Freaking Me Out!

I’m filling my weeks with so much stuff.

It’s all stuff that I absolutely love.

But it’s wearing me out!

This week I had to be at the shop on Monday to partially clear what I could from the art room.

Tuesday morning was coffee with my girls. Lots of regular possums away, but lots of the infrequent visitors turned up. It was loud and fun and giggly and it was almost 11am when they all left.

It was a big sales day followed by the journaling lesson which had two extra people join in for the day. A different energy, a lot of fun but very tiring.

That was followed by more work to clear everything from the training room and set out the 17 chairs ready for meditation the next day.

Wednesday was meditation, time alone with The Gypsy, morning coffee with the meditation ladies and a busy sales day. The treatment room had to be cleared in readiness for The motivator the following day.

Thursday was time with The Motivator, average sales and then a trip into The Bay to accompany AH to visit the doctor.

Friday was average sales but setting up and preparing for the vision board workshop that afternoon, which went for 4 hours! Pretty average for vision boarding to last that long.

Finally today (Saturday) which ended the week with a very quiet sales morning - the Howard Markets were on today so that usually lures people out of our town.

I got ALL my Christmas gift wrapping finished and I’ll mail everything on Monday.

I started AND ended my day with a dip in the pool, and now it’s 8.13pm and I can hardly keep my eyes open.

In the next week, all of the workshops and classes will be winding down for the year. I’ll have no classes between 18th Dec and 5th Jan and no meditation between 10th Dec and 27th Jan!

Right now, I need to sleep 😴 

Nite all.

Blacked Out

It’s 10:38pm as I type this in the dark.

We’ve been blacked out for almost four hours because of fallen power lines.

💡Power outage - update 💡

🔹 Customers affected: 1,949

🔹 Start time: 6:56pm - 03 Dec 2020

🔹 Est. fix time: 12:30am - 04 Dec 2020

🔹 Reason: The loss of supply is due to fallen power lines.

🔹Status: Crews working on-site

It’s a very hot evening and the house began to warm up after an hour of no air conditioning, so I decided a swim in the pool would be appropriate.

It was delicious in the water and floating on my back staring at the stars was the perfect way to spend 30 minutes. My ears were under water so there was complete silence and sometimes it felt like I was actually floating in space.

There was a slight breeze, so after a while I began to feel a bit chilled. 

I came inside, changed into my pyjamas and at 10pm we were sitting in the lounge room eating vegan ice cream in GF cones. Very indulgent for so late at night, but we are grown ups! We can do anything we want!

I had a nice day at the shop with The Motivator and thanks to a busy final hour of trade, my sales were good.

Adoring Husband had an appointment with his Dr to get some test results, so I decided to accompany him. He was concerned that the results would not be good and wasted much time worrying about something that might not happen.

His results were good. No sign of cancer and there were even improvements in some markers.

See? Wasted energy worrying!

The Dr seemed a bit put out (it’s been 5 yrs since I accompanied AH to his office) by my questions and concerns regarding another matter, but we left with some helpful advice that we will try and at least he knows that I’ve still got Barry’s back and I’m not going to let him get away with anything that I disagree with.

After that appointment, we stopped at Tinkerbells but they have new opening hours and they close at 3pm! How rude!

We did a grocery shop at Stocklands and stopped at The Good Guys where we purchased a new dishwasher to replace the 8 yr old Bosch that just died. 8 yrs is good going for a dishwasher that gets used every day.

We had to stop at my shop on the way home so it was 6pm by the time we pulled into our driveway.

I bought a cooked roast pork at Coles which was still deliciously warm when we got home and we ate warm roast pork sandwiches on fresh low GI bread for dinner. Melt in your mouth delicious!

So I didn’t make up for last nights lack of fruit n veg and I wont be making up for it tomorrow night either because I have my vision board workshop after work and won’t be home til 6pm again! AH will provide his usual Friday night chicken wing dinner.

What a busy life!

It’s now well after 11pm so I guess we should attempt to sleep in our very warm house. I expect the house will be humming and buzzing when the power comes back on in the middle of the night.

Nite all.

Emotional Hit

For the second time this year, I had to put the “class full” sign on the door and turn people away from meditation!

There were four men in attendance (very unusual) and two of them went out of their way to speak to The Gypsy afterwards. One of them said “Who knew we would find a shining diamond in a place like Burrum Heads!?”

It was an emotional class with some silent tears flowing as we discussed The Power of Self Respect.

There was something about The Gypsy today that was special. She had a loving aura that touched us all.

The usual ladies stayed for coffee afterwards but I didn’t get much time with them because of those pesky customers.

It was a good sales day.

I ordered some gorgeous linen pants and silk tops which are guaranteed to be here before Christmas - I can’t wait!

A big box of snap buttons and snap jewellery finally arrived! Really nice buttons too!

The trays of paint were finally dry so I peeled the sheets of dry paint off the trays and lay them flat on top of the training room cupboards ready for their owners to claim next week.

We cleared the treatment room ready for The Motivator tomorrow.

I rearranged the furniture behind the counter to make more room to move.

It was stinking hot all day and I pedalled home in the heat. My only option was to get changed and jump in the pool!

I swam ten laps, stretched, danced, floated and got the inflatable bed out to float some more. It was pure delight! I listened to 80s music and sat in the Bali hut for half an hour thinking “how bloody lucky am I?”

I made king prawns on toast for my dinner. Adoring Husband made chilli mango chicken wings for himself - a fruit and veg free night. We’ll make up for it tomorrow night.

I’ve just played my BBC2 pop master quiz and now I’m ready to sleep.

Nite all.

De cluttering Of Sorts

I was told that shaving your legs is a form of decluttering.

The act of shaving your legs washes away the old, making way for the new and works in a positive way to bring abundance.

So this morning I gave myself an extra 15 minutes (I haven’t shaved my legs since March so it wasn’t going to be quick job!) to get ready for work and I shaved, all the while telling the universe that I was planning on a bumper week of sales in the shop and bringing financial abundance.

Of course it’s only day one of my working week, but today was a blinder! My coffee girls kicked it off with a bang and the day continued along that vein. 

The day was pretty crazy!

The art from the weekend was dry but the silicone trays were still full of wet paint which was problematic because there were so many of them!

I found corflute signs that could be used to hold the trays which are now lined up along the wall in my office area, as well as atop the tall display cupboards. Some are also in the kitchen.

As planned, “Happy Gal” arrived an hour early for the journaling class, to help me clear everything from the training room and set up for journaling. 

I’m feeling incredibly grateful for the women who have become part of my tribe and who have really begun to step up to the plate and make my life easier, by helping set up for classes and then clean up afterwards.

I had two extra ladies in journaling today and they really brought a lot to the class. A nice change of energy. One is on holidays so she’s only here for one class and the other is from The Bay. She plans on joining us on an irregular basis.

After the girls all left, Adoring Husband and I cleared the tables and set up for meditation in the morning.

It was after 4pm when we arrived home to discover ... no power. We still have no idea why there was a blackout, but thankfully the power returned within ten minutes of us coming through the front door. 

It was at the front door where we found a missed delivery ticket! If not for the blackout, we would not have found the ticket because we don’t normally use the front door!

Because I’d washed my hair this morning, I chose not to go swimming. Instead we had an early dinner and came to bed at 8pm.

As you know, tomorrow is an early start, so it’s sleep time for me.

I’m done for the day!

Nite all.

Found It

I found my motivation today.

I was awake at 6am but it was 9am when I got up, changed into my swimmers, made some tea and breakfast, took it out to the Bali hut and enjoyed a very relaxing half hour eating before stepping into the pool.

The water was perfect and I swam some laps and stretched and floated. I remembered the new air bed that Adoring Husband had inflated last week and had stored in the pool storage room. He fell off it twice while struggling to balance. I had no such trouble.

I floated on the air bed and parked it so that only my legs were in the sun and the rest of my body was shaded by the umbrella.

Eventually I forced myself to come inside to get started on the many items on my list.

It took me over two hours to clean the bathroom thoroughly. Emptying the drawers and cupboards, tossing old make-up and shampoos and face creams - 2 bags of rubbish - reorganising the drawers and leaving one empty for Beautiful Girl With Long Blonde Hair when she arrives in less than 3 weeks!!

I scrubbed the tiles and floor, sprayed oil of cloves on the grout in the shower recess, scrubbed and polished the glass in the recess. Dusted the shelves and everything on them. Replaced the towels and floor mats.

Well, you know the drill.

I did two loads of washing.

It was then time to sit down and begin typing out and printing the journaling lesson for tomorrow. I worked on that for an hour but had to set it aside so that we could drive to the shop and clear the training room as best as we could.

Most of the art wasn’t dry yet and the silicone mats were full of very wet paint.

We did our best to clear enough space for morning coffee and hopefully another 20 hours will be enough to dry off the art. I think the silicone mats will take a couple more days to dry.

Returning home, we prepared dinner of pork sausages on the barbecue with a fresh salad.

Then it was back to the drawing board for the journal lesson. I’ve completed the next two lessons now.

There were two things on my list that didn’t get touched. My monthly newsletter is due tomorrow but it will definitely be a couple of days late. The art piece didn’t get touched either, so that is now my priority.

It’s almost 11pm so it’s time to sleep.

I feel much better at the end of today, than I did at the end of yesterday!

Nite all.

Unmotivated

I think the week took a lot out of me.

Believing that Adoring Husband and I had an appointment in The Bay on Monday, I’d made a small list in my head of things I wanted to do around the house today including cleaning the bathroom, doing some washing and finishing the commissioned art piece. 

I also wanted to swim in the pool.

At no point during my day in bed, did I feel remotely motivated to do anything at all. It was even a chore to get out of bed and walk to the ensuite to pee!

AH brought me a cup of tea followed by some bacon with honey on toast - my first bread in quite some time. I’ve lost 4kgs since cutting bread, potato and rice from my kitchen. Having said that, I’ve eaten all three of those things this weekend ... could that have anything to do with my mental state?

I DID write my next two lessons for journaling, but did NOT create the lesson sheets to print and issue so I still need to do that tomorrow.

Between naps, I spent hours watching videos of Natalie Angel “letmetrybeforeyoubuy” on Instagram. She is an average sized woman who tries on and models different brands of clothing. She tells us if the sizes are true, the quality is good or bad, shows us how to style different items, gives us prices, available colours and the corresponding websites or shop names.

The videos are quite short (around 13-15 mins) but they all roll one after the other so before you know it, a couple of hours have passed. Well, more than a couple of hours actually.

I got out of bed at 6pm and made myself a bowl of food - avocado, tomato, cucumber, onion, mango, watermelon and chicken with a splash of balsamic vinegar. It was delicious!

I’ve been informed that we don’t have an appointment in The Bay tomorrow so that means I can do all the things that I didn’t do today.

Right now, it’s time for bed ... again!

Nite all.

Sharing the Load

Before I got out of bed this morning, I set my intention for the day.

I stated in my book of intentions a monetary total of sales that I wanted for the day, the types of customers I wanted to serve (happy, light hearted, friendly and positive), the jobs I wanted to finish (pricing and displaying the new intrinsic stock), running a happy and successful art class etc.

I posted on the shop FB page that today was going to be a great day!

Knowing that I still had to finish setting up the training room, I selected the most comfortable clothing and footwear for the day and packed my casual gear to change into for the class.

I rode to work and Adoring Husband drove to help me open.

Afternoon tea is provided so I had to shop for fruit as well as milk for tea and coffee on the way to work.

First on the agenda was pricing and displaying the stock, which I was able to do quickly.

One of the art class participants arrived at 9.30am to offer her assistance to set up, which was a lovely gesture that I accepted with gratitude.

“Laughrocca” is one of our favourites because of her loud and happy laugh. She is very observant because I didn’t have to tell her what to do or show her where to find stuff. She very efficiently got stuck right in and we were finished in just over an hour.

This was especially helpful because it gave me time to have a quick practice run before the class started.

I had an excellent sales day but didn’t quite reach the very ambitious total that I’d set in my intention book! 

All of my customers were fabulous, the art class was so successful that every single person signed up for the next one, even the newbies!

Everyone pitched in to clean up the mess from art - and there was a LOT of mess with 11 of us creating 2 pieces each!

My day, in a nutshell, was fantastic. Exhausting! But I loved every minute of it.

AH closed the shop at 1pm and then returned at 3.30pm to help me finish up and take all my paraphernalia home so that I could ride home without a heavy load in the basket. He’s my champion.

I prepared a delicious dinner of poached chicken with chilli, white pepper, mixed mushroom, bok choy and rice.

I think I need to sleep now.

Nite all.

Slow Start

My first customer didn’t come through the door until 11.10am.

Despite that, it was a good day of sales!

Adoring Husband and I did a bit more to set up the training room for art, but there is still more to do. One of the participants is coming in at 9am to give me a hand so that will be nice.

Hopefully, my month will end with a flourish tomorrow. I’m not far from tripling sales from last November which is pretty exciting!

I received the second half of my Intrinsic order this afternoon which I still have to price and display. I love Intrinsic products. They are so beautiful, colourful, meaningful and therapeutic.

I’m still waiting for a large order of snap buttons and jewellery which I was expecting earlier in the week. I should know by now that COVID-19 makes deliveries and shipments very unpredictable. Some arrive super fast and others take a ridiculously long time to travel a very short distance.

After 6 months I finally changed the message on the shop phone! 

A couple of new suppliers phoned and I registered with them for wholesale access to their products.

My weekend will be full of art classes, adapting the commissioned art piece to suit the change in requirement, cleaning, helping repair the dishwasher, swimming and meetings with the accountant. 

Nite all.

Unproductively Social

Aggie arrived early at the shop with her hubby Jack (of all trades) who had offered to change the fluoro tubes in one of my ceiling lights. Done in a jiffy. What a champion. Thanks Jack!!

It was The Motivator’s day in the treatment room and we spent a good portion of the day catching up as well as talking shop. 

It was a good day but I didn’t get much done.

A touch above average for sales. What started out as a slow week is looking much better and I’ve already sold 8 of Macca’s (the 91yr old lady) beaded Christmas decorations! 

I received two phone calls about the workshops that I advertised in the local newsletter this month so I’m happy about that, especially because the newsletter has only been out for 3 days.

Adoring Husband had to go into The Bay today so I got him to run some errands for me.

We closed the shop 5 minutes early, did a mini grocery shop and I pedalled home to begin cooking a baked chicken, veg and gravy dinner. It was quite delicious.

It was perfect weather for a swim in the pool but the air was thick with smoke from the Fraser Island fires and after breathing it in during my trike road home, I couldn’t stand the thought of stepping outside for a second dose! Ugh!

Tomorrow is my big set up day for the art class on Saturday so I’d best get some sleep. I hope it will be busy with sales as well so I should be exhausted by the end of the day! 

Nite all.

Maybe The Weather?

I had a dreadful night.

I fell asleep around 10.30pm.

I woke up at 12.38am.

I was still awake at 2am so I went to the kitchen and made myself some sleepy tea.

I sat in the lounge room reading my new health book until 3.20am.

I was in bed asleep a little after 3.30am.

My alarm woke me at 6am.

I was at work by 6.40am.

Meditation.

Time with The Gypsy.

Morning tea with the meditation ladies.

An average day of sales.

Paid some bills.

Set the training room up for art on Saturday.

Cleared the treatment room ready for The Motivator tomorrow.

Purchased some hand made beaded Christmas baubles from a 91 year old lady.

Created a display for them with a sign.

Feeling quite weary, I left the shop at 2.30pm and pedalled home under the dark looming clouds that threatened to do much but actually did nothing.

Planted my butt on the lounge until I cooked salmon steaks with salad for dinner.

I climbed into bed to play BBC2 pop master and now, before 9pm, I’m ready to sleep.

Nite all.

Under Pressure

I started the day knowing that I had not yet prepared my journaling lesson!

Eep!

Coffee with the girls was lovely, even though I missed a lot of the conversations due to customers. Those pesky customers!

I received two parcels in the mail. Some lovely clothes that I’d ordered for myself online last week - black jeans, leopard skin tights that are so soft and delicious, two t-shirts and an ‘oversized’ top to wear with the tights.

The other parcel had Christmas gifts that I’d ordered for family.

It was an average day of sales which gave me time to create the journaling lesson. I printed out the last page 20 minutes before the participants arrived! 

I do my best work under pressure 😬

The lesson was a lot of fun and we were all a touch disappointed when the 90 minutes were up.

After the girls left, I had to fold up the tables and set the room up for meditation so it was almost 4.30pm when I pedalled into the carport.

I sat down for about 45 minutes, pulled my clothes off the line and hung out some more and then prepared a salad while Adoring Husband cooked our steaks and onion on the barbecue.

We watched some Spicks and Specks, I did the BBC2 pop masters quiz and now it’s going to be sleep time because I have to be up bright and early for meditation.

Nite all.

Lunch With Love

Bayaroma Cafe was the destination for lunch today, which was an early celebration for Lady Lynn’s birthday.

I ordered a Perky Pineapple juice and it was so delicious, I ordered a second! I also ordered Risotto with chicken, pumpkin, spinach and Parmesan cheese. It was edible and acceptable but not awesome.

The company, however, WAS awesome and the 5 hours that we spent together passed so quickly that we felt quite disappointed when it was time to go home!

We had a little shopping spree and I purchased a beautiful bright red and sparkling Czarina kaftan. It will be perfect for the Christmas festive season.

We finished up with coffee at Aquavue ...

Tonight I prepared duck breast with salad for dinner. I had half a breast and gave my other half to Adoring Husband.

I’ve just realised that I haven’t prepared my journaling lesson for tomorrow, so here I am at almost 9.30pm finishing my blog post and then working on my lesson!

What a doofus head 😳

Doesn’t matter. I do my best work under pressure!

Nite all.

Story Time

Here’s a great story that I read on Facebook today about value ...

A father said to his daughter “You have graduated from university, here is a car I bought many years ago. It is a bit older now. But before I give it to you, take it to a second hand car dealer and tell them I want to sell it and see how much they offer you for it. 

The daughter went to the second hand car dealer, returned to her father and said, “They offered me £1,000 because they said it looks pretty worn out.” 

The father said, now “Take it to the pawn shop.” The daughter went to the pawn shop, returned to her father and said,”The pawn shop offered only £100 because it is an old car.” 

The father asked his daughter to go to a car club now and show them the car. The daughter then took the car to the club, returned and told her father,” Some people in the club offered £100,000 for it because it’s a Nissan Skyline R34, it's an iconic car and sought by many collectors” 

Now the father said this to his daughter, “The right place values you the right way,” If you are not valued, do not be angry, it means you are in the wrong place. Those who know your value are those who appreciate you......Never stay in a place where no one sees your value.

So very true to know your value 🥰

I’ve had a lazy Sunday, although I did get up at 9am and cooked pancakes, bacon, banana and maple syrup for breakfast which I ate at the kitchen bench with Adoring Husband and then brought my cup of tea back to bed while I watched some YouTube videos.

At 11am I changed into my swimmers, put some easy listening music through the sound bar and slid into the pool. I did the usual routine swimming laps, stretching, dancing, floating and basking in the sun for ten minutes.

I sat under the Bali hut for a while and decided to peel the prawns to nibble on for lunch while we watched “Field of Dreams” in the lounge room.

My belly was still full of prawns by dinner time so I prepared AH a healthy salad with salmon steaks and we watched “Rocky Horror Picture Show”.

I did a load of washing today, but that’s about the extent of my productivity.

I’m looking forward to lunch with the girls tomorrow and it’s almost 9.30pm so I might attempt to sleep because I’m feeling a little weary.

Nite all.

Midnight Mania

It’s just turned midnight and I was about to go to sleep when I realised I haven’t done my blog!

So this will be short and sweet.

It was an average day of sales at the shop and the morning passed quickly.

The gentleman who commissioned me to do the art popped in to see my progress and has asked for an unexpected big change to one of the images on the canvas. My imagination is going crazy and I hope to play with the image over the weekend.

Adoring Husband helped me lock up and we shopped for groceries before he drove home and I pedalled.

I immediately got changed and went for a dip, float, swim and dance in the pool.

I sat under the Bali hut eating fresh prawns for a late lunch.

I cooked up a risotto with chicken, mushrooms, spinach, pumpkin and feta cheese for dinner and then whipped up a soft serve mango ice cream for dessert.

We watched a fluffy movie on Netflix (well I did while AH enjoyed an extended nap beside me).

I came to bed without him and he woke about an hour later and joined me.

Now it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Tis the Season!

Now that State of Origin is over (yay Queensland!!), it’s time to put the Chrissy decorations up in the shop.

I did that today.

Blue and silver baubles scattered throughout the shop, silver Christmas bauble decals decorating the counter, the glass on the front doors and some of the display cabinets plus tinsel on the outside chairs.

I didn’t think to take photos! I’ll do that tomorrow.

It was a slow day for sales - lots of tyre kickers though. That usually means big sales the next day.

There were lots of couples through the door and women rarely make purchases when their husbands are with them. They usually return alone the next day to have their fun.

A local lady brought three pieces of her art to the shop today on consignment. One of them is displayed but I need to figure out how and where to display the other two. It’s quite lovely and I think it will sell well.

I paid out some consignment money, spoke to a couple of reps on the phone, wrapped some Christmas gifts and wrote a ‘to do’ list for the weekend.

Adoring Husband helped me close the shop today and took all the bulky items in the car so that I only had to carry my handbag in the trike.

I decided to hand wash all of my silk and delicate tops this afternoon. I’ve been putting that chore off for so long and the weather was so warm with a strong breeze that those dripping tops were dry within a matter of hours and are now hanging in my wardrobe!

I put a load in the machine while they dried.

We had Adoring Husband’s usual fare for Friday night dinner. I love Friday night dinner.

I did have to make an ‘after hours’ call to a supplier, but it was short and sweet.

Now it’s after 10pm and I’m ready for sleep.

Nite all.

Like a Grown Up

I feel like such a grown up!

Paying all my bills as soon as I open them. Paying all the invoices as soon as I receive them. Keeping ahead of my budget.

It’s such a fun game!

Unfortunately, the lockdown in South Australia has two different lots of stock that I ordered now stuck in that state until the lockdown is over. What a pain in the butt right before Christmas!

Today I priced and displayed the new stock that arrived two days ago.

It was a good day of sales so I was busy with customers.

I had an extended and very interesting visit from Aggie. I like it when she pops by. I like it when any of my girls pop by!

An extended and profitable visit from one of my art girls.

Now that I think about it, I had a lot of ‘local’ customers today, which makes the sales number even more impressive!

I worked a little later today and after I pulled the flags, chairs and signs inside, I left all of my stuff at the shop while I visited Bombshell for her birthday to give her a gift and share a beverage with her and other friends.

Afterwards I returned to the shop to pick up the cash tin, my laptop bag and the groceries and then pedalled home.

Adoring Husband was all dressed up in his SES uniform when I walked through the door. I forgot it was training night so he didn’t get dinner before he left unfortunately.

I made some mango vegan ice cream tonight which was quite enjoyable, though surprisingly, not very sweet.

So it was another good day.

Now it’s time for bed.

Nite all.

Early Bird

I arrived at the shop at 6.45am!

I did some tidying up and cleared some of the work from my desk, priced a couple of loose items and displayed them, checked the invoice from yesterday’s delivery and calculated the prices.

All of that in the 25 minutes before The Gypsy arrived.

There were only 2 spare seats in meditation today and the class was amazing. A newcomer stopped me afterwards, thanked me for donating the space for these classes and raved about how wonderful the discussions and subject matter were. She shook her head in awe and vowed she would return. 

I love that kind of feedback.

People attend these classes for just a donation and I used to take half of those donations to cover my costs but decided some time ago that I get so much value from her lessons and The Gypsy puts so much work into them each week that she should take all of the money.

I consider myself very lucky to have her still using this space after 3 years and she has taught me the skills to bring positive change in my life. I could rattle on for pages about her virtues but I’ll stop here.

After meditation, the usual crowd hung around for coffee and I sat at my desk for a while catching up with The Gypsy until she had to leave for an appointment. I joined the other girls between customers and we discussed art and creativity.

It was another good sales day and I have overfilled my next art class for the 28th Nov, the majority of whom have paid in advance!

I’ve already recruited 3 people for my next vision board workshop too!

The day passed quickly and I kept the shop open for an extra 30 minutes waiting for a customer who did eventually turn up to make it worth my while.

We enjoyed bangers and mash with onion gravy for dinner and sat in the alfresco area to eat. The weather was mild with a slight breeze so it was a very pleasant dinner location. We watched the State of Origin prematch show while we ate and Adoring Husband bragged about his fabulous Blues team and how they were going to defeat my beloved Maroons.

Well we showed him! A huge well fought win to Queensland!

Now I need to sleep because it’s after 11.30pm.

Nite all.

Doing My Head In

I’m doing my own head in!

I didn’t pedal to work this morning because I had too much to carry and it wouldn’t fit in my trike basket, so we loaded it into the car and Adoring Husband drove me and my lode to work.

This included my ‘almost finished’ artwork, my easel, my bag of art pens and brushes and pencils and acrylic paints, the money tin, my laptop bag, my change of clothes for afternoon hooping, my handbag and my journaling lesson.

We arrived at the shop nice and early because I had some work to do before my girls arrived for morning coffee. 

There were only four of us sitting at the table and as usual, those pesky customers interrupted my socialising and I didn’t get to spend as much time chatting as I’d have liked.

I think it was close to 11am when the girls departed and I was flat out for the next hour and a half making good sales. It was an excellent sales day!

I found time to clear the morning coffee area, folding up the table and removing the chairs, leaving only the tables for journaling. I also cleared all the washed art tools and buckets from the kitchen and put them in their homes.

AH arrived to tell me about his new business add on and to close the shop for me as I greeted my cleaner who I convinced to give the kitchen area a good scrub (it’s so shiny and clean now!) and she was soon followed by the journaling girls.

We chatted and wrote and brain stormed for an hour. They helped me open the three boxes of stock that arrived at the same time they did ... that was a bit of fun.

We finished right on 3.30pm because two of us had to leave for our hooping class. I had already warned The Gypsy that I would be late so I didn’t stress myself trying to rush. I changed my clothes and power walked to the location which was about a block away.

There were six of us all learning new tricks and moving parts of our bodies that haven’t been worked like that for over a month! After a very full day, my body was certainly feeling it by the end of the session!

AH arrived early to pick me up but it was about 5.10pm when I climbed gingerly into the car and we returned to the shop to clear the training room to set up for meditation. We folded the tables, cleared the empty boxes, put the newly arrived stock behind the counter, moved my art to the treatment room, vacuumed the floor, set out the chairs and placed the donation box.

Once we were happy with the set up, we gathered the money tin, the laptop bag, the bag of dirty cleaning rags and my handbag and trudged to the car.

Thankfully, AH was doing his Friday night dinner deal for me and after I had a shower and cleared the usual after work mess away, I was able to sit down and put my feet up.

What a pleasant relief that was!

It’s almost 11pm and I have to be at work by 6.30am so it’s time to sleep.

I am well and truly done for the day.

Nite all.

Efficiently Productive

I’ve had an efficiently productive Monday.

I woke at 6am (again) and spent 2 hours watching YouTube videos of MAKEOVERGUY giving old women makeovers. Very efficiently productive ✔️

I logged into two supplier websites and filled my shopping carts with stock that I want to purchase next week. Very efficiently productive ✔️

I checked and deleted a bunch of emails. Very efficiently productive ✔️

I changed from my pyjamas to swimmers and stepped into the pool. I did some stretching, swam some laps, tried some water dancing and exercising, then sat under the Bali hut for an hour, listening to music and playing Words With Friends. Very efficiently productive ✔️

I reheated last night’s leftovers for lunch. Very efficiently productive ✔️

Adoring Husband and I drove to the shop, picked up the mail, cleared away all the art paraphernalia, put away the big tables, set up the medium tables for journaling on Tuesday arvo and set up the small table for morning coffee with the girls. Very efficiently productive ✔️

I returned home and almost finished painting the art piece that I’ve been working on. Just a few finishing touches tomorrow and it will be done. Very efficiently productive ✔️

Barbecued Porterhouse steak with salad and hash browns for dinner. Very efficiently productive ✔️

A fluffy movie on Netflix and time for bed. Very efficiently productive ✔️

Nite all.

Perfect Sunday

Fancy waking up at 6am on a Sunday morning 😳 

It’s not something I ever plan to do on my day off, but it’s exactly what happened this morning.

It was especially surprising because knowing that I didn’t need to be awake early, I was awake until almost 1AM binge watching ‘Good Girls’.

I made myself a cup of tea, got comfortable in bed and ...

I watched the first two episodes of the new season of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ - it was a dud version on YouTube but good enough to become invested. I look forward to seeing the real version when it appears on TV.

I finished creating my half page ad for the BHPA newsletter, sent it off and then paid the invoice immediately.

I finalised Tuesday’s lesson for journaling and printed it out.

I ordered some stock - jewellery for the young and the budget conscious.

Adoring Husband invited me to swim in the pool with him, so I changed into my swimmers and joined him. The water was perfect but whatever the new pool guy put into the pool made my eyes sting for about an hour afterwards. This is not good.

I sat under the Bali hut listening to 60s music for a while before attacking my art piece, which I hope to finish tomorrow and then deliver to it’s new owner on Tuesday. It’s coming along nicely.

Dinner was a nosh up of chicken and pork mince with cabbage, carrot, onion, zucchini, ginger, chilli and mushroom served with rice.

It has been a most enjoyable Sunday as well as being productive.

Tomorrow will be arty farty at home and then clearing the arty farty at work. No doubt there will be more swimming in these warm temperatures too!

I’m feeling very chilled and relaxed.

Nite all.