Tag Archives: gift

Rosie & Twine, Flower Delivery

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Usually I trek to Columbia Road on Sunday mornings to peruse and choose floral decoration for my flat. Last week however I experienced a much easier service. Rosie, founder of Rosie & Twine delivered a beautiful bunch of flowers to my door, complete with care instructions. My bouquet was an eclectic mix of dark reds and pale purples with a touch of white, delicate and fresh flowers some of which I didn’t recognise. Rosie later told me the bunch consisted of Agapanthus, Scabiosa, Dahlia, Alstromeria and a few anemones, all British grown.

Rosie & Twine is a unique ‘Flowers by Subscription’ service that focuses on delivering largely British flowers beautifully and efficiently. With every bunch £1 is donated to the ‘Friends of the Honey Bee’. The heart of the business model is the subscription process – understanding that we all deserve lovely flowers yet don’t have the time to source the best, Rosie has created a very simple, easy to manage subscription process.

The idea developed from a lifetime love of flowers. Rosie & Twine is passionate about championing British produce and keeping the majority of cut flowers British to decrease the amount we import from all over the globe. Growing up in the countryside, Rosie’s family kept bees and grew to admire them. Bees in this country have suffered dramatically over the past fifty years due to a decline in pollen rich plants and the use of fertilisers and chemicals. We need to increase the biodiversity of plants and flowers available to bees and we can raise awareness by working with the Friends of the Honey Bee campaign through donations from every bunch. If we look after them they will in turn look after us.

The service initially launches in all SW postcodes with a plan to expand, Rosie is happy to deliver further afield so do get in touch. She heads over to the Flower Market to get all the flowers for the day’s delivery. Each week there will be two new bunches on offer, so you can either make your own choice or you can leave it down to Rosie’s creativity.

Deliveries take place between 1pm and 6pm, Tuesdays to Fridays. You can choose your delivery day when you subscribe and add in any special delivery requests. You can manage your account online so if you want to skip a week or month or would like to cancel, it will be easy. If you want to send a gift, you can order flowers as a one-off or even buy a tailored gift subscription.

Deliveries officially begin in November 2014 but Rosie is already open for business so pop over to her website and get floral.

Find out more here: www.rosieandtwine.com

Hot on the Highstreet Week 216

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I love cookbooks, even if they are most commonly used as eye candy on my coffee table. Here are a few of my current favourites, all available to buy on Amazon.

The Art of Eating Well is a revolutionary cookbook that will help anyone who wishes to feel better, lose weight or have more energy. London-based sisters Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley teach their principles of life-long healthy eating with exciting and inventive recipes that are so delicious you forget the purpose is good health and nourishment. Buy here.

Stevie Parle burst onto the London scene in 2009 with the launch of a new restaurant, Dock Kitchen, whose food AA Gill described as ‘faultless’, earning him the Observer Food Monthly Young Chef of the Year award 2010. The opposite of the usual ‘chefy’ restaurant fare, Stevie serves an eclectic mix of dishes that in their countries of origin would all be described as home cooking. Ranging from Mexico to Morocco, from Catalonia to Kerala, taking in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, here are simple, wholesome and perfectly balanced recipes for dishes that will warm the heart in winter and cool the palate in summer. Buy here.

‘Winner of two “Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2014: ” Best in the World, Historical Recipes and Best” “Local Cuisine, For Italy’Food and glass: a combination offering an authentically Venetian experience. Venetian cooking is fundamentally a simple cuisine because of the basic ingredients and methods of preparation and the time required for cooking is short, but it is also complex, giving rise to striking and unusual combinations. This gastronomic tradition is the product of a highly distinctive territory, one in which water and land closely exist. There are fish and shellfish from the lagoon and the nearby Adriatic, vegetables and fruit from the islands in the estuary, and meat and game from the mainland and spices from the distant Orient. Buy here.

The king of beautiful pub food has collected all of his best ideas into this proper cookbook, ready to warm the world on a grey day and restore the nation’s good mood. Tom Kerridge’s idea of food heaven isn’t fussy gastronomy; it’s proper ‘man food’ with Michelin star magic, including breakfasts that keep you smiling for the whole day, indulgent long lunches, teatime temptations, seasonal snacks and heart-warming suppers. In this cookbook Tom proves that everyone can make proper pub food, and the only place he wants to see a foam is on the head of a pint of beer! Over 100 recipes reveal his secrets for making real food truly amazing, including perfected dishes from his childhood and special treats he serves at his own one-of-a-kind pub. These recipes are simply the best version you’ll ever have of the dishes everyone loves the most. Buy here.

More than 100 recipes make up this stunning yet eminently approachable collection of suppers from Jason Atherton: perfect meals to share with friends and family. It is not only a showcase of Jason’s favourite things to cook, both savoury and sweet, but also a celebration of the flavours and techniques that have inspired him from all around the world. Every dish bears the hallmark of excellence on which he has built his reputation as one of the world’s truly great and most innovative chefs. Beautiful, inspiring photography by John Carey completes this collection of stunningly good suppers. Buy here.

Hot on the Highstreet Week 197

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Having my hair brushed as a very little girl was a nightmare. I have very thin hair but lots of it… easily tangled and painful to brush, a £2.99 plastic implement from the local pharmacy would just not do. Mason Pearson was a great option when my mum discovered this luxury brush brand, with thick but flexible bristles that are perfect for troublesome locks. Soon my younger sister and I both had one, an essential part of our morning routines. The Mason Pearson brushes are classic and traditional, and with no way to differentiate between brushes sibling squabbles soon became the norm too.

Let me introduce you to Rock & Ruddle, the lovely little company producing hairbrushes which solve all your hair problems. I met with the R&R ladies last week for chocolate and chatting at Rococo. Jackie and Alexandra met in their twenties when they were both working at L’Oreal. Years later they combined their knowledge of beauty and started Rock & Ruddle aiming to fill a noticeable gap in the market for a hairbrush that was both great quality and great design. The company began a couple of years ago after extensive research, and continues to thrive with stockists throughout the UK, though the main shop is online.

Visually they are very jolly with colourful and comical patterns and illustrations. Clare Mackie’s ‘Cats and Dogs’ design is particularly sweet. The pictures are printed into the plastic rather than on the surface ensuring the pretty pattern lasts forever. The hairbrushes are made in a traditional style with tufts of boar bristle. The natural bristle distributes the hair’s oil down each strand giving the hair extra gloss and shine. I really appreciated the additional nylon strand included in each tuft which gently separates the hair and detangles knots. The brushes are available in two sizes: Small (£20) and Large (£30). More reasonable than similar brands, but with loads more personality, Rock & Ruddle tick every box.

A thoughtful present for a friend, or a gift for mother’s day, the Rock & Ruddle products are a high quality and fun alternative to the boring brushes currently available on the British highstreet.

I have got a ‘thoroughly modern’ bright pink brush which I love. Buy a beautiful brush here.