Ten for a Tenner (or less!)

I love the Christmas Gift Guides that fall out of newspapers and magazines at this time of the year but OH - the prices! £150 for this, £200 for that and if anything is even vaquely affordable it's dismissed as a Stocking Filler.

Now I love my family and friends but I've no intention of putting myself into debt so this morning I set off to find 10 gifts for under a tenner each, and where better to look than our own lovely village of Saltaire.

First stop Salts Mill where I found this beautiful Te Neues notebook for £9.99 in the bookshop. Anyone would want to keep a diary with a journal like this.

 

Then down to Saltaire Tourist Information where a bar of wool fat shaving soap caught my eye. I remember my dad saying his hands were as soft as a baby's after a day or two spent clipping ewes. The lanolin in the sheep's wool is a great moisturiser and at £6.25 this is a bargain - if you can find a man without a hipster beard that is.

Coasters next from the Rad Studio on Victoria Road. Just £2.50 each and in a great range of colours so you could put together 4 for £10 to match or clash with any room.

One of Saltaire's best kept shopping secrets is The Craft House on Saltaire Road. Keep walking up Victoria Road and turn right and you'll find it. It has a great range of inexpensive gifts, many of them made by local people. I picked out 2, both priced at £8 each. This gorgeous hand knitted Saltaireosaurus

and a Shiraz scented candle that shouted Christmas in every sniff.

I love the Butterfly Rooms on Gordon Terrace and I've bought many special presents there. Today on my 'under a tenner' quest I found these socks. Beautiful colours and designs and presented in their own gift bag for only £6.99 a pair.

Next I crossed the road to the Co-op where I picked up 3 bottles of Saltaire beer for £5 including the very Christmassy Triple Chocoholic.

Then because gifts don't always have to be about stuff - sometimes only an experience will do - I went into the award winning Jeanette's Cakery to ask about afternoon tea. Jeanette provides a voucher for her fabulous afternoon tea for just £10 per person.

Now as some of you know my passion is walking so for my last 2 gift ideas I'm sticking close to my heart. Firstly a Dales Way mug for just £8 from Trek and Trail in Salts Mill

and finally our own Dales Rail Trails, also available for £8.99 from Trek and Trail or post free from www.dalesrailtrails.co.uk It's a fantastic little book of 32 fabulous walks from stations on the Settle to Carlisle line. Just jump on the train in Shipley and you'll soon work up an appetite for tea at Jeanette's.

So there you have it. My ten for a tenner so if you're comng to Saltaire this weekend why not bring your shopping list with you. Choose carefully and you'll have enough left for a glass of mulled wine.

CHEERS!