‘Hats of Faith’ a book by Medeia Cohan and Sarah Walsh

Hats of Faith is a beautiful new board book which celebrates the shared custom of head covering in different faiths around the world. The book, written by Medeia Cohan and illustrated by Sarah Walsh, aims to educate children about diversity and tolerance  in a simple, endearing way — highlighting all the different types of hats with pretty illustrations and accurate terminology (including phonetic pronunciations, which I found super helpful).

Marlow and I read the book together this morning and it opened up lots of dialogue about different cultural backgrounds and faiths. We talked about the people we know who wear some of these hats and some of the places we’ve travelled to where certain hats are more common.

The author, Medeia Cohan, hopes that early familiarity with faith-based customs will lead to a kinder future generation. Books like this are a wonderful starting point, for sure.

You can now pre-order the book from the Hats of Faith website, or from Amazon (UK and US).

Courtney x

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Kit & Kin — eco friendly skincare

I have recently discovered this wonderful eco-friendly skincare range from Kit & Kin and the whole family have fallen in love with it! The line was co-created by the ever-so talented Emma Bunton after she noticed her little boy was developing excema and she struggled to find a skincare range that wouldn’t further irritate his skin. Having met up with Christopher Money, product developer, together they created Kit & Kin.

What I love about these skincare products is they smell so good that I can also use them! A bonus for when we travel so much! The range entails products such as the hair and body wash infused with mango and strawberry, the bubble bath which contains extracts of plum, mango, strawberry and ginseng, body oil and the amazing miracle salve. We’ve used this salve as a moisturiser and also on sun tanned skin which has really helped soothe dry patches.

In addition to the baby skincare range, Kit & Kin has also developed a divine mama range and the cutest of nappies which really have the most precious designs on. I think they’d be so cute on little bottoms in the summer sun!

The skincare range is available online at Kit & Kin

Vanessa xx

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Delicious apple muffins

On sunny weekend mornings, when the weather is nice and the waves are forecasted to be good, we hurry up with our breakfast, load the surfboards and beach bags into the car, and head to the beach! It’s become one of my favourite things about living here — that we can spend so much time outside in a place where we are all so happy. Michael and Easton get out in the surf, the other kids play together on the beach, and Wilkie and I sit under our beach umbrella taking it all in.

I always make sure I have plenty of snacks to keep everyone satiated to stay long enough at the beach, and then we usually grab a late lunch around 2ish. Often, I put all the extra pancakes from breakfast into a plastic container and bring those to the beach, but last weekend we didn’t have any extras, so I decided to quickly make muffins. I was hoping to make blueberry muffins, but we didn’t have blueberries, so I decided to make apple muffins instead.  And they were such a hit at the beach, I figured I ought to share the recipe here:

Ingredients for 10-12 apple muffins:

-½ cup butter (115 grams)
-¾ cup rapadura sugar (brown sugar is fine)
-2 eggs
-¼ cup buttermilk
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1 ½ cups chopped apples (roughly two apples)
-¾ cup whole wheat flour
-¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
-¼ teaspoon salt
-¾ teaspoon baking soda
-¾ teaspoon baking powder
-1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°F  (175° C).
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and apples and blend well. Sift the flour, salt, soda, baking powder and cinnamon together and combine with the apple mixture. Scoop into muffin tin. You can sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon or leave as they are.
Bake for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

We made these again this week and I put them in the children’s lunch boxes for a special treat everyone loved!

Courtney x

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Dumbo Baby, a children’s boutique in Brooklyn

Dumbo Baby is a lovely a new children’s boutique in Dumbo Brooklyn, adding to the list of reasons (Jane’s Carousel and Brooklyn Bridge Park chief among them!) that this neighborhood makes for a perfect family outing. The boutique is a brick-and-mortar home for A Gifted Baby and Galileo Linens, both members of the shopping portal, and it offers a wide selection of children’s products ranging from clothing to linens to toys, all chosen with socially -and environmentally-conscious production in mind.

Sharing space with the another local boutique, Trunk, Dumbo Baby’s bright space holds a number of delightful surprises. I loved seeing so many local Brooklyn brands represented, including Hazel Village, Wovenplay, Winter Water Factory, and of course, Galileo Linens, many of whose wraps and slings are cleverly displayed on dress forms with dolls snug inside! Plenty of familiar American and European labels can be found as well, with selections from companies like Tiny Cottons, Oli & Carol, Donsje Amsterdam, and Briar Handmade. The range of goods means you’re sure to find something you can’t possibly resist, making it a wonderful place to shop for gifts and as well as your own family.

The store also offers classes, with babywearing, infant massage, and macrame on the schedule for this month.

Dumbo Baby
68 Jay Street, Suite 101, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Opening hours: Monday-Saturday, 11am-7pm; Sunday 12-6pm

PS: Need some refreshment after all that shopping? Burrow Patisserie, with coffee and beautiful pastries, is located next door!

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A Super Fun Masked Fairytale from Ellie Jenkins

During our last visit to Salt Mills in West Yorkshire, which I must add is a great place to visit with the family, I spent some time in their amazing bookstore. Really this place is incredible. I could spend a day just in there roaming through their amazing collection of books! So on this particular visit I came home with a rather heavy bag filled with super exciting books for the girls. One book which we have had such fun with is this modern version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Florence is really into her fairy tales and having read her traditional book of fairy tales from back to front and back again, I was really happy to find this fun adaptation. Ellie Jenkins has taken the original story and added really exciting fonts, fabulous vocabulary and super bright illustrations making this edition just really great. I mean really, with phrases like “Goldilocks shimmied down the big tree” I was just hooked with this book, let alone the girls!

But not only is this book a great read, it also turns into a great role play activity too. It comes with two masks to cut out; one of a bear and the other of Goldilocks’s golden hair with a bright red bow so whenever you mention the names the mask must go on! The girls spent an afternoon last week acting out this story over and over again and I was in fits of laughter watching them parade around the house shouting phrases from the book!

Really this book is such fun for the holidays. It’s one for the whole family to get involved in and great for play dates too!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is available online from amazon (UK) and (US). Or if you plan a visit to Salt Mills then pop into their bookstore and pick up a copy from there.

Vanessa xx

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Team Favourites: Sixteen Summertime Stories

August is here (!) and while some people think that summer is nearly over, I think the best is yet to come, and I intend to fully squeeze every ounce out of summer. A glass half full approach. : ) So to celebrate the finale to the season, I wanted to share the team’s sixteen favourite summer themed picture books.

A reason to curl up in a shady spot and read is always great. But long summer days are an especially good excuse to add new books to your repertoire. Actually while working on this post, I was so inspired by the recommendations that I purchased a few of the books… (ok, I actually bought five of the books!). The ocean and beach themed books I bought are now tucked away in our suitcases so I can surprise the kids with new books when we arrive at our holiday by the coast. A great way to start our holiday — reading an ocean themed book, curled up on a beach blanket, with sand in your toes, as the sun slowly sets. It doesn’t get much more summery than that!

Enjoy our team’s (family) favourites, with a selection for all ages too. And we hope that these books add to your memorable and magical summer.

1. Mama Is It Summer Yet? by Nikki McClure. The perfect celebration of summer, this most favourite of seasons! (More detailed review here.)  — Courtney 
2. The Flower’s Festival by Elsa Beskow.  A perfect book to be read on a midsummers evening. — Vanessa
3. Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney.  A tale of living by the sea and doing something to make the world a more beautiful place, this was a favorite book from my own childhood and one I love sharing with my children as they spend part of their summer on a coast that looks much like the one in the book. — Shannon
4. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. Because I used to go to Boston every summer to visit family, this classic children’s book reminds me of rides on the Swan Boats and time spent in the Boston Common. — Lara in London
5. Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran. A wonderful story of the intricate worlds children create for themselves with little more than found objects and their imagination. Perfect summer inspiration! — Shannon
6. The Sand Horse by Ann Turnbull.  This book holds very special memories for me and I always read it to my kids right before our annual trip to Cornwall. Set in St Ives an artist sculpts a beautiful horse from sand but when the crowds of tourists have gone home the horse longs to join the white horses of the sea. Its a really touching story and is beautifully illustrated. — Kate
7. The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown. Another tale of changing seasons and observations of nature on a little island in the sea. I love the charming illustrations! — Shannon
8. The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson.  Such a romantically sweet book for young children. I love the illustrations. —Vanessa
9. ABC: off to Sea! by Virginie Morgand — Lara in Paris
10. Summer by Gerda Muller.  Part of a series, these no-text picture books that celebrate the seasons are simply adorable in a very timeless way. My kids love them! — Esther
11. Magic Beach by Alison Lester — When the beach becomes the perfect setting for all sorts of imaginative adventures. We love this beautiful rhyming book. Courtney 
12. Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey.  All of Robert McCloskey’s books are great, but I think this is my absolute favorite. It traces the passage of a summer on a little island off the Maine coast, and McCloskey’s descriptions and illustrations are stunning. — Shannon
13. Harry by the Sea by Gene Zion. Harry the dog goes to the beach with his family and chaos ensues. A super charming summery story. (Detailed review here.) —Courtney 
14. In One Tidepool by Anthony D. Fredericks. On a recent trip to Laguna Beach we bought this book. It is fascinating. — Lara in London
15. Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey — I think of this book every time I go berry picking! A classic Caldecott Honor story of a little girl, Sal, and her mother on a blueberry picking outing. Vanessa and Courtney 
16. The Curious Fish by Elsa Beskow.  Such a charming and curious book. Perfect to read on the river bank with a picnic! — Vanessa

We would love to hear your family summer favourites too! Let us know.

Lara

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Afternoon Tea at Cafe Liberty

Is there anything more quintessentially British than Afternoon Tea? And where better to experience it than in the tea room of one of London’s oldest and most beautiful department stores – Cafe Liberty at Liberty in Soho.

There are so many wonderful reasons for visiting Liberty. There’s the stunning flower stall whose beautiful blooms never disappoint. Then there are the fabric, haberdashery and interior decor departments which always leave me feeling inspired. Not to mention the wonderful selection of top class designers featured throughout the many fashion floors all beautifully displayed alongside some of the most stunning period architecture to be found in London.

But one of my daughter’s favourite reasons for coming here (apart from the shoe department with its impossibly high heeled sparkly shoes) is as she puts it, the fancy cafe. I can see why, it is hard to walk past its glowing pink sign and the fairytale wooden cart piled high with the most enticing treats.

The Cafe is smart but understated with an old school feel. The pretty chairs each upholstered with a different Liberty fabric. As big fans of Cornwall we often choose to share a Cornish Cream Tea. Tasty scones warm from the oven served with lashings of clotted cream and strawberry jam, it’s such a treat. I have it on good authority that the hot chocolate with marshmallows is also one of the best in town, and we’ve tested a few! Always a good reason to stop by.

Cafe Liberty is situated on the 2nd floor and serves breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea.

SERVICE TIMES
MONDAY TO SATURDAY:
Breakfast: 10am – 12pm
Lunch: 12 – 6pm
Afternoon Tea: 3 – 6pm

SUNDAY:
Brunch: 12 – 4pm
Afternoon Tea: 12 – 5pm

Liberty Of London

Regent St, Carnaby, London W1B 5AH

Kate x

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