Not just eye-catching design, Egg Pants are also functional too.
So why would you need Egg Pants? Well, they hold your egg in place on the table for a start. And while they look like ceramic objects, they're actually made of a soft PVC, which holds the egg inside even more securely.
And not forgetting the looks, white on the outside, yellow on the inside - just like the egg within. Available online, you can pick one up for £12.
Clever design and a useful object too - that's The Godfather.
Yes, on the face of it, this is a knuckle duster, but look closely and you'll notice the holes are to measure spaghetti - everything from child potions to adult and dinner party bundles, written in Italian and English.
Available online, you can pick it up for £30.
Some pop art for the breakfast table - this Rotor egg stand and cosy.
Designed by Swahn, Björklund & Forthmeijer, you can take your pick from white on black or black on white for the organic cotton cosy, with your egg balanced on the ceramic egg holder.
Eating a boiled egg has never looked so cool. Yours for £15.
Not long to go before Easter, but you've still got time to buy your eggs - including these Demarquette pop art-style Easter eggs.
Very much in the style of the eggs you buy at the supermarket, the boxes are coloured in a pop art style, with six chocolate eggs in coloured wrappers packed inside. And not just any eggs - these are flavoured with French Lavender, Oriental Ginger, Rich Arabica Coffee, Spanish Orange, Java Cinnamon and Wild Peppermint.
Choose your colour and order online for £12.
Sick of the same old chocolate egg? Well, how about adding bit of fun to the mix - with the Mr Potato Head Easter egg.
Available from Waitrose, you can create your own face or faces - just like your typical (non-edible) Potato Head. Except when you get bored of this one, you can just eats the bits - and indeed ol' Potato Head himself.
Check with your local Waitrose store for availability - the 300g egg should retail for £11.50.
Mixing a drink is science of sorts - especially if you use the Cocktail Chemistry Set.
The sort packs in everything you'll need to mix up your favourite cocktail - an aluminium chemistry rack, various bottles, flasks and jugs (all blown glass) and a cocktail shaker and stirrer. Because you can't replace a good shaker with a glass jar.
Available online, you can pick up the set for £24.99.
Find out more at the Drinkstuff website
Running short of cupboard space? Yuu could stick some of your flavourings on the wall with the Soho Spices Magnetic Spice Rack, designed by Laura Martin.
This 12-piece spice rack is made from 18-8 stainless steel, with twist-and-shake tops and magnetic bottoms make the shakers easy to use and put back. It comes with a stainless steel back plate but you can opt to stick the containers on either a fridge or any metal surface.
You can pick it up for £65.
Never mind a fast coffee on the move, how about slowing things down a bit? You can with the Cafino by Tassilo von Grolman.
It's coffee at a snail's pace. Just place your coffee beans into the mesh sieve, insert into the heat resistant borosilicate glass cylinder, pour boiled water to capacity, and let the aroma unfold.
After brewing and removal of the sieve, the bitterns are also removed, and it is all done in an ecologically friendly manner. Oh yes - and it looks good too. The Cafino retails at £90.50.
Sometimes a box of Milk Tray just isn't enough - if you want to make a real splash with chocolates, perhaps the Neuhaus Rain Of Stars is just the thing.
It's been created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the famed chocolatier, with nine internationally-renowned chefs each creating a unique praline for the box - Raymond Blanc, Pierre Wynants, Marc Veyrat, Peter Goossens, Pedro Subijana, Tateru Yoshino, Jean-Claude Bourgueil, Daniel Boulud and Guy Savoy if you want the names.
In fact, the end product looks more like a work of art than something sweet to eat. But at £30 for just 18 chocolates, you can't afford to let a single one go to waste.
Find out more at the Neuhaus website
Remember the Mr Scruff tea and tea caddy? Well, now there's something to drink the tea out of - the Mr Scruff 'make us a brew!' mug.
Similar to the tea caddy, the mug features the Mr Scruff-drawn cartoon and the 'make us a brew!' catchphrase, all printed on a mug that's big enough for that morning cuppa.
You can buy one online, priced at just £5.
Find out more at the Mr Scruff website
Eco-friendly and very eye-catching - the Rewind Glassware range recycles old bottles, turning them into everyday drinking glasses.
The bottles are collected from bars, resaturants and cafes in London's West End, then taken to a small workshop in London's East End, where they are then turned into glasses using an energy efficient process. That means they do not have to be melted down or re-heated as happens traditionally in glass recycling.
A range of designs available (based on bottle availability I presume), with prices starting at £3.50.
Find out more at the Eco Outlet website
As a dog owner, I can't resist these Terrier salt and pepper shakers.
These ceramic dispensers are sold as a set of black and white, each with a contrasting eye patch. The only downside is the way your seasoning is served - I would have gone for the realistic option of the dog's behind, but it's actually through the nose.
The pair are yours for £5.
Find out more at the Ochigo website
Not all decanters are chunky, 70s-style throwbacks - some look as stylish as the Jakob Munk Decanter.
The Decanter's body is hand-blown glass, with silicone and brushed stainless steel finishing things off. It can be used for both wine and water and is slim enough to fit into a fridge door for keeping the contents cool. There's also a tight-fitting stopper (so your water doesn't acquire 'taste' from the fridge) and a large enough capacity for wine aeration.
Available online, you can buy one for £25.
Find out more at the Menu website
Marmite - love it or hate it? If your partner is in the camp of the former, we have the perfect Valentine's Day gift - the I Love You Champagne Marmite.
Available from this week in limited amounts (600,000), each jar is your traditional Marmite with three per cent champagne added, along with an 'I Love You' label on the front.
Each one is £2.99 - which is a lot cheaper than a bunch of flowers. But if you want to overboard, Selfridges has 50 special pots with engraved silver lids - for £145.
Fancy some real tea leaves (or possibly super-trendy white or green loose tea) without the mess? You need the Tea Tube.
Designed by Mathias Lehr, it's a rare clever, but at the same time very simple little item. Just scoop up your tea with the Tube, stick it in a cup, add your boiling water, then leave to infuse through the perforations. You can then add milk (if required) and use the Tea Tube as a stirrer.
The whole thing comes apart for easy cleaning too. Available now, you can pick up a two-pack of these for £15.
Vodka - that's a Russian drink isn't it? Or to a lesser extent, Swedish? Not in this case - Valt is the first single malt Scottish vodka.
Using 100 per cent Scottish malted barley and soft Highland water from the River Spey, Valt consists of all natural ingredients distilled five times over in traditional copper pot stills, with its purity enhanced by chilling and carbon filtering.
And for those of you with one eye on your bar, it comes in this rather stylish square bottle with black and white branding - a much better proposition than your average supermarket buy. It's available now, both online and from specialist retailers, priced around the £30 mark.
The Taz Ah mugs from Attua Aparicio Torinos might look like any other ceramic mugs on the market, but once you take a drink, things are very different.
Held up to your face and the mug gives you or your friend a dog nose, a rabbit's whiskers or a pig's snout. And coming soon, a monkey or tiger's features.
Ok, it's not particularly high-brow, but it's sure to be entertaining. They retail for £10 each.
Find out more at the Design Museum website
The perfect accessory for the couch potato - the Drink Selector mug.
Yes, just lie on the sofa and when you get a thirst on, slide to your drink of choice (Tea, Coffee, Decaf Coffee. Mocha, Cappuccino, Latte, Herbal Tea or Hot Chocolate), then slide the lowers bars to just how you want it - milk, sugar, whipped, honey - just about anything really.
That just leaves you with the task of attracting someone's attention to make it. You can pick up the mug online, priced at £10.95.
Find out more at the Ochigo website
Manchester illustrator, DJ and recording artist Mr Scruff is a man after our own heart - he loves a cup of tea. In fact, not only does he love a cup of tea, he adds team rooms to some of the venues he plays and has now released his very own brew - packed into the Mr Scruff 'make us a brew' tea caddy.
Available online or at selected stores (including Selfridges), the caddy features Mr Scruff's instantly-recognisable images and text, along with '50 proper organic English breakfast tea bags', full bodied, malty and very tasty. We know because we have some on the go right now.
But even if it was like dishwater, it would still be worth buying purely for that tin. You can pick it up for around £5.
If you didn't get enough champagne down our neck over the Christmas and New Year period - and have money to burn - you might want to invest in some Dom Pérignon limited edition gold-plated champagne, introduced by Moët & Chandon in strictly limited amounts.
Apparently, this 1995 vintage offers 'notes of brioche and honey, mingled with fresh almond and apricot' and would probably demand a high price on its own. But add to that a gold-plated casing with Dom Pérignon crest and details of the vintage and you get something that's sure to appeal to the rich and famous - the show-off ones anyway.
Continue reading "Moët & Chandon offers Dom Pérignon limited edition gold-plated champagne" »
Can there be a more fun pastime tan sprinkling salt and pepper on your plate of hot food? Amazingly yes - you can make it musical with these Salt and Pepper Maracas by Naoto Fukasawa.
A simple idea, but one that hasn't been considered before - you get to dance around the dining table like Bez from the Happy Mondays, firing seasoning all over the place as you go. It works for me.
And if it works for you, the shakers are available online for £29.95.
Find out more at the Design Museum Shop website
