"Would you like that with pink or blue icing?"

Today was the day of the First-Farmer's-Market-Cupcake-Stall.  And it went quite well, as in, people bought them, some came back for seconds and in the end we had 4 left out of the original 200+ cupcakes.  I can't say I'll be purchasing a Mercedes on the proceeds, but I might be able to buy a new lippy.

I spent most of last week cooking and had 30 cupcakes coming out of the oven at a time.  Chaos!  Ah but then came the icing. I was feeling rather nervous about it all, me being an accountant and all that, so not really known for my colour and design inspirations.  But at about 11pm last night, I did have a moment of creative pleasure when the combinations of pastel shades in the newly iced cakes, were well complimented by the particular shade of toppings I added, ahem..... (did someone mention cashflow, Balance Sheet, Accounting Standards, hmmm....)

However, I must say that whilst my cakes tasted great and were rather attractive (if I may say so myself), it was mum who really made the sales happen as she marched out to the path at the front out our marquee and badgered people to "try a cupcake sample" and then effectively told them they now had to buy one (and mostly they did!), as only my mum can do :-)!!  It was a fun day and a I made a bit of money too (although the hourly rate KPI needs a bit of review...)

Mike's on an early shift tomorrow and is then off to Rupert's in downtown Melbourne for their "Record Club" evening... ask him....  I believe the cows are performing well, but are particularly good with their aim whilst pooing (again, do ask.) They're calving at the moment, so each day presents new challenges as the new heifers (first time calvers) come into the shed and jump about whilst being milked.  Fun for all the cowhands.

The puppies are getting bigger, much, much bigger in Tessa's case, but have not yet developed any sense of etiquette and are currently racing around the room as I type, taking little bites out of anything in their path.  Even a balloon bursting didn't really slow things down all that much, it simply meant they could chew it more easily!

The wettest summer

We've been very busy since the 11th January.... Went to the cricket on Sunday the 16th and Fraser cheered at all the right spots.  James (my nephew) also came along and I think he really enjoyed bantering with Mike about the old rivals.

Sally and David arrived on the 22nd January and in preparation for their visit we had a few things to finish off.....

The entire kitchen, eating area, living room and guest room (yes, we have one!) have been painted top to bottom (ok, so the bottom bit needs some touching up, but the Lamonds are very tall so I'm hoping they don't notice), there are new carpets in the bedrooms.  Mum came and helped which was fabulous and we had fun to boot (ever gone down to the supermarket with your mum with paint spots on her face??)

The garden had a bit of a spruce up, although the lawn mower purchased at Tooradin market conked out before I had time to complete the lawns (it was mower number 4 since we've been here.... another story!)  But David has been on the job and we now have a wonderful new ELECTRIC mower!  Can't wait to use it.  But it's raining..... you may have heard about a cyclone up north???  We're getting its tail.

I cleaned out the shed, built a sandpit for Fraser (it's only needed one repair job so far) and put up curtains.  I also bought us 2 port wine coloured tub chairs..... my sister winced when I told her about them, but they look fabulous.  Am going to put apple green cushions on them. :-)

It was wonderful to see Sally and David and we're having a fabulous time here with them.  We might not let them leave.  We all went to the tennis a week ago which was fun, we even took Fraser who was an angel. (This is in contrast to our day exactly a week later at Healesville Sanctuary where he was a monster!)

We've been to the beach twice, made lots of sandcastles and avoided getting sunburnt.  Had trips to the wine regions round Melbourne (Mornington Peninsula very expensive and very posh - Yarra Valley much better priced and still very nice).  The animals all performed whilst we were at Healesville - we saw koalas awake, an echidna came out of its burrow right in front of us, the kangaroos hopped about and a wombat was sunning himself in full view of the walkway.  The platypus enclosure was as fabulous as last year and we even saw a platypus munching on a yabby.  Fraser adored the animals and I swear the koala was laughing at him laughing at it.

David and Sally have been working hard in the garden and the back edge of the garden is now virtually clear, there are new plants in the ground complete with fancy netting to keep the possums at bay and the shed has been thoroughly re-organised.

Mike is having a great time on the farm, coming home each day smelling terrible and pretty filthy.  Soap is still in great demand so I'm not worried he's becoming impervious to the smell yet.... Today a cow went down with milk fever so he had a lesson in veterinary treatment.  I am working on him to do a post to the blog and as he has this weekend off, do watch this space.