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!

Puzzles and Locations

Is it possible to move at a lightning pace and a snail pace? Seems to be we've got a foot in both worlds. Somethings are going fast like securing a mountain of fixtures for the store from Borders. We so appreciate those that came to help! Thanks Charity, Mary and Stan! We spent 10 hours a week ago Sunday taking things apart, another 2 hours Monday. Tuesday we spent 5 hours working with movers to fill 2 10x 20 storage units with goodies. I watched them unload into the 2nd unit whispering please let it fit...please let it fit and was tickled when the last bookcase clicked into the very last spot perfectly! It was like putting the last piece in a 1,000 piece puzzle....fabulous! I can't wait to get them out and start setting them up and filling them with all kinds of fun things!

The logo is in the works with a great conversation with my logo designer last week. Can't wait to see what she comes up with!

I met with my first toy rep last week who brought me goodies and candy. Something I think I can get used to. :-) I definitely see that I will need to do my research about what companies I will order from and not rely on my rep for totally accurate info. I've decided that learning about toy companies and products is like learning Latin. A tad overwhelming and confusing at first but with one new word and one new phrase, it begins to make more sense very slowly.

Two big tasks on my plate at the moment....1) Finding a great childcare for Nicholas starting in August. Anyone know of a great place in Carmel, let me know! 2) Making a final decision on location. After a few frustrating conversations with the leasing agent at our first choice place, I decided to look at options again. I did end up finding a great possible other location that might come available June 1. I need to get the lease signed very soon so we can close on our loan but am at a standstill until the first with it. What will be will be and I'm working to be patient and listen to what path is best for us. Will it be Choice A in a popular shopping center near a Panera Bread and visible only from the parking lot in the center? Or Choice B on the north side of the same shopping center with great street visibility and 200 sq ft larger? Alot depends on the leasing agent and how flexible they are willing to be. Decisions, decisions, decisions...... Loving every minute though!

Green Light!!!

Oh happy dance day! I got a call this afternoon from one of the banks I met with last week saying, "Are you sitting down? We got this worked out and the loan is a go." Yes! Yes! A bank said yes to our loan application. Big exhale now and time to roll up my sleeves. I'm ready! We should close on the loan in the next few weeks and then time to flip the switches for logo design, website development, lease negotiation, inventory orders, working with a business consultant and the huge to do list to be done in time for a September opening. I'm so excited! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Mr. Banker man for calling with such good news on a Friday afternoon making my smile extra big for the weekend.

The other exciting news is a springboard from the sad news about so many Borders stores closing. I love Borders! I've spent many, many hours in the stores and yes, have bought many, many books from them. We have books in every room of our house. Online shopping is such a convenience to be sure and I've certainly clicked my share of "add to cart" and "submit order" buttons. I've tried, as I've learned more, to support local businesses. If I can't find what I want at a local store than I still support a brick and mortar store. Research from the 3/50 Project says that when you shop at a local store, $68 of your $100 purchase stays in your community. When you shop at a national chain, $43 stays in your community and when you shop online $0 comes back to your community. Borders sadly is, in part, a casualty of the online trend in shopping.

Wait...exciting news is what I said....oh yeah...right...I love, love, loved Borders! I lived in Ann Arbor, MI, their world headquarters for several years and enjoyed their corporate building, knew many people who worked there. Very sad to see it struggling right now...but.... exciting news for My Toy Garden is that I have bought almost all of the fixture I need from the Borders a mile from my house that is closing on Sunday. I spent about 20% of what I planned to spend on fixtures and am sooo excited!!! They will look fabulous in the space and I love, love, love that a piece of Borders will live on in My Toy Garden bringing joy to many others for a long time to come. Goodbye Borders....hello My Toy Garden!

***Shameless, plea for help....If you love to take things apart, please come join Tim and I on this Sunday at Borders to disassemble the pieces and get them ready to move. We'd love the extra help! Thank you!

Here a bank...there a bank...

I bought pantyhose...yep, time to dress like a grown up a bit and go meet the bankers. I met with two banks last week and got a very positive response to both the concept and the business plan itself from both banks. They felt I'd done my research well and communicated it well. Now to take it to their number crunchers and see if we can work together. Meanwhile, I have appointments with 4 more banks this week. I've made a list of all the lucky financial possibilities and am going to work through them until I find a yes. I know there's one out there and I'll keep looking behind trees and under rocks until I find it. Any and all positive thoughts that we find it sooner rather than later would be great!

I also had some fun last week and went to the Border's a mile south of our house and couldn't resist buying a few store fixtures that are being clearanced. They will be perfect for the store and I can't wait to get a definite yes from the bank and go get a few more! Love finding great deals like that! So sorry to see Border's go but good to know some of their fixtures will be loved in a very fun setting for years to come. Now to figure out how to snag a piece of that cool space carpet for my science corner...hmmm...