Posted on : 31-03-2009 | By : Milk and Honey | In : Uncategorized
A Retro wave in France has definitely arrived and I believe will be here in the United Kingdom for good too!
It seems to have all started on the other side of the Atlantic with the arrival of
Obama at the presidency of the United States. It has had an even deeper and greater effect than anticipated as we all seem to feel the positive buzz from him and embracing the future (finally again!)… However why? I believe that it all bring us back to the 50s and 60s in the great time and steps of
Martin Luther King finally becoming reality. I think this is a wave of change and hope hitting our nations threw a wave of nostalgia and retro as we can only consolidate the future on a deep great good old healthy foundation that is finally seeing the light after so much time, work and ache.
The French retro wave is perfectly illustrated with the major commemoration of the 50 year anniversary of a popular French
comic book character, little Nicholas or
Le Petit Nicolas. Le Petit Nicolas and his classroom pals have been created by so talented Asterix co-inventor René Goscinny and genius illustrator, Jean-Jacques Sempé.
Little Nicholas is the wicked little schoolboy by excellence! He is a true representation of childhood and innocence surrounded by parents’ unconditional love, the sound of chalk on a board and children playing in the schoolyard… Little Nicholas is I think incredibly French in the upbringing and “old fashioned” life but quintessentially so British in his Humour! It is a must have books for children and grown-ups as this will guarantee you laughter and happiness! Great pick up factor from the doom and glooms times of the credit crunch (for the adults)!
After Vintage, it is now time for Retro to come into our life, fashion and our homes. We couldn’t find a better way to start thinking positively for 2009!
There’s a lot more than meets the eye to buying the correct Duvet to suit your needs. It’s not just a simple case of grabbing the first one you see.
Over on the Milk and Honey site, we’ve written this handy
Duvet Buying Guide to help you out.
“We cannot ignore the fact that a good night’s sleep means more energy for the next day and has a positive influence on performance. Choosing the right duvet is therefore essential. However selecting a duvet is not always easy as there are so many options available nowadays. A duvets primary aim is to retain the body’s temperature independent of the outside temperature.”
Posted on : 30-03-2009 | By :
Milk and Honey | In :
Shopping
With all this talk of financial doom and the credit crunch, it’s nice to hear some positive retail news for a change. If you don’t know,
Milk and Honey is based in
Cardiff and the talk of the town for the last few years has been the redevelopment of it’s shopping area, which is now in it’s last stages of development before its launch in Autumn 2009.
St David’s 2 (which makes a change from “Millennium
xxxxx” as most new projects have been named in Cardiff) has been many years in the planning. Since it’s conception at the beginning of the 2002 there have been numerous issues (location, impact on public transport and spiralling costs) that have delayed the project and subsequently shunted the launch date into the most uncertain financial period this country has experienced in my lifetime.
It’s easy to look at it with the benefit on hindsight and wonder why a city of Cardiff’s modest size (circa 320k inhabitants) needs a further 967,500 sq ft of retail space hosting up to 128 stores when the city is already in the top 10 shopping destinations in the UK and has a travel infrastructure barely capable of supporting it’s own citizens let alone the further hundreds of thousands the city attracts from surrounding areas on Weekends.
However, I think the timing could not have been more appropriate. In these desperate financial times the City is guaranteed to create 4,500 new jobs to support this project. Jobs have ranged from architecture and construction in the development stages to retail assistants and security when the site is opened. New parking zones and roads are popping up all over the City in the knowledge that such a big project is going to bring a massive amount of consumers to the City which will also have a knock on effect on tourism and leisure activities in Cardiff.
Of course, the main focus will be the shopping experience. St David’s 2 has attracted huge retailers such as
John Lewis and many top brands including
Reiss,
Kurt Geiger and
Hugo Boss – something the likes of Cardiff has never seen before. It is estimated that the introduction of these new shops will boost our shopping destination ranking into the top 5 along side London, Manchester and Birmingham which is no mean feat considering Cardiff’s location and size. Add to this the fantastic
waterfront development and
international airport, things are set to go from strength to strength.
Some may argue against the “spend our way out of the crisis” approach the Government has taken to tackle the credit crunch and when you look at St David’s 2 it’s very easy to see it as a perfect example of where we are going wrong. But look a little deeper and you may find that this is the very tonic needed to bring skills, jobs and wealth back to our struggling nation.
Posted on : 29-03-2009 | By :
Milk and Honey | In :
Events
A quick reminder to everyone that the clocks go an hour forward today!
I dont know what the weather is like elsewhere in the world but here in Cardiff it couldnt be a more beautiful start to British Summer Time. The sky is clear and the sun is shining – perfect!
Time to start on the allotment I think.
Posted on : 28-03-2009 | By :
Milk and Honey | In :
Events
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, today is
Earth Hour Day.
The concept is simple: at 8:30pm tonight, wherever you live you can vote earth by switching off your lights for one hour – Earth Hour.
Straight in at Number 5 is a “Comfy Pillow”. According to the BBC:
“Pillows now come with almost as much science as hair conditioner. And there are versions with in-built speakers to play sleep-inducing sounds such as a heart beat or soothing music.
This would not have impressed the Elizabethan writer, William Harrison, who attacked the young men of the 1580s for being so soft that they used pillows to help them sleep. In his day, real men slept on wooden logs or hairy sacks. Allergenic or non-allergenic sack, sir?”
Well I’m not sure about in built in speakers, but getting the right pillow is essential to a good nights sleep. That’s why at Milk and Honey, we offer a fantastic selection of pillows designed to suit everyone. Whether you like soft and shallow or plump and firm, we have it all.
All that pillow talk has made me sleepy….. night night everyone x
We love a bit of DIY at Milk and Honey (if you haven’t already noticed!), but sometimes its hard to find advice, tips and walkthroughs all in one place. I’m forever searching the web for instructions and for one reason or another I forget to bookmark them and they are lost forever..!
However I’ve just stumbled across
Lets-do-diy.com which brings everything together on one easy to use website. Its simple to navigate, clearly laid out and has tips on most subjects, from
Laying Ceramic Floor Tiles to
Bulding a Barbeque (with the clocks going forward on Sunday,
thats a must this year!).
It also has a handy
diy forum for anything that has yet to be covered on the website and descriptions of tools for those who don’t know their
Gauge Rod’s from their Nail Punch’s (that includes me!).
Posted on : 25-03-2009 | By :
Milk and Honey | In :
Food & Drink
From catering to your events to be your domiciliary chef,
Emilie Mazere has not failed to impress us. Emilie is a young talented Parisian chef trained by great chefs in Paris (Y. Alléno, A. Dutournier and A. Ducasse), her passion is to offer you a creative and gourmet cuisine combining French Gastronomy with Far East flavours. A true must do in Paris!
If you are a huge fan of decoration and Interior design then you
must go on
Decofinder . It’s a search engine specialised in
home decoration, design and furnishings referencing 71000
companies addresses and hundreds of fab articles about interior
decoration. It also contains fantastic DIY tips so there is definitely no excuse for not finding inspirations! x
Posted on : 08-03-2009 | By :
Milk and Honey | In :
Events
Today is the
International women’s day and it is time to celebrate for us women to be loving and caring daughters, sisters, wife, girlfriends, mothers… For us who can vote and have the freedom we are gifted with now, it is time to reflect on what we have achieved so far as progress thanks to our mothers, grand-mothers, great-grand-mothers and so on who have fought for our rights and status that we do enjoy nowadays. However it is time to get together and to think of all the women in the world who today are still victim of violence, unfair treatment and have no access to freedom, choice and education without mentioning health care! Should you want to help women, children and war widows in Afghanistan, please visit the
Afghan Mother and Child Rescue to see how much we can change things together little steps by little steps…
This blog is our chance to introduce you to all the things that are part of the Milk & Honey® world.
We thought we would share with you our interiors tips, design styles and websites that we love.
Our philosophy is simple: if we like it, we'll share it!
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