Imagine that one day, you receive an email:’Hi. We are a new shop opening in Birmingham. Our shelves orgasm rainbow scented gel pens, we create rubbers shaped like burgers; massage colour changing stationary until our fingers bleed and house pencil cases as fluffy as your nan’s face’. Okay. That didn’t actually happen. But that’s pretty much the gist of what the Smiggle shop is about.
I was kindly invited to the opening of Smiggle. ‘A smile and a giggle’ – if you will. The ten-year-old Australian brand has now crawled it’s way onto British soil and won’t stop until every single child packs something ‘Smiggle’ related in their school bag. I’m 24-year old and I felt like I had just walked into the Wonka Factory of stationary. I am also now what you would class as a ‘pencil sniffer’.
Come the Blogger opening at 6pm, we could barely move from all the children running around and the chaos which comes with the store. I literally exhaled as I walked into the shop with the fear of pushing something off the edge of the counter. We were in fits of giggles as Lenny Loves Life continually decided to ‘accidently’ knock items onto the floor. We couldn’t move from the rainbow vomit which spilled out around us. I mean, they even have macaroon erasers for goodness sake.
The PR lady Georgina who bought us all together for the event was so wonderful & she had arranged goodies for us bloggers to go home and try. Thank god I have a desk job, because all of my new stationary now sits proudly on my desk. Yes, I am officially 12-years old again. The staff behind the counter were also ridiculously wonderful and kept a smile on their faces – even with 20 loud kids bumbling around the shop, trying out all the new creations.
The best thing about Smiggle is that the stock changes every 6 weeks. So nothing stays the same. With the risk of sounding like a huge cheeseball, I really did love seeing so many peoples faces light up when walking into the store. If you’re ever feeling in a grump when walking through Birmingham City Centre, you must walk into this shop – It’s located on the bottom floor next to Pandora. I can guarantee you’ll smile in seconds.
I’d like to thank Smiggle for my first Advent Calender of the year (25 doors of stationary fun!) and most of all, for letting us ramble around the store unsupervised. What do you think of Smiggle? Will you be visiting any time soon? Click on the Smiggle website to find your nearest branch.
This was such a fun event and the Smiggle stationery makes me very happy every time I see it on my desk. It was lovely meeting you that day. I didn't open my calendar beforehand. Hope to speak soon xxx
Caz | Lunch Break Adventures