Hello everyone, I've missed you! Welcome to the new year. It's been a while dear readers, I've been busy

Since my last post life has been turned on its head with a combination of building our new house, market stalls and opening a pop-up shop in Canberra Centre. The shop combined Gallery Gourmet, Lindsay & Edmunds Chocolates (my brother) and Cate Holst handmade products. Of course I should have told you all about it when we opened late October and we would have had  a trillion probably two more customers but I was too busy to mention it. My bad.

My blog isn't the only thing to be neglected. You know when you're busy when:

You haven't been to the hairdresser in months and the regrowth makes you look more zebra than human;

The dirty laundry pile was so mountainous it nearly reached your nasal hairs and believe me, that's way too close;

Your husband grows a moustache and you don't notice. 

Anyway, the pop-up shop has now deflated and closed Christmas Eve. It proved to be a successful and interesting retail experience. I can safely say the laundry has been washed, the hair is now respectable but the moustache still lingers (grrrr). Here are a few pics from the shop (I apologise, the photos aren't the best, the lighting was dreadful!):

The shop was full of yummy Christmas treats. Of course the Lindsay & Edmunds Organic Chocolates were a massive hit and our unique Gallery Gourmet square mince tarts were so divine. We used vanilla bean short crust pastry and port soaked mince fruit with cranberries and almonds. We ended up baking over 2,000 and could have easity doubled that if we knew they would be so popular. We could not keep up the supply and had many 20 hour days to keep up with the demand from the Canberra shop and wholesale orders. Gallery Gourmet (my sister site) will be baking these again for Christmas this year (gulp!)

We also had honeybread, shortbread and gingerbread biscuits, panforte, Christmas Cakes and Puddings. We wanted to decorate the shop to make look festive and created 15 or so Christmas wreaths using recycling antique books, flowers and little brass bells

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. And don't forget to take some time off to smell the baked goods