I’ve been waiting for this for a few years now. What, may you ask? Available Products! Chances are now when you go to the shop you will see some dolls there waiting for homes. I love seeing dolls there, just waiting for someone to stumble upon there and pick one up. The past few years have been amazing but sometimes has felt like a bit of a frenzy and it still is a bit on upload times but it has calmed down. We are now making over 80 dolls a week as opposed to about half that last year and I think supply has met demand a bit. We are still focusing in on making lots of Little Buddies (our 10″ dolls). So, why else am I excited about with this ‘Available Products’ development? Well, it’s allowing me a bit of room to take another step.
Back at the start of Bamboletta I sold my dolls at Farmer’s Markets and at craft fairs – these are my ‘roots’. I would watch with delight as kids would come to my booth and scan the dolls and choose their perfect friend (as a side note it was usually much different than what the mother wanted!). It’s like a total ‘moment’ when they found her or him. This what really gave me the motivation to make more and to grow Bamboletta. I felt honoured to be able to be part of that little one’s childhood (in a very small way – but still!). The past few years I’ve felt that too with my online community, the pictures and emails and amazing gifts and acts of kindness have really bonded me to all of you and I’ve been inspired to grow and make Bamboletta what it is today. My online sales have come first and I never had any dolls ‘extra’ to do the markets or the fairs that I used to do. But, now with ‘Available Products’, I have the room to do so. So, as of December 1st, I am fufilling a dream and opening up a wee store – 10”x10” (which funnily enough was always my Farmer’s Market stall size!). This store will be in Cowichan Bay, tucked away and facing the boats. We’ve been plugging away at it, painting and making the trip to Ikea and getting it all ready .. I feel like I’m a kid playing store! I don’t think I’d be doing this sort of thing if I lived in Vancouver or even Victoria but where we are is very rural so I’m not worried about stocking issues. Eep! So excited! We hope to have open for December 1st and I’ll make sure to post on here when it’s all ready to go.
Then maybe, just maybe, in the summer I can get back to doing a few Farmer’s Markets back in Vancouver and in Whistler .. who knows?
xo
Christina
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