Christmas Presents

Christmas Catalogue (click here to see photos)
Every year, since 2004 when we invented Monkey and Sofia, we have produced a catalogue of gifts for Christmas.
We love to make things and our simple life allows us the time to spend on designing and inventing things then turning our ideas in to real knitted, sewn or constructed things.
It's great.
Each year we send out our catalogue, then everyone looks at the photos of all the lovely things.
Then the fun starts!
Emails fly back and forth as everyone contacts us to tell us what they want and then packages wing their way across the sea.

We love to hear from all our Monkey and Sofia friends, to catch up with news, find out how things have gone this last year.
The very best thing though, is to know we are all still thinking of each other.

So, here's this year's selection of specially made goodies which we hope you'll like.
As ever the prices are kept as low as possible so that everyone can be part of Monkey and Sofia.
If you would like to know more about any of the things or make an order, talk to us.
Email and ask anything and we'll let you know all the details.

The world can be a difficult and lonely place to live, especially if you are trying to live a life which has meaning, so it's great to hear from fellow travellers, those who are making choices about their lives.
Christmas is a time for joining together and although we are miles away, we will definately be spending time thinking of all our friends.
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Visit our site on flicker, by clicking above and see all the lovely things.
Then send us a message!
Tell us how you're doing, we love to hear from you!
Then, we can then easily send you the price list and all the info on ordering things.

We're looking forward to hearing from you.
With love,
Maureen and Phil
xxx

Cortegana, Andalucia

We're settling into our new town now and beginning the next stage in our search for a permanent home. Never easy searching in rural areas and more difficult when you're looking for the exact spot as we are. BUT, at least this area has lots of the important things like height and relatively cool temperatures because of the hills. Cortegana is one of the small towns in the Picos de Arancena area of Huelva. There are chestnut, olive and oak trees lots of big areas of cork trees and lots of little 'huertas' where local people grow vegetables.

Not long after we arrived here the annual fiesta Jornadas Medievales took place; a four day extravaganza celebrating the cultural past of the town. Everyone dressed in costume, streets closed to traffic, stalls selling exotic eastern cakes and coffee and masses of crafts.
Live music, fire eaters, dancers, jousting, archery and fireworks. What better opportunity to introduce our Monkey and Sofia goodies to our new neighbours and friends?
The stall looked fab and provided us with a marvellous opportunity to chat with people we had started to recognise in the little streets.

Added to this four day, or should I say mostly night time experience, our life in Cortegana has already been enhanced by the arrival of our first Spanish kitten! Plush, as we have called her because her sparse black fur is as short and soft as velvet, is wonderful. She was tiny, starving and howling to be rescued. Born, according to neighbours on the first of June, the very day we boarded our flight from Vancouver, so was obviously meant to be ours!

So, life is coming together. Looking after Plush, trying to find a real home and making things for our next catalogue is keeping us busy.

More news soon.

Far away!!!!!!!!

Yes.
We are now far away from Powell River and far away from British Columbia
We are in Andalucia, Spain and will be posting more information on our latest journey very soon.

creative recycling

This is River City Coffee in Powell River, British Columbia. A fine coffee shop with a great selection of cakes.
And below is what can be made from an ex-coffee sack.
A useful big shopping bag.
The coffee beans come to river City in huge hessian sacks and when the beans have been used the sacks are finished with.
but they are wonderful things, full of potential.
The owners of river City realised this and decided to sell them cheaply and raise funds for the breakfast club at the local school.
A wonderful circle of recycling, creativity and a good cause.

Monkey and Sofia crafts are made using recycled, thrift shop and found materials wherever possible.

have a cup of tea

Yerba Buena - Micromeria chamissonis








Evergreen Huckleberry - Vaccinium ovatum

Shallon - Gaultheria shallon

... being able to drink fresh spring water each day is probably more important to our healthiness than what we eat. And that's why it's taken us seven years of searching to find the right kind of land, one with its own source, to create our edible forest and build the house of our dreams.

Meantime, on Texada Island, British Columbia, we have been able to enjoy real spring water, albeit from a spring shared with our neighbours, and this is when we discovered also the joys of making our own tea from the herbs growing nearby. Followed by planting a whole range of others, found on the Plants for a Future database site. By the time we left there were: yarrow/ nasturium/ blackberry/ strawberry/ lemon grass/ mints/ rosemary/ comfrey/ marigold/ nettles/ lemon balm/ mexican tea/ cleavers/ self-heal/ and pennyroyal. And a few leaves of each, harvested first thing each morning, mixed together, beat any kind of dried or shop-bought tea. Now we are in Canada it's got even better, we are fortunate enough to be living with a garden that doesn't need any planting, it's got hundreds of years of self-seeding to do the job for us, and even though it is the middle of winter right now we are enjoying another wonderful selection, starting with the three pictured above. Try it for yourself and discover the difference.

the flying yellow bread bowl diner

Settling in. Being part of somewhere. Difficult to imagine when you just arrive somewhere, thatś why finding Carol
at The Flying Yellow Bread Bowl,
was really great.
Not only is it the finest diner in Powell River.
it's probably one of the best vegetarian restaurants
in the whole of British Columbia......
The food is great, Carol cooks like its part of her personality and everyday is different, she make delicious bread, like bagels and big soft granary loaves and the menu for each day has stuff like thick spicy pumpkin soup, garlicky hummus on bread, stuffed vine leaves, spicy falafel burgers, mmmmmmmmmm, can't you just taste it? The diner is tiny, and packed with people, the music is perfect, like Natasha Atlas, things with an eastern vibe that goes with the food, the atmosphere is wonderful, everyone eating, chatting with friends and and really enjoying it.
This is what eating is all about.

christmas

Two cats got lovely presents this Christmas, handknitted, Monkey and Sofia blankets. This is one of them for the special cats at Katz castle rescue centre and cat hotel, warm and cosy.
visit Katz castle

This is one of Kay's three lovely kittens, enjoying their first Christmas, just look at all their Christmas goodies!

And here is Mooshina, in Argentina. enjoying a New Years nap in her favourite spot in the kitchen, thank you Beatriz!

A Simpler Life

Over the last six months in Portugal Phil was working on his latest publication

A Simpler Life

It's packed full of practical ideas for living more simply, with examples from our own life in Portugal , while considering the impact modern living has on the planet.

Through living more simply, we discovered we actually got far more out of life.

If you'd like to read about what we discovered,

and make your New Year's resolution to live more simply,

you can get a copy by emailing us.

As ever, cost are kept to a minimum

because life changing information should be available to everyone.

If you are part of a forum or group and would like a copy to review we can send you a copy for postage only, just let us know.