I love cooking but you know how it is when life gets busy at work and home with other things, there is no time to leaf through all your recipe books for new inspiration to add a little variety to the repertoire of dishes you have in your head. Well I say is but I really think the word should now be was.Cue the development of the various ‘smart’ gadgets that  have now become an essential part of our daily existance. How did we ever manage before they were available?

I love the internet, especially in the kitchen, I can check out ingredients for recipies in the supermarket on my phone and I have the biggest cookbook in the world at my fingertips either online or using various apps designed to make things easy.

The only problem is doing preparation or anything with your tablet perched somewhere for reference you find it is never at quite the right angle and it often gets in the way, I am constatly cleaning splashes off mine.We are just about to stock the answer right on cue here at Homebits and I guess you have noticed it by now if you have read this far. Available in three colours as shown.

BUY ONE IT’S BRILLIANT! 

Eva Solo table top BBQ and Eva Solo oval ribbed porcelain grill plates to set off your wonderful BBQ table

Isn’t it great? People are blossoming all over their gardens, pushing back doors and windows and creating inside outside space.We have more room to move around and play. Thoughts turn to light airy meals gently grilled over charcoal with mounds of good for you salad. Even sausages take on a diferent persona to the winter grilled variety with onions and mash beloved of the British pub lunch.

The Half Lune is a special high-temperature ceramic grill plate that can withstand the heat of the barbecue an may be placed straight on the grill. It can be used on gas and electric barbeques and can bear heat up to +400°C

New from Eva Solo a practical bowl with salad set is now available in what is undisputedly the most fashionable colour at the moment – white. With its stainless steel carrying handle, serving from the bowl couldn’t be easier, either inside or out.
Thanks to the practical stainless steel handle, it is now easy to take salads out into the gar-den or onto the balcony.

If you are not near a garden, picnics and beaches take over in the mind because all things taste better outside. Grab the BBQ wine food and go.

More adventuous cooking of exotic foods starts to take over the mind, what exactly could I BBQ? Followed closely by how can I cook that on my BBQ?

The Plancha is a special high-temperature ceramic grill plate that can withstand the heat of the barbecue and may be placed straight on the grill. It can be used on gas and electric barbeques and can bear heat up to +400°C.

 Right, now you have the food and it’s hot, the question is how do we keep the white wine cool?

As many white wines also benefit from being able to breathe; the CoolBreather Carafe allows you to both aerate and cool the wine. A cooling stick in the elegant 1-litre flask cools the wine to 5-6°C. The simple design and clean lines of the flask take their inspiration from the shape of a traditional wine bottle so you can use the CoolBreather to serve the wine – it does not need pouring back into it’s original bottle. It can, of course, also be used to cool water and juice.

Maybe we need more wine, how can we carry it all safely?

ZEbag is we believe the only quality multi-form and multi-function bag for bottles
In bag mode, with the two sturdy end panels fitted and with its ergonomic and sturdy handle, the ZEbag can easily carry up to 6 bottles of wine (or other juices). Perfect for al fresco dining, barbeques and picnics or on a more regular basis for the weekly supermarket shopping; keep one handy in your car. By the way it also lies flat or hangs on the wall to make a nifty wine rack for inside.

Have you noticed how Men love to BBQ? Often they cook under reluctantly all winter long as a dire necessity but hey when the BBQ season arrives Woo! Hoo! It becomes a priority to have all the right tools for the job, to be duly admired and envied by all attending friends and family.

WIth Eva Solo’s brand new practical grill basting brush and beaker, you always have somewhere to rest the basting brush when barbecuing.
Thanks to the neat fitting on the side of the brush, it can be easily placed on the rim of the beaker. Here it rests with the handle conveniently pointing upwards.
It is easy to clean as both the hairs and the brush itself are made of silicone. The beaker is made of durable plastic which contains no hazardous substances (i.e. no bisphenol-A or phthalates).
All parts are dishwasher-safe

The old equipment just does not have that wow factor.

These brand new grill utensils go beautifully with the rest of the Eva Solo grill range and make the perfect present for design conscious barbecue enthusiasts; made of stainless steel with a heat-resistant silicone handle to ensure a good grip while preventing burnt fingers.
The utensils measure 41 cm in length and are dishwasher-safe.

Wow!  Now we are all ready for action.

I don’t know if you have noticed this but everyone I walk past in the last two days is smiling at me? Now I am aware this could be for a number of reasons but I did check for any wardrobe mishaps or other such things and drew a blank so I have to conclude there is a “feelgood” factor in the air at last. You know that urge we all get the minute the sun peeps out toss away socks and boots and lie down on whatever green grass we can find to soak up the sun. We sit in our office here at Homebits looking out on the sunshine wistfully. I know people from warmer climes who find this behaviour slightly odd at best but after they have lived through a winter or two here it all becomes crystal clear. This “new” feeling of warmth and sunshine means we take a look at ourselves and our homes and decide we need a few other new things in our lives. As a starting point, if you do have to be in an office you could do worse than to escape to a patch of green in the sun clutching one of our uber cool new Blomus lunchboxes, and don’t forget to smile at everyone on the way there!

We have a very lovable terrier dog called Latchy, most of the time she looks and behaves as though butter would not melt in her mouth. Her main love in life is her ball which she persues with the most single minded determination I have ever seen from any living being. When on the rare occasions she is not occupied on the ball front her other main love is eating the mail. You name it and she has eaten it credit cards, free sample pens, insurance policies, passports, all sorts of things that you cannot have sent to another address for security sake; a bit of a joke that one.

Just recently we had our house renovated and this included a new front door. We were determined to spoil her fun on the mail catching front so we looked at the large selection of mailboxes we sell in the Entrance section of Homebits. It was fun to choose something for ourselves after years of selling them to others.

We chose a Titon mailbox, Arkitur Square Pull, Arkitur Rectangular Bellpush, Arkitur Square PZ Keyhole cover, dline Numeral, and Stainless Spyhole Viewer all available on Homebits.

What do you think?

Anyway the last laugh is on us as the postman has become so used to bringing our home mail to us at the office just down the road during the renovations that he forgets to use our new shiny box  outside!

 And Latchy, well she still has her ball.

Geo Fruit Bowl Lathe turned from solid oak, each bowl is an individual masterpiece. Circulation of air is promoted by the open structure, keeping fruit fresher for longer..
Crafted by hand and made sustainably from white oak.
DIMENSIONS:
Geo 500
500mm Diameter
45mm High
Geo 360
360mm Diameter
45mm High

Today came news that a major UK supermarket chain is planning trials using the data it gathers from loyalty card sales to assess what is in your basket and to try different ways to train or encourage people to eat more healthy options. Not sure what you think of this but inevitably even the decision of what is healthy and what is not will probably be a ripe subject for debate? Many may view this as just another ‘Orwellian’ big brother brick in the wall of “nanny state”; another point for hot debate.

MENU’s Dropp! has attitude and is an intriguing alternative to conventional thinking – designed to serve fruit or bread in an innovative new way or simply function as a decorative container for keys, coins and stuff.
The unconventional shape of the bowl originates from the image of a splash of paint frozen in time. Dropp! has a smooth shiny inside and a mat cool outside and is available in neo red & snow white.
The Dropp! bowl also comes in a free stylish gift bag.
DIMENSIONS:
290mm Diameter

One idea mentioned today was to trial giving vouchers off ’healthy’ food to people assessed with majority ’unhealthy’ item baskets. This raises many points, how many vouchers to convert people to healthy eating, one set of loyal customers gets vouchers and others who eat a more balanced diet do not and on and on! The cynical among us may even say “OK say they give a series of vouchers and somehow they get you hooked on oranges instead of biscuits, you will somewhere in the future be buying oranges at the non-discounted price, possibly giving them more profit margin? Supermarket veg can be quite expensive for people on a budget and marked down goods will often have already lost a large amount of goodness on the shelf reducing their healthy value.

Abstract, asymmetrical, angled – Oblique fruit bowl’s a combination of inter dissecting frames constructed to provide a dramatic platform for presenting fruit. Oblique’s linear complexity is integral to its visual intrigue.
Each joint is different, every angle irregular, the wood sides non-uniform. This extreme quadrilateral poses a significant challenge to the crafts person who makes it. All measurements must be precise if the frames are to align correctly. Every section is dowelled for rigidity and each piece finished by hand.
Made from oak with an oiled finish for longevity or available in sky white or coal black epoxy finishes.
DIMENSIONS:
240mm Diameter
330mm Long
430mm Wide
120mm Deep

You may say why don’t they reduce the price of fruit/veg so it is the cheap option and balance it by increasing the price of unhealthy options? Who knows what is right.  OK fruit and veg are good for you but it can be expensive, we know that, so maybe try it in the supermarkets then if “hooked” shop around in street markets especially last thing when they discount fresher goods rather than store them till next time.

The fruiture from Nuance Denmark is a light and elegant oval dish with or without fruit.
The stylish design allows air to reach the fruit from below and it is easy to position the fruit systematically or even in a fun arrangement on the dish blending it into the home decor.
DIMENSIONS
400mm Long
280mm Wide

Whatever the outcome of this debate if you have fruit in the house check out Homebits for some of our ‘uber’ cool fruit bowls to display your healthy lifestyle to all your visitors. We put some on here to show you; maybe you could consider them as a gift for someone special?

Consider it as living art within the art of living longer.

This week we  found out from an RSBP report that the numbers of many common birds are still declining to dangerous levels and that private gardens are vital in the battle to conserve what we consider as ‘common’ birds from our childhood days.

Ceramic frost resistant seed feeder with perch posts easy to fill and clean. Available in three colours.

Think about it, if the temperatures stay low like they did this Spring the birds have no new food and the only thing standing between them and death is the food we leave out in our gardens.

Frost resistant ceramic peanut feeder easy to fill and clean available in three colours

So how many of us did this? There are probably many, many gardens out there that could support a few feeding and nesting points.

Recommended by Alan Titchmarsh and Darmuid Gavin. Made in frost resistant white ceramic or terracotta and recommended by Alan Titchmarsh and Darmuid Gavin.

How about supporting the UK economy while you  feed the birds, take a look at our range of Green&Blue bird feeders and bird houses because safe places to raise new chicks are also important.

Available in five colours and frost resistant easy to clean and fill can also be used for nesting material in spring.

Green and Blue are small product design company located on the north Cornish coast. The studio and workshop sees design, prototyping and fabrication take place under one roof. The designs have won numerous awards and all the products and components are designed and made solely in the UK.

Available in frost resistant white or terracotta to mount on your wall.

I think you will agree they are beautiful products, if you already have a bird feeder or bird house give these gift boxed items to people who haven’t and spread the word.

This makes a great present that supports our economy and a great cause.

  Never mind “Band Aid” now we need “Bird Aid”! Please “tweet” your friends.

Certain numbers are traditionally believed by some Chinese to be auspicious.The word for eight in Chinese sounds similar to the word which means “prosper” or “wealth”.The shape of the Chinese character for 8 (八) indicates in Chinese culture that a person will have a great, wide future as the character starts off narrow and gets wider toward the bottom. The number eight is therefore considered very lucky.

The new Eight Bowl, lucky for some.

Here at Homebits we have a new take on the number eight which you may also consider as a lucky addition to your home; we certainly think it is an attractive one.

Small ‘Pinch Me’ pots hold just enough of your favourite condiment; one per guest?

Two for One Bowls are a brand new range of hand made wooden bowls; they are made sustainably from white oak. The shape of these different bowls echos the shape of the  number eight; this was their design inspiration. Their obvious uses in kitchen and entertaining could easily be extended to storage in living room, bedroom, bathroom or hall.

A clever combination of small and large; now comes with a glass insert bowl for the olives.

The list is endless; you could say just think outside the “bowl”!

The squeegee goes back to the Middle Ages, it was used by  fishermen to scrape fish guts off boat decks; these wooden swabs were called “squilgees.” In the more modern days of the 20th century  window washers adopted a rubber-bladed version of this tool. American cities like Chicago and New York had an explosion in high rise building leading to ever increasing numbers of windows to clean and so the modern ”squeegee” was born to speed up this process.

Smart sleek minimal squeegee from Blomus

Nowdays we still clean our windows using a sqeegee but many of us also have a squeegee in the shower to clean off the water excess on tiles and glass. For many years these have not been keeping up with the high design development in bathroom fittings and they were something you would hide away in a drawer or cupboard rather than hang on the wall where it would obviously be more convenient to use after showering.

White squeegee with clear handle, perfect with modern decor.

At Homebits we have quite a varied choice of designer sqeegees which sell really well so this display in the shower idea is definately catching on. They are all able to hang up on the wall or shower door to stay tidy and with some brands you can even buy a replacement blade. We want to spread the word to you all so come and have a look at our sqeegees.

Brand new from Frost Design in Denmark, hang it on the shower door.

You will see that things have come a long way since the Middle Ages!

Stylish Piet Boon Hardware

 At Pulse Exhibition in Earls Court on this week we saw something quirky but quite nice so we thought we would share it with you.

Piet Boon in your bathroom

On Homebits we sell uber cool bathroom fittings and door hardware in stainless steel by a Dutch designer called Piet Boon who is world famous for the incredible sophistication in his villa designs. It is currently on trend and a very popular choice for modern builds or refurbishments.

Super white corian Piet Boon bathroom fittings are very stylish

 We were amazed to see Piet Boon wallpaper that actually looked like concrete at the exhibition. It looked very realistic and it would make a fabulous setting for their hardware that would not involve major refurbishments.It’s really a modern take on Trompe-l’oeil which is French for ‘deceive the eye’. Statley homes in the UK and Europe often have detailed examples of this but it goes back much, much, further than this  to ancient times when stone walls were painted to look like real marble.

Just goes to show that the old ideas are often the best and they are definately worth a second look.

Summer days in the garden, plant amongst your flowers for a modern twist.

Remember that time when you were a child on a day trip to the seaside there was always a shop selling buckets and spades that often hung in their doorways to attract younger customers. Once you enticed your parents inside this Alladin’s cave you would emerge some long time later proudly carrying the spoils. A  coloured plastic bucket and spade clutched in one hand, such agony to decide which colour, and you just had to have a windmill that spun wildly around the very minute you stepped outside into the strong coastal breeze of seaside Britain.

Blomus Viento 2 Pinwheel in stainless steel.

Blomus Viento 3 Pinwheel small and large.

Returning home in the evening with this booty safey stowed in the car boot the bucket often transplanted itself into the house to become a useful depository for all sorts of useful stuff. The windmills lived on as everlasting blooms planted in the garden like automated scarecrows oblivious to the weather blooming through Summer and Winter alike.

The Sandcastle bowl designed by Green and Blue, celebrates English holidays by the sea.

Slipcast in ceramic “Sandcastle” is handmade in England and available in three colours, white, blue and yellow.

Ahhh childhood memories!!