At the weekend my boys and I got to visit the Smiggle store in the Arndale centre at Manchester for a V.I.P blogger event. I made out like it was for the boys but being a teacher I am a bit of a stationery nut so it was as much for me as it was for them.
Smiggle, if you haven’t already worked it out, is a stationery shop with the cutest strap line ever “Smiggle, where a smile meets a giggle”. It sells everything your creative side could desire and better yet there are hidden twists everywhere. A pen is never just a pen in Smiggle, it could be scented, or like the ones I treated my boys to, it writes in invisible ink only visible using the magic light! Why buy a rubber when you can buy a custard cream to erase your mistakes and a pencil case isn’t a real pencil case unless it comes from Smiggle and has secret sections and pop out scissors for those paper cutting emergencies. Everything in this store has a fun twist or quite literally lights up your day.
Yep smiggle is the sweet shop for adults, with colours and scents and fluffy items every where you look. You will find it hard not to drift back to the days of being a child where you wanted and needed everything in sight and will wander around with your eyes wide and a smile on your face as stationery items that you never knew existed suddenly become the most necessary item imaginable. It is the perfect place to pick up a gift for the under 10’s.
This weekend was awesome, we were invited to touch and smell and man handle the goods. None of this telling the boys to “stand still, put it down, don’t touch, slow down, be careful, don’t even breath on that!” oh no, we were encouraged to touch and smell and play and enjoy everything the store had to offer and as a self confessed stationery nut this was heaven. I even found the perfect mascot for the strawberry fountain and have placed this gorgeous strawberry pencil case firmly in the number one spot for my Christmas list.
I hadn’t totally forgotten that I had taken the boys and as much as they loved the idea of being able to draw on each others hands they also loved the fact that the shop assistants were handing out chocolate cakes and HUGE smoothies from Boost, whilst I prayed they didn’t trip and fall dropping it all over the new display, which luckily they didn’t, this time!
Whilst we were at Smiggles we not only got to see the great new summer range G’day UK, inspired by an Australian theme (which was lovely) but we also got to see the new “coming soon” range be revealed. This selection of products really got my sons attention. The camo range, all heat protected diaries and invisible ink, is stationery that even the power rangers themselves would need and my boys haven’t stooped talking about it since we came home and love the pens we treated them too, although I dread to think what hidden messages I will find if I walk around with the magic light shinning in their rooms.
As if having exclusive access to the most colourful shop in town, cakes, smoothies, competitions and an unveiling wasn’t enough the wonderful staff also gave us a fantastic goodie bag on the way out. In it we received the cutest Koala pencil case from the new range, some adorable rubbers and a set of gel pens that may or may not have already vanished form the boys sight and be living quiet comfortably in my teachers tool kit.
It was a great morning and the staff were friendly, if you are in the Arndale centre I highly recommend you pop in and say hi. They have everything you need for sending the kids back to school or for your very own home office.