Gourd Art

I have to share my mother’s GOURD ART, it’s beyond beautiful. She’s in her 70’s and just started this art form about a year ago. An artist all her life, she had never tried this medium, and is a natural at it. She makes dream catchers and containers from her gourd art, and does PYROGRAPHY into each of her gourds as well. If you have never seen beautiful, natural gourd art (no bird houses, and the designs are burned in, not just painted!) please visit my mom’s fine gourd art website at GourdsGalore.com

Etch A Sketch Art and Classic Toys

We happened upon this great ETCH-A-SKETCH art on RainyBayArt.com and just had to share it, since we are in the toy business. This artist is really good with Etch A Sketch art and here is one interesting question we read on his FAQ page:

“Where do you find Etch-a-Sketches these days?”
“I have powerful connections with Santa’s elves, who manufacture them by hand and deliver them to key drop-off points for me. These drop-off locations include: toy stores, department stores, Fred Meyer, etc. Apparently Ohio Arts doesn’t do a good job with their marketing, because a lot of people aren’t aware that you can still buy Etch-a-Sketches, exactly the same as the ones you grew up with, just about anywhere.”

Classic retro toys are still around and as popular as ever. Toys such as Slinky, Hula Hoops and Silly Putty, Radio Flyer Red Wagons and Wooden Blocks can be found in many specialty toystores today. People marvel that the classic toys are still around, and everyone enjoys taking a moment to slip back into childhood memories.

 The artist’s site is www.rainybayart.com and he does sell Etch-A-Sketch art too, which he says he makes permanent (so you can’t shake it to erase it!). Check out his website to see how he does it.

Old Santa Ynez Day Face Painting

Saturday June 9, 2007 was OLD SANTA YNEZ DAY, an annual event in the quaint western township of Santa Ynez (30-40 min. north of Santa Barbara).

Our (former) Toy Store (now closed) offered Face Painting to those at the event, and we had over 70 young children get their faces painted with our Professional non-toxic, water-based face paints.

Thanks to Thalia, Nora and Lauren, our face painters, and to all the kids and parents who participated! We had a great time!

Washable Paints – Kids Arts & Crafts – Cleaning the paint stain!

Washable paints have come a long way. Parents and teachers used to just add liquid dish soap to tempura paints to make their own washable paints for children to use in art projects. The problem with this, they learned, was that MOLD would grow. Why?

Apparently adding a foreign ingredient to the manufactured paint product was a breeding ground for mold! Now that parents and teachers know what great washable paints are on the market for kids, gone are the moldy soapy paints!

Buyer beware: Even washable paints can damage some surfaces, especially porous ones like certain clothing fabrics. Sometimes the darker colors, especially dark green and black, are harder to wash out, even though the washable paints are water-based and should come out with soap and water.

 Tip: Wash out any paint from clothing or other surfaces right away. The best solution we’ve ever seen to getting out almost any kind of stain, is to use LAVA SOAP. Use the bar soap, not Lava in any other form. Get the fabric wet, rub the bar of Lava soap directly on the spot, then rub the fabric together at the stain. Rinse and repeat until the stain is gone. Tough stains come out too! The sooner the better, and do this prior to putting the clothing in the laundry.

We do Face Painting for birthday parties, and use Professional Face Paint Make-up, which is water-based, safe and non-toxic, for use on skin. It washes off hands and faces easily with soap and water, but the same rules seem to apply with this type of paints. Darker colors left on longer, will be more difficult to wash off. (Don’t use our Lava soap trick on skin! Just on fabrics.)

Thanks to a Los Banos, CA 1st grade teacher for the Lava soap tip, we have used it many many times with great success.

Specialty Toy Stores

 - We loved selling the Frog & Toad books with matching stuffed animals. Just another interesting specialty toy store product!

Specialty Toy Stores: Before owning a specialty toy store we did not realize why toy prices in small toy stores were higher than in the “big box” stores. We figured the independent toystores were choosing a higher markup just because they could. This is not the case. Some products that are sold to the big chain toystores are not even available to the small toy store owner, because we would be required to buy so much of it that we’d need a huge store to put it in. We don’t have that luxury.

[Update: Our store is now closed/out of business]: One of our frustrations as toy store owners is being low on the totem pole when it comes to getting our merchandise. When we ordered Lego, for example, and Toys R Us or Target has a big Lego contract, they receive the product first. If there is any left, it filters on down to the independent retailer. 

One thing people may forget when comparison-pricing our toys with those at major toy retailers, is that the big stores like Walmart or Target do not offer the personalized shopping experience that we do. Nor do they offer gift wrapping if you are on your way to a birthday party. Many of our loyal customers tell us they’d rather save the 1/2 hour drive, save the gas, save the time, in order to have the full service experience that we offer.

Kids these days see so many commercials on t.v. that they want the toys they see on their favorite shows or commercials, instead of some of the great toys that the specialty toy store carries. The independent toy store tries to stay away from too many commercialized products, and most parents and grandparents appreciate the quality of the toys we offer in our toy store. As far as pricing goes, the small toy store cannot compete with the big box stores, because we do not get the same bulk discounts for high volume purchases that mass market stores demand. Our customers don’t always understand this, so we do try to educate our customers to help them understand why we carry the toys that we do, and why we may not carry the brand name item they were looking for. We hope to increase their awareness as to how the more intimate shopping experience at a specialty toystore can be more than worth the higher price.Also, in order for small businesses to survive, and therefore provide the convenience of short distance shopping for residents of the Santa Ynez Valley, it’s critical for locals to shop at their local small businesses.We truly are a “mom and pop” toystore, owned and operated by a mom and pop couple. The toy business is our main income and we’ve had reports that many independent specialty toy stores have gone out of business in the last five years. [Sept. 1, 2007 Update: WE HAVE NOW JOINED THE RANKS OF THOSE OUT-OF-BUSINESS]. Part of this is due to large online stores with big warehouses, and lower overhead, who can offer lower prices.

Another issue in the toy business is the preponderance of toys for sale everywhere you go. The local grocery supermarket sells toys, stuffed animals, arts & crafts. As does your local drugstore and gift shop. With toys available in some restaurants too, you truly can find toys almost any place you shop. 

You can see why the small toy shop is struggling today. [We owned a toystore in a very small town, and got very little foot traffic and very little tourism -- both of which we needed in order to be successful, but both of which are discouraged by most townspeople. While we understand and support the idea of remaining a small town, small businesses must survive, and we needed more customers for that to happen.]