I ordered from NY, US. They hade a Beautiful arrangement sent to my family in Leeds this week…read morefollowing my cousins funeral service. I was looking for a local florist so I e-mailed and they answered immediately and were very helpful and friendly. They sent out a beautiful, fresh arrangement first thing the following morning. I would highly recommend.

Arts and Flowers was positively heaving with browsers when I happened by one Friday afternoon in…read moreCrossgates. I could see it from a distance, as I approached, and being the nosy sort decided to check out the fuss. A gorgeous array of blooming wonders spilled out into the street almost before me. This gorgeous flash of green, dappled with many other hints of colour, boasted a hoard of lovely plants and flowers for some great prices. There was a huge section devoted to the more potted variety, primroses, pansies and so on, with the lilies and other floristry flowers being placed in water buckets in front of little store. As the owner was busy serving, and I was only there for the browsing, I didn't disturb her and just had a quick nosy around. Other items, such as Mother's Day heart plaques and fresh eggs (?!), also appeared to be on sale so this is certainly a florist with a difference! To summarise: This vibrant florist has a large range of lovely items at great prices.

fantastic service with fantastic choice of flowers, obviously staff know their stuff as they had…read morestacks of ideas for our wedding, i wouldnt hestitate to recommend them

Card Factory was absolutely heaving when I stopped by the other week. Situated in Crossgates…read moreShopping Centre, this wee card shop was certainly proving popular on my first visit. Just as I was heading over to check out their stock I remembered - it was Mother's Day that coming weeked, which goes some way to indicating why it was so flurried of custom. I had in fact already bought my card, and gift, and sent them both the day prior so as not to send it too late, so I wasn't in any great panic to purchase. I did fancy a quick look around though, so nipped in and did a quick scan. The sad thing is, is that the options in there were really lacking in my opinion, in stark contrast to their excellent staff. From what I could see, the staff were really working hard to help out their customers with choosing and buying the right cards, alas, there was not a great selection for them to perform this task! Plenty of stereotypical standards, the rude funny ones, the pink ones for girls and blue ones for boys, or princess vs. footballer and so on. I suppose the standard customer may well be satiated with a simple "Birthday Girl" card endowed with some awful joke about chocolates or aging, but I look for something more refined, thoughtful and creative than that. I thought the staff seemed great - helpful, friendly and hardworking - but the cards on offer left little to be desired, for my tastes in the very least. But then - hey, they were heaving!

Wow. I hadn't even realised somewhere like Clintons would be getting in on the idea of some outlet…read moreaction, but there it was in all it's glory. I must admit, I sneered at the idea. I mean, I'm not bowled over by Clintons as a card company as it is, so a store with all the cheap reject cards was more than likely going to be useless. Giving them a chance, I wandered in. Having seen how busy Card Factory was in Crossgates Shopping Centre, this place was surprisingly empty - a sign perhaps? In I plunged, and had a scan around. Sure enough the selection of cards left little to be desired. I saw all the standard 'funny' (not funny) cards, the simply bland ones, a few nice-ish ones and more all on display. But they were cheap, man, they were cheap. And to be fair, the shop was laid out really well. Usually finding a specific card can be hellish, from what I browsed everything was in a reasonable order. Happy days. They had the usual obligatory gift items too, the forever friends toys and such, but these were the non-half-price items unfortunately. To make up for that though there was a decent selection of gift wrap retailing at 29p per sheet so all's not lost. I think overall I was underwhelmed. The choice, in spite of outlet status, was as predictable as any other Clintons. Some awful cards, some not so bad, but nothing I'd consider to be extra special. One big bonus? Uber cheap. Aw yeah.