An unpatriotic and belated Australia day celebration

It occurred to me today that yet again I had let another festive holiday pass with little or no celebration or decoration. Rather than enjoying the traditional Australia Day celebrations yesterday of BBQs, beers and lamingtons, Matt and I found ourselves pushing the likes of a tofu stifry around on our plates at dinner time whilst we sipped mineral water after a hard day in the Meko office! How very un-Australian and not to mention unpatriotic of us! Now Matt can get away with this sort of behaviour on Australia Day being a born and bred Kiwi, but for me this was unacceptable. More to the point however, this did not help my recent campaign of trying to convince my husband to become an Australian citizen! So this morning I decided on this semi-long weekend that I would give my Kiwi husband the Australia day he deserves, if only to help convince him of the beauty of being an Aussie.

So I've been busy in the kitchen this afternoon preparing the Australian feast. Tonight's dinner will be brought to you by mince (sorry Sam Kekovich - no lamb on this table) with a big serve of my home made rissoles, washed down with a couple of beers and then my not so traditional take on the traditional Aussie lamington. Now I could have done a pavlova (probably would have been a lot easier picking one up from Woolies) but had I dished that up to my adoring husband tonight, I would have received the usual 'the Kiwi's invented the pav' spiel that I so often receive when trying to claim it as our own. So instead this afternoon I thought i would whip up my version of some lamington-cupcakes! Being so easy I thought i would share the recipe (if you can call it that) with you!

Now with time not being on my side today, I decided to embrace the old packet mix of chocolate muffins (sometimes they can be better than the real thing!), so feel free to do the same or if you're really feeling keen to embrace your inner baker then make them from scratch. Now the rest is so easy - you'll need three small bowls - in the first bowl melt some strawberry or raspberry jam in the microwave, just enough to dip the tops of your cupcakes in. In the second bowl mix 8 parts icing sugar, 1 part cocoa, 1 part melted butter and 1 part boiling water to make the chocolate icing. In the third bowl put some desiccated coconut, or in my case shredded coconut, to cover the tops. Then simply take each cupcake and dip the top into the jam and let it rest for a minute, then dip the top into the chocolate icing mixture, then cover with coconut.....and voila!.....you've got lamington cupcakes!! Hope Matt enjoys our belated celebration tonight. Perhaps you should continue yours too! x

Come fly with me!

Another busy week for Meko this week (although when is it not?!) with preparations fully underway for our next very cute 1st birthday party - a vintage aeroplane themed party for a set of twin boys!

Here's a little sneaky peak of what we've created for it. I've been hard at work in the studio crafting away my nights and weekends making everything from decorations to party hats, lolly bags to cupcake toppers and buntings to snack boxes. I have even managed to whip up some very cool aeroplane mobiles to hang from the roof and somehow constructed a couple of popcorn cone holders from scratch! My craftiness really does surprise me sometimes! In one afternoon today I've managed to go through so much craft glue I am practically flying......ironic given the theme of the party, don't you think?!

I have to tell you though, it's not easy running a business like this on the side. All the creativeness and fun aside, Matt and I are living and breathing this business 24/7. Our conversations whilst making breakfast or dinner have gone from light talk about what we want to do next weekend to whether the rocky road pops should be propped up by a lolly pop stick or paper straw! Funnily enough that particular conversation turned into a rather heated discussion yesterday morning, resulting in Matt having to meet with the Director of Catering (me) regarding his behaviour, followed by Human Resources (me) around his breach of company values, and finally the CEO (me) for his final warning! I told him he needed to resolve the issue with his manager (me) directly and stop wasting my time. Tee he! I make myself laugh!!

Have a lovely Sunday night x

Home is where the office is......

So I'm seriously starting to think that sleep is over rated! Or maybe I am just so deliriously tired at the moment that I've convinced myself I just don't need it. Matt and I are determined to have it all this year - a business, full time jobs and of course a social life! What's life without a bit of fun, hey? So in addition to being a bit social this week, we experienced a HUGE week on the work front completing everything from a sand pit themed birthday cake, to making a great start on our next party, to even overhauling our home office to be a more effective working space!!

Now the latter task was a significant one for me as after Meko kicked off last year I found myself feeling like our house looked more like a school art room than a home. Things had to change if this was going to be our lives moving forward. So our studio (and my beloved painting room mind you!) was transformed into the office. With a couple of trips to Officeworks and Ikea we transformed the space, putting the finishing touches on it today with Matt attempting (and 'attempting' being the operative word!) to put up some shelving above the desk to give me a better working and crafting space. What should have been a 20 minute job putting up two shelves resulted in 5 hours of drilling, 3 broken drill bits and 2 trips to Bunnings! I think maybe when God was handing out the handyman talents Matt may have been overlooked. But where he lacks in the 'handy' area he definitely makes up for in the kitchen, which was a big plus for me when choosing a mate! Funnily enough we discussed this topic with our good friends last night over dinner. We found it amusing to realise we had each found a partner that complimented us in our life - that had strengths where we had weakness and vice versa. Given Matt's abilities as a chef clearly you can tell I'm not a very good cook!

I've posted a pic of our new office space below which I am just loving! Although problem is, now I have this terrific place to work I seem to be 'in the office' ALL the time! Some nights sitting in here on the wrong side of midnight. Perhaps I should move our bed down here? Now there's an idea!

Nighty night x

Going Gaga over 2012!

Happy New Year to all the Meko followers! Or should I call you all my 'Little Meko Monsters'! That's probably a bit Lady Gaga though rather than Madam Meko, isn't it!? Perhaps my 'Little Madams' would be more fitting for our followers!

Our first blog of the year for 2012 and there is lots to share. Matt and I enjoyed some much deserved time off over the festive period, but not first before putting in a bit of hard slog at the end of December doing the prep for our much anticipated photo shoot for our upcoming website. Engaging the services of the very talented Dani from Spit and Giggle, we spent a fun afternoon photographing all the wonderful creations that define Meko! We both had a ball creating this set up, but it was our New Years Eve guests that enjoyed it the most with the taste test of all the goodies!

Here is a little sneaky peak of what we created, mind you these are only my shots and they don't have a patch on what Dani took for us! We can't wait to see her proofs and will be sure to share them with you all in due course.

We are so excited about what 2012 will bring for us with party bookings and cake orders already coming in thick and fast. Most of all we look forward to sharing it all with you, our 'Little Madam' followers.

x