No trip to Devon is complete without a visit to the market town of Newton Abbot. If we ever have a decent stay in Devon I always persaude my husband to take us there. Last year I found a vintage toy London bus which is my favourite ever find. My husband loves going to a model shop and we usually have tea and cakes in the delightful Pharmacy on Queen Street. As the name suggests the tea room is in an old pharmacy which retains all the original shop fittings. They always have an amazing range of cakes which I…
-
-
I can’t quite believe it’s 5 years since we stayed in a lovely cottage in Dawlish. I have a real soft spot for the town having also stayed there on family holidays as a child. Funny to think in the last 5 years we’ve got married and had two children. So it was great to re-visit as a family of four. The toddler loved the amusement arcade, having a ride on Thomas, and was given a bowl of 2p pieces to play on the slot machines. He even had a little step so he could reach the machines and amazed…
-
Our holiday was going quite well until my husband slipped and twisted his ankle. This meant that yesterday I had to entertain the children whilst my husband went to A&E. After exhausting the possibilities of the play park, beach and pier I thought I deserved a treat. Teignmouth is brilliant for charity shops and I never leave without some bargains. There are at least 8 charity shops which is pretty good for a small seaside town. They are all within easy walking distance of each other and can be visited in under half an hour. I started off by visiting the Rowcroft…
-
Amongst the piles of Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder puzzles I managed to sneak in this lovely vintage puzzle on my latest shopping trip. I absolutely love it, it shows the traditional independent shops you’d expect to see on your high street before the big supermarkets wiped them out – the baker, grocer, toy shop, greengrocer, chemist, Post Office, butcher and bank. The pieces are made from chunky board and when you remove them they reveal the inside of the shop! It’s made in England by G J Hayter & Co Ltd., Bournemouth, a member of the…
-
I’m not a girly girl but I do enjoy a look around the shops so was very excited when I was invited to visit The Bentall Shopping Centre in south London. Edward and I regularly go to our local shopping centre where we are experts in navigating the shops with aisles wide enough to accommodate the buggy, clean baby changing facilities and great coffee shops with helpful staff. How would The Bentall Centre compare? Shop ’til you drop It’s a bit of a journey from our patch of London so Edward and I set off on our epic journey early…
-
I’m sure you know I’m a huge fan of Cath Kidston. Only today I stopped off to buy a lovely business card holder for my new Moo business cards at the Cath Kidston on Marylebone High Street. Today was a bit of a shopping marathon and, whilst browsing in Uniqlo in Westfield, I spotted some very familiar prints. Cath Kidston has teamed up with Uniqlo to produce a range of tshirts using some of her most popular prints. Many of the tshirts are already sold out but I snapped up two as they are currently on offer at 2 for…
-
I expect my local highstreet looks much like yours, same old supermarkets and pound shops with the odd Boots and WHSmith thrown in for good measure. It makes shopping slightly boring. However, Wood Green has one good shop that is all our own – The Big Green Bookshop – an independent bookshop that aims to inject some life, culture and uniqueness back into our high street, or High Road if you’re being picky. The Big Green Bookshop was opened in 2008 after the only bookshop in Wood Green, Waterstones, closed down. I’ve loved following the process of setting up the…
-
Little Man is now 10 months old and I have arranged an interview with my employer to discuss flexible working. Today I went shopping to buy some new work clothes and I came away empty handed. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is struggling to lose their baby weight. I wasn’t too worried about my weight while I was pregnant and happily bought lovely maternity clothes and lots of cake. My weight began to drop off after I gave birth and a couple of months after my son was born I packed away my maternity clothes and slipped…
-
Ok, so I had to visit three Tesco stores but I finally got my hands on an Orla Kiely Scribble Pear design reuseable shopping bag. I mentioned back in November that Orla Kiely has designed a range of bags exclusively for Tesco. They are made of juco (a material technology that combines jute with cotton). The bag is lovely and strong and cost £4. The Scribble Pear design is the first in the range. For each bag sold a contribution of 50p of the sale price of each bag will be divided equally and paid to CLIC Sargent Cancer Care…