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You know how it feels when you've discovered a product or service that you truly love?  You tell your friends, family and even complete strangers so they can enjoy it too. My Favourites is a website that celebrates all the best foods, movies, books, toys and ideas for around the home & garden.  We share our favourites in the hope that you enjoy them as much as we do.  And if there are any products you feel passionately about - drop us a line - maybe they'll become one of My Favourites too!

Winter Winners
I-Play Print Umbrella - Green Frog
Funky green frog umbrella to brighten your day.
Heat in a Click – Heart
Heat in a click pads are a great alternative to a hot water bottle and are perfect to soothe winter aches & pains.
Nadia's Kitchen
Nadia's Kitchen is the much-awaited and only recently released book from NZ Master Chef winner Nadi Kim.
Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream Lip Protectant Stick SPF 15
Elizabeth Arden 8 hour lip protector for dry winter lips.

Favourite Autumn/Winter Cookbooks

500 Slow Cooker Dishes
Have a hot, flavourful, tender dinner ready when you get home from work.
The New Book of Soups: A Complete Guide to Stocks, Ingredients, Preparation and Cooking Techniques, with Over 150 Tempting New Recipes
Learn all the key techniques for superb soups and try out some of the over 150 recipes in "The New Book of Soups".
Winter Cooking
Warm your heart and feed the soul with rissottos, pastas, curries, soups, cakes and more.  Over 250 recipes.
The Retro Cookbook
A beautiful, almost coffee table, book of nostalgic recipes from yesteryear. Click Here for more retro cookbooks.
Click Here for more Cookbooks

Winter Reading

Celebrity in Death
The latest Lieutenant Eve Dallas book from the "In Death" series by JD Robb - sure to be another best-seller.
The Lucky One
Read "The Lucky One" from Nicholas Sparks which is now a major motion picture starring Zac Efron.
Down to Earth: A Guide to Simple Living
It is possible to find pleasure in a simpler live.  Rhonda Hetzel's guide to simpler more joyful life.
Dear Dot, I Must Tell You: A Personal History of Young New Zealanders
Kids letters to the childrens column of an NZ paper in the early 1900s.  An insight into teens and perhaps the earliest social media.
INVESTIGATE HERS magazine NZ - 1 year subscription - 6 issues
Great Winter reading, Investigate HERS magazine covers the usual topics plus world events & issues
 (click images for more information and latest prices)
Click Here for more books
Listening
Born To Die
The sensational debut album of the husky-voiced singer/songwriter.
Whitney Houston Greatest Hits
The Diva has sadly died but her talent is celebrated in this Greatest Hits CD
Storyteller: The Complete Anthology 1964-1990
A 4-CD set from the tartan talent of Rod Stewart at around $26.
Doo-Wops & Hooligans Deluxe Edition
Bruno Mars' Deluxe Edition of  very up-beat Do Wops & Hooligans CD with 6 bonus tracks.
(click images for more information and latest prices)
Click Here for more music favourites
Watching
Some of my favourite new(ish) releases.  Sometimes the link takes you to a really low international price sourced by the NZ website which can take a couple of weeks to arrive.  If you do a further search on the website they generally also have a price from a local supplier as well which comes much more quickly.
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Christmas at Downton Abbey [Blue-ray]
The Help
Water For Elephants
Oranges and Sunshine
Nature's Great Events
We Bought a Zoo
The Kennedys
Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall
Annie Lennox Collection - Deluxe Edition *
I Don't Know How She Does It
(click images for more information and latest prices)
Click Here for more movies

Movies from Books: Two Sunset Comedy/Dramas

The Eye of the Storm

The Eye of the Storm
Click cover for more details.
Set in 1950's Sydney this movie is based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Patrick White.
Ex-socialite, Elizabeth Hunter, has her two expatriot children return to her on her deathbed during a mystical Summer Sydney storm.  Even in her eighties, Elizabeth proves she is a mighty force as Patrick White explores the turmoil of family relationships.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Click cover for more details.
In theatres now is the star studded movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" featuring Dame Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Maggi Smith and others.
Lured to India to stay in a hotel designed for retirees that promised to be unlike any other - that's exactly what they get!
Funny & touching, read the book before the movie

Check out more of our favourite Books made into Movies.

Stomp rockets!

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Super High Performance Stomp Rocket Refill
A Stomp Rocket is a fantastic toy for kids!  These are air propelled rockets for kids (or adults) where stomping on the launch pad creates a air blast that sends the "nerf-like" rocket up to 400 feet in the air.  The bigger the stomp (weight assists with this one) the further they go.  Best for parks really or they may end up on your neighbour's roof.  Fabulous affordable fun. 
The original "Stomp Rocket" is available from IQ Toys or Fishpond with Fishpond also having replacement rockets.  Both sites also have similar systems from other toy manufacturers like "Jump Rockets" and "Air-Hogs Heli-blasters".
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Kitchen Favourite - Oliver & Cherry Stoner

Oxo Cherry/olive Pitter
Fresh cherries are the ultimate taste of summer and this wonderful little gadget lets you enjoy them stone-free.  It's perfect if you want to give fresh cherries to young children or if you want to add them to a fresh fruit salad. 

This same handy utensil can also be used to remove olive pits and it includes a splatter guard to prevent cherry/olive juice getting all over your clothes or kitchen.  Costs around $25 and you can click on the image for more details.
Click Here for more Kitchen Gadgets
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Superb Silicon

Chef'n Oil Wand Frost/avocado
Here are two less usual silicon saviours for the kitchen.  The first is a silicon oil-wand with a dripless valve.  No more moulting brushes leaving bristles on your food.  This silicon brush with an oil reservoir and cover is dishwasher safe and incredibly handy for basting or greasing trays.
But of course these colourful silicon cup-cake moulds on the right won't need oiling.  They come in a set of 6 for just $12 (might need two sets) and a bright, colourful, non-stick and of course re-usable of.
Wiltshire Bend'n Bake Cupcake Mould Packet 6

Movies from Books

The Descendants
The movie of this book starring George Clooney won multiple nominations in the awards season this year.  It tells the story of Matt King and his family following an accident that puts his wife into a coma.  While hospitalised Matt must reconnect with his children and while doing so also discovers the shocking truth his wife was having an affair.  Join Matt on his painful yet somehow humorous journey.
Click Here for more Books Made into Movies
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Favourite Toys for Kids

Pound-A-Peg
Pound-A-Peg a  classic wooden toy
Domino Train Set
A Domino Train sets the dominos up so you can knock them down.
FurReal Friends Snuggimals Puppy Rust
When a real pet is not an option then these toys are Fur Real!
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Skydogs is an amazing range of kites that include ones shaped like parrots, schooners, butterflies as well as more traditional shapes
Click Here for more Toys & Games

Favourite Children's Book: "Rattletrap Car" by Phyllis Root

Rattletrap Car
My all-time favourite book for young children. 
Fun to read with all sorts of sound effects and wordplay as Junie, Jakie, Dad and the baby set off for the lake in their rattletrap car.  "It doesn't go fast, and it doesn't go far" but you can be sure when you've got "razzleberry dazzleberry snazzleberry fizz", a beach ball, a surfboard, and baby's three-speed, wind-up, paddle-wheel boat they're sure to get there.
I challenge you not to fall in love with this book - its a giggly good read for everyone involved!

Click Here for more Children's Books

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40 Surprise Gifts for under $10. Click here

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Surprise your friends and family with an unexpected and affordable treat.



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iQToys

Skeleton Gingerbread Men Cutter

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This skelton Gingerbread kit is fabulous.  It combines a gingerbread cutter with a stamp to imprint the cookie with bones that you can then fill (or not) with white icing.  And it's only $11.99.

Click Here for more Kitchen Gadgets
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Favourite Toys:  Hyper Dash - Go Kids Go

It's always great to see you kids active and now there's an electronic toy that really gets them moving.  Hyperdash has an electronic baton five electronic coloured bases.  The game involves racing around following the electronic instructions from one base to another - trying to score the fastest time. 
The targets can be positioned over an area as large as a football field or as small as a lounge rug or a table top. We've played it in parks, on the front lawn and even in our lounge on a wet day.  It's a great game to get young and old racing around and can be used to help young ones learn their colours.  There are a range of different games to choose from including one called "Micro Dash" which is a bit like the "Simon" electronic memory game that you can play on a table top or mat.  All of the games are designed to get progressively harder as you go on. 
Hyper Dash The Target Tagging Race Course Game
Click Here for more
Toys & Games
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Favourite Outdoor Design:  Designer BBQ Covers

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Kiwi's love barbeques, we love our entertaining areas and often invest alot is a stylish stainless steel hooded BBQ BUT then we cover them in a drab black cover!!  At last there are a few more stylish options.
BBQ Canvas have four two-toned designer covers.  Admittedly some are a bit OTT with a fish or sheep on them - but the Tusan Olive one shown is fabulous, even more so now that it is a little UV faded.  You can check out BBQ Canvas' designs at
www.bbqcanvas.co.nz or you can get one using your Fly Buys points - just 600 points.
Hopefully a wider range of designer covers will become available but for now the only other designer(ish) BBQ cover we've found is
www.u-neek.co.nz which has three designs: bamboo, creeper and rock.
P.S.  Have just found another awesome option..... www.stash-it.co.nz uses recycled billboard canvases to create AMAZING limited edition BBQ covers.  They also use them to make surf board covers.  The BBQ covers were a little hidden on the site so follow this link: http://www.stash-it.co.nz/shop/BBQ+Covers+-+Recycled+Billboard/

Click Here for more Home & Living

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Favourite Foods: Continental Asian Laksa

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My favourite instant soup in a cup is Continental's Asian Laksa.  It's a rich creamy soup with lots of noodles and a distinctive Laksa taste. 
No of course it's not the same as an authentic Laksa from a Thai restaurant - its an instant soup in a cup remember - but it is tasty and a handy stand-by for lunch in a hurry. I keep a couple of sachets on hand in my desk drawer. 
Continental also has an Asian Thai Red Curry variety also which as far as instant soup goes is my second favourite.  Most supermarkets stock Continental instant soups.

Click Here for more Favourite Foods

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Favourite Book: A "Brave New World" foretold

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It is fascinating to read this book and realise that it was written in 1932.  What imagination and fore-sight Huxley had to create a world where babies are not only fertilised in test-tubes but grown in them.  Where genetic engineering, invitro manipulation and brain-washing creates a class structure where supposedly all are are happy. 
In this world it seems Bernard Marx alone is restless and his visit into one of the few "savage reservations" poses both solutions and problems.

Click Here for more Books for adults

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Favourite Kitchen Gadget:  Jar Key

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Don't you hate it when you have to ask someone for help opening a jar! Sometimes it because you have wet or slippery hands but at other times you just have to admit you don't have enough strength.
The ultimate jar opener as this colourful little gadget picked up from Stevens.  It operates just like a bottle opener to break the seal on the jar so that you can then open it effortlessly.
We've tried all sorts of other tricks over the years including running the lid under hot water and tapping the jar on its lid. 
The benefit of the Jar-Key is that it is reliable and quicker than any other method and costs less than $10. A favourite kitchen toy for our utensil drawer.

Click Here for more Kitchen Gadgets

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Favourite Movie: March of the Emperor Penguins - In French

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The March of the Emperor Penguin, narrated by Morgan Freeman, won an Academy Award and is internationally acclaimed howeverit is decidely inferrior  to the original French version - nothing personal Morgan.
The original is much harder to find and is marketed as "The Emperor's Journey".  It differs primarily in the soundtrack as the story is told from the perspective of the penguins with highly regarded French actors voicing the parts of the penguin pair and their young chick.
The script is almost poetic and is accompanied by gorgeous, Bjork-like musical sequences to match the hauntingly beautiful Antarctic scenery. 
The French version is one of the best movies ever!

Click Here for more Favourite Movies

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Favourite Toy:  Fly without a remote control!

The Vectron Wave is a cool new toy that hovers above objects.  It has some sort of sensor that detects objects and floats above them.  Click on the YouTube video to see it in action.
I've never seem them in the toy stores but you can check them out and buy them on-line from IQ Toys where they cost $45.99 at the time of writing.

Favourite Drinks: Healtheries Liquorice Tea

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Not many may have come across this unusal tasting herb tea.
Lovers of liquorice will leap at the opportunity to taste and enjoy this fabulous tea.  The Healtheries Liquorice Tea is actually a blend of liquorice, aniseed and peppermint.  The tea has a natural sweetness to it and a delicious aroma.  It is also caffeine free.
Healtheries website says that liquorice is a traditional herb used to boost energy and reduce sweet cravings.  What better pick-me-up.

Click Here for more Favourite Drinks

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iQToys


Photos used under Creative Commons from rightee, bitmask, sunshinecity, Ezyan Y., John-Morgan, hurley.k.e, Teddy Delivery, John-Morgan, Coloring our Moments by Mickey Destro, Rooey202, See-ming Lee 李思明 SML, sunshinecity, john_a_ward, Timequest Media UK