Walks with Maddie

This is where Maddie and I like to walk. We come home with wet feet, and a thirst for some cool water. On our perfect Queensland days it's heaven. Five minutes from home, surrounded by the motorway, shopping centres and urban sprawl. My favourite place to get away.

time flies

How is it that over two weeks have passed already!

I really only got on here so I could show you some of my latest creations. The photography isn't great, but the arrangements are pretty nice I think.

We got throughour first Mother's Day here at Surfers Paradise Flowers. It was three days of craziness and not much sleep. We got some very good compliments and had no complaints which makes it a good day in my books.

Change of subject- How sad is it that I'm already planning what to take home with me. My list is a page and a half long of exactly which underware shall take up the precious space in my bag. My biggest concern is what gear to take. I would like to not to haul any onto the plane and get new stuff at roller con, but RC is at the end of my trip and I want to skate around the 'rents home. As Julieann would say, if this is my biggest problem in life, I think i'm doing ok.

right, didn't see the time, must start packing up. later

As much as I try and make this a weekly thing it just ain't happening.

Hello all and welcome to another instalment of A Workers Cottage. Lots of new developments in life so we'll jump right in then.

First of all my freakin neck hurts. I've been given a number for a remedial therapists and now I just have to get that little thing called an appointment made. The good ole neck hurts 'cause I did a totally awesome block this past Saturday at the second bout of the second season for the Sun State Roller Girls. Sadly, although legal and thoroughly effective ;) the consequences are not what I would call good.

Ok, now that I've got that whinging out of the way we can move onto life, the universe and everything.

Summer has finally turned her golden locks away and Autumn is running up to meet us here in our little corner in Queensland. The doona has been pulled out of storage, steam is escaping out of the bathroom on chili mornings, our shag carpet lends its fuzzy warmth to our toes and I get to wear scarves again! mmmm.....love this weather. Perfect in the day and snuggly at night. Which brings me to our next topic, work, work and more work and somewhere in there is derby and family and school.

Work at the flower shop is good, slow, but still chugging in. I think it's because we've got such a holiday crowd here on the coast that people are willing to spend a bit more money on non commodities. Not that we don't need flowers in our lives, I'm just saying the majority of the population doesn't necessarily see it that way.

Work at the leagues club is good, slow, but still moving along. In times of stress what do Australians turn to, beer and gambling. period

School, school is, umm I'm off school right now. Julieann was told that back surgery would greatly improve her life so she booked the date, flirted a bit with the surgeon and wha-la two and a bit weeks ago she was under the knife. Julieann's doing good now, but in her recovery period I've been minding the shop with the help of two lovely young ladies, Vicky and Jo. Since I'm in the shop I can't be at school. so there. School's pretty good though, boring theory-very common-sense kinda stuff. The practical side of class is great, challenging and a fun opportunity to learn as much as I push myself to do so. Plus there's some pretty cool people in it.

Sorry this is getting a bit long winded, so we'll have smoko, enjoy the visual pleasantries.

The photos above are from back in 2005 when I was freshly married and eagerly awaiting my Australian temporary residency visa to be approved. My brothers and I drove to Alaska from Washington State: been thinking about home a lot lately.

That'll do for now. more soon.

Valentines

We've done it, our first Valentines day is completed and there were no casualties. All but one deliveries were made successfully.

Kevin and I were down in the workroom creating masterpieces of floral art, Maria, Julieann and Brian were up in the shop selling their socks off, and Gaven and Sue were running around the coast making deliveries.We opened the doors at 6:00am and the centre's shutters came down at 6:30pm as we shooed out the last customer.

My only real disappointment during the day is that we didn't sell more of the large balloons. We only had one blown up and I think if the rest had been, inflated we could have gotten rid of them.

On a home note, mom and dad, thanks again for the housewarming present of the huge pot, we love it. As you can see we put it too good use and it gets filled to the brim with yummy food.

let me introduce Bob

bob, say hello to everyone.

everyone, Bob.Bob is from the Wimcee family and is a new addition to the shop. He joins a couple top knot and headdress dolls that are hopping to find new homes soon.Here's the new sign for the shop. It's supposed to be a nice pastel green. It looks good but it's not right and it really isn't consistent with the image we're trying to give the world.
Everyone, say hi to Maddie. She's a bit bigger now :)

nice

new beginnings part duex

Righto

{so this is not mine, but I can now do one like it, my photo though}


so here's the shop, notice missing sign. It used to read "Kevin the Florist" the new one will read "Surfers Paradise Flowers."

{here's one of mine}

Julianne's been working non-stop on the business side of getting this venture up and running: the flower arranging side of it all is left up to me for now. Our business cards should be arriving in the next week as will new order pads, a yellow pages online listing and a big poster for display in the centre. Things are now rapidly moving now that the design and tweaking of the logo are complete. The process seemed to drag everything to a crawl. Soon the website will be up and running and we're hoping that it will really increase our business.

So, keep checking this space, http://www.surfersparadise.com.au/

Did a bit of gardening this morning. Our front yard had become a dead jungle of four foot tall marigold seed heads. Dry twigs and creeping grass had criss-crossed and swallowed up the poor old roses and herbs scattered throughout the beds. All fixed now, I think we need to get some good mulch in. We get a good breeze across the front and it saps every last drop of moisture from the soil, so some good protection is in order. Besides it'll help with weeds, right?

I'm very pleased to inform you that our: Jalapeno, Anaheim, Rainbow Chard and Mediterranean herbs fought well against the marigold onslaught and came out more healthy than could have really ever been expected.

A few weeks ago while dressing in our bedroom, I looked up and could see our back neighboors verandah. When the wind blows or when something disturbs the delicate hang of our blinds, all the world could see in. Not acceptable.

To market, to market (like I need an excuse anyways). Get this though, Mick came with me!!! shock of all shocks. Right, back to the potential peeping Tom crisis, we were at the markets in search of appropriate hedging. Found it in the form of some nice fast growing lilypillies and some acacia frimbrata (brisbane golden wattle). Hopefully the greenery will survive me long enough to provide some good privacy in a couple years.

Yes, I hear you saying "get some draps!" I will, I will, just as soon as we finish painting our bedroom and maybe get a new bed. Until then, we've got a huge blanket hanging in the window.

That's all for now folks, later skaters.

I'm back!

Please accept my apologies for having been gone for almost three months, it's been a very busy time.

So wanna know what life's been up to?

Well, I now work at Surfers Paradise Flowers in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast and I'm working at the Carina Leagues Club whoooo hoooo. If you can't guess my favorite is the flower shop :)

Mick is good, they increased his medication and he's handling it all well. The doctors say that they can't do surgery again because his tumor has merged to much with his pituitary gland. His hormone levels are down from 146 to 59, and with the current dosage will hopefully get to the 40's which is normal.

Maddie has grown and grown, but still is a very cute, energetic and smart puppy. She caught the frisbee twice at the park yesterday.

Derby is back into serious mode with the new star program being instituted and a bout between us and Victoria being planned for June or July. We have so many awesome freshmeat this year, they all get along really well and they're skating is improving so rapidly it's scary, good scary though.

The house, oh the house. Today is Australia Day and we're continuing the great aussie tradition of renovating. All eight different types of wall paper has been removed. The lounge and hall has been sanded, plastered, sanded and then painted and then sanded and plastered again. I bought a test tin of paint for our bedroom, emerald green, but haven't yet had the chance to open it up for a go.

The lounge won't be a stark white like we were originally thinking but instead a creamy colour still with Paris red and mahogany for accents.

The day Roger attacked his room with the wall paper remover was a day of morning. Gone are the ships floating on the sea of silver, the cherub gods of wind have been themselves steamed away and the compasses have been directed to the black plastic bins of no return.

So what else is happening? For starters neither Mick or I are drinking. Him because of health and me in support. What do you do on a Saturday night if you don't drink (go the the movies!) What do you do on a public holiday (we renovate!) Just watched Gran Torino last night, very very good movie, mesmerising and heart warming. Watched Role Models last weekend, unexpectedly funny even if it has the typical Hollywood ending.

Yep, so life is still happening. It's mainly work life but that's ok for now.