I’ve been out and about over the past month visiting fabulous places and producers, visiting the Country Living Fair and doing the first promotional outing for the website this year!

Country Living Spring Fair

A couple of weeks ago I went along to the Country Living Fair, held at the Islington Business Centre in London. The Fair was fantastic and full to the brim with great independent shops and producers. I was delighted to see Clare Gage exhibiting who won the Editors Choice Award – well done Clare! Also attending was Massey and Rogers with their fantastic range of hand printed textiles.

I came away with some great buys and will definitely be going along to the Christmas Fair, November 11th to 15th.

My favourite place for a skinny latte

It really is no surprise that The Bottlekiln Cafe has won awards for their coffee, it’s fabulous! I met a friend there last week and, I have to say, they do the best skinny latte! I love proper coffee and have tried coffees all over Derbyshire and I’m yet to find somewhere that comes close! So, well done The Bottlekiln, keep up the good skinny lattes!

Wirksworth Farmers Market
Saturday 4th April 2009

The first of what will be many outings to promote the website was Wirksworth Farmers Market. What a fantastic event, it was the first farmers market I have attended to promote the website and I’m so glad I did. I met some great producers of both food and goodies for the home.

Here’s what the FP stand looked like…

I found a fabulous producer there too! New to the website is Hearts & Homespun Soaps. The soaps, bath melts and liquid soaps are made by Elaine, in the Amber Valley, using only natural ingredients. They smell fantastic!

Have a wonderful Easter break…there’s no better time to head out and about around Derbyshire!

What can I say! The evening was a huge success and I’m now enjoying some much needed rest. Well, I’m sat on the sofa with a cup of tea and biscuits with the laptop typing this blog, that will do for now!

Thanks so much to everyone who came along to the Showcase – guests travelled from all over Derbyshire, Sheffield and Nottingham! I hope you had a fabulous time and enjoyed the opportunity to browse so many fabulous products in one place. I hope you all liked your goody bags too! You’ll find some really great goodies in there… a Teapigs sample, Weleda products, a packet of Crips, a Dorset Cereals bar and flyers/offers from some of the fabulous places featured on the website.

Below are a selection of photographs taken at the event. To view a larger image, please click on one of the thumbnails:

I have a few people who I would like to say a huge thank you to:

Firstly, thank you to all the fabulous businesses who took part in the event. I’m sure you’ll all agree, every stall looked fantastic!

Lucy….thank you for all your ‘fabulous’ help leading up to and during the event – you’re a star! )

Lastly, thank you all for coming along to the event and supporting the website. I would love to receive your feedback on what you thought of the event… please take a moment to enter your comments below.