Welcome back to blog land, live from Canberra!!

Greetings all, this time from Canberra, Australia's national capital. Just in case you forget, they have it on nearly every sign, building & advertisement, "national this, nation's that". Plus the enormous parliament house & surrounds is hard to miss - especially if you get lost on one of the circuits around town, or take the wrong exit off a round about, only to find yourself at another round about, like you're trapped in a pin ball machine. It's very easy to loose your bearings here, lots of bridges over the same river, you can spiral out of control. Plus for me, it's with 4 children in the car pointing out the 'crocodiles' in the lake or debate on sharks. Being stylish nerds, they love the Art Galleries, Museums & Questacon, especially the Aboriginal exhibits wondering why it's all so new to other people, as our children are Northern Territory born & bred, it's so familiar to them.

It's been a lovely4 months (3 in the house) since we found ourselves in Canberra, a fantastic town for people who don't like to spend much time at home - there is always some festival, event or park concert on!! We live in the countryside in the north of the Australian Capital Territory, with farms & paddocks of horses, sheep, cows & Kangaroos, the whole way to school. It still makes me giggle when we drive along the airport road, that it's literally an airport in a sheep paddock, making it very Australian indeed. We do miss Darwin, it's easy lifestyle, friendly folk & warm Tropical weather, so far i think we've had everything but snow thrown at us in Canberra. I like Winter wear, so it's fine by me, but the children are reluctant to rug up, or embrace pyjamas, so once we start getting below zero, we'll see!!

While it's a very conservative town, people wear an alarming amount of black or grey clothing, not dissimilar to Melbourne, i've done a few markets now & my lovely customers find my products interesting, colourful & fun. Currently i'm just doing the Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston the last Sunday of the month & Hall Markets at Hall Showground the first Sunday of the month. I must admit, the outdoor Darwin market scene has left me feeling far more comfortable at Hall Markets with their rural feel out in the middle of a paddock with the marquee. Spookily enough, about half a dozen customers at the first market, which i hadn't adverstised that i was going to be there, had read about me, or knew who i was, in the least stalkerish kind of way. I've even made pals with some of these first customers, especially the fellow mummies. So thanks to all those lovely articals & products featuring in Shop 4 Kids, Shop Til You Drop, Cosmopolitan, Total Girl & the like, i felt rather chuffed. Sometimes when we mummies have all our children at school & work alone at home in a studio, you have no clue who might be reading up or about to order from you, so this was a really lovely reception.

So this is my second year of having the 3 girls in Primary School & the boy in PreSchool, 3 days per week, i can't tell you how efficient i am in the new super size studio (read: we don't have 2 lounge suites or dining settings, so all our furniture is in the living room/ open plan mega room with kitchen & doors to the back garden). So i baggsed the so called formal lounge/ dining area at the front of the house as mine, it's easy for couriers, fantastic natural lighting & makes for a sweet show room, all at the same time!!

Over the blog break my super clever husband, web designer novice, redesigned the entire website & we added the much awaited ToY sHoP (especially by our children). I will be promoting that once it's complete, maybe mid year . . . & final exciting news is that we have adopted a new German Shepherd. He's 10 weeks old & just about to hop in the car to collect the children. Best Easter Gift the bunny could have brought us. We had to put our eldery Shepherd down when we left Darwin in January, so this little puppy has really filled the hole in our hearts. We have a new laptop for the business, i officially fried my 3rd laptop in as many years, so now we lease them, much better financial option as we're left with a metal brick at the end . . . anyway, once i figure out how the use the new camera software, i'll add some snaps. Said puppy has just run off with some thread, so i'll chase him down - i.e. follow the lime green thread around the kitchen. He's an outdoor puppy, but has to know how to behave inside, just in case the Winter is too cold, snowy & blowy. Plus he's my new best friend. Tally ho blog land, i'll be back shortly, promise. Love Posie