Urban Jungle Bloggers / Coffee & Plants
My latest Urban Jungle Bloggers post is actually a week early for once (!) and this month it's all about coffee and plants. This little beauty has just moved into my office, but for the purpose of the post I'm photographing it downstairs in our dining space. It's a variety of Crassula (money plant) that I picked up from Ikea, the leaves grow like tubes until they unfurl, quite amazing to watch. The moment I found the terracotta pot that it sits in in my local florist, I'm pretty sure I almost swallowed my tongue. That delicate gold leaf detailing-oh my! I bought two on the spot and gave one to my mother, so now we both have one each in our homes. Anyway-coffee- Would you like to join us?
Lunch is the best time of day in our house-we both work from home although I juggle mine around the children, so we all come together for something to eat and to talk about the day so far after Reuben comes back from nursery. Although it has it's ups and downs, this is definitely the best thing about being freelance-enjoying time with family at home when you choose. Especially when there's magazines to catch up on. If there's time then Rob will make us a "proper coffee" in the stove top percolator (I suck at it) and I think he really enjoy the ritual, so this time I thought I'd pop out to my local coffee bar and pick up a bag of Origin's Fazenda Mariano to try. So good.
We enjoy a lot of light in this part of the house which makes it an ideal position for my monstera and rubber plants. They were "rescued" from supermarkets some six months ago and have grown from scrawny little weeds into absolute giants. I love them like my own children...well, near enough...
Thanks for joining me today! I've put together a little coffee shopping guide for the weekend, you know, in case you want to get in on some too...
Shopping Guide For The Caffeine Crazed!
|1| Aside from their eye pleasing, monochrome branding (I'm a sucker for good branding) I love Origin's coffee and enjoy a cup at my favourite coffee bar when I'm in town running errands. They're a small roastery based down in Cornwall and keep the environment at the forefront of their ethos. This box of Fazenda Das Almas offers a sweet silky cup with notes of buttery hazelnut. Yes please.|2| I have a slight problem with espresso cups. I own far too many but I don't actually drink espresso. That said, it doesn't mean they don't have other uses, like looking so incredibly beautiful stacked up on a shelf for me to look at or as a vessel for a sweet little posy of herbs on a windowsill. Serax always kill it with their ceramics. Always. Thanks for stocking these little bad boys, Studio NL!|3| Designers from my favourite Danish lifestyle brand Normann Copenhagen have just released an achingly gorgeous new collection of jugs and flasks under the name of Geo. This is minimal design at its best, with a matt finish on the outside and glossy inner its clean design would look right at home here on my table. Please.|4| Made in Finland from birchwood ply, I think the Kapu coffee scoop by HILE is possibly the most beautiful scoop of any kind that I've ever seen. It's not just a scoop either, that cheeky little notch down the middle lets you clamp your bag of coffee shut when you've finished to keep it extra fresh.|5| Ever mindful of the amount of waste that's created every time we (or I) buy a coffee (most of the cups can't be and aren't recycled) I'm considering keeping a Joco cup in my bag to give to the barista when I grab my next fix. It's reusable, comes with a heat protector and it's so very sexy in clear glass and black. Comes in other colours too but, hey, black is a style classic.|6| A minimalist design classic from the late 1970s, the Stelton vaccum jug is a prime example of function and form working together. With eleven colours to choose from, I had a hard time making my mind up, but settled on Milano Sand-if this colour can stand the test of time as a trench coat then it'll be an enduring classic from which to serve my coffee.