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

Would you like to win a piece of furniture or a beautiful accessory for your home?

Would you like to win a piece designed by one of Ireland’s leading designers?

Would you like to help cystic fibrosis research?

Time Flies Clock

If you would, then do buy a raffle ticket, they can be bought online and paid for via paypal so it really is easy to do. Jenny of Jenny Walsh Design got in touch looking for my support and the list of prizes is certainly impressive.

Prizes Include:

• Creature Comforts Cabinet Jenny Walsh Design valued at €2600
• Heirloom Jewellery box by Karl Sweeny, valued at €750
• Ceramic wall art by Ulrika Holmquist, donated by the Irish Design Shop valued at €600
• ‘C Tables’, a pair of side tables by Klimmek – Henderson valued at €550
• ‘Jellyfish’ Coffee table by Noel Whelan Design valued at €450
• Double Pod Lariat Necklace, winner of Best New Product Showcase 2012 by JLB Jewellery valued at €275
• Perspectives Shelving Unit by Jenny Walsh Design valued at €180
• Kite Chair by Sticks Fine Furniture
• ‘Granny’s China’ Irish Linen Table Runner, winner of RDS National Crafts Competition by Jennifer Slattery valued at €110
• Necklace by Saba Jewellery valued at €108
• Earrings by multiple award winning jeweller Eily O Connell
• A photo session in your own home with photographer Emily Quinn
• Handmade Wooden Stool by James (stickman) Carroll
• Diamond Earrings by Precious, Project 51 valued at €80
• Embroidered Wrap by Heather Finn Knitwear valued at €75
• Light fitting by Klickity valued at €70
• Light fitting by recent DIT graduate Kathryn Payne
• “Time Flies” clock by Jenny Walsh Design valued at €28
• “Cuckoo Clock” by Jenny Walsh Design valued at €25
• Skipping Rope by Nick Barker from Upcycle

As you can see, it really is an amazing array of prizes so I hope you do support this worthy cause. The winning tickets will be drawn on 7th June.

I hope you had a lovely long Easter weekend. It was extremely busy here – a mixture of looking after goat kids, children and calves as well as a spot of decorating (photos of it later).

Megan had her kids – all five of them and Becky had a single female. We had triplet calves the same weekend too which was hugely exciting.

Megan and her five babies - a busy mum

I am longing to head into Eclectic Interiors and choose some Annie Sloan paint especially as I had to prime and undercoat before starting to paint with some eggshell paint I bought months ago.  Then the children and I ventured into the depths of the attic under the eaves where we managed to find the boxes holding all our antique blue and white china so I’m looking forward to painting the built in shelving with its final coat of paint and displaying the china. Photos soon!

I didn’t have time last Friday to draw the winning name for the House and Home competition but here we have it today:

The winner is Jenny Walsh, many congratulations to Jenny and the details will be emailed to you very shortly.

Have you checked out the House and Home website recently? You’ve heard of pinterest I guess and the treasure troves of beautiful eye candy that are there for you to pin into your own pinboards. Well, Pick It is even better.

‘How can it be better than pinterest?’ I hear you exclaim.  Well, you see, Pick It at House and Home is a hybrid – you can select products from Irish shops, editorial content from the magazine, create your own moodboards for your home and then when you are ready, you can purchase from Irish shops, supporting Irish businesses at the same time as furnishing your home and purchasing gifts.

The House and Home website has great tutorials, inspirational blog posts, extras from the magazine, competitions and now it has Pick It.  All you have to do is register and you can get started on building your moodboards using the House and Home pictures from their news, posts and galleries and the products from so many of the best interiors and furniture shops in Ireland. You can even share your MyPicks on twitter, facebook and google+ and show your friends.

Pick It is free for anyone to use and House and Home are offering one interiors/furniture Irish business a free subscription (worth €487) to a Pick It shop profile where that business can list their beautiful products. Perfect for if you have an online shop as shoppers can click across to your shop to purchase and perfect for bringing a wider audience to your shop if you haven’t got an online presence yet. The site offers geopositioning, social media sharing buttons, a mobile-friendly layout and of course, there will be hundreds and thousands of people using Pick It to create moodboards and as social bookmarking and lots more.

So, how do you win it? All you have to do is be an interiors or furniture business and leave a comment below saying why you would love to be included in the House and Home Pick It. The winner will be drawn at random – I might even video the name being pulled from a hat as I have been meaning to start doing some videoing for so so so long now

Good luck to all – we will draw the winner next Friday.  Good luck

If you like cooking, blogging and competitions, you will adore this.  The Irish foodies cookalong was started some time ago by Sarah Nicholson and one of her friends – the idea is that you cook a meal each month (different theme each month), post up your recipes and photos and there will be a competition in that the sponsor of the prize judges all the entries.

Cake in the Country

Donal Skehan is judging the January one but the results aren’t out yet. And Lorna at Garrendenny Lane (yes, little old me) is judging the February entries which have to have a romantic theme. The prize will be an e-voucher for our online store.  If you would like to find out more about how to enter, check out Sarah’s Cake in the Country blog for lots more info. And if you like cooking, go on, give it a go, it all sounds good fun within a great blogging community.