Piggy (and owl and cat) banks

February = not much fun
Saving money = not much fun
February + Saving money = the pits

If your financial situation looks as pitiful as mine this month, let's stop and cry for a moment. And once our tears have dried, let's have a think about how to make it a little bit better. Through my teary experience, the answer I'd like to suggest is to introduce some cute animals into the financial equation. Piggy banks, wise owls and crafty cats: all these creatures can help you save your pennies. Step one is saving enough pennies to buy this menagerie of money boxes.

The original and the best: this petal piggy bank took me way back to a long lost (or smashed open) bank of yore. It's Cath Kidston who is bringing home the bacon here, for £8.

Also on a retro tip is this Otto owl money box by Emma Silk. Owls would never splash their cash unwisely, oh no. They'd save up all their money to buy things like pretty dresses with owls on them, or cookie jars in the shape of an owl or tea cosies in the shape of owls ... there are obviously lots of owl related things you could buy. This one costs £16 from Brighton POD.

Not the sophisticated option but this coin stealing cat is a lot more amusing than internet banking. Place your coin onto that plate and a cat paw will sneak out and grab it back into its box. For £15.99 the novelty value means that you are bound to store a load away. But remember, what you save in pennies, you are liable to spend on batteries. Buy it from Amazon.

And don't forget to tell us what you plan on buying with your carefully stashed cash!

Sluttishly Sweet: Mojito and Margarita Chocolate Truffles

For me there are few things in the kitchen that cannot be improved by the addition of one of the following: booze, chocolate or cheese. This little gem contains two out of three so its all good in my book.

I love a good mojito and the combination of zesty lime and fresh mint really lightens this really rich chocolatey truffle, and well, rum and chocolate, whats not to love? Suddenly a whole world of cocktail chocolate delights opened so I had to try a margarita version. If you are a fan of salted caramel then you will love this, the salt actually brings out the flavour of the chocolate and the kick of tequila is all the more glorious!

Mojito and Margarita Chocolate Truffles (makes 15 of each)

You’ll need:

• 250ml double cream
• 300g good dark chocolate (70% ish) for the truffle mix
• 100g of the same chocolate to coat
• 15ml rum (golden or dark is best with chocolate but you can use white)
• 15ml tequila
• zest of 4 limes very finely grated
• 10 mint leaves very finely chopped
• sea salt flakes (really important that it is flaked salt not granular)
• about 6 pieces each of white and milk chocolate to drizzle.

Make it!

1. Break up the 300g of dark chocolate for the truffle mix into small squares.
2. Pour the cream into a glass bowl and set it above a saucepan of simmering water to warm.
3. Once the cream starts to bubble remove from the heat, add the broken chocolate pieces and stir until all the chocolate melts and add a small pinch of sea salt flakes.
4. Divide the mix equally between two bowls; to one bowl add the rum and the tequila to the other. Give both bowls a good stir and then leave for 20 minutes to cool a bit.
5. Saving some lime zest for sprinkling later, divide the rest between the two bowls then add another pinch of sea salt flakes to the tequila chocolate bowl and stir really gently trying not to smash up the salt flakes as you do. Pop both bowls into the fridge to chill, leave the spoon in the tequila mix so you don’t get them mixed up! At this point I generally make myself a mojito to celebrate all my good work so far!
6. When the hour is nearly up break the remaining 100g of dark chocolate into small pieces and melt. Pop on those sexy plastic gloves, remove the tequila mix and using a spoon scoop out enough to make a small ball of truffle to roll in your hands and set it on a plate.  Repeat with the rest of the mix.
7. Pop the truffle ball into the melted dark chocolate and roll in your hands to cover, repeat with the rest of the tequila batch stopping every 3 truffles to sprinkle the truffles with sea salt flakes and lime before the chocolate sets.
8. Roll the rum truffles into balls then roll them in the finely chopped mint before covering in the melted chocolate. Sprinkle the rum truffles with lime zest.
9. For the white and milk chocolate drizzles simple pop the chocolate pieces into bowls and melt in the microwave, use a spoon to drizzle the white chocolate over the rum truffles and milk chocolate on the margarita ones, give the truffles a final sprinkling of lime zest and a few more flakes of salt onto the margarita ones. 

Tips:

• If you want an even boozier truffle you can decrease the cream by 15ml and add an extra 15ml of booze.  
• Don’t like rum or tequila? Use whatever booze you like, swap lime zest for orange/lemon/chili flakes or even wasabi makes a really good truffle. There are so many things you can do with the basic recipe, just remember that the more liquid you add the softer the truffle will be and the harder it will be to roll.

Weekly Wine: Going Organic

I'm one of those people that, until recently, has been kinda of the opinion that if you're in a supermarket and there's an 'organic' option, it just means it's more expensive and will make your fridge look sort of a twat.

It wasn't until I had a tasting with wine guru extroardinaire Adolfo Hurtado from Cono Sur in Chile that I realised how crucial and positive this whole organic malarkey really is. Organic wine is absolutely no exception.

The quality of soils and vines are totally key to the style of the finished wine, (it's all part of the 'terroir' thing as the French call it, but that's a whole other kettle of fish) so it's important to cultivate them without all of that icky stuff. The pesticides and chemicals can be replaced with much more exciting things.

Growers can plant roses at the end of the vineyard rows, because they display the signs of disease before the vines do so they can act as early warning systems, and some pests can be counter-acted in a natural, fascinating way: For instance, little red spider mites causing your plants jip? No worries. Just send in some little black spiders to eat the little red devils. Problem solved. It blows my mind.

This is just the tip of a very shiny, up-and-coming iceberg, but basically organic wine is a cause worth supporting. Chances are, if the growers are brave enough and care enough to go organic, you can be sure their wine is going to be more than interesting.

Have a look around the shelves the next time you're browsing for bottles - all good wine merchants sell organic wines now, and they're not as pricey as you think...

Yalumba Organic Viognier, £8.54 per bottle, Waitrose Wine

Unsurprisingly, Waitrose really do have a good selection of the organic stuff. The one that really knocks my socks off is this exclusive offering from Aussie Super-Gods Yalumba. Delicately aromatic with gorgeous texture and refreshing balance. For less than a tenner, this is pretty special.

Emiliana Organic Vineyards Syrah Reserva, £7.59 per bottle if you buy six, Tesco Wine

Yes, Tesco do some rather good organic vino too. This Chilean Syrah from Emiliana has been brilliantly reviewed by the wine buffs and it's a perfectly peppery steak wine. Beefy body and chunky fruitiness make this a foodie winner for me.

Bonterra Vineyards Chardonnay, £10.99 per bottle, Majestic

For one of the country's leading wine merchants, Majestic have a somewhat disappointing selection of the organic stuff. They do, however, feature this Californian beauty from Bonterra, a producer that believes organically grown wines 'simply taste better'. Ideal if you like your Chardonnay with that buttery roundness from careful ageing in oak, this is packed with complexity.

Bergerac, Tour des Gendres 2010, £7.50 per bottle, The Wine Society

I like the diversity of The Wine Society's organic list, and also how they've managed to find some really intriguing examples from the (ordinarily) rather less innovative Old World. Luc de Conti makes this Bergerac Rouge with a Bordeaux style in mind, so not only is this organic and under £8, it's a good alternative to those pricier Clarets. This is smooth, soft and fruity.

Are you a firm believer in going organic? Hit me up with your fave organic bottles in the comments, or tell us all about it on Twitter or Facebook.

Image from Stefan Lubiana Wines's photostream under the Creative Commons License.

Bag Lust: The coolest lunch bag

Lunch bags are often very ugly things. As a rule, any bag that has a specific function is ugly. Laptop bags are finally getting a bit of a makeover (thank you, Knomo), but most of the time if your bag can do something other than hold your phone and a book for reading on the train, it's going to look like crap. Lunch bags just don't get very much love.

This is unfair. Because I like picnics.

If I'm going to go on super long walks, I need something to put my sandwiches in. Not just sandwiches, beer! This pretty insulated bag is the perfect size for carrying a few beers to accompany lunch. You could even put cheese in it. This bag has a lot of brie potential and I can't say that about any other bag that I've seen recently.

Beer and brie potential for £25 from the Design Museum.

Etsy Pick: Claudia Varosio Film Posters

One of the hardest things about co-habiting with a boy is that their idea of what constitutes a nice thing to decorate your home with isn't necessarily the same as what your idea is. So it is with me and The Hairy Drummer. He'd love nothing more than a bunch of film posters all over the place and whilst I don't mind some of them, particularly the ones from the 50s and 60s, they're not exactly what I'd choose. I would however present these designs by Claudia Varosio to him as a compromise. They manage to be modern and minimalist but pleasingly retro at the same time.

I'm finding it very hard not to buy the Pulp Fiction one.

The Hairy Drummer though would definitely want the Rocky one. And you know what? I could live with that. Of course it would have to go at the top of the stairs...

And we would both want this paper doll Dude design. The Dude abides and this would abide very nicely in our abode.

Claudia's prints are £12 and £2.70 for shipping. She also does greeting cards for £3 which would look equally nice framed and on your wall.

Dream Dress: ASOS Mexican Print

Recently I was thinking about Mexican colours and prints, wondering to myself when such things might be fashionable. Lo and behold the fashion industry read my mind and the high street is currently awash with bright clashing colours and jaunty prints. Excellent news.

I found this gorgeous Mexican print skater dress from ASOS. It ticks all the right boxes for my dress requirements - cinched waist, A-line skirt and bright bold colours. It is slightly pricier than my average dress buy at £75, but I imagine I would get plenty of wear out of it this year.

Diamond (ear)rings

These dangly earring are fab. I often can't decide what jewellery I want to wear - do I want rings, or earrings? Or both? No need to decide! Instead I'll just buy these gorgeous diamond ring earrings.

Of course, they're not really diamonds. That would be very lovely indeed, but also way out of my price range. They're design by Parisian designer Benedicte Mouret and everything she produces is a limited edition. As always with my sparkly magpie ways, I like the mix of elegant and quirky in her work. You can buy necklaces to match as well (although I wouldn't wear them all at once, I don't really do the whole matchy matchy thing).

Like these beauties? They're £68 from Amanda at Nonesuchthings.