Here’s our Sunday morning summary of the week’s most read articles, including: The Bright Company on getting a good night’s sleep, branding expert Tracy Hastain, the best tunes for 2016 breakfast listening and photographing newborns…
If you haven’t managed to find time for any of our daily 5am articles this week, have a browse through these intros then decide if you’d like to go on and read the rest. It makes for easy Sunday morning reading…
1. Founder of The Bright Company on Kids’ Nightwear
Alienor Falconer was working for Paul Smith as a shoe designer before she decided to launch her own children’s nightwear range. The Bright Company is now paving the way for kids’ pjs and nighttime onesies.
We asked Brighton-based Falconer about being a mum to her two kids: Corwin, nearly five and Effie, three, while running a business (her weekly gym visits are the only ‘me-time’ she gets), as well as the secret to a good night. And she gave a brilliant answer.
Read about Alienor Falconer and The Bright Company here.
Sunday morning breakfast music
2. Breakfast Music: The Hottest New Tunes for 2016
It’s easy to get stuck in a musical rut, where you listen to the same tunes on repeat even though they’re not really doing it for you any more. Well, that’s how we were feeling at The Early Hour HQ until the brilliant Emma Barlow sent us a list of the music we should be listening to in 2016.
Coming from a woman who knows more than a thing or two about music (and what’s hot/what’s not), this playlist is guaranteed to delight. We recommend these songs for morning listening: on your run, while scrambling down escalators on your commute, or to dance to in the kitchen over breakfast with the kids (while they hang their heads with embarrassment).
Check out Emma Barlow’s hottest tunes for 2016 breakfast listening here.
3. Branding Expert Tracy Hastain Talks Business
She helped to turn Liz Earle beauty into a multi-million pound empire and is now a Prince’s Trust mentor alongside running her own consultancy business. She’s brilliant at both and we know this because Tracy Hastain is mentor to The Early Hour’s editor, Annie Ridout.
We asked Hastain about mornings (hers start VERY early – we’re talking 3.30am), the importance of branding: “Branding is more than just a logo, it’s the personality and culture of your business and has to come across in everything you do,” she says, and what she gets from mentoring.
Read about Tracy Hastain’s career with Liz Earle beauty and her mentoring work.
4. Newborn Photography: Capturing the Early Days
Basically, we were desperate to know how Charlotte Gray – of Emily Gray Photography – manages to get these incredible photos of newborns. So we asked her, and this is (part of) what she said…
“To get the curled up sleepy photographs the baby needs to be warm and fed. We turn the heating up and get mum to feed them into a sleepy state.”
We also discussed how she feelings on waking each morning (like she’s been “hit by a sledgehammer”), photographing families and toddlers – who never sit still – and the conditions required for a brilliant photo.
Read about Charlotte Gray’s experience of photographing newborns and families here.
And that’s all for this morning folks. Have a lovely Sunday…