mookau – Sheffield's premier gift boutique
My Weekend, by mookau
Feb 8th
There was a time in my life when every Monday morning was marked by my being asked to write about ‘My Weekend.’ Looking back now I can see the value of it, both as an exercise for the tiny version of me, and as a means of the teacher filling a Monday morning without having to do too much planning over the weekend. Still, at the time I was frustrated with having to find new ways of saying ‘We went to see my Nana and Grandad on Saturday morning (spellcheck insists Grandad is spelled Granddad – that’s not right, is it? Did I get it wrong for all those years?) and Nana made us sausage and black pudding flavoured lard, and then we went to the new-fangled supermarket.
Anyway, here I am hmmpfty-humph years after leaving junior school, writing about my weekend again. It’s nostaligic, although sadly there was no coronary-crippling breakfast from my Nana this weekend. No – this weekend mookau went off to the NEC to buy lots of amazing things to stock in the shop. I did attempt to live-twitter the show, but a combination of a baby and really poor reception inside the halls put paid to that idea. Hopefully I’ll get more chance to update ‘live’ when we go back later in the week – you can follow us at twitter.com/mookau.
I did take a few pictures of things we have ordered though, before I got frustrated at being unable to use twitter and gave up!
Already popular – although sadly not due until April – are these toadstool foot-stools (shown here with Flo’s seven month-old hand, for scale)
We’ll also be getting these cute-as- a-button hot chocolate and hottie gift sets for the Autumn Winter season
We’ve also ordered a whole range of these cards – the featured animals are removable fridge magnets too – we’ve got giraffes and all sorts coming, but here are the owls, especially for @kipikapopo Unfortunately the strobe lighting has made grey bands appear on the photo, but you get the idea.
We spent most of our time on Sunday in the cards and wrap section – but later on in the week we’ll be doing gifts and interiors, which is much better for pictures – watch this space, or get live updates (reception permitting) on twitter.
Buy on-line from mookau!
Feb 5th
Well it’s 2am, so I’d probably best get some sleep rather than tinkering with this any more – but hopefully you can now see options to buy a very small range of our lovely things on-line, including our personalised photo frames and personalised canvases, and the new watches which arrived yesterday.
The shop isn’t fully live yet, but please feel free to have a click around and see what you think. It’d be great if you tell us of any problems you come across – you can email me at nick@mookau.co.uk – or if you don’t find any problems then please bookmark us if you haven’t already and tell all your friends and acquaintances that the momentous day when Sheffield’s premier gift boutique goes fully on-line is not too far away. In fact don’t hold back – tell strangers about it too if you like it, they might be so pleased they’ll become your friend too! We’ll be adding more products all the time – follow us on twitter or facebook for all the latest news as it happens.
I got a bit carried away then – I really should sleep! It’s still a work in progress at the moment, but it’d be great to get some feedback. If you love it tell your friends, and if you don’t, tell us why please, and we’ll try and change it!
Lots of new watches at mookau
Feb 4th
It’s time for a watch delivery (see what I did there?)
We’ve had lots of fab new watches in the shop today – from classic designs to funky modern designs, there is a watch for everyone.
And – watch this space (did you get that one) because they will be available to buy online today in our amazing on-line shop trial!
These are a few of my favourites to be going on with …
A message for the chaps
Feb 3rd
Er, ladies, did you read the title? This is a message for the chaps only – you might want to click here and read about our amazing money off offer instead for a sec.
Right, so where were we? Yes, it’s the first week in February, which means next week is Valentine’s Day – it’s a week on Sunday, to save you checking. mookau is open on a Sunday, so in theory you could sneak here on the day and get your loved one a card and gift, but why not make it a bit less stressful this year? There is no need to lie there on the morning of the 14th thinking ‘I hope she doesn’t wake up before 11, so I can nip out to mookau before she realises I forgot again’ – and there is really no need to spend hours queueing past the twee teddies in a chain card shop so you can hand over a kidney in exchange for a card that isn’t quite as good as you would like.
Here at mookau we have loads of cards that will make your other half’s heart melt, as well as beautiful jewellery and quirky and cute gifts that you’ll actually be able to hand over with confidence and pride, rather than with mumbled apologies! Not only do we have all you need to ensure a happy Valentines Day for you and your partner, we’re conveniently close to numerous bars and coffee shops, so you can head off for a afternoon shopping, get everything you need in 15 minutes at mookau, and then have a bit of sit down and a drink. You deserve it.
Anyway, keep it to yourselves – they’re coming back. Just remember we’re open 10-6 Monday to Saturday so you can call in on the way home, and 11-5 on Sunday. And if you spend more than a fiver with us this week, you’ll get a £5 voucher to use against any transaction of £30 or more next week, so you could be really organised and get her birthday present too.
Money for nothing – and your gifts for free!
Jan 30th
Have we got a deal for you at mookau?
Well, yes we have actually.
Simply spend £5 or more before the 5th Feb, and we’ll give you a voucher worth £5 off any purchase of £30 or over for the following week – perfect for treating yourself now, and buying a gift for your valentine next week – or treating yourself again, which lets face it is much more fun!
We’ve got lots of new stock in, from baby clothes to interiors to jewellery to gifts to cards – so call in and have a look around – you’re bound to find something you love – and you’ll love it even more with £5 off!
Vouchers issues for all single transaction of £5 or more between 30 January 2010 and 5th February 2010. One voucher per transaction, vouchers only valid on transactions of £30 or more between 6th and 13th February 2010
Hearts for Hearts Sake
Jan 28th
It’s nearly February – not quite sure what happened to most of January, but I think it might have snowed.
Anyway, February is on the horizon, and some of the lovely new season stock has finally started to arrive – yay!
New in this week are these mirrors – the pictures don’t really do justice to quite how shiny and fab they are, but they give you an idea. If you pop in to the shop though you can’t miss the one behind the counter as it really catches the light – these are perfect for hanging over your dresser or in a dark hallway because the crystals really do bounce the light around. They are about 45cm (or 18 inches in old money) across.
Also new are these t-light holders on chains. They look amazing when they’re lit as the sway gently in the breeze, and the light of the candle casts light and shadow through the holes. We have the heart design and a bird design in stock now. They’re both roughly the same size, by the way, I’ve just used a longer shot of the bird one so you can see the chain.
I don’t want an iPad, I want myPad
Jan 28th
This here internet is full of talk of the new iPad, which mookau is dismissing as a big iPhone, but with no phone. Let’s wait for that prediction to come back and bite us…
Anyway, the iPad isn’t available yet, but these cute little pads are in stock at mookau now. Just the right size for keeping in your bag or pocket, each pad has a soft waterproof, washable cover, made with 100% sustainable bamboo pulp paper. The last 8 pages of each notebook are perforated, ideal for writing handy notes when you are out and about or jotting down your number for someone.
If you need any more convincing, bear in mind that while the iPad is compatible with most iPhone apps, our pads are compatible with every pen and pencil you own – and on top of that they have no batteries to recharge, and come in a pack of four vibrant colours, and are available now.
Click here to buy this product in our online shop.
Cool Camera Keyrings
Jan 27th
We have had a lot of fab new things in over the past two days, but I’ve left my camera at home, so I will start to post more pictures tomorrow – but in the meantime, and on the subject of cameras – how cool are these keyrings?
(Apologies for the shaky camera work – I couldn’t quite get my laptop at the right level, so I had to hold the box the camera is on, and I hadn’t had a coffee!)
Up above the streets and houses
Jan 26th
So you’ve seen the Pigeon Street bags – now behold the wonder of the Rainbow bag …
The mookau web-shop
Jan 25th
We’ve been thinking about having a web-shop since we opened the shop shop, as it were. In fact we actually developed one last year using osCommerce, which I mention only because it’s lovely and free, if you want to try it. We also get asked about buying things from mookau online quite a lot – admittedly at least half the time it’s people who want to sell us a webshop that ask us, but we do get a lot of customers asking too!
The problem we could never solve was how to make the stock figure be correct on the website. We didn’t want to disappoint our web customers by saying we had things in stock when we didn’t because we’d sold them in the shop, but the only way for us to know for sure what we have in stock would be to keep a record of every single thing we sell, which was something we couldn’t really do – until now!
Those of you who have been in recently will have noticed we now have two tills – the old one, and a flash touch-screen jobbie. That’s going to be the new till which will scan everything we sell, so we can have a website with correct stock levels on it – yay! It doesn’t quite work yet because we’re actually trialling the newest version of the till / website software from a company that does the tills for some major high-street retailers. As always though, mookau is way ahead of them – although in this case maybe a little too far ahead because the software isn’t quite ready to start using ‘live’ as it were.
However, once it is working properly we will firstly have a fabulous till that prints lovely receipts and gift receipts, and will also allow us to have a loyalty card scheme, which I am really excited about. As well as all that, we’ll finally have a website that will know how many of each thing we have left, so we can be sure when you order something that we have it available! Hooray!
We’ll update this website as soon as the shop goes live but in the meantime you can keep up to date with the fab new lines we have coming in here on mookau.co.uk. And if you join our email list using the little box near the top of the page you will also get an email when the shop site goes live with special introductory offers, as well as occasional emails about events and offers in the shop. Go on, sign up, it’s really easy!
