Niche products for your home

I have just found another store that I can’t help but love in London (sorry for all of you who live outside the capital!).

Niche in Kensal Rise is a treasure trove of antique and vintage finds. They have a wide variety of products from lovely antique jewellery to antique globes, which are mostly sourced from within the UK. Niche also sells a range of French and English furniture dating from the Victorian era to the 1950s. I could really spend all day searching the store!

Owning a product which has a history always makes it so much more unique and it's always good to 're-use' wherever possible!

If you are in the area and fancy stocking up on vintage signs or 1950s kitchenware, then be sure to pop by! There’s always something interesting to see.
Niche, 70 Chamberlayne Road, London NW10 3JJ

Architect in your house?

With the housing market in turmoil, increasing numbers of people are choosing to stay put and make the most of the space they’re in. But home improvement means more than just a lick of paint. Why not talk to an architect, and you could improve not just your home, but your quality of life, too.

Architect in the House, in partnership with the NHBC, is an innovative scheme that matches homeowners with an RIBA chartered architect who gives up an hour of their time for a design consultation. In exchange, the homeowner makes a suggested minimum donation of £40 to Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity.

To sign up to Architect in the House and help support Shelter, click here
I have signed up and will hear back from RIBA by July 1st when our consultation will be… I will keep you posted!

Make Hay whilst the sun shines!

Many friends of mine are lucky enough to be visiting the Hay Festival this weekend. The festival begins today and runs until 31st May.

The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Wales for ten days from May to June. Devised by Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind". The festival has expanded in recent years and now includes musical performances and film previews. A children's festival, "Hay Fever", runs alongside the main festival.

Fingers crossed the weather forecasts are right and the sun shines all weekend! Enjoy!

Introducing our new supplier...

Biome Lifestyle are delighted to introduce our new supplier from South Africa.

Nestled in a tiny town just outside the Eastern Cape is a community of women who produce the most amazing pieces of handiwork. Every product has been handmade from start to finish. The business was set up to help the community become self sufficient, and the women have been working together for 10 years. The women produce memory boxes, kids cushions and kids bedding all exclusively for Biome Lifestyle.

We look forward to a long and prosperous partnership!

Car boot sales

I saw on the news the other day that car boot sales are on the rise due to credit-crunch buyers looking for a bargain. After hearing a story about a man who bought a teapot at a car boot sale and sold it at Christies for £27,000 I am tempted to become a car boot sale fan!!

I love vintage stores and second-hand furniture shops so I think car boot sales could be my kind of thing! I always love finding old and interesting pieces of furniture, homeware or glassware - I think it really adds something unique to your home. Old furniture tends to have been made with much more care and attention to detail than some of the highstreet items which have been mass-produced in Asia. I feel a home should have individuality after all it's your chance to showcase your tastes, travel finds and personality.

Right, time to find my big bucks teapot...!

To find your nearest car boot sale, click here

New plant pockets!

It’s definitely novel and unique! Made from recycled materials, Maruja Fuentes’ green pockets provide a new angle for adding plants to your home.” Spotted at the 2009 Milan Furniture Fair, the super-cool ceramic tiles attach to any wall to create the illusion that whatever’s inside—herbs, plants, a flower or two—is growing directly out of a room’s surface

Biome Lifestyle thinks this is a great way to add greenery to your room!

Biome and Honda unite!

Biome Lifestyle are delighted to be chosen to be involved with the ‘Eco Test Drive’ of Hondas Insight car. Every Honda dealership in the UK is issuing a challenge to its local motorists – achieve the highest fuel economy over a set route and win £100 vouchers to spend at Biome Lifestyle!

The nationwide challenge is being used to launch the Insight, one of the UK’s greenest new cars. Using hybrid technology, its official combined fuel economy figure is 64.2mpg – an impressive figure for a petrol-powered compact family hatchback that can seat five adults and take their luggage.

At each participating dealership, the customer who gets the highest mpg – as displayed on the Insight’s trip meter after completing a set local test route – will win Biome Lifestyle vouchers worth £100.

Bernard Bradley, General Manager – Cars, at Honda (UK), said: “We know that the way in which different people drive has a big impact on fuel economy. So, to help our customers maximise the impressive efficiency of the Insight, it comes with technology that helps them adopt greener driving techniques.”
Biome Lifestyle are proud to be involved with the new Honda Insight car! Go take a test drive today!

Rainforest Organic Chewing Gum

The new biodegradable chewing gum is here! Chicza is totally natural and last month, at the Natural and Organic Products Festival in London, Chicza Organic Chewing Gum received the award for best new organic food product. The recognition is large for the community of farmers in Mexico’s rainforest that is beginning to introduce their gum to European markets.

The company is a fusion of rural cooperatives from the states; it integrates 53 communities and organizations with over 2,163 members, and started with the philosophy that to live amongst the nature of the land, one must work to conserve it. The consortium works within 800,000 hectares of Chicozapote trees in the part of the rainforest that was originally developed by Mayan civilizations, and much of the production practices of the Chizca gum follow Mayan traditions.

Biodegradable gum is a fantastic idea! I look forward to trying my first pack!

Dairy Milk to go Fairtrade!

Cadbury and the Fairtrade Foundation recently announced plans to achieve Fairtrade certification for Cadbury Dairy Milk, the nation’s top selling chocolate bar, by end of Summer 2009. This groundbreaking move will result in the tripling of sales of cocoa under Fairtrade terms for cocoa farmers in Ghana, both increasing Fairtrade cocoa sales for existing certified farming groups, as well as opening up new opportunities for thousands more farmers to benefit from the Fairtrade system.

Cadbury Chief Executive, Todd Stitzer, says, “This is an historic moment for our company. I am proud that the nation’s favourite chocolate bar will display the FAIRTRADE Mark. I was in Ghana last month and saw how vital it is that businesses support their partners and the communities they live in. We believe that by joining forces with the Fairtrade Foundation, we can further improve living standards and conditions for farmers and farming communities, and create a sustainable supply of high quality cocoa for Cadbury.”

“Cadbury’s commitment is breakthrough news for the farmers in Ghana who are very excited that they will be able to sell more of their cocoa as Fairtrade, bringing greater benefits to their communities,” says Harriet Lamb, Chief Executive of the Fairtrade Foundation. “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to certify Cadbury Dairy Milk, enabling all those who buy it to make a real difference for cocoa farmers with every purchase. This certainly sets a new standard for the mainstream chocolate industry.”

Biome Lifestyle is delighted to hear that Cadburys are finally making moves towards Fairtrade certification! Hopefully many more farmers can now benefit from the Fairtrade policies and practices.

Healthy and delicious recipes - what's not to love!

I love surfing the internet for new recipes as there are so many out there! However, there is one cooking blog I stumbled across & I am now a huge fan!

www.mostlyeating.com is written by Sophie, a nutritionist from Oxford. She says:

That the blog"is essentially about all those thought processes that go into choosing what to eat, where to buy it and how to cook it, something that many of us are starting to spend more and more time on. I am a nutritionist so healthy eating is major theme running through this blog and the other being my efforts to shop a little more ethically."

I especially love the Fig & Plum Porridge (I now enjoy that most mornings), the Pisto and the Spaghetti with courgette, lemon and goats cheese. Also the photography is fantastic and always makes my mouth water!

Take a look and see if you find something delicious to cook tonight!