Ep14 - April Fools, Cyclone Narelle, March Recap, Surprise Parties & Not-so-temporary Tattoos

Episode 14 is your March recap with Raine and Mykaylah - a catch-up filled with laughs, chaos and everything in between.

From Raine successfully pulling off an April Fools prank on Kaylah, to navigating the wild weather of Cyclone Narelle, this episode captures the moments that made March anything but ordinary. There’s also a very fun throwback to a surprise 2000’s surfer-themed party (think nostalgic outfits and questionable fashion choices), plus a chat about some not-so-temporary tattoos that may or may not have been a good idea.

We also dive into everything that’s been happening in-store lately; the behind-the-scenes, the busy moments, and the little wins that have kept things exciting.

It’s a real, unfiltered recap of life, business, and friendship - exactly how we like it!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All the juice straight from the make a booth. Welcome back to the booth juice. Welcome back to another episode. I am very, very excited to be back.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Yeah, I feel like you and I haven't really seen each other much lately. It's been so hectic. Um I feel like we're very transparent in everything that we do here at Maker. Um I woke up this morning with a blood nose and I have not been able to get my headache away. So if I look a bit odd, this is why. And we've just come off a massive, massive Easter weekend, um, which was so oh my gosh, like so wonderful to see the town thriving. We actually had pretty good weather here too. There's a few rainy days, but uh guys, if you guys came in over the weekend, you have kept us surviving until our next little busy period. So thank you from the bottom of my heart so much. Um but you had a fantastic weekend this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

I did. I went to Tinnaroo with all my friends, yeah, it was really fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

If those listening don't know what Tinnaroo is, um, that's kind of like our hinterland area. So it's like a two-hour drive, a big lake, lots of people, it's so nice up there. You take the boats up or the jet skis or you know, all that sort of stuff, and most people can, but then there's other beautiful areas where you can get Airbnbs. Um my Marley and I got engaged up in that area as well. There's some beautiful like luxury cabins and stuff, and yeah. So anytime you're in Port Doublers and you want, you know, if you come and visit often and you want to expand your you know locations, go and check out Tinnaroo or the Atherton Table Land area is beautiful. There's waterfalls, it's like a different climate up there, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, it's really nice. Like the the night times were quite cold, which living in far north Queensland, you don't experience cold very often. Did you take some of those nice slices up? I didn't know because it was really muddy and I was a bit worried about them getting ruined. Yeah. But I had my jumper on and I had long pants on at one point. Like see, this is so exciting. It was really exciting.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

I know that we we wear long pants in store because our air con's cranky all the time, but most of the time we're in like a singlet and a denim skirt or something. So having warm clothes on is so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah, but yeah, it was really fun. And shout out to Lacey and Jenna because they set up a little Easter egg hunt for us. Oh, and it was some of the most fun I've had in a long time. It was really 20-year-olds. Yeah, it was just a bunch of 20-year-olds, even old, some of them are older. I was gonna say most of them are like 25 with little Easter egg egg baskets running around our camp trying to find these Easter eggs. It was so funny, but it was so cute, and people were driving past like, what's going on? Did you guys get competitive? Very. I won. So I was really competitive. I was running at one stage. Like I was very ready to go.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Nice, but oh, that sounds like a full Easter. It was really fun. Well, I was in here all weekend with my mum, and we restyled the shop, so everything feels clean, ready for the season. We unpacked some new stock. Um, she bought me a beautiful bunch of flowers and some chalky eggs, so I felt very adulty this year. Had no little ones around me. Um, but yeah, no, it was just I was just running off adrenaline, really. It was really like Christmas trade up here, it was so busy. Um, which is just yeah, so so cool. But it's been a pretty busy month overall, anyway. Like, I can't believe we're in April. But March was really cool. We had a beating workshop, we're supposed to run another one, but that's okay. We didn't sell enough tickets, but that happens sometimes, so that's alright. We'll try for another month. Um, we definitely have to talk about this one.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

So last week was April Pool's. Let me just give you some context. My two biggest fears in this shop is one, leaving the door unlocked accidentally, and two, someone driving through the front of our store. If you've never been to our store before, the whole front part is window from floor to ceiling, it's just glass. Anyway, the day before the first of April, I'm riding through in our little work calendar, and I see 1st of April. And I think I'm gonna message Rain and say, just letting you know, I know it's the first of April tomorrow, leave me alone. Every year I get Kayla.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Every year I get lots of people actually. I'm very good at April Fool's. That I will not be humble actually because I'm very good at April Fool's. Yeah. It's gone back a really long time, um, but every year I managed to get a good group of people. Last year I photoshopped last year I photoshopped my tooth. I took a selfie in bed in the dark and I photoshopped my tooth to look like my whole front tooth had been chipped, and I told everyone that I tripped down my stairs and my tooth was wrecked, and this was you know a few months before my wedding. So all of my girlfriends were freaking out because they were panicking about trying to get my front tooth fixed for my wedding. Yeah. And Kayla assured me that she would cover the shifts and she would sort everything out so I could go to the dentist, and so I got her good for that one. And this year we woke up. I hadn't planned anything. To be honest, I don't plan them very well in advance. I just wake up and I go, okay, what will I do today? And my my hack for April Fools, you have to do it first thing in the morning. You gotta do it when they've just woken up, they're gonna check their phone, they haven't.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Someone is most vulnerable.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Yeah, they haven't read through Facebook yet, they haven't looked at the date, they haven't even absorbed what's going on with the day yet. You have to do it nice and early. So I was laying in bed with Mali, and we're going, we should what how are we gonna get Kayla this year? How are we gonna get Kayla? And he's throwing out all these ideas, and I'm like, no, her and I are too close, she knows that, she knows that, she knows that, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. And I went, okay, what really freaks her out? I said, Well, maybe I could fake a break-in, and then I was like, nah, that's really hard. And then I went, hold on, AI, dun dun, dun, and I screenshot a photo of from the security cameras, the one that angles out the front door. So you get the whole front half of the shop in the camera. Screenshot that, popped it into AI, I said, hey, put a white car through the window of our store, and voila, generated a very realistic image of the whole front door being smashed in. I did actually, I did actually try and make a video. I tried to, because I thought, oh, video is more believable. Um, but AI decided to throw like random bookshelves and stuff inside the shop. So that didn't work. So I was like, we're rolling with the screenshot. Also, I had to crop the time out of the camera at the top because it had the time stamp, and the time was like the same time as I was like photoshopping it. Oh my god. So I cropped that out so that you didn't see. Anyway, then I just texted her and I said, I've been up since 4:30 dealing with cops and insurance. Um, like I made it just sound like a normal text that I would send her, and and I cried.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

I literally cried. I woke up in the morning, my 7am alarm went off. That's my alarm that I have to get up out of bed. I look at my phone and I have a message from Rain. And the first word that my brain registered was cops. And I thought, hmm, I've left the store unlocked yesterday afternoon. Someone's broken in and stolen everything. I'm losing my job, no one's gonna speak to me ever again. So I start crying over that alone. I didn't even actually know what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

So she calls me crying to check on me because she still thinks that I'm at the shop. Well, I'd registered window.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

I'd registered that it was actually a car, like someone had driven into the shop at that point. So I call Rain. I'm in tears. I'm very good.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

I'm still laying in bed, mind you. And Kayla calls me and she's like, hey, are you okay? And I can hear her voice breaking, and I, oh my god, I had this mixture of like guilt and laughter because I'm like, we've got her, we've actually got her because I thought, I thought at this point all my back was like fuck. Yeah. And then I was like, hold on, she's gonna register, she's calling me to be like, what's the hell? It's uh paper falls, you got me. That's what I thought you were saying. And you go, Hey, Ray, and you're crying, and so I start laughing, but I'm trying not to laugh, and so my laughter comes out. It seems like I'm crying because I'm trying to hide this laughter that comes out of this muffled mess. So then she misses. I say to her multiple times, it's April Fool's, it's April Fool's, but because we're both like laughing and crying over the phone, she doesn't catch it, and then finally registers, and yeah, I don't think you spoke to me the whole day.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

No, and I had people actually come in to make her and ask me if I was okay, and I was like, Well, yeah, there's not a car through the window, so I think I'm doing alright, but yeah, it was um quite traumatic.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

And then, and then I thought I'll put it in the work chat with the rest of our staff, I'll see who I can get. I mum was already in on it because she was like waiting to see how Kayla was, and my uh I got my other staff mum, I got jewels. I did not think I was gonna get jewels, she's way too onto it normally, and she but the photo was actually really realistic.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Like, once I realised that it was a prank, yeah, I went onto the photo and I was zooming up on things and I was like, yep, those are our sarongs, yeah, that's the hats. Like, there was not a single thing that was out of line, and so I was just like getting good, what the actual heck?

SPEAKER_02 10:23

Yeah, but yeah, rain got me really good, and I was what made me laugh was that later on in the day, so all day we've been talking about oh, we've got Kayla, oh, Averfalls, and like scrolling through your phone, and there's a million different things, and you know, all these different pranks later in the afternoon. He's gonna hate me for saying this. Marley pulls out, he's he's like sitting on the couch watching this video, and he's going, babe, check this out. And he's watching this video of AI, mind you, an AI like cheetah coming out of the bush and onto the road in in one of our local areas, which obviously we don't have cheaters in the tropics, and obviously we've been speaking all day that it's April Pools, and he's going, Oh my god, wow, and I'm I'm just staring at him, going, Are you kidding me right now? Like, obviously, that is AI, and then he goes, Oh, oh, oh, and he then he was just so embarrassed because I was like, How dumb are you?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

How how gullible are all of you, all of you, I would love I fell for RM Williams rebranding AI, like, and it was really ugly, and I thought I can't believe they're doing that. And then I said to Rain, Oh yeah, RM Williams are rebranding, like how silly of them. And she was like, When are you gonna learn the K-Lock? And I was like, Oh, oh yeah, yeah, never mind. Anyway, so next year on the 1st of April, no one's seeing me. I will still get it. I'm blocking everyone, I'm sending my phone all the way off.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

It's my my great auntie's birthday. Shout out to Ani Carla, happy birthday. It's her birthday on the 1st of April, and every year I like send her a message or I ring her to let her know. I mean to say happy birthday, but I have this chain of messages now because I know what I've done every year, because I tell Auntie Carla what I've been up to this morning and who I've pranked. Which is so much fun as well. So I've kind of got a little log, but yeah, it was 10 years ago since we pranked my brother. Oh, that was the biggest prank we've ever done. That was the most cruelest prank. To be fair, that was my mum's prank, and I was in on it. Mum and I can get up to some mischief. Reef, my brother had a dental appointment at the back of the hospital. You know, when they used to have the little van, used to be at the back of the hospital, it's like the school dentist. Anyway, Reef had a scheduled appointment on the 1st of April. We get in the car to head to Mossman, and mum fakes that my dad, this is so bad, has fallen off a roof. Has fallen off a roof because he's a plumber and a roofer, fallen off a roof and broken his leg, and he's been choppered to the hospital. So Reef thinks we're going to the hospital to go and visit my dad. I have video footage from 10 years ago of Adele playing on the radio. Imagine my brother 10 with curly hair, chubby cheeks, this small in shotgun seat, listening to Adele, crying his eyes out on the way to the hospital because he thinks Dad's broken his leg off this roof. And we got there, and mum's like, April Fool's gone to the dentist. Oh my god. I think he almost punched us both in the face. So off it, but it's the funniest video because as he gets older and turns into this man, this cute little kid totally got pranked, and there's nothing in this world that can change that, and it's my favourite thing to hold over him. And yeah, so I think that's where my love of um state is from.

unknown 14:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Which is funny because kind of against my character, because I don't really like I don't like awkward situations, like I don't like um watching pranks happen, like people lying to people intentionally, like that really makes me uncomfortable. But you like doing it. Just like on one day for a few hours, I'm like, yeah. Because I know that there's an end point and I'm gonna tell you the truth at some point, but I don't like the the continual awkwardness of some pranks. So anyway, so much fun. That's my little entertainment for the next few weeks. Um I just can't believe I fell for it. So good, so so good. What else has happened? Oh, personally, I threw a surprise party last week. Yeah. If you have listened to our past episodes, um I'm a bit of a party obsessed costume obsessed person. Yeah. So ages ago I found this real and it had like a bunch of people at a party, all in different outfits, like, and their theme was like 2000 surfwear. I was like, this is us. This is perfect. I need to host this party. Probably a year and a half ago, I reckon, I would have seen this. Anyway, saw it, thought that's a wicked theme, moved on, didn't think about it. Anyway, Marley's birthday was coming up, he works FIFO, he wasn't gonna be home for it. I thought, let's throw him a surprise party. My parents are gonna be in New Zealand, they've got this beautiful property, big pool, big deck, um, cocktail, bar area, pool table. It's you know, hosting dream essentially. It's where we got married. Um, and yeah, so shout out to mum and dad for letting us use their house. Um, but for weeks I planned a 2000s surfwear surprise party for him. Norell, the cyclone, came and decided to throw my plans out of work because they he got evacuated from Wheat Bar, he came a week early. Anyway, it was a schmozzle, so I had to hold the secret in for another week. Well, not another week, but a week with him, which was really hard. But anyway, we pulled it off in the end. I think we had about maybe 40 people there. Our friend DJ'd, it was just the most fun we've had. Uh if you go on my account, you can see some photos. Um, I probably won't put them on makeup, but if you're looking for a theme, which is really quite easy, you know, it is really easy for everyone to do some like cool togs, yeah, some shinies, yeah, longboardies, roxies, call it a day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Oh, would you like to tell everyone about your tattoos? Okay. So I get online and I'm like, I'm gonna order some temporary tattoos, like a bit of fun. So I order them, they get to my house, and then the day of Molly's party, we all go to one of our friends' houses to get ready. And I was in a bit of a rush, and everyone was pretty much already ready, and one of my other friends had gotten these tattoos as well, so everyone was already ready to go. So I get dressed, and I'm like, Alright, like I need a tramp stamp tattoo, and so I get my best friend to put this temporary tattoo on me, and I look at it and I'm like, oh, it's quite light, but it's alright, like it doesn't really matter, we're in a rush. One of my other friends, George, actually put a barbed wire on his arm, and same with Dylan. Anyway, and so we go to this party, we all wake up the next morning. What to do? Like, I went off to work, and it was on I think Tuesday after um, no, I think no, the next on the Sunday I'm in the shower and I scrubbed this other tattoo. I had like a butterfly here, and I'm like, oh I need to take my tramp stamp off. So I'm scrubbing, I'm scrubbing, and it's not coming off. And I'm like, huh, what's going on here? So I go over to my mum and I'm like, oh, can you help me get this temporary tattoo off? Like, I don't really want a tramp stamp, like it's cool, like I did like it for the party, but like not forever. So mum gets out of this oil and she's like trying to help me, and she's like, It's not coming off, Kayla. Okay, so what are we gonna do now? So I had to wear clothes, I wear low rise jeans and stuff, so I had to wear clothes that fully covered my whole back because I didn't want anyone seeing that I had this tramp stamp. And on Tuesday, we all hung out, and George pulls up his the sleeve of his shirt and goes, So Kayla, what the what's going on? Like, what do I do with this? And I'm like, oh no. So I go on and I read the description, and it says, developing tattoo, semi-permanent developing tattoo lasts for two weeks. So I was stuck with a tramp stamp. I'm still stuck with it, like it's still like semi on my body.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

And I was like because I hadn't I didn't know any of this until I popped into work a few days later, and she's in a a she's in a shorter singlet and a low set pair of jeans. And I walk in and she's bending down to do sort something else else, uh sort something out behind the counter, and I go, Oh, nice tramp stamp. She said it won't come off because it keeps getting darker. It's one of those ones that just keeps going darker and darker and darker for weeks. So have you still got it? Kind of. Can you see? Oh my god, you do.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Yeah, oh wow, that's literally bad. Unreal. But I was like, I didn't have words, but yeah, it was um pretty crazy. And also when we got to the party, I said to Dovel, who's also one of our mates, oh, I've got these. This is before I knew that they were like permanent, semi-permanent. I was like, Oh, I've got some in my bag, like I'll go grab them for you. And when I went to my bag, I realised they weren't in there, and I'd left them at the house we got ready at. Lucky because he wanted to put it around his neck.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

He wanted barbed wire around his neck. Could you imagine him going to work the next few days?

SPEAKER_01 20:05

I would I the fact that me, George, and Dylan could cover ours up somewhat.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Although George Pitch made me laugh because he's got a mullet at the moment too. So he's normally he's like this, you know, lovely groomed bloke, and he's got a mullet and barbed wire on him at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

I'm talking like he wears a button-up shirt and jeans on a plane.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Yeah, so yeah, that was a lot of fun, just to add. My last name is Shaka now, and so I've made Marley a Shaka cake as well. And like the decorations were all so I pulled all the surfboards that we've owned in the past, I made him a big banner, so we surprised him down on the lawn. He got blindfolded and um he had like noise-cancelling earphones in. So his mate Samo shout out Samo uh picked him up. I told him, just go and drive the most random route because he'll know how to get out to Mum and Dad's. Just go and take him anywhere. And um, he reckons he reckons he was confused the whole time until he hit the driveway. And as soon as he hit the driveway, he was like, We're at Dono Jeff's. Oh really? Yeah, and then yeah, and yeah, and then he couldn't hear us yelling at him saying, Take the blindfold off. But yeah, anyway, lots and lots of fun. So happy birthday to my husband as well. Um, he is back at work now, um, which I wish he wasn't because I've had two snakes in the last two days at my house. First one was a death adder, right where I walk to my washing machine and like where my dogs play. And then last night, which I haven't really told you about this one, okay. Let's go to houses and I try not to freak her out too much. But anyway, last night I was refusing to let the dogs out. It was like, No, no, there's snakes out there, it's night time now, you're not going out. Orgy kept barking. I was like, Oh, he must need to go out. I let him out, the two of them ran past. The snake into the grass, and then I saw the snake, I went, Get inside. Then they ran past the snake on the way back inside. Uh, and then by the time I got back out to grab my phone to take a picture of it, it was gone. So, anyway, you don't have to worry about the red-bellied black snakes because they're scared, they they they scurry off. Here we're right. This weekend we've got a brow workshop with Cobra Queen, beautiful Susie. So that one should be really fun. I've got two tickets left at the moment, um, which hopefully someone will snap up by the end of the week. And we don't really have many public classes this month. We've mostly got private classes, um, and then next month, May, is a massive one for us. We've got a few private classes, um, we're heading away to the Brisbane Art Fair. Um, so my mum and Steph and Dave from next door have been painting like mad. Um, they are filling the vans up and doing a road trip down to Brizzy. So if you are in Brisbane, Mother's Day weekend, um, they will all be selling original art down there. Um, and the following weekend I'm sneaking off to a Hens weekend, so I'm looking forward to that. Um, but we'll discuss that once I get back. Um, but yeah, it's all of the life's looking exciting. We've we've like we've had this drop in temperature in Port Douglas, which is so nice, it's like just exciting. You wake up and it's like 24 degrees as opposed to 29 degrees, and it's just lovely having a little bit of a crisper morning. I'm currently looking outside, it is a blue sky and absolutely stunning. So, if you're thinking of a holiday, Port Douglas is about to get really, really nice. We've also got carnival next month as well. Um, so that is the 22nd to the 24th, I believe. Um, we've got Vanessa Amarosi coming and Sneaky Sound System coming. I'm so really excited. Um, last year we did a whole week of like events and stuff, but this year I've kind of chosen to enjoy it myself a bit. Um I'm still thinking of maybe having some workshops going on, um maybe some meet and greets with some of our artists, but um, as far as the actual weekend goes, I am looking forward to going and seeing some live music. Um so if you want to know anything more about carnival, just search Port Douglas Carnival. It's got an E at the end. Um yeah, it's just such a fantastic weekend, and hopefully we get really good weather. Um we've also, not that I'm I'm gonna speak further on this because I've got a really exciting guest coming up, but just so you know, the first weekend of May, I'm not even a footie person, but Dustin Martin is coming to Portland. And I'm not hearing, which yeah, that's very sad for you. Yeah, that's okay. Anyway, for someone that doesn't even watch footy, uh we'll be a trendy. Pretty cool. Um, so again, if you're thinking you have a holiday to Fort Douglas and you like the footy, come and watch Dustin play.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Um it'll be incredible, it'll be such a good weekend. May isn't like super super hot either.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

It's beautiful, and it's just such a good atmosphere when yeah, you still get like the rain on and off, but it's like so much cooler. Most of the days are just like beautiful blue skies. Um, yeah, it's I love it. It's like the start of our season, May, and it makes my heart very happy. So really looking forward to it. Yeah, as I said, we are completely winging this episode today.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Um we just like to come have a chat, yeah, update you on what's going on and what's happening.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

We had our winner of our podcast giveaway come in over the weekend and collect her prizes. She was very stoked, and um yeah, so thank you so much again to everyone who shared that giveaway. Um I'd love to do a few every so often, so keep an eye out, keep listening. But it's almost nine o'clock, so we should probably open the store. We are in school holidays now, I believe. I think all the I think all the states are aligned for this one. So hopefully we get to see a few of your beautiful faces in store. If you have been listening, please let us know. It's really cool to know who's listening from where, and if you're visiting, like it's so nice to you know put a face to the number that we see on the screen. So, yeah, come and say hi, come and hang out on the couch, come and browse all of our beautiful things. Um, I am I do have a few new things on the way, but I can't really tell you just yet. So keep an eye out in the next few months. We've got some new collabs and some new products coming. Um, but yeah, of course, if you if you're not in Port Douglas, we're online, you can shop online, you can obviously listen to all of our podcasts, um, and just send us a message if you're on Instagram and you wanna, you know, if you have any questions or anything, or if you want to let us know when you're coming to visit, like we just we love to get to know all of you, so yeah. And thanks so much again for supporting us this weekend. Like, I'm eternally grateful for all the people that came in and shopped with us. Um, yeah, you I don't think you realize how much of a difference you're making to a small seasonal town um when you just come in and buy without any hassle, too. Like everyone that walked in was just like so willing to spend not that it's about the money, but they just they they were in love with the things that we have on offer from all these incredible, you know, Aussie businesses. So that is a testament to all of you makers as well. So thank you for making our store what it is.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Well, it's nine o'clock and we've got people banging on the door, so we will catch you in our next episode.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

Yeah, see you very soon. Have a wonderful day, guys.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Bye.