Celebrating Valentines with the Sweet Hamper Company

This 'Huge Valentines Sweet & Chocolate Box' was provided by the Sweet Hamper Company.

Over the weekend this hamper filled with sweets and chocolates arrived, and I was surprised to find out just how many sweets could fit into a box which is similar in size to a realm of paper. Spoiler - it’s a lot!

As I undid the layers, I was struck by the level of detail and it was a real treat to discover what was inside. The red and white striped paper bags added an element of retro sweet shops, as well as tying into the Valentines theme well. The additions of a red foil covered chocolate rose and a large heart shaped lolly were clear Valentines additions.

It’s been a long while though since I’ve had many of these sweets, and there were some that were new to me too. But juicy red lips, the pink hearts and jelly love hearts (think jelly beans) remained favourites.

As the theme for this hamper is Valentines I thought I’d enter the spirit and share some Valentine inspired photos, along with a vintage cake stand and side plate. Now wouldn’t it be a real treat to have something like this as part of a Valentines spread?

There was more than the Valentines themed treats, in fact so much more in the hamper which costs £36.50. In total there’s 38 sweets and chocolates included in the hamper. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a candy necklace I can tell you! But there are more favourites such as the Refreshers and the Curly Wurly. I might have already mentioned that those might not be for sharing.

This is clearly a lot of sugar, and it’s meant as a treat rather than an everyday purchase. It’s good to treat ourselves now and again, and this hamper will keep us stocked for a fair while yet. I’m sure we’ll enjoy trying those that are new to us, and reminiscing over those we know already.

* With thanks to the Sweet Hamper Company for sending me this sweet hamper, as usual all views and opinions are my own. You can find out more about this hamper on their website.

Post Comment Love 3 - 5 February

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

Happy February - we made it! Part of me thinks it’s crazy that we’re already into the second month of the year, though I know for many people January is one of those long, long months. We’ve had a fair bit going on so while it’s not been the best month, it hasn’t felt as long as perhaps it has done previously.

The gas works that turned out to be more complicated and therefore take longer than expected have now completed and the various crews have turned their attention further down the street, so life in our part of the street is returning to normal which can only be a good thing.

I spent an afternoon this week putting some old board games onto eBay - and there were some gems there. Anyone remember Headache with its pop-o-matic, or ‘Don’t let the leaves drop’ - a game which one the Magpie/Thames TV games competition back in 1972? These are just two of the ones I’ve listed this week, which have clearly been around for a while - I’m hoping that they’ll find new homes soon. I’ve also got an ‘Operation’ game - the one that buzzed, not sure if that still works, but I did discover that I’m missing two of the pieces - the pencil for writer’s cramp, and the spare ribs - which is a shame.

In one of the boxes I did find some old doodles of mine, which I suspect were made with the help of a shaped stencil. They’re quite striking though aren’t they? Though they are both in the recycling now!

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Errands in The City

On Monday I needed to run some errands in The City. It turned out my timing was impeccable as the sun was out and the temperatures milder than they’ve been all year. So it was rude not to make the most of, what is now an all too rare trip into town. I’d already made sure to catch a glimpse of my favourite City view, looking through to St Stephen Walbrook from St Swithin’s Lane.

The City is one of those places that really does look glorious in the sun, and I couldn’t help but stop and look back towards Bank junction as I crossed over and headed for the ‘wibbly wobbly’ or more properly named Jubilee bridge. My plan was to head over to the Tate Modern, somewhere I’d not been for quite a few years, and to look at the exhibition in the large turbine hall and perhaps a look around some of the other spaces.

I’m very much of a dip in and out type of person when it comes to museums, not someone who has to see everything on every visit. My approach works well when you visit regularly - and we haven’t - but I’m hoping it’s something that we’ll get back to doing more often, and so it’s great to be able to do this for free.

Cecilia Vicuña’s Brain Forest Quipu

The exhibition in the large Turbine Hall is made up of sculpture, sound, music and video. Quipu isn’t something I’d heard of before, but it’s an ancient South American recording and communication system made from knotted threads. Here the artist has worked alongside artists, activists and members of the community on this project with some of the items used in the sculptures collected from the banks of the Thames by women from local Latin American communities.

At the centre of Brain Forest Quipu are two sculptures that hang 27 metres from the ceiling. They are woven together using a range of organic materials, including found objects, unspun wool, plant fibres, rope and cardboard to evoke the look of bleached-out trees and ghostly forms.

It is these two sculptures that capture people’s attention. You can walk among the hanging threads but are asked not to touch them. Along with the audio playing in the hall, as you wander amongst them or sit and let your eye explore the full height of the sculptures, they really do become mesmerising and even mindful.

I was also intrigued by the ‘web’ holding each of the strands, which in some ways was acting as a giant rotary washing line. It was only as I went up to the upper walkways and floors that I got a closer look.

If you’ve not been to the Tate Modern it’s hard to get a sense of scale of these pieces, or of the Turbine Hall which is huge. It’s 155m long, 23m wide and 35m tall - the roof light has 524 glass panels.

And somehow that means the 27m sculptures don’t look that big from a distance - see how small the people on the viewing platform look in the photo below.

So a great day: errands completed, feeling the warmth of the sun and some cultural inspiration too.