With less than a week to go before Mother’s Day we can imagine you are frantically running trying to get that last minute present that will really put a smile on her face.

No matter what store you go into, sometimes it can be impossible to know what gift to give your mum on this very special day of the year; which is why Ulster Weaver’s fantastic mother’s day gift ideas are the perfect solution to your shopping dilemma.

Show your mum how much you love her and how much you care by treating the domestic goddess to a one of our hip new Aprons; they come in a variety of styles, colours, shapes and materials to ensure whilst she is cooking and baking in the kitchen, that she looks super stylish. And they are fantastic for the summer time, to tie into floral fashion trends!

And if the kitchen is the room that makes the house a home for her, spruce the décor up with pretty Cosies, Tea Towels and cafetiere covers.

Why not spoil your mother with a fabulous Ulster Weavers shopping bag? A woman can never have enough bags!

Or, you can go the extra mile to let her know how thankful you are for everything that she has done, by giving her a brilliant Ulster Weavers gift set that comprises of tea cosies, egg cosies and tea towels or pot mitts, gauntlets and canvas bags. Go on spend that little bit more, she’s totally worth it!

As the clocks went forward and British summer time started, everyone is keeping their fingers crossed of a scorching hot summer complete with perfect BBQ weather.

Weather forecasts have been vague and unpredictable in the past, with hopes of hot sunny climates washed away by rainy downfalls.

But this year is a promising one and what better way to enjoy the summer time than to get out your Apron, invite your friends around and have fun cooking outdoors.

Although the weather is said to be mixed with brollies and sunblock, get experimenting in the back garden with light but filling food to satisfy those thirsty taste buds.

BLT Pasta Salad

This is an easy but colourful pasta salad that is packed full of flavour.

It is light on the stomach for when sunbathing in the garden but extremely delicious; and better yet, it can be prepared hours in advance so you can sit in the garden and enjoy the sunshine instead of being cooped up indoors in the kitchen making lunch.

Recipe

Argentinean Grilled Flank Steak

Perfect to throw on the barbeque and cook for all your friends and family, this recipe is ideal to eat alongside a healthy salad and dip or to put in a bun and eat as a burger!

Use whatever herbs and spices you desire to season the meat whether it is garlic, parsley, oregano, or bay leaves.

Recipe

Frozen Yoghurt Pops

A great way to keep the kids quiet on a hot sunny day is to give them an ice cream or lolly!

This is a fantastic recipe that will amuse them as they can help make it and it is super easy to make with cheap plastic paper cups.

You could use anything to freeze the mixture in to create wonderful imaginative shapes.

Recipe

Get the children involved with the cooking with these fantastic Childrens Aprons; so they can have lots of fun and be messy without ruining their clothes.

Bug's Child's PVC Apron

Farmyard Child's PVC Apron

Last Friday we haphazardly looked into what song titles had the word Tea in.

We were pleasantly surprised to find how many tune names actually existed which got us thinking bigger; what film titles have the word Tea in?

Yes it is a strange concept to concur, especially as there are thousands of films out there to search through. But how many would involve the breakfast drink and Tea Cosies?

Now the most famous film that springs to mind is of course “Breakfast At Tiffany’s”, although this doesn’t actually have the word tea in. Still, it involves drinking tea!

So here are just a few of the many film titles around with the word Tea in them and note how most of them are from over 50 years ago…

- Tea with Mussolini (1999)

- Tea And Sympathy (1956)

- Tea For Two (1950)

- The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)

- Blood Tea And Red String (2006)

- Eat A Bowl Of Tea (1989)

- The Tea Man (2010)

- Coffee, Tea Or Me (1983)

- Tea Cakes Or Cannoli (2000)

- Tea Leaves In The Wind (1938)

- Tea! (2004)

- Tea At The Ritz (1963)

- Children’s Tea Party (1898)

So, next time you nip down to the DVD store for a film on Friday night why don’t you check out one of these classic tea films? OK it isn’t as conventional as the popular film genres of romance, comedy, horror or chick flick but it would definitely be unusual and interesting.

And film stars are always acting with props so performing alongside Cosies would be nothing of difficulty!

Spring cleaning is a tradition that allows us all to freshen up our homes and get a head start on the hectic seasons of spring and summer.

It always feels better to start afresh and go back to basics. Gutting the house of all the clutter and unwanted items is a way of doing this as well as making everything sparkly-clean.

Don’t let a messy house stop you from going out with the family and enjoying the sunny outdoors; instead have a massive tidy-up and clean beforehand so when it is beautiful weather you are not cooped up indoors.

Get rid of all the clutter in the home that you don’t need such as old toys, unworn clothes or broken bric-a-brac.

Clear out all your stuff so cleaning is a lot easier to do, as you won’t have to be hoovering around items or picking up things to dust.

It doesn’t just have to be a single man endeavour; gets the entire family involved with all wearing Aprons to help share and ease the work load.

Spring chores, which are often done seasonally, will help your home run smoothly and look better. These include cleaning the patio furniture, washing the windows, cleaning out the cupboards and cleaning the oven/grill.

Stores across the country have multiple products on the cleaning aisle to help you clean. But a sure fire supply for the process are Kitchen Towels or any other form of Tea Towel.

A top tip for the Kitchen cleaning is to concentrate on;

- Cluttered cabinets

- Dirty refrigerator

- Black smoked oven

- Dusty ceiling and corners

- Dirty blinds/curtains

- Dull kettles, toasters and breadbins

- Clean the dishwasher itself

Many countries and states across the globe are issuing bans on the use and sale of non-biodegradable plastic shopping bags.

City governments are going to the extent of filing laws that prohibit all business establishments from selling and using plastics for packing, saying that these forms of materials threaten lives.

This is exampled in the Cebu City Council, in Philippines, America where the head of committee on environment has done such an act.

Cllr Nida Cabrera filed an ordinance arguing plastics are grave threats to Filipino lives. She said: “This is because they effectively block drainage systems and waterways, causing deadly and massive flooding during heavy rains.”

The councillor states there is a need to ban the use of plastics, as it takes 1,000 years for them to degrade.

“The right to health and a balanced and healthful ecology carries with it the correlative duty to refrain from impairing the environment,” she added.

Under the penalty clause of the law, business companies will be fined if found violating or using or selling non-biodegradable shopping bags.

Similar proposals have been issued across the world.

Instead, consumers should use PVC Bags or Canvas Shopping Bags to reuse every time they visit a store to pack their shopping items.

Ulster Weavers has some handy, compact bags that fold away into a pouch to neatly fit into your purse or pocket. They are great to have on hand when shopping- they are very eco-friendly and much trendier than plastic bags!

Sorrento PVC Packable Bag

Kaleidoscope Cotton Packable Bag

Here at Ulster Weavers HQ we really do have that Friday feeling and are excited about the weekend, so much so that we randomly thought this morning; what song titles have the word Tea in?

Yes it is a bizarre and haphazard concept but once we started searching the internet we were pleasantly surprised to find many tune names existed.

Most artists concentrate on writing popular love songs to relate to their audiences, whereas a song about tea and Tea Cosies is a little bit harder to get a hit record out of!

Still there are many examples around, even if they are a little bit silly. And it isn’t just cute nursery rhymes that have tea mentioned but hard rock grunge groups like Nirvana.

So here are just a few of the many song titles around with the word Tea in them…

- I’m a Little Teapot (nursery rhyme)

- Tea for the Tillerman (Cat Stevens)

- Pennroyal Tea (Nirvana)

- Tea for Two (musical)

- Tea Party (Kerli)

- Tea & Sympathy (Jars of Clay, Janis Ian)

- When I Take My Sugar To Tea (Frank Sinatra)

- Tea in July (World Without Sundays)

- Have A Cuppa Tea (The Kinks)

- Coffee, Tea & Sympathy (Robbie Williams)

- Tea in the Sahara (The Police)

- Tea Leaf Dancers (Flying Lotus)

- Teo and Tea (Jean Michel Jarre)

There you have it Tea is just as popular subject as love, partying, country patriotism, friends or life.

Not quite sure how an artist can sing about Cosies but someone out there must be willing to give it a try!

Saint Patrick’s Day is a religious public holiday celebrated in many countries on the 17^th March.

It is named after Ireland’s patron and saint, Saint Patrick, who is commonly recognised with the ‘green country’ and is believed to be credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland.

Originally the day started out as a Catholic holiday and over time it became an official feast day in the early 17^th century.

Nowadays it is more of a non-inspirational celebration of Irish culture; associated with everything Irish such as green, gold, shamrock and luck.

Initially the associated colour was blue but over the years the colour green and its overtone with Saint Patrick’s Day grew. Now people dress up in green and decorate drinking establishments with green ribbons and shamrocks

According to legend St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people. It is for this reason that he Shamrock is the national flower of Ireland.

Folklore also claims St. Patrick chased all the snakes out of Ireland and that’s why they don’t have any over there!

So rejoice in the special day by making arts and crafts with the children; you can have tons of fun spending time together as a family and celebrate if you have any Irish heritage or ancestors.

Put on one of our Children Aprons for the youngsters and one of our adult Aprons for yourselves and get creative crafting pots of gold, rainbows, leprechauns and shamrocks.

Pot of Gold

It’s Irish Folklore and it has it that if you follow the rainbow the leprechauns, otherwise known as Irish fairies, will leave a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

This super easy project is a fun way to create a little package of goodies! A great craft that can be made by all ages you can simply recycle an old baby food or jam jar.

Instructions

Shamrock Painting

A simply arts project that can amuse the kids for hours!

Use anything to colour in the shamrock from paints, coloured pens and green textiles; use many shades of green to make it as bright as possible.

The outlined shape can be sketched onto a plain white piece of paper or an example can be printed off the internet.

Instructions

Rainbow

This is a fantastic way for the children to have lots of fun getting messy with paint as well as educating them on the colours of the rainbow.

Get  imaginative and sprinkle glitter on the rainbow like fairy dust and combine the projects by drawing a pot of gold at one end of the rainbow.

Instructions

Implement some Irish charm into your home with some Irish themed Tea Towels from Ulster Weavers.

Irish Coffee Linen Tea Towel

Shamrocks Linen Tea Towel

Today is Commonwealth Day; a day celebrated every second Monday in March every year.

It is an opportunity to promote understanding on global issues, international co-operation and the work of the Commonwealth’s organisations, which aim to improve the lives of its citizens.

Each year focuses on a particular theme and the theme for Commonwealth Day 2011 is “Women as Agents of Change.”

It means that by investing in women and girls we can accelerate social, economic and political progress.

Women and girls make up over half of the world’s population. In the Commonwealth, that’s over one billion people. By educating them, giving them accessible health care and making sure they are treated fairly and have the same opportunities and protection as men and boys, we can go a long way towards addressing the many problems of the world.

HISTORY

It began in 1975 when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada proposed that a “simultaneously observed Commonwealth Day would focus attention upon the association and its contribution to a harmonious global environment.”1977 marked the first simultaneous observance day across the Commonwealth.

Over the past 30 years the day has been an opportunity to learn and explore both the history of our association as well as current concerns that are common to us all.

TOPICS

Themes include housing, diversity, respect, water, peace, employment, health, justice, food and more.

The focus on food is the right to food as a fundamental human right, as set out in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Ulster Weavers, a home textiles company, has fantastic ranges for the kitchen to make the house a home including quality, quirky Teatowels in a variety of colours and shapes.

Since the start of this year everyone has been fixated on what the biggest styles and trends are going to be in 2011.

And it appears that one recurrent look that is emerging all over the catwalks, fashion shows and red carpets is in fact the colour red.

With gorgeous red pouts, bright red trousers and fresh rosy dresses the colour can be seen on all the celebs in different variations of shades.

You too can be a fashionista and jump on the band wagon by accessorising with the colour red with one of Ulster Weavers Canvas Shopping Bags.

Buying one of our Canvas Bags to take shopping with you is the easiest way of being environmentally friendly and our wide variety of designs will leave you spoilt for choice and remember… a girl can never have enough bags!

So get super stylish and red hot sexy in red with one of these cute PVC Bags.

Sorrento Medium Canvas Bag

Domestic Goddess Medium PVC Bag

Suddenly it has become cool to be spotted with a steaming cup of aromatic tea and famous personalities are getting in on the action by declaring their love for the British cuppa.

Celebs you may not think of daintily drinking the favourite past-time beverage include former bad boy rockers Led Zeppelin, who in fact ordered a constant supply of herbal tea on a recent tour.

And the lead vocalist of the band is famous for carrying a mug of hot tea with honey around whilst on tour…let’s hope the singer was using Tea Cosies to ensure he didn’t get burnt!

It is no surprise that celeb singers drink tea as it is known for its herbal remedies for the throat.

It isn’t just singers though; supermodel Heidi Klum famously loves her tea and even went on a three hour tea date in London with her husband.

And even more star personalities drink the beverage for health purposes including Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and Maggie Grace.

But the most well-known big-shot who is always spotted with a brew in her hands is no other than “Born This Way” star, Lady Gaga.

She’s been photographed a lot since her launch to fame walking around with a tea set that has a matching cup and saucer and she takes it literally everywhere with her to interviews and restaurants to even taking it on stage with her at 2010 Grammy awards; although the story behind the cup is ambiguous.

The American pop singer and songwriter told a newspaper the story behind her strange teacup obsession, explaining: “I used to have tea at home with my mother every day, you see.

“She hasn’t got a name but she’s quite famous now, so I made her stay in today. I take her everywhere because she makes me feel at home.”

She added: “I’ve made a habit of drinking out of china because it makes me feel grounded. I don’t think it’s a good lifestyle to always be eating and drinking out of paper. It’s very wasteful.”

The 24 year-old, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, apparently threw a fit not so long ago when she realised she had accidently left her tea set at a restaurant where she was dining.

An insider at the time said: “She kicked up a stink and demanded someone get her cup and saucer back. She wouldn’t drink out of anything else. It just looked like any other cup and saucer to me and said ‘Made in China’ on the bottom. It seemed a lot of fuss over nothing.”

And now the singer has got tea companies fighting it out to see who will get to sign her to an exclusive endorsement deal as brand ambassador.

We think it is fair to say apart from the Queen, Gaga is the most famous tea drinker in the world which is why we have found some perfectly fitting Cosies to suit her unique and bizarre fashion styles.

Bunny Shaped Tea Cosy

Cat Shaped Tea Cosy

Owl Shaped Tea Cosy