Getlifes yard

This is how a shopping area should look, think York or Chester, or at least the old bits. A real gem just off the now generic high street full of chain stores and charity shops. Take a rest-full stroll down the cobbled street past quaint shops and the excellent Cafe Clique.

Bibelot

bibelot [ˈbɪbləʊ (French) biblo]n

1. an attractive or curious trinket
2. Leeks newest and most attractive shop.

Welcome to Bibelot’s beautiful new shop at No. 2 Sheepmarket, Leek. We have recently moved here from Getliffes yard after completely renovating the building which had been empty for the past 10 years. We now have two floors of retail space packed full of fantastic goodies for you to browse.

Bibelot is the only authorised Cath Kidston stockist in the area. We carry a large range from the British designer including bags & accessories, homeware, stationery, toiletries, children’s items and haberdashery. Alongside Cath Kidston we stock gorgeous accessories and china from Avoca of Ireland, handmade products from Poppy Treffery in Cornwall, Jewellery from Tatty Devine of London plus many other fantastic products from a range of British designers. We love to support local crafts people and sell some lovely handmade local items including jewellery and crochet blankets.

Alongside our British made products we stock a great range of Children’s games and accessories from our ever popular recycled lunch bags & vintage style games to a range of craft and sewing kits. Bibelot also sells vintage and collectable Lego minifigures and we run a Lego loyalty card for our regular Lego fans.

Our haberdashery range has expanded and we now stock floral and dotty oilcloth by the metre, some fabulous pick and mix buttons, pom pom ribbon, ric rac and an array of felt craft items as well as a beautiful vintage style sewing range from Merchant and Mills. We also sell a great range of craft, sewing and knitting books.

Colloco, Leek

Here is the first in a small set of post highlighting some of the best places to shop in Leek during the run up to Christmas.

Welcome to Colloco gift shop – stuffed full of fabulous things which we hope you’ll like as much as we do.
We have great gifts for men (aren’t they always the hardest to buy for?), Women’s gifts with a difference, teenagers gifts and children’s.

Much of our Stationery selection is sourced from British designers when we can and the majority is printed on recycled paper here in the UK. However the Americans produce some really well designed papergoods (as they like to call them) so we have hand picked some of our favourites journals, notebooks and address books for you. The Listography’s are a list makers dream and a fantastic gift.

Homeware is close to our heart and we have carefully picked our ranges of prints (including Bold & Nobles cool TypeMaps and Aardvarks manifesto designs), tableware (from our local makers in Stoke on Trent Repeat Repeat and Little Walton Bank), accessories for your kitchen (Stuart Gardiner tea towels are always a good seller) and mugs, lots of mugs – they are always the fall back gift it seems, everyone uses a mug!

No gift is complete without a greeting card (and maybe some wrap) – we love the fact that 99% of our greeting cards are designed and printed by UK designers on recycled paper. Cards for most occasions, birthdays and Christmas of course, tags and wrap. Our soft spot at Colloco is for Letterpress cards, we hope to be bringing more to our website soon.

If you know your brands you can have a peek through our ranges just here- Aardvark, Bold & Noble, Black & Blum, J-Me, Koziol, Little Walton Bank, Momiji, Nanoblock, Newgate Clocks, Repeat Repeat, Stuart Gardiner, Talking Tables, and Wild & Wolf.

Froghall Canal

The newish moorings at Froghall.

Consall railway tracks

View of the railway from out side the Black Lion pub Consall.

Rudyard lake.

A panoramic of Rudyard, click picture to view bigger.

Consall Lime Kilns

Consall Lime Kilns newly refurbished by Prestec

Finished

St Mary's Leek after the restoration work has been completed.

Foxtwood Cottages

How would you like to wake up to this view, you can just by staying here, Foxtwood cottages, a lovely collection of holiday cottages right down by the canal and backing on to this great pool. The cottages are close to the village of Foxt and right by Froghall wharf and only a short walk along the canal to Consall and The Black Lion.

Christmas light switch on Leek tonight.

The Staffordshire Moorlands calendar has been going for about 20 year and this year all the images are mine. This is a wonderful showcase for my work and also looks to be an on going commitment with 2013 already being discussed. See here for more details.

Tonight I will be taking part in the Christmas light switch on in Leek, I have got a stall on the market so pop over and say hi.

Leek remembrance day 2011 part 3

Leek remembrance day 2011 part 2

Leek remembrance day 2011

Staffordshire Moorland calendar 2012

The Staffordshire Moorlands calendar has been going for about 20 year and this year all the images are mine. This is a wonderful showcase for my work and also looks to be an on going commitment with 2013 already being discussed. See here for more details.