Relaunch!

Me with William, and his big sisters Evie and Lola in Portugal, 2017

Hello! It's been a while. So much has happened since my last blog post including the arrival of my third (and final!) baby, William Percy. What a gorgeous squidgy sleep-stealer he is. He's now about to be two and my girls are approaching seven and nine. So true that the days are long and the years fly by when it comes to child rearing. I look forward to getting back into the world of blogging very soon.

My new website will have a tweak to the name: Chic Little List. As ever, I'm passionate about small labels, star high street finds and dreamy designer pieces but the focus of my new blog will be travelling with kids in tow.

I'm looking for contributors so if you want to get involved, get in touch.

Much love,  Maggie

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Half term days out: The American Museum

A proper teeppe

 

 

We visited Bath over to weekend to drop Evie with Granny Lyn for half term. A fascinating historical hub and true beauty spot, Bath is a fantastic place for children with a range of museums and undulating green countryside to explore. Somewhere we hadn't been before was The American Musuem. Set in Claverton manor, a grand old Georgian country house, it's been home to American decorative and folk art since 1961. Overlooking beautiful grounds, the museum offers a chronological history of America – exhibits range from traditional interiors and quilts to Native American accessories – there’s even a set of Obama family dolls. We also caught San Francisco-born knitwear and textile designer, Kaffe Fassett's kaleidoscopic show before it ends next week and the girls were totally mesmerised by the colour and pattern. Catch it if you can. Also, check out their fun 'Day of the Dead' activities for Halloween. We can’t recommend his place enough.

 

The American Museum in Britain, Claverton Manor, Bath BA2 7BD (01225 460503/www.americanmuseum.org).

 

Kaffe Fasset's colourful pompom strewn tree

A knitted lampost

Native American headdress and accessories

Miss Evelyn, trying on hats in he dress-up area

It's the Obamas!

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CLB Monthly Recipe: apple and blackberry cake

Gooey apple and blackberry cake is a hit with the little ones

The nights are drawing in, there are apples on the trees. Time for some autumnal comfort food. I have already made this cake a few times this year and it's been a huge hit with family and friends - the girls love it. It's a great way of using up apples from the garden and couldn't be easier. It's also a great cake to take to a loved one and works as a dessert (it goes really well with an expensive creamy organic vanilla ice-cream). So, here you go...


Ingredients

130g butter, softened
120g caster sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
75g ground almonds
100g self-raising flour
3 large ripe apples of your choice, peeled and each cut into 10 segments
100g blackberries

Method

1. Heat the over to 160c. Butter a 20cm (ish) cake tin.

2. Make a fluffy paste by beating the caster sugar and butter.

3. Pour in the eggs, adding a little flour here and there.

4. Add the ground almonds.

5. Add the rest of the flour and stir everything together.

6. Fold in the apples and blackberries to the cake mixture

7. Put the mixture into the tin, sprinkle with some butter shavings.

8. Bake for just under an hour - until a skewer comes out clean and it's golden brown on the outside.

9. Ta-dah! Your cake is ready.

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Gauguin at the Tate Modern

'Maternity', 1889

Evie and I braved Tate Modern's crowds to see the Gauguin exhibition this afternoon. It was soooo worth it. We loved his still life studies of 'flowers' ('wowers' according to E-chops) and the vibrant canvases depicting Polynesian women in luscious tropical, techicolour colour. You can almost sense the humidity of the Tahitian-climate just looking at them. I was intrigued to find out Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, 1848-1903, had been a well-to-do stockbroker and that he didn't pick up a paint brush until he was the ripe old age of 27. The Paris stock market crashed in 1882 and soon afterwards he abandoned his wife Mitte and five children (charming!) to pursue art, eventually heading to the South Seas to revel in the more primitive way of life. He knew buyers would love these exotic, richly-coloured paintings and the myths they evoked. Gauguin had a dark side but his paintings from that era are glorious and I love the way these women and children are depicted. Who knows, perhaps deep down he missed his wife and kids? He died of syphilis at the age of just 54 on a remote Polynesian island. 'It is true that suffering sharpens the genius, yet too much suffering kills you,' he said. Go see the genius for yourself.
Gauguin is on at Tate Modern until  16 January 2011. 020 7887 8888/www.tate.org.uk. Book a time slot (aim for a week day when it is quieter).

'Nativity', 1896

Faa Iheihe, 1898

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