Absolutely Mama July / August 2017

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J U LY / AU G U S T 2 01 7 I S S U E N I N E • £ 3 .9 5

P E A R L LOW E From rebel to country girl

TH E B I G M OV E Life after London

The Magazine For Stylish Mums

S LE E P S P E C IA L No more tears at bedtime

Mama ISSUE NINE • JULY / AUGUST 2017 MAMA_June_July17_COVER_UK_2.indd 2

Mini Me Style HAVE FUN THIS SUMMER

T H E M AG A Z I N E F O R ST Y L I S H M U M S

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mama WELCOME

contents J U LY

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AUGUST 2017

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AGENDA Mama loves

High summer fashion and the perfect tent for festivals

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New books

Fab new books for littles

20 Interview

Isla Fisher talks to Mama about motherhood and her writing

ESSENTIALS 23 City slicker

A super slick city buggy

24 On the move

Travel essentials for babies

ON THE COVER: Dolce & Gabanna Mini Me Collection Summer 2017 dolcegabbana.com

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30 Car seats

New rules mean it's a good time to brush up your knowledge

MAMAHOOD 34 Beauty sleep

Can a sleep consultant mend broken nights?

38 Pearl Lowe

Talks fashion and family

FASHION 46 Mama fashion Get set for summer

48 Mini Me

Ways to try the trend

12 70 Weaning recipes From Annabel Karmel

HOME & INTERIORS 76 Scandi styling Get the look

78 Life after London How to move to the country

TRAVEL 84 Tenerife

A fab family hotel

54 The making of us

RESOURCES 92 Expert advice

WELLNESS 64 Private practice

98 Education

Clary & Peg

We look at the diff erent options for private maternity care

Combating nappy rash and new recipe ideas

Th e advantages of learning in two languages

July / August 2017

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mama WELCOME HOLLY AND FREYA

Editor’s

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lmost all of us will be heading off somewhere this summer – and Amen to that. Those with pre-schoolers or tinies will be making the most of travelling before the chaos of the school holiday season, while parents with little ones at school have to wait until later. Wherever you’re going, from the Wild West to Wales, we hope you have fun – family holidays are a great chance to reconnect and take a breath. Bearing all this in mind, we’ve picked out some of the best SS17 fashion for littles, and the most useful items for your holiday list. Mini me fashion has been around for years, and whether you love it or hate it, it can be hard to avoid. Summertime is all about having fun, though, so we hope our fashion shoot shows you relaxed ways you can have a go yourself. Finally, we’ve crammed our Mamahood section with women who’ve been inspiring us lately, from Natalie Lee to Michelle Kennedy and Pearl Lowe. Whether you’re reading this on a sun lounger in the Seychelles or stuck in the seasonal Cornish traffic crush, we hope you’re taking some time to be good to yourselves, and we hope you enjoy the issue.

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HOLLY KIRKWO OD E DITOR

@h.kirkwood holly@zest-media.com

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7 Things we love this month

1 Social apps connecting local mamas p.42 2 Our pick of the best new books for all ages p.18 3 Baby-Led Weaning recipes p.70 4 The low down on buying the right car seat p.30 5 How sleep consultants can change your life p.34 6Summer style for mamas p.46 7 Summer fashion for littles gets adventurous p.58

July / August 2017

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Mama & Marge Fiercely protective of her family and private life, Isla Fisher comes alive when talking about her other great passion: books W o r d s B E T H E VA N S

N ISLA AND SACHA BARON COHEN

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ame five things that instantly pop into your head when you think of Isla Fisher. GO. It’s fi ne, I’ll wait here. Done? Now, let’s compare notes. Mine are - incredible red hair, funny, Home and Away, Sacha Baron Cohen, Wedding Crashers, big smile. I pondered her height for a while, wondering if Sacha being super tall makes her look smaller than she really is. Then I wondered if her kids were small, who they take after and whether they were big babies at birth and then I spent some time mentally giving props to the ladies who naturally birth ten pound plus babies, because, you know, ouch. There’s a point to my meandering rambles and it’s this – where’s the dirt on Isla Fisher? The list of former boyfriends, spurious asides about her life choices, style, belief systems, the detail of her diet, her red carpet prep, how she feels about turning 40 because of course let’s not forget that a woman over 40 MUST be feeling slighted by an industry that idolises the young. The shortage isn’t due to lack of interest. Fisher’s IMDB will tell you that she’s barely taken a break in 25 years – in December

2016 alone she had two major fi lms out – Nocturnal Animals and Keeping Up With The Joneses - as well as a children’s book (more of that later), she’s graced the front covers, talkshow sofas and red carpets across these lands and yet she’s managed to stay off the scurrilous gravy train that is the Hollywood gossip machine. White witchcraft? Terrifying publicist? Large payouts? Nope. The answer is simple – Isla just refuses to play the game. Fiercely private and family-orientated, you’ll be hard pushed to fi nd any detail on Isla’s life that hasn’t been carefully measured out. Get Isla talking about books, though, and she’s… well, she’s an open book. Nearly two decades after her fi rst attempt at YA fiction, her latest offering, Marge and the Pirate Baby, is the second in her Marge series: short tales of an anarchic, loveable babysitter who causes mayhem as she leads her charges into and out of scrapes. King of children’s books David Walliams has called them “hilarious” and like Walliams, it’s Isla’s ability to adapt her onscreen comedic flare to paper that make Marge a fi rm favourite in family homes. Though she clearly loves to write, Isla’s return to the craft came as much from a desire to stay sane and keep busy than anything else. “I started writing again because I was pregnant and couldn’t work. So, I could either

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agen d a PROFILE

pregnant and couldn’t work. So, I could either develop an obsession with gardening, get into Pilates or have a mid-life crisis. I considered all three and then decided to write Marge!” With three kids, Olive, Elula and Montgomery, Isla’s used to being surrounded by hustle and bustle so for her, the idea of having to get away from it all to concentrate couldn’t be further from the truth. “Writing is not a solitary thing for me. I’m never completely alone. I have a dialogue with my publisher throughout, and I write in a bookshop. I sneak away at 10am every morning, shove pastries into my mouth and

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"I SNEAK AWAY AT 10AM EVE RY MO RNING, S HOVE PASTRI E S INTO MY MO U TH AND T YP E AWAY..."

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type away. It’s never quiet there and I chat to people, which gives me the perfect excuse to take breaks. [Writing Marge] I ate one croissant an hour and then if I was really stuck I would eat another croissant or if I got writer’s block I would eat a croissant… I probably ate over 2,000 croissants. .” Books are clearly a big part of Isla’s family life and she cherishes the time they spend

together reading stories before bed. She’s been making up stories for the kids since Olive was born, and for her “reading is the best kind of escapism…books take tiny people to places they can’t otherwise go on a pirate ship, inside a peach, through a looking glass. They help children fi nd quiet time, provoke thoughts and discussions, and educate them. They are an integral part of childhood. As a child, Winnie-thePooh was my favourite book character. He is adorable – a lovable idiot. I still laugh when I read his lines to my kids, no matter how many times I’ve heard them. A.A Milne is one of my favourite children’s authors, along with Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and Dr Seuss – the usual suspects.” Her next dramatic role might not be pinned down but one thing is for certain; the next time I think of Isla Fisher, the fi rst thing that will pop into my head is a towering pile of books.

Marge And The Pirate Baby by Isla Fisher, illustrations by Eglantine Ceulemans, is available now. July / August 2017

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