Father-Husband-Marketer-Geek

I have quite a few shops listed in the resources section of the sidebar, but I'm looking to add some more. There have to be a good deal of brick and mortar retailers who are selling Department 56 whom we have NOT covered yet. I understand during these tough economic times, many gift shops, garden shops, and holiday retailers are facing a decline in business, a reduced demand, lowering prices on collectibles, etc., so I am sure some free advertising and exposure for their website would be welcome. The value these shops add to the collectibles buyer experience is immense: tremendous product knowledge, fun atmosphere, spontaneous bargains, touch and feel of product, variety of displays, etc. Please comment below with your own shops or your favorite shops, and links to their websites if you have them. I will publish a bio/history of the shop, sales notification, shop photos, website link, and add them to my Google Map of Recommended D56 Shops .

The two main groundhogs which are monitored for the sake of Spring's early entry had two different experiences with their shadows on saturday. One saw it, the other did not, thus the appearance of Spring is not definite as of yet. Still, it makes you think of gardening and flowers and sunny days. This got me thinking -- Department 56 should come out with a line of village buildings and accessories to place in your gardens. What a marriage this would make! Dept 56 already is sold in many garden specialty stores, so it appears to me it would be a natural fit. There could be a series of fanciful buildings with names like "Lancaster Gardens", "Sunshine Farms", "Greenthumb Guild", etc. There could be combination buildings and flower pots. They could make a series of Krinkle-themed garden stakes. The ideas are endless. I hope they read this post!

Who would have known that the piece I was looking for would be discovered in the home state of the rival Red Sox? My wife and I visited Graziano Gardens in East Longmeadow, MA, today. This was one of the recommended shops from last week's posts (see the Map of Recommended Shops below). It really was a nice garden store. There were four or five decent village scapes in the Christmas Shop, but you could tell it wasn't really ready for a holiday visit - much of it was in an "organizational" phase. Still, the store had some great scenes - especially Dickens' Village. My wife actually found a great deal on hanging plants there - buy one, get one for half off. We raced home and set up Yankee Stadium on our Kitchen Bar, temporarily (it will be heading to my office, where I can enjoy it during the workday). It has a bulb which shines through all the little windows of the ballpark. It's still hard to believe each piece is hand-cut. They must have lots of little elves...