Orange Coffee House, Knutsford

I've lived in Knusford for 15 years and the arrival of the Orange Coffee House has been one of my favourite events. 

The town has a marvellous choice of coffee shops, but until now there was nowhere cosy and comfy where you could settle with a pot of tea and a cake and mull over your day with a friend, discuss business with a client or just plain escape from life for a short while.


The Orange Coffee House offers a welcome haven on chilly days and a calm port in a storm for everybody from girly chatterboxes to zen-like pensioners.  If you're one of those people who simply yearn for a decent cuppa and a slice of something naughty - you've found it here.  The coffee is excellent too, all Fair Trade and carefully made.

I have, purely in the interests of providing a full and fair review of course, taste tested a wide selection of their home-made cakes, and all have been wonderful.  I keep going back to the scones though - deep and thick and full of fruit, laden with butter and jam (and cream if you like it), they're a real treat.  My only suggestion would be to find someone local to provide a better class of jam.  It's a bit erratic in its consistency - the last lot was positively rubbery.   My coeliac friend raves about the orange and polenta cake and the lemon drizzle is certainly worth a delve into too.  Their cakes are all displayed under great glass domes, just as you enter the shop, allowing you to make your selection based on more than a menu description alone.

As you'd expect, the menu extends beyond coffee and cake and the lunchtime offering is extensive and interesting.  I sat and watched a table of four take almost 25 minutes deciding upon their choices last week, all the time advised and encouraged by a tremendously patient member of staff, who really upped the ante when she pointed out that they could all order a glass of wine too; a positive flurry of excitement ensued!

On Sundays the Orange Coffee House offers a jazz brunch; live jazz singers and musicians from 11am till 3pm.  They encourage you to enjoy brunch, lunch or simply an afternoon tea and relax to the sounds of live music.  I've not experienced this, it sounds like something I'd have enjoyed BC (Before Children) though!

Knutsford has a great reputation for its collection of bars and restaurants and The Orange Coffee House fits in perfectly in terms of quality and atmosphere.  Happy Days!

Orange Coffee House,
3 Princesss Street,
Knutsford, WA16 6BY

Origins Drink Up Intensive

Ageing plays havoc with your skin...I'm not kidding.  Right up through my twenties and even my thirties I took my fine skin, spot and blemish free, for granted.  Now, comfortably into my forties, the rapid onset of age related dryness, fine lines and dark shadows has led to a skincare obsession that I'm very happy to share with loyal Little Bird fans!

Drink Up Intensive is an overnight mask from Origins, who create skin and body care products using natural ingredients, is one of my absolute favourite bathroom cupboard essentials.

 

They say:  "Skin depends on water for its youthful functioning. But all day long, skin loses vital moisture. And the busier you are, the more it loses. This intense moisture replacement mask deeply quenches compromised moisture reserves and builds a reservoir for tomorrow. Japanese Seaweed repairs skin's barrier to prevent future dehydration and signs of premature aging."

 

I say: Love love love it!  It's a bit smelly and an odd shade of green, but once you get past that it's all good.  It's only to be used a couple of times a week, so fit perfectly with my somewhat erratic skin care regime.  It doesn't all soak in, (so you can keep on smelling it for a wee while, joy), but it doesn't stay damp on the skin, so you needn't worry about getting all over the pillow.  In the morning, when I wash it off, my skin feels soft and strokable - a feeling that lasts all day.

 

It's been particularly welcome this winter, as me and my face battle through wind, rain, snow and hail every morning as I walk the children to school.

 

It's only £20 and has lasted me ages.  Months and months.  Which means that it has magnificent value for money and does what it promises too.  Can't really ask more than that, can you?

 

 

Eternity Spa Sale

I have had a few facials in my time, and have enjoyed all but one (the less said, the better!) but my recent experience at Harmony Balm in Sale was a real corker. 

Karen, the Spa owner, was my therapist for the Eternity Spa Facial I'd booked - and she's truly lovely.  As you'd expect, we started with a discussion about my skin issues (age related!), skin type and personal preferences.  My skin is dry and sensitive, and I've had a bad reaction in the past to allegedly 'sensitive skin products' (see above), but Karen assured me that the Spieza products she works with are all natural and organic and have never caused a flare up yet.

 

In fact, Karen has built her entire business around the use of organic products, which includes her manicures and pedicures, as well as all her face and body treatments.

 

It's actually quite hard to describe the full facial - Karen tends to follow her instincts and includes head, neck and shoulder massage, pressure point massage, hot shells and lots and lots of the most fabulously fragrant oils and creams you can imagine.  I drifted away in a sea of hedonism, filled with bliss and sunny thoughts (while outside the wind howled and rain fell) and woke to the realisation that my skin felt dewey soft and plumped up.  One look in the mirror was enough to make me wonder if Karen has some sort of time machine in her Spa, as I was positively glowing!

 

Regular facials have never been on my list of possibles, they fall firmly into the 'rare treat' category and as such I need to be sure that they are going to have a long lasting effect, not simply make me feel good for an hour or so before my skin reverts to its normal state.  I can happily say that I was still stroking my face with glee several days later - and booked myself back in for another valued treat as soon as I could!



I give Karen and Eternity Spa a big fat tick - this is just the sort of personalised, genuinely caring treatment we ladies of Cheshire deserve.  Get yourselves thither!

Eternity Wellness Centre | 266 Washway Rd | Sale | M33 4RZ | 01619692040 @HarmonyBalm

Jo Malone London Vitamin E Gel

Jo Malone London may be most famous for its fragrances and candles, but it has a fabulous skin care range too, based around the restorative, anti-oxidant properties of Vitamin E.

My favourite, for results and value for money is the Vitamin E Gel.

A tiny pot goes a very, very long way...and it's all good.





Jo Malone London themselves say: 'Rich. Intensive. Vitamin E Gel is a nourishing moisturiser for dry, dehydrated skin. The formula contains natural conditioners - wheat germ oil, sweet almond oil and apricot kernel oil - as well as highly emollient, vitamin-packed avocado oil to help replenish and smooth. The gel also works as a barrier to help protect the skin against further environmental damage.'

We say: It says it's a gel, but it's not really.  It's a very fine oil and just the tiniest amount gives a lot of coverage. Unless you have very dry damaged skin, you really only need to use it as the occasional 'healer'.  Perfect for dry patches and occasional redness, just a tiny dab immediately soothes and penetrates to heal.

In the summer I use it at night, under my usual moisturiser, after a day on the beach and it's lovely to smooth straight onto the skin on those horrible cold days when you get back from walking the kids to school and your face feels like someone's taken a scouring pad to it.  I rub it on my children's lips when they're chapped and it soothes and heals overnight.  I took it skiing this year and my skin was dewey soft even after a week of icy blasts and one or two unexpected face plants!

At £62 it's not a cheap trick, but it lasts a very long time and will quickly form part of your bathroom cupboard essentials.

Visit the Jo Malone London website for more information.

Bye Bye Muffin Top…

I am not overweight, but haven’t, for some time, been the slender shape of my youth. Following the birth of my children I developed the mummy-tummy that so troubles those of us who like low waist jeans, and a predilection for tummy skimming shirts that disguised this muffin top!

So, the opportunity presented to me to tone up the tummy and lose some inches while doing nothing more strenuous than lying on a treatment bed was one I wasn’t about to refuse.

Cheshire Endermologie® is an ultra-discreet clinic based in Sale, run by Rachel Gibbons. Endermologie® is a real non-surgical alternative to liposuction. It works by creating a constant suction between two motorised rollers, this creates a skin fold, stretches the underlying tissue and helps to smooth the layer between the dermis and hypodermis of the skin- the bit where we store excess fat and – whisper it – cellulite.

That’s the science bit – in real life it’s actually quite entertaining and certainly serves to relax the room, as it were! Firstly Rachel requests that you strip to bra and pants while she takes some photos and measures your tummy, hips, thighs and the distance between the bottom crease and your knee. She then passes you a white bodystocking and leaves the room while you contort yourself into it, in my case giving myself an attack of the giggles as I realised that all I needed was a blue hat and I could have run away with the Smurfs. (The body stocking both helps you maintain your dignity and enables the kit to work to its full potential at maximum comfort levels.)

The various actions undertaken all drive towards the multiple ‘Holy Grail’ objectives of fat reduction, muscle toning, skin firming and cellulite reduction.

I was booked in for ten sessions across a five week period. After session five I realised that I was already tightening my belt by a notch. I also noticed that my posture and muscle tone was improving. This had the effect of me becoming a lot more aware of my posture overall, I walked taller and pulled my tummy muscles in tighter whenever I was on the move. It was apparent that my muscles were more responsive to being pulled in, so I did it more…a kind of virtuous circle.

Rachel explained that the Endermologie® treatment works not only to pummel away fat, but also to remind the muscles of where they should be and how they should work. It’s not just the tummy muscles either; it has a good go at your bum too!

As the weeks progressed I began to feel neater and more compact and there is no longer a ring of fat resting on the top of my belt!

Chuffed doesn’t cover it. We re-did the measurements at the end of the course and discovered that I’ve lost more than three inches in total from my midriff, an inch and half of that from the waist alone! My bum has also lifted, my thighs are slimmer and I have regained my waistline too.

I have to say, the whole experience has been great. Rachel is incredibly knowledgeable and smart at explaining how it all works and what to expect; we spent every session chattering away like old friends (it’s hard to maintain a distance when someone’s hoovering your derrière) and I’m thrilled with the results!

Contact Rachel on 0161 282 9533 or visit her website.