Clover Yard

It's true, I simply can't manage an hour of shopping or any leisure pursuit for that matter without a good cuppa.  Here are a few of my favourite, inspirational places.

House of Farnell  Near Brechin, this converted school house is the stuff Christmas dreams are made of.  Open from September through to Christmas it has a magical atmosphere with the heavenly smell of freshly baked cinammon danish pastries.  You must try the hot apple juice and danish doughnuts with jam and sugar. Yum.  I leave here with a very warm and fuzzy feeling.

Sugar and Spice in Arbroath is sure to impress with shelves brimming with old favourites such as satin cushions, jazzies, giant gobstoppers and ruhbarb and custard sweets, beautifully displayed in rows of jars.  The cafe itself boasts delights such as smokie and scrambled eggs which I'd personally recommend, all served on fluted french-style plates.  The waitresses even wear little frilly aprons and hats which is a nice touch. 

Scottish Antiques and Arts Centre

I treated myself to an afternoon here.  What a great place, on one side of the building there are individual antiques dealers displaying their treasures and on the other a gift shop, food hall and restaurant.  The french-inspired boutique is gorgeous (see picture).  They have boxes of children's sandals from the 1950's which are like little works of art - so sweet, they made me all broody!  A wonderful cream painted dresser caught my eye.  I will have to work on Derek a bit for that one.

The gift shop has great traditional stocking fillers for kids and adults alike (remember jumping beans?), a fabulous range of flocked wrapping paper in rich purples and golds, notecards from Ryland, Peters and Small (my favourite book publisher), and in one corner of the gift shop I drooled over a range of truly beautiful layered lace and chiffon dresses.  The ladies leather bags are lovely too. I could have gone mad, however, I stuck to the task in hand and picked up some smellies for Christmas pressies.  I also stopped off in TK Maxx which I've become quite addicted to, especially the homeware department.  I picked up a really lovely velvet photo album which reminded me of my bridesmaid dress on my wedding day. There is a fantastic range of books in TK Maxx - the Taschen series of Interiors books for a snippet of the original price and my favourites, the Ryland, Peters and Small collection of Interiors books which I am now amassing quite a collection of.  I still can't quite believe that they are selling them for only £4.99 each.  Have dropped major hints to my hubby for Christmas.

Dreamy Tweedy Finds

The wonderful, Scottish based Dream Acres are doing an oh so adorable 'Tweedy Pudding', completely handmade with vintage tweeds and velvet with glass berry and millinery leaves and filled with their signature festive herb and spice blend.  I saw them at the Country Living fair in Glasgow last summer and their products are really original and have that lovely homespun feel about them.

Panduro Crafts

These are my fab finds for the morning.  I came across a old favourite, Panduro a Scandinavian company which is a treasure trove of all things crafty.  I think you can get their catalogue at the bigger newsagents, although I haven't come across one yet.  Anyway, I'm loving the rose ribbon and little ribbon clasps which would look great on some fabric covered notepads.

The rose painted baubles are gorgeous.  They are wooden I think and could be used as sweet little gift tags.