With Valentines Day just around the corner I thought I would give you a little inspiration, whatever your budget!

The places and makers featured on the website together offer you everything you could possibly need for a fabulous evening with the one you love.  Here are a few ideas…

Top Row (left to right):
Handmade personalised cushions from Housley & Co, handmade bath time goodies from Bow Boutique, Handmade personalised jewellery from Nina Carolyn Jewellery.
Second Row (left to right):
Handmade chocolates from BitterSweet Chocolates, Handmade Love Birds from HWR Designs, Garden Hampers from The Worm in Nottingham.
Third Row (left to right):
The Lime House Cafe is a Valentines Day lunchtime must & is located at the Harley Gallery in Notts, cupcakes from Star Bakery in Nottingham, handmade chocolates from I Should Cocoa in Belper.
Fourth Row (left to right):
Gorgeous flowers from The Blossom Tree in Melbourne, Jack Rabbits AGA cooked food to enjoy at home and handmade personalsed cards from Lucy Sheeran.

Valentine’s Food
How about cakes, cookies and cupcakes from Star Bakery in Nottingham, Cameo Cupcakes in Derby, Quirky Cookies and Cakes in Duffield and The Walk in Nottingham.
Chocolates & sweets from Bittersweet Chocolates & I Should Cocoa.
Fancy getting someone to do all the cooking for you?  Jack Rabbits are offering a full 3 course meal for you and your loved one to enjoy at home.

These are just a small selection of the valentines ideas available through the places and producers in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.  Visit fabulousplaces.co.uk for some inspiration.

Have a wonderful Valentines Day!

I am delighted to announce that the next fabulousplaces.co.uk event will be taking place on the evening of Thursday 4th March at the stunning Blackbrook House nr Belper.

Indulgence Evening
An exclusive evening of shopping, demonstrations & indulgence
Thursday 4th March 2010 (7-10pm)
Blackbrook House nr Belper, Derbyshire
Tickets are £5 each (event is free to Derbyshire Card holders)
Click here to get your ticket

Guests will receive a drink, mini cupcake & goody bag on arrival.  There will be a selection of fabulous places and producers to browse and there will be demonstrations being held throughout the evening.  Blackbrook House will also be holding cheese and wine tasting.  With the event being so close to Mothers Day, it will be the perfect opportunity to find something special for Mum.  Even better…why not take your Mum with you for a treat.

The event will be supporting the Wirksworth Rotary Club Aquabox Scheme, which sends vital resources and water filtering units to locations of natural disasters like the recent Haiti earthquake.  Proceeds from the entry ticket and raffle will be donated to the charity.

Exhibitors include:

Quirky Cookies & Cakes
Cocomine Chocolates
Lucy Sheeran Cards
Anney Grace Jewellery
Cameo Cupcakes
Housley & Co
Blossom Tree
Jamie Oliver Home & Giftware
Ribbon
Hearts & Homespun
Nina Carolyn Jewellery
Carol Cummins (handmade home accessories)
Lavender grey
Jack Rabbits
Eco Eco
Raggedy Homespun Crafts
Bow at the Printworks 

More fabulous businesses added daily…

Click here to get your ticket to the Indulgence Evening
Click here to get your Derbyshire Card.  If you are already a Derbyshire Card holder please click here to let us know you will be attending.

I would like to say a big thank you to the following businesses for supporting this event:
Blackbrook House, Belper
Dorset Cereals
Teapigs
Cameo Cupcakes
Quirky Cookies & Cakes

3 down 2 to go!  We’re on full points – 15 out of 15 & we’re hoping to keep our successful run going through to Friday.  We need 25 out of 25 to be in first place…it’s a toughy, but I think we can do it!

Here are 3 of us at my house today for the challenge.  From the left we have Claire (things we make blog), me and Wendy from Quirky Cookies & Cakes.

If you’re free between 1pm and 2pm and able to listen into BBC Radio Derby on 104.5fm we would love to hear from you if you can assist with any of the questions.  Today Claire was Anneka Rice and jumped in the car to head up to Ripley to find the answer to a question and also David (from squarechilli; the technical whizz behind fabulousplaces.co.uk) headed over to West Hallam to find an answer for us!!

Fingers crossed for the next two days!

Deb    )

What a day!  It began very early for me and with the early start came the rain and lots of it! Luckily it decided to move on around 10.50am just as the doors opened and the visitors arrived.  I was so surprised by the number of visitors…many more than anticipated, but how fantastic! I’m delighted that so many people came along to support Derbyshire’s most fabulous places and producers and rightly so…..I’m sure you’ll agree, they’re fabulous and together put on quite a spread of goodies for us!!

I would like to say thank you to Blackbrook House for providing such a stunning venue!  Also, a huge thank you to all the visitors and exhibitors. I would like to say a special thank you to my friend, Lucy, for helping me throughout the day…what would I have done without you!!

Below are some photos from the event, but if you would like to browse all the photos please click here.

The lovely loaf chaps from Crich…taken a few moments before completely selling out of bread! Â )

Lots of delicious food on the Fresh Basil stall:

Lovely home accessories from the Bottlekiln:

The Summer Fete was the second event I have organised and I hope to organise many more.  I would love to receive your feedback as my aim is to make every event as enjoyable as possible and ensure there is something for everyone.  To help me when I’m planning the next event I’m asking for your feedback and in return I’m offering you the chance to WIN a tin of Best of British cookies from the fabulous Quirky Cookies & Cakes!  Click here to complete the feedback form, I promise it’s short and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes!

Well, now I’m on to planning the Christmas themed event, but that’s all I’ll say about that….afterall, we’re still in July and mentioning Christmas feels wrong!!

Bye for now! 

Debs