Just occasionally we like to share with you news of shops that we think you'd like. Alastair Hendy's A. G. Hendy Home Store is one of them: just a pebble's throw from Jo's own front door, it's the most extraordinary step-back-in-time emporium. Except it's not. We remember when this building was a modernised, bland restaurant (in every way). Alastair - a photographer, food stylist, chef and author - painstakingly recreated a vision of a Victorian or Edwardian hardware store, adding layer after layer of patina so that the place feels like you've been time-machined. (Here's a link to a post on our extinct, archived 'blog', from the time the store opened. And you can read the extraordinary story of the restoration, here.)

He also put in what is really Hastings Old Town's most exceptional restaurant, at the back: fresh fish and local produce, barely fussed with, and utterly delicious.

We're sharing this now to entice you to make a day trip to Hastings (although we certainly encourage that!), but because there is now an A. G. Hendy online store selling - among other things - the most stunning vintage vantiy case, showcased alongside linen towels, soaps, a myriad of grooming brushes (brushes are a speciality of Alastair's: do explore the others, too - complete with 'Handy Hints').

You'll find the 'beauty' items in the WASHROOM section - and honestly, it's a website like no other.

Can't recommend too highly a good old mooch around.

www.aghendy.com