Posts Tagged ‘Treats for mum’

Gifts for Mother’s Day

Monday, March 8th, 2010

We’re nearly there. Mother’s Day is the one day of the year when we’re almost guaranteed a tiny bit of fuss. Now, a cup of tea in bed is all well and good, but how about forwarding a few of these present ideas to teenies or dad? Here are some of our favourites.

Lily BelleI’d be thrilled to receive a Lily Belle Family Bracelet. Created in hammered silver, with simple round charms engraved with a single letter. It doesn’t shriek, ‘Look at me, I’ve got children’,  but glints prettily from your wrist. Only you know that the charms bear the initials of your brood. From £41 for a bracelet with two charms at Lily Belle.

 

 

Boasting EnvelopeI don’t know about you, but I keep a couple of slightly dog-eared photographs in my wallet. Much nicer to give them a home they deserve. The Handpicked Collection has two versions of a ‘boasting envelope‘. The eco-friendly recycled  leather (shown letter) costs £12.95, and a smarter version includes a gift box for £22.95. I’m also a fan of their Art File & Frames (from £14.95 for a single), a great way to adorn walls and keep the house nice and tidy.

 

Evy DesignsI discovered EVY Designs on Twitter, had a browse on her website, and immediately ordered a pair of earrings. Within a couple of days I received my beautifully boxed jewellery, presented with chocolates, a hand-written card thanking me for my order, and a couple of herbal tisane bags. Great customer service, lovely products, personal touches galore.  And great value, too.

 

 

Luxury boutique hotel specialists Mr & Mrs Smith offer Get a Room! gift vouchers starting at £50. So if it’s a big year for mum, you could join forces with the rest of the clan and get her started on a well-earned weekend away.

MillaMiaLondon mums, and their children aged seven and up, can sign up for MillaMia’s two Mother’s Day special knitting classes, 13 and 14 March at MillaMia Studio, 32 Bolton Gardens, London SW5 (08450 17 74 74). During the two-hour session you’ll learn the basics of casting on, the knit stitch, purl stitch and casting off, and will be sent home with a MillaMia Beginner’s Scarf Kit, further practice yarn, and instruction materials. The courses cost £40 a session, including as much cake and tea as you can cram in. Solo adults are welcome to attend. 

 

LongchampI’ve written about Longchamp’s Your Very Own Le Pliage before, and am still a fan. These covetable and useful bags can now be personalised with your choice of colour, handle length and even the colour of the famous logo. You can also add initials. Prices start at around £25 for a coin purse. What’s not to like?

 

 

 

SpaFinder Gift VoucherHow about a SpaFinder voucher? There are over 1,000 places where these can be redeemed nationwide, and a pleasure deferred is anything but a pleasure denied. We’ll soon (please) be out of winter hibernation, and a pedicure to look forward to would put a spring in anyone’s step.

 

Cookie BouquetPostable presents at Dough Dough start at £4.99 for a letterbox friendly brownie, including postage, wrapping and a gift card with personalised message. Mother’s Day gifts include an I Love You cookie card for £5.99 and a Cookie Bouquet for £34.99.

Green & Black’s for world peace

Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Mummies don't get much yummier

Mummies don't get much yummier

Naturally, I was jealous as hell thrilled for Denise van Outen when she announced that she’d barely put on any weight during her pregnancy because she only craves fruit. Gnash, gnash, so, no biscuits, salt & vinegar crisps and my mother’s chocolate caramel squares? She looks fabulous, glowing and gorgeous (check her out in the Seraphine dress, right), and about the same size at seven months as me at four. I’m going to go and lie down and sulk very happy for her, and don’t at all resent the pregnancy nausea that I can only counteract by eating. And the foods that make me feel better for longer can be broadly categorised as stodge, stodge and more stodge.

So hurrah for Green & Black’s. Along with lots of other bloggers, I was sent a glorious, bulging parcel of different varieties of their chocolate bars, along with tasting notes. Sadly, I didn’t read the tasting notes before I’d wolfed down a bar of Milk Chocolate (made with more cocoa for a richer taste), and a chaser of a half bar of Cherry, because the instructions clearly said to eat chunk by chunk to ‘allow the chocolate to melt slowly on the tongue’. Sorry, I can only blame the bump.

After my exhaustive, scientific and reasoned tasting, I’ve made some shattering and life-changing discoveries. Green & Black’s offers a cure for all kinds of life’s woes. Broken hearts, fractious children, grumpy husband, nauseous pregnant mums – all can benefit from the cocoa-dense, anti-oxidant packed deliciousness that is Green & Black’s.

Morning sickness
You get morning sickness because of hormones, wonky blood sugar levels and a generally being dog-tired. And some women react to stress by feeling nauseous. Vitamin B6 can help you feel better, and guess what? There’s Vitamin B6 in chocolate, plus serotonin, the ‘feel good chemical’, which should help counteract the stress. As Green & Blacks has high concentrations of cocoa, it’s practically a morning sickness remedy in the form of a bar. You therefore owe it to yourself to eat little (or lots) of it, and often.

A broken heart
Eating chocolate is a tried and tested cure for heartache. But a brutally broken heart needs more than mere calories. Green & Black’s Cherry is a scarily grown-up mix of dark chocolate and bittersweet dried cherries. It’s a bit like eating a sour Jaw Breaker, giving moments of sweetness and light punctuated with wincing episodes when you have no choice but to suck your teeth and do a little dance. Just like a relationship, really.

Fractious children
Sugar highs and young children are not a combination made in heaven. Instead, wear them out by getting them baking. Our current favourite treats are chocolate chunk tiny cookies made in a 24-hole mini muffin pan. Make the dough, press into the pan, pop in half a square of Green & Black’s butterscotch, bake for 8 minutes. The second they come out the oven, pop a square of Green & Black’s milk chocolate on the top, and sigh happily as it melts woozily all over your creations. Wait as long as you can and eat. These go particularly well with vanilla ice cream.
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
170g unsalted butter, melted
200g soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1tbs vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
325g chocolate chips (I prefer plain)
1 bar Green & Black’s Butterscotch

Small, sweet and very moreish

Small, sweet and very moreish

Ingredients

1) Pre-heat oven to 170.
2) Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt.
3) Cream together melted butter and caster sugars.
4) Beat in vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy
5) Mix in sifted ingredients, then stir in chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.
6) Roll into balls, squish into muffin tin, make into bowl shapes and pop a square of Green & Black’s Butterscotch into each ‘bowl’
7) Bake for around 12 minutes, and pop a square of Green & Black’s chocolate on the top of each one when still hot.

World Peace
If everyone ate a bit more chocolate, we’d all be happier and less likely to do aggressive things like fall out over oil fields off the Falkland Islands. Which means eating chocolate is kind of a duty to harmony, peace, love and hugs. If you need more persuasion, Green & Black’s uses organically grown cocoa beans, ingredients that are ethically sourced and all the bars are Fair Trade. So hopefully no-one need suffer for your chocolate hit, and will, in fact actively benefit from your purchase. And there aren’t many addictions you can say that about.

Another hard day in the office...

Another hard day in the office...

Top ten surreal mummy moments

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

ideal_home_final_logoa

Wives and Daughters is hosting a Mummy Bloggers Carnival offering the chance to win 100 free pairs of tickets to the Ideal Home Show, plus the opportunity to be be Real Mum of the Year. This includes all kinds of extra goodies, including a VIP experience at the Ideal Home Show, some beauty and pampering treats, lunch in Aldo Zilli Cafe and afternoon tea inside the Alice In Wonderland themed ‘Mad Hatters Tea Party’ Heck, that’s quite a challenge, so while I mull over the merits of being a ‘real’ versus an ‘unreal’ mother, here are the rules. Write about your Top 10 Most Surreal Mummy Moments, and ping your offering over to Wives and Daughters. Here are my top ten, though I could easily have written 100.

1)      The outlook is bumpy… It’s a shock to discover you become public property the moment you start to show. Friends and family voice opinions about how big or small your bump is for your stage of pregnancy (tip to anyone who hasn’t been pregnant: calling someone ‘enormous’ is never wise), whether you’re carrying a boy or a girl, depending on your shape, while complete strangers pat your tum and tell you their (usually gruesome) birth stories. Strangely, though, your bump becomes invisible the second you step on to a crowded Underground train.

Baby on Board

 

 

 

 

 

2)      What a babe… The baby arrives. And no one will be able to convince you that he or she isn’t the most beautiful creature the world has ever seen. You feel sorry for friends who must be jealous knowing their own babes aren’t as cherubic, and you daydream about being stopped in the street by a  casting director for a Pampers advert. Six months later, you look at a photograph and realise that your baby looked like a yellow wide-mouthed frog.
3)      Introducing the world’s strongest woman… Anything or anyone tries to hurt your baby, and you know there is nothing you wouldn’t do to protect them. It’s terrifying to realise how much you love this tiny scrap of helplessness, and how you’d try to bat the world aside to reach him or her if, say, a tiger attacked. Which probably isn’t very likely in south-west London, but your maternal dreams start to include such madness.
4)      Getting ‘em out… I’ve never been one for topless sunbathing, and don’t go in for showing off the cleavage. But start breastfeeding, and to a certain extent, forget about keeping the boys to yourself. I learnt to breastfeed on park benches, airplanes, while working on my laptop and, most surreally of all, on the Buzz Lightyear ride at DisneyLand Hong Kong. No wonder my children are all so well padded.
5)      Anyone seen a brain…? After about four months you eventually learn to leave the house before midday, and only forget nappies, sun/winter hat (delete for as appropriate the season), and handbag. You gradually realise you’re suffering from a condition that apparently could stay with you for decades – it’s called ‘preggie brain/new baby brain/mummy brain’.  
6)      How can someone this small create this much chaos…? Baby becomes toddler. House becomes playpen. Pre-baby you swore your house wouldn’t become a primary colour and plastic filled style vacuum. Now you barely notice treading on Lego with bare feet.
7)      Thank goodness for sofas. How simplistic to have only seen them in the light of somewhere comfy to sit down and watch EastEnders. Nowadays their use changes daily, morphing from pirate ship to jail for baddies, secret castle to bounce machines. Occasionally you even put the cushions back on and watch television.
8)      And your specialist topic is RevdAwdry. You know you’re vaguely thinking straight again because you can tell the difference between all the characters in Thomas the Tank Engine, including (and you’re particularly proud of this) trains that are the same colour. Other skills you never knew you’d need include being able to pick Play Doh out of hair and carpets, learning the words to entire Noddy stories so that you can recite them in traffic jams, and creating princess castles out of little more than an empty Weetabix box and a couple of pipe cleaners.
9)      Mummy two. Possibly the most surreal mummy moment is when you accept that you have become your mother. Phrases such as ‘Because I say so’ pop unbidden out of your mouth, and you realise why leftover mashed potato is only a meal waiting to happen, rather than something that should have been thrown out of the fridge weeks ago.
10)   Love is all you need. No matter what is thrown at you (and this could be anything from reflux vomit to soggy pants) nothing stops you loving the little person in your life more and more each day. Which is just as well, because if anyone had told you that you’d regularly leave the house with your shoulders smeared with yoghurt, or you might not get a full night’s sleep for years (sob) on end, you might not have got into this in the first place.

Elemis parties for Mothers4Children

Sunday, February 7th, 2010
Yasmin le Bon, as usual looking about 20

Yasmin le Bon, as usual looking about 20

Occasionally, angels & urchins blog allows herself out of the house before the bedtime rush (and no, sadly that isn’t angels & urchins blog, on the left). Last week, she was easily lured by the bright lights of a party to celebrate 20 years of Elemis. We like the products, which help skin glow with the help of cutting edge science and top quality ingredients, and even selflessly – sob – donated a pampering pack worth £119 as a giveaway so that a fraught reader could grab some at-home spa time. But never let it be said that it’s only cupcakes, pink champagne and celebrity spotting that has the power to entice into London at night.

As well as celebrating the 20th anniversary, the party was also held to highlight Elemis’s association with Mothers4children. This charity was set up by Lisa B and aims ‘to provide practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children and young people. To transform the quality of life and provide hope to orphans in developing nations.’ Laudable aims, and ones which have helped Lisa B recruit a flotilla of high profile mums to help her raise funds, including Yasmin le Bon, Tess Daly and Louise Rednapp. Elemis got on board this year and is making donations from limited editions of two of its products; the Skin Nourishing Milk Bath and Pro-Collagen Marine Cream, and expects to raise at least £50,000 for the charity.

 Mothers4Children

Back to the party, blog angels & urchins arrived at the same time as Angela Griffin, and wasn’t sure to be more jealous of her sky-high nude heels or fabulous complexion. A fan yelled that he’d seen her recently on the red carpet (where? TV awards? Anyway, she said she’d got to meet George Clooney, so we can add that to the list of jealous points).  Inside, Lisa B, Yasmin le Bon and Trinny Woodhall snacked on teeny macaroons created by event organisers Rhubarb, veterans of such bashes as the premiere of Casino Royale, where Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Prince William tucked into the Bond-themed canapés.  And if the guests got tired with all the partying, poor dears, Elemis therapists were on hand to administer on-the-spot (arm, head and back) treatments in curtained off areas.

So the outing was all for a good cause. Promise. And if you want to find out more about Mothers4Children by clicking here. And if you want to buy one of the limited edition products, visit the Elemis online shop here.

Christmas baking carnival

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Mum’s the Blog’s Christmas Baking Carnival means a very festive 12 days of cakes. Which is a great idea at any time of the year, but particularly at Christmas, when it’s practically the law to fill the house with home-baked smells. The idea is for 12 bloggers to come up with a favourite yuletide cake recipe. I hope Mum’s the Blog won’t mind that my chosen baked treat isn’t a cake, but a muffin, because it involves a mixing bowl and an oven, not to mention sugar, spice and other things nice. To find out where on the blogosphere to find the other cakes, click here.

Christmas Spice Muffins. Taste nice than they look. Luckily.

Christmas Spice Muffins. Taste nicer than they look. Luckily.

I love these Christmas spice muffins because they make a great breakfast warm from the oven, and taste just as good later in the day when you need some fuel to get you through a frozen shopping trip or yet more present wrapping. The spices make the kitchen smell wonderful in the mixing and the baking, the citrus zest give an additional Christmas zing, and the nuts and seeds give crunch and the kind of essential oils that really are essential at this time of year of colds-a-plenty. If you look closely, you can see a little bit of edible glitter (’snow’!) that you can buy for £2.70 at the Mums who Bake which, as you’d probably expect, is packed with everything to do with the art of baking.

The recipe is for 12 large muffins, but you can stretch the mixture to 18 small ones, which would go down a treat as an alternative mince pie.

INGREDIENTS
100G light muscovado sugar (caster/granulated will also do)
175ml sunflower oil
2 large eggs
225g plain flour
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 heaped tsp mixed spice
Pinch of salt
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of ½ lemon
150 g (roughly two large) carrots
100 g walnuts/pecans, chopped
50g raisins
Handful of pumpkin seeds
Heaped tbsp of poppy seeds, or anything else you’ve got in the kitchen (optional)

METHOD
1)Preheat oven to 200/gas mark 6
2) Mix sugar and oil together, then beat in eggs one at a time.
3) Add sifted flour, bircarbonate, mixed spice, salt and citrust zest, then fold in grated carrot, nuts and seeds. Don’t mix too hard, but make sure the flour is incorporated.
4) Spoon into 12 muffin cases or 18 small cupcases and bake for 20 minutes (15 minutes if making small ones).
5) Cool on a rack, and serve warm, cold or however you want!

All I want for Christmas is Louboutin Barbie

Friday, December 4th, 2009
Feline and looking good

Feline and looking good

I’ve always been a bit wary of grown-ups who play with toys. Grandpa with his attic train set I can just about get my head around. Ladies with to-scale dollshouses, complete with working lights, not so much. But, and I can’t even work out if they’re hopelessly un-PC or just too darned fetishistic to really be allowed, I’ve fallen in love with a doll. A gorgeous redhead with an hourglass figure and a Wag’s dream wardrobe. Though there’s nothing cheap about this little beauty; she’s so high-class that Christian Louboutin is her godfather. And he loves her so much that he’s created three limited edition looks for her. We’re talking Barbie. And as a mother of three boys, and a childhood Sindy groupie, that’s not a sentence I ever thought I’d write.

Louboutin’s first ensemble is Cat Burglar Barbie, complete with figure-hugging catsuit and gold differa sandals. The set comes with a further three (count ‘em) pairs of iconic Laboutin shoes, including the most divine leopardskin boots. Each pair features the signature red sole, and is boxed with a red cloth bag. Cat Burglar Barbie even gets her very own teeny travel journal.

So, if you have any kind of love for shoes, you can hopefully see why I’ve fallen for this little style icon. Plastic really doesn’t get much more fantastic. And Cat Burglar Barbie is yours for £100 (while stocks last) at Net-a-Porter. Miaow.

Family bunfight at Quo Vadis, Soho

Monday, September 21st, 2009

The crackle of bonfires is almost in the air, and we’re starting to dream of lazy Sunday lunches followed by walks in the park kicking up leaves. Even better if you can leave the cooking to someone else. ‘Sounds  good’, we hear you say, ‘But what about the children?’ Well, hurrah, we’ve found somewhere that promises to look after the entire family in style. Iconic Soho restaurant Quo Vadis will open for lunch and dinner on Sundays from October 4th. While mum and dad eat, children are entertained by one of angels & urchins’ favourite children’s party entertainers, Sharky & George (check out what we think about them in our party section). Their energetic games will keep children aged 3-14 engrossed in the Marx room, where activities might include movie making, picture frame decorating, pizza making and circus master classes – without mum as ringmaster, because she’ll be tucking into either the droolable a la carte or the three-course Sunday Lunch menu for £35, including a half bottle of wine, water, coffee and service.  It’s steak tartare and praline chocolate bar heaven, and the kids will be dragging you back before you’ve had time to say, ‘Nice fizzy apple juice, darling?’.

For more information and reservations, call: 020 7437 9585.

Runway (and school run) fashion

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Karen Cole Draped DressWe’ll be doing lots on our latest find, Karen Cole – including a competition, and discount offer – but wanted to introduce you because her catalogue is hot off the press (call 020 7495 2665 for your copy). Her clothes give us the fun and fashion that makes them a joy to wear, but they’re also incredibly practical. Karen uses a high-grade New Zealand merino, that won’t crumple, and can be machine-washed an endless number of times. No wonder mums in the know love they way they can be taken on the school run, then straight to a meeting, and back again to play tag after pick-up. And even for a drink  when the children are in bed, if she’s got the energy. Karen Cole also has genuine ethical credentials, and works with farmers in New Zealand to ensure the quality of the wool and the life of the sheep who produced it (anyone who read horrific reports on mulesing, which have led some UK designers to stop working with Australian wool, will need no reminding of how important this is).

We like. We like a lot. Visit Karen Cole now to discover some slinky lace, chunky knits, and separates that will take you through Autumn and into winter. Not that we’re trying to get you all paranoid about the school gate fashion parade, as described in the Telegraph - but a bit of chic comfort never goes amiss.

Relax – easy peasy Elemis giveaway

Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Spa stance,  as recommended by Elemis once children are in bed...

Spa stance, as recommended by Elemis once children are in bed...

It’s Friday. The summer holidays are nearly over. You’re probably exhausted. (If not, why not?) And the weekend, alas, with children in tow is usually no different to the daily 9 to 5am. So those nice people at Elemis have arranged a little treat. We don’t do gratuitous plugs at blog angels & urchins because we don’t need to – if we like it, we talk about it. And we really like Elemis. The products are soothing, ultra moisturising, packed with essential oils to help you relax, and they smell great. The sizes are generous, and each package features a miniature size of another product to try – great for travelling, too.

We’ve got an Instant Refreshing Gel, a Skin Moisurising Milk Bath, Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisure Melt and Japanese Camellia Oil Blend. All are safe to use during pregnancy (trust us, the Instant Refreshing Gel does untold good to those swollen ankles) and together the package is worth £119.

For your chance to win, visit angels & urchins’ competition area, then leave a comment below, telling us why you’re so exhausted after the summer. The mother who answers the competition question correctly, and who we consider the most tired and deserving, wins! Don’t forget to include your email address – it won’t be shown online, we’ll keep it secret, and won’t pass on your details to anyone else. We’ll show the best entries in the comments section, below. The winner will be revealed on 4th September 2009.

How to look good when pregnant

Monday, August 24th, 2009
Mamas & Papas Rock Poet - they'll be pretending to be bumpy this season

Mamas & Papas Rock Poet - they'll be pretending to be bumpy this season

It’s a tricky thing, working that pregnancy. We’re not talking all that stuff about dosing with folic acid and avoiding homemade chocolate mousse, but important things like looking groomed and sophisticated even when, to quote blog angels & urchins’ kind mother, ‘you put on an extra layer the second you get pregnant, and get rounder every week till babe arrives’. Merci, maman. Just what was needed the day a former colleague caught you munching Gu Tiffin (in for a penny, in for another ten pounds…) while wearing super-chic combo of husband’s discarded rugby shirt and elasticated skirt created in third form sewing lessons. And no, it didn’t look any better as a non-pregnant teenager. 

Some mums just know how to dress for pregnancy style success. And the new maternity collections from Mamas & Papas are a fabulous bump in the right direction. Rock Poet is a little bit Kate Moss in holiday mode,  with more than a nod to Sienna Miller in Notting Hill studied casual, it’s all ruffles, prints and checks with skinny jeans, cropped trousers and bright tights - the kind of gear you’d happily give up a lifetime of tiffin for pre-pregnancy. The Hippy Folk collection is just as gorgeous, with its laid-back casual vibe. Just add wellies,  and the world will think you’re back from Glastonbury/Bestival/V.

Mum’s the word, so we’d love to hear what you wore (or are wearing) – particularly if it’s the right kind of layers.

Tops from £18, slim jeans from £35.
Available in store now, and online at www.mamasandpapas.com.