I so love going "up north". As we do it quite often the children, my mum and I have the journey down to a fine art. The new St Pancras International station looks amazing. We usually do the tourist things - this time we visited Haworth, and took the children to Eureka - stuff we have done before but they make a good day out. I went to an exhibition at Bankfield Museum in Halifax. There is an exhibition by the Practical Study Group which was really interesting - if you are near and into textiles it is well worth popping into and it is on till June. I didn't take any photos as I wasn't sure if they were allowed. The museum is really interesting. It has permanent displays of samplers, clothing and textiles (including patchwork). The exhibition space mainly has craft exhibitions, particularly textiles.
On the Sunday night we stayed in Leeds. We went into the Corn Exchange hoping to have lunch and found it empty. It is a real shame as there were lots of little shops there including a really good bead shop. We found out it is going to be turned into a food hall, so at least it is still going to be open and used. The building is absolutely amazing - here are a couple of photos.
We ended up having lunch at Harvey Nichols as they have an outdoor cafe in one of the arcades. I love Harvey Nichols food hall, but was a bit disappointed by the lunch. It probably didn't help that Bizzie had a toddler turn as soon as we sat down so we ordered really quickly and ended up spending over £20 on a bagel and drink for each of the children which they barely touched! Their window displays are always worth looking at and I love this one. I don't really drink cocktails these days like I used to, but they still appeal to me in a kitsch way. I also still love cocktail umbrellas. It all started when I went to Spain on holiday as a child and would have a snowball. The glasses came all dressed up - umbreallas, sparkler and a cherry too! Don't start me on Pina Coladas out of a pineapple...nothing is too tasteless for me!
a close up of the skirt - I love the jewel like quality.
It is good to be back home, but we are all tired and tetchy today so taking it easy. I am pleased I am working tomorow, instead of today like I planned, as I would have been so tired. Instead we are about to do the supermarket together - won't that be fun!
If anyone knows Yorkshire well can they recommend and yarn or fabric shops? We go up there often and I am always disapointed that somewhere that has such as rich history of textiles has so few shops specialising in that area. They must be there, but I haven't found them yet...
Happy Tuesday x
