Period Features

Country Living Christmas Fair, 11-15 November

Immerse yourself in the magic of Christmas at the Country Living Magazine Christmas Fair where you’ll discover a whole range of inspirational and unique gift ideas from over 380 craftspeople and small businesses, all showcasing their original festive wares.

The Christmas Fair is the perfect place to pick up gorgeous gifts or a treat for yourself. You’ll find hundreds of stands selling beautiful hand-made decorations, stunning jewellery, traditional toys, unique home accessories and stylish clothing all under one roof. 

www.countrylivingfair.com/xmas

BBC Good Food Show

The BBC Good Food Shows are packed with top TV chefs, including Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and James Martin, local and seasonal produce and hundreds of exhibitors bringing you tasty treats to try and to buy. Taking place in the run up to Christmas, the BBC Good Food Shows will bring you everything you need for wining, dining and entertaining during the festive season.

The BBC Good Food Show Scotland returns to Glasgow's SECC from the 30 Oct - 1 Nov celebrating 2009, 'the year of Scottish Homecoming.' Now in its third year, this Show is a firm fixture on the foodie map. With demonstrations from Scotland's very own Gordon Ramsay and local culinary experts, it's the best place to experience the great flavours of Scotland this autumn. MasterChef Live, a new BBC Good Food Show Production in partnership with one of Britain's most popular TV food programmes, MasterChef, will launch MasterChef Live at the BBC Good Food Show London, Olympia, 13 - 15 November. MasterChef Live will feature key elements from the TV programme, giving visitors the unique opportunity to have-a-go in interactive workshops, watch theatre sessions hosted by John Torode and Gregg Wallace; see past winners demo live; taste winning dishes in the MasterChef Restaurant and more. The original and the biggest - the BBC Good Food Show Birmingham - takes place from 25-29 November and will inspire and entertain with a great cast list including Jamie Oliver, James Martin and Gordon Ramsay in the Supertheatre sponsored by Sainsbury's plus Oz Clarke in the Drinks Theatre. Tasting workshops and hundreds of exhibitors are on hand to help visitors stock up on delicious food and drink for a fabulous festive season.

Advance tickets are available for all shows and offer a discount on the price on the day as well as a free showguide with recipes from the show. For more information visit www.bbcgoodfoodshow.com

Book Crossing

Is your house overflowing with books? Do you find it hard to part with them? www.bookcrossing.com may be the answer that helps you to set your books free on a journey... bookcrossing gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves and recycle all at the same time. You simply register your books online where they are given a unique bookcrossing identification number (BCID). This book number is then put inside the book - you can download free forms for this at the website or buy special book stickers if you prefer - and the book is 'set free' wherever you choose: a park bench, the gym, a garden centre, a café etc. The finder hopefully registers having found the book, reads it and passes it on or sets it free again. You can track your book's journey around the world and know that it has given lots of other people pleasure too. You can also register the book and give or send it to a friend who can then register it and pass it on or set it free. The bookcrossing website is a joy for booklovers with forums discussing books, bookcrossing groups to join and books to search for 'in the wild'. There are also official bookcrossing zones (OBCZ) in most cities where you can go to pick up a free book or to leave your own books for others to enjoy. Bookcrossing goes a long way to making its slogan 'making the whole world a library' a reality. Find out more at www.bookcrossing.com If you can't bear the thought of parting with any of your books then a new book by Leslie Geddes-Brown, Books Do Furnish a Room, may be perfect for you. With inspiration and advice for bibliophiles on displaying books throughout your house it would make a great gift for a booklover too. Published by Merrell it costs £24.95.

Blue Lotus

Blue Lotus Products sell simply delicious cakes for special diets. Their tempting range includes cakes suitable for vegans, vegetarians, those with food intolerances, food allergies and diabetes. If you know someone who follows a special diet or if you are expecting a guess for dinner or the weekend who avoids particular ingredients Blue Lotus can deliver an irresistible treat to your door for them. The cakes make great birthday cakes, luxurious anniversary, wedding or christening cakes and are a very thoughtful gift to send to people with special dietary needs. For more information visit www.bluelotusproducts.co.uk

Farrow & Ball

Farrow & Ball's traditional products are not something that you perhaps associate with hard wearing practicality so you might be surprised to learn that the range includes a wide selection of washable paint. When washability, stain and scuff resistance is required Farrow & Ball's Modern Emulsion is the perfect alternative to its Estate® Emulsion. With a slightly higher sheen Modern Emulsion is perfect for kitchens, bathrooms, hallways, children's rooms and other spaces with high traffic. Modern Emulsion comes in a wide palette of Farrow & Ball colours including all the most popular ones to provide you with period colour and modern practicality. What's more Farrow & Ball produces some of the most environmentally friendly paints available anywhere in the world. Unlike many other manufacturers, Farrow & Ball continues to use natural ingredients such as Linseed Oil and China Clay and does not use harmful ingredients such as ammonia and formaldehyde. VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) levels for most Farrow & Ball paints are so close to zero that the leading finishes, including Estate® Emulsion, Modern Emulsion, Estate® Eggshell and Exterior Masonry, are classified as 'Zero VOC' when tested to US Environmental Protection Agency standards.

The Farrow & Ball range can be selected and purchased at our shop in Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands where our knowledgeable staff is on hand to offer help and advice with your decorating problems.

Aga/Rayburn

Any Aga/Rayburn or cast iron range cooker owner will probably tell you that they would never want to switch back to conventional ovens. Many people covet owning a classic Aga or cast iron range cooker. However, there are often concerns from prospective purchasers about how economical or environmentally friendly this stylish addition to their home would be. Things have changed significantly in recent years with Aga/Rayburn introducing new appliances and features as well as items that can be 'retro-fitted' in order to make existing appliances more in keeping for an age in which green issues are at the forefront of everyone's minds. Aga, celebrating its 300th anniversary this year, with a range of free cookery demonstrations in its Aga shops, has introduced a system called AIMs (AGA Intelligent Management System).This allows your AGA to slumber when you're not using it to cook, but to be ready to use when you need it. The system was introduced in 2006 and has proved so popular that in the first two months of 2009 over half of all AGAs sold were AIMs models. It can also be retro-fitted to some existing models and offers a reduction in energy usage and consequent savings. Aga has also developed a biofuel ready cooker which can currently run on oil or diesel but with a minor modification will be able to run on biofuel as soon as it is readily commercially available. And as Aga enthusiasts will never tire of telling you AGAs are never found on scrap sites, are made from scrap metal in the first place, reduce your need for small electrical appliances and give a lifetime's service which means that you are not creating landfill either. For more information about AGAs including their running costs visit the AGA website at www.aga-web.co.uk The much overlooked sibling of AGA, and nowadays made by the same company, is the Rayburn. Rayburns are very similar in appearance to AGAs and some models offer the controllability of a conventional oven. Rayburns can be either cooking only models or provide central heating and hot water. The new Rayburn 380CD is the only range cooker with an 'A' efficiency rated central heating boiler built in. The boiler has been awarded this rating after being independently tested. Tests have shown the boiler is more than 90% efficient. As well as pioneering condensing technology, the Rayburn 480 CD also uses modulating technology which ensures it only produces the output required for the size of home. This means it can heat a two-bedroom property as efficiently as a five-bedroom home. For those looking for a carbon-neutral solution to reducing their footprint, Rayburn offer solid fuel models and for a more recent innovation the Rayburn Heatranger can now be combined with Solar Thermal Collectors to enable the sun to provide up to 65% of a home's hot water needs and achieve fossil fuel savings of up to 60% a year. For more information on Rayburn visit www.rayburn-web.co.uk

Great Peak District Fair at Pavillion Gardens Buxton 17th/18th October

Held at the Pavilion Gardens, in the historic spa town of Buxton. The Fairs take place in the Octagon (an extravaganza of cast iron and glass). Plenty of parking and easy access. Celebrating locally produced foods, arts and crafts. 10am - 4pm daily. For more information visit http://www.visitpeakdistrict.co.uk

 

 

Cookery Courses at Daylesford Orgainic.

The Cookery School at Daylesford Organic provides a relaxed environment where you gain knowledge and confidence to cook healthy, organic dishes. In addition to the bountiful fresh produce from their gardens, their Gloucestershire farm provides a selection of wonderful ingredients for their cookery courses.

A herd of Friesians provide milk for the cream, yogurts and cheeses, organic flour is locally grown and milled for their artisan crafted breads and pastries, and their Legbar Hens supply them with delicious rich eggs. Daylesford’s organic estate in Staffordshire provides meat full of flavour from their pedigree Aberdeen Angus, traditional native breeds of sheep, heritage and rare breeds of pig and organic, free range poultry. Sustainable fish and shellfish for the cookery courses are sourced from Cornish day fishing boats and delivered directly to Daylesford Organic. Delicatessen ingredients are carefully selected by their experienced Fresh Buyers – items are local, seasonal, nutritious, pure and environmentally friendly.

Visit www.daylesfordorganic.com/stry/cookerycourses for more information.

Grand Designs Guides

These handy guides have been created to help with your own Grand Design, ideal for hints and tips, expert advice on what to look for when selecting furnishings and recommendations on specific products currently available. These handy Grand Guides are an excellent resource if you need some guidence. Visit www.granddesignslive.com for more information.

Win a £25 Period Features Voucher!

This month we are giving away a £25 Voucher to spend on any of our lovely products, redeemable in store or online. Just answer one simple question and after the closing date of 30th November 2009, we will pick the winner at random from all the entries received.

To enter please take a look at our Toilet Roll Holders & Towel Rails which can be found in our Bathroom section then just answer the following question: What does our waxed pine toilet roll holder fondly known as ‘Spend a Penny’ come complete with? Email the answer to us at competition@periodfeatures.net. Good luck!

The lucky winner of our August/September competition, receiving a £25.00 voucher, was Stewart Rigby. Many thanks to all of you who entered.