The beautiful weather has seen Rick and Terry out front this weekend. With a multi-family yard sale next door benefitting a young girl's college fund, Wooden Toy and Gift has again set up the canopies and is offering a great price on the larger wooden toys that Rick makes.
Rick is going to begin focusing on the smaller, more detailed scroll saw work, creating plaques for many special occasions. Weddings, births, retirements, homecomings ... college, military and public service affiliations ... disability awareness butterflies and angels, large and pocket size ... along with the smaller-sized trucks and puzzles that intrigue and inspire creativity and imagination in young children ... these are the items he will continue making. "Beautiful things that make people happy" is still his goal; toys that allow kids to think and enjoy playing with for years ... things that will last from generation to generation ... these are the things that are worth the time and care he puts into his work.
And so, from now until the larger items are sold out, Rick is offering them at a 1/3 discount. This may be the last chance for shoppers to acquire the large rocking motor cycle and the 18" doll furniture pieces: his pedestal dining table and arm chairs, the armoire, china hutch, grandfather clock, bureau and picket fence bed will all become collectors' items of
limited numbers. You really don't want to miss this pre-holiday clearance sale!
In place of the larger items, space in the shop will be refurbished to accommodate a woodworker's and a quilter's dreams ... for several years now, Georgetown has been without its Five and Ten Cent hardware/general store in town. When Cressy's closed downtown, a piece of Georgetown's history was lost. The place where local shoppers could stop in and find almost anything they were looking for had met the needs of local quilters for many decades. While Wooden Toy and Gift can't physically accommodate all of those varied shoppers, there is a small group whose needs have not been met by the other retail stores in town: stitchers have had to go out of town to find those essential little notions to begin or finish their quilts and fabric needs.
The second half of Wooden Toy and Gift known as Terry's Thoughts and Threads will expand to fill the open space. Fabrics, threads, needles and pins, batting, trims, patterns and books will begin to appear in the first floor shop, and sewing lessons will be offered in the space. In time, the second floor will become a quilters' studio where lessons for beginners and small groups of quilting friends can gather to share ideas and skills with an end-goal of producing small quilts that will be donated to those in need. As the disability plaques honor those who face and meet challenges, the charitable quilts will warm those in need of a bit of comfort and love.
A little bit of the town's history will be reborn ... memories of the centuries past will be reawakened as Terry shares her knowledge and care of treadle machines ... . Rick will continue to honor the accomplishments and courageous battles of those who face illness and those who face challenges in protecting our way of life. And together, they will continue to use all that they have to fulfill their retirement dreams of hosting local shoppers in the little shop "just two doors north of Perley School" in Georgetown, Massachusetts.
Watch for the clearance sales, and listen for news of the quilt shop's opening. There will be updates here at the WTandGNews.blogspot.com, at www.WoodenToyandGift.net, at www.TerryCrawfordPalardy.com. and on our Facebook pages for Wooden Toy and Gift and Terry's Thoughts and Threads.
And watch for a new book that will surely follow all of these events ... the Happily Ever After years of Rick and Terry's retirement are coming true~