This heat only means one thing - BBQ season. Night after night I can smell delicious smokey flavours wafting over the garden fences, with everyone taking advantage of guaranteed evenings, bathed in warmth.

Our university friends bought us a lovely (now a little rusty - oops) chimenea 8 years ago when we got married and I made up these DIY firelighters, to bring some beauty and scent to our beloved patio heater.  

You could use these on a charcoal BBQ too, to add spice and flavour to your barbecued food. 

We have two (slightly overgrown) bay bushes either side of the front porch and I uncovered some fibre pots that I bought, with growing some seedlings in mind. They make perfect firelighters! 

You can make them up as one large tray - which would be a great handmade gift for your BBQ loving partner, friend or Father, or make individual ones for a quick and easy craft whilst the charcoal heats up.

Take a tea light (I used up some apple scented ones I had left over) and cut it into a small square shape.  

Use the excess to line your pot. Place your cut tea light on top.

Stuff your fibre pot with anything you like! Search your garden or your neighbour's garden! I used some chilli spices from the kitchen, dried rosemary, fresh thyme I had in the fridge for a fish recipe that you will see on the blog next week, lavender sprigs and a lemon. 

Super pretty and super easy. 

What do you love to BBQ?!  

For a while now I have been dedicating every Wednesday on this blog to a charity, The Wedding Wishing Well Foundation, who I feel compelled to help. You can see the first post here.

I have felt completely inspired by their work, helping fund and organise weddings for terminally ill people.  

Then a couple of weeks ago I had an email conversation with their founder Naomi. You can read about Naomi here, but I wanted to meet her in person, to really understand her story and motivation for setting up the charity and we started discussing a potential series of posts going behind the scenes! 

Last Friday I scooted down the motorway to their office in Taunton, a girly paradise in a warehouse type building. Naomi and her right hand woman Keri (with the help of their husbands) have created a peaceful and calm oasis on a little industrial estate, 5 minutes off the motorway.  

Beautiful duck egg print wallpaper, wooden LOVE letters along a faux fireplace, twinkling jewellery under crystal chandeliers and dresses, lots and lots of dresses. It feels like you have stepped into a bridal boutique, until you see the certificates, awards and thank you cards pinned to the walls by their desks. 

Sometimes you meet someone and you just click. Within a few minutes I knew Naomi and I are out of the same mould. 

Naomi talks about her cancer, yes she has battled cancer and yes it came back. She openly speaks about her movie script last few years from movie type love with her husband and the story of their engagement which made my heart fill with love, to awful experiences in hospital with broken backs, treatment and the days she was told each piece of horrible news, which made me feel how life can be so unfair. 

I actually said it's like she has lived many lives in one. That she has been given so much to deal with but at that moment looks, to the outsider like a healthy happy mother of one.

She describes their son Devon as a miracle, a baby conceived during radiotherapy who came into the world as a perfectly healthy baby boy. 

Naomi has stage 5 cancer, the worst stage to have, the stage that means it cannot be cured. There were a few moments where I could have burst into tears but that seemed like a selfish thing to do. So I listened. When I said goodbye I actually had a strange sense of determination come over me, rather than feeling sad. Of course I felt desperately sorry for Naomi and her family but I feel even more inspired than before.

Fired up to help. 

Naomi is one of those people who is extremely effective. Quite frankly she has to be, because her time is very precious.  

I loved that about her, that in a day she can make a tremendous difference to someone. She is creating an incredible legacy, and one that I want everyone to support. 

£5 makes a huge difference. It could mean covering the petrol cost for a cake maker to deliver a £300 wedding cake they have donated for free.  

Naomi is bursting with ideas for fundraising events and initiatives. She has a contact list any wedding professional would be envious of but as one person (2 with her wonder woman Keri) it takes time to get through to everyone, takes time to send each email, return each phone call. Naomi speaks at lots of events, helps raise awareness of breast cancer in schools and so every penny that is donated is greatly appreciated.

I will go out on a limb and say that everyone who reads this post today can afford to donate £1. Less than the cost of a 99 ice cream that I am sure everyone will enjoy at least one of this summer.  

It only takes a minute to donate your £1 so CLICK HERE. 

Over the next few months I am going to be incredibly lucky and cover what the foundation really does. Weddings. They have started planning for a couple who will get married in Bristol and I am going to take you on the journey too. So you can really see where your £1 goes.

Last month Naomi renewed her vows. To the man who is standing by her through everything. They had the wedding of her dreams (it helps Naomi was a wedding planner in her career) and that is where the idea for The Wedding Wishing Foundation was born.

I hope you will follow this journey with a special couple and feel as inspired as I do to help. 

Is it just me or has the whole world fallen in love with food styling? I guess that is the power and magic of Twitter because over the last few months, I have found and followed the most incredibly talented food bloggers. 

Which means my Twitter news feed is full of delicious photos and inspiring foodie anecdotes. 

The only downside is that you have to cook and I am on the inadequate scale of proper cooking, for now. So I thought I would let my first love, inspire the dishes. I love photography and specifically styled photography. 

I enjoy nothing better than a mini photo shoot in the garden (hooray for natural light and no nasty flash) and on my charity shop travels this week, searching for a giant stuffed monkey toy, for my Monkey Surgery lucky dip, (for Ollie's Doctor Party - photos coming up this week!) I found some "props" to inspire the cook that I hope is lurking inside.

It may seem a funny way to fall in love with food but it's working for me. I am being more adventurous, have found a new blog energy and can totally indulge in combining styled product photography with flowers. They are my fail safe prop.

I feel like I am developing my own style, to the point that I would like it to be recognisable as one of my posts or photos.  

I follow a number of food blogs, a couple more for the photography than to repeat the recipes, but that is why I love them. For me they are lifestyle blogs too.  

I have read a lot about blogs that post 10 different photos of the same dish and how awful that is, but I totally disagree. If you have gone to a huge effort of making something wonderful then I say show it off! Your blog is not a recipe book it's a blog! You have the freedom to post as much as you want!  

I love seeing a recipe step by step guide in photo form, it makes it easier to copy at home and seeing how people present their food with different props and styling. I am disappointed with just one photo!  

Pinterest and it's success, is a great example of how important the visual side of your blog or website is. Pinterest is all about pinning photos. 

I have a few dishes up my sleeve for the next few weeks, think rustic, think easy to repeat at home and think flowers in the foreground! 

All inspired by these little beauties from my local hospice shop. 

An old sieve for 50p, a metal bowl for 50p and a small cooling tray for £1. Now I am going to have to learn how to bake! 

I love layering my photos. Texture for the background, (I used an old wooden green chest from our lounge for these photos) fabric, adding height by stacking the plates and bowls and pretty flowers.

The food photography I find engaging always uses lovely fabric napkins. Unless I can learn to sew overnight, I need a quicker fix to my napkin dreams. I found it in the form of second hand table cloths! Perfect for using a small corner as a makeshift napkin. £1 a piece. 

I also snapped up a vintage white and blue edged enamel bowl for £1 and a children's play tin saucepan.  

I couldn't resist the set of antique copper measuring cup pans. Perfect for picture perfect mini bakes (although not eggs as my mother in law read they can taste funny cooked in a copper tin). They have beautiful bottoms! Really! Pretty floral patterns engraved into their underneaths. I also found a sweet fish knife which compliments some old spoons I picked up for 20p!

The glass plates are a complete contrast with the more rustic bits and bobs, but I feel that's my style, or the style I hope to have! Secondhand vintage pieces mixed with pretty precise classics.

A little while ago I picked up a few bits in Vintage Von, the local vintage super store. This Schweppes Soda Bottle was one of them. 

My blog is my hobby, so instead of a gym membership I buy things I can use time and time again for my photography. That are useful too! The glass plates would make perfect jewellery trays on our chest of drawers in our bedroom.

My last bargain to share is a little international purchase. Having a brother with a US shipping address is awesome. Just look at the crazy international shipping cost!  He was the one and only bidder on these vintage utensils! I can't wait to pick them up and bring them home in August when we visit for a week! In fact my sister in law has a wicked healthy homemade pizza recipe, which I might just have to get her to guest blog! 

What are your favourite props for mini photo shoots at home? 

Have you found any bargains this week? I am hoping I might pick up a few bits on our weekend to Honfleur, France in less than 2 weeks! 

ps. I am going to do another post dedicated to the actual food photography I love and my tips for getting great pictures at home. Coming soon!

To have a look at some of my favourite past food posts click on one of the photos below.  

Orange Blossom Cocktail

Summer Berry Bake

Homemade Mini Milks

Summer Canapé