Christmas Shopping

The other day Holly, one of my friends, suggested we take a trip to Paula of Farnell, a cute little shop in Angus, which opens periodically selling Christmas decorations from mid autumn to mid winter.  Its the sort of shop you happen upon and then spend a good few hours at.  It has lots of things I love in it....twinkly lights, garlands and lanterns.

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Its in an old school house and is set within a picture perfect location just off a country road.  All the way down to it we were singing Christmas carols at the top of our voices while I half heartily looked at the map for directions.  We had taken the scenic route south which really meant much more opportunities to get lost!

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The whole shop is set up like a window display and you sort of just reach in and put what you like into your basket.  Seeing as we are temporary accommodation I was unable to really take anything much, my friend however, took a great many things...

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Everywhere you look is beautifully decorated, so it was a welcome break from shopping when our names were called to go through to the cafe and order some nice food.  One of the good things about this small shop is that you have to write your name down as you enter if you want to take a break at the cafe.  Because they then call your name when a table frees up you don't have to waste time hovering around.

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Its so warm and cosy and the perfect way to spend a late autumn day.  I am trying to squeeze as many Christmas things into my days as possible seeing as it'll all be so different so very soon.  On our way home we stopped in Montrose as Holly saw a statue of a dog.  She literally shouted "A DOG STATUE!", so we turned the car around to investigate.  The statue was actually for a dog called Bamse who lived during WW2 at was very kind and courageous.  You can read more about him here.

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Because we were so impressed by him we decided to visit his grave and once we finally found it we needed to find some pretty stones to put on it as everyone else had done the same.  Holly and I looked around on the beach for some stones and Holly found a really pretty heart shaped one, and I found one that was a nice colour.  We left it for Bamse along with some beach flowers and headed North again.  When we got back to our apartment we thought it would be funny to trick Mark and tell him I had bought all the things that Holly did.  We're not very good at telling fibs, he took one look at me and I burst out laughing.  At least what I did buy will easily fit in our luggage.

Me with the one thing I bought and Holly with her 'Mouse in a Box'