The festive joys of late-night shopping at Princesshay

Not a lot of things make me feel more festive than late-night shopping. The fairy lights, cold winter air and bustling streets could make even the most unremitting Scrooge feel Christmassy in no time - when it goes right, that is. But if you think that tackling the High Street for presents, particularly under cover of darkness, is hell on earth, perhaps Exeter's Princesshay could help to persuade you otherwise.

The lovely people at the shopping precinct have been organising an array of events over the festive season to make your Christmas gift-hunting an exciting, enjoyable experience. When we visited a couple of weeks ago, we refuelled during our shopping trip, making the most of the free churros and Pimms offer, exclusive to Princesshay customers with a receipt from any of the centre's stores or cafés.

Younger children can be difficult to keep happy, but Princesshay had Father Christmas, the Snowman and his Snowdog on hand to entertain even the tiniest shoppers - and even my boyfriend, who will be 20 this week, the big baby...

Official style spotters were also recruited to seek out the best-dressed shoppers and some of Princesshay's most stylish buys were on display on the winter catwalk; pieces from the likes of Oasis, Reiss and Coast demonstrated that fashion doesn't have to come with a designer pricetag and can easily be found on the High Street.

If you're not quite sorted on the Christmas present front, there's still plenty of time to get down to Princesshay before the big day - and tomorrow the Coca Cola truck will be in Bedford Street from 9am-5pm, so if you're a fan of that iconic festive advert, make sure to pop down and have your picture taken! 

Written in partnership with Princesshay shopping centre, Exeter.

Just a quickie - winter in Wells

It's almost December and I'm so excited about Christmas! A mountain of uni work and other deadlines meant that recently I've had barely any time for blogging, but Oli and I managed to take a couple of days off last weekend and visit his grandparents in Wells.

Strangely, although it was November and we had last visited Somerset in July, the weather behaved itself and was much better for most of this trip. We were lucky enough to have the very best sort of winter weather: clear and sunny, but absolutely freezing! After arriving on Friday evening, we decided to take a stroll around the tiny city, which in fact is England's smallest. Our first stop was Cathedral Green, where I spotted the above house and immediately decided that I must live there. It's also home, as one might expect, to Wells Cathedral, featured on a recent BBC documentary.

Oli's grandparents caught up with us in the market, which runs every Wednesday and Saturday outside the town hall. We browsed the local produce and potential Christmas gifts, then headed through the Bishop's Eye - as peculiar as that sounds, fear not, as it is actually one of a pair of medieval gateways, the other being Penniless Porch, where people are permitted to busk - to the Bishop's Palace.

Though the trees had by now shed their leaves, I think that the bare branches are still strangely beautiful, particularly set against a bright blue winter sky. The Palace grounds are one of my favourite places to visit when we go to Wells and I've actually never been inside the buildings. This may have a little something to do with us being tight students, but I like to just wander around the garden and the moat outside.

The moat surrounds the Palace's outer walls and is now just a decorative feature - I'm sure that the Bishop of Bath and Wells is very pleased to hear that he's no longer under any great threat as he goes about his business - and is home to such specimen of British wildlife as the giant swan. This swan and her friends make up the Swans Of Wells, a public art project to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. 

The next time we visit Wells will probably be in the New Year now. There's so much to do between now and then, but luckily I managed to get some Christmas shopping done over the weekend, particularly at the Clarks Village in nearby Street.

In any case, I had a fabulous weekend and there are only two weeks of term left before the Christmas holidays. I'll be back soon with new posts about Princesshay's shopping events and more festive fun!

It's beginning to look just a little bit like Christmas...

The weather has got a lot colder recently and I'm starting to feel festive! Although I'm not sure that we're properly into winter yet, we've had a couple of frosty mornings and there's a late autumnal chill in the air. The colours of the trees on our street here in Exeter look so pretty and fortunately they seem to have remained intact, in spite of the 'storm' we supposedly had a couple of weeks ago. 

Oli and I took a break from our heavy work schedules last weekend and strolled down towards the quayside, with our trusty Exeter Trails Café Culture map in hand. We visited the Coffee Cellar, a lovely independent coffee shop situated in one of the Victorian wool and cider cellars, and I made what I thought was a valiant attempt to finish the most enormous slice of carrot cake known to man. 

After our refreshments, we walked along the riverbank. The storm seemed to have done a little damage here but it was still a lovely excursion and it's always nice to have a break from the textbooks, translations and such like.

This weekend, Crikey It's Vintage held their Christmas handmade, retro and vintage fair at the Thistle Hotel in Exeter and I braved the planned march by the English Defence League to do a little Christmas shopping. There were some lovely festive decorations, including bunting, baubles and tree ornaments, as well as pretty handmade gifts. These earrings from Kimbows would make great stocking fillers and you can mix'n'match any of the necklaces and bracelets for a set price.

Although I've seen and admired The Peagreen Furniture Company's stalls at many of Crikey's previous fairs, I've not bought anything from them until now. While I was smelling some of their festive scented candles (including eggnog, spiced gingerbread and cinnamon toasted almonds - yum!), I spotted a perfect present for a loved one. Of course, I couldn't tell you what it was or who it's for until after December 25th!

Kitsch In Sync and Otto Retro both had stalls at the fair. I thought that Kitsch in particular had a vast range of pretty little gifts for Christmas; the problem with trying to shop at Crikey is that I saw far more things that I wanted to buy for myself than for others, which is v selfish, but everything was just too lovely. 

I really ought to pay a visit to Exeter-based Otto, but I've not yet made it! I rather wanted to try on all of their hats and there was a beautiful evening dress on display. There's a masquerade ball for the joint languages' societies in January, so I may find myself in want of a new-old ballgown yet...

As well as some familiar favourites, I came across Ravintsara for the first time. Based locally in Crediton, Sara creates hand-crafted, unique accessories and bags, including these pretty felt ones above. Most of her products are made using recycled materials, so they're good for the environment and, at affordable prices, good for your purse too; I'll definitely be looking out for Ravintsara at future events.

The Christmas lights are being switched on in Exeter's city centre on Thursday, and the German-style festive market will be opening on the same evening, so there's going to be lots to look forward to over my next few weeks in the city. 

Don't forget that the Unique Boutique arts and crafts market will be at Exeter Phoenix on November 30th and December 14th, so do come along and, in the meantime, keep an eye out for a new blog post in due course!