For this month's Fave Find, I wanted to highlight the gorgeous fleeces from Jump Kids (given as a Christmas gift to my tots by our good friend Fiona, 'The Martha Stewart of the North'). To my surprise, the ultra-soft fleeces (with sweet appliques like these, right) are made from recycled plastic bottles, making it easy as pie to start the new year with your green cred (and style) intact. Unfortunately, Jump Kids has lost its manufacturer, and with the current economic climate has decided to close. It's a real shame that hard economic times don't just hurt greedy, wasteful corporations but talented and well-meaning small businesses.

So, I'm moving on to another of our Christmas presents, the La Cafetière manual coffee mill I presented to my husband. Before you go thanking your lucky stars (yet again) that you're not married to me, consider the advantages of a manual mill. Electric grinders don't just gobble power. Many of them emit an annoying high-pitched whine (and we get quite enough of that from our 4-year-old at the moment, thanks) making mornings more stressful than ever – especially before you've had your morning joe.

 

Like me, you may also worry that manual grinding will take yonks and feel like a workout. Though many of us are looking for 'Return to Austerity' fitness plans instead of gym memberships, one often needs a cup of coffee to generate that sort of energy – a bit of a Catch-22 in this case.

 

Fortunately hand grinding doesn't take too long, and as you crank you release the soothing aroma, for a tantalising preview of the pleasure to come.

 

Increase that pleasure by choosing fairly traded coffee beans. I like the superb selection at Monmouth Coffee Company (I picked some up at their Borough Market shop). The folks at Monmouth are true coffee connoisseurs (and craftspeople), taking care in their selections and their roasting technique. They also develop strong relationships with growers and exporters, for what they call "sustainable, fair and equal trade". And Monmouth's coffee is certified organic by The Organic Food Federation.

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