The most lovely little café we may have seen, with a proper English tea feel, all teapots and tea cups and cake stands and frills, it would be hard not to enjoy sipping a nice cuppa with a slab of cake in here. And the smiley service certainly doesn’t go unnoticed.

Owners Jo and Diane has got this café malarkey down to a tea (geddit, tea?!), and with all this she even manages to cram in a bit of fundraising for local charities and putting on a fun morning at Leo’s Day Nursery where the children got a chance to decorate their own cupcakes. Altogether now: ‘aww’.

The cakes are out of this world, delicious AND beautiful, and they even do celebration cakes to order and vintage tea hire! Wahey! If you haven’t already, give this place a go- you can thank us later (we do accept thank you cake.

http://www.tiffin-teahouse.co.uk/

We think this is by far the most offers EVER put in for a Totally Locally town Fiver Fest, it will be running for 2 weeks from it’s launch at the Summer Gathering on Friday 19th May until 31st May, so make the most of your brilliant local businesses and snap up these deals whilst you can… and you may well discover a new hidden gem all of your own along the way (if you do, please let us know!)

Any extra offers won’t be able to squeeze on to the printed version of the map (coming to a shop near you soon), so keep your eyes on our Facebook page for any extra offers that get added throughout the event. We would’t want you to miss out on anything now would we!

Tiffin’s facebook is here>>

Inspiring, keep up the good work

Totally Locally Karina

They’re now based on Exchange Road, and the dedicated bike workshop provides repairs and services for all types of bicycle, as well as the shop that sells all sorts of parts and accessories! They have even gone an extra mile by offering a free collection and return service, now that’s certainly in the Totally Locally spirit of things!

Let us know what you think of The Cycle Garage, they seem to have serious potential for Hidden Gem status… But we won’t know unless you tell us!

Perhaps donning the crown, chains and slightly warmer attire of Henry VIII and commanding: “Off with his head!” might be more your thing?

If none of the above appeals, then you could still be centre of attention at the party as Robin Hood (or Maid Marion), a nurse (steady on, fellas!), Elvis Presley, a stiff upper lip World War II British airman, and much more besides.

Welcome to the wacky world of Crazy Fun Ltd, a new West Bridgford business, with fancy dress for hire and sale, along with accessories, balloons and designer clothing to make any occasion go with a swing.  Proprietor Martin Bailey lives and breathes fancy dress, and when Totally Locally went to interview him at the Exchange Road premises, he was resplendent in a sorcerer’s gown and hat, no doubt hoping to conjure up more business before Christmas (luckily, we don’t charge for our jokes! We couldn’t).  “I’ve been in fancy dress shops in the past, and while I was served efficiently, it was not a particularly memorable experience,” says Martin who lives (fairly) locally in Keyworth “People at the counter were just wearing jeans and a T-shirt and it was like buying a packet of cigarettes.

“I try to make it fun and encourage people to look around at the costumes at the back of the shop, and when someone picks a costume, for instance, perhaps a ‘70s hippy outfit, I may suggest some free options to fit the costume like jewellery or ‘CND glasses’.”

To bring in trade, and generate a few laughs along the way, Martin is offering dressing up nights in the shop. Get into various personas – and costumes – for £20 per person, including some wine and party nibbles. Go wild…well, maybe just a bit. Meanwhile, he charges a £25 flat rate for hiring most costumes, and, truly in keeping with the Totally Locally spirit, is offering a discount to nearby traders.

As business builds, he most enjoys the banter with customers: “There was a fancy dress night at Butlins in Skegness, and a bunch of guys dropped by trying on ‘60s and ‘70s clothes and had a really good crack,” says Martin. “When one of their mates arrived, they wound him up about already being in his ‘70s gear!”

The ‘crack’, as he calls it, was something missing recently from his previous career, 23 years as a civil servant at the Land Registry in Nottingham. With the department, which updates property details, being scaled right back due to government cuts and the quieter housing market, Martin opted for a redundancy package and a more creative vocation.

Martin’s aim is to grow the business and plans to offer a mobile fancy dress service, hiring outfits from the back of his Ford Transit for £25 a throw to spontaneous people who turn up at balls and other events feeling a little drab without a costume.

The costumes, which were purchased from a store in Barnsley which was getting rid of its fancy dress attire, have already been seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Martin’s son Nic presented his play ‘The Curse of the Devil’s Verse’ to a great response (check it out on YouTube), with the cast wearing some of the outfits.

“West Bridgford has quite a lot of people up for a laugh… I’m hoping people will come here, find a fabulous outfit, be the talk of their party and tell all their friends. That would be £25 well spent,” says Martin.

Crazy Fun Ltd

2 Exchange Road, West Bridgford, NG2 6BZ

Tel: 07773  882959

Web: Search for CRAZY FUN LIMITED on Facebook.com

Hayley, the owner of Harrington’s Handmade Fudge loves Fudge!  When she was just 10 years old her friend came into school with some fudge her mum had made for her at home - Hayley thought it was the most amazing thing she had ever tasted, much nicer than the shop bought fudge.  She begged her friend’s mum to give her the recipe but her mum didn’t know how her mum had made it.

Time went by and Hayley’s love affair with fudge continued into adulthood, she decided to try and make it herself - it couldn’t be that difficult! Well it turned out to be quite tricky, it was too hard, it was too soft, but after lots of experiments and lots of wasted ingredients, she managed to get the balance right and produced what can only be described as the most delicious fudge you will ever taste!

She got busy devising recipes and now has a really wide range of delicious flavours; Heavenly Dairy, Chocolate Indulgence, Chocolate Hazelnut, White Chocolate, Scottish Tablet, Baileys Fudge, to name but a few!

She buys really good quality ingredients most of which are sourced locally in independent shops in West Bridgford, and takes a lot of pride in making the tastiest fudge she can. Every batch of fudge is taste tested for it’s quality – and of course there’s never a lack of volunteers for that job!

Tel – 07908 805003
Email – harringtonsfudge@hotmail.co.uk

Ben Nichols was bored one day in the school holidays and decided to create two flavours of fruit smoothies (Strawberries & Banana and Pineapple & Mango).  He then had a thought that this could be a great business so he designed some labels and created the brand “SoSmoothies”. (This was not a typical day off school as they say!).

He then started to grow the business by asking shops if they would take some for sale or return.  This proved a sound strategy as sales figures are now growing rapidly.  He is really enjoying SoSmoothies and is hoping one day that they will end up on supermarket shelves.  So if you see a SoSmoothies in a shop or at a market, then for smoothies sake pick it up!

To find out the latest news and what not, check out the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/So-Smoothies/264734666886204?ref=ts&sk=wall

If you have any question or want to stock SoSmoothies please email Ben at sosmoothies@mail.com or phone him on 07528 963569, he would love to hear from you.

Rob Hann (Author) and Howard Barton (Illustrator) live in West Bridgford. Their sons Joseph and Gil are best friends at school.?During a conversation in the playground whilst waiting for their respective boys, each discovered the others interest in writing/illustrating children’s stories. Meanwhile, buried deep, deep down in the farthest recesses of the imagined World, the GrumbleGroar began to make itself heard. Then in August 2009, this terrifying yet fantastic, fire-breathing monster appeared, sparking the imagination of children and parents alike as to what really does lurk at the Centre of the Earth. Now that The GrumbleGroar is ‘out there’ the creators intend to continue to develop new, unusual, funny and imaginative bed-time stories and ryhmes that children will want to hear over and over again and that parents will be begging to read to them.

www.grumblegroarproductions.com