Build-A-Bear Workshop (Birmingham)

Ah, the joys of Christmas. Come January, you're completely skint. Now imagine the fun when you realise that all your planning has gone to your son's first Christmas, and his first birthday is fast approaching. We decided to put buying his present off til after the Christmas rush, with the hope that wed know what he'd had for Christmas, so the chance of duplicate buys was less, and chances of stock being in was higher. Wandering round town, I was becoming stressed, very quickly. I'd been looking for a v.smile baby, or little touch leap pad. But everywhere I went had sold out. As we passed the build-a-bear workshop, I paid little attention, until I ...  Read the complete review

***My confession** I am 30 years old (ok, 31 in 2 weeks) and have over 300 stuffed animals. With children of my own now I try to pretend they belong to them, but the truth is, they are mine and only mine. Even worse, I talk to them all and have to take new ones to bed with me on their first night before introducing them to the others so that they don’t get frightened. My step son got severely told off the other weekend when I caught him chucking one of my fluffiest of bears around and kicking it in the head. How can he not understand how unacceptable this is!!! So, now that you appreciate my level of childhood obsession (I feel better having said it out ...  Read the complete review

Last week I took my kids’ on a shopping trip to Birmingham City Centre, as we were walking through the Bullring my daughter spotted the Build-A-Bear Workshop where the sign in the window said they could make their very own bear. Of course, we had to go in. The basic premise of Build-A-Bear is you choose a bear ‘skin’ (for want of a better word!), help to stuff it yourself and pick any accessories or clothing to really personalise the newest addition to your toybox. As I entered this large shop I was amazed by the sheer amount of bears to choose from; as none of them have yet been stuffed the floppy ‘skins’ are displayed in huge baskets with some ...  Read the complete review