Filed at 6:04 pm under Stories and News by Pam
Hi Everyone! We have been busy, busy, busy preparing our two new websites.
Let me tell you a little about Luxury Walking Sticks.com. We discovered these extraordinary walking sticks by Bridges and decided to offer them to the public via our Toy website even though they did not seem to ‘fit’ with our other products. We are now in our third year of selling the Bridges Walking Companions. These canes are unique, reasonably priced and very high quality. Our customers love them so much, we decided to open a separate website dedicated to these special walking sticks. Please note: We are not the manufacturer of the Bridges walking companions.
Be sure to let us know what you think!
By the way…no baby yet! But it could be any day now!
Filed at 3:06 pm under Stories and News by Pam
My name is Naomi, I am the second oldest, and first married of the Clanton gang. In addition, my wonderful husband, Stephen and I are expecting our first child this fall!
I am going to write about some of the things I remember from the original business days. I remember when there was no “warehouse”, when virtually everything that had to do with the business was stored in two rooms in our home! When the mail delivery man would scratch his head and wonder… “what on earth do they do with eight rolls of bubble wrap every other week!?” These are the things that made our home business fun and exciting.
The sound of tape guns screeching, paper crackling and bubble wrap bursting was once the soundtrack to myeveryday life. Oh, the memories of living with a home-based internet business! I loved working with Out of the Toy Box, packing and shipping surprise gifts from a Grandparent, to an excited birthday girl or boy! Later receiving stories of the child’s delight in opening the package to find a Pretend Food Birthday Party!
I loved to see every new product that came in, it was so exciting! Melissa & Doug shipments always had new things for our website. Some of my favorites were the Band In A Box, and several of their Puzzles! We all had a blast playing with the new products that we “tested”. 
Abigail was particularly intrigued by the Magic Sets, and ambushed the entire household with her “magic tricks” daily.
That’s all for now! Happy Spring!!
Filed at 11:38 am under Products and News by Pam
It seems that there is always something exciting happening here with the Crew at Out of the Toy Box. Joshua has announced that he and Julia are engaged! We are thrilled with the news! No wedding date has been set, but I will keep you posted as details unfold.
I am pleased with myself that I am posting again in such a short period of time. Maybe there is hope for me to succeed with this business of blogging.
We have recently received a nice shipment of plush toys from The Bearington Collection. The shipment included some old favorites like the Blue Bear Hugs Blanket. The Bear Hugs Collection makes a perfect baby keepsake gift. There were also many new plush toys like the Giant Tippy Toe Shoes Ballerina Bear and the Blueberries and Cream Scented Bunny Rabbit. Peter Praysmore and Patty Praysmore will be an added delight to your Easter celebrations.
We even have a pair of Bearingtons to commemorate the recent engagement of Joshua and Julia. Mr. Lovington Groom Bear and Mrs. Lovington Bride Bear are sure to be favorites among Bearington collectors.
Filed at 10:22 am under News by Pam
While I am not a fan of New Year’s resolutions, it would seem that I am in need of making one. Tomorrow is the first day of February and it has been a good while since I took the time to write my thoughts and Crew news here. Maybe I can make a February resolution to write more frequently.
We have cleaned-out our warehouse and placed a few new shelving units to hold new toys for 2007. In the process we found and donated some slightly damaged odds and ends to a local daycare. I love the joy of giving an unexpected gift, don’t you? This lady and her daughter were very gracious and thankful recipients. We were able to clear out space in the warehouse and my children experienced the joy of giving along with me. It was a very productive week!
We have already ordered new Melissa & Doug Toys that should begin arriving soon. Be sure to watch the What’s New?! page for other interesting arrivals.
By the way, Christmas for the Crew was a huge success with lots of family, fun, old traditions and some new ones, too! Over the years we have made changes to our celebrations as the need would arise. Now that we have one married daughter, we again needed to change some things about our celebrations. Hanging on to old traditions is a good thing when possible, making the holiday season less stressful for all concerned is also very important. We found that making the needed changes was such a success that we changed some other things just because it seemed fun and exciting. So, if you are struggling with changes in your family, I say, “Don’t fret. Jump in and join the change!”. You may find that it is lots of fun! We did!
Filed at 1:28 pm under Uncategorized by Pam
I know, I know, it seems so cliche, but where has the time gone? December will arrive in two days! This has us scrambling in more ways than one at Out of the Toy Box.
We all have a long list of very important things to accomplish before Christmas. Having so many things to command your attention in a short period of time can be very stressful. Let’s all be sure to prioritize, have plenty of relaxing time and enjoy our loved ones in the hustle and bustle as we prepare for and anticipate family gatherings and church events. It is possible to be busy, accomplish a lot and enjoy life, too!
As for the crew, we still have a few details to iron-out on our newly remodeled website. We have a few new products that we have not yet managed to get listed. The warehouse is a flurry of activity each day as we ship special gifts across the country! We do have our Christmas decorations up, but alas, the family shopping has not even begun! I was so much more organized when the children were younger. I am not sure why, but will ponder it and let you know if I reach a conclusion.
So, now I have just realized that we are very near the deadline to accept orders for our Special Order Toys. In order to keep prices as low as possible, we choose to sell but not stock some of the larger items by Maxim, Melissa and Doug, Just Ducky Tents and Tapestree Table. These toys and gifts are shipped directly from the manufacturer’s warehouses. Unfortunately, December 4th will be the last day that we accept orders for most of these items for Christmas delivery. So, if your ‘to-do’ list includes placing an order for one of these large items…procrastinate no more! The deadline is near. Remember, the internet is a wonderful late night shopping experience, no crowds, children asleep and you do not even need to ‘get dressed’ in your going-to-town clothes!
Wishing each of you a blessed and relaxing Christmas season!
Filed at 4:43 pm under Stories and Products by Pam
Well, as if we were not busy enough at this time of the year! Yes, we impulsively decided to update the look and functionality of Out of theToy Box. Our website host is providing great new options and tools and we just could not resist.
Wow, we are really impressed with the way things are going. There are a lot of cool new features, like a mini-cart that shows everything that you have selected, without actually going into your cart. This should make shopping much easier. I love to shop online and really appreciate an easy-to-use site. As a matter-of-fact, most all shopping for the recent wedding was accomplished online. It was fabulous…but I think that is a topic for another time.
I love the new enlarged photo that seems to magically appear when you hover your mouse over the image. This feature is inside the actual product description page, not the category pages. Here is an example: 60 Standard Unit Blocks. To see a completed category page, visit Castle & Pirate Ship Toys.We are on the cutting edge of technology and it is exciting.
I will let Joshua, our resident computer-geek, tell you about some of the other fab-o, change-o, technical wizardry. He will use the right terminology.
We have also made a switch to Scan Alert who will provide a daily scan and assurance that our site is hacker-proof and safe for our customers. You will soon see the Hacker Safe logo on our website and will probably recognize it from many other and very prestigious online stores. We are pleased to have been given a very positive rating with no changes required in order to meet their very strict and high standards. Now you can be even more confident that we are a safe and secure website!
Thank you for your patience as we complete all the changes. Some pages may have an unfinished quality for a few days. But we will be working enthusiastically to get all changes implemented asap.
Be sure to make note of our new Out of the Toy Box logo. Thanks to Joshua and Cybergate for such nice work!
So, why are we doing all of this extra work? Because we want you to enjoy shopping with us at Out of the Toy Box. We want your experience on our website to be enjoyable, simple and easy-on-the-eyes. Have you ever tried to shop on an ugly website? It can be quite a challenge. But another really good reason is that I just love to re-decorate. We have been remodeling our old home, off and on, for 27 years. Maybe it is time to find a new project.
Okay, I have rambled long enough and barely scratched the surface. I will save the rest for another day.
Filed at 10:57 am under Stories and Products by Pam
Well, I have been told that it is time to introduce myself. I am Pam, the mom or (COO) of this ‘crew’. If you call us here at Out of the Toy Box, you will more than likely hear my voice on the other end of the line. Everyday is an adventure around here, between daily chores, homeschooling, a recent wedding, the boys’ lawn care business, our website and all the normal activities and unplanned chaos that happens with older children in the house. I just thought things were hectic when all I had were babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers! I do usually get a full night’s sleep these days, unless of course, we are waiting up for one of these big guys to return home from an outing!
One of my ‘jobs’ is to choose new toys and games for our website. It is fun but can also be a daunting task. The products we look for must be wholesome, worthwhile, a good value and qualify for many years of family service. We recently received a shipment of new games that we have been waiting for since January. It was so exciting to finally see them.We are very impressed with this new line of Past-Tyme Classics from Melissa and Doug Toys. Some of the games included in the line: Chinese Checkers, Pick-Up Sticks, Backgammon and more. The line is beautifully made, and designed to be displayed and stored on your wall. As an avid organizer and mother of a fairly large family (always needing better ways to store things), I love the idea.
We were thrilled to find a game that truly fascinates everyone in our family, from our seven year-old to our new son-in-law to the (maybe-I-shouldn’t-tell-you-how-old) Dad. I suppose there is a reason that this game of Mancala has been around for centuries, after all. It is fun!
Did you know that Mancala is believed to be one of the most ancient of all board games? The word Mancala means “to transfer” in Arabic. This game challenges players to move pieces from bin to bin. Many rule variations exist, and Mancala is played in some form in almost every African country. Intrigued? You can find more detailed historical information about Mancala here.
Filed at 8:07 pm under Stories and Products by Joshua
In the past week Out of the Toy Box has had one extremely popular piece of merchandise: a very nice handpainted Mancala set from Melissa and Doug. We have had a case on order for a few months and it finally came in last week. Since then we’ve already gotten rid of half of them.
The funny thing? They weren’t sales. It was family members claiming first dibs on them.
It started small enough, with Miriam, Abigail and Lydia getting a set to play with. Then Caleb and I decided to get one as a gift for our Aunt Laurie. Then Naomi — Yes, the -1 that I mentioned last time. — demanded repayment for some groceries and snacks she had picked up for the family. But she didn’t want payment in cash. She wanted payment in Mancala.
So here we are at the beginning of the Christmas season and half our Mancala stock is already gone. If you want one you’d better order it now. 
Filed at 10:59 am under Uncategorized by Joshua
Well, here we are. This is the inaugural post of the Out of the Box Crew blog.
Who are we? We are a family of 8 - 1 (one of my sisters just got married in August). All of the children are (or were) homeschooled. And, of course, we have a family business.
Here is a family photo. It is a little dated, but maybe I can get a newer one up here soon.
From top left to bottom right: Caleb, Joshua (me), Abigail, Pam (Mom), Lydia, Mike (Dad), Naomi (the newlywed), and Miriam.
In the future, this blog will probably feature writing from most of the members of the family about the latest happenings in our little world.
I hope you enjoy it!
