Henodus is Back

Henodus, Triassic Turtle

Nothosaurus (False Lizard or False Reptile),

Triassic Semi-oceanic Creature

This morning Amy found the plastic Henodus I'd lost on the floor last night. It was the same color as the rug. I had been feeling inordinately out of sorts for losing it, because I was finally making progress with the giant pile of stuff that needed cataloguing and photographing before putting on the site. The Halloween items were all organized in a folder with their info and Lee was working on them. Next I'd taken on organizing and photographing the extinct sea creatures when Henodius went missing. And, I was really tired.

There is not much in the Triassic category right now, so it will be good to get these guys (and their friends) online finally.

My Web Page: Tapirback.com

Bye Bye, Jaguar

I hoped I would be posting interesting or meaningful things about my life once I renamed this blog, but I've been busy just coping with my life. I'm working on reinventing some aspects of it - more on that later. Meanwhile, we have sold out of this movable jaguar permanently. I liked his green eyes and curious, somewhat-friendly face. He's been in the store almost since the beginning.

Yesterday I made final changes to Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo so I could turn it over to Cyndi. Sad, but also a good thing. I'm nearly done transcribing (converting) the text portion of All Eight Went to a Word file so I can take the next steps toward getting it online on Kindle.

My Web Page: Tapirback.com.

Plastic ferret new in our store!

Oops. Got so tired, I posted this to the wrong blog, so I moved the post.

You can . . .

follow the plastic ferret link to the right blog :) It is cute!

~ Thanks!

Our visit to Safari, Ltd

This morning we were picked up in style by Nicole from Safari, Ltd. for our visit to the company's headquarters. A number of their customers who had bought over a certain amount of their products during 2007 were invited to Miami Gardens to see the facility and meet the people we only knew as phone contacts. The invitation seemed to be both about building a relationship with the customers and getting feedback on proposed products. We were also invited to discuss any issues we had, what our needs were as customers, etc. As a company selling almost exclusively online, we had found that our needs were often somewhat different those of companies selling mainly via store front, and we were happy to have a chance to talk with the folks at Safari. They were attentive and we also learned things about them and their way of doing business that were interesting. We saw a lucite display rack in person that would fit our needs and were able to work out a way to get it from Florida to Oregon. (See the story here!) The women at Safari were extremely helpful about that, and we thank them for our wonderful display rack!

In the entry was a diorama with some of Safari's products, including . . . drum roll . . . TAPIRS!

This big playroom was where we were brought to relax, have a snack, and look over the inventory. It was fun to see everything in person, after buying out of a catalog for 7 or 8 (?) years.

The warehouse was huge. We'd wondered about the actual size of their facility for a long time. This is only one aisle.

One of our favorite of the sample animals was this realistic plastic hippo. After spending a couple of hours at the site, they took us to lunch, then back to our hotel, and later they picked us up for dinner, which was extra good, and of course the portions were of a size this hippo would have appreciated. It was pretty relaxed. Everyone was nice to us, and we had an enjoyable and interesting time. We could now put faces to many of the names we'd been dealing with for so long. We came away with the feeling that this was a company that cared about its customers.

The red journal: Eighty-seven plastic rhinos - the drought is over

I wrote:

"2007. Tuesday. Many overnights on top of each other. Lee & I were again looking at Pier 11 place when order for 50, then 87 plastic rhinos came in. More code fixing - up to 'hoofed' & part of 'insects.' He told staff about retirement ideas. What does renting a 'live-work space' mean to me & us? Lee & I looked at rental again. Wet floors."

I understand part of this, but writing in a small space creates half thoughts and vagueness that's hard to put together later. I have no idea what the first sentence means unless it's about working late night after night. About the rhinos - that's a great order. We were looking through the building again thinking about renting it when a phone order came in for 50 of the plastic rhinos in the photo, then he changed the order to 87. We had them - we had a lot. I think it was a rush order, which meant I had to get back and pack them up. And after such a horrible December, it was really nice to be able to do that.

Aug 2, Astoria: Balata rubber animals from Guyana

What fun! It was so exciting when I got this shipment of balata rubber animals (natural, sustainable) for the gift shop from a company in Guyana. As you can see, a lot of them are tapirs - babies and adults. But they were all nice.

I liked this hippo! There's such variety and they're design is a bit different each time I order. And each artist has his or her own style. This might be great for a brick-and-mortar store, but when you have to show the products online (or in a print catalog, which I don't do, thank god), people want to see what they're getting. That's a lot of photos and a lot of changing and updating. It's so labor-intensive, it hurts. I can remember years ago when I thought products shouldn't have to be uniform and conform and blah, blah, blah. Well, yes, it's art in a way, and as such it shouldn't have to. But I can now see the other side of the question, because I'm living it. And that's why these cute animals are already becoming such a headache. Which is sad. I don't have the answer.

Adventures in toyland

This is the first big shipment of items for the online gift shop. It was also my first serious foray into non-tapir items. Until today, the gift shop has been about tapirs. Then what happened is, some of our tapirs came in sets with 11 other animals, such as a rainforest tube of plastic animals. What was I going to do with the 11 other animals when my gift shop was about tapirs? I was starting to accumulate jaguars, monkeys, and other critters, so I decided maybe it was OK for the tapir to have some friends. I started a "Tapir's Friends" gift shop separate from the tapir store and once that started to work, I delved into a vendor's catalog and came up with even more friends. It was scary (and fun), and here they are. Now the work starts to get them all online and see what happens!