I don’t know what GmbH stands for.  I don’t need to know.  It don’t matter to me.  Could mean anything.  Gosh my brain Hurts?  What I do know is that a pair o’ good eggs  with a lust for print, paper, pictures and bea-u-ti-ful publications have answered my mag porn prayers.  Note:  Mag/porn/prayers. They haven’t answered my porn mag prayers! Not yet in any case.  Though I did notice on the GmbH website that customers are encouraged to recommend titles…  Oh fnar.  Boom boom!  :/  Yes.  So.  Super stylish store owners Jamie & Neil have picked up their AMAZING magazine boutique from its original home in The Modern Institute,  rocked from the Merchant City right into the centre of town and set up shop  in The Lighthouse.  This is good news for a multitude of reasons.

1.  I love The Lighthouse.  I’m sooooo happy to see the building coming to life again after some uncertainty about its future and a weird, drawn out period of transition.  Heck, if it hadn’t been for The Lighthouse and the inspiring staff that work/ed there way back in 2007/2008, my ‘lil Made in the Shade business surely wouldn’t exist.  GmbH is a fabulous addition to the ground floor retail space.

2.  I love magazines.  I think I may have mentioned this before ;)

3.  If I thought Borders (bless its cotton socks) offered a decent selection of interesting magazine titles in its heyday, then my mind was positively blown when I first visited GmbH at The Modern Institute.  I swear, having now seen the new shop in The Lighthouse, there’s even greater choice.  The fellas have definitely developed and grown their drool inducing catalogue.

4.  The new location is much more convenient for a sneaky pop-in-for-a-wee-look-oh-deary-me-I’ve-accidentally-spent-my-grocery-money-on-magazines visit on the way to or from work!

I had a swell ol’ time at the GmbH opening party last night.  Crammed full of coolcat magazine junkies + skinny boys with fabulous facial hair (and girls with fabulous hairdos), I was pleased to spot loads of familiar faces – every one gooey eyed as they shuffled their way round the newly constructed wooden magazine displays.  ‘Tis nice to be sociable every once in a while.

Beardy was meeting Schnapps at The Ranch so couldn’t come along to the soiree.  I had been instructed to “get something inspiring”.  I mean, really. Like I could have gone to the opening party of a MAGAZINE SHOP and not bought something inspiring…  Since I have just two beans left in my money pouch (boy, am I enjoying rubbing ‘em together) it was pure luck that I happened to have my credit card with me.  Wild.  In.  The.  Aisles.  Want to see what £37 worth of swanky magazines looks like?

I’ve recently taken to photographing things (albeit poorly) in my bathroom.  I bought 5 magazines in total.  One didn’t make it into the picture as I purchased it purely for fun.  I bought user-generated fashion mag ilikemystyle, It’s Nice That, Lula and Tank.  Since the shop was so busy, I wasn’t able to ponder my purchases for as long as I might usually.  I bought ilikemystyle because I was intrigued by the collaborative nature of it.  I bought It’s Nice That a) because I’d heard of it before but hadn’t realised it was a hard-copy publication and b) I really liked the matte card cover.  I bought Lula because I had always regretted not buying it from Borders when I had the chance.  I bought Tank because I bought it from GmbH before and enjoyed it (plus I love the novelty of its unusual size and super cool textured plasticky cover).

I don’t like to read a fancy magazine haul all at once.  I like to pace myself.  While I work my way slowly through one title, I’ll keep the others in my book display.  I’ve already begun leafing through ilikemystyle but shan’t say too much about it since I reckon the excitement it’s sparked off already might make for a few extra blog posts over the next few days :)

GmbH is open at The  Lighthouse every day.  Find it on the ground floor next to the Tojo shop (which, from what I could see last night is also worth a little peep!) Oh – and if you want to support a cracking little creative enterprise but live too far away to visit in person, you can shop online.