The last edge piece clicked into place today!

Don't you love when you do a big puzzle and you click that last edge piece into place? Such a satisfying feeling isn't it? That's just what happened to day with the giant jigsaw puzzle that is My Toy Garden!!! Wahoo!!!! Today we signed the papers with the banks and now have official permission to go on a shopping spree!!! Oh yeah!!! Tons of hours of work have gone into reaching this point and I'm so ready to start filling in the middle of the puzzle with the store buildout (set for mid July), inventory orders, fixtures installed, decorating the store, setting up my POS and Quickbooks and whatever surprised and challenges come next! Major celebrating happening at the Pillsbury house this week!!!

ASTRA - Way better than EIEIO!

ASTRA....now what could that mean? I just spent 4 days surrounded by ASTRA folks having a blast in California. There were ASTRA top 10 toys and ASTRA vendors with mountains of things to delight and amuse. ASTRA seminars packed with exciting ideas I can't wait to implement! Have you guessed what ASTRA stands for? No? It's something for you to remember and check out in your own backwoods or while you are traveling. It stands for American Specialty Toys Retail Association and what an amazing group they are! Look for an ASTRA store near you for a fun adventure! Their help in getting My Toy Garden off the ground has been immeasurable. So many retailers have spent time answering my questions and giving me more to think about and plan for. The website gives me peeks into the hottest toys on their shelves and what's to come next. I had a blast in California for the annual convention! It was their biggest and best yet with close to 300 vendors there. I wandered the aisles of Marketplace for 2 days feeling like I'd just eaten a 16 layer chocolate cake by myself. I can't wait to start placing orders for many of the things I saw there that will be so much fun for you to play with!

I also met a great new friend, Heather, from Colorado who works at GrandRabbits Toys. (My MI friends will understand why I can't pronounce that right.) She and I seem to be long lost siblings of some kind. We had so much in common and laughed a ton. The last night was on our own so we decided to rent a car and drive to Laguna Beach and eat at Las Brisas, an cliffside ocean view restaurant wrapped in a rose garden. As we were getting ready, the car rental guy I'd befriended a few days early on my one day early arrival gypsy day, called to asked if we really wanted a 4-door or if a convertible would be okay? Okay? Okay! Wahoo!! A silver Chevrolet 200 convertible with 2,000 miles on it pulled up to the front of the Hilton and he handed us the keys! It didn't matter that we were a bit cold, we cranked that top down and off we went! Such a fun way to wrap up a great trip!

Want to peek inside the store? Come on inside!

Drum roll puhleeze!!! We signed the lease this week to what will become My Toy Garden!!! Such an exciting step!! Now for the bank to ask for their last piece of paper and we can get the bank papers signed. Getting the lease signed was a big step toward getting the bank papers signed. Then it's is a major shopping spree just ahead! Thank you for all the kind emails and phone calls of support. It means alot! I am off to a national convention of toy store owners called ASTRA for a few days and can't wait to meet everyone, learn a ton and sort through the puzzle of inventory!

Ready for some fun? Want to peek inside the store as it looks today? Come on inside! It used to be a design center so it has some great built ins that will be fun to work with. My contractor is planning to start demo on some walls July 5 with an eye toward a Sept. 10 grand opening. The fun is revving up!

Pics from Francois' visit

Here are a few pics from when Blue Orange Rep Francois personally delivered a catalog to our house and stayed to play with us. Lily loved Gobblet Gobblers, CooCoo the Clown and more!

Check, check, check and a Frenchman!

How much fun would it be if you found a catalog of products you loved and you called to get your very own copy of it and instead of them mailing you one, they sent a Frenchman to your house to not only deliver it but also bring all the games in it? That's just what happened to me this week! I love the Blue Orange games and can't wait to play them with you at My Toy Garden! I realized I did not have their catalog and emailed to get one. Instead of one appearing in my mailbox, I got a call from Francois saying he happened to be in the area and would love to come show me the games. Works for me! Francois was charming and sat under our wonderful shade tree in our backyard with Lily and I for over 2 hours playing all the games. I have to admit that I did have to translate for Lily quite abit. It was fun to see her puzzle over what he was trying to say sometimes. :-) Make sure to be there for our grand opening in September and meet Francois yourself. He believes he should be able to come back to join in the celebration.

The week was also full of other meetings with toy reps...a total of 16 hours looking at catalogs and playing with things. Such a tough part of the job....really is though...there are so many great choices and trying to keep track of what you saw where and who to order it from and how to order it is an organization challenge. I'm up for it! My Corley friends know how I whipped those science materials into shape, know I can do this too! It's been great meeting the toy reps and learning so much from them!

Biggest news of the week is that the two obstacles I was chomping on are done...wahoo!! I've found a delightful place for Nicholas to be loved on come August....Miss Sarah...will quickly become part of the family I suspect. Thanks Danielle for the introduction! I had no idea that was one of the reasons you came into my life!

The other one is...drum roll puhleeze.....we have a lease!! Wahoo! It's printed on my desk, signed and ready to deliver to the landlord Monday. The location we ended up with is on Carmel Drive just west of Keystone next to McNamara Floral. It's going to be perfect! I can't wait for my contractor to get in there and start working his magic! Opening in September is still on the plans. It's going to be a very busy July and August I suspect but so worth it!