My friend and I were going for a wee jaunt in Rawdon and we came across this delightful shop. She…read morehad just passed her driving test so I suggested a drive out to a random Leeds town and we decided to visit Rawdon - it was a total off the cuff find! The layout of the shop is most curious, being on the corner of the street almost, the shop itself opens out on the the street at both sides! This was a little disorientating from the inside, but I soon cottoned on. From one entrance you were met with a plethora of beautiful glass ware, hand made delightful wine glasses, little trinkets and key rings, beautiful cardigans, home ware tea sets and other gorgeous gift items. My favourite of this room was a lovely Indian (?) style lamp shade like a metal framed globe with different coloured gems which made up the body of it. At £55 I decided to think on it, but it was beautiful. Upstairs was a gallery of different floral prints, material prints and other really interesting art works. In the other room through to the other side of the street was a lovely hand made card section (situated in the through-fare) and then a gorgeous jewellery and toy section where we were greeted by a lovely sales lady. The shop is beautifully laid out, with exquisite and imaginative gift items from all kinds of indie designers and crafters, and it was most definitely worth stopping by. Prices range with some sale pieces, but expect to take a while as it is mesmerising!

This is a really lovely gift shop and emporium of beautiful things!…read more It is just by Rawdon Traffic lights so really easy to find. The shop stocks lots of lovely, unusual gift items for a variety of budgets. It is a wonderful place to go in for a browse around (no doubt you will find something you love) or to look for a special present. This shop is always my first port of call when looking for a mother's day present, or gifts for my other female relatives. Staff are happy to help and quick to come up with helpful suggestions if you are struggling for ideas. It can be a little expensive, but makes up for this with the convenience of it's location

The Beehive is an adorable little fair trade shop on Potternewton Lane. It is a somewhat petite…read moreshop and it sells a range of fair trade products. Products include kitchen cupboard bits and bobs such as coffee and tea, honey, jam, peanut butter, chutney, nuts, rice, pasta and chocolate. They also sell a variety of intricate hand-made greetings cards which are very pretty and unusual. Their range of gift items includes some very cute wooden toys, pottery, candles, stationery and jewellery. They also try to order in any product you'd like that they don't have in. They used to have a tiny café in the adjacent room, which sadly is no more...but if you have seen how tiny the room really is you can probably imagine why! The fact that all the products at The Beehive are fairly traded is a breath of fresh air when so many shops have murky supply chains and questionable ethics. But it is not the defining feature, because as well as having ethics the wares on sale would stand out in any gift shop or grocers for their careful design , high quality or scrumptious taste! When I popped in for a browse around the Beehive the two women running the shop were absolutely lovely - so welcoming and friendly! A shop with ethics, top notch products and perfect customer service - what more could you want?...It must be said though that their opening hours are a little sparse so you have to be sure to catch them at the right time!

This small shop has a great range of all things fair-trade. There are greetings cards crafted by…read morepeople in Bangladesh that are so much nicer than generic mass-produced cards for only £2.50, a good price for such quality. A few wooden toys are for sale and fair-trade chocolate, tea, jam, honey, coffee. Some really nice pieces of jewelry are for sale also, which makes it a great place to pick up a present with your mind at ease that a minimum amount of exploitation has taken place for the sake of your purchase. The ladies in there were really sweet and friendly saying hello, thank you and goodbye numerous times. They even apologised for the state of the shop that day as they had just had a delivery of food goods. Its a bit out of the way but I will be purposely passing by to buy my fair-trade Easter eggs this year.

This beautifully laid out shop is another wonderful and unique gift store in Otley. With so many…read moreindependent shops offering one-off gifts, special presents and individual ideas it is difficult to choose between them. So I'll try to explain what this one is all about. The last time I paid them a visit they had some beautiful items on offer. One such gift was a delightful illuminated lamp vase item, which had fibre optic branches erupting from the base. It was like a beautiful fibre optic houseplant, and retailed at £99. Phew! But if you want the perfect item to offset that modern fireplace... In amongst a variety of gifts, jewellery, cocktail glasses with dappled patterns, glassware, porcelain statues of lovers and more you will find any number of trinkets and treats that are bound to please the eye. For my money, there wasn't quite a find unique enough to warrant its price, but I am sure that this is just an opinion. Seems to me, in amongst some standard gift choices, there are plenty of decorative and homely gifts that are a little bit different. Contemporary - but just not my style.

This is a cute little gift shop in a sea of gift shops on the Chapel Allerton high street. At…read morepresent the store has a lovely christmas display in their window, which caught my eye, so I went in to have a look. The first thing to hit me was the lovely cinnamon smell as I entered. On browsing I discovered all kinds of different items for sale, ceramics, cards, hello kitty brand items and many other knick-knack type items. On deeper investigation I noticed that the prices weren't as competitive as their neighbours'. The glassware was quite expensive for what it was and they had some button earrings on sale - which were literally buttons attached to earrings - that cost £10, which i thought was pretty high for what they were. Still, it's always worth having a look in these shops as everyone has different taste, and invariably there will be some little treat that you might find. All in all a nice little shop with a few cool things to see.

This gift and card shop is similar to the second Angels shop down the road 'Angels Too'. I had…read morepopped into this one for a card and decided to check out the other one, mentioned to me as I was making my purchase. They both sell cards and gifts but the range here seems to aimed at different customers. There are gifts and stationary items from the Hello Kitty brand and a range I had not come across before - Momiji dolls. They seem quite a cult thing when I looked them up on the internet later on but something that might appeal to teenage girls. There was also a 'Top Model' range. Something else I hadn't come across before either, probably due to my age (mid-twenties, too old to be interested but to young to have children that are). So you can find many gift items here and will probably be drawn in by the colourful window display that currently involves a gothic christmas tree.

Situated right at the top of Leeds Kirkgate Market, The Sewing Basket is one of my more favoured…read morehaberdasheries. Although it sells the expected selection of useful items such as lace, thread, eyelets, elastic and a whole host of other things; I tend to visit the stall for a different purpose. I am obsessed with the art of gift wrap. As I have previously mentioned, I have been known to lavish more money on the presentation than the gift itself, during the more penniless periods of my life! The Sewing Basket is a positive haven for my wrapping needs. Last Christmas, my theme was brown paper with bright, festive shades of thick, red ribbon. This stall supplied me with copious metres of the embellishment, at extremely reasonable prices. To the extent that I had enough money remaining to buy a red feather to place on the side. Receiving a gift fro me really is a sight to behold! An excellent and conveniently located stall to satisfy your haberdashery needs, and more besides.

The Sewing Basket is a petite haberdashery shop that, despite its size manages to stock a wide…read morerange of sewing essentials - all the obvious sewing essentials as well as buttons, sewing machine accessories, ribbon, net, elastic, lace and loads more! They also stock a range of craft items for cross stitch, decoupage, stickers and many other card decorations. The staff there are always very friendly and helpful and the prices are reasonably cheap. The Sewing Basket is definitely a valuable addition to the modest variety of haberdashers in Leeds.

This is a delightfully full gift shop in the heart of Otley, with all kinds of treats and…read moresurprises. The shop indeed has a large number of china gifts, including pig shaped piggy banks, crockery sets, figurines and more. They also had a number of pewter items, including pewter keyrings in all kinds of designs - cats, cars etc. I don't think you could find a more specialist gift shop with such thoughtful items. They have special VW gifts, including mini camper vans and VW mugs - the sad thing is I know people who like these things! They also have a really special range of gift cards, which isn't something most actual card shops can boast, including 'swinging greetings cards' and 'wheel' cards! The owners are clearly dedicated to finding the best gifts with the most personal touch. Stop by next time you are in Otley, if only to gaze upon their hoards of pretties.

A quaint gift shop in the Market Square of Otley there is an abnormal amount of china and…read morekitchenware, a rather country set with a cock and hen as the feature is proudly displayed in the window when I was browsing for Christmas cards, I found a very apt, large card for my Nanna completely with all the sentimentality that I could never muster by myself. There are gifts for children such as wooden toys, pencil cases and games and very gentile owners happy to help.

Another teeny, tiny shop in Otley, what enticed me in was a scarf pin on a mannequin in the window,…read morea very beautiful old-silver flower. Much smaller than I expected there were some boxes filled with photo frames all for 99 pence. A wide selection of jewellery and books they know how to cram things into small spaces here. It strikes me that people like there animals in Otley as there is a quality selection of accessories available here where some other charity shops, and there are many in the town centre, were not only expensive (although the clothes in here were pricey too, for a charity shop that is) but lacking quality choice. The lady in the shop was dressed nicely and full of energy, helping anyone and everyone, darting to and fro and answering my questions.

The quintessential place to buy an elderly relative a card that would receive appreciative sighs. A…read morelarge quantity of twee sentimentality has been injected into this shop and although the style does not comply with my own, The Card Room does provide a more intimate, local setting in which to purchase this style of card. Alongside the vast array of aforementioned cards, there is a random miscellany of gifts. Ranging from handmade jewellery to calendars, umbrellas to clocks, and photo frames to keepsakes, The Card Room has the bagatelle market covered. There is an entire baby section at the rear of the shop, and whilst I was there recently, a staff member was expertly guiding a gentleman around the selection of photo memory books for babies. The man in question did not take much encouragement to proudly announce that he had just become a Grandfather for the first time, regaling his assistant with her name and weight. It was a touching moment to overhear! If you were wondering, the baby was called Amber. The Card Room is a perfectly adequate shop in which to purchase a fairly conservative range of cards and knickknacks. Although I doubt I would make the detour from the city centre to visit the shop, for certain recipients, I would consider the trek.

The Card Room is a pretty standard gift shop selling a huge range of reasonably expensive cards,…read moreand loads of gifts. Gifts include rather cute sort toys to mugs, drinking glasses, picture frames, decorations, hand bags, umbrellas, clocks and placemats. The shop is quite large with products well-displayed and the staff are friendly and helpful. Like most gift shops, the majority of items are quite expensive, but if you like gifty paraphernalia you're likely to find something to fork out for.