CHIN CHAI CUPPIES

It was last minute project. Martian's school will have an open day and anyone's welcome to err... sell stuff. So I thought I could make a quick buck by selling cupcakes, you know, to test the market a little, and he planned to sell sardine sandwiches (good stuff). So that nite, both of us laki bini was busy clanking away in the kitchen.

I have no patience to meticulously pipe all 80 mini cupcakes so I opted for the multi-coloured frosting on most of them.

I finally got those paper souffle cups! This time, I tried Billy's Vanilla Cupcake recipe taken from 52 Cupcakes and I have to admit, it's the awesome-mest recipe so far. And I got flat top cuppies for the first time! Yeay! This shall be the end of my Great Vanilla Cupcake Experiment. Ouh wait, I didn't even post the second installment of my experiment, right? Oh well.

Here are some of the pics. Sorry for the lack of food photography styling. I was really in a great rush to finish off the baking, frosting and sending the last batch to the school.

The first batch I made, around 44 cuppies were brought to the school by Martian around 9.30 am. I was a little demotivated in the morning when it suddenly rained, and I assumed that sales were gonna be slow. I thought I won't even have to even finish decorating the second batch. When I called him 1/2 an hour later, he reported that the cuppies were gone in minutes, so I better send the rest of them to him ASAP. Coz it looked like they might have to close shop early. Wow, those kids really loved his sardine sandwiches. And my cuppies ;p

Y'know, I even had a dream the night before. I made a huge sign "ANNIE'S CUPPIES" and each of my cuppies had funky names like Thinku Pinku, Orenggo Morenggo, Starry2 Night and Violet Haze. I had cute cards to distribute to impressed customers. Orders poured in and in no time, I was swimming in a pool of cash.

A little far fetched, doncha think?

THINGS ARE IMPROVING

Aren't you glad when the 'this' in the phrase "This too shall pass" is finally over? And you felt slightly silly agonizing over something that seems trivial now?

Nunu has several achievements at school that I almost let slip, just when I felt like I wasn't paying her enough attention. When I was discussing with her teacher the other day, I was in for some shocking finds. Under my very nose, the cheeky girl has recognized most upper case letters in the alphabet. She's still confusing the letter M and W (which is her favourite letter, btw). The teacher reported that she knows her letters for about a month now was surprised that she didn't show off her new skills to me.

We both quizzically looked at her and questioned her about this, but she just gave us a sheepish smile. At home, she rarely has the interest to go through the alphabet with me, but I think that's fine.


It's no big deal, Ma!

Thanks to several cheapo CDs, she very good at recognizing shapes including pentagon and hexagon (wtf right? I don't think I know what a pentagon is until I took my UPSR or something!) and also colours. She insists that some blues are indigo and some purples are violets (I know, wtf right??)

She's starting to count properly now, slowly and in sequence the way I've been trying to teach her. Before this, all she did was point point point and blurt out the numbers, which clearly means she hasn't grabbed the concept of numbers . I don't know exactly when but suddenly she understands if there is a number 5 on the page, then there must be five stalks of daisies there, so on and so forth - and I almost missed that! But she's not so much into counting too lately.

Her current hobby or shall we say 'craze' ...

... is pen collecting and practicing her penmanship.

For a girl who hardly stays still for a minute, the feeling while watching her tracing her letters in deep concentration is amazing! We went shopping for a writing table for her the other day, and Nunu tested on one by writing on a table. The saleslady commented, "Wah! See your daughter hold the pen, like pro only!"

There is a catch, however. She's simply obsessed with mechanical pens, she would snitch any pens she fancies and hides them in the book bag to bring to school. She unscrews them and takes them apart until the springs and little parts go missing, so you can say goodbye to all those pens.

"Sorry, Ma! I promise not to steal your pens or be notty in your office."


"I'll try to be more helpful around here. This is the colour violet."

The school hired an Indian nanny to take special care of the littler children like Nunu, and as expected she has grown very close and manja with the Aunty. Sikit-sikit Aunty this, Aunty that. This was no different from how she behaves when she stays with Mak Nab the babysitter (whom still in service, if anyone wonders. I send Nunu to her on Saturdays and days I had to 'go away') which beats the purpose of sending her to school actually, but I'm not really complaining. Since Aunty arrived, she's been eating and bathing well. Within a week, she's beginning to take naps with the other kids and overall seems happier.

Most days, I pick her up from school and we walk back to my office and I try to get some work done. An almost impossible task coz the girl is always up to something! Look at the chair behind her, teruk dikerjakan! In between phone calls and discussions, I try to get her eat something and occupy her time with some coloring.

But most of the times, she just keeps terrorizing the place lah!


Or I can cheer you up and make that headache go away!

CALL ME

Everybody is talking about belly tightening and cost cutting these days. As for me, with the rising cost of petrol and electricity (and not to forget food too) I'm feeling twice the pinch as my business if affected as well. For cost cutting measures, an IP phone would come in handy since we make a lot of calls nationwide.

What is an IP phone, I hear? Well, it is simply a Voice over IP technology that allows telephone calls to be made over the internet instead of the ordinary phone network system.

I would love to say that I make a lot of international calls too in my line of work, but I don't since it is just a small business, but it's a good way to start expanding my business on a global front. But if I do have an IP phone for other than office use, I can make calls to you, and you, and you without batting an eyelid. All I have to do is hook it up on my computer and set a date with you guys!

REIGNITION

I was all fired up again last Sunday. Had two eager little elves as my helper (they even did the dishes!). 36 mini cuppies and they're all gone within minutes.



I'm sorry for the uninspiring designs. I was supposed to join a decorating class last June. If only I didn't have to run around so much last month.

Half the batches came with minimal frosting. I have several people managing diabetes and I don't want to be blamed if their children get it too.



The key for the 'ignition'! All the way from Walmart! An indispensable accessory for soccer moms, I heard.