Designed for a Simple Life

The simple life - what is that?

I’ve always been a planner. If I go on holiday, I like a packing list drawn up a week before at the latest. If I throw a party or have people over I need shopping lists, menus, music playlists, invite lists … it’s a pretty big list of lists. So the challenge for me is not throwing a fabulous party, but making it effortless.

The latest party I’m planning is a sale launch party at our Wapping Wharf shop. It might be business, but much of our heart and soul goes into that: many of our customers are friends and the connections we’ve built over the past few years are really important so I’m looking forward to it as much as a social as a work event.

When you want inspiration on effortless multitasking, look to busy mums.

“Grab some pasta, get a bag of salad, open a bottle - people just care about the company.” 

This is my sister’s advice on entertaining and I’m trying to take it to heart. We’ve got several new gourmet food lines in from Nicholas Vahe at the moment so I’ve designed a menu around opening jars and bottles. I can’t say that it’s been completely simple, but the food prep list is considerably shorter than normal.

Below is the first recipe for a simple carrot dip. We’ve designed the menu to be largely plant based for all our Vegan friends - this one, it turns out, is great on toast with some avocado or chickpeas. We’re serving it in filo baskets to make it easy “finger food”, but a crostini would be just as good.

The Fig1 Summer Sale Launch Evening is on 11/7/2018 6-9pm. RSVP by email for places.

Carrot, Cumin and Coriander Dip

Ingredients

500g organic carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
30ml Olive oil
30ml water
Pinch of salt
Small bunch coriander leaves

Place all the ingredients except the coriander leaf in an oven dish. Mix well and cover with foil. Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 40 minutes, then uncover, stir, and bake again for a further 40 minutes or until the carrots are starting to soften (they don’t have to be completely soft).

Once cooled, place in a food processor with the coriander leaves and blitz until smooth. Add some extra olive oil, water and salt to adjust the consistency and to taste.

The Mother Load

If there was a mother of invention, it was mine. There was little she wouldn't make for us. Occasionally we wished it was chocolate and not carob cake in our lunch box, but mostly it made us feel special, treasured and nurtured. She's moved on from the Good Life phase and into the age of Prosecco (the Elderflower wine never was the best), although it's still usually served up with a home made meal for the ever increasing family she's now grand matriarch of. These are a few of our favourite finds for Mums this mother's day.

The Moth

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Mums like to listen, right? This collection of true stories from The Moth is like a nourishing soup for the brain cooked up in the melting pot which is New York. People from all over the world tell their life stories at the Moth and this is a collection of some of the best. Find it here.

Øy Hand Cream

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They perform some magic each and every day, Mum’s hands. Mums are a well of creativity - always able to turn their hands to a new project, fixing everything from bikes and grazed knees to broken hearts. They need their hands and we need them. Find it here.

Salted Caramel Truffles

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More than worth the calories, these hand-crafted and gorgeously boxed truffles from Somerset’s James Chocolates make a stunning gift. They’ll be a memorable moment on the lips. Find it here.

Prosecco Bath Soak

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A soak in the bath with a glass of the good stuff? Light and bubbly with a floral bouquet - just don’t get carried away and tip Aperol in the bath too. Made in Cumbria but inspired by Italy’s favourite way to kick back and relax, it’s one effervescent way to treat your Mum. Find it here.

Champagne Glass

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These classic beauties are the perfect way to raise a glass to Mum and celebrate how she makes life awesome. Paired with a bottle and a card it's the party she deserves nearly as instantly as she made you feel better last time you needed her. Find it here.

White Tea and Ginger Candle

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Mums help light the way through life but when mine does finally sit down with that glass of bubbly she loves some gentle candle light. This white tea and ginger candle from Meraki sets the mood for some well earned rest and relaxation. Probably best if you do the washing up too, though. Find it here.

Bird Candle Holder

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What is life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare? Not a sentiment my Mum would hold much truck with - she’s always way too busy doing something - but on the rare occasion she does stand still she likes looking at the garden birds. These beauties on fine ceramic dance in the candle light. Find it here.

Wow Factor Scarves

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Always making a difference in the background these scarves are a great way to bring out the leading lady in any Mum. Designed by Copenhagen design duo Beck Sondergaard, their scarves and accessories have playful character to match Mum’s joie de vivre. Find them here.

Hepworth Necklace

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Ready for a chain of inspiration? Barbara Hepworth, the sculptor, was fascinated by finding symbols of motherhood in the Cornish landscape. It inspired her work and that work inspired this necklace, by East End jewellery designers Wolf and Moon. Your Mum might like it too. Find it here.

Clematis Lights

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And if all else fails say it with flowers. Hand crafted metal decorations make these lights more artwork than ornament. Find it here.

Picnic I up - it's festival time!

Those long days where the sunlight lasts all evening, the grass smells sweet, the uptempo beat of the music keeps going sound tracking the chatter of your friends: that's what we love about summer.

We're not alone - perhaps it's the proximity to Glastonbury which means Bristol, our home town, is packed full of home grown festivals all summer long. We love it. This weekend is Bristol's biggest festival - the Harbour Festival - which is one of Europe's largest free festivals and takes place around the Harbour Side and other central sites. The crazy mish-mash of out there and loud local bands, contemporary dance troupes who can contort your concept of what shape a human body actually is, local history, the sweet dulcet acoustics of singer songwriters who sing poetry to music and a good helping of Bristol's best food and drink - all come together to make one amazing weekend.

Our new shop premises at Wapping Wharf is within the Harbour Festival site so it will be the first year we're fully part of it. To celebrate, we've a competition to win a set of Rice Melamine - the perfect companion to the festival picnic. The prize includes 4 cups and 4 small bowls in this summer's prints as well as a plate.

To enter all you have to do is like and comment on and share our posts on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter before the deadline 28th July 2017. Competition winners will be picked on 31st July and contacted via social media.

Competition Time: Win a Dybdahl Print

Heinrick Dybdahl is a tall Norweigan magpie living in Copenhagen. He's a collector of images. He raids archives for beautiful things, picking them over for the best bits and then meticulously and carefully works on bringing out their beauty.

Read on to win 2 prints - one for you and one for a friend.

His prints are vibrant and full of colour and the result of hours of work restoring and enhancing old found images. Sometimes he cuts those images up or finds finer detail in them, enlarges or shrinks them and crops them to choice bits. The resulting images are a homage to the days when people explored the world through the pages of books and through exhibitions. The days when travel was a real luxury but jumping into a picture was the way people learnt about the mysteries of the world.

We've a chance to win a pair of prints this week - one for you and one for a friend - on our social media channels. You can enter on Instagram, on Facebook and on Twitter and if you enter on all three you will increase your chance of winning. Please note the prints to win will be 30 x 40 in size valued at £20 each, unframed.

Deadline 4th June 2017

To enter on Facebook:

Click like and share on our competition post 

Name the friend you think would like a print in the post

To enter on Instagram

Like the competition post on Instagram 

Use their Instagram handle to name the person you think would like a print in the comments below the post

To enter on Twitter

Favourite the post on Twitter

Retweet the post and append the Twitter handle of the person you think would like a print to the end of your retweet