A Little Odd

It was an odd kind of sales day because everyone came in early - before 10am and I had only two customers for the remainder of the day!

Sales were good though.

I had a visit from Aggie, which was a pleasant way to break up the morning.

Otherwise, I priced the stock that the rep left with me yesterday and found new ways to display them.

I filed away some invoices, made a couple of new files for new suppliers, paid a couple of invoices and calculated my budget for the next month.

Adoring Husband arrived on cue to help close the shop and we were home by 1:30pm.

After my usual greeting with psychotic dog Colli, I made myself a GF cone with vegan ice cream and I put my feet up to watch a couple of movies on Netflix. There was no physical or mental energy left for anything else.

We had a light dinner and watched the Bunnies defeat the Eels in the other preliminary NRL final.

Now I’m in bed binge watching Friends on WINPeach.

But I’m tired and AH is snoring loudly beside me (because he forgets to use the salt pipe) and I’m going to listen to an audible book until I fall asleep.

Nite all.

Favoring The Brave

I spent a fortune.

I’m hoping that makes me brave.

I’m also hoping that the Universe will favour me and I’ll make a fortune from the fortune I spent!

ie “fortune favors the brave”

Haha!

My supplier arrived at about 10am and she was with me for about two hours.

I topped up on my ‘Intrinsic’ and ‘Buckley & Phillips’ stock, both of whom have lovely new products that I could not resist.

She also introduced me to a new brand of garden and outdoor products. I’m proud of the self control that I displayed here, because these products are excellent quality (which you certainly pay for), and I could have spent ‘quite a few’ thousand dollars!

I got a few lovely ‘end of business’ dress jewellery pieces and a new range of large cards - you know, the size that 20 or 30 people can easily sign.

This all means that between now and the end of November, I have a LOT of stock arriving.

• Sterling silver jewellery.
• A good range of beautiful Intrinsic Products.
• Scented candles, massage oil, diffusers and ‘immunity’ hand sanitisers and room sprays.
• Planters, outdoor wall art and weather vanes.
• A HUGE range of hats from the cancer council and another reputable brand.
• Dress jewellery - earrings, bracelets and necklaces.
• Silicone “chewellery” which is specifically for young children and mothers with bubs that like to chew things!
• Cards.
• More Sassy Duck bags.
• Sterling silver dress rings.

That should cover Christmas I reckon!

Today was a good day of sales - I was interrupted often while ordering the new stock, so the rep’s visit took a lot longer than usual.

I had a regular customer ask me to select some gifts for a special birthday, which was easy because I know the lady who’s special birthday it is and she is very stylish and trendy for her age.

Before we came home this afternoon, I had to do some banking and deliver the birthday parcel so it was almost 3pm by the time we got home. 

I got changed and went for a quick dip in the pool.

AH cooked the usual Friday night fare for dinner, which was lovely.

We are watching the Canberra Raiders defeat Sydney Roosters in a preliminary final of the NRL right now. 

I can just now hear my pillow whispering my name so it will be bed for me shortly.

Nite all.

Yawning Anyway

I was busy with potential customers through the shop most of the day, but none of them wanted to spend money! 

Needless to say, it was a low sales day.

I had a visit from The Motivator and The Brains Trust.

I spoke over the phone with a new supplier and ordered some good quality sterling silver jewellery. Some earrings, pendants and bracelets with pearls, some semi precious gems like turquoise, citrine, blue topaz, larimar, peridot and amber and some just plain silver.

I tidied up different sections of my office area, got rid of old paperwork and catalogues and prepared for my appointment with a supplier on Friday.

I also culled some of my wardrobe this morning and took the items into the shop to sell on the pre-loved rack.

A dip in the pool was almost on the cards this afternoon but I felt too lazy to do anything except park my butt on the couch.

Adoring Husband had SES training this evening so I prepared an early dinner of crispy skinned chicken with salad of baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and home made coleslaw.

Now it’s sleep time for me.

Nite all.

What I wished For

Be careful what you wish for!

I began the day by moaning that I needed things to quieten down because I was exhausted from the school holidays and Tuesday had been even bigger than the previous two weeks.

Not a solitary soul came through the doors after 11am.

It was a very busy morning with lots of people in the shop, but just a few small sales.

Six ladies from meditation stayed for coffee and all left at 11am

I did some more printing and laminating and added more quotes to the training room walls.

I sat down at my desk and uttered a ‘thankyou’ to the Universe for giving me this quiet day to gather my wits, take some deep breaths and enjoy the peaceful ambience of my surroundings.

I needed that.

While Adoring Husband was late picking up the weekly FROG box, I pulled the flags, signs and chairs to close the shop.

It was another easy dinner with tacos tonight.

At 7.30pm I played the BBC2 radio nightly quiz show and AH and I watched the second half of The Bachelorette in bed.

Despite my quiet day, I’m still feeling quite weary, so I’ve dabbed “sleep soundly” essential oil blend on my pulse points and I’m ready for an early night.

The weather is warming up and I’m certain that there will be swimming in the pool for the next three afternoons.

Nite all.

The Carnival is Not Over

Queensland school holidays may be over but OTHER people’s holidays are still happening.

Once again those pesky customers kept me from enjoying coffee with my girls this morning and by this afternoon, I was this 👌 close to breaking records!

I had one quiet hour in the middle of the day where I laminated a stack of pages with quotes on them to stick on the walls of the training room. I used blu tack to stick them in random positions on all four walls.

I photocopied pages for journaling and prepared for the class.

The cleaner arrived on time and began dusting as required.

My journaling girls arrived right on time and the 90 minutes flew by so fast, we went ten minutes over time.

Adoring Husband was there to fold up the tables and help me set up the room for meditation.

I was so happy to get home, put my feet up and shut my brain down.

We had an easy dinner of barbecued lamb shops with mushrooms and home made salsa.

It’s almost 10.30pm and I need to be up early for meditation so it’s sleep time for me. This early in the week, I’m not quite “quanked” yet.

Nite all.

Believe it!

Can you believe ... that I woke up at 9.30 this morning?!

Admittedly, I didn’t go to sleep until 1am but that’s still 8.5 hours of sound sleep!

Adoring Husband attempted to wake me by putting some freshly cooked bacon on my bedside table - to no avail.

Even with all of that sleep, I was not enthusiastic about getting out of bed and it was around 1pm when I made the executive decision to put on some swimmers and go for a dip in the pool, then I enjoyed a long bask in the sunshine, a laze in the egg chair followed by a warm shower.

AH and I drove to the shop to clear the training room ready for Tuesday.

It took us an hour to find a place for everything that was not yet dry from the art class, fold up the plastic sheets, set up the tables for morning tea and for the journaling class, vacuum the floors and clear the kitchen of all the now dry paint cups, stirring sticks, paint brushes, wine glasses etc.

I still forgot to take photos!

From there we returned home and I put some more touches on my commissioned art piece - until the light got too low In the family room.

For dinner, I made a frittata with last night’s leftover roast vegetables and AH cooked our pork loin chops on the barbecue.

Now, believe it or not, it’s 9.45pm and I’m feeling a little sleepy!

Let’s see if things are a little quieter in town tomorrow now that school holidays are over. The caravan park still looked full when we drove past this afternoon.

Nite all.

Sunday in Bed

Stefan Liebermann Photography - “Uluru”

You can find his photography page on Facebook and he has beautiful nature photographs from all around the world. He is very good.

I have enjoyed my entire day in bed.

Adoring Husband even did a baked dinner - a whole chicken and a big tray of mixed vegetables. Potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrot, capsicum, cherry tomatoes and garlic. I got out of bed to make the gravy and some broccoli then we sat at the table together to eat, after which, I returned to bed.

During the day I finished my newsletter and emailed it to everyone on my list.

I began to put together a ‘vision board’ workshop, the first of which I hope to hold in a few weeks time. Perhaps the third week of October or the first week of November.

I’m soon going to run out of days to hold workshops and classes!

After such a mentally active day, it’s time for me to sleep because I’m hoping to be artistically creative tomorrow before heading to the shop to clear the training room ready for morning coffee with the girls and the journaling class on Tuesday!

It’s never ending!

Nite all.

Jelly Brain

I’ve been sitting here for 30 minutes wondering what to post here tonight.

It’s been a big day and my brain is shutting down.

While I was trying to finish setting up the room for art, those pesky customers kept walking through the door. I got everything done without stress and sales were very good, but today has topped off a week that has really worn me out!

School holidays have been a blinder and I have crammed too much into the last five days AND I am too old for this $#@%!

The art class was fantastic.

We played with our art from last week and embellished it a little. 

We created two more pieces of art.

We created some jewellery.

We drank wine and ate crackers n dip.

We cleaned up our messes.

I was so tired that I forgot to take photos!

I packed up and came home.

I’ve been watching The Good Girls all afternoon and evening.

Now I’m off to bed and I can’t wait to spend at least half of Sunday there.

Nite all.

Rest Period

Today was a little quieter than the rest of the week.

Still good sales, but less customers.

I finished steaming, pricing and displaying all of the clothes.

I unpacked, checked, priced and displayed the other box of stock.

I partially set up the training room for the art workshop.

I tidied my desk.

I actually made some lunch and sat down to eat it.

Adoring Husband drove into The Bay for some pool supplies and while he was there, ran some errands for me, picking up some Floetrol for art and some big and small paper bags with handles from HBW.

It was a good productive day for me and late this afternoon I required a nap!

I got a couple of loads of washing done and I’m grateful for AH’s Friday night cooking.

We’ve watched a good game of footy tonight between Roosters and Panthers. Panthers won by a single point.

Now I need some sleep ready for a big day tomorrow.

Nite all.

Feeling Grateful

As grateful as I am for these busy school holidays and the accompanying big sales that go with them, I must say that I’m looking forward to some quieter time to sit in silence in the shop to listen to the voices in my head.

🥴

We opened the shop early this morning so I spent some time cleaning the loo, tidying the kitchen, setting up a jug of water with cups on the table in preparation for the aromatherapy workshop and setting up the steamer with all the new clothes so that I could finish pricing and displaying them.

It was so busy, it literally took me all day to do the clothes ... and then I discovered two more tops in the bottom of the box just before we left.

Ugh.

It’s always so exciting to open a box of new clothes, but after a couple of hours steaming, the excitement begins to wane and the task seems never ending!

I still have an unopened box of stock in the change room that I hope to unpack tomorrow.

The first two hours of today had 8 people in the training room for an aromatherapy jewellery making workshop. There was lots of happy chatter floating out of the room but I didn’t get to participate because of all those pesky school holiday customers! Haha.

I paid my bills this afternoon and finished my newsletter which I plan on proof reading and sending out to my email list in the morning.

The training room needs to be set up tomorrow for Saturday’s art workshop. That shouldn’t take too long.

What a week.

Sunday is dangling before me like a carrot!

Sleep is calling my name.

Nite all.

Wash Rinse Repeat

The exact same two hours were crazy busy again today and sales were within $20 of yesterday’s sales.

Meditation for the first hour - there is nothing new to say about how fantastic the first hour of Wednesday is in the shop.

A small group remained for coffee afterwards and I got to spend some quality time with The Gypsy before she left.

One customer took 90 minutes of my time - a lonely unhappy lady hungry for friendly conversation.

Two deliveries, one of clothing and one which I haven’t even opened yet, arrived during the day.

I steamed approximately one third of the clothes and got them onto the racks, which was lucky because I sold quite a few pieces this afternoon already.

I had a nice visit from The Motivator but we didn’t get much time alone together because another sad and lonely customer came in and intruded on our time.

Adoring Husband and I set up the room ready for tomorrow’s workshop in aromatherapy.

It was almost 3pm by the time we locked the door and headed home and I confess that I was feeling very worn out and in need of some restful, quiet, alone time.

Some days are filled with people who attempt to suck the life out of me - it’s up to me to find a way to counteract that otherwise I’m going to be in a lot of trouble! 😳

I must say that I’m sleeping very soundly at night!

We ate dinner at 4.40pm - pork sausages with home made tomato relish (thanks to The Motivator!) and a lovely fresh green salad.

I believe that our increasingly early dinners and our equally increasingly early bed times are confirming beyond all reasonable doubt that we are officially ... old!

It’s almost 7.30pm and I’m about to play Quiz time on BBC2 radio and then head off to bed.

Yup!

Old!

Nite all.

2 Hot Hours

I wore my new shoes today.

I was literally on my feet running, walking and standing for 5 hours and my feet felt like they were in slippers at the end of the day. 

I love my new shoes!!

Morning tea with the girls was animated and enjoyable and before they departed, they created a shopping frenzy that lasted for about thirty minutes. It was the beginning of an amazing sales day for me.

It was exhausting because all of the sales happened between 10am - 11am and 12.30pm - 1.30pm.

In between those times I priced and displayed a big box of Ivys bags and cleaned up the mess that doing that job created.

I set up the tables for the journaling class.

After the journaling class, Adoring Husband helped put those tables away to clear the room for meditation in the morning.

Unfortunately he also had some bad news to tell me.

One of our friends, who, in this blog, I call Grumpy Pants, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly this morning. You know his wife as our friend The Blonde Bombshell.

It was utterly shocking and completely unbelievable and I am still trying to process this dreadful news.

Even though I called him Grumpy Pants, he always had a positive mindset - especially considering the health setbacks that they have endured over the last couple of years after their big car accident - he was always ready for a big hug and always had something cheeky to say with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

We are all in shock, but we will all be here to help support Bombshell through this terrible time.

Grumpy Pants, we will miss your cheeky presence in our group and you have reminded us how fragile life can be, so we will hug our husbands a little tighter tonight.

Nite all.

2 year old tells us about her dinosaurs.

My adorable little Chicklet, seven years ago, naming her dinosaur collection. 

Bubbles posted this old video on Facebook today. It brought a tear to my eye and the warmest, fuzziest feeling in my heart. She will soon be ten and is currently reading Ahn Do’s series of books.

I miss her so much.

On a brighter note, I enjoyed some quality time with my girls today.

We drove to Childers and shopped for shoes, bags and clothes in between a delicious morning tea of latte with GF lemon meringue tart and lunch of warm chicken salad with sweet mustard dressing.

There was lots of snorting laughter, lots of admiring of each other’s purchase choices, lots of walking, lots of news to share, shocking conversation 😳, a mini walkout (with tongue in cheek) and I even found some  art supplies for the next art class!

We were gone for five hours and as it does when you’re having fun, time flew!

These are a couple of my purchases ...

Those big hippy pants are sooooooo comfortable and soooooo cool to wear. I’m going to get myself some more of them!

Now it’s time for me to sleep in preparation for a big week ahead.

Thanks girls for a great day. I love all of you and I’m so grateful to have you in my world. Let’s do it again soon.

Nite all.

A Short Day

I cant believe how quickly this Sunday has passed!

I bet you can’t guess what I did.

Yep.

I stayed in bed until 4pm.

I created the next two journaling classes and printed the questions/lessons out ready to photocopy when I get to work on Tuesday.

That took me a good five hours. Five enjoyable hours because I love opening my mind and creating something new from scratch. It’s especially enjoyable when the feedback is is so positive.

My Monday is going to be pretty full (and fun!) but I still have to create my monthly newsletter and do some more on my commissioned art piece before 30th September.

Tuesday is coffee with the girls and the journaling class.

Wednesday is meditation and coffee with other girls.

Thursday is aromatherapy bracelet making and beginning the setup for the art workshop.

Friday is finishing the art set up in the training room.

Somewhere during the week there will also be three deliveries of stock arriving.

Saturday will be the art workshop.

I’m already exhausted just thinking about this week!

I’d best get another early night because I need to be full of nutrition and well rested!

Nite all.

Long Day

I slept soundly and for a solid 7.5 hours last night.

I woke up feeling bright eyed, bushy tailed and keen to bound out of bed!

We even opened the shop 20 minutes early.

I vacuumed the floors, emptied the bins, washed the dishes, stapled biz cards to the bags, served customers, created an ad for the aromatherapy workshop that’s happening at the shop on Thursday and posted it on Facebook as well as printing it out and pinning it in the shop.

I created a ‘to do’ list for the weekend and gathered all the paperwork that I needed to bring home before packing up and preparing for Adoring Husband to pick me up.

We left with our freshly made coffee right on 1pm.

I couldn’t wait to put my feet up and we watched a couple of Netflix movies together before switching over to the football.

I made Hainan chicken for dinner with a big batch of mixed wild mushrooms, which was delicious.

My day has been busy, productive, relaxing and long. Actually, my whole week has been that way so I’m looking forward to my weekend off.

It’s almost midnight so I think it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Got it Done

I ended my day with a sense of achievement.

Good sales.

I removed the old “Happy Abode” stickers from the walls and counter cupboards and created new “Roz’s Happy Place” signs, laminated them and used double sided tape to attach them to their new positions.

I created the replacement ‘opening hours’ sign to stick over both sides of the A-frame sign that sits on the footpath. I used double sided tape to stick them over the top of the old hours.

I ordered some new bag hooks for displaying bags.

I wrote out my new Jenny Jazz order, ready to submit next week.

I steamed and priced some pre-loved clothing that’s been hanging around for a couple of weeks.

I securely wrapped a piece of art in tissue paper and then protective cardboard in preparation for its new owner to pick it up and transport it next week.

I gift wrapped a parcel that had been left behind for exactly that purpose.

I spoke to the macrame lady whose work has been sitting in a box in the training room for months. Thankfully, she is willing to leave the macrame wall hangings with me for another little while and Adoring Husband and I will find space to hang her work in the newly arranged Art and Craft corner next week.

In between all of that, I had customers and visitors and more enquires about art workshops.

I still have a few items remaining on my ‘to do’ list, which I might get to tomorrow.

I started some embellishing on one of my art pieces from last weekend. I have some other ideas that I might play with over this weekend so that I can show it as an example in the next workshop.

Meanwhile, I need to rest my weary brain and get an early night. I’ll probably fall asleep watching the footy from bed.

Nite all.

Another Busy Day

It’s verging on crazy!

So many peeeeeeeeople 😳

I still haven’t found the time to unpack and display everything that has arrived this week - which is ok because I choose to NOT work outside of my advertised hours. 

I want quality of life and I refuse to allow work stress to nudge it’s way into my life.

Everything can wait.

Because I’m the boss 😬

Great sales today!

I need a bigger shop - to put all the new Sassy Duck Handbags. 

Adoring Husband and I have made plans for the Art and Craft area of the shop. I’ve ordered new display shelving and I’ve got single tall glass cabinets to display the hand made jewellery so by the end of next week, it should be a lot better organised and looking fab. 

I could have filled an art class with holiday makers this weekend - 5 enquires - but I’m looking forward to my weekend off and hope to spend Saturday afternoon floating in the pool and adding more to my commissioned art piece.

I almost went for a swim this afternoon. I changed into my swimmers and THEN dipped my toes in the water ... but the water was too cold, even for me!

We had leftovers for dinner and watched a very disappointing end to The Bachelor.

I’m going to fall asleep listening to a book tonight.

Let’s hope tomorrow continues along the busy thread and I make enough money this week to lodge my order for all the lovely linen and silk clothing that I’ve been drooling over this month!

Enough for now.

Nite all.

Almost Frantic

Inside work hours, there seems to be non stop activity at the shop.

I haven’t had enough time between customers and visitors to unpack, check, price and display everything that has been delivered at the shop since Monday.

I tell myself to ‘just breathe’ because there is no rush to get all of that done!

So I’m deep belly breathing and keeping calm.

Today started the usual way for a Wednesday ... with a great meditation class. The Gypsy was able to stay for a little while afterwards and we had a catch up.

A few of the ladies stayed for coffee after meditation and when The Gypsy left, I joined them because they were stroking my creative artistic ego and it felt good! They raved about how much they love the art workshops and then they swooned over the pictures of my other art that I showed them.

There weren’t as many customers today but sales were still good.

I had a lovely visit from Aggie and we sat for a while to catch up with our news.

I paid a bill and worked out what else I can order before the end of the month ... oh the clothes 😍

Suddenly the day was over and I felt very grateful that I could put my feet up and forget about work ... until another supplier lured me into her web of lovely clothing and I began making a list of everything I wanted to order!

I made creamy garlic chicken, mushroom and spinach for dinner followed by leftover mango coconut cream ice cream that I’d made last night..

The Bachelor took my attention for the evening and now I am absolutely ready for a good nights sleep. 

Tomorrow will be another busy day!

Nite all.