Good Energy

My shop was filled with good energy today.

Everyone who entered was happy and positive and vibrant.

It was a good day for sales.

I re-evaluated my Christmas hamper and reduced it to $250, put it on display and printed out the display sheet ready to be laminated on Monday.

I left the shop right on 1pm.

There were a few chores to be done when I arrived home, then there was time for a short movie before the football started.

We ate paleo pizzas again for an early dinner.

We discovered that the ice cream cones I’ve been eating all week are NOT gluten free! The brand we eat have exactly the same packaging for both the normal and the gluten free except for the words “gluten free” in one spot.

Either Adoring Husband made a mistake last time he bought them OR Bubbles bought herself the regular cones when she was here and I ate them assuming that they were GF.

Anyway, that would explain why I’ve been so unwell all week, feeling tired, spending extra time in the bathroom even in the middle of the night, feeling nauseated and experiencing pains in my abdomen etc.

It’s kind of a relief knowing there is a reason.

This has given me incentive to do the mono cleanse this week to help clear the gluten from my system, so after I enjoy a lunch date with my tribe tomorrow, I’ll focus on that.

Now I’m sitting up in my lovely bed deciding whether to curl up for sleep, do some journaling or watch some Netflix.

Perhaps I should sleep so that I can be bright, chirpy and cheerful tomorrow.

Nite all.

Feeling Friday

I was feeling a little unwell for some of today.

A bit lethargic and a bit nauseated.

With hindsight it was possibly because I didn’t eat. A handful of grapes is probably not enough sustenance to get through some days.

It was a good day for sales though. Plenty of people out and about.

I plonked myself in the soft lounge chair in the fitting room for about 20 minutes which helped me gather some energy.

Some new stock arrived today. Lovely Jenny Jazz silk blend tops and some gorgeous linen shirts, one of which I kept for myself.

There will be more next week.

That meant I was on my feet with the steamer for a bit over an hour.

I’ve sold a lot of clothes this week!

The Brains Trust popped in for a visit, as did Krocca earlier in the day.

There were gale force conditions in town. Too windy for beach walking and the water was very choppy so not conducive for boating or fishing.

There was still some smoke lingering from the back burning across the river, but we’ve just had some good soaking heavy rain so hopefully that will have drenched the ground and cleared the air.

It’s 7.20pm but I think I’m off to bed. I will fall asleep watching the footy because I can’t stop yawning 🥱 

Nite all.

Back to Earth

Today was NOT as busy as yesterday.

I have come crashing back down to earth with a thud!

So I put together this hamper full of goodies …

… there will be a bottle of wine added and it’s value is approximately $500 🤩

For every $25 that a customer spends in the shop, they fill out an entry form to put it in the box and the winner will be drawn the week before Christmas.

The Happy Hippy did some cleaning.

The Artful Dodger dropped in to show me some masks that she made and we’ll sell them in the shop.

I was invited to an art retreat weekend, which I declined.

I created a document which disappeared from the screen when I was 2 lines away from finishing! The silly part about it is that when I first opened the empty page, a message appeared telling me that it would ‘auto save’ as I worked. 

Well it didn’t!

Very annoying!

I pinched my finger on the extending handle of my wheelie case …

Ouch!

Adoring Husband and I ate paleo pizzas for dinner tonight. AH did all the preparation of chopping, slicing and grating so all I had to do was put what I wanted onto my base. It was very nice.

I caught up on my recorded Beauty and the Geek shows before coming to bed.

There is a strong smell of smoke in the air because of back burning across the river. The smoke lingered all over town today and the smell is through the house. Ugh.

Now it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Not Christmas

But it felt like Christmas!

It was difficult to get out of bed this morning.

You know those mornings when you feel all warm and snug and safe in bed and you just want to enjoy that feeling for as long as possible? That’s how I felt this morning.

I stayed in bed until the very last minute, leaving myself 25 minutes to get ready.

I made it.

Meditation was great and the theme of discussion was ‘letting go of the past’ which was very relevant for many in the class.

The Gypsy hung around for about an hour and as always, we had a good chat.

It wasn’t long after she left that The Artful Dodger popped in for a visit.

From then on it was very busy and it felt like Christmas as customer after customer came through and all of them on a mission to spend! 

Needless to say, a fantastic day of sales.

Adoring Husband had a late doctor’s appointment so I kept the shop open for an extra hour.

I am sitting here watching State of Origin and with 6 minutes left in the game, my team is winning by 2 points. It’s tight … and stressful to watch!

It’s time to gather my goods and prepare for bed. I know I’m going to feel all safe and snug when I get there.

*happy dance*

Queensland won the State of Origin final game!! Wahoo!!

I can rest easy now.

Nite all.

Networking

I’ve figured it out.

Because Covid has prevented the usual holiday mobs from making their annual trip to our town, their holiday rentals and caravan sites have been taken by newbies. Those newbies don’t know that I even exist!

So I’m formulating a plan.

• I’ve created some laminated signs to go on the notice boards of the caravan parks.
• I’m making postcard sized advertisements and spoken to the owner of the real estate office who has agreed to place them in each of their holiday rentals.
• I’ll staple laminated signs in strategic locations around town.
• I’m going to donate a weekly gift certificate to the Bowls Club as a prize in their Friday night raffles.
• I’ll start another Facebook promotion where people will be photographed with their purchases and their details taken. I’ll draw the winner in December to win a big gift pack to the value of $150 or more.
• I will ask a couple of the local businesses to put my sign in their window.

That’s a pretty good start and The Motivator and I did most of those things when we were The Happy Abode, so I know those methods work well.

It was a lovely morning tea with the girls with just 4 of us in attendance and it was great to have Maid Marian back in the room after her medical procedure and looking fit and well.

It was a very slow day for sales, but I got other work done, including putting in an order for some new stock of fashion items.

I had a few chatty visitors so the day passed surprisingly quickly!

The journaling class was very productive and we achieved a lot in 90 minutes.

We set the room up for meditation before we left and did some grocery shopping before heading home.

I got a couple of loads of washing done and Adoring Husband cooked some lamb cutlets on the barbecue while I prepared the salad.

We watched Farmer Wants a Wife and both of us barely made it to the end because we wanted to get to bed.

It’s quite lovely to be sitting up in bed in silence with no TV going. I think I’ll do that more often.

Early start tomorrow so it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Jet Lagged

This must be what jet lag is like.

I stayed awake until 4am watching the men’s Wimbledon final, presentations and celebrations. Djokovic played a brilliant game to defeat a confident opponent who put up a good fight. The Italian player, Berrettini, played well, but just needs a little more experience to get him over the line.

Less than five hours later, I was awake, but the brain wasn’t functioning well enough to do any of the work I was considering, so I exercised my brain by playing word games. I actually won a big tournament with 600 participants!

At 1pm I got out of bed, showered and dressed ready to clear the training room.

Adoring Husband, who had spent the morning mowing our lawns, drove us to the shop and we cleared the mess and set up for morning coffee and journaling. I vacuumed the whole shop and cleared all the washed cups, brushes, sticks and other tools out of the kitchen.

AH emptied and cleaned the bagless vacuum barrel.

It took us almost 90 minutes to get the job done.

After a short rest at home, I prepared dinner - which was all leftovers from last night’s roast.

Just as I was about to watch Farmer Wants a Wife, Number 1 Son phoned. I muted the telly and we chatted for about 30 minutes.

It’s almost 11pm and my eyelids are heavy. Time to sleep.

Nite all.

Back to the River

I was only able to stay awake until about 1am watching Ash Barty play the Wimbledon final. I fell asleep part way through the third set and woke up to the sound of the commentators yelling excitedly when she won!

She is a champion sportsperson and a champion human being.

It was well after 2pm when I got back to sleep and the next time I opened my eyes, it was 8.15am.

I stayed in bed until 10am.

Adoring Husband went off to work mowing lawns so I got up and prepared the chook for roasting and chopped up the vegetables also for roasting. 

I heated up the leftover shepherds pie for our lunch.

Series 3 of ‘Virgin River’ on Netflix became available on Friday 9th July (not the 7th) and today, after lunch, we sat down to begin bingeing.

By the time the roast dinner was ready, I was still satisfied from lunch so I served it up for AH and skipped dinner myself.

We watched the last 20 minutes of football, a story on Little Richard and then flicked between channels watching ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’ and ‘Beauty and the Geek’.

I hope to stay awake to watch the Men’s Wimbledon final but it doesn’t start til 11pm which is still an hour away and I’m just not sure if I have enough motivation to push myself.

My girl’s lunch has been postponed until next week so I have most of Monday to myself. There is still plenty of mess to clean up after the art class so that is my mission in the afternoon.

Otherwise, I’m having a lazy Monday.

Nite all.

New Best Day

What a day!

I’m exhausted!

Krocca and The Artful Dodger came early this morning to help set up for the art class.

After they left, I mixed my paints so that I could have a practice run before the class, then I rewatched the demonstration video before doing this …

I’ve never tried this technique with trees before so I needed a practice run.

I had a quick look at the photos that I took on Friday afternoon, but didn’t get a chance to do anything with them.

There were plenty of customers and plenty of tyre kickers today.

Adoring Husband turned up right on time to close the shop while I changed into my art gear.

Everybody arrived on time including M&M with her Aunty and Grandma who were newbies to this type of art.

The energy was a bit low at the beginning of the class, but seemed to come good once everybody got into it. The newbies were a bit tentative at first but it didn’t take long for them to feel comfortable - once they realised we were all there for the fun and we weren’t arty farty snobs!

There was a LOT of cleaning up to do afterwards and it was loud in the room with everybody talking in little groups, especially when all the males arrived - AH, Little T’s son, M&M’s husband and Grandpa. It sounded like 40 people were in the room!

I don’t even know what time we left the shop, but I went straight to the kitchen to get started on dinner which was shepherds pie with Brussels sprouts. It took a bit of preparation but it was worth the effort. Delicious.

I came to bed at 7.30pm because I was cold and tired. I watched the football and then waited for the tennis to start.

Ash Barty is in the Wimbledon final and I hope I can stay awake to see out the match.

I am SO looking forward to my day in bed tomorrow. It’s been a brain storming week and my brain is tired.

Nite all.

Best Day

Last day of school holidays. Best day of sales 😳

Still not ‘amazing’, but very good!

I spent a couple of hours in Quickbooks. Still not sure what I’m doing but it makes more sense every time I use it.

The Brains Trust came for a visit and we talked about a girls day out on Monday.

There were a few heavy showers during the day which possibly kept a few people indoors.

The day passed quickly and before I knew it, Adoring Husband was pulling into the drive through at the pub so that I could purchase some Riccadonna to take to the afternoon gathering at Raintree Acres.

I drank a whole bottle!

On my own!

I didn’t feel drunk.

More like tipsy.

I took my camera and spent some time in the garden taking photos of the local flora and fauna. I haven’t looked at my camera since I got home, but if there are any decent photos, I’ll share them here over the weekend.

Adoring Husband picked me up at 5.30pm and we dropped JMac2 at the pub before coming home.

Apparently, I ‘repeated’ a couple of stories to AH (just karma if you ask me) but I prepared dinner without a problem and he made fun of me for being silly! 

Now I’m in bed switching between two TV channels. One has the football and the other has the movie ‘Crazy Stupid Love’.

I feel the need for sleep.

Nite all.

Looking Up

We arrived at the shop right on 9am today! That’s the 2nd time I’ve been so late.

I was dragging the chain because I got too involved in a book this morning and the idea of a one week cleansing mono diet. That means aside from starting each day with warm lemon water followed by a glass of straight celery juice, you choose from a list of highly nutritious, healing foods and eating only that one food for one week straight.

The idea of it is to reduce inflammation in the gut, starve any pathogen that has made its home there and cleanse your gut of bugs, mould, fungus, heavy metals, candida and other interesting damaging things. Eating the one food makes digestion easier on the body which is restful and healing while still providing enough vitamins, natural salts, sugars and goodness to keep you energised and fueled up to get through the day.

It’s especially good for people with food allergies, intolerances and undiagnosed gut issues.

So I might give it a go next week.

I had the best day of sales for the school holidays so far.

The steady sales made the day pass quickly and in between customers I finally installed the updates on my iMac. That took about 45 minutes.

I sent an important email to the financial adviser, priced and displayed some new stock, filed some paperwork, ate my prawns for lunch and had an interesting conversation with a small human being - he was about 7yrs old and obviously on the spectrum. 

He promised to come visit me next time he’s in town, informing me that he would be an adult next time, but he would remind me of the turtle that he bought from me today.

Sadly, I probably won’t have the shop in another 11 years, but you never know.

The Artful Dodger, who had her first vaccination yesterday, is now in bed very ill … will be interesting to see how long she’s out of action. So far I only know one person who hasn’t been flattened by the jab.

All of the shops in town now have the QR code at their entrance for scanning.

I don’t have it because I don’t fit the criteria for mandatory scanning …

On the way home from work, my water bottle leaked all through my handbag! Luckily I had only cleared the bag out on the weekend so there was no damage done. It was just annoying

I have another Friday night party to attend this week. Of course it’s hardly partying hard when it starts at 2pm and is done and dusted before 7pm, HOWEVER, it’s still a bit of fun!

I’m in bed watching the footy but will switch over to the tennis shortly because the Aussie Ash Barty will be playing her semi final match.

I’m feeling prematurely smug about the football because I’ve gone against the masses and tipped the Canberra Raiders over the ‘in form’ Manly team. Canberra are currently winning by 14 points. Of course anything can happen with 25 minutes still to play … which is why I used the term ‘prematurely’.

Enjoy your Friday!

Nite all.

Clearer

Both the weather and my understanding of Quickbooks is a little clearer.

Today, when I logged into my QB account, it looked completely different to previous days, and it actually made sense to my brain! I was able to do some work, input some data and categorise my bank transactions for tax purposes. I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn, but at least my brain doesn’t feel like it’s going to explode!

Meditation was low in numbers this morning, but still inspiring. We discussed ‘stillness’ - the ability to be anywhere, doing anything while feeling the peace and stillness within.

The Gypsy stayed for about 45 minutes afterwards and even though it’s only been a week, there was still so much to catch up on.

Sales were good today - still not as good as school holidays should be but good for my morale.

I chose the art technique that we are going to try on Saturday and then posted it in our private messenger group.

I had a visit from Aggie parading her new ‘do’ which convinced me to try the new guy at the hair salon in town.

The Artful Dodger visited while she waited for her lunch to be prepared at the cafe.

Adoring Husband ran some errands in town and picked up the FROG box on his way home. He also bought me some fresh prawns which I’m looking forward to munching on for lunch tomorrow.

For dinner tonight, AH cooked some snags on the barbecue while I mashed some yellow sweet potato/white sweet potato/regular white potato and threw in some raw chopped spring onion. Broccoli and cauliflower on the side and home made onion gravy.

We watched Farmer Wants a Wife and both headed to bed.

I’m watching Wimbledon (the Djokovic quarter final) but my eyelids are heavy so I may be asleep very soon 😵‍💫

On that note, here is my little Hazie again …

Nite all.

Busy Busy Busy

The town is busy busy busy but I am not not not!

It was a nice morning tea with Aggie, The Brains Trust and Bombshell today. For a change, I got to hear most of the conversations because the shop was not busy at all.

The Happy Hippy did some dusting and stapled some biz cards to my carry bags. I’ve been trying to get that job done for days so I was very grateful that she was prepared to do that for me.

I don’t even recall what I did for the rest of the day but time passed quickly!

Sales didn’t quite reach my minimum required number but I have high hopes for tomorrow!

Journaling was almost a write off because we talked about everything BUT journaling!

Duck breast with roasted cauliflower and capsicum and a giant mushroom stuffed with butter, onion and LF cheese was our dinner.

Meditation tomorrow morning so I need some sleep.

I shall fall asleep to the sound of tennis balls bouncing off tennis rackets but I won’t be awake for the Aussies Ash Barty vs Alja Tomljanovic match because they don’t play til about 2.30am.

There is an icy breeze coming through the bedroom window and my sheets are icy too, so I’m going to snuggle under the doona and wait for my body heat to lull me into a deep sleep.

I hope your Wednesday is amazeballs!

Nite all.

Oops! What?

I don’t know what happened last night.

I was certain that I posted here, but I must have been too caught up with learning about Quickbooks.

The bedroom was my office all day Sunday, but I achieved very little because I do not understand QB at all. I understand it well in theory, but putting it into practice and getting all my info into my online registration has completely stumped me.

I got nothin’

Desperate situations call for desperate measures and I think I’ll have to pay someone to set it up and teach me how to use it.

It was well after midnight when I turned out the light for sleeping, but I had done all the calculations so I know where I stand with the shop.

Today, I had no choice but to get out of bed early because Best Cousin In The World was arriving to pick up all our old bedding, which included doonas and covers, pillows, sheets, pillow cases etc., all for her dogs because she breeds working dogs.

I expected that she would stay for an hour or two but one of her bitches appeared to be in early labour when she left home, so we agreed she should return home as soon as possible. I haven’t heard any news about new babies yet.

While I probably should have done some QB study, I found a series on Netflix called ‘Down to Earth’ with Zac Efron and Darin Olien. They travel around the world looking for healthy sustainable ways to live and so far, I want to move to Iceland, France, Costa Rica, Lima and Sardinia!

It’s a great series and apparently a 2nd season is in the making.

We had an easy dinner of soup with crusty bread.

After watching ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’, I’m ready for sleep.

Nite all.

Perfect

The perfect way to wake up this morning was to the sound of that beautiful steady rain.

I have to say that it was difficult to get out of bed because I just wanted to stay there all day.

But I made the decision and jumped out of bed with a burst of happy adrenaline because I wanted to start my day on a positive note!

I expected to have zero sales because I thought ‘who wants to come out shopping on a day like today?’, but I had a few customers pop in to make a purchase or two.

It was enough to make it worth getting out of bed.

While it was quiet, I did some more research on the current Covid stats, seasonal flu stats and vaccination stats. They were very interesting, but I left the info in my desk at the shop, so lucky for you … I can’t share them today.

However, I CAN share the first video that I watched of people in USA who experienced adverse effects from their vaccination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_zNSEW1wc

I found a couple of YouTube videos showing how to set up ‘Quickbooks’ accounting system online, so that’s how I’ll be spending my Sunday in bed. I’ll set it all up ready for the accountant.

Adoring Husband arrived to help close the shop and we were heading down the driveway a couple of minutes before 1pm. 

When we arrived home, I got changed and stripped my bed, then remade it with my bamboo sheets. Since it will be my office all day on Sunday, I want it to be lush and comfortable.

It’s Super Saturday for footy this arvo, so we are all settled in for that.

There are also lots of Aussies playing at Wimbledon tonight so I might get to see some good matches after the footy.

Barramundi and salad for dinner. Nice and easy.

It has been a few hours since I started this blog and now I’m sitting up in bed watching the tennis.

The bamboo sheets were crisp and cool to slide between and I put my thermal balancing mattress topper on the bed for the first time, so I’ll let you know how effective it is.

Except for the pool, this my favourite part of the house 🥰

I’m looking forward to my Sunday in bed. I hope your Sunday is delicious too!

Nite all. 

Tumbling Down

It has been raining steadily since 1pm.

It doesn’t look like stopping any time soon.

It’s lovely!

My sister Squirt and her fiancé both received a negative result from their covid tests.

This leads me to ask “If the traveller had the most contagious strain of covid (Delta which is also the most resistant to vaccines) and she spent 2 hours in a busy restaurant on Magnetic Island, and NOBODY caught it, then what the hell is going on???”

Why isn’t anybody questioning this?

I had a good day of sales as customers came in between rain showers.

I paid all my bills - it has been a heavy couple of months for stoopid bills 💵 so I’m happy that’s behind me now.

At 1pm, The Artful Dodger arrived at the shop because we planned on going to the party together at 2pm.

Adoring Husband helped close the shop and was kind enough to drive us because even though the party was just around the corner, the rain by this time, was quite heavy.

We were not the first to arrive.

Our hostess was dressed to the nines and looking fabulous!

The kitchen counter was spread with all the healthiest food and tasty delights.

The photos of us all under the age of 5 were spread on the table. My photo was the last remaining after the guesses - nobody picked that it was me.

We drank slushies made with Ruby Riccadonna and strawberry sorbet, normal Riccadonna with passion fruit sorbet. They were delicious and very easy to drink.

We played Charades! It was freaking hilarious!

I was home before 7pm. Five hours of fun and frivolity was quite enough for me.

It’s now rapidly approaching 1am. How the hell did that happen?

Sleep time for me.

Nite all.