Nora's Bigger Nest

 

The first hit...

At the beginning of January this year, we embarked on an exciting new chapter for Nora's!

Following a good few years of 'ummming' and 'ahhhing' we decided to extend the size of the shop by knocking through in to what was our store room!

Several months of planning, four weeks of building work (plus a significant amount of dust) later, we're beyond excited to bring you a sparkly new Nora's!

Here are a few pictures of our journey from the start...

 We hope you like the bigger space we have created and we're really looking forward to welcoming you all!

Our Store Room (looking tidier than ever before...)

                   

 

The wall coming down...

Building the floor up

Ceiling lowered and new stud wall

Plasterboarding

Flooring 

Almost done...!

Ta Dah!

            

 

So there we go. The next chapter begins...

Tour on t'bikes

THE WHEELS ARE IN MOTION! This weekend God's own County plays host to the start of the greatest cycling event in the world. Stages One and Two of the 'Tour de France' is coming to Yorkshire on SATURDAY 5TH JULY & SUNDAY 6TH JULY We've got some fun (and tasteful) mementos of this once in a lifetime event! Here's a selection of our favourites...

*NORA'S EXCLUSIVE* One Man & His Bike' Limited Edition Map Print Features a typical Yorkshire countryside themed silhouette with a chap on his bike bringing up the rear! £50.00 unframed Our bestselling tea towel! Taken from a 1947 Ordnance Survey Map of Ilkley £12.50 Two prints from local designers commemorating the two stages of the Grand Depart. (The men on bikes are imaginatively made from different letters of the alphabet!) £32.00 each unframed Finally (after years of hounding!) the Yorkshire version of these fantastic Type Maps is now available! £45 unframed We love everything about the two bicycle obsessed chaps on this tea towel!  Can you feel the tension? £10.00 Two more cycling prints for bike lovers! One is an anglo french amalgamation for the Tour and the other a fantastic quote from Fausto Coppi. £32.00 each unframed

Our little shop in Ilkley will be closed over the weekend of the 5th July & 6th July but we will be open until 7pm on Friday 4th July and we're also offering *FREE DELIVERY* on our website over the weekend. Just use code 'BIKES' CLICK HERE TO SHOP ONLINE!

A Northern Light

Isn't it amazing how lighting can transform a room?  

I'm a great lover of lamps and candles and how a few carefully positioned ones can create a cosy and relaxed atmosphere especially in a living room or bedroom. I have lamps everywhere in my house and we very rarely use 'the big light' - drives my other half mad when it comes to bedtime and they all have to be turned off! 

I've always struggled to find beautiful lampshades and lamps that look just as lovely turned off as they do on, but when I saw these stunning illustrated parchment paper lamps, my heart skipped a beat.

            

Woodland Table Lamp - £56.00

Claire Humphreys is a Northern Lass born and bred, and her love of drawing and painting began at a very early age.  In recent years she took up graphic design, merging this with her hand illustrations she started to create unique and atmospheric images that initially were sold as cards, stationery and prints.  After several years of research her 'prints' were turned in to the most amazing lamps we've seen in a very long time! 

Claire's amazing lamps and candle covers have just arrived at Nora's - we're a little bit giddy about bringing them to you.   

                      

       

Wild Hare Tall Lamp - £65.00

                 

 

Candle Covers - £20.00

Whimsical Wonders

We discovered the work of Freya Ete about 18 months ago but I only recently realised that I'd never blogged about her and her beautiful range of cards, prints and textiles. 

We love anything that's heartfelt (and makes us go a little bit mushy) so, when we saw Freya's amazing work our hearts were stolen... 

Born in Australia, Artist and Poet Freya now lives in London and designs incredibly beautiful and optimistic pieces.  What we love most about them is that their whimsical sentiments are perfect for absolutely any age, from newborn baby through to adults. 

They've now become one of our bestselling ranges so obviously you love them as much as we do!

Here are some of our (and your) favourites...

       

Trumpet Blowing...

Back in March we found out that we had been shortlisted for two national industry awards at 'THE GREATS' Gift Retailer Awards.  Completely flabbergasted but obviously chuffed to bits, mum and I started planning a little girlie day out in London...

The day came around quickly and on Thursday morning last week we got our glad rags on and set off on the train down to The Savoy (it's so posh they wrap their loo rolls up in tissue paper...) 

             

        Toilet roll wrapped in tissue... 

  Original little ashtrays in the toilets...

We thought you might like to know (and see) how our day went...

(So, you remember the scene at the end of Notting Hill where Julia Roberts is holding a press conference and Hugh Grant dashes across London to declare his undying love for her blah blah blah?  Well, the awards were held in that very room - terrible picture so you're going to have to trust me on this or click here to see it on you tube!)

                         

Our table was right at the very back by the kitchen door (the naughty table) and as soon as we found our seats I said to mum; 'there's absolutely no way we're going to win; firstly, there's about 350 people here and secondly, they never put winners on tables right at the back - you didn't see One Direction sat at the back at The Brits...'

After 2 hours of 'networking and hob-nobbing' we sat down to a lovely meal and got ready for comedian Hal Cruttenden (very funny, camp but straight bloke) to present the awards. 

Me and mum enjoying ourselves

Finally, our catagory was announced -  Independent Gift Retailer of the Year 2013 (North & Northern Ireland).  Nervously holding each others hand, mum and I tried to concentrate on the nominees... And the winner is...<X Factor style dramatic pause> 'Nora's Interiors and Gifts, Ilkley'!!!! 

           Receiving our award

Posing...

    

Our table (who were all strangers just a few hours before) cheered and whooped for us - to say we were gobsmacked was an understatement - we made our way up to the stage through the maze of chairs and tables and collected our (extremely heavy) award, posed for photographs and then 'bounced' back down to our table. 

If I'm honest, the rest of the awards was a bit of a blur and completely overwhelming... we couldn't stop grinning and have yet to come down from cloud nine!  For our little shop to be recognised by the industry at a national level is just incredible.  

Beautiful orchids at The Savoy

Once everyone had filtered out, we decided to have a celebratory 'brew' in the American Bar at The Savoy (well we are from Yorkshire) and the staff were so lovely - our award got its own chair!

We made our way back to Kings Cross ready for our journey home (and a marks and sparks sarnie on the train - we know how to live!)