Winter Magic??

This is turning into a winter that mountains folk won't forget in a while. Around the time of the Winter Solstice, we enjoyed our annual Winter Magic Festival.  This year was one of the best on record, with huge crowds and a sparkling (if slightly windy) cold day. In the afternoon Dave the busker played for a couple of hours and entertained the crowds outside zuri.

 Thanks to the fabulous Armani Nimerawi for the pictures. Dave (in case you were wondering) is dressed as a Space Bunny because he was in the big parade earlier in the day. Why was he still in costume so much later? Only Dave knows...

In the background you can see the lovely artwork, by the Textile Group, which adorned our window for a few weeks. It was called 'The Magic Faraway Tree' and drew a lot of interest.

Then came the winds. Last Tuesday night was a frightening experience, with trees snapping and crashing around us as we sat in the candle light. This picture (from the ABC website) shows what happens when a tree meets a train.

Our household was without power for three days, which was long enough for us to really appreciate all that electricity does for us. Luckily we could come into Katoomba for hot showers and meals with friends (thanks Rachel!) and to work at zuri. I mainly came in for the morale boosting heater and coffees.

How to keep children amused in the school holidays and potentially with the battery flat in their electronic devices? Good old fashioned games and craft, that's how!  And we have some lovely things at zuri.

From East of India we have lovely board games - Draughts, Snakes & Ladders and House, 

from Rosie Flo we have colouring books,

and our perennial favourite, Honeysticks beeswax crayons.

You'll have so much fun you won't want them to go back to school!

Snuggle

It is a wild and windy day today in the mountains. A day to snuggle in and enjoy the joys of mid-winter. Surprisingly, we've been very busy today in the shop, but chocolate, woollen tights and coffee are what the brave souls out on the street today have been buying. 
We love the raw, organic chocolate from Loving Earth, and their new range, sweetened with coconut sugar, is proving just as popular. Today feels like a day for the Organic Mild Chilli flavour.

With twice the antioxidants of conventional chocolate, you'll be glowing from within!

Last winter the cooking range from La Chamba was such a hit we've expanded our stock this winter.  This Fair Trade range from Colombia can be used on the stove top, in the oven, microwave and barbecue. Perfect for starting casseroles in the stove, then finishing in the oven, and beautiful enough to serve from on the table, every La Chamba piece is hand made by an adult indigenous artisan. The black micaceous clay from the Magdalena River is dusted with fine terracotta, polished with semi-precious stones and fired with herbs and mango leaves.

Unlike most glazed ceramics, La Chamba has a porous finish which allows slow evaporation of steam meaning that the cookware retains heat, moisture and flavour. 


And what is slow food cooked without your own produce. Winter seed varieties, including kale and kohl rabi are available now.

Also available in store, but not online, are a great range of BPA-free thermos and food flasks. These are two of my favourite designs.

Sweet things

Sweet jam making kit

There have been so many wonderful things arriving at zuri, but with all the bad news around floods, cyclones and fires it didn't seem right to talk about how much fun it is to have lovely new things in store.  


We had a customer in yesterday who had just picked up the photos of her house which had been hit by Cyclone Yasi (she was here in the mountains at the time and doesn't want to go back yet) and she bought herself a pretty bag to cheer herself up, so maybe the time is right.


There's a lot of fruit around at the moment with a few spots and marks and what better way to use it than in preserves.  We have the loveliest new jam-making set from English designer Rex! which comes with 4 vintage style glass jam jars with polkadot printed metal lids, 4 labels, 16 jam covers and string ties and a notebook for your favourite recipes. 

There's also a gorgeous pack of labels, if you already have some old jars saved up to reuse.

If you aren't game enough to make your own, we stock some beautiful locally made jams and relishes at zuri.  


Janelle Gill from Pulp It has a wonderful seasonal range using local organic produce - her award winning Swear Jar Sambal never stays in stock long and Cathy Armstrong from Princess Pantry has developed some amazing flavour combinations. Mr C's favourite is the  Cheongsam Red Spiced Capsicum relish which also caught the eye of the judges at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show.


The flavours are constantly changing as these talented ladies only work with seasonal produce, check with us what is available.  The jam making kits will be on the web-site very soon.

Christmas Shopping in Katoomba

It certainly has been a very busy lead up to Christmas at zuri. We have hardly had time to catch our breath and all sorts of lovely things are racing out the door.  We are busy socialising too, with a lovely Festive Vegetarian BBQ last Saturday night where we mingled with lots of friends from the Slow Food movement, a couple of gallery trips to see the latest work of talented mountain artists and a street party with our lovely friends and neighbours. I'd say we've come back to work for a rest, but not at this time of year!

A huge THANK YOU to all those local folk who supported our Late Night Shopping adventure. Katoomba was buzzing with happy shoppers, buskers, choirs, Santa, the RFS truck and even a Christmas Tree on stilts.

Congratulations to the winners of the Lucky Hampers - C McGraw, G Flood, M Wilson and J Wood.

The little gang of shop keepers who organise the whole thing had a ball and we are looking forward to our champagne debriefing soon.  Any suggestions as to how to improve the event next year are more than welcome.

Many of you love the hip and happening magazine Frankie, but you'll love it even more when you see this edition's cover which features zuri regular, the lovely Angelique.

Our family Christmas celebrations start in a couple of days and continue until Boxing Day.  Just a few more gifts to buy, then I can concentrate on making the food and making the house look lovely for all the guests.

zuri will be open each day until the 24th December from 10 - 5 pm.
We re-open on December 27th from 11 - 3 pm, then normal opening hours resume.

Just as things get really busy at zuri, I've come down with a cold. Thanks to Ziggy for holding the fort and letting me have a day off to recover.  I spent yesterday evening making cupcakes for my lovely s-daughter's birthday.  She was a bit blue about having her birthday on a day when most of her friends were on an excursion. Still I figure, if you have cakes to share, friends will find you.

Speaking of sharing, we love this time of year when people come to zuri to do their Christmas shopping and find just what they are after. A lady was overheard the other day to say "I've never seen so many lovely things in the one place at the one time". We were chuffed to hear that! That's when Christmas has meaning - when you find the perfect gift - not just something you found in a shop that 'would do'.

Late Night Christmas Shopping in Katoomba
Our Christmas Shopping Nights are fast approaching - Thursday 16th and Friday 17th of December.  This is the hamper one lucky shopper will win.  Just make a purchase after 5 pm from a participating retailer to receive and entry ticket.

New at zuri this week:

• Love Dove cards from Polli - a card that becomes an ornament
• Beautiful stainless steel, BPA-free drinking bottles from Earthlust - selling fast
• Practical and stylish stainless steel picnic cups from Ecococoon
• Princess Pantry jams - made locally by the fabulous Cathy Armstrong
• Whisk and Pin Christmas treats - Rocky Road, Snowy Road and Spiced Nuts, all handmade right here in the Blue Mountains
• A limited number of string decorations - the first lot sold out and we have been lucky to get a few more

Ecococoon cups

Love Dove cards 

Earthlust bottles

String ornaments

Eco Christmas Decorations

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at zuri.  The window is adorned with a garland of lovely Polli decorations.

These Eco Decoration Kits contain 30 cardboard decorations and 6 metres of red coloured twine presented in a beautiful printed button tie envelope. The decorations can be used to create a garland, hanging decorations, or gift tags. The designs in each pack include a tree, dove and olive branch. Printed in Australia on recycled card, they can be recycled after the holidays or compactly stored for next year.


We love the bright colours of red, sky blue and sunshine yellow - so suited to an Australian Christmas. 

Consume Consciously this Christmas

As we race headlong towards the Silly Season we feel a bit conflicted at zuri. We love the excitement of Christmas, the rituals and traditions, the once-a-year foods and the thrill of finding the perfect gift for someone special.  But we hate the rampant consumerism, the unnecessary gift giving, the stupid soundtrack of songs about snow, all the cards featuring snow, all the shop windows featuring snow (can you tell I hate the idea snow IN AUSTRALIA at Christmas - although it DID snow here three Saturdays ago - ah climate change - what fun!) but most of all we hate the pressure put on everyone (Mums in particular) to have FUN and to make Christmas PERFECT. 

No such worries at our little eco-haven.  We've chosen an incredible range of organic, fair trade, natural and hand made  gifts and done all the hard work to make Christmas happy and joyful for you. All our cards are on recycled paper, printed with soy inks and featuring all that is sweet, joyful and lovely (and guaranteed snow-free). We love the Earth Greetings range of Christmas cards.

All the fabulous gifts you can choose from are useful, even essential. Even the stocking stuffers will be welcomed. Look at this little lip balm tin from Figs & Rouge.

Lovely! What girl wouldn't want these in her stocking!

We have a fantastic range of local gourmet foods to use or give as gifts. 

We gift wrap for nicks, as usual, but we ask for a gold coin donation at Christmas because we are just that little more busy and because it allows us to spread a little joy to our friends at Blue Mountains East Timor Sisiters.  Last year you donated enough to pay a teacher's salary for a month - outstanding!

All you have to do is turn up to zuri, relax and browse.  Even better, we will be part of Katoomba's late night Christmas Shopping again - more details soon.