Marloe musings

Alex Eagle, Stylist & Creative Director of The Store on curating a nursery

Photograph of Alex by Ingrid Rasmussen

The Space: 

A few weeks before Jack was born I met with my friend, Lara Apponyi who has a company called Work and Sea (www.workandsea.com). Together, we came up with a hand-painted stripe design in a gender-neutral red, which worked for both a boy or a girl as I did not know what I was expecting. When working on the style of the space, Lara and I wanted to create a baby's room that could easily transition into a child's room, making it easy to adapt as Jack grows up. A lot of the style and influence has essentially originated from the taste reflected at The Store and in my Studio on Lexington Street.

 

Decorations and Objects: 

My favourite decorations in Jack's room are a variety of tasteful African animal heads I found on Edit58 (www.edit58.com), which will be coming soon to both Alex Eagle Studio and The Store. Made by artisans, the heads of giraffes and elephants are made of papier mâché and hand-painted. In the nursery there is also a wonderfully comfortable nursing chair by Fritz Hansen made of sheepskin and with it's cloud like appearance adds an element of fun to his room. I paired this with a foot rest by Makers & Brothers (www.makersandbrothers.com).  Finally, to give Jack's room some edge and maturity, I found a lamp by Serge Mouille which casts a lovely soft light.

       

Wonderful Gifts: 

The best of all is my personalised Indigo Dip-Dyed Marloe - so soft, beautiful and useful. I mean the dream!

Daniel Heer gave Jack a gorgeous baby-blue tickling horse hair mattress. 

Anne Singh at The Monogrammed Linen Shop gifted Jack a white pillow with his name and date of birth embroidered on it in blue.

Quentin Jones gave a Bauhaus Style Wooden Jungle Gym.

 

Marina Fogle on how The Bump Class prepares new mothers for birth

(Photograph of Marina & Chiara by Helene Sandberg)  

There’s a lot of talk of ‘traumatic’ births right now – birth that when you take a look at the reasons they’re considered traumatic, made me realise that antenatal classes needed to up their game. 

Since the birth of my own children, I’ve been fascinated by people’s expectations and birth stories and evolved into a kind of ‘go-to’ Mum for the bewildered and often frightened mums to be.  It was one frosty new year that my sister, Dr Chiara Hunt, a GP and mother of two, and I decided that we would start a series of antenatal classes that would empower rather than frighten and through a series of talks given by specialists (midwives, doctors, physios and breastfeeding consultants) give the knowledge to mums that would enable them to make the decisions that would be right for them.  No judgment, no bias – just facts and evidence based advice…and a whole lot of fun. 

Because the biology of labour can be a dry old subject and when you’re in your third trimester, you’re pretty tired.  Five years on we’ve written a bestselling pregnancy book and our classes are heavily oversubscribed and our inbox is full of emails from grateful mums telling us that even though their birth wasn’t what they’d planned, because they had prepared for every type of birth, the emergency caesarean had been ‘utterly magical’ because nothing could take away from them the moment they met their baby for the first time.

The Bump Classes are run in South Kensington and Parson’s Green.  www.thebumpclass.com  Early sign up essential!

The Bump Class: An Expert Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond by Dr Chiara Hunt and Marina Fogle is available from Amazon and all good bookshops.

 

Lizzie King of Lizzie Loves Healthy on keeping energised as a busy mama

No one has enough time anymore. And no mother has enough time ever, so food for us always seems to get shoved to the bottom of the list. Whether you have a tiny baby to feed all day, an energetic toddler to take to the park, or bigger children at school and a ton of things to do whilst there out – time is never your friend. However, it’s a huge mistake, that I learnt fast when I had my kids, to put yourself at the bottom of the list. If you’re out of energy, getting ill or just constantly reaching for the sugar hit, noone is happy. And the answer if that your nutrition could do with an upgrade, which is the best thing for your whole family.

A happy, nourished, well-fed mum, is the key to a happy family, and I started Lizzie Loves Healthy in order to make it achievable, delicious and rewarding to make the best food for the whole family.

There were lots of recipes that were “kid friendly” and plenty of healthy ideas for grown-ups but I never felt the gap was bridged, so I started making up my own recipes. That were easy to make, packed with nutrient dense goodies without the sugar and proper, delicious food that husbands, toddlers and you would devour. My blog took off in an amazing way, and I now teach cooking classes and send out recipes every week from www.lizzieloveshealthy.com Then Orion got hold of me and asked me to write a book.

My first book Lizzie Loves Healthy Family Food is being published by Orion in March next year.

Chocolate Pecan Brownie Balls

If you need an instant and delicious, energy hit for you, a toddler or an after school football go-er, you MUST try my chocolate pecan brownie balls:

http://lizzieloveshealthy.com/pecan-brownie-balls/