Lifestyle Interview: Emma Forbes

Lifestyle expert and TV presenter Emma Forbes is one of the nations most loved personalities, and now she is making waves with her lifestyle magazine and website, which is fast becoming an influential online destination, covering everything from parenting, food, interiors, travel, health and well-being, basically everything to make stylish living easy.  Which sounds good to us!  Emma has also released her book Life & Soul, which gives the rundown on creating perfect themed parties.   

Emma could quite possibly be the ultimate Yummy Mummy and here she talks to Butterfly Lane about interior design, how she unwinds after a stressful day and how it's important to embrace change.  

How would you describe your homes style?

My homes style is no clutter, but things I love around me!  I think 'less is more' - a splash of colour in a white room, a beautiful object on a shelf.  I love a cosy and warm feel, but love white as a base colour.

How did you make the transition from TV to writing a book and having a lifestyle website?

Transition from TV to what I do now seemed to be the right move as I had my two kids and enjoyed spending more time at home than away working, and then I could be a working mum but fit everything in around their schedules!  It's what I've always loved - everything to do with lifestyle, so it seemed like quite a natural transition.  

How do you unwind after a stressful day at the office?

I unwind by being at home, good rubbish telly, and a home cooked meal - ideally while wearing PJ's with my husband and kids.

Do you favour country living or city chic?

I always think I love country living but in fact I think I'm more urban than that, as I love the noise of a city, and having things like a Starbucks nearby!  So probably I'm more city chic?  Perhaps a bit of both?

If you were to buy anything from Butterfly Lane what would you buy? 

I would buy lots of gorgeous cake stands, I love them.  You can never have enough and they look great in quantity!

Cake Stands available from Butterfly Lane 

Bird Dome Cake Stand available from Butterfly Lane

What is your top lifestyle tip?

My top lifestyle tip is to keep things changing.  I think people get very afraid of 'change' and I love the idea that rooms evolve with you, the time you are in your life, seasons etc, so be bold and brave - do spring clearouts, make a room cosy at Christmas and always make your home your castle!

Visit www.emmaforbes.com for more lifestyle tips. 

Her book Life and Soul is available to buy now.

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Organically Thinking

I've been thinking a lot lately about the food I eat, where is comes from and what is put on it by farmers to keep it looking 'healthy' on supermarket shelves.  Erm, questionable to say the least.  To embrace country living to the utmost it is so lovely to have an allotment and grow your own produce, something I'm determined to have in the future.  Then you can control what you 'feed' your vegetables with.  However, if you are limited on time and/or space, most local farms deliver 'veg boxes' directly to your homes full of seasonal and fresh veg.  Just do a quick google search to find your local organic farm or farm shop.

So eating organically to me means lots of things, one being limiting the amount of toxins going in to my body, it supports local business and helps the environment, a big tick on every count I think!  I recently got talking to a nutritionist about my organic plan and she has kindly agreed to write a blog for Butterfly Lane full of helpful advice and a bit of background information about organic food.  I hope you all enjoy Rebecca Greenberg's organic outlook and please check out her Facebook page and twitter feed @beccanutrition for more nutritional tips and for information on her services.  Now, over to Rebecca...

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Having so kindly been asked by Butterfly Lane to write an article on organic food; a mild surge of panic started to set in as I pondered where I should start; as the extent of what I could write could fill a whole blog in itself but as I contemplated so much came into my mind so I thought I would give you just a tiny insight into an organic life, and so I begin....


Firstly, what is organic? What does it mean? Well, according to the Soil Association ‘organic food is produced using environmentally and animal friendly farming methods’.

Although the organic food industry in the UK has grown dramatically within the past two decades and despite the fact I am a nutritionist; I couldn’t even tell you the amount of times I have gotten stick from family and friends when I announce ‘I only eat organic’ like it’s a ‘made up’ type of diet, oh so it’s ok for my friends to have a kosher or vegetarian diet but ‘organic’??!...they seem to think its crazy!

Since discovering  I had IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) at the age of 19 I severely changed my diet to that of a less chemical, less toxic one (a.k.a organic) and I tell you, I completely cured myself and it totally changed my life and so this is where my fascination with food and nutrition began.

Ok, so organic produce may becoming more popular but do people generally see this as a fad?  Do people assume it’s fashionable or do the general public really know why they are buying into organic? Well, whether they see it as a fashionable statement or for health reasons here’s a lowdown on why we should be consuming organic produce...

• ·      Organic foods have higher levels of many disease fighting antioxidants and essential vitamins including vitamin C
• ·       No GM ingredients
• ·       Safer for the environment
• ·      Encouraging organic farming methods and gardening practices will allow organic soil to re-build and contribute healthy vitamins and minerals to feed crops and you
• ·      Reduction and prevention of some allergies and diseases (certain chemicals used have been linked to serious diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s)
• ·       Healthier environment
• ·      Organic farming methods and practices beneficial to wildlife as the synthetic toxic chemicals used in commercial farming can be deadly to birds and other wild animals
• ·       Fresher and tastier

People may argue that organic produce is expensive but is it? Or are foods you buy just really really cheap...and you may want to think about why?!  For me, I see organic food and healthy eating as my health insurance and who can put a price on your health?

Although I believe there are so many benefits to eating organic I still think there is a long way to go yet before the masses (including my delightful friends....I love you all really) are convinced, generally the public believe that there is someone out there i.e. the Government that is looking after our health when in fact there is not, it is down to you to educate yourself and be pro-active but I say, anything that I put into my body that has reduced chemicals, fertilisers and pesticides can only be positive and who wants toxic disease causing chemicals in their body anyway?!

Here are some of my favourite organic haunts: www.daylesfordorganic.com http://www.planetorganic.com/ www.wholefoodsmarket.com www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk

Visit Rebecca Greenberg's Facebook page and Twitter feed for further information of her services.