Remembering Babette Video & New Lines from Joseph Joseph.

This week I've got some interesting storage developments from my chums at Joseph Joseph to tell you about, but before I go there I wanted to thank you if you've been one of the people who have donated to the two charities we nominated in memory of Babette. We have got to the really quite staggering total of over £5300, which will be split evenly between Batitiude and Marie Curie. Thank you very much. 

The other bit of news is that we've now set up a page about Babette which has a video of much of the funeral on it and draws on the words that people said at the funeral, of how she had touched their lives. In other words you can watch the video, which is long, or read what was said about her, and these are accompanied by photos of her and us as a family over the years. You can go to the home page of our website to get there, or click this link. 

Joseph & Joseph 
With all that's been happening of late I'm finding myself a bit out of touch and I'd completely forgotten about these new lines from the Joseph brothers. The first product I want to tell you about is just so simple and clever that it somewhat takes my breath away, and in fact, it may be a masterly stroke on their part to have dreamt it up and produced.

Cutlery drawer trays with a difference
It's a cutlery drawer organiser that is unusually flexible in its makeup. And name apart, it's called BLOX... strange.... I think it's just very clever. There are two sets available, let me explain. 

Blox 7 piece Set which consists of 3 different sizes of tray, that are able to clip together on all sides allowing you to arrange them more or less as you wish and generally will measure 26cm(10") by  44cm (17"). I say generally because you could configure them differently, for example by splitting the trays into two sections.

Blox 10 Piece Set. This set has 5 different sizes of tray in it, so offering even more flexibility or complexity. And in fact they quote two configurations for this set,  26cm (10") by 87cm (34") or alternatively 44cm (17") by 52cm(21") . I think it is probably easier to understand looking  at the pictures on both email and on our website. 

To conclude, I doubt I'll be using it for its intended purpose, but I've got a number of Ikea tool drawers which infuriatingly the Ikea trays don't fit properly. I think I may have just found a solution. Downside? Yes, I think they are a bit pricey at £15 and £25, but as Henry Royce once said, the quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten (or words to that effect) and these trays are really well engineered, so go together well and stay together. A small price to pay for a really flexible, elegant and  efficient storage solution that will go on doing its job year in year out.  A small stroke of genius, I think.

Rotating storage called Cupboard Store
Then there's a couple of turntable pieces. A single tier stepped affair that will go in a typical kitchen cupboard (the shallower cupboards above worktop level) which because it turns makes it very easy to get at the stuff at the back. And at the back, which is on a raised level, there's a little bit of storage under the shelf. And of course the back shelf, becomes the front shelf in a trice, courtesy of the turntable. £18.00

There is then a two Tier version that cleverly allows for different height bottles and jars to be accommodated. £25.00 

Slightly to my surprise I found I rather liked the way these two products work. We don't have any shallow, high level cupboard in our Kitchen  at home, but if we did I'd almost certainly be tempted to give them a try.

Lastly there's a Cupboard Drawer Store piece which I don't like, because the drawer in its base whilst very free running,  I'm sure I'd pull open to find the whole thing has been dragged forward, rather than just the drawer as there are no rubber feet on its base. Maybe with heavy glass  jars on it to weight it down it would be ok? Don't know, if you decide to try one out and it works for you then please do let me know. Equally remember our guarantees if you don't like it, just return it and we'll give you a refund. £15.00 

Drawer Store: Expanding Cookware Organiser
This may not be the work of genius that the cutlery trays are, but it's certainly well designed and a very flexible bit of kit. It's designed to hold lids and pots and pans (on their side) in a drawer, where you can pull it out to see exactly what you've got, at a glance. It consists of an adjustable base into which you place dividers to keep your lids sitting upright and you cake tins/ saucepans separated from each other.

You can vary the depth (back to front of the drawer) from 30cm (12") to 56cm (22") and place the dividers pretty well where ever you want. A very Joseph design, a well thought through solution to a common Kitchen storage problem. £25.00

Index Chopping boards
Luke our Joseph Joseph account manager tells me that some Index boards are going to be in short supply this year. However he did manage to lay his hands on some of the Steel and Grey Index sets, selling at £65.

This is one of the smartest (there's a plethora of different versions) Index sets around, but once they are gone then that's it until next year. So I've ordered in a whack of them.

They comprise 4 chopping boards all in dark grey, double sided, with rubber feet both sides, contained is a smart stainless steel case, partially open at the bottom to aid drying if the boards are put away still wet.

That's it for this week, I hope you have a pleasant and peaceful weekend.

 Kind regards,

 Andrew

Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director