The MaltEaster bunny

According to The Grocer magazine, in October 2008, this bunny was launched, by Mars, for the Spring 2009 market.

I never saw it. Did you?

It was/is aimed at the "25-44 year old woman". That seems improbably precise. Also not true since this is an ideal sweet for children but obviously they can't say that. It was also backed up by a 1m campaign which was surely a waste of money as I'd never heard of them. But then last year I had just had a baby so maybe was too busy stuffing croissants down my face to notice new chocolate launches.

I'm not a fan of Maltesers. Or I haven't been since I was about 22. They're really sweet, although I don't mind finding one in my Revels. So I wasn't really ready for becoming addicted to this.

It's not even cos it's cute. We have hundreds of feral rabbits in our garden and believe me when I say I'd shoot any one of them without a second thought if I had a gun. Which I haven't had since I was 18, but that's another story for another time.

So these bunnies came on display in my local Waitrose just as soon as the December page was turned on the calendar. At first I despaired. Easter egg-type things, already? Then I saw the hot cross buns and realised we really were, fully, on the flight path to Easter. My first Easter confectionery purchase was the two-pack Cadbury's Caramel bunnies. I like a bit of Cadbury's Caramel. The bunnies were 59p for two and I like that the damage is limited. By that I mean I'm the kinda girl (unfortunately) that can eat a whole bar of something, (well, up to about 100g, I'm not a total pig, but 100g is easy to consume in a day, especially if you have deadlines to avoid). So something small, treaty, but not diabetic-coma inducing is a good idea for someone like me. Incredibly, one Caramel bunny seems to satisfy me and I even sometimes go as far as sharing/saving the other for my boyfy-husband.

But then, because the MaltEaster bunnies were on special (two for £1) I bought them. They're not like Maltesers, or whatever it is about Maltesers that I don't like is remedied with this bunny.

Anyway, the upshot is that you should try them. For one, it's a chocolate that's not by Nestle - and that's getting harder to find. For two it's nice. For three it's like a giant, chocolate, jelly baby, albeit a bunny, but you get that moment of indecision where you feel slightly psychopathic as you decide whether you go for the ears or legs first. I always eat the ears first.

I will buy one and take a picture of it, if it can live that long, and put it up later.

Ear Muffs

Whenever it gets cold, I wish I'd spent more time trying to find something to keep me feeling warm and looking stylish. My quest for ear muffs was largely fuelled by

a) my six year old wanting ear muffs
b) 'muff' is a word you just can't get enough of
c) the freezing weather, I no longer look good in hats.

I started off with Celtic Sheepskin and its ear muffs because our slippers, and my little girl's boots come from there. But its earmuffs are £52 and there's a waiting list.

Celtic Sheepskin's Ear Muffs

There's a company in Suffolk (where I live) that also does them: Nursey Sheepskin. Its earmuffs are £45 but they've been out of stock for weeks.

Nursey Sheepskin's Ear Muffs, probably not the best colour choice for this model.

After  this recent freeze-your-ears off weather I did a real load of research into this, determined to find some ear muffs that were cheaper. In the end I found a company in Winnipeg, Canada: www.furhatworld.com, that did them in sheepskin...and fur. I ordered the cheapest ones they did, which are in rabbit fur. So look away now if you don't like the thought of bunny fur, but I eat meat, I catch fish and I really don't have a problem with rabbit fur. Warning: the site also has ear muffs made from other fur: fox and mink so don't go looking if you get offended by that stuff (in which case: I hope you also don't eat meat cos otherwise that's just massively hypocritical). So they arrived today and they're great. They were $40 for two pairs, including p&p (so £13 each). I got a pair in black for me and red for my daughter. They look great on her, not so sure on me. They don't look anywhere near as big or fluffy in real life on an adult, but I think they're a great find and would make lovely, not break-the-bank presents for someone, not least cos they come in quite a few different colours.

Rabbit earmuffs from www.furhatworld.com