Delightful Devon

Don't tell anyone, will you?...Hubby and I played hookie from work yesterday!

We decided to take a day off and make the drive down to South Devon, to visit one of our favourite places. It takes us around an hour and three quarters to get to the ancient stannary town of Ashburton, but its well worth it.

After parking the car, we always go into The Studio Cafe for a cup of tea. The two guys who run the place are so welcoming and friendly and you share closely placed tables with lots of the locals, with everyone chatting and laughing. The huge choice of teas and herbal infusions are all served in informal mis-matched china - its a great place!

After our tea, we made a B-line for 'The Snug', which is my favourite vintagey shop. Sadly, Ros the owner, wasn't there yesterday, but I still found plenty of pretty things to buy.

Next, we crossed the road and went into the deliciously fragrant soap shop, 'Odds & Suds'. Jenny is another welcoming proprietor and makes all the beautiful soaps and bath creams by hand herself, from all natural ingredients.

Everything is lovingly displayed in a fabulous array of furnishings, including this antique hay cart.

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Next door to Odds & Suds is another must-visit; 'Sara's Lavender Box', for flowers, vintage china and pretty hand sewn articles. (It's entering a shop like this that reminds me how much I miss mine...)

At the back of the shop I recognised some familiar faces! What a small world blogging creates...

It was Nicky's little bunnies all lined up along the windowsill, looking like they'd been up to mischief!

After a quick bite of lunch (we went back to The Studio Cafe for more friendly banter! and a salad! ;-)), we headed off to Totnes, which is about 15 minutes away. We walked the length of the high street, calling in to most of the shops at the top end. Through one of the shop windows I spotted Michele's handmade cards, (I told you it was a small world!), so went into 'This'n'That'.

I bought this lovely 1930's tapestry, which I shall hang in the summerhouse when we have it ready. I want to create a 'Granny's Potting Shed' kind of look in there! I loved the parrot hatpin stand too. In the background is some wrapping paper printed with embroidered crinoline ladies - Lesley had some framed in her shop, which looked just like a real embroidery.

As we left her shop it began to rain, so we decided to make the journey back home again.

My other purchases included the PVC hanging shoe tidy -very useful for storing other things as well! A velvet millinery rose, a hand painted crumb brush, a pot of vintage powder and a miniature basket of forget-me-nots.

This linen covered chocolate box, with floral embroidered lid...

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And this pair of dainty china posy baskets are also destined for my summerhouse. All of these came from 'The Snug'.

Although I was playing hookie ;-)), I did think about work...some of these treasures will come with me to the V&H fair. I also bought some handmade geranium and marigold soap to use in my soap gift sets. And several scoops of dried lavender filled a brown paper bag, which I shall use to stuff some handmade vintage fabric sachets.

So, I'd better get on with creating those...no more slacking!

Have a lovely weekend,

Niki x