We refreshed our Douglas Cuddly Plush. We got a big mix of brand new, new to us, and beloved classics.
You can only buy a newborn baby so many rattles. Luckily we have a ton of new baby and newborn items by Malarkey. From Crib Chompers to Munch Mitts to silicone Dribble Bibs that catch every missed bite; they have a ton of useful products.
We now carry TokiDoki blind boxes! In addition to their Unicornos we also have some extremely cute Sanrio/Hello Kitty figurines.
We brought back the Bucket Builder Wooden Train Set and a new Wooden Domino Set.
Pokemon Stellar Crown is in! Highlights include the Dark Powers Ex Box and the new ETB.
We re-upped on Plus Plus! I say it every time, but this is one of my favorite toys.
And then we have a bunch of odds and ends like super deluxe Hour Glasses, Hoberman Spheres, Gyroscopes, and some cute new Miniature Playsets.
Sun Smith Foret and Marty McKay are working on a spiritual successor to their Iconic Alton Coloring Book! This one will feature the Village of Elsah. The coloring books aren't out yet, but in the meantime we're selling hand-colored greeting cards by Sun featuring some of Elsah's landmarks.
Jean Curvey has new ceramics on display!
Sage is selling knitted pumpkins as fast as she can make them. She's also starting two rounds of Beginner's Knitting Classes this week.
Sage also decked out our front windows with some giant Halloween-y spiders.
Alton Main Street's 'First Fridays' started last night, as always, we participated. The event runs from 5-8pm this year, and takes place on the first Friday of every month.
Our experiment with being open Mondays is over. We had a couple of decent Mondays at the beginning, but then they plummeted to dismal levels this past month. The people have spoken with their wallets! We've changed our hours back to Wednesday-Sunday (closed Mon/Tues). We still plan to be open in some capacity 7 days a week during the Holiday Season.
A lot is on the horizon. We'll be getting some new board games soon, so another 'Funky Game Night' at the Old Bakery Brewery is in the works. We're working on orders for big wooden action games, books, science toys, art supplies, and some toddler toys. After that we'll be working on re-upping our stocking stuffers and bringing in some new toys we saw at the ASTRA toy show.
Our craziest time of year is just around the corner and we're very very excited.
~David