Clouds of chemical scents struck us in the face before we even got in the door. Here's trouble, I…read morethought. Ok, I'm not a country homewares kind of person. I hate florals, loathe teddy bears and hate mass-produced signs that mouth obvious platitudes. Not my thing at all. But, with an open mind, we wandered in here and were struck dumb by the plethora of spotted crockery and colour themed displays. Then there's the Christmas room. Sheesh. Christmas thermometers. 'Look at that thing with the thing!' my mum exclaimed. No, I can't explain it better myself. 'Faux' chocolates for 50 cents (plastic) we agreed were just cruel. Stacks of quilts. Owls. Anything spotted or floralled you could possibly want. Hidden amidst all the, well, stuff, there's the odd vintage treasure. If you wanted to do the Christmas thing, the 3 vintage 1950's holly mugs were kinda cool. The eponymous Rick called mum 'my love' on the way out, which she didn't appreciate. Oh look, to each their own. Even their own country, apparently.

Don't have the coffee!…read more Rick's is a pleasant walk from where I live and since there's not much else in the way of coffee in the area we thought we'd give it a go. Sorry Rick, you should stick to gifts. Coffee is produced from an automated programmed device, which we only found out as we were leaving and were asked how it was. Trying to be pleasant, my husband replied, "Ok". This was obviously a signal for further probing for elaboration and as a result we learned of the crime of the machine. I was trying to figure out if it was skim milk that had made such a dreadful result. Now I'm guessing it was most likely Coffee-mate. With so many amazing cafés in the Blue Mountains (just not in Lawson) save you coffee experience until you get further up the hill. Meanwhile, the locals of Lawson are hoping that the new shops nearing completion will deliver at least one great café.