Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party

July 31st, 2010

The Blooming Great Tea Party, held on Thursday 29th July, was a great success!  With 85 lovely guests, the event helped raise £900 for Marie Curie Cancer Care, which is absolutely fantastic!  Thank you to all the guests, I hope you had a wonderful time and found lots of goodies to tempt you!








Thank you to the following people for being so wonderfully supportive:

Shottle Hall for kindly donating a wonderful venue.
Rudd Moncrieff Lifestyle Workshops for providing delicious cakes and sandwiches.
Northern Tea Merchants for donating coffee, tea tasting and lovely samples for each of the goody bags.
BeauShabby for stepping in and kindly donating the vintage china hire…I’m sure you’ll all agree that it made the event truly authentic.
Simon Partridge for providing wonderfully perfect music and donating a CD to each of the goody bags.
Clipper Tea for donating tea.
The Lavender Patch for donating Derbyshire lavender for the goody bags.
Artisan Biscuit Company for donating lots of gorgeous biscuits for the goody bags.
Dorset Cereals for donating their wonderful cereals bags to each of the goody bags.
Delightful Living for letting us use their fabulous signs for decoration.

Thank you to the following fabulous stand holders…Carol Cummins, Just Lily Jewellery, Amanda Hamilton, Housley & Co, Jamie at Home, Ribbon, Jay Designs and Quirky Cookies & Cakes.

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Happy 2nd Birthday fabulousplaces.co.uk!

July 26th, 2010

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Time sure does fly by…I can’t believe I’ve been working on fabulousplaces.co.uk for 2 years now.  I feel extremely lucky to be working on something I’m so passionate about.  I would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who enjoys using the website and all the places and producers who support it…you’re all fabulous!

Here’s a little sneaky peak at the celebration evening I arranged last week for all the lovely shop owners and producers featured on the website:

We were joined by the lovely Aleena Naylor from BBC Radio Derby.  You can listen into the interviews with Aleena at the party by clicking here.  The interview can be heard at the following times 1:23.40 (interview with Deb) and again at 1:44.00 (interview with some fabulous producers).

Untitled-6I would like to say a huge thank you to the wonderful Simon     Partridge for providing truly elegant vocals to the event.  You can find out more about Simon Partridge byclicking here.  Click here to listen to Simon’s vocals…I think you’ll agree they’re fabulous!  You can also enjoy listening to Simon Partridge at the upcoming Blooming Great Tea Party for Marie Curie.  Click here for full information.

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in season: courgette soup

July 15th, 2010

soup
Recipe time…FP Club member, Claire, has very kindly donated another recipe for you to try.  This time is courgette soup and I’ve had the pleasure of trying it during the week were taking part in the BBC Radio Derby’s Ed to Head Challenge…which we won!  Claire grows her own veggies and the courgettes are from her own garden, along with many of the other ingredients.

Courgette Soup is a very simple recipe, which makes a pretty, creamy pale green soup:

  • Slice and gently sauté an onion, a stick of celery, 2 cloves of garlic
  • Slice and add 5, or more, courgettes of the 6” or so size
  • When all are softened and starting to brown add a pint or so of chicken or vegetable stock
  • Simmer for 20 minutes until the courgettes squash easily on the side of the pan
  • Take off the heat and blitz up with a hand blender
  • Add a handful or two of freshly grated parmesan and a glug of garlic olive oil
  • Add plenty of salt and pepper to taste and blitz up again

We serve it with crispy pancetta on top and a drizzle of garlic olive oil and some parmesan shavings.

To speed this up even more use a few shallots which are quick to slice and cook, a stock cube instead of fresh stock and a big slice from a fresh green garlic head instead of cloves.  Here’s a link through to the recipe on Claire’s blog, Things We Make.  Here is a link through to the post where Claire shows you how to make the bread bowls.

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Growing your own courgettes is pretty easy and this weekend is ideal to plant seeds.  Here’s a link to the BBC website where there is some useful information about growing courgettes.

Click here to go to fabulousplaces.co.uk.

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Join us for a Tea Party!

June 22nd, 2010

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I’m delighted to be organising, with Rudd Moncrieff Lifestyle Workshops, a Blooming Great Tea Party for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

The Tea Party will be quintessentially British and full to the brim with fabulous cakes and savories, vintage crockery, fabulous food and gifts to buy, flowers, bunting and much more!  Tickets are £10 each and include a fabulous goody bag and a drink on arrival.  Tickets are limited, so if you’d like to join us for a wonderful exclusive event click here to purchase your ticket.  The tea party is 11am - 3pm on Thursday 29th July in the gorgeous Shottle Hall Coach House Marquee.

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I would like to say a huge thank you to Rudd Moncreiff, Vintage & Cake, Dorset Cereals & the Northern Tea Merchants for being so incredibly supportive of the event.

I hope you can join me…it’s going to be fabulous!

Deb

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Open Evening at La Petite Galerie, Nottingham

May 24th, 2010

Date for your diary…

La Petite Galerie are holding a special evening for customer to visit and enjoy a glass of wine & nibbles while browsing the gorgeous new spring ranges.  There will also be goody bags for all visitors.

Thursday 27th May, 3pm - 10pm
La Petite Gallerie Open Evening
http://www.fabulousplaces.co.uk/Nottinghamshire/La_Petite_Galerie/#mce_temp_url# for full information about La Petite Gallerie

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a wonderful day at the Fete!

May 20th, 2010
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I am over the moon with how the fabulousplaces.co.uk Summer Fete went last Sunday at Shottle Hall, what a truly wonderful day and…it didn’t rain!!

A huge thank you to all the fabulous shops and producers who kindly gave up their Sunday to sell their lovely wares…there was an array of tempting goodies of offer including locally made ice cream, farm produce, delicious cupcakes, crafts and cards.  Thank you to everyone who joined us, I hope you enjoyed the day!

The idea behind the events I run through fabulousplaces.co.uk is to offer you an opportunity to enjoy local, independent crafts and produce.  I couldn’t have imagined it to be in a more appropriate setting…Shottle Hall is a stunning venue and I hope you all had a good look around and enjoyed the setting.  I’m sure you’ll agree the grounds are beautiful and the picturesque views made the Summer Fete a truly wonderful event to wonder around.  With over 4,500 visitors throughout the day I really can’t wait for the next event!

A huge thank you to Carol and her team from Polly’s List for the fabulous Polly’s Corner.  The games, bouncy castles, face painting and stalls were full of nostalgia and put a smile on so many little faces!

Thank you again to everyone who helped make the event a huge success!

Here are some photos taken by lovely Twitter friends @clairetweet and @dawn_e .  Thank you for taking the photos…they’re fab!

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May Competition!

April 29th, 2010

The lovely people from Honeybuns in Dorset have very kindly offered some rather fabulous goodies for you to win!

Win 1 of 10 fabulous hessian hamper bags full to bursting with treats!
For your chance to win, all you have to do is leave a review for a fabulous place or producer featured onfabulousplaces.co.uk Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire…simple as that!
Closing date is Friday 14th May 2010.

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I would like to say a huge thank you to Honeybuns for kindly donating such a fab competition prize!  To find out more about Honeybuns click here to visit their website.

Happy reviewing!

Debs

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the fete is coming…

April 12th, 2010

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I’m delighted to announce the next fabulousplaces.co.uk event…theSummer Fete will be taking place on Sunday 16th May at Shottle Hall Country House Hotel.

11am-5pm, Sunday 16th May 2010
Shottle Hall Country House Hotel
Shottle, Derbyshire

I’m taking a traditional Summer Fete and adding a fabulous twist to bring you a perfect day in the countryside.  There will be scrumptious local food in the marquee, shops and producers selling their fabulous wares in the House and Polly’s Corner (Supported by Polly’s List) of fun for the little ones.   My aim is to bring you an event celebrating the most fabulous places and producers from fabulousplaces.co.uk and somewhere you can visit with friends and family and spend a few hours in the countryside.

Click here to go to fabulousplaces.co.uk Summer Fete information. The full exhibitor list will be added to the website in the next few days.

Please note:
Not all exhibitors will have the ability to accept card payments.  The nearest cash machines are in Belper…there will be lots of fabulous things to tempt you!
Dogs are welcome, but will not be allowed in the House and marquee.
There is a picnic area on the lawn, but this is only for use with food purchased at the event only.

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time to get baking

April 8th, 2010

As part of a new series of ‘fabulous living’ blogs, I will be posting about some inspiring topics covering lifestyle, recipes, homestyle, growing your own, fabulous destinations and much more.

The first is about baking and I’m delighted to introduce you to my friend, Claire, who is quite the Domestic Goddess.  Claire has a fab blog called Things We Make which is definitely worth a click!  Claire has kindly offered to donate some of her recipes to the FP blog for you to enjoy.  To get things started, here’s a recipe which will help you use up some left over chocolate!

Kringel
An Estorian celebration bread…I think you’ll agree, it looks delicious!

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Recipe

The Dough
300g Bread Flour
200g Plain Flour
2 packs (14g) of dried yeast
1tbsp sugar
250ml luke warm milk
2 egg yolks
50g butter, melted but not hot

The Filling
100g softened butter
3 handfuls of sultanas
10 tsp sugar (mixed with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon for the cinnamon version)

The Topping
100g good chocolate plus 50g butter
or 4oz of icing sugar and water for the cinnamon version.

  • Mix the yeast, sugar, lukewarm milk, melted butter and egg yolks in a bowl.
  • Mix this into the flour then knead for 10 minutes. Add a little extra water or flour if the dough is not easy to work.
  • Shape the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with a plate or cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour or so.
  • Dust your work surface with flour. Take the dough out of the bowl, knock it back and roll out so that you have a rectangle about 60cm x 40cm.
  • Spread the softened butter evenly over the dough, then sprinkle with sultanas and sugar (or sugar/cinnamon mix)
  • Roll up the dough like a swiss roll (so that you keep the length) and cut it in half down the centre of the length with a sharp knife leaving a little bit uncut at the end.
  • Twist the 2 strands of dough, lifting each half over the other in turn making sure the cut edges stay uppermost as these are what will open up and look pretty.
  • Pull the plait into a ring and squidge the ends together. Transfer to a buttered or ‘non stick foiled’ baking tray.

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  • Leave the loaf to prove and puff up a little more, perhaps 1/2 an hour, then preheat your oven to 200°c/Gas 6.
  • Bake for about 10 minutes at  200°c and then turn down to 190°c and carry on cooking until golden for around another 15 minutes.
  • If you want to top with chocolate: melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over gently boiling water.
  • Allow the the bread cool down a bit, place on a serving plate and drizzle with chocolate sauce.

For the cinnamon bun version mix 4oz of icing sugar with a little water then drizzle this over the bread.

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To visit Claire’s blog please click here.  This recipe was part of the Fresh From The Oven Group.

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Something for the weekend…

March 31st, 2010

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There’s nothing quite like a long weekend, but then there’s nothing worse than getting to the end of it and realising you’ve not made the most of it.  So, in true fabulous places style, here’s some inspiration for your upcoming lovely long weekend.

Firstly, let’s start in the City Centre…

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The Walk, Nottingham City Centre
If you’re thinking of heading into Nottinghamshire for a spot of retail therapy then a stop off at The Walk for tea and cake is a must.  It’s unique in that you experience the full ‘tea’ experience.  With loose leaves, vintage tea cups and saucers, cake stands full of delicious sweet things and a decor to admire I think you’ll find it rather difficult to resist.

Derby Road
Derby Road has always been a great stop off for me.  The shops are mostly independent and offer stylish and very desirable goodies.  There are 3 truly fabulous shops on this road…The Worm That Turned, Brown Paper Flower Company and Le Chien Et Moi.  If you haven’t visited any of these shops before then you’re most definitely missing out!  The Worm That Turned is for the stylish gardener who considers the outside and extension of the inside.  Since it opened I’ve purchased wellies, an outdoor clock, christmas decorations, gardening books and some Burt Bees products.  My wellies are around 5 years old and have stood the test of many dogs walks.  Le Chien Et Moi is very deceptive from the outside.  It’s a truly special shop with a wonderful collection of antiques, vintage and recycled. pieces.  I even spotted Rococo Chocolates during my last visit.  The Brown Paper Flower Company is a wonderful florists…the flower range is superb and an essential stop off for some Spring flowers.

Now, out into Nottinghamshire…

Worksop
Within the grounds of the Harley Gallery is the fabulous Lime House Cafe.  I’m going to be heading here this weekend for a browse and a bite to eat.   There’s certainly enough there to keep you entertained for a few hours and the Cafe offer a truly scrumptious lunch menu.  The Gallery also holds many talks and workshops if you’re looking for some Easter activities.  Click here for more information.  The Harley Gallery is closed Easter Sunday.

Colston Bassett
Quite the hidden gem, Colston Bassett Store and Garden Cafe Restaurant is a lovely destination for lunch and a browse.  There are ample walks in the area, so should the weather be kind to us this weekend you’ll have the perfect ending to a walk a in the countryside.

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And finally, a few handpicked destinations…

Sherwood Forest
Full of nostalgia…school trips and family picnics, the visitor centre and surrounding woodland is the perfect place to head to with the little ones or a perfect destination if you’re looking for somewhere you can jump on a bike and disappear for a while.  Click here to go to the official site for Sherwood Forest.

Clumber Park
Many great childhood memories means I hold Clumber Park very dearly in my heart.  Again, it’s a wonderful place to head to with bikes and perfect for a picnic.  They have a choice of areas to park, which means you can choose to be in the main tourist area or choose to be far away where the only sounds you’ll hear are birds.  Click here to go to the official site for Clumber Park.

Attenborough
My first ever village fete was in Attenborough and as a family is was a place we visited regularly with our dog.  Attenborough Village was always part of the walk and I would always hope there was a wedding so I could sneak a look.  The Nature Reserve has changed over the years and there’s now a visitor centre, shop and cafe.  Click here to go to the official website for Attenborough Nature Reserve.

I hope this gives you some inspiration for this weekend.  There are many more fabulous places to visit around Nottinghamshire, click here to visit the search page.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Deb

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