Bellissima! Part 1

Hello bloggy friends! I had a top Top TOP weekend, but only just now had time to write about it. I decided Bellissima would be a good title - part of the weekend was spending time with my beautiful eldest daughter, Little Miss, and part of the weekend had an Italian theme (more on that later). I think Bellissima is Italian for beautiful, but it also sounds like it should mean happy and fun too, and that's what our weekend was - happy and fun :)

On Saturday Little Tomboy had a party to go to in the afternoon, so it seemed like a good opportunity for some Daddy-Son bonding time (they sat in different rooms playing on different x-boxes - go figure), and some Mummy-Daughter bonding time with my Little Miss. We both like a good mooch around the shops, and going for coffee and cake, so we decided to go to our local Craft Village, Holme Grange

Holme Grange has lots of wee shoppes, all perfect for browsing and oohing and aahing over Lovely Things, and squealing " ooooo!! Look!!!" every 5 seconds.

We visited the craft shop and bought some decoupage papers for a Future Project....

... and Little Miss spent some of her Christmas money on a little dog - she is a sucker for a cuddly toy.

She's named him Sandy. We had lots of fun taking photos while Sandy photo-bombed them .... naughty Sandy!

That last one was taken while we took a pit-stop in the Tea Shop .... they have an amazing array of home-made cakes and biscuits, it was hard to choose ... but we managed .... Victoria sponge and fizzy orange for Little Miss, and coffee cake (my favourite) and a pot of tea for Mummy ... yummm

.... we even used the little forks to eat our cakes ... how posh :)

Refuelled, we then went to Possibly My Favourite Shop In The World - The Little Craft Barn. I adore this shop. Firstly it has yarn. Well that in itself is enough to make it FAB. But it also has fabric, trim, buttons, craft kits, baby gifts, wooden toys, oooooh its just Lush. Love love love it. There are lots of bits and pieces for sale that have been hand-made locally by, well, people like me, I suppose. Home-crafters who just need an outlet for a few items. The picture below is the outside of the front of the shop. It faces onto the courtyard which has loads of tables and chairs for lounging in while consuming cake and tea from the cafe :) Gorgeous in the summer :)

Anyway, back to the yarn. Did I mention they have Yarn!  I need more yarn in the same way that the Sahara needs more sand, but it would have been rude not to buy any, don't you think ? I bought a big squashy ball of James C Brett Marble Chunky - destined for a cushion cover, and a few balls of cotton. I haven't used cotton a great deal, but I love the stitch definition that it gives, so I thought I'd buy a few balls just to have when the mood takes me :) 

Little Miss also chose a piece of fabric (it's meant to be butterflies but we decided it looked more like sweetie wrappers :) that I'm going to use to line a bag for her, her favourite bag is now too small for her, a perfect excuse to crochet a new one then! I might even use the cotton yarn for that, as the colours go together with the fabric so well.

One thing that brought a tear to my eye was this little present for me that Little Miss chose, and paid for out of her own money ....

.... a beautiful little hand-painted wooden heart :)  Such a simple piece and yet the message so heartfelt as she read it out to me and pressed it into my hand. Sigh. I don't want her ever to change. The heart is now hanging on the board next to my sewing table, and makes me smile every time I catch sight of it :)

Next up was the Gallery - again lots of gorgeous works of art for sale. Paintings, sculptures, silk flowers, bowls, cards, all produced locally by amazingly talented artists. I spotted a lovely clock which I pondered over for aaaaaaaages, we went out of the shop but my thoughts kept returning to the clock so I decided to just buy it. It was only ten pounds, not exactly breaking the bank, but we didn't really need it so it felt a bit extravagant. But I do love it :)

It looks grey in that photo, but it actually a pale sagey green. It goes really well with my green jug, and those roses were a present from hubby :)

We made a quick (but apparently Very Necessary) stop in the sweetie shop on our way to the car, purchased some lollies, and then dashed into the Italian deli shop, Delights of Italy, mainly to get out of the rain. Whilst waiting for the rain to stop I was chatting to the lady who runs the shop, Jackie, who reminded me that she runs pasta-making workshops. I thought "why not?"  and booked a session for the whole family the next day (now you see where the Italian bit comes in). 

The pasta-making will have to wait for my next post, this one is already long enough:) So for now, I will leave you with another picture of my beautiful roses! Ciao!