The whole package

I am unable to resist anything which is prettily packaged, I love eye catching labels, vintage tin signs and boxes, satin and silk ribbons and printed wrapping paper.

Rob came home with this chocolate tonight,

a) because it's chocolate...and ....

b) because he knew I would love the packaging.

I almost don't want to open it because it is so gorgeous. (almost) I really like the vivid colours, which is strange because our entire house is painted in boring creams and beiges. If any strangers visited they would probably have us down as being quite dull, due to our unadventurous use of colour. This is obviously completely untrue! I just think that cream is quite a good backdrop. For our cream sofas, curtains and carpets that is.

Rob is very good at buying cool presents which he knows I will love...this was in my christmas stocking a couple of years ago...

With marmite on toast being my number one favourite thing I was quite excited to open this. I hadn't realised that marmite used to be packaged in cubes like OXO before being made into spreadable stuff. It really is an education...anyway, the tin lives on our printers shelf in the kitchen, along with lots of other bits and pieces. Speaking of OXO, this is another present which the lovely husband bought for me.

I LOVE IT!! it is full of oxo cubes, which I know Jamie Oliver wouldn't approve of, but I really don't care. It is on the 'red shelf' in the kitchen. It is a bit battered around the edges, which really adds to its overall charm. I can't say I fancy drinking either marmite or OXO particularly, but both have their uses.

I think tins and cans are a great way of packaging. (this could be my fathers influence however. Had never thought of that before, but his company used to make millions of the things. Hmm) I find myself in the supermarket buying tins of mustard powder. I rarely use mustard, but who could resist the cute yellow tin? On holiday in St Ives last year, and whilst out on our morning jaunt I decided we needed to go into a particular cafe for coffee. No doubt Rob thought it was because I liked the look of the interior/menu/man behind the counter. The real reason was because they had a fabulous window display full of deli style ingredients for sale, and I spotted this.

I could picture it sitting on my kitchen shelf, quite happily surrounded by other junk, and 'remembered' a Nigella recipe that needed smoked paprika. Obviously they don't sell it in Tesco in little packets. I have actually used it, very hot. Ouch. Still, the tin will long outlive the contents.

My bedroom also suffers from packaging overload. The boudoir houses the more luxurious items from the collections. A couple of years ago I spent a birthday at my brothers house. He and Nic bought me this..

The excitement was so great I almost forgot to open it. It was a lovely scented candle which gets an occassional burning in the bathroom. The height of luxury. I love it. But. I also love the box....

Why don't more companies use ribbons? It really does maketh the gift in my opinion. I love wrapping up presents nicely, with gorgeous ribbons and bows, and have a big pine chest in our lounge stuffed full of wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbons and sparkly bits and pieces.

Finally, one of my favourites, which really did make my heart skip a beat...

Oh, the lovely turquoise box and white ribbon combo that is Tiffany- isn't it gorgeous? This now lives in a cupboard, but every now and again I take it out and stroke it. Yet again the lovely husband came up trumps shortly after we got together and it had a lovely silver bracelet inside which I obviously still wear from time to time. Considering my obsession with the Tiffany catalogue I was quite concerned that I had never seen 'Breakfast at Tiffanys' so decided to get it out on DVD last year. I was massively unconvinced and thought it was all a bit mad, but the boxes live on.

May now be time to open that chocolate and see if it tastes as good as it looks.