Our family is a big fan of The Works. It’s brimming with goodies for everyone, from Frozen merchandise through to gorgeous stationery, arts and craft materials, and of course lots of books. Just as my favourite shop as a child was Woolworths (sadly now extinct on the high street), I am pretty sure The Works will hold just as fond memories for Little I and Wolfy.

So when The Works invited us to visit its new Bournemouth store, we jumped at the opportunity. Located within The Avenue Centre in Bournemouth town centre, it is spread across two floors, and on arrival we really didn’t know where to start. While Little I wanted to check out the crafty things, I was keen to have a nose around the books, and my husband wanted to head for the DVDs. Sadly, little Wolfy didn’t get much of a say (but he didn’t miss out).

The Works had kindly given us £20 to spend, so I suggested we divide that equally between the four of us. It’s very rare that Little I has money to spend, so she was slightly overwhelmed at how to begin the decision making process. She takes after me in that respect. Needless to say, she wanted to take her time and look at everything!

The one drawback to the Bournemouth store is that it isn’t very pram friendly. There’s no lift, so there’s no way of getting a pram (or wheelchair) down to the lower ground level of the shop. So my husband and I took it in turns to be upstairs with Wolfy.

The Bournemouth store has gone much heavier on toys and arts and crafts, so it’s perfect for birthday present shopping. There also seemed to be a really wide range of cookery books, all at incredible prices, with some lovely hardbacks going for just £3.

After almost an hour’s worth of browsing, Little I couldn’t resist a pretty stationery set containing a lovely lined notepad and a big selection of sticky notes, all within a fastening case. She’s been hankering after my sticky notes for ages and was delighted to have some of her own. With £1 remaining, her eyes spotted a friendship bracelet making kit, which she rapidly proclaimed was a “bargain”!

My husband had already picked out a Chaplin DVD boxset (no faffing about with him!), so that left me and Wolfy to decide. Dinosaurs are pretty big in our household at the moment, so when I spotted a big tub of them for the knocked-down price of £5.99, I grabbed them. With a four-year age gap between my son and daughter, it’s lovely when you see something that you know they will both have fun with together. Wolfy is turning into a bit of a bookworm, so Little I also helped me pick out a lovely A-Z dinosaur board book for him.

At this point we were running out of time. We had a little bit of money remaining, but I thought rather than rush, I would come back and have a browse another day (preferably on my own!).

Giveaway…

The Works is also offering a £20 gift voucher to one lucky reader of this blog. To be in with a chance of winning, I would like you to subscribe to my blog, and then let me know your answer to this question:

What is your most treasured book, and why?

Please leave your answer in the comments section below. The closing date for entries is midnight on Wednesday 25 February 2015.

My favourite comment will receive the £20 gift voucher, and be notified here on Saturday 28 February 2015.