Cracking good idea

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This is something we discovered recently – personalised fortune cookies! What a great idea for parties, wedding favours or as a gift. They’re made by a company called ‘Cracking Cookies‘ who make 17 different flavours (that’s a bit of a revelation in itself because previously we’d only had, well, fortune-cookie flavoured ones). As well as ones like vanilla and chocolate there are more adventurous flavours such as coconut lime and black pepper and salted caramel and banana. And they can be truly personalised, so if you order a box of, say, 6 you can have 6 different messages on them.

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Cracking Cookies can also supply traditional messages if you prefer, or even ‘Un-fortunate fortunes, which say things like ‘ Good fortune is coming your way in the form of a bag of gold coins………………… Chocolate coins that is!’ There are also themed ranges for birthdays, anniversaries, new babies and to say ‘thank you’ or ‘congratulations’ and Cracking Cookies offer a bespoke service for wedding fortunes. You can even have entertainment cookies which have contain challenges, charades or conversation topics.

Makes us want to have a party just so we can order some!

Strawberry and Cream Fortune Cookie

(All pictures used with the kind permission of Cracking Cookies, who retain all copyright.)

Raising a glass to the end of summer

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September again! Not quite autumn but definitely the end of summer…

So we wanted to share a memory from our travels – one of the most stylish bar interiors ever. The outside is bright pink with a neon sign but this is the inside of El Floridita, in Havana:

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It was a favourite of Ernest Hemingway (who knew a thing or two about bars) and is supposed to be the birthplace of the daiquiri. (You can see the phrase “la cuna del daiquiri” – “the cradle of the daiquiri” – written behind the bar.) There is even a life-sized statue of Hemingway at his favourite spot in the corner:

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The current decor dates from the 1950s, so slightly later than period in the 30s and 40s when he was a regular. It’s been updated with the odd coat of paint from time to time (and now displays the giant glass used in 2012 to make the world’s largest daiquiri) but still reflects the glamour of the 50s when all the leading Hollywood movie stars popped in at one time or another.

Thanks, summer 2015, you’ve been great. Can’t wait for next year. Cheers!

The new bottle lamp

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We bought this little thing the other day. It’s called a bottlelight – it’s a cork-sized LED that fits in a bottle to turn it into a light! Remember when people turned wine bottles into lamps and they looked like this?

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No? You’re so young! Well, take it from us, it used to be a thing. Anyway, one of the problems was that the lamps had to be plugged into the mains so there was always the issue of how you made a hole in the glass for the cable to pass through. But this little thing just sits in the neck of a bottle and can be recharged using a USB port or charger. So this is what we did:

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(Please note – no lampshades this time round!) The bottle used to contain Gingerella ginger ale which is a delicious non-alcoholic drink made with Fair Trade ingredients by Karma Kola. You’re right of course – it did take seconds to make. But we are still pleased with the result! No problems with quick and easy here!

A revelation in the bathroom…

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Thanks to a gift from lovely (and very generous) friends, we have had a revelation in the bathroom. They gave us these hammam towels:

P1040035Now, we had seen these before because they seem to be quite fashionable at the moment but to be honest, thought that they didn’t look as if they would be very absorbent or, well, cosy. And those are really the main qualities that towels need to have. But now we had the perfect opportunity to try them out so we did.

And they are wonderful. The thing we hadn’t realised is that the more you use them, the softer and the more absorbent they get! Plus there is the added bonus that they are thin, so they don’t take up much room and they dry really quickly – which makes them ideal for the beach or the gym. (Because that’s what was stopping us getting to the gym – not having the right kind of towel, but that will all change now! Definitely.)

At the moment Achica has some lovely Ikikiz beach sets, like  this one:

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So we are quite happy to have had a revelation in the bathroom and will be using our new knowledge at the gym and the beach too!

What a great idea, Nora Fleming!

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We saw some Nora Fleming tableware the other day – what a great idea! All the items are plain white with one tiny hole somewhere on the edge. Like these: P1040029 And into this tiny hole goes one of a range of ‘minis’: a ceramic embellishment. There are minis for every season and occasion so your plate or bowl or serving dish or bread tray can change with the theme of the event. As as well as being very stylish it is cheaper and takes less space than having a specific platter for each one. Isn’t that clever? Here are some of them: P1040030 P1040033P1040031 P1040032 And apparently, there are more coming soon. The not-so-good news is that you can only buy Nora Fleming tableware in the USA and Canada at the moment, but it is such a simple and fun idea that we wouldn’t be surprised if it gets an international market soon!

Norton Folgate update

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You remember a little while ago we posted about the campaign to save Norton Folgate? It’s a historic area of London just to the north of Spitalfields where British Land, one of the largest property development and investment companies in the UK, wanted to demolish 72% of the buildings on the piece of land that they own, all of which is in a conservation area. In their place, they wanted to build a collection of office blocks 11 – 13 storeys high. It would have meant not only the loss of historically important buildings, but the destruction of the character of the area.

After an impressive campaign by The Spitalfields Trust, including a human chain around the threatened area, Tower hamlets Council has rejected the British Land proposals. Interestingly, it wasn’t just conservationists who opposed the plans, but also the local businesses – creative and technology businesses who feel that they gain not just from the location near the City, but the vibrant and mixed nature of it.

So a beautiful piece of Georgian London with an interesting history has been saved. Good news!

A tiny purchase

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Sometimes you see something you just have to have. It’s not obvious why, or what you will do with it when you get it home. You just have to buy it and owning it makes you happy. It’s a nice, straightforward, simple, satisfying transaction even if there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason behind it. And that’s how we came to own this set of tiny (5cm/2 inch tall) busts of US presidents….

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A not-quite recipe for not-quite 4th July

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P1030916 It’s nearly 4th July! There is something very ‘4th July’ about red, white and blue puddings and sweet things. So we thought we would share these white chocolate dipped strawberries, but it seems a bit cheeky to actually call it a ‘recipe’. All you do is melt some white chocolate in a bowl over some simmering water (be extra careful because white chocolate goes hard and grainy very quickly if it is overheated), then dip the bottom of the strawberries first in the chocolate and then in some blue sugar. We made these today but they are to likely to make it through to Saturday… Happy 4th July when it comes!

After The Kelpies, a Puppy

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You might remember that we recently visited The Kelpies. We seem to have a it of an animal theme  as Our Man In Bilbao recently  took this picture of Jeff Koon’s Puppy outside the Guggenheim:

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Puppy is a 13 metre tall steel West Highland Terrier, covered in growing plants. It was originally created to stand outside a castle in Germany in 1992. In 1995, it was dismantled and recreated in Australia at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney Harbour. Two years later, it was bought by the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation and placed outside the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. (When it was first placed there a plot was foiled to use it as a cover for explosive-filled flowerpots, sadly leading to the death of a police officer called Jose María Aguirre – the square that Puppy stands in is now named after him.)

Jeff Koons said that the purpose of the piece was to create optimism, and to instil  “confidence and security.” And who doesn’t feel a bit better for seeing a flower-covered puppy?

Puppy is a permanent exhibit but there is a Jeff Koons retrospective at the Guggenheim Bilbao until September 27 2015.