News from the Western Toy and Hobby Show

Hi Toy Garden Fans,

I am tagging along this week with Fairhaven Toy Garden owners Robin Bigelow and
Tina Schwindt and employees Robin and Erin Schwindt. I have a handy device on my
hat called a carabiner which allows me to sneak onto Tina's laptop case when she travels to toy shows. This year's show is in Long Beach, California and the weather here is warm and sunny compared to the rain we left in Bellingham on Thursday. The show starts on Saturday, so we spent Friday exploring the attractions of the Long Beach area. We went for a walk on the boardwalk at The Pike and I narrowly escaped being kidnapped by a pirate who wanted me to replace his long lost shoulder riding parrot. He was threatening us with his gun and then Erin quickly snapped a picture with her magic camera and he turned into a statue! Then we went to Seal Beach south of Long Beach which was rather windy, but we did briefly test the waters of the Pacific Ocean and rested in the sand. Now we are ready for a full day at the Western Toy and Hobby Show at the Long Beach Convention Center. We are hoping to find some new and exciting toys to add to the shelves of the Fairhaven Toy Garden. If only my pals Trixie, Tuck and Toggin could have made the trip with us - it would be nice to have someone to hang out with that was more my size!

Toby the Blue Sock Monkey

New Features on our Website

Greetings and good day readers,

I would like to invite you to help us populate the product review feature on our web site www.FairhavenToyGarden.com. on the bottom of the product page you can choose to review our product. You will have to log into your account to be able to do so. Don't forget to give it a rating!
Your comments will not appear right away. We do need to ok them. We will publish all reviews, good or bad, except those which have offensive context or language.
To get reviews posted to our web site is beneficial to our customers as well as ourselves. It will help the customer to make a more educated decision. For us, as the owners of www.FairhavenToyGarden.com, it will show us what you think about the product and hence help us make buying decisions. Also it will increase the perceived credibility of our business.
It will take all of us to write a few to fill it up in a reasonable time. So if you have a minute or two, go on our site and write a review for your favorite product.

Thank you very much and have a great day!

Roland

Thank You

Thank you to Robin, Devan, Emily, Tanya, Kristin, Solonia, Adam, Andreas, Alice, Peter, Erin, Pat, Carol, Allie, Amber, Ben, Chaunee, Chris, David, Lizzie, Emma, Viktor, Katya, Lindsay, Mary, Megan, Shawn, Yolanda, all of our customers, all of the people who do not know about us yet, our reps, the delivery drivers, the manufacturers, all the workers around the world who make our toys, Harold, distributors, .... Hmmm how many people did it take to make a store like ours possible? How many people have put their energy into a part of our store. Thousands? Ten Thousand? more?
Thanks to all!
Have a great Thanksgiving
Roland

Early Release

Whenever it is an early release day at the Fairhaven Middle School, we reap the rewards of lots of foot traffic. These boys and girls know the deal: They drop off their packs at the counter and begin to explore. Some color, some dress up!



They have fun!
Would you students be interested in a games tournament? Let us know! We would be happy to set something up!

Gnome Workshop

After a slow start to our felting workshop season we were able to welcome a full class on Saturday. We even had to turn some eager felters away unfortunately! Take a look at these characters!



Because of the busy holiday season our workshop schedule for December is not finalized. Keep checking the website for more information.

Speaking of the busy holiday season...it has definitely started here at the Fairhaven Toy Garden. Despite the marginal weather we had a full house over the weekend!
Oh, and before I forget, on Friday night a film crew came to our shop to film footage for a Historic Fairhaven District TV commercial. Even Dirty Dan was present for the occasion!
Thank you Zoe, Jill, and Seamus!

We from the Fairhaven Toy Garden wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving
Roland

Blame the Economy

On the front page of the New York Times this morning you will find an article with compelling evidence that the recession is to blame for the infliction of emotional and psychological damage to families. Children especially are affected by this cause. There is compelling evidence quoted to support these claims. A study here and a study there.
It struck me as odd. Don't we all agree that money does not cause happiness? But we are supposed to believe that lack of it causes damage?
Ponder this for a while.... Neither recession nor economic boom have the power to inflict damage of any kind. It is our concepts that do. We do not have to buy into them. No, we don't!
View the article

Trixie, Toggin, and Tuck

We have proof! They grew to life size...our gnomes Trixie, Toggin, and Tuck have been caught on chrome (as my photography teacher used to say) Caught in pixels....
But I digress..
In case you didn't know we have suspected our gnomes, you know the ones you and your children are looking for when you come to our store, to cause some disturbances in our store late at night. We were right to assume that they would take Halloween as an opportunity to mingle around Fairhaven without being noticed.
Thanks to you we have proof!
Thanks for playing Robin, Peter, Devan!