Bigger Than Ben-Hur

Two of my art girls arrived bright and early to help set up the training room for today’s art workshop.

Thank goodness they did because it took three of us 90 minutes to set workspaces for 14 people.

After they left, I had a visit from The Motivator and we chatted for 90 minutes. It was a nice morning.

There was enough time to make a quick lunch and cup of tea before the art class participants all started streaming in.

What a crowd! It was loud and funny and joyful. Everybody was fabulous and they were all happy with their results thanking me profusely as they finished cleaning up and took their leave.

The Motivator returned at 4pm to pick up some chairs to use at her Lorraine Lea party tomorrow.

It was 5pm by the time AH and I got home.

I knew if I sat down I’d never get up again, so I went straight into the kitchen to make stuffed mushrooms for dinner.

That’s when I sat down and my poor tired old body collapsed gratefully into the chair.

That was 5 hours and 3 fluffy Netflix movies ago.

Now I can hear the bed calling me.

We waited in vain for a very large storm system to hit us this evening, but watching it on the BOM, the storm veered left just before it hit and I don’t think we even got a shower of rain.

I am feeling very weary.

Nite all.

Never Forget

Today, I was shocked to discover that somebody with whom I had a four year relationship with, passed away in 2013.

It was a volatile on again off again relationship fuelled by drugs and alcohol but it was also passionate and hilarious and fun and exciting. We learned a lot from each other and experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. To quote Charles Dickens ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’

We tried so hard but the relationship was absolutely destined for failure and I’ve thought of him often and fondly over the years.

He made very brief contact via Facebook in 2012 when he simply apologised. Not for anything specific. He simply stated my full name (his term of endearment for me in the past) and then said “I’m sorry”.

I responded with “you are forgiven”

With hindsight, I wonder if he knew his days were numbered and needed to make peace?

He was married but never had children and was 51yrs young when he passed.

Our relationship ended in 1991 (30yrs ago!) but my heart still hurts after this unexpected news.

RIP Hollywood 

It was a quiet day at work and I took it pretty easy. I started to set up for the art class but am getting help in the morning so I didn’t knock myself out. I did some banking, checked the mail, filed some paperwork and checked my emails.

I created my sign to advise customers that the shop will be closed for a week ...

Adoring Husband arrived early to help me close the shop and it was nice to come home and watch some fluffy movies on Netflix until bed time.

AH cooked the usual Friday night fare (my favourite part of the week) and now I’m ready to sleep.

It’s going to be a big day tomorrow!

Nite all.

Time Flies

The day started with a hell of a downpour and I wondered if the whole day was going to be a complete washout, but it was all over very quickly.

I spent the time sorting through my blue and brown acrylic paints in preparation for Saturday’s art class and trying to figure out how to fit 12 people comfortably in the training room.

Once again, I have overbooked and nine of the twelve have prepaid! The other three are regulars and unlikely to drop out. It will be an interesting class.

After much thought and planning, Adoring Husband and I arranged the tables in a way that will accommodate everyone comfortably. I think it will be ok.

During the last class we had a mini disaster because one of the glass cabinets was not level and the paint literally slid off some of the canvasses placed upon it to dry. AH helped me level it up so that we don’t have the same problem this week.

It was an average day of sales.

I washed the dishes, cleared and cleaned my desk, reorganised the packaging area behind the counter and cleared the empty boxes as well as picking up all the shredded paper that fell out of the delivery on Tuesday.

The cleaner arrived and I let her choose what do while I waited for a rep to arrive.

This was a new rep who handles Sassy Duck bags as well as lots of Australian Made products like hand creams, moisturisers, room sprays, reed diffusers, candles, baby products, ocean themed gifts like shell mobiles, hanging art, decorative shells among many more different products.

There really wasn’t enough time to go through everything with her but I made a Sassy Duck order and committed to other orders for when I return from my week off. It’ll be nice to have new brands to try out.

It was 3pm when we arrived home. We watched the first movie of a trilogy that we’d already seen the 2nd and 3rd parts of. I hung out some washing, took some off the line and threw another load in while AH cooked snags on the barbecue and we enjoyed a Bunnings dinner - snags in bread with onion and sauce.

It was exciting to watch the first episode of the new series of Gogglebox tonight! Love that show!

Now it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Bizzy Az

My morning was full on hectic!

I had a pleasant half hour with The Gypsy before the people came knocking for meditation.

There were 5 newbies and I had to add 2 more chairs to the room, which left me sitting in the doorway! Lucky for me that 3 regulars were absent this week or I would’ve had to turn people away.

After meditation, the newbies all made purchases AND signed up for the art class this weekend. I now have 12 people on the list and 9 of them have prepaid. It’s going to be a bit squishy!

By 10.30am my sales for the day were amazing and for the remainder of the day I only made two more mini sales. I thanked the universe for making it such a successful day.

I had time to make myself some lunch and sit quietly enjoying it without interruption.

I unpacked, priced and displayed a box of stock that had arrived yesterday.

Before I knew it, Adoring Husband was walking through the door and it was time to come home.

We watched a fluffy Netflix movie and I cooked barramundi for dinner.

I’m keeping an eye on the Nadal vs Tsitsipas tennis match - looks like it might end up closer than we thought.

Meanwhile AH is snoring like a steam train and I am considering moving into the back bedroom.

I’ve already made too many plans for my time off next week and I’m reconsidering my options 😳

It’s very windy out tonight and we’ve had a few showery scuds throughout the afternoon. Strange weather.

I’m feeling a bit weary so it’s sleep time for me.

Nite all.

Unexpected That Was!

As well as the local cafe being closed, there are also roadworks happening at my end of the street.

This is not conducive to high sales.

Which is why I was pleasantly surprised by my final tally of sales at the end of the day.

The universe was kind to me!

Morning coffee was light in numbers but the quality was high and it was almost 11.30am by the time all the girls left. I got to spend lots of time involved in the conversation because few people came through the doors during the morning.

The day passed quickly because before I knew it the first participant came through the doors for journaling. Even that session went quickly! We did 3 x 20 minute speed writing sessions and lots of recalling memories from our early motherhoods.

Adoring Husband appeared at 3.30pm and we set up the room for meditation.

I got dinner on early - Peking duck, bok choy, cauliflower and sweet potato/potato mash. It was bloody delicious! 

It’s 9pm and I’m yawning uncontrollably!

We have fresh bamboo sheets on the bed tonight and they feel cool and clean on our skin. I think we will sleep well tonight.

Nite all.

Fine Art

We have our shopping trips down to a fine art.

We list the shops we need to visit from furthest away and work our way back through town.

Today we started at Go Natural in Torquay, Nana’s Pantry, Bunnings, Stocklands (Jeans West, KMart, Coles) and finally Spotlight.

We remembered just as we began to drive home that we wanted to check out the takeaway shop in Point Vernon because they stock GF Beefys pies, so we did a U-turn and even though we had no idea where that shop was, we found it inside ten minutes! They had only two GF pies left (frozen) so I took them.

We left home at 10.30am and returned before 3pm with a carload of groceries, baby clothes, “me” clothes, and art supplies.

Adoring Husband and I had a competition to see who could guess the closest to our grocery shopping total and I won! I was only $2 out 😃

The weather seemed threatening all day with low, dark clouds and I was expecting heavy rain to hit us at some stage, but not a drop fell from the sky.

Nothing exciting happened during the day - even the clothes I bought were just cheap PJs and a t-shirt from Kmart.

I reckon it’s going to be a good week!

Nite all.

Move Along

Nothing to see here.

No productivity.

I finished watching all the New Girl series ... I feel a bit sad that it’s over 😕

I ate prawns for breakfast and snapper for dinner.

Late this afternoon, the pool water felt perfect for swimming, but the clouds were dark and looming and I didn’t want to be in the water if it became stormy so I think tomorrow might be a nice swimming day - after we return from The Bay.

I need to get supplies for the next art class and pick up a top that I’ve ordered through Jeans West.

I’m feeling very weary tonight so it might be time to sleep.

Nite all.

Fab Finish

It was a fab finish to the week.

A slow start to the day but a fab finish to that as well.

Today I found out that the local cafe is going to be closed in the last week of February so that confirmed to me that it’s the right time for me to close as well. I rely a bit (not heavily) on their customers killing time while they wait for their food to be prepared.

February is traditionally quiet and the caravan parks are pretty empty at the moment so there’s not a lot of holiday traffic.

Having said that, I’ve already had higher sales in the first two weeks of this month than all of last February so that’s comforting.

Despite lockdown, Chicklet seems to have had a good birthday and received a beautiful bicycle as her main gift.

I FaceTimed her this afternoon and I think it’s the first time in months that I’ve spoken to her face to face. It was lovely and she showed me her birthday gifts before going off to ice her cake - she promised to eat an extra piece each for Poppy and I.

Tonight I got very carried away online shopping and purchased a bundle of baby clothes and accessories for my new grandchild. Fingers crossed that I actually get there to deliver them!

Now I’m in bed watching the Aussie, Alex de Minaur play against the Italian, Fabio Fognini in the Aussie Open. The Aussie will put up a good fight but I doubt that he will win. You never know.

I’m looking forward to my self care day tomorrow. No plans. I’ll just take it as it comes.

Nite all.

It’s a Sign

Very very quiet today.

Only two customers all day.

Surprisingly, the time still passed quickly and I still got quite a bit done.

I put the first two coats of varnish on four of my paintings ...

which is pretty tricky because it takes some doing to brush it on evenly with non stop quick brush strokes - so if someone walks in the door mid varnish layer, I’m in strife because I can’t stop or I’ll ruin it 😳

My gorgeous girl turns 10 tomorrow (13th) and Melbourne goes into lockdown at midnight tonight so all the birthday plans have gone out the window.

A quickly organised Plan B was dinner at Pancake Parlour tonight before lockdown is enforced.

Meanwhile I am pleading with the Universe to make a visit to meet my new grandchild happen in March.

I’ve had a lazy afternoon and evening watching New Girl while Adoring Husband cooked the usual Friday night fare. 

Right now, I’m in bed watching Kyrgios play the No 3 in the world, Dominic Thiem, in the Aussie Open tennis. He is winning 2 sets to one right now and is playing well. Fingers crossed he has the stamina to finish on a winning note.

I’m also contemplating closing the shop for a week from around 21st - 27th Feb. I think this week has been a sign that now is the right time.

Pop Master is about to start which means that I need to sign off.

Nite all.

Productive

I had a very productive day at the shop.

Paying bills, ordering stock, speaking to reps, filing, steaming clothes (still never ending), taking delivery of all the Lorraine Lea goodies that everyone ordered ten days ago, photocopying, budgeting, pricing, displaying, mailing out online purchases and starting my February newsletter.

By 1.30pm I was feeling a bit worn out.

My cleaner did a lovely job of cleaning the shop kitchen which was a bit of a disaster area after Saturday’s art class and she squeezed in a bit of dusting as well.

My guilty pleasure took precedence when I arrived home and I watched a few more episodes of New Girl before preparing stuffed giant mushrooms and salad for dinner. I stuffed them with onion, spinach, bacon, finely chopped sweet potato and chicken. Salt, lots of white pepper, a pinch of coconut sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Adoring Husband ate all of his mushroom and half of mine. They were almost as big as a bread and butter plate!

I’m watching the tennis tonight and so far, a mixed bag for the Aussies. Stosur is playing right now and I don’t hold out much hope for her. She is easily psyched out.

I slept really well last night - a solid 7 hours. I hope to repeat that tonight.

Our bird has flown the nest! AH said that it was sitting up on the edge of the nest this afternoon and by the time we arrived home from the shop, it had disappeared! In past years, the chicks have spent the day running around on the ground making annoying chirping sounds for hours, so I hope it didn’t meet an untimely end by getting swept up by a raptor or something equally horrific.

Sales were average in the shop today, so February is looking pretty good for me to take some time off. I might take a week near the end. We’ll see.

That’s it for my news.

Nite all.

Light On

It was another night, light on sleep.

I was out of bed at 5.15am making warm lemon water and showering to prepare for my early start.

Adoring Husband and I left the house at 6.30am and The Gypsy arrived at the shop at 6.45am. We got to catch up before the hordes arrived for meditation.

We were two short of a full house for meditation and she had us all mesmerised for more than an hour. Many individuals felt that the class was tailored specifically for them and we all got such a lot out of the theme which was “Mind Over Matter”.

There were four ladies who stayed afterwards for a chat.

It was a very slow sales day which gave me a chance to steam some more clothes and display them, photograph some stock and post it to Facebook, do some filing and experiment with embellishing some art.

I’m still trying to get through 7 seasons of New Girl on Netflix and am part way through season 5, so that was my guilty pleasure this afternoon.

AH cooked some snags on the barbecue which we had with salad and now I’m watching Nick Kyrgios play against Ugo Humbert in the Aussie Open tennis.

I’m feeling pretty weary so I hope that helps me sleep more soundly tonight.

Nite all.

Juicy Beginning & End

Our bed seems to be letting me down. 

I struggle to get comfortable and my lower back hurts during the night. I’m hoping that my new Lorraine Lea pillows will make a difference.

I tried Valerian Forte and it seemed to work for the first 3 nights but the following 10 days were a fail.

Valerian Forte is a natural remedy that helps reduce the time it takes you fall asleep, supports refreshing sleep, reduces restless sleep while helping you wake up feeling clear headed.

So in an attempt to improve my energy levels after such a restless sleep, I made a morning smoothie with blueberries, kiwi fruit, banana and dragon fruit. It was refreshingly delicious.

We were pretty light on in numbers for morning tea with just four of us in attendance and I got about 30 minutes with the girls before those pesky customers rained on my morning tea.

There was a steady flow of customers with good sales for the day.

I could have lay down for a nap at about 1pm but I made a cup of tea instead.

There was a customer in the shop until 2.05pm. Adoring Husband was closing up and I was preparing for the journaling class. Luckily that customer was in obvious need of retail therapy so it wasn’t at all painful to delay the class.

It was a great class. I’m really enjoying the journaling and the girls who participate.

After the class, AH and I folded all the tables, removed Saturday’s art, vacuumed the floors in the shop and the training room, then set out the chairs for meditation. 

We did a quick grocery shop before heading home and I dipped my toes in the pool contemplating whether to get changed for a swim but decided to plant my butt on the couch for an hour before preparing dinner.

But first I made a pineapple, pear and mint smoothie. I’d bought a fresh bunch of mint from the supermarket and it was so deliciously fragrant I just HAD to find a way to use some of it immediately! It was perfect 💕

Barramundi with sweet potato chips and salad for dinner. It was delicious!!

I am now in bed watching the tennis. The Aussie, Gavrilova, is winning.

Our bird is getting closer to leaving the nest ...

Some more wedding pics ...

Time for sleep.

Nite all.