eaten.

Now it's almost 11.30pm and I need to be at work early, so I'd best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Creeping Up

My beautiful citrine pendant created by Elemental Formations in Eumundi on The Sunny Coast.

It's hand-made with sterling silver, I love it so much and feels fabulous to wear.

Citrine is one of the two gemstones that don't absorb negative energy and doesn't require cleansing. Blue Kyanite is the other - which is my other favourite stone.

Citrine is the stone of abundance. That's what I want for 2019.

It was a good day in the shop and we also took delivery of some new stock which I didn't even get to open.

I didn't get home until almost 5pm.

We had fruit for dinner.

At 7.30pm I went for a swim ...

It was so nice floating on the water and watching the clouds floating past the moon with the soft blue underwater light reflecting across the pool.

Thirty minutes of perfect peaceful serenity.

Tonight I've watched 'The Holiday' for the umpteenth time and I still love it.

Adoring Husband catches the train to Brisvegas tomorrow morning for an appointment with the Professor who is monitoring the Parkinson's. The Motivator has been kind enough to drive us to the train station at stupid o'clock, so I should be getting some sleep since I will be accompanying them.

It's my day off, and when I return home from the station, I might just grab my camera bag and pedal in search of some interesting subject matter to photograph.

Anyway, sleep for me.

Nite all.  

Tis The Season

I've noticed that there is a lot of twisted energy about.

It's Christmas and people are feeling the pressure.

Not just the pressure of having the right gift for the right people or spending just the right amount of money so as to not appear 'cheap', but the pressure of being together ... together with family ... together with friends ... together with friends of family ... together with family of friends.

The pressure of being with people that you don't really want to be with. The pressure of figuring out what is expected of you. The pressure of preparing just the right food - traditional hot, cold salads, seafood, Christmas puddings, hams, turkeys, nibbles, drinks, ice etc etc.

The pressure of where to have Christmas. Whose turn is it to host Christmas? Somebody's house? On the beach? At the river? In a restaurant or club? Dinner or lunch? All day?

I'm exhausted even thinking about it.

Adoring Husband and I plan on having a ham sandwich (GF of course), listening to Christmas music on the sound bar and maybe having an alcoholic beverage while standing in the shallow end of the pool.

No gifts. No pressure. No obligations. No stress.

We haven't even put up our tree or decorations in the house. All of those beautiful Christmas lights and blow up Santas that we've collected over the years are still packed in their boxes in the storage cupboards.

Christmas for us will be a time to reflect on what we've achieved this year and what we hope to achieve in 2019.

I've already started a list of things I want to do in 2019.

1. Learn to play an entire song on my guitar - I've had the guitar for almost two years now and even though I taught myself some basic 'finger picking' when I first got it, I've done nothing since. I can imagine myself sitting in the Bali Hut in my kaftan, with a margarita beside me playing my guitar. I don't know what song yet - another decision to make.
2. Create a vision board early in the year with all of my visions and goals for 2019.
3. Create an online course. I'm not even certain about the subject matter yet, but I have a couple of ideas swimming around in my brain.
4. Get out more with my camera and take a whole new library of photos to choose from for a 2020 calendar.
5. Create a 2020 calendar better than 2019 calendar.
6. Print some Postcards from my photos to sell in The Happy Abode.
7. With The Motivator, develop The Happy Abode so that it's even more amazing than it is right now! 
8. Start a new gratitude journal for the year.
9. Declutter my house.
10. Return to the healthy lifestyle that we lost track of during 2019.

That's the beginning of my list, and just some of the things that I'm willing to share with you here.

What are your plans for 2019? Do you have any goals, hopes, wishes or dreams?

I hope to enjoy a bumper harvest of pomegranate and avocado ...

These trees seemed to have thrived on all the activity that happened while the pool was being built and they have their best crop of fruit to date.

Avocado is my favourite!

I had an up and down day today. Part of it was very 'up' and part of it was very 'down'.

Tomorrow will be a better day! Every 'down' teaches me a lot about myself and I'm learning to appreciate the lessons.

Time for bed.

Nite all.

All The Busy-ness

Today was very busy in the shop.

The Gypsy was almost fully booked and there were customers in and out all day - it was fun helping them do their shopping - it fully satisfies my love of shopping when I do it for others and I'm not spending MY money!!

I sold two more calendars today and I know that three more will be picked up and paid for tomorrow. They are selling surprisingly well.

I edited some more of the wedding photos ...

I wonder how long it will take to get through them all ... it's a never ending job!

It was lovely in the pool this afternoon. I only got about an hour in there today and luckily, I prepared tonight's dinner yesterday, so all I had to do was reheat.

Bed is calling me now.

Nite all.

Wet Weather

My Sunday was as it should be.

Lazy and stress free.

I even swam in the pool until the rains came ... then Adoring Husband told me to get out before I got wet ... he thought he was hilarious.

While we've had some steady rain, the wind picked up tonight and we've been concerned about our umbrella over the pool.

Because of our experience with the cyclone created tornado in 2013, we opted for the strongest outdoor umbrella on the market, which cost a veritable fortune and looks amazing.

The man who owns the business where we purchased it, said that their umbrella at the shop had been up for 19 years and never folded down and was still in good condition ... they have never had a problem.

It is supposed to withstand category two winds and the guys who installed it said NOT to fold it down if it got windy.

The BOM states that category two winds equal 125 - 164kph winds. The warranty that was sent to us states that the umbrella needs to be folded up if 55kph.

Lots of different information from lots of different sources.

We have left the umbrella open.

Time will tell.

I've been reviewing my year. In 2018 my wishes and goals included:

• Enrolling and participating in DDT's business boot camp.
• Developing, improving and growing The Happy Abode.
• Creating and running photography workshops.
• Designing and printing a calendar showcasing my photography.
• Maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
• Becoming a magnesium filtered pool owner.
• Earning an amazingly awesome income.

My vision board for 2018 is on the wall at the shop, so I can't check that I've put everything from that onto my list here.

I did NOT fulfil two of those things on my list.

I did NOT maintain a healthy lifestyle and my food choices have been very poor this year, getting worse as the year wore on. I've gained weight, my joints ache and I wake up feeling much less energised than I did a year ago. This will probably be on top of my priority list for 2019. I liked how I felt, physically, mentally and emotionally in 2018 and I want to feel that again.

I did NOT earn an amazingly awesome income. Knowing that it takes a year or two to establish a business well enough to create any kind of income, I'm not upset about this one ... it will come ... and I will continue working on that in 2019.

I'm going to create a new vision board and choose my word of inspiration for the year very soon. There will be a new list of wishes and goals. I'm going to challenge myself even further in 2019.

Watch this space!

Nite all.

Inspired Creativity

The first couple of hours in the shop were steady with customers and sales, but it was quiet enough between customers, that I was able to join the Mandala workshop in the training room, from about midday.

I found it very therapeutic and stayed at the shop until about 3pm trying to finish my mandala. Eventually The Motivator had to leave, so we cleared the training room and packed everything away. I gathered some of the leftover paints and brushes to take home and hopefully finish my work there.

I did a little bit tonight, but my 2nd favourite Christmas movie "Elf" was on TV, so I had to stop painting and watch the movie!

Due to inclement weather, Adoring Husband didn't get the Bali Hut finished today, but he bolted the stirrups to the concrete and built the frame that the roof sits on. With that laid out on the ground, it gives a good indication of how big the hut will be and what we can fit in and around it.

It probably won't be finished before Christmas now because anybody who can help has holiday, family and Christmas commitments. A job for the new year.

Now it's time for me to sleep. I'm done for the day. It's been a pretty lazy afternoon but I feel exhausted.

Nite all.

Winner Winner

After catching the daily bus into The Bay, Mama Mia and I spent a few hours gambling at the RSL.

I was a big winner.

I shouted Mama Mia her lunch and she shouted me a a drink.

Adoring Husband had errands to run in The Bay so he drove in after lunch, and once he was finished his business, he picked us up at 2pm and we drove home.

I spent an hour at home before making myself presentable for the club raffles.

I was a big winner again.

One of us won the Membership draw (it wasn't me) but everyone else won nothing.

AH had dinner all prepared when I got home and now it's time for bed.

I'm very tired and I have to work tomorrow.

The Motivator is running this ...

... while I man the shop.

It looks like something I would LOVE to do, so I'll be watching with enthusiasm between serving customers!

Meanwhile, I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Lovin' Life

A day of rest for me.

While Adoring Husband was mowing the lawn this morning, I rode to the shop to check the mail, get my coffee and visit The Motivator in The Happy Abode.

We had such fun helping a lady from Childers do some Christmas shopping and then gift wrapping her purchases. One of my customers earlier in the week actually recommended our shop to her so she came for a special trip today to check us out!!

She said that she's planning a tour of the area for locals who don't get out much and will bring them to The Happy Abode for a visit and a shop.

Before I got too involved in the day... I just can't help myself, and actually The Motivator and I are both a bit that way inclined on our days off, because it's difficult to leave somewhere that you enjoy being so much ... I forced myself to leave.

It was lunch time when I arrived home so I cooked up the mushrooms that I bought on sale at Foodworks and had creamy mushrooms on toast.

I did a load of washing and then watched a 'made for TV' movie, which was not very good.

The pool was calling me and I'd invited The Motivator and Mama Mia for a swim after work, so I cut up some lemons, put some ice into a container and carried the vodka and tonic out to the pool kitchen before gliding my way into the water.

I did all my exercises and some laps before they arrived and then we spent about an hour together in the pool.

Suddenly AH appeared in his SES uniform and he had to leave for the final SES meeting of the year. We had both forgotten that he was attending that meeting, so he had to leave without dinner. Hopefully they'll feed him on Christmas fare while he's there!

I haven't had any dinner myself tonight, so I might just grab a piece of fruit and have another early night.

If the weather is ok tomorrow, Mama Mia and I will be catching the bus into The Bay. She will be returning home to Sydney next week, so it's probably the only chance we'll have to spend the day together. It should be fun.

There's a little bit of concern happening over the weather and how it's building in the north and south at the moment. Both weather systems are heading in our direction and are predicted to meet right over the top of us in the Wide Bay.

Before that though, cyclone Owen in the north is predicted to be directly over Squirt's location on Magnetic Island at midnight this Saturday.

Wild storms hit Griffith in NSW today causing some flooding and damage to trees ... then Sydney this evening. The road in front of Bubble's house in Sydney is currently flooded and the power lines to her house are sparking.

There is a huge line of storms heading in this direction and who knows what will happen when everything collides? Fingers crossed it will be a fizzer and we will simply receive some much needed rain.

No damaging winds and no flooding.

Bed time for me.

Nite all.

A Stretched Day

It was a long day.

I enjoyed it.

It started with a panic stricken Adoring Husband rushing inside and asking me to follow him outside to identify a snake ...

Luckily, it was a harmless python, so AH used a rake to put it into a bin with a lid and then set it free in the National Park bushland.

Meditation, as always, was fantastic and the strength that we talked about practicing this week was 'Calm' - which was very appropriate for me after a week of feeling the opposite of calm!

Even though the caravan park is very empty at the moment, there are a lot of holiday-makers in town and thankfully, they have been coming into the shop to purchase Christmas gifts for grandchildren.

Secret Santa gifts are still selling like hotcakes and it's funny how I can predict who will walk out the door empty handed, who will spend much less than the suggested value, who will spend EXACTLY the suggested value and who will not care how much they spend - as long as the gift is appropriate.

Adoring Husband came to the shop at closing time and brought in the flags, signs and seats before rushing back home because he was worried about the air conditioner breaking again.

What he didn't do was take the 'open' sign down and replace it with the 'closed' sign.

A customer walked in within seconds of him walking out. It was about 3.15pm.

She spent almost $100 and left, but returned about seven  minutes later with a friend. She spent another $25 and the friend vowed to return tomorrow to purchase her Secret Santa gift.

It was 4.20pm by the time I left the shop and pedalled home.

Adoring Husband had disappeared by the time I got home, so I turned on the oven and put the chicken in to cook for dinner, changed into my swimmers and headed outside to the pool. I followed my usual routine, doing my exercises and laps and enjoyed about an hour in the water.

I paired my phone to the new sound bar and played music from my playlist. The water was the perfect temperature and I only left the pool to finish preparing dinner, otherwise I might have stayed for another hour or so.

I love our pool.

Tonight, we tried the new boneless chicken from the butcher. We chose the one with bacon and the meat was very tender, but I wasn't a fan of the bacon, so I'll try the plain one next time. We had leftover mash and broccoli from last night and I char grilled some zucchini and tomato to go with it.

I think I'm ready for bed now.

Nite all.

Testing Tuesday

The air conditioning and the universe have tested us further today.

Four hours after the air con guy came this morning and claimed to have fixed the problem, part of the ceiling in the kitchen collapsed and more water leaked from two new places - one in the kitchen and one in the hallway.

The guy returned and fixed the new problem - hopefully - but now we need to repair the hole in the ceiling ...

The air con company will come to the party and pay for part of the repairs but won't take full responsibility.

Now to get some quotes.

After a very quiet morning in The Happy Abode, the afternoon picked up and one of our very first customers from last year's holiday-makers came in for a visit. She has returned for a three week holiday and was both surprised and impressed with how much bigger our range of stock is now.

I mailed a purchase to Western Australia!

It's bin night, so all the bins got emptied and Adoring Husband wheeled the sulos to the front footpath for me.

The Motivator, Mama Mia and I cleared the training room of the remaining 'paint and create' workshop mess, in preparation for the meditation class tomorrow.

I rode home and after AH gave me a rundown of all that occurred in the house regarding the air conditioning problem, I changed into my swimmers and spent about 90 minutes swanning around in the pool, doing my exercises and swimming a few laps in all the different styles so as to stretch as many muscles as possible and then floating with my ears underwater to listen to the silence and rid myself of all the negative energy that washed over me today.

Bed is now calling me - even though AH has Star Trek blaring on the bedroom TV (I'll change the channel when I get in there - he is snoring loudly) but I'll probably be asleep inside thirty minutes.

Before I go ... a big congratulations to Rebel Mardi and The Lifesaver on becoming grandparents again to a gorgeous little baby boy named Jack. So wish I could have a cuddle! Big hugs to you all - especially to Mini Mardi who did all the hard work!

Nite all.

Hooray for Monday

I began my day with a celery juice and a swim in the pool with some aqua aerobics thrown in for good measure.

An excellent start to the day.

Our Mondays in The Happy Abode seem to be busy lately.

Because so many shops are either closed all day or they close early, people come to our shop because there's nowhere else to go and it's funny at the moment, because there are three different birthdays happening this week and people have been coming to The Happy Abode to buy gifts - each of the birthday girls LOVE the colour purple!

I thought all the customers were buying for the same person, but after making a few comments and asking a few questions, I discovered that they are three different people who live in three different places - our town, The Bay and the Sunny Coast! All three love purple, so almost all of our purple 'stuff' is gone from the shop.

The Gypsy was in today and we talked and talked and talked ... as we do.

There were some familiar faces come for a visit and some new faces from Bundaberg and Gold Coast.

Adoring Husband arrived at 3pm to buy our afternoon coffee and to help close the shop. He drove home and I rode home on the trike.

As I neared our house, I noticed that the electrician van was in the driveway - they must have arrived before AH because he had parked on the grass at the side of the driveway.

I walked inside to discover the place in a bit of a shambles because the ceiling had water dripping through the light fittings onto the kitchen bench - a LOT of water! AH was in stress mode.

The electricians climbed into the roof in search of the problem and found that the air conditioner was leaking from a three way pipe connection. They took towels to soak up the water that was sitting in a large puddle and to remove the wet insulation.

Thank goodness they were here. They were so helpful. They even took out the light where the water was leaking, pulled it apart and sprayed stuff through it help it dry thoroughly before being re-installed - which they will do in a few days.

The air conditioner is still under warranty, so hopefully we won't need to lodge an insurance claim.

While the electricians were here, we discovered that the pool umbrella wasn't 'grounded' when it was installed, so for legal purposes, THAT needs to be done and could be a job bigger than Ben Hur!

Ugh.

While all that annoyance was happening with dogs barking, water dripping, electricians coming in and out of the house and climbing up and down from the ceiling, AH searching frantically for our insurance information AND the phone number of the air con company and half of the power to the house being turned off for different reasons, I received a phone call from Bubbles to confirm the dates of hers and Knight in Shining Armour's visit in February.

That was a shining light amid the frantic drama!

*Happy Dance*

All that drama has left me feeling slightly drained.

On that note, I am off to bed.

Nite all.

Day of Rest

... and it was.

I remained in bed until well after midday and the only reason I removed myself from that position was to watch a movie on Netflix.

I could have watched it in bed on my iPad, but I believed that Adoring Husband would enjoy it with me, so I got myself dressed and invited him to watch it with me in the lounge room.

That was pointless.

I should have stayed in bed.

He spent 2/3 of the movie reading his iPad and the end of the movie mixing up the dog food ready to freeze in packs.

Then he politely asked "Did you enjoy the movie?"

🙄

The movie was called "Dumplin'" and starred Danielle Macdonald and Jennifer Aniston.

Yes I enjoyed it - life lessons with a bunch of warm and fuzzy and involving real people.

Afterwards I watched the first three episodes of the new season of The Ranch. One of the main characters, played by Danny Masterson, was killed off (because Masterson has been accused of four counts of rape and was sacked from the series) and under normal circumstances, I would have been sobbing at the way they killed him off in the show ... but knowing why, I was kind of numbed to the emotion of it.

The show must go on ... and I just discovered that one of my favourite actors, Dax Shepard, has taken on a recurring role in the series, so that makes me happy!

While I was in bed this morning, Adoring Husband made a run into The Bay to pick up some mulch and then created this ...

... he's a star.

Here are the rose quartz rocks that I told you about ...

Well, we're about to begin another week. I hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Happy Monday 😎

Nite all.

Arty Farty

I believe that it was a huge success.

The Motivator's 'Paint and Create' morning resulted in some beautiful art work and left me feeling very envious!

The paying guinea pigs - being the first participants in the first workshop - left feeling very happy with their pieces of art and happy to return next week for the next instalment.

It was also a good sales day in the shop, thanks to a frenzied one hour period, otherwise I had time to make up two gift packs and wrap them and do a few other chores including follow up of phone sales.

Somebody from Bundaberg bought one of my calendars via phone call and I will mail it to her on Monday.

The weather was looking ominous this morning so Adoring Husband drove me to work, which meant that he had to also pick me up after work. He helped us close the shop and bought our afternoon coffee.

I was supposed to have a date with The Blonde Bombshell this afternoon, but I accidentally (or should I say 'foolishly') ate some dip with gluten while I was at work, so my afternoon was spent purging the unwelcome gluten from my body instead.

Ugh.

No swimming today due the inclement weather and Adoring Husband laid some sleepers as an edging for a garden bed, which he will fill with some kind of mulch. I will take a photo of that tomorrow, along with the rose quartz crystal rocks that I forgot to photograph today 😳🙄😲.

I am watching "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" with Jerry Seinfeld. It's a bit of everything - funny, deep, ridiculous, interesting, quizzical, questionable, normal, warm, stupid ... I've seen some of the re-runs, but I never watched Seinfeld back in the 90s and I've never been a big Jerry Seinfeld fan. I do like the Jerry Seinfeld of today and I like the way he relates to the other comedians.

I need to go to bed now so that my body can heal from the gluten contamination.

Nite all.
 

The Waiting Game

I've had two days off work and for one and a half of them, I've been waiting for electricians who never turned up and the delivery of the Bali hut that was two hours late.

This left me half a day to get done what I had already put off for two weeks because of other commitments (not mine) and this also meant that I had less time to enjoy the process and had to move my butt much more quickly than I'd have liked so that we could squeeze everything in.

I found some beautiful big rose quartz rocks and purchased three of them to place strategically around the pebble garden beside the pool. (I'll take photos tomorrow)

I also found a stunning giant Citrine crystal cave reduced from $3600 to $1800.

I did NOT buy it.

If I'd had a spare $1800 to toss around, I would DEFINITELY have bought it ... but I already have a fabulous pool in my back yard with a Bali bed, a giant umbrella, fabulous outdoor furniture, stunning garden pots yet to be filled, a water feature to bring peace and tranquility to my world and a Bali Hut in pieces waiting to be constructed.

For ten years I have imagined a pool in my back yard, but not once in my dreams, did it look as fabulous as it does right now and it's not even finished yet!

I visited Tinkerbell's on the Esplanade in search of a blue kyanite ring and while it's not quite what I had in mind, I found this little beauty ...

I absolutely love it.

Adoring Husband purchased a wireless speaker for the pool area ...

... and it sounds great.

I decided to attend the club tonight and just as I was about to walk out the door to get a seat on the bus to come home, one of my numbers was called and I won a $50 meat pack! Right in the centre of it was crumbed steak, which means that every piece of meat in the pack was contaminated with gluten so I can't eat any of it!

We will save it for our first pool party to feed the hoards. (You know who you are 😁🤪😍)

It's almost 11pm and I have to work tomorrow, so I'm off!

Nite all.

Bit of a Waste

Adoring Husband and I spent the entire day at home waiting for electricians who never arrived.

Apparently they'll be here on Monday. This has been a wasted day and we could have been in The Bay getting a lot done from our 'to do' list.

The other disappointing news was that the stirrups to hold our Bali Hut securely to the concrete can no longer be provided to us by the company from whom we purchased the hut. The hut will be delivered tomorrow (Friday) but we need to have these special stirrups made for us by an engineering company - we hope the one in The Bay can do that, and we hope they can do it before Christmas!

Bugga.

My first box of calendars arrived today! They're now at the shop. Adoring Husband purchased one, as did The Motivator. I wasn't expecting that lol.

I've been editing some of the wedding photos. A small sample ...

There are still so many to get through! So far the brides are happy with the photos that I've given them - about 40 to this point - there will be at least another 60 or more. They have made the photos their profile pic and page headers on their FB pages, so that's a good sign. People have made favourable comments and that's always a relief.

Weddings are so stressful! I don't think I'll do another.

Anyway, I'm all worn out. I did get to have a swim today in the gale force conditions and between downpours - then I dried out and warmed up in the Bali bed with Adoring Husband and two psychotic dogs.

We had a delicious dinner of corned beef and cabbage with mash and white sauce. I made an extra large batch of cabbage hoping to have bubble and squeak for breakfast but AH decided that it was so delicious that he had to eat the entire pan of it!

I can't complain about him pigging out on healthy food can I?

Time for bed.

Nite all.

Treatment 4 Me

I only worked half a day today but most of our sales came in the afternoon when I wasn't there!

We sold three more calendars, sight unseen! How weird is that!?

I ordered another batch before the sale ended on the print site but I feel like (and I hope) that we haven't printed enough. This was really just an experiment to gauge local interest and to give us an indication fo how many to budget for with next year's print. It's been a promising start!

When The Motivator arrived at the shop, I shouted myself a treatment with The Gypsy so I relaxed for an hour and let her do her stuff - which she does so well.

We discussed the tightness and problem areas that she found and she gave me dietary and stretching advice to help resolve those issues. She warned me of some emotional release that may be experienced tomorrow (or today as you read this).

I rushed home knowing that Adoring Husband was at a meeting and that our Bali Day Bed was due to arrive any minute.

Thankfully, it didn't arrive until after Adoring Husband returned home and between us, we were able to assemble it in it's permanent position in the corner of the pool area.

It is SO comfortable and I can't wait to laze in it tomorrow on my day off!

By the time we'd finished that, I had no motivation to make dinner, so Adoring Husband and I attended the monthly trivia night on an empty stomach.

It didn't make any difference to our mental abilities ... we were still ... the word 'stupid' might be a bit harsh ... we both had our moments but our scores were average and we had no success with any of the prizes. Between the four of us, we certainly did NOT shine and we missed Blonde Bombshell, who I'm certain would have helped us smash the 'alcohol' round!!

Now it's heading towards midnight and I'm feeling a touch weary, so I'll sign off.

Nite all.

Stormy Change

The day began hot and steamy and as the girls arrived for our coffee morning, they had worked up a sweat and needed some cooling down, so the air conditioner was set to low.

I believed that almost everyone was out of town and that I would be either on my own or only have one lady to chat with, but in actual fact, I had seven ladies in attendance and it was one of the noisiest mornings we've had!

They looked through my clothes, took and/or bought the items that they liked and it was around 11am when the last lady left. It was a good morning, as usual, but we missed The Brains Trust and Lady Lynn.

The shop was quite busy until around 1pm when weather began to develop into a nasty storm, so people were smart enough to remain indoors.

The Motivator had come to the shop to get some work done, but was distracted by talkative customers and ... me.

She too had ridden her trike, so we both had to park the trikes inside the shop and Adoring Husband drove us home as the weather deteriorated rapidly.

AH and I chose to miss the monthly barbecue at the Lions Park, but about ten of the usual group attended despite the rain, which seemed to pass just in time for the event.

We chose to get grilled barramundi and chips from the local cafe. It's been a while since we did that and it was quite delicious.

I now have a corned silverside in the slow cooker so tomorrow's dinner will be ready to reheat ... I hope to have mash, cabbage and white sauce to accompany it.

It's time to begin thinking about my 'word' for 2019. I've started a list and I have one in mind, but it still doesn't feel like 'the one', so I'll keep searching.

Last year's word was 'fearless' because I was terrified of running the photography workshops - I overcame my fear and the workshops were a hit. I will work harder at recruiting for 2019 and make them a more integral part of The Happy Abode space.

It's only 8.30pm and I think I'm ready for bed. I only work for half a day tomorrow and I'm booked in for a treatment with The Gypsy after that. I may even go for an early morning swim in the morning before work!

I'm still trying to edit wedding photos.

Nite all.

New Week

Happy Monday to you!

Although, as you read this, it's Tuesday!

It was a steady day in the shop.

Lots of chatting with The Gypsy between her appointments and my customers.

A nice visit from The Motivator and Mama Mia.

I got some jobs done.

I did some phone sales (they phoned me - not the other way round). Weird huh?

I didn't get home until 4pm and I didn't even go into the pool because I had too much to do.

I'm still trying to finish the wedding photos.

I also had to finish creating and ordering the calendars.

At this point, I've ordered a very limited number of calendars, and I expect them to sell quickly - there won't be any re-orders/reprinting because the price is due to increase by a LOT in two day's time.

A sneak peek ...

Numbers will be down for coffee in the morning - in fact, I might even be alone. We'll see!

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.