Archive for June, 2010

Cooler Breezes for Our Customers!
We’ve installed a HUGE fan upstairs
and it’s helping to ‘beat the heat’ this summer.

Aaahhhh.
A stress-free evening of pampering and fun ~ what more could you ask for?
Vicki Bryson (www.SpaGal.net) of BeautiControl was our spa specialist and introduced us to heated neck pillows, wonderful beauty products, and aaahhhh back massages.
A buffet and margaritas rounded out the evening and we didn’t want to leave.           

Being lucky enough to live on the East Coast of our beautiful state, our beaches are still pristine and our wildlife unaffected.  Sadly, this is not the case for the West Coast of Florida or the bordering Gulf states.  How can you help?  Click on the photo below to find many opportunities with a multitude of organizations.

Jim Sneed’s website — All About Old Toys (http://www.oldwoodtoys.com/) — is constantly growing and evolving.  Originally Judy’s Old Wood Toys, the name change came about to reflect the inclusion of metal toys.  400 pages of articles, more than 4200 photos, over 50 toy company histories — most contributed by researchers, collectors and family members of old toy companies.  You’d think that would be enough, but a planned merger with Richard Mueller of Antique Toy Collections (http://www.antiquetoycollections.info) later this year will more than double the scope of information.

New information is added daily to what is already the largest collection of Schoenhut circus photographs on the Web and the best Humpty Dumpty circus identification guide.  Collectors have contributed photos of some amazing collections that are a feast for the eyes.  Several museum collections are included.

Well-written and informative articles are categorized by subject and include photos, catalogs and advertisements, original and current estimated prices, dates produced, measurements, and more.  A vast storehouse of information on the companies and their toys.  ‘Dating your wooden toys’  along with a guide for researching your toy is invaluable.

Want to sell your collection?  Need repair or restoration service?  Need professional photos taken?  Jim covers all these subjects and offers several services.  You can sell your toys through his website or set up your own toy shop.  He also buys toys and has a ‘toys wanted’ list.  Many, many links with a summary of each, saving you a lot of time.

Visit All About Old Toys (http://www.oldwoodtoys.com/), you’ll find it very user friendly and easy to navigate.  Be sure to bookmark it — always something new — you’ll want to go back again and again.

Tell ‘em I sent ya’. ~ Victoria

THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your donations for the Salvation Army!!  The Major from the Salvation Army came by Friday and was thrilled.  We continued to collect throughout the weekend and our customers proved once again they’re a great and generous group!

We had a full basket right after we opened and the donations kept coming!