Have I got a treat for you on this Monday morning?! You have more than likely visited Mona Wise’s blog at Wise Words which has been on my blogroll for some time now.  We have a copy of Móna’s recipe book cum autobiography The Chef and I to give away to a commentator on this blog post.

I first met Móna when she commented on one of my blogs about three years ago and for a while we communicated simply by commenting on each other’s blogs. I can’t even remember when or how we actually became friends but we travelled down to Galway to meet her whole family about this time last year and they visited us here in Garrendenny, with the children being of similar age they got on great.

Mona Wise

What I really like about Móna is her down to earth approach and she calls a spade a spade. We both married men who enjoy cooking; she was sensible enough to marry a chef that would continue to cook on a daily basis, I was silly enough to marry a scientist who became a farmer and rarely has time to cook now!

I have to admit I’m not an avid recipe book reader.  I see foodie bloggers raving about recipe books and almost reading them as one would a novel, devouring the words and imagining the dish being created before their eyes. I like recipe books with simple down to earth recipes. I detest recipes that have endless inclusions of lots of tiny amounts of various ingredients usually because I am missing most of them from my food cupboard!

What is wonderful about Móna’s book is the stories behind each recipe. As you read each one, you know it has been tried and tested, you know it is a firm favourite amongst her family and friends and you know why.  What I really loved about the book is the story of how she and Ron met, their ‘courtship’, their decision to get married, to open a restaurant, to adopt and in the end, to return to Ireland. I smiled, I laughed and tears came to my eyes too.

And I was really touched when I opened the book and almost the first thing I saw was the name of this blog – included in a list of some of her fav bloggers. That meant so much to me and I am so looking forward to the launch on 31st May.

Móna is now a Sunday Times columnist too and you can discover a new recipe every week by checking it out every week too.

And now to the giveaway of this fabulous cookery book with a difference. All you have to do is leave a comment and we’ll draw the winner next weekend. Open to anyone no matter where you are based as we will ship it virtually worldwide. Good luck! We’ll be putting all the names into a hat and I’ll video one of the children choosing one name

Joseph Joseph Rotary Peeler

We are going to be ceasing to stock Joseph Joseph products (making way for new and exciting brands with news of them coming up over the weekend and next week as they arrive) and the good news is our sale of Joseph Joseph starts today! Yes, right now! So head over there and snap up a bargain as once they’re gone, they’ll be gone! Lots of Joseph Joseph special offers to choose from.

Update: the Nest, breadbins and Index chopping boards are all gone but there are still some bargains to be had

One of my favourite wallpapers from Designers Guild’s latest kids collection ‘Around the World’ has to be Daisy Patch – I love the hand-drawn effect of it and the colours are vivid too.

Daisy Patch Wallpaper

Daisy Patch

Aren’t they just fabulous designs for little girls who like strong colours?

Here’s their Daisy Daisy bedlinen too. Do get in touch if you would like to order any of the Daisy range through us.

Daisy Daisy Bedlinen

Did you happen to read Dara Flynn’s article in the Sunday Times this weekend with its emphasis on black and white as a decorating trend. With the weather being so blustery, ‘fluich’ (we’re trying to improve our Irish – a word of the day last week was fluich = wet), we even had hailstones and thunder today, black and white seems more appropriate than colourful florals this week!

Dara mentioned Jab’s new Black and White collection and it reminded me of one of my favourite photos from one of their previous collections, Palm Beach – I just love the textures and layers in this bedroom:

Jab - Palm Beach

It certainly makes me rethink black being too masculine for a bedroom!

And another striking black and white bedroom that I spotted on pinterest.

What do you think? Only for a bachelor pad or does black and white work for a feminine bedroom? I have to admit when I looked at the first picture I thought to myself that I’d love to see a splash of pink somewhere – just one like a pink orchid on the bedside table and hey presto, there’s pretty peonies there in the second photo – perfection