Joanne Musgrave

I am quickly discovering that buying a house is not the most stressful thing a person can do, it’s moving OUT of the rental property that you’re in ……. 16 more sleeps until I can fall asleep under my ‘own’ roof, for which I’m jumping for joy. Our real estate agent and bank have been a pure delight to deal with, and we exchanged contracts within 6 days of our first viewing of the property. Some kind of record??

On the work front, the shop is just frantic with all the media reports on bpa free baby bottles and bpa free drink bottles of late. Some of the major retailers have decided to ‘phase out’ the sale of toxic baby bottles. I’m guessing the average mum would still like to know when the government will catch up and actually ban the stuff. Gotta love the free publicity though!!

And in some bizarre twist, without any SEO work at all, we’re now on the front page of Google for the phrases water bottles, water bottle, drink bottles & drink bottle. When we hit #1 for all of them, The School of St Jude is going to get a nice fat donation from me on top of the monthly spend we already give them and World Vision. I’m all for sharing the wealth.

… amuse small minds. I know this! While watching weekend sunrise this morning, Andrew made a joke about Samantha’s taste in men being like prawns, it went something along the lines of “Samantha likes her men like her prawns, great body, throw away the head.”

He’s a funny bastard!!

Which was your favourite?

Oh my god, how divine are the new Sara Lee Chocolate Pies? They’re just the right amount of sweet without being too heavy. I think I could develop an addiction!

While some people may find it flattering, I’m getting sick and tired of backyard hacks running online shops that think they can come to my website and steal graphics from my site because they don’t have the skills to do it themselves.

It’s THEFT, plain and simple people. Don’t steal from other retailers. It’s wrong. It’s unethical. It’s pathetic. It’s tracable. It’s against the law. It will cost you money in fines.

If I see any more, I’m going to start naming you in public.

To those who steal from me and in particular, those who come back with smart arse remarks when I call them on it, may your businesses circle the drain and get washed away where they belong. You may sit at home and pack 10 orders a week, discount the crap out of product and do this for pocket money for craft supplies, but we actually run a full time business, have staff to pay, insurance, tax, warehouse rent, and we don’t take kindly to being stolen from.

That is all.

For those who know me, I love all things Wil Anderson. He’s one funny bastard. Even better, The Gruen Transfer, whihc combines my love of Wil Anderson’s sense of humour, Andrew Denton’s brain, and advertising.

I haven’t had a chance to watch this week’s episode yet, but should to tomorrow. One of my favourite parts of the show is The Pitch, where an ad agency get to make an ad for something fake. No-one yet has managed to top the very first one in Season 1 Ep 1.

Enjoy.

My personal fave (above)

The best fake ad that could actually be used (and to think I sell reusable shopping bags online!)

I know I’m certainly not. For anyone with decent notebook or tablet, it’s a toy. The iPad won’t replace a computer by any stretch. For me, it’s a massive iPod that you can’t put in your pocket, but it’s got a bigger screen for watching movies.

In China, 11 employees at the Apple factory have jumped off the roof of the factory as workers struggle to meet deadlines.

Food for thought while you’re lining up for one…..

I just love this. Somone has developed a Firefox ap that removes all traces of Justin Bieber from your browser, replacing it with a coloured box! CLICK HERE to read. Now, if only it were customisable, there’s Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan …..

As the weather gets colder (I’m sure it’s snowing somewhere), it’s amazing how many people are stopping by the shop to buy travel mugs, thermos flasks  and insulated food jars at the moment. We’ve even just set up a standalone website to help people with their travel mug and insulated drink bottle choices – www.travelmugs.net.au

Also, be on the lookout, we’re about to stock the entire range of Lock & Lock food containers. The only other company that appear to be doing it are Kitchen ‘n Table. And no, I didn’t just link to a competitors website, I linked to the customer reviews for this online shop at MyShopping.com.au. They have a 1 star rating (out of 5) and I have lost count of the number of customers that have told me they ordered from them and their parcel never arrived, so they’ve had to cut their losses and order from me instead.

Online shops that do this make everyone look bad. I really wish they wouldn’t do it.

In what can only be considered a HUGE embarassment to Coles, Masterchef contestants have bought pastry past its used by date. Isolated incident? Bullshit. Here’s my story.

March 1994, I go down to Coles at Chatswood Chase to buy something to cook for dinner. I choose fresh pasta with meat in it and a tub of pasta sauce. I drive the 5 mintues back to my house and cook it straight away. Mine was actually within its used by date, but was obviously not kept refrigerated properly (no doubt stacked too high and out of the cool zone). 

Next morning,  around noon, violent vomiting, quite literally emptied my entire stomach and couldn’t keep anything down for at least 6 hours afterwards, not even water. In hindsight, being home alone while this was happening was extremely dangerous and I should have called the ambulance and been taken to hospital. …