I have been 'up north' for the last few days, first visiting my brother and his lovely fiancee in Bradford and then this weekend in York for another brother's baby's christening. I made sure I stayed for an extra day so I could pop in on Kate in The Gift Gallery and look around.

On 25th June 2009, Michael Jackson died ... this was in the evening in the UK and I was on twitter and got chatting to @gpjewellery ... we were watching the same news flashes ... then the same news program ... we were joking that they couldn't find an expert on Michael Jackson at midnight to come in on short notice to talk about him so had just dragged the cleaner in from down the hall! We chatted till about 2.30am before deciding to go to bed as the cleaner really didn't know anything. Since then we have tweeted, emailed, exchanged Christmas presents and become facebook friends. I was so excited for Kate when she first started talking about opening a gift shop ... I had one for while in Cornwall and apart from the long hours, loved every minute!

I have been looking forward for weeks to coming up and was greeted with a huge hug from Kate ... it was so lovely to actually meet!


Her beautiful shop is in The Shambles and full of lovely handmade items ...
The shop has quaint old beams and a lovely spacious fresh feel, which shows off all the beautiful handmade goodies perfectly!





Yes I was tempted ... and yes I gave in to that temptation ... bought myself some beautiful earrings made by Sophie from Trinket Box, a chunky ring (rings are my one weakness!) by Gimme That Thing and a sweet daisy bracelet as a little extra Christmas present for one of my God-daughters by Over The Rainbow.

My mum was also tempted ... bought a couple of Christmas presents and a felt making kit which we are going to have fun with later in the week!

If you are in York please pop along and say hi to Kate, and even if you are not in York, its worth the trip ... it is truly a divine shop!!
The Gift Gallery, 19 Shambles, York, YO1 7LZ