Spring into action with John Lewis’s delightful ideas for Easter. Have fun decorating your home with charming decorations and be tempted with delicious chocolate gifts.

For example:

Portmeirion - Portmeirion has created the colourful Secret Garden range of porcelain tableware exclusively for John Lewis.
Secret Garden Cake Stand, Dia.21cm. Beautifully decorated with birds, plants and flowers. A choice of 11 useful pieces. £29.50.

Rabbit Easter Basket Decoration with Foiled Chocolate Eggs - This charming Easter hanging basket contains yummy milk chocolate foiled egg treats. £6.

Booja-Booja Kashmir Luxury Champagne Truffle Egg - A truly luxurious Easter present; each stunning, velvet-lined egg contains 12 Champagne truffles, all completely organic, dairy-free, gluten free and utterly delicious.

Each Booja-Booja egg is handmade and hand-painted by artists in Kashmir, using traditional methods and local materials. Designs may vary. The organic chocolate truffles are handmade in Norfolk, England. £20.

The Easter Basket - A fantastic Easter selection of mouth-watering treats, presented in style with a bunny keep sake.
Contents:
· Jellycat Slackajack Bunny.
· Bunny Face Cookie.
· Sweet Boutique Clotted Cream Fudge, 150g.
· Net of Easter Coins 50g.
· Shortbread House Stem Ginger Mini Biscuits, 200g.
· Foiled Easter Egg, 120g.
· Foiled Easter Egg, 100g. £60.

Egg Cup Milk Chocolate Set, 207g. - This sweet China egg-cup with chicks feet, is filled with foiled milk chocolate eggs and comes complete with a spoon. Egg-cellent! £8.

And many more Easter goodies!

Visit the John Lewis website to view the whole colourful collection.

Looking for alternative gifts this Easter? Whether it’s sweet treats for the little ones or tempting delights for grown ups, John Lewis has something to satisfy every taste and budget this year.

Wanting a twist on the traditional Easter egg? A slab bar is ideal; hand crafted and decorated using only traditional methods select from Belgian white or milk chocolate, £5.

If chocolate isn’t your preference the dipped gingerbread slab is just right, covered in dreamy white chocolate and decorated with pink chocolate buttons, £2.75.

Spruce up your home décor this Easter with edible creations. Watch out for wandering hands, as the eye-catching Beehive cookie jar contains a selection of tasty bee shaped biscuits, £12.

Say it with chocolate, the farmyard box contains milk and white chocolate farmyard animals and a Happy Easter message, £12.

Choose from lots of other alternatives online now:

Web: http://www.johnlewis.com

Rococo Chocolates and The Gluttonous Gardener (Chantal and Ned, have been plotting and come up with some wonderful ideas for sumptuous gifts.

Rococo Chocolates is loved by people who appreciate good quality, real chocolate and who want to enjoy life’s little luxuries, while The Gluttonous Gardener has become well known for their imaginative range of gifts that combine high quality edibles and growables, all beautifully hand packed in wooden crates and delivered next day nationwide.

A Selection:

Rococo Rose Crate
Never promise them a rose garden, but perhaps more modestly opt for this crate of fragrant delights - a beautiful scented old fashioned pink shrub rose, ready to plant with a box of Rococo’s handmade organic milk chocolate Rose wafers.
RRP £48 + delivery.

Rococo Lavender Crate
A beautiful crate containing a healthy potted lavender plant, together with a box of Rococo’s delicious handmade organic dark chocolate Lavender wafers.

RRP £48 + delivery.

Rococo Vineyard
Anyone can own a vineyard with this crate. A red and white grapevine, selected to thrive in the English climate with full planting and care instructions, packed in a crate with a bag of delicious Rococo chocolate “Grapes” to munch whilst you plant. RRP £50 + delivery.

Rococo Italian Coffee break
Ignore the depressing exchange rate and transport yourself to Italy with this gorgeous crate, containing a healthy potted coffee plant, a bag of best Italian coffee and a wedge of mouth-watering soft coffee nougat.
RRP £50 + delivery.

The above are only available from - http://www.glut.co.uk/prodlist.asp?a=srch
Tel: (020) 7627 0800

Web: http://www.rococochocolates.com

Make Mum feel extra special this Mother’s Day; rather than reaching for the usual flowers or chocolates, take a look at Sendathought’s attractive new website, which has elegant, as well as tongue-in-cheek gift ideas that are beautifully wrapped and sent on your behalf.

They won’t break the bank but they’ll mean the world to Mum.

Favourite gifts include:

•‘You’re blooming marvellous’ Thank You Garden - say Thanks to Mum for being the best, with an abundant mass of tightly quilled Pomponette daisies.she just cuts the bag open, adds the seeds, water and let it grow. Priced at £7.00.

•‘Put your feet up and indulge’ Chocolate Tea and Cake Trio - this chocolate tea cup and cakes trio is handmade in Somerset using the finest Belgian chocolate. Priced at £6.50.

•‘You deserve flowers and chocolates’ A box of chocolate flowers – includes 9 handmade white chocolate flowers with sparkly glitter. Priced at £8.00.

•Photo Thoughts – send a framed photo. Simply go onto sendathought’s website and choose a frame, attach a photo at check out and it will be printed, framed and beautifully wrapped. Prices start at just £13.50.

•Box of Happiness – a signature sendathought green box filled to the brim with happy thoughts! Contents include a blend of Happiness Tea, a True Grace candle, scented with uplifting grapefruit and a trio of chocolate flowers handmade in Somerset with the finest Belgian chocolate. Priced at £30.00.

•Box of Relaxation (pictured here), a sendathought box filled with relaxing thoughts. Contents include a blend of Sleepy Tea, a True Grace candle, scented with relaxing English lavender and a relaxing pocket garden, which when watered will grow into a therapeutic lavender plant. Priced at £30.00. (or create your own, price dependent on selected contents.)

Web: http://www.sendathought.co.uk
Tel: (020) 8623 9386

Finding themselves in a festive mood, Rococo Chocolates’ resident chocolatiers created a brand new popping Champagne Truffle.

These unique truffles, made from Valrhona Jivara milk chocolate and fine champagne brandy, are coated with captive bubbles that will literally burst in your mouth….
The oval gift box featured here, retails at £13.95, or they can be bought loose for £8.95 per 100g.

The new truffles complement delightfully, the traditional flavours of Christmas already in the three Christmas Artisan Bars; these are available in a special selection:
Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, Christmas Pudding, and Cranberry & Nutmeg, which is the perfect accompaniment, to those long winter evenings and fire side gatherings.
The bars are £4.25 each or £13.50 for the gift box.

As part of a new bespoke range being launched at Rococo, the popping Champagne Truffles will also be available as a special order made with your favourite brand of Champagne (price on application).

Last guaranteed date for standard delivery of a Christmas mail-order is 18th December.

Web: http://www.rococochocolates.com
Tel: (020) 8761 8456

It’s Halloween at the end of the month and Rococo Chocolates has got some devilishly tasty tricks up its sleeve, with chocolate pumpkins, witches’ cats and ghoulish wafers; that‘s not all, there are spiders, ghosts and pumpkins all wrapped in foil – ideal for trick and treat.

Here are just a few tasty temptations:

Pumpkin painted (dark & white chocolate) boxed - £13.50, without the box - £9.50.
Spooky wafers (4 types 2 dark 2 milk) - £2.50 each.
Black cat in Rococo box with clear lid - £12.50.
Spiders, ghosts and pumpkin foils, all - 70p.
Confite pumpkins packed in bags of 100g, retail at - £4.50.

All you need to make your Halloween the sweetest and the scariest!

Available in all three shops and online at:

Web: http://www.rococochocolates.com

Tel: (020) 7352 5857

Special Edition biscuit tins are the height of good taste this spring - McVitie’s Victoria Assortments, the delectable chocolate biscuit selection, has been teamed with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen the flamboyant interior designer, to create a range of special edition biscuit tins.

Available from mid-February until April, the collectable tins come in three colours - blue, green and pink - each featuring an intricate pattern designed by the flamboyant designer.

Laurence – who is famed for fusing contemporary design with dramatic old school glamour – explains; “The tins’ design, known as Jaisamand, mingles traditional organic forms with a bold and modern sense of scale; I thought this perfect to evoke a sense of occasion for the Victoria assortment tins and the ritual of tea time treats.”

Each fully recyclable tin contains five varieties of irresistible foil wrapped chocolate biscuits: Milk Chocolate Oat Crunch, Milk Chocolate Shortcake, Milk Chocolate Cream Crumble, Dark Chocolate Orange Crumble and Dark Chocolate Shortcake.

Once the biscuits have been enjoyed, the label can be easily removed from the tin, making it an ideal decorative storage solution, for use in the kitchen or throughout the home – whether your look is modern or traditional.

The biscuit tins would make great gifts for Easter, or just to say thank-you.

The McVitie’s Victoria Assortments Special Edition tins will be available in Tesco until April, priced at £4.99.

Easter at Rococo Chocolates this year comes in various tempting guises:

You can enjoy your praline filled Real Hen’s Egg, in its Jersey Pottery Rococo eggcup on Easter Morning and still have the eggcup for use the rest of the year.

Or admire your beautiful, limited edition, hand-decorated Easter egg, before temptation gets the better of you; there are three gorgeous designs, butterflies, Easter Chick and Easter Hare, all skilfully painted at the Rococo studios.

You can decorate the table with the hand-painted Easter Gentlemen Bunnies dressed in their finest attire (pictured here), their colourful coats will liven up any table.

For Easter parties and egg hunts Rococo’s foiled “Hunting Bunny” mini eggs are ideal, since the foil paper will protect the chocolate as they glitter in the garden waiting to be found.

Retail prices are as follows:

• Hand Painted Eggs - Chick: 110g including 3 truffles and 2 Neapolitan squares £13.50 (£7.50 the shell only).
• Leaping Hare - 180g including 6 truffles £21.95 (£15 shell only).
  Butterflies - 260g including 8 truffles £27.50 (£21 just the shell).
• Foiled Eggs - (‘Hunting Bunny’) from £5.25 for 225g.
  Real Hen’s Eggs in Jersey Pottery Rococo Egg cup £11.50.
  Hand-decorated Easter Gentlemen Bunnies £24.95 small or £29.95 large

Please note, Easter is very early this year, March 23rd.

Web: http://www.rococochocolates.com

Tel: (020) 7352 5857

Cupid is here again! And wonderfully depicted on the splendid handmade chocolate hearts, decorated by the artists at the Rococo Chocolates factory - who could resist such a gesture?

Or if you want to leave your loved one in no doubt, how about one of Rococo’s ‘I Love You Hearts’.

Of course if you are truly lost for words the ‘all hearts selection’ will spell out the message.

However if words are essential, you can arrange to have your own personal message written on the hearts; just order in plenty of time.

Alternatively, if you fear that chocolates by themselves will not do the trick, there is Rococo’s real winner – the glamorous set of chocolate coloured silk lingerie, secreted in a heart shaped box of pink champagne truffles.

Prices are as follows:

• Eight hand-painted baby hearts £10.50.
  Size 1 solid hand-painted heart £6.50.
  Size 2 hand-painted heart with 3 truffles £12.75.
  Size 3 hand-painted heart with 5 truffles £18.50.
  Size 4 hand-painted” Cherubs” heart with 5 truffles 330g £ 25.00.
  Rococo silk lingerie with pink champagne truffles in heart box £125.

Web: http://www.rococochocolates.com

Tel: (020) 7352 5857

Rococo Chocolates are continuing with their tradition of having artists lovingly paint the skilfully made chocolate moulds by hand.

This year they have a Santa in his Bugatti, in splendid colours, and an equally colourful Santa on his Lambretta.

Together with the Christmas tree decorated with candles and presents, they make wonderful gifts and table decorations.

All models retail at £25.00 - also available in Sepia at £16.50.

Christmas is not festive without the flavours of Christmas Pudding and Nutmeg; therefore the special Christmas Selection Box of three bars, Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, Christmas Pudding and Cranberry and Nutmeg is a real treat when cosying up in front of the fire.

The bars are £3.95 each or £13.50 for the gift box.

It is also an Italian Christmas at Rococo Chocolates this year, with The Ravioli Box which contains a mix of flavours - Prune and Armagnac, Port and Nutmeg and Christmas Orange.

Retail Price: £ 20.50 per box or buy loose at £ 7.50 per 100g with your choice of the 7 flavours.

Buon Natale! as they say in Italy.

Web: http://www.rococochocolates.com

Tel: (020) 7352 5857