A Bit Short

I came up $25 short of my prediction today. A little disappointing, but still very close!

It was a good day for sales and for the people who were all lovely and friendly.

The weather was glorious outside and everyone was enjoying the sunshine.

Today was certainly not as eventful as yesterday, although I took two new names for our next art class which is almost full now.

I came home at 1pm and made a delicious spinach and sun-dried tomato quiche with a sweet potato base for lunch, which I served with a pear and cucumber salad with micro greens and sweet potato chips (made with the leftover sweet potato from the base).

Egg is not 'plant based' but now that I've reached the four week mark, I'm giving myself permission to test the waters to see how my body reacts to different foods.

I've been keeping a food diary where I also list how my body is feeling with the changes, and I have to say that the changes have been remarkable. I can actually do all 'the things' which before, I certainly could not, because I was too busy trying to find a comfortable sitting position.

It used to hurt to lift things.

It used to hurt doing anything physical.

It used to hurt to bend over.

It used to hurt to sit.

My painful mid section stopped me from doing most of 'the things' and it was difficult to focus on much at all. Along with the pain, came breathlessness which sometimes had me gasping for air. I'm sure there are a lot of you out there who understand the constraints of constant pain.

I no longer have the pain. I've been pain free for 18 days, and the breathlessness has also gone (19 days).  I feel like a normal human being again.

So, once a week, I'll test a food that's not plant based, just to see how my body responds/reacts. Eventually, I'll have a list of foods that my body responds well to, and a list to avoid.

Ah the joys of being your own health care advocate!

This afternoon, I ducked into the studio to create some art. A set of three small canvases.

After today, I simply must clean out my bucket of tools! I have a large bucket of water under my work table, where I throw all the tools, the cups and the stirring sticks once I'm done. This stops the paint from drying and sticking to everything. The bucket is now full!

I must clean the tools before I start my next painting!

We've spent the afternoon watching the football.

I'm excited that tomorrow is Childers Multicultural Festival day! We'll be off bright and early in the morning and the weather forecast is probably the best it's ever been for the festival. It's usually a tad warm and we end up searching for some shade to sit in while we eat lunch.

So I'm off to bed for an early night ... ready for a big one tomorrow.

Nite all.  

Visitors

This day was as full as it could possibly be!

My morning at the shop was very busy with paying customers.

Three of the art ladies came in at different times to pick up the piece of art that they had created in the last workshop. Each f them stopped for a chat and even made a purchase.

I confirmed the dates for my next photography workshop with a lady who has been trying to get a place in one of my weekends for about six months.

I received a text from Best Cousin in the World reminding me that she was coming to visit with family at lunch time! We had made the arrangement a couple of weeks ago and I had forgotten all about it, so it was a pleasant surprise to know that they would  be here soon!

It was lovely to see J & P The Inveterate Travellers again. It’s been a couple of years. It was especially nice to see the gorgeous smiling face of The Duchess as she came through the door. She just lights up the room and warms my heart. It has been almost ten years since we last saw each other!

After a joyful spending spree by everyone, we all sat around the little table in the training room eating fish and chips from the cafe and catching up on our news.

In the midst of that, I had a visit from Rebel Mardi and we arranged for her and The Lifesaver to come to our house this afternoon to inspect the new pool area. Meanwhile, she wandered through the shop while the rest of us finished our lunch and then said our goodbyes.

Rebel Mardi made her own purchase and we filled some time chatting until she left for her coffee date.

The only quiet time in the shop was the final 30 minutes, which helped me catch up on some paperwork.

Yes, this morning I wrote down my sales prediction for the day. I had reached the halfway mark before lunch. My visitors took the total way beyond it, and the final customers of the day well and truly smashed it!

So the bills will be paid next week! Wahoo!

I rushed home from work after going to the bank. We are going to Childers Multicultural Festival on Sunday and I want my wallet full of cash for the occasion. I have one particular stall in mind.

When I arrived home, I changed into my presentable clothes for the club while talking to The Motivator on speaker phone. RM and TL arrived and Adoring Husband greeted them while I finished my call.

We had half an hour together relaxing by the pool and sharing family news.

They left to get ready for the club and AH and I finished getting ready too. No luck at the club for any of us tonight in the raffles or keno or lotsapots or the membership draw or ‘spin and win’ or pokies. So many opportunities to be winners!

When we left the club, everyone else was either on the bus waiting to go home or in the restaurant waiting for their meals.

AH cooked some chicken for his dinner and I had toast.

We’ve watched the footy and now I’m off to bed. I think I’m done for the day!

Nite all

Long Afternoon

The morning was busy but from noon onwards, the shop was empty.

I failed in my effort to manifest my desired sales total for the day.

The lovely Brains Trust visited me briefly.

I was pleased to leave the shop right on 3pm, go home, step into the icy waters of the pool up to my ankles, sit in my egg chair for 5 minutes, check out the growth on all the plants in the pool garden, inspect the plumbing work completed by Adoring Husband today and then return indoors.

Once inside, I ripped apart our first soursop fruit which we picked off the tree a week ago and which is now ripe, to taste it. They call it ‘sour’sop for a reason! I don’t think I could eat one fresh, but I think it would be very nice in our home made ice cream or in a smoothie.

I cleaned up that mess and high tailed it to the studio ...

Where that white lid sits, is where my moon will be. In case you can’t tell, it’s an ocean wave at night 😳
Adoring Husband made himself chicken wraps for dinner. I had toast with avocado, tomato, coleslaw and micro greens.

Now, we are off to bed to fall asleep while watching the football.

Nite all.

A Happy Day

There were many highlights to my day.

1. Meditation was full of happy peaceful souls taking in all of The Gypsy’s wise words and involving themselves in some great discussions.
2. I had an amazing 90 minutes to talk all things spiritual and life affirming with The Gypsy. The days that I get to spend extended time with her always leave me feeling uplifted and energised and sometimes on a new path exploring inner peace.
3. Lots of happy customers all loving The Happy Abode.
4. I set a goal (just like yesterday) and surpassed it by almost $100!
5. I had a visit from my favourite love filled customer who I shall name ‘Love Bug’ and she spent time telling me all the special qualities of The Happy Abode.
6. I had a visit from one of our regular bubbly art ladies and we talked all things art and giggled a lot.
7. I lost count of how many hugs I received.
8. Adoring Husband drove into The Bay to run some errands and brought me home a Boost Juice - my favourite - Mint Condition.
9. The BIGGEST highlight of my day was a quick visit from Rebel Mardi and The Life Saver. More hugs and special sparkly smiles from them both and we’ll catch up again on Friday 😁

I came home to unpack the FROG box, partially clear out the fridge, tidy the tupperware cupboard (I don’t actually own any Tupperware, but you know what I mean) to match up the lids, get clothes off the line and fold them, watch 30 minutes of The Chase and then prepare dinner.

All of that left me no energy or motivation for art and we are both about to make our way to bed.

Have great Thursday!

Nite all.

Manifesting Me

I arrived at work just in the nick of time this morning, because it was difficult to get out of bed ... I think I overdid the motivation thing on Monday because I had none left today!

I wrote the date on our daily sales sheet and beside it I wrote "I predict ... " and put a figure beside it. The first figure that came into my head without thinking about it.

At 1pm, I was still $200 short of that figure. I stood at the door and called out "Come on Universe! I still need another $200!"

At 2.36pm I was $6 short of the figure that I predicted!

A warm feeling of satisfaction overcame me. Sometimes I can create a bit of magic!

Coffee with the girls was, as always, lovely. It makes my week to spend a couple of hours cackling away with the ladies, making fun of ourselves and each other.

It was after 11am when they left, but I had spent quite a bit of that time with customers, who at one stage kept coming through the door like clowns coming out of a yellow mini minor at the circus!

The customers came in waves all day, so I didn't have a chance to even take my laptop out of it's bag.

I had to phone Adoring Husband to bring my casual clothes, which I'd left on the bed, for hooping classes this afternoon and after we'd shut up shop, he dropped me at the hall for my hour of fun!

I have to say that it was much more difficult this week than last week! All my bits hurt and I couldn't quite get into the same rhythm as my first effort. I think I need to get myself a hula hoop so that I can practice at home between classes.

The hour finished just before it wasn't fun anymore!

By the time I got home, I was starverated! So I walked straight into the kitchen and made some fried rice with the leftover rice from yesterday's dinner and a big salad for AH. I toasted a GF bagel for me and put coleslaw and tomato on it.

After I tidied the kitchen, it was straight to the studio.

We were looking forward to watching House Rules Grand Final tonight, but I still had 90 minutes to kill until it started, so I filled the time making this ...

I really like this one. I love the colours, the cells, the swirls and the vibrancy. I'd like to do more like this but in different colours.

I think I'll go to bed to watch the last half hour of House Rules now.

Nite all.  

Productive Plus

I found a large dose of motivation and had a very productive day.

In between the three paying customers, I cleared the training room tables of all the art paraphernalia, emptied out all the drawers, cupboards and boxes in the art cupboard, cleaned them out and rearranged everything in a reasonable kind of order, rearranged the paintings along the walls and removed 16 of my paintings to take home.

Adoring Husband came in the afternoon, folded the tables and helped me rearrange the chairs. Now the room looks as good as new.

The gentleman customer who ordered the photo of the kookaburras last week, returned today to pay the balance and pick up his purchase.

A lady who became a customer this time last year, has returned for her annual holiday and was very excited to come into the shop to buy something small but meaningful.

A young woman spent time selecting the perfect gift for her 14 year old step daughter who was not happy about being left at home while her parents left for holidays!

Another lady came in looking for a specific wine cooler which she claims we had in the shop a few months ago. I was stumped because as far as my brain can determine, we've only ever had one type of wine cooler, but she looked at them and was certain that it wasn't the same.

I dunno.

I paid a bill.

I contacted a customer about her order that has arrived.

Our order of 500 business cards was made through Vistaprint on 4th of July and still haven't turned up,  so I made contact with them and discovered that our order was lost and in limbo. They have now corrected the problem and will process it send it out express post at no cost to us (I should think so) and should arrive on Thursday.

We've never experienced problems with Vistaprint before and their deliveries are usually very prompt, so I was happy accept their sincere apology and their efficient fix.

At the end of the day, I was excited to return home and devote an hour to the studio to create these ...

Our dinner was curried vegetables with fried rice, of which AH took two servings! I must say, it was bloody delicious.

I think I'm just about ready for bed now and looking forward to coffee with the ladies, as well as hoop dancing tomorrow!

Happy Tuesday!

Nite all.

Sweet Sunday

I stayed in bed watching youtube art videos this morning.

It was around 10am-ish when I got up, got dressed and went straight to the studio.

I made this first ...

... and then Adoring Husband was desperate for some sustenance, so I stopped to make some rice paper wraps. I wrapped home made coleslaw, fresh mushroom, snow peas, shallots, avocado, capsicum, sun-dried tomato and beetroot, with a hot and spicy dressing. They were damned good!

While I ate lunch, I watched "You've Got Mail".

Then it was back to the studio where I made these.

For dinner, I made some sweet potato and cauliflower fritters and served them with a hot and spicy relish and a big salad with avocado, tomato, beetroot, cucumber, capsicum, lettuce, shallot, snow peas and coleslaw.

Very filling and full of nutrition.

Day 21 of plant based eating. I have gained 1.5kg and my knees are beginning to ache (maybe too many tomatoes). All my other problems have disappeared, like the breathlessness and abdominal pain and discomfort and my digestion/elimination has dramatically improved. My insides now feel normal.

I don't miss coffee. I don't miss meat. I'm eating way too many potatoes! Potatoes have ALWAYS been my biggest weakness. I have plenty of energy and except for that one strange night, I'm sleeping soundly for 6-8 hours every night.

So I'm happy to continue on my three month experiment and remain on a plant based diet for a while longer. If I continue to gain weight however, the story may change significantly! Back to Paleo I will go!

I spent a good 30 minutes cleaning my studio late this afternoon. I don't want any reason to avoid going in there to experiment some more. I want it to be welcoming every time I open the door!

Today, I attempted to create string pull feathers like this ...

Sadly, mine did not look anything like this and I certainly did NOT nail it. It was so bad, I scraped the paint into the bin. But I will try again ... and again ... and again ... until I get it right. So watch this space!

Now it's time for bed. Work tomorrow ... which will include cleaning the training room after our epic class on Saturday.

Nite all.

The fun is Done

Gosh but I enjoyed today!

Eight ladies attended the ‘paint and create’ workshop this morning. There should have been ten but two didn’t turn up and I’m willing to bet that they forgot! Still, eight was a good number for the class.

Each and every one of them were disappointed that The Motivator was not in attendance and they all felt sad about the circumstances surrounding her absence.

One of the ladies brought a little wind up machine that played “Happy Birthday”, so she cranked the song while the other ladies sang along because it’s The Motivator’s birthday next Wednesday! I took a video of it on my phone and sent it through to TM but I don’t think she’s seen it yet and there has been no response. I’ll keep you posted.

We had a lot of fun in the class. It was noisy. There were also long moments of silence when they were ‘in the zone’. There was silliness. There were questions. There were mistakes - even by me 😳. There were accidental splashes on other’s art and accidental smudges - whoops (not by me).

These are the results. Four of the ladies had never painted before and all of them left feeling pleased with their efforts.

I came home and headed straight into my studio to create three different paintings. This is one of them ...

I didn’t take photos of the other two. Maybe tomorrow.

Adoring Husband did a marvellous job manning the shop and even sent a couple of strangers in to check us out, which has created an interesting contact with Maryborough and perhaps a chance to promote and advertise The Happy Abode in the near future.

I made a vegetable loaf tonight. I layered onion slices, zucchini slices, tomato paste, roast sweet potato slices, roasted capsicum, pesto, roasted pumpkin slices, semi sundries tomatoes, mushroom slices and then poured cauliflower purée over the top and sprinkled with almond flakes. Popped it in a hot oven for 30 minutes and this ...

was quite delicious!

Now, I’m feeling decidedly weary and after checking my art, I’ll be making my way to bed.

Nite all.

Frantic Friday

Most of today was spent setting up the training room for the paint and create workshop tomorrow.

Adoring husband helped set up the tables this morning and I spent my time between customers covering the lazy Susans with glad wrap, finding all the tools and creating kits for each participant, unwrapping the canvases and adding the push pins, lining the bottles of paint along the centre of the table, finding a spot for the water tubs and writing a list of tools that I need to bring from home to make up the numbers.

In the last hour of the day, I created a piece of art in a style that is similar to the flower garden that I hope will please a couple of ladies who are not “into” flowery stuff. It can be easily adapted and or merged into the lesson to suit.

I had an unlucky night at the club tonight, though our table was lucky! Lady Lynn winning in the lotsapots, The Brains Trust winning $50 in a number draw and The Blonde Bombshell winning a corned silverside in the raffle.

Right now I’m tossing up whether to go create a quick piece of art or go to bed. Perhaps if I go to sleep early enough, I might wake up early enough to play?

Penrith are thrashing St George in the footy so it’s not worth staying up to watch the rest of the game.

Adoring Husband will be working the shop in the morning while I run the workshop so if there is anybody out there who wants to come say hello and ease his pain, please feel free!

Have a great Saturday!

Nite all.

I Dunno

I have no idea what was going on last night.

I was asleep a little after 9.30pm and then I was awake at 2pm. For good.

At 2.30am I got out bed, made myself a cup of tea and took myself to my studio. This was the result ...

I thoroughly enjoyed the silence of the night as I worked away in my PJs and Ugg boots.

It was 4.15am by the time I climbed back into bed and I was still awake when Adoring Husband’s alarm woke him for work at 4.45am. I was still awake when MY alarm went off at 6am!

At 7am I jumped under the shower and spent a few extra minutes enjoying the hot spray.

We were at the shop, doors open and ready for business before 8.30am.

It was a VERY quiet day except for one gentleman who asked to see any photos that I had of kookaburras. I showed him the photos in my Flickr photo stream and he selected this pic ... 

It’s one of my earlier photos and not very impressive in my eyes, but he was willing to part with his cash for it, so I guess he thinks a lot more of it than I do!

He lives in Gladstone and will be back on Monday so AH and I closed the shop a few minutes early, rushed into the Bay to print the photo, then rushed to the framers to get the mat board fitted. The owner is going away next week and was busy finishing some jobs but offered to do my job on the spot for me. What a champion. We expected to make another trip in tomorrow to pick it up, so we really appreciated that gesture.

AH was so impressed with dinner last night, that we stopped to stock up on big mushrooms so that I could repeat the menu tonight.

I think my night of sleepless creativity is catching up with me now and I can hear my pillow calling out to me. I don’t think I’ll even see out the second half of the football and it’s MY team playing 😳

Have a fab Friday!

Nite all

I'm Back!

It was tough going this morning having to get out of bed at 6.30am to be at work by 7.15am to open the shop ready for meditation.

I'm glad that I did though because it was a great day.

I've missed meditation for the last three weeks because I wanted to stay in bed and be cosy, but I really enjoyed this morning's session and catching up with the ladies who attend.

It was also fantastic to catch up with The Gypsy who I haven't seen for a month (except for yesterday at hooping).

The Motivator appeared a couple of times and we had a brief chance to chat too.

It was a good day for sales.

Adoring Husband picked me up after work and we drove into The Bay. We picked up the FROG box on the way in, then stopped at Tinkerbells so that I could pick up my Citrine crystal ball. We searched for weighted hula hoops, but I didn't like the ones at the sports store. Finally, we stopped at King Kong where I bought a few canvases for the shop AND for me, along with a handful or two of paints.

We arrived home at 5.30pm and it was straight to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Those delicious stuffed mushrooms again with a salad and some fried cubed potato.

We actually have the heater on right now. I must be acclimatising because I'm feeling the cold lately.

Today is day 17 of plant based eating for me and I feel great. It's not as difficult as I expected (because I've always loved meat) and all the horrible pain and discomfort that I was feeling after a meal completely disappeared by day ten. Meals have become pleasurable again.

I'm feeling good.

There have been no after effects of the hooping yesterday. My muscles are good. Just a little bit of tenderness in my mid section where the hoop, which is quite heavy, was battering me on it's way round and round and round!

Anyway, that's enough from me. Time for sleep.

Nite all.

A Bit of Hoopla

We had a lovely long coffee morning with eight of us in attendance.

After sharing news, we talked about religion and politics and gyms and gambling and many other things before everybody departed at 11am.

I hung around to try and catch up with The Motivator and all her news as well as work stuff, but lots of customers came through the doors.

An elderly gentleman whom The Motivator assisted last week came in to thank her for being so kind and then proceeded to give us business advice. He must have been about 90 yrs old and I know that he meant well but he was in the shop for about an hour and he had a hearing problem that prevented him from hearing the register of my voice.

This was kind of good for me because it meant that I didn't have to contribute to the conversation and simply stood and smiled through the entire encounter.

However, I had to leave before him so TM and I didn't get to finish our conversation.

I arrived home at almost 1pm to make a late lunch and do a few things before leaving on my trike at 3pm to make my way to the hoop dancing classes!

None of the ladies who I expected to be at the class were there! I still knew everyone there, not necessarily by name, but certainly by sight.

The class was amazing! I loved every second of it, even though I could tell within ten minutes that I was going to be in a world of pain the next day! I almost felt like I had internal injuries by the end of the class, but at the same time I felt exhilarated!

Who knew that you could use so many different muscles hula hooping?

Today I learnt how to hoop in both directions, how to stop the hoop from dropping to the ground without using my hands (also in both directions). How to stop the hoop the correct way with my hands and then immediately spin it in the opposite direction and how to take steps forward while continuing to keep the hoop spinning (that one was difficult and I need to practice).

We did stretches before the class began and we did a warm down at the end of the class.

The Gypsy (who was teaching the class) took orders for her hand made hoops before we all departed vowing to return next week with even more enthusiasm than today. There were ten of us in the class which was the perfect number for the space in the hall - it's quite amazing how much room one person with a hoop needs in order to hoop successfully.

I'm looking forward to purchasing my own hoop so that I can practice at home.

So a good time was had by all and it already feels kind of sad that the course only lasts for 8 weeks. I hope the beginners course progresses to a new level afterwards.

We had an easy dinner tonight. I took some leftover Parsee Chicken out of the freezer and cooked it for Adoring Husband with some cauliflower rice.

For me, I made a stuffed portobello mushroom. A big one. I put a dob of grass-fed butter on the mushroom and a handful of chopped shallots and fresh chilli, then a layer of semi sun-dried tomatoes which I poured some of Roza's pesto over and then sprinkled some fresh GF breadcrumbs over the top, followed by another dob of grass-fed butter. Cooked it in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

I wish I'd made two of them, because it was delicious!

I have to be up early in the morning to attend meditation and I'll be working. I hope my body doesn't make me suffer too much.

It's off to bed for me now.

Nite all.  

Fairly Productive

I didn't stay in bed for as long as usual this morning.

I almost decided to go back to sleep at about 9.30am but instead I climbed out of bed and began to set up the dining room as my studio again.

Adoring Husband had different ideas.

Even though he was feeling like crap and his tremor was really bad, he decided that we would set up the back room as my studio.

We took the legs off the single beds and lay the beds on their sides against the back wall and placed an old doona cover over the top and then three boards over that where I can dry my art flat.

We lay a doubled over drop sheet on the floor and then a rubber mat in the doorway.

My big new red tool box fits beautifully inside the wardrobe, along with all of my blank canvasses.

My three tiered trolleys fit perfectly in the corner.

The big folding table sits very nicely in front of the window so that I have a lovely view of the pool while I'm working.

Over that, I put a plastic table cloth with a felt underside and then a blue tarp to catch the dripping paint.

I created two pieces of art this afternoon. One was a fail and the other was quite nice. so that's a good start.

The only reason I stopped was because I had to cook dinner. I had already baked a chicken yesterday, so I baked potato, pumpkin and sweet potato tonight. Steamed some broccoli and cauliflower. Sauteed some onion and Brussels sprouts which I added to the home made gravy. Then I added some chicken to heat up for AH and served him all that deliciousness.

For me, I took some of the broccoli, cauliflower, roast pumpkin and sautéed onion, put it in the blender with the vegetable water, olive oil, white pepper and Himalayan salt and blended it into a soup. I sprinkled chopped spring onions over the top and it was very nice and very filling.

For dessert, we had a small slice of the chocolate tart that I'd made for our visitors on Friday.

So the day was quite productive and we are both very tired, so it's off to bed for me.

Nite all.    

Workshop Done

It was difficult getting out of bed this morning, being so chilly, being Sunday AND being a work day for me running the photography workshop.

But I got there an hour before the workshop began and had time to set up and organise the NEW course material that I had to prepare for those speedy young girls.

It seems that the old and the young traded places because unlike yesterday, the young ones lagged a bit this morning and struggled to keep up for the first hour or so.

At the end of the day, the participants thanked me profusely and were pleased with how much they had learned and were happily surprised with how relaxed the workshop was.

I think I can class it as a success, although one of the ladies declared that she would continue to use her camera on 'automatic' because she didn't want to fiddle with the controls all the time.  Hers was a smaller, older digital camera and I can understand her reluctance but it means that she basically just wasted $240.

I enjoyed teaching them all and it was worth losing my entire weekend of sleeping in and being arty farty to practice a skill that I've neglected for quite some time, and share it with people who were so keen to learn.

At the end of the day, Adoring Husband and I cleared the mess and set up the training room as it should be, washed all the dishes from morning tea, packed all my paraphernalia into the car and headed home to veg on the couch for the remainder of the day.

I'm mentally exhausted from the brain work, physically exhausted from the 90 minutes wandering along the beach and the path taking photos and assisting the others and then emotionally exhausted from sharing my time between strangers and the visiting family for three days.

Perhaps 'exhausted' is bit of an exaggeration. Give me a word between tired and exhausted ... I'm not quite 'exhausted' but I'm a bit more than 'tired'.

It's nice to have things back to normal now. Time to convert the back bedroom into a studio for me ... AND SOON because I CAN'T WAIT to get back into my art!

I love how chilly the weather has become again and how lovely it is to stay snug under the covers in the morning ... I'm gunna stay there for a long time in the morning.

I'm sitting here on the couch in my pyjamas and ugg boots ready to sign off and go to bed. I hope you all had a bonzer weekend!

Nite all.  

Workshopping

It was midnight when I finally got to sleep last night.

Having visitors the night before running a workshop is not necessarily a good idea.

Still, I got to work at about 7.30am and had everything set up and prepared before the participants arrived.

I've got a couple of young ones in the class who are very clued up. They are beginners but amazingly quick learners and I had used the whole day's material before lunch time and had to dip into Sunday's material just to fill the day for them!

They had completed the exercises quickly with excellent results, practiced all of the methods a number of times on various subjects and were very confident and very happy with their own progress.

They said that they had learnt a lot in one day and were pleased with the first day of the workshop, so that's always a good thing.

They are also lovely girls and easy to teach, so I too, am enjoying the class and then to top it off nicely, one of them posted on Instagram how much she has enjoyed the workshop so far and mentioned The Happy Abode.

The older participants are not so impressed because the young ones are making them feel a bit slow and inadequate. I had to convince one in particular to return tomorrow and that I'd give her some one on one attention to catch her up.

Anyway, it was a good day, but I'm exhausted and am heading to bed as soon as I've finished here.

I was sad to say goodbye to my cousin Nellie Noo today. I thought she was staying tonight as well and was hoping to have some more D&Ms with her before she left, but circumstances changed and she left today. I hope she visits again soon.

It was handy having so much leftover food from yesterday and Adoring Husband and I pigged out on all of that for dinner. Little to no effort by me after such a big day.

I've had to spend some time creating some more course content for the young ones so my brain is feeling a bit frazzled now and I'm already looking forward to having Monday off!

The Motivator has to leave on Thursday to attend a funeral down south so she'll be gone for about a week. Not a happy time at all, but it's good that we can be here to cover for each other when the need arises and that we are happy to do it.

Now, I need some sleep. Have a lovely Sunday!

Nite all.

Biggie

I’m exhausted!

I walked into the kitchen at 11am, didn’t stop until 3.30pm when I had to go to the shop to set up for my photography workshop on the weekend and returned home to continue in the kitchen until our guests arrived at 5pm.

I made a chocolate tart with a nut based crust and a Ferrero rocher flavoured filling, a chocolate mousse made with avocado/melted dark chocolate/coconut cream, some salted toffee nut crunch, whipped cream, strawberry sauce and mixed fresh berries.

On the main menu was potato salad, seaweed noodle Thai salad, coleslaw, cherry tomatoes, beetroot, capsicum/cucumber/avocado salsa, guacamole dip, toasted some Turkish bread slices and Adoring Husband cooked some steak and sausages on the barbecue.

We had some beverages and chatted around the table until 11pm when I had to go to bed. Oh and in the middle of the evening I had to photocopy some sheets and put my course material together ready for the workshop!

Luckily I had started the day eating breakfast under the Bali hut and enjoying some peaceful time, so I was energised to get through the hard work.

I’m pretty sure my efforts were appreciated, and there’s plenty of leftovers to keep our bellies full for a couple of days.

Now I’d best get some sleep so that I have my wits about me to teach tomorrow!

Nite all.

Token Offer

Because I’ve just come to bed at 1am and haven’t the time nor the energy to write anything much, I thought share this with you all instead. It’s a very interesting read!

An interesting take on alcohol consumption

Have a wonderful Friday!

Nite all.

Two For

NSW have won two State of Origin series in a row and they (and by ‘they’ I mean Adoring Husband) seem to be very excited by this success!

I think they have a long way to go before they reach EIGHT series in a row, which is QLD’s record. Not only that, but NSW won the ninth series and QLD won the next three after that.

So when NSW get close to that, they will definitely have a reason to be bragging/celebrating. Enjoy this mini success while you can AH.

We started our day in The Bay having breakfast at Aquavue. They have a delicious vegan option for breakfast. Baby spinach leaves, roasted sweet potato, seasoned chickpeas, roasted cherry tomatoes, hash brown, avocado, capsicum coulis and GF toast. I couldn’t eat it all!

We did a grocery shop and some art shopping for me AND the shop. I got the new Pete Evans book ‘Heal’ and some tools for art. We purchased some Boost Juices and headed home.

I finished clearing the dining table, which means my art studio is currently nonexistent and everything has been packed away and is being stored against the back of the kitchen bench until next week.

Sad face.

I made the bed in the rear bedroom, finished cleaning the shower recess, scrubbed all the paint off the tiles in the dining room, did two loads of washing, ironed some clothes, unpacked the groceries, stored away my art purchases, got washing off the line and folded it.

Sat outside in the pool area for about 40 mins.

Did baked potatoes in their jackets and a salad for dinner. When cousin Nellie Noo arrived with Big Bird, AH cooked up some steaks on the barbecue and we ate dinner and had everything cleared away before State of Origin began.

Noo and I have much to catch up on! Luckily Big Bird’s touch footy games don’t start til late in the day so we will have long mornings to chat.

For now, I need some sleep.

Nite all

Faux Coffee

Day nine of my plant based eating and today was coffee morning with the girls, but not many girls turned up and as The Motivator calls it now ... a 'faux coffee morning' because I don't actually drink coffee!

There were only six in attendance including The Motivator and I and I only stayed for a bit over an hour because there was much to do at home.

I cleaned most of the bathroom. I sprayed the shower recess with Oil of Cloves and have left it overnight to clean in the morning when I have a shower.

I emptied out the fridge and cleaned the shelves.

I cut open 42 empty paint tubes to scrape out the remaining paint and ended up with four small tubs full of paint! Two tubs of white, one of aqua, half of blue and half of greenI still have another 29 tubes to cut open.

I did some washing.

Tomorrow, we need to go into The Bay for some food shopping and some paint shopping and run some other errands.

Then I have no choice but to completely clear my dining room/studio because Adoring Husband thinks it's too cold to eat outside. He's right. 😳

Late tomorrow afternoon, my cousin and her son will arrive and we plan on an easy barbecue for dinner. Their touch football games are quite late this season and there will be games that don't even finish until 6.30pm, so I expect we'll be having some late dinners (we usually eat at 6pm) and some late nights, especially Friday night when we'll have other visitors here overnight.

This weekend is my photography workshop, so I need to get a good sleep on Friday night.

It was an excellent day of sales in the shop today and there seems to be a lot more people out and about this week, so we are breathing easy again.

We had a fun dinner tonight. Fun because Adoring Husband struggled with the finer points of wrapping a fiddly, wet rice sheet. We had a plate full of julienned avocado, red capsicum, cucumber, carrot, spring onions, snow peas, beetroot, mushrooms and mint leaves. We wrapped little piles of food in the wet rice wraps with a drizzle of chilli dressing.

It was bloody delicious and I think I ate about 8 of them! Adoring Husband had chicken with his, which he'd cooked on the barbecue.

For now, it's time for me to sleep because we have a big day ahead of us.

Nite all.

Down and Out

Adoring Husband has come down with an injury of unknown origin in the region of his mid section.

It came on suddenly and is causing him considerable discomfort.

He's been working very hard and it could be a muscle strain but it seems to be growing. We'll see how it is after a (hopefully) good night's sleep.

The rooms are prepared for our visitors. We may have to eat outside because although the dining room/studio is quite clean, it is not completely clear and there is nowhere to put all the stuff - desktop computer, 5' high tool box, two 3-tier trolleys, stack of canvasses, drying boxes, lazy Susan, blue tarp and other stuff.

Having given AH a small hand with some chores, I concentrated my efforts on creating some art with the leftover paint in the little tubs and using two old canvasses that I didn't like the results of.

It was a pleasure to spend some time at the table and the new chef's blow torch that AH bought for me works a treat to bring out the cells in the paint...

I had to stop to prepare dinner. We had stuffed mushrooms and stuffed tomatoes. Stuffed with tiny cubes of cooked potato, sweet potato, zucchini, onion, capsicum, spinach, garlic and chilli, then topped with dukkah and cooked in a hot oven. A side of snap peas and green beans. I had some beetroot as well. AH cooked his steak on the barbecue.

AH headed to bed soon after dinner to hopefully ease the pain in his mid section.

So now I need to go clean the kitchen and make my way to bed. Luckily, there is a TV in the kitchen so that I can watch Ash Barty play while I work.

I hope to see all the lovely ladies in the morning for coffee.

Nite all.