Tarts, Flat Heads & Spotty Giraffes

Due to the massive glut in strawberries from our picking expedition on Cadell's birthday I found a scrummy looking tart recipe and made this master piece...

Actually the strawberries were on the turn and I baked the pastry case a little too long!  And when you compare it to the one where I found the recipe, it is a bit average - tasted good though!

Find the recipe here:  Strawberry Tart

So after the tart creation it was back to updating the Munchkins website and in particular the Meta Information to help with our Search Engine Optimisation.  Quite a process but it also means I'm trying to update the site more frequently and increase our Google hits.

Our facebook ad is humming away quite nicely with 71% of our fans being female and in the 25-44 years age group.  About 4 new people everyday like our page, which is very exciting.  I think this is the next best thing to word of mouth.  What kind of advertising and where is the advertising, that you see that will make go and visit a website?  Is it online or in magazines?

I would like to launch a new product that helps to prevent our tiny babies from getting a flat head while sleeping.  Its called the "Baby Head Rest" and here's the information...

Baby Head Rest

Made from shape memory foam with a soft cotton cover, the Baby-Head-Rest has been developed in Australia. It provides gentle support for baby’s head and allows natural head movements in babies 0-4 months of age.
Baby-Head-Rest does not restrict the movement of baby’s head in any way.
Baby-Head-Rest was designed in response to the dramatic increase in the incidence of Flat Head Syndrome (plagiocephaly) partly due to the successful SIDS Back to Sleep program. Medical professionals say that it is still very important to sleep babies on their backs to reduce the risk of SIDS.

I think it would be great, as I know my little guy would sleep on his back despite being firmly wrapped and wedged. I know my nieces have done the same too.

If you can let me know what you think about the product, and can share this info on your own blog to reach as many people as possible please let me know - I can even send one to you for a free trial.

Munchkins is about to have new samples made for a new style of cot quilt "Spotty Giraffe"

It will look similar to this.  Giraffes seem to be an all round favourite, so what do you think?

I always enjoy any feedback so please leave your comments.

Once again have a Merry Christmas and remember to follow our blog and subscribe to our newsletter to win a huge and cuddly Milo Gorilla soft toy!

 

The Big THREE!

What a huge weekend we had here in the home of Munchkins!

Friday started with hearing exciting news from a friend; a wonderful personal achievement for this time of year, then making the Gingerbread dough and settling it in the fridge to freeze.  Cadell headed off to stay at my best friends house in the afternoon and I headed off to stock take at our local Kids Korner Toy Library in the evening (what a mission).  Despite having no child on Saturday morning I was up at 6:30am baking the gingerbread house, and tidying the house.  My fiancee and I had his work do at the Te Rapa races in the afternoon and my best friend and son were off to another friend's son's first birthday.  So it was a mad dash to get the house ready to construct and our house clean and tidy for family staying the night and guests arriving on Sunday for Cadell's party.

Off to the races we went and had a lovely time.  My sister and her family had come over from Papamoa to stay, and it is always lovely to have them here and have my sisters wonderful support.  By 9pm we had the little cousins in bed and asleep after all sorts of antics in their room!  9:15 we got into "Operation make the tramp"

NZtramps have great quality and well priced tramps.  My other half was vehemently opposed to getting a tramp for our son (lawn mowing obstacle, novelty will wear off and various other complaints!) but I went ahead and got the 12ft anyway.  When I rang about picking it up, they had none in stock 'til after Cadell's party!  I was gutted but the boss Matt rang me back and upgraded us to a 14ft tramp!  I was stoked, but needless to say, fiancee... not so impressed!  Thankfully we had the extra hands of my sister and her husband to put it together, and some near divorce moments!  We had it up and ready at 11:15.  Completely exhausted we all went to bed.

Sunday 5:30am both kids were awake!  We managed to keep them both happy and awake by going to pick berries at the "Olde Berry Farm" We now have about 1kg of strawberries too many so any suggestions for great strawberry recipes greatly appreciated!  Tired out the kids went to sleep, and so began the great house construction and decoration.  A total team effort came into play and this is what we got...

Complete with stained glass edible windows, strawberry patch, letter box, milk bottles at the gate, and Hansel's white pebbles he dropped to find his way back home.

I was completely stoked with it, and so were two of the kids at the party who pretty much sat beside it until it was finally time to sing happy birthday and eat it!  One was my niece who tried several times to get the ball rolling by just starting to sing, but she didn't have support and it was wasted.

The kids had a blast in the pool and on the tramp, or eating.  And Cadell, his Dad and I finally got to sleep on Sunday night about 9:30pm.

Cadell woke at 6:30 only to come upstairs saying he was sick, then started vomiting at 7:30 which has last all morning.

Our first Munchkins shipment is on its way to us as I write this from the Auckland port.  Really looking forward to getting our Munchkins stock in.

We now have an amazing shipping agent at Fliway Transport who have been incredible to deal with.

Brolly Sheets are in stock, and we have some gorgeous new Nici soft toys making their way to us.

Have a great Christmas everyone, and remember to sign up to win the cuddly Milo the Gorilla.

Welcome to our new Blog followers!

Great to see a few new followers coming on board!  Good to see I'm not blogging away to myself!

What do some of you know about SEO Search Engine Optimisation?  I'm about to go through the process with my web developer, it all sounds pretty straight forward (just a lot of work).

We started a Facebook Ad campaign nearly two weeks ago and so far it seems the most effective advertising we've done.  It isn't cheap, you pay by "click" but we already have many new fans, which is great to see.

I am feeling financially drained... as many of us do at this time of year.  But one of the very hard things about creating a new business is that your suppliers expect you to pay by cash for the first few months or orders.  This means we run close to the line as we have to have the stock ready, and so paid for, but not bought by a customer.

On the plus side we are getting some GST back, for our first period - that's always better than paying it!

I have completed my first GST return with the help of my other half's amazing "office girl" (not her official title!) and MYOB.  It's like learning another language for me.

Cadell will be turning three this weekend.  I always enjoy making his cake and this year we decided to make a ginger bread house.

Here's how the trial one looked, courtesy of Australian Master Chef recipe...

After a few hours sitting in this humid heat the windows started melting and over night the roof sagged and began to crack!  So it got rushed down to Tui to be eaten by all the kids there, before it looked like the squatters had moved in!
Until next time....