“I’m still in shock that I made it to the finals and am just so proud,” she says.

Amy is one of 10 finalists in the Product Innovation category for her pram sleep cover, which creates a dark, peaceful sleeping environment for baby.

The winners will be announced at a gala event on October 11 in Melbourne.

Vote online at surveymonkey.com/s/ausmumpreneurproduct. Voting closes at midnight on Monday, October 6.

Tina to the rescue

LAST week’s cover gal, singer Tina Arena, captivated her audience with a powerful performance at Llewellyn Hall on Saturday night and left the stage in what appeared to be a sincerely tearful state of gratitude for the warm, standing ovation she received in Canberra.

As CC sat grumpily amid an irritating array of flickering smartphone screens thoughtlessly photographing and recording her performance, Tina sarkily asked one fan with an iPad in the front rows if everything was okay at home and if it was, perhaps they could sit back and enjoy the show! Love you, Tina.

Punished by Facebook

HERE’S a teapot-calling-the-kettle-black moment as a would-be marketing “spammer” complains that Facebook won’t let him, but Twitter will…

“As the Facebook algorithm continues to play havoc on organisation’s (sic) audiences, we have done a complete flip from Facebook to Twitter as the most dominant social media platform for us,” writes local PR spinner Jamie Bradnam.

And if you wondered why your social media world is becoming sullied by marketing messages, Jamie cheerfully explains: “The beauty of Twitter is that you are able to repeat a message multiple times at different times of the day to reach different audiences. If I ever post the same thing on Facebook twice, I’m certain that Facebook punishes it the second time around and audiences pick up on it.”

“Clean living obviously pays”, purred a local arts matron when forwarding this photo of Canberra opera darling Tobias Cole taken about 10 years ago when he played in “Death in Venice” for the Chicago Opera Theatre. Photo by Liz Lauren. Toby is back, centre stage, in the title role of Alexander in the Canberra Choral Society production of Handel’s “Alexander Balus” at The Playhouse, Saturday, September 20. Story, Page 19.

Gone to the dogs?

THERE is the old joke that Assembly members in our small community would turn up to the opening of an envelope if you let them. So CC is unsurprised to see the media resources of the Chief Minister’s office used to announce (“Former public servants follow their dreams”) that Katy Gallagher would launch a dog walking and minding service at the Yarralumla dog park.

Save your money

SELLING your home? Here’s some advice on not wasting your money on real estate print advertising embedded in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s decision to bless the buyout of real estate website Allhomes by Fairfax’s Domain entity.

“Market inquiries indicated that aggregating Fairfax’s print and online assets with Allhomes was unlikely to change the current competitive dynamics. This is due to the dominant position of Allhomes in the ACT and the decrease in circulation of ‘The Canberra Times’,” ACCC Commissioner Dr Jill Walker said.

“The ACCC noted that in comparison to its presence in other States, Domain was a weak competitor in the ACT and its market position was unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.”

Sir Angus it may be

THE shadowy Braddon Punters Club, which for a couple of years has made consistently accurate albeit anonymous political predictions (though the downfall of Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson is eluding their scoreboard), has turned up with its “Spring Carnival Political Update”.

They are suggesting odds of 5/4 on that former Defence chief Angus Houston will get a knighthood, former Liberal senator Gary Humphries is a 3/1 chance of being appointed a Territory administrator (Christmas Island post Jon Stanhope CC wonders?), Katy Gallagher is 2/1 chance for the Senate (succeeding Kate Lundy?) and former Chief Minister Kate Carnell is an improbable 2/1 punt on her returning to the Assembly.