Colourful Christmas Inspiration

Owl Candle Holder by House Doctor

I've become obsessed with my camera of late. In the Spring I treated myself to a Canon 70D and it has become my constant companion, my friend and my plaything. I may even be a little in love with it. Remember when you were young how certain presents at Christmas invaded your imagination with their newness and you couldn't stop playing with them? I was like that with every set of Lego Technics I was ever bought and I'm like that now with my Camera. And like Lego, it keeps it's newness because there is always another bit you can bolt on - lenses, lights, flashes and tripods - and always new things you can make with it.

Last week I had the opportunity to help style a Christmas photo shoot for a magazine with a friend of mine - Kirstie Young - an inspirational photographer. It was a great opportunity to combine the visual styling side of my day job with some practical experience and learning from a great photographer. The day left me inspired to put together my own Christmas shots for Fig1.

Below is a sneak preview of some of the Christmas table ideas I've been working on. We have a collection of more traditional decorations in the shop too, but this was a chance to experiment with colour. Working so closely with the Danish company Rice for the last few years has been a shock treatment in the possibility of quirky and unusual colour combinations - I love throwing different colours into the mix and seeing what combinations take flight in my imagination. Some combinations come alive when you put together, seeming to tug at you invitingly. So why not? While I have the chance to play with colour and experiment with my camera, why not build, make and create something different?

_________________

by Mark Fletcher

In the pictures: I've taken some of the geometric and metallic influence from our other Danish companies House Doctor and Bloomingville and added in some crazy, quirky Rice-style colour combinations - mostly thanks to their beautiful ceramics - to get a non-traditional Christmas look. For me, a neutral background is essential to any bold use of colour to keep a sense of calm and to make the colours you want sing out. 

The presents in these pictures are wrapped in House Doctor double sided wrap, again with unusual quirky geometric patterns, the double sided nature of the wrap means you can turn back an edge to reveal a stripe of the pattern on the reverse of the paper. 

Character, fun and playfulness: characters like the Owl candle holder, bird and gnome candles add a sense of fun to an otherwise sophisticated setting. I like having something in the room which makes people smile when they see it. The photo below is my favourite from last years Christmas photo shoots and it still brings a smile to my face.

Keep an eye on our Facebook fan page for more Christmas ideas as we get closer to the big day and check out our Christmas section of the site and the Rice ceramics section for most of the products used in these photos.

Competition Coming Soon....

We have a competition to win 2 Rice kids storage baskets arranged with the Green Parent Magazine - out on 7th November - grab the magazine off the shelves or keep an eye on our Facebook fan page or our blog for more details around that date.

Rice DK Autumn Preview Near Malmo, Sweden

Design with a social conscience seems to go hand in hand with Denmark, so when our favourite Danish design brand Rice asked us to visit to preview their Autumn Winter 2014 collection we jumped at the chance. As a small independent business we were really proud to find out that we are now one of the biggest independent stockists of Rice in the UK, a brand which we love promoting as it was always set up to be ethical. Rice are one of the smallest companies ever to be certified by "Social Accountability 8000", which is an international standard stricter than Fair Trade.

One of the things we particularly love about Rice is their bold use of colour. Charlotte Hedeman Gueniau, who started the company, is a colour fanatic and the company found a beautiful farmhouse just over the border in Sweden to display their new season's stock in. The farmhouse was spacious with white washed walls and rustic wooden tables - a neutral background which really made the colours zing. The team of stylists at Rice work so hard to make these events look beautiful and inspiring - great for us to pinch ideas for display in our shop and for our on-line photos.

Colourful Ceramics by Rice DK

An exciting decisions for us is that we're planning on taking on many more of the beautiful ceramics Rice produce. No other brand we know can combine both sophistication and fun so successfully - it's one of the great things about Rice. The soft organic shapes of their ceramics and beautiful colour combinations sit wonderfully with their quirky egg cups, mixed in with pieces of patterned melamine and crazy jugs of flowers. If eating and entertaining is theatre then the stage Rice presents is lush, opulent and populated with exotic creatures.

We love Rice Toy Baskets

One of the products we really love by Rice is their toy baskets - they're tactile and natural, made in a small village in Madagascar where the toy baskets now provide steady work and income for most of the families. Typically bright and bold, the new designs now fold flat for easy storage when not in use. As Fig1 is based in Bristol, home to the largest international balloon fiesta in the world, we're particularly keen on the new Hot Air Balloon design!

The Danes love entertaining, whether it is a few people or a party and the new collection is certainly ready for any knees-up. Of course, each season Rice introduce new patterns of melamine and this year is no exception, with both floral and geometric designs coming in for the party season. But we're also loving the disposable Martini glasses and the fabulous, bold and bright paper decorations. To be honest, we think it is all as suitable for a summer party as a winter one, but then, when isn't it a good time to have your friends around, eat, chat and entertain?

Easter Afternoon Tea

Ceramic Cake Plate by Rice

My sister had a habit of keeping her Easter eggs for months until the chocolate had lost it's sheen and started to go white by being left on the window ledge. She'd eat a small and controlled amount each day. Mine went by the time we got to the end of Easter day and I felt queasy from the sugar overload, but at least it didn't go off. Time may pass but I've never learnt much in the way of self control, so although I love baking, I like to have people to ply with the finished product else I'll only eat it all myself. With the longer days and bank holiday weekends, Easter seems the perfect time to have people over for tea, occasionally leading to G and T. Here are a couple of Easter afternoon tea recipes - one sweet, one savoury - both perfect for sharing.

Easter biscuits are traditional particularly in the West Country where we are based. An alternative serving suggestion might be with a picnic involving lashings of cider and a door stop of cheddar cheese.

Cheese scones

100g butter

400g self raising flour

75g cheese (mature cheddar or half mature cheddar half parmesan for some extra kick)

250ml milk

3/4 level teaspoon cayenne pepper

Crumb together the butter, flour and cayenne with your finger tips until well combined. Mix in the cheese.

Add the milk and bring together into a soft dough with your fingertips. I usually try and use one hand whilst pouring in the milk with the other as you may need a little more or less depending.

Lightly flour the surface and roll out to 2-3 cm thick. Cut out the scones with a 2.5 inch / 6cm cutter. If you want a glossy finish on the scones you can brush milk over the top with a pastry brush.  

Place on a lightly greased tray and bake for 12-15 minutes at 220 degrees centigrade. Makes around 15 scones.

Easter Biscuits

100g butter

75g caster sugar plus extra for decorating

1 egg
200g plain white flour
1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

50g currants
15g chopped mixed peel

15-30ml of brandy or milk

Cream together the butter and caster sugar with an electric whisk or a wooden spoon if you want arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Keep going until the colour starts to lighten and they are a little fluffy. Separate the egg and whisk in the yolk. Whisk up the white a bit and set aside with a pastry brush at the ready.

Sift and fold in the flour and spices, then stir in the fruit.

Mix in the brandy or milk (I'd recommend the brandy). I usually use the finger tips of one hand whilst pouring with the other so I can feel when the mix becomes wet enough to be a workable dough.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to about 5mm thick and cut out the biscuits with a fluted cutter - I used quite a small one although traditionally Easter biscuits are fairly large.

Bake on a lightly greased tray at 200 degrees for 10 minutes then take them out of the oven and brush over the egg white and lightly sprinkle with caster sugar. I found it helps to do a few biscuits at a time so the egg doesn't set from the warmth before you get the sugar on there. You also want to be careful not to brush the egg on too thickly.

Finally, return to the oven for 5 more minutes then remove and cool on a wire rack. 

Tray, Jug and Ceramic Two-tone Cup by Rice

Andrea Letterie from Rice DK - Competition Time!

It's competition time, folks!

NB - The competition is now closed!

Our favourite Danish brand Rice has launched this fab new range of melamine with prints by Dutch illustrator Andrea Letterie and we're so excited about it that we've decided to give a set away to one lucky fan. We're thinking ahead to picnic season here and we want your ideas for what you might pack up for the park to serve on your beautiful new tableware. So here's a chance to win over £100 worth of the beautiful melamine.

Andrea takes the inspiration for her artwork from everyday things - whether it's her collection of tea cups, her dog, or a bunch of colourful flowers from the garden. It's this love of bold, bright colour and simple pleasures which makes the collaboration with Rice DK such a good fit. As well as their fun and exciting design, we've always loved Rice for their ethical outlook, being one of the smallest companies ever to achieve Social Accountability 8000 accreditation, and it seems like a love of the simple things in life goes hand in hand with care and commitment to others.

Competition deadline: Midnight on 6th April 2014

How to win!

In case you hadn't noticed, we're very keen on food at fig1.co.uk. With the signs of spring firmly shooting up everywhere, we're thinking about picnics, barbecues and alfresco lunches - in fact, we rarely think about anything

else. So to help feed our obsession, give us some ideas of your favourite summer foods, either in a comment on this blog or on our Facebook page. Make it as simple or complicated as you like - go to town with a full recipe or a link to your blog, or just a quick word or two! We're looking forward to your ideas, but the winner will simply be picked at random with no judgement call so just a few words is fine if you are short of time. If you enter on Facebook we'd also like you to share the post about this competition - it helps share the fun!

This competition is only open to UK residents and shipping is to UK addresses only - we're a small UK focused company and our reach doesn't yet stretch beyond! Sorry to anyone outside of the UK!

We then have a simple form for you to fill in on Survey Monkey - this is just so we have details to inform people of the results - we'll use it to send one email to let you know if you have won or not, and we need the address so we can send the prize to the winner, but we will not store these details after the competition - you'll have to make sure you are on our mailing list separately if you want to receive future information from us by subscribing using the link on the bottom left of our home page at www.fig1.co.uk.

In Summary, to enter:

• Comment on this blog OR comment and share on the competition post on our Facebook page with a summer food idea
• Complete the form on Survey Monkey
• Deadline is Midnight on Sunday 6th April 2014
• Winners will be informed on Monday 7th April 2014
• UK entrants only

What you can win!

You can win a set of four dinner plates, cups and side plates with Andrea Letterie prints, an Andrea Letterie candle holder and one of these pretty glass bottle vases by Rice DK - worth over £100.

Good luck!

Hot dressed salads

The quality of veg at this time of year always gets us inspired in the fig1.co.uk kitchen. I always keep a quantity of salad dressing made up in the fridge ready for going over whatever ingredients I can find. And peas and beans are some of my favourite ingredients - I've been dressing them hot with potatoes and some chopped tomato. You don't have to eat it hot even but if it is dressed while the beans or peas are still hot they really soak up the flavour.

The mint on the balcony seems to be in full flow today so I have chopped some mint and parsley up, shelled some peas (a fair few of which I ate whilst shelling them) and boiled a bag of Charlotte potatoes. Whilst they are on the go I've finely diced a couple of tomatoes and a shallot, added the herbs and some balsamic and olive oil dressing I already had made up. When the spuds are nearly cooked I'll add the peas in, then once they are finished I'll drain them add them hot into the bowl. I have to nip out later, but this will be ready to eat with some pan fried fish when I get back.

Sometimes I like to add some chopped olives, capers, piquant peppers or whatever else I have in jars in the fridge for extra flavour - a particularly good way of making this kind of thing nice and tasty in the winter when the tomatoes aren't so good and the peas are frozen. 

Hints and tips

• Give the potatoes a good shake in the colander when draining them - I hate it when you find the potatoes are still full of water as you tip them into the dressing! 
• Don't be tempted to rinse the spuds when you drain them - they will cool right down and won't absorb the flavour
• To make a really good dressing, I always properly crush some garlic and add a good spoon of Dijon mustard. Then either some balsamic or wine vinegar. Depending on what you choose you may also need some sugar, but taste it as you go. Then as you whisk, little by little, add about 4 times as much olive oil as vinegar. If you do this slowly and whisk enough you get a thick, goopy emulsion rather than a layer of oil and a layer of vinegar. It might need some practice but I prefer dressing like that and I usually use an electric whisk and wear an apron if I'm doing it - hence I then make lots and keep it in a jar in the fridge so I don't have to do it all the time!

Pictures

Today we were using the two tone Portuguese tableware by Rice to cook with - it's the joy of having your own shop - you can own a lot of different crockery. This new range from Rice is really colourful and quirky, it gives a little extra pleasure to eating. Plus Rice are bringing out some new designs soon!