Did somebody say aprons? Heart to Home has something for everyone!

Did somebody say aprons? Heart to Home has something for everyone!

I think it was when we were putting together our exhibitor stand for the Good Food Show (Live) this year that I realised just how many aprons we stock! (We even had to give them their own “stand within a stand”!) It wasn’t a conscious decision to stock so many different aprons but actually we’re rather proud of our selection. After all, Heart to Home is the place to find lovely things for the home, and the kitchen is the heart of any home.

Next time you need an apron – either for yourself or as a gift – take a look at our selection. When was the last time you considered buying yourself an apron? We say: go for it! It’s good fun to put on a cute, patterned apron and whip up a batch of your family’s favourite baked goods. Here are some of our favourite aprons:

Cupcakes and gingerbread range (aprons available for kids, teenagers, men and women)

Floral frilly aprons (for a bit of glamour in the kitchen!)

The fleecy range, featuring the ever-popular sheep design (with aprons for all ages)

Chihuahua stripes (we’ve no idea why it’s called Chihuahua, either, but we still love the apron!)

The Good Life design (channel your inner Barbara… or Tom!)

Heart apron in duck egg blue (well, we have to love hearts here at Heart to Home, don’t we!)

Which of our massive range of aprons is your favourite? Don’t forget, there’s free postage on all our aprons (in fact, on all our items) when you order online. And everything you buy from us – online or in our shop – comes beautifully wrapped in pink tissue paper and ribbon. We don’t care if you’re buying it for yourself! You still deserve to receive a lovely package to unwrap!

Do head over to the website (or pop into the shop) to see our full selection of aprons for yourself. And you can always touch with us on Twitter and Facebook – we’d love to see you there!

Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.

Heart to Home unveils Baby Corner

Heart to Home unveil Baby Corner

Ssshhhhh…. come in quietly and don’t wake the baby! Heart to Home are delighted to reveal one of our favourite new ranges: Baby Corner!

We’ve been talking about Baby Corner! on our Twitter and Facebook pages for a while now but at last we can officially launch it to you. Please do take a look, we’re absolutely thrilled at how it’s turned out. Baby Corner! is a physical corner of our shop, and a virtual corner of our online store. It’s ideal for new Mums and Dads, Grandparents, Godparents or anyone who needs to find a special gift for a baby. We’ve selected items from lovely designers and creators of pretty but useful items such as doorstops, linen bags and soft furnishings. Just lovely for cots, nurseries and those first forays into the big wide world with baby.

Here are some of our favourite items from Baby Corner. We’d love to know which you love best. Let us know by leaving a comment or by joining us on Twitter or Facebook.

Goose doorstop

Toothfairy cushions

Elephant quilt (and other elephant items)

Hand-embroidered laundry bags

Don’t forget, we are offering free delivery on anything from our online store. This makes us unbeatable on price for the items we stock (we’ve done the research!) Everything you order online comes beautifully hand-wrapped in pink tissue paper and gold ribbon and, if you’re able to visit our shop, your purchases will be gift-wrapped for you there and then.

Do head over to the website (or pop into the shop) to have a good look at the lovely things we’ve chosen for Baby Corner. And be the first to know about all the new things we add to the range by following us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news.

Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.

Heart to Home interiors shop: at the heart of the community

Heart to Home interiors shop: at the heart of the community

If you’ve come here from our website, Twitter or Facebook, you could be forgiven for thinking that Heart to Home was purely an online presence. Whilst we certainly do have a lovely online shop, we also have a “real life” shop – and that’s where it all started. We’re on the move!

Heart to Home Yorkshire

Heart to Home the shop is currently in Ripon, North Yorkshire, but we’re going to be moving to the gorgeous town of Wetherby very shortly. We thought it was high time we wrote about how important our shop is and how much we enjoy interacting with our customers.

In Ripon, we’ve got to know our customers really well, and we hope it will be much the same in Wetherby (just on a larger scale). Heart to Home is such a lovely shop, people often describe it as walking into someone’s home and browsing through all their wonderful bits of home decor. Sandra does a great job on styling the shop and dressing the displays, and the shop’s look perfectly reflects what our customers want to achieve in their own homes. We work hard to make every item appealing, charming and beautiful. As a result, the Heart to Home shop is just like wandering into a treasure trove full of all the kitchen and dining room ideas you’ve ever dreamed up!

It’s really important to us that we form a bond with the local community. After all, isn’t that the point of having a shop in the middle of a town? To be a constant presence, somewhere people can look forward to visiting, a place where people know they can go to see, pick up and feel items which quite simply put a smile on their face? That’s what we like to think!

People do wander in to our shop just for a browse, and we’re perfectly happy with that. We like to see people take their time, pick things up, hold them, try them out for size, imagining the item in their own home. We love it when people come in every week just to see what’s new in stock. Sandra has a real gift for remembering customers and recalling what they bought last time, and she always tries to suggest something they’d like this time. It’s great to see customers buying little bits here and there, obviously building up a theme for their own home and stamping their own style on it.

The new shop in Wetherby is in a gorgeous little street, in a Georgian building with a bow window. It’s so exciting! We just can’t wait to move in and get some pictures for you. And, of course, if you live in Wetherby or ever visit the area, you’ll have to pop in! It will be beautiful: Sandra is very creative and she will turn it into something amazing.

We’re looking forward to welcoming people from this busy town, whether that’s residents, folk coming in for the races, or tourists. It’s always been important to us to have a busy shop and to be in touch with people who support us. Here’s to Wetherby!

If you can’t visit the current shop in Ripon or the new shop in Wetherby, don’t worry. You can connect with us on Facebook and Twitter now – do come and say hello!

Don’t forget, we are offering free postage on everything from our website, which makes us the most competitively-priced place online to buy the items and brands we stock.

Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.

Free postage on all Heart to Home web items!

Free postage on all Heart to Home web items!

We’ve been canvassing opinion on Twitter and Facebook and have decided to offer all our lovely supporters a treat: totally free P&P on anything ordered from our web shop! Do tell your friends. Now’s the time to click through to our website and have a look around. We’ve been hard at work putting lots of new items online in recent weeks and there are loads more to come (more than 70 new items at last count!)

You can search by popular items using the drop-down on the home page: choose from aga covers (great as gifts or for your own home), aprons (we have possibly the largest collection of aprons you’ll find!), egg cosies (quirky and cute), napkins (a household staple), oven gloves (top quality and lots to choose from), peg bags (great way to make a chore less boring!), table cloths (a lovely gift or great for brightening up the home), tea cosies (an essential element of a perfect cuppa!) and tea towels (another staple, doesn’t mean they have to be boring!)

We often get asked about our most popular items. These do change depending on the season and on stock, but there are some items which never fail to please. Some current favourites are:

Chickens! Anything with a chicken motif goes down well (we can understand why; after all, we love chickens too!) Have a look at our chicken mugs, jugs and linens here.

And sheep.

Sophie Allport strawberries and cream range. Perhaps it’s the lure of lazy Summer days, or perhaps you just love the sweet design. This crockery range is a winner.

Everybody’s favourite owl. Yes, he’s as popular as ever!

Stay tuned for a whole host of new items coming soon, including bold, vivid prints from Ragged Rose and gorgeous handmade crockery from Susie Watson. Everything you order from the Heart to Home website comes hand-wrapped (by Sandra) in our signature pink and gold tissue paper and ribbon, whether or not it’s a gift for someone else (we know how much we love receiving beautiful stuff in the post and we don’t see why you should miss out!) In the meantime, do explore our website (and tell your friends) – with free P&P on everything, there’s never been a better time!

Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.

Heart to Home in New York City

Heart to Home in New York City

At the beginning of April, Margaret went to New York City to visit her newest grandson. Little Charlie was by far the most important reason for the trans-Atlantic jaunt, but there’s no denying that NYC’s shopping scene held its own appeal, too. As one half of the team behind Heart to Home, Margaret is always on the lookout for new trends in interior design, decor and kitchenware. Here are a few pictures and stories from her recent trip Stateside.

The weather was gorgeous: quintessential New York in the Spring-time!

We discovered a lovely French confectioner’s shop, Laduree, in Manhatten which simply sells macaroons. They also have a branch in Harrods back at home. I love macaroons so joined the queue of people which led around the corner of the block. The shop window was colourful, beautiful and stylish: very Manhatten!

Charlie at just five weeks old – that lovely cuddly stage

Visiting the Ground Zero memorial, an amazing structure with water disappearing silently into the ground and all the lost remembered by name.

Don’t forget we will send a lovely gift to our 100th Twitter follower and also to our 100th Facebook page fan. We’re getting close, so don’t delay, it really could be you!

Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.

Good Food Show Spring

Good Food Show Spring

Last week, Heart to Home were at the Good Food Show (Spring) at Bluewater in Kent and what a show it was! This is one of our favourite events of the year, really important to us and central to our “on the road” activity. Did we see you there? We met so many lovely customers, fellow exhibitors and celebrity chefs. It was great fun (if a little exhausting!)

We’d redesigned the Heart to Home stand especially for the Good Food Show event, making it bigger, clearer and even giving our aprons their own little stand within a stand feature focus! We have so many aprons, with a massive range of designs and prints. There’s definitely something for everyone, and we wanted to give each apron its chance to shine! Here’s Sandra working hard to set the stand up (I did help, but had to take regular breaks in order to get photos for this blog, of course…!)

On day one, we spotted celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo signing books (and sporting a tan which we don’t think he got in Kent in April!) and the lovely Jo Wheatley, the Great British Bake Off champion (and my favourite!).

Over the weekend, the wonderful Thomasina Miers visited our stand and said she really liked our tea cosies! We made friends with exhibitors Boozeberries and Sugarcups, whose yummy cupcakes got us through break-down after the show!

We unveiled lots of new lines at the show, including plenty of items which weren’t even on our website at the time. The Good Food Show customers got plenty of exclusives! Some of the items which were particularly popular were:

Ragged rose linens and furnishings in bold, bright florals

Susie Watson crockery, tablecloths and aprons in delicate pastel colours with a sweet little heart detail

Sterck’s Chihuahua range, a wonderful hot pink and orange striped linen

Tottering By, a range featuring an older couple who are full of character!

Our expanded Sophie Allport crockery, including dogs, horses, chickens and butterflies in lovely quality fine bone china.

These will all be on our website soon!

Our next stop is Badminton Horse Trials where we’ll be exhibiting once again and enjoying the fabulous atmosphere there. If you’re planning on coming along to any of the shows listed on our “Out and About” page, please come and find us and say hello. We love meeting customers and blog readers!

Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.

Why are chickens so special to Heart to Home?

Why are chickens so special to Heart to Home?

We’ve already introduced you to some of the team: Margaret and Sandra, who run Heart to Home both at our shop in North Yorkshire and here online. However, there are a few other key characters you should get to know! Today we’d like to introduce you to some important ladies who have in fact had quite an impact on the items we’ve chosen to stock! Yes, it’s the Heart to Home chickens.

All five of the (real life) Heart to Home chickens live with Margaret deep in the Berkshire countryside. Their crockery counterparts live at our shop, adorning Sophie Allport mugs and jugs, oven gloves, tea towels and other linens.

Daphne and Harriet are the two older girls of the gang. These middle aged ladies are still in fine shape (remind you of anyone… cough cough?) and still lay lovely eggs; so many, in fact, that Margaret sometimes struggles to get through them all! Here they are enjoying the sunshine on an early Spring afternoon.

The three newer girls are Dotty (who is grey and speckled), Hilda (a Black Rock hen, named after Hilda Ogden due to her fiesty character) and Jemima (a sweet little russet girl). Jemima is adorable but very greedy and can certainly hold her own when there’s food about!

It’s not just the chicken-themed items which are popular in our shop. Anything to do with animals always goes down well, including our many cat-shaped items. And, yes, there is a real Heart to Home cat! Here he is: his name is Pickles and he’s nearly 13. Like most cats, he chooses his mood depending on… well, we’re not sure. Sometimes he’s a bit grumpy but he’s a lovely cat really.

To round up our flock, here’s the Heart to Home dog: Sandra’s lovely and lively spaniel, Tilly. Tilly loves being outside, exploring the countryside and getting muddy, wet, brambly or all three. Luckily for her, she lives up in North Yorkshire (where you’ll find our shop), so there is endless gorgeous countryside to be sniffed and explored! Here are our current doggy-themed items!

Do you have cats, dogs or chickens? We think pets make every day better. We’d love to hear about yours!

Why are chickens so special to Heart to Home? is a post from the Heart to Home blog. Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.

Heart to Home show round-up: ETC Homes and Gardens, Brighton

Heart to Home show round-up: ETC Homes and Gardens, Brighton

We’re back home now after our first consumer show of the year, and it’s a good time to take stock. We love being out on the road, whether it’s meeting suppliers and looking at potential new stock at trade shows, or displaying our wares and meeting customers at consumer shows. Last weekend, we were at a consumer homes and interiors show in Brighton.

The ETC Homes and Gardens show was in the Brighton Centre, close to the town’s famous pier and seafront. The sun shone all weekend – it was beautiful – and Brighton was buzzing with visitors. Footfall through the show itself was perhaps a little less than we would have liked, but the quality of exhibitors was exceptional and the customers were all passionate about interiors and homeware.

We took the opportunity to show off some of our newest items of stock (some of which weren’t even on the website at the time), including our lovely collection of oven gloves and aprons. We were really pleased to see how well everything went down with visitors to our stand. It was really gratifying to know that we have made the right choices of suppliers and items. It’s all well and good us liking what we stock, but it’s crucial that Heart to Home customers love them too! Happily, it seems you do.

The items which were really well-received included our new Susie Watson pottery, Sophie Allport mugs (in particular the chicken range, strawberries and cream jugs and dog prints). Our Price’s Chefs’ Candles sold well (they are so effective, every kitchen should have one) and the items we have got in for our new Baby Corner went down very well, particularly these adorable snuggle blankets. Stay tuned for news about our new products, and Baby Corner!

All the shows we are doing this Spring are quite different to each other: the ETC Homes and Interiors was a small consumer show, the BBC Good Food Show is huge and very food-focused with customers who are very into cooking, and then Badminton Horse Trials is another audience again, with people passionate about horses, dogs and the country lifestyle. It is so interesting for us to exhibit at all of these shows, to meet different audiences and see what everyone is interested in.

Next up is the BBC Good Food Show at Bluewater in Kent. You’ll find us on stand D22. Do come and say hello!

Heart to Home show round-up: ETC Homes and Gardens, Brighton is a post from the Heart to Home blog. Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.

Spring ranges and changes from Heart to Home

Spring ranges and changes from Heart to Home

We’ve been busily adding to the Heart to Home website over recent weeks, revamping bits here and there, adding to existing ranges and putting some entirely new ranges online. We’re really excited about it all, and we’d love to give you a quick tour! Here’s what’s new:

Something for the Girls

This pretty range is full of fun items for girls of all ages! We’ve chosen a gingerbread and cupcake theme for this range and, in response to customer request, have included matching items for adults, teenagers and small children. Take a look at the range here and tell us what you like best for the ladies in your life. Or perhaps there’s something which catches your eye as a “gift to self”? Well, why not! Click here for Something for the Girls.

Something for the Boys

And for the boys, we have this new range, full of bold sailing boats and pirate prints. It’s great fun and proving to be very popular already with little – and not so little! – boys who don’t mind admitting that they like to spend time baking and creating in the kitchen. Most kitchen items, like aprons and oven gloves, do tend to be rather feminine, so we jumped at the chance to stock this range of kitchenwear with attitude! Click here for Something for the Boys.

Spring website revamp

We wanted the Heart to Home website to reflect the onset of Spring, so we’ve added some new banners and changed the font colour to something a little more vibrant. Take a look; do you like it? Our favourite new banner is the one announcing our “chickens” range (Spring chickens… do you see what we did there?) Margaret keeps lots of chickens, so this range is one close to her heart. Perhaps we’ll blog soon about the chickens, cats and dogs in our lives!

Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.

Heart to Home on the road

Heart to Home on the road

Spring is always a busy time for trade shows and consumer fairs, and we’ve been on the road in recent weeks attending events up and down the country. Here’s a round up of where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing.

Sandra at the Spring Fair

Top Drawer, London
We went along to Top Drawer, a very enjoyable trade show dedicated to design and interiors. We met up with a few existing suppliers – including the lovely folk at Sophie Allport Ltd (the people behind our popular bee and chicken ranges) – and met some potential new suppliers, too. We were particularly interested finding products for our ‘Bold & Beautiful’ range. Interestingly, there seemed to be a lot of big, blowsy floral prints and designs on show, with retro florals a big trend. Rose designs were a bit theme, too. Shows like these are great barometers of styles and trends.

Spring & Autumn Fair International
We went off to the NEC for the Spring Fair, a huge trade show with hundreds of suppliers. The aim here was to work on developing our Spring ranges and choose a few new suppliers to work with. There was a great deal of choice with so much lovely stuff on show! Once again, it was all about flowers, but seemed less retro designs than at Top Drawer. Colours were fresh and bold, with bright oranges and greens dominating. Animal prints and designs were hugely popular, too, with dogs, cats, rabbits, sheep and chickens on show. We met with a number of existing and potential future suppliers, including Ragged Rose, Emma Bridgewater, Susie Watson Designs, SOPAFRA – Clementine Creations, Prices Candles, McCaw Allan/Samuel Lamont & Sons and Walton & Co. Click through to take a look at the lovely stuff they have to offer (and let us know if there’s anything in particular you prefer). We were very impressed and will be placing orders soon – stay tuned to see what we decide to go for.

ETC Gardens and Homes Interiors
We’re getting ready for the etc Gardens, Homes & Lifestyle Show, held in March. It’s a consumer show in Brighton, and we’ll have a stand there. It’s the show’s second year but our first one taking part. We’ll let you know how we get on! If you’re going to be there, do come and say hi.

BBC Good Food
In April, we’ll be exhibiting at the BBC Good Food Show which is in Bluewater (Kent) for the first time. We’re really looking forward to it: we always seem to go down well at the Good Food Shows, so this is a big one for us!

That will be the last of the consumer shows until Autumn and will herald a big influx of new products as we make the final decisions about revamping and expanding our ranges.

If you’re planning on coming along to any of the shows listed on our “Out and About” page, please come and find us and say hello. We love meeting customers and blog readers!

Heart to Home brings you lovely things for the kitchen and dining room. Our website is here.