Saturday Gift Post--Of Leftover Penny Dolls, New Cards, Lancaster Birds, and Lots of Our Favorite Madisonians.

The blog is late today because...well, we were very busy. We hosted the kids' folk duo Fox and Branch at 1 pm, followed up by a visit from Kevin Henkes, coinciding with the publication of Penny and her Marble (signed copies available). Mr. Henkes shopped for a while, and we had a great book chat. We both agreed that Peter Cameron is a wonderful writer. He felt that the paperback cover of Coral Glynn was far superior to the hardcover, and I guess I agree. He also noted that it matched my pants.  Our friend Joe calls the color Newport Red.

I was honored to introduce Henkes to introduce to John Nichols, who stopped by on his way to Fond du Lac. Jason just told me his new book, Dollarocracy, is scheduled for this spring. And then we ran into our friends Catherine and Doug; Doug is super hot on the Karen Russell's new story collection, Vampires in the Lemon Grove. Did I mention everyone involved in this paragraph lives in Madison? I should note that there were also many lovely Milwaukee area people in the store--like close to 200 for the event. Plus I think everyone wanted to get out of their houses today. Lisa (from Books and Company in Oconomowoc, halfway to Madison) said every place was packed. Did I mention Peter Roller is appearing at Books and Company tomorrow (Sunday) at 1 pm for Milwaukee Garage Bands?

Speaking of books coming out soon, Henkes showed everyone the jacket for his fall hardcover, The Year of Billy Miller. Feel free to have us let you know when this comes in. Or Dollarocracy. Or both.

Were there gifts involved with this post? Yes, after the event, Amie and I realized that most of our Penny dolls were in overstock. I had asked a couple people to put them on display, but I share the blame on this. They are still available.

Not too much new gift stuff came in today. I've been concentrating on events, and thus have been a little remiss in our ordering, plus there are some areas (journals, kids stuff) where we are very well stocked. Yes, we received a new Folkmanis order, but it's all stuff you've seen before. How many times can you hear, "Yes, we received another pig and its still cute?" Hannah asked me to get more robins so they could hang over our spring display.

Speaking of birds, we got in a nice assortment of product from Peter Pauper's new Lancaster Birds line. It's got a Pennsylvania Dutch vibe, and of course, Lancaster is the largest city in Pennsylvania Dutch country. As a former New Yorker, I picked that up, but I'm not sure a Wisconsinite would get that reference.

The other thing that came in to the store were our new Hammerpress letterpress greeting cards. I have been thinking about picking this line up for a few years, and finally I was at the Chicago gift show and thought to myself, "just buy it already" and I did.What I really wanted to do was pick the cards up at their Kansas City workshop, but with the two storms, we had a lot less flexibility, and we wound up not being able to make it work. Next time, I promise!

Is it going to be another dry week next week? And what about the stuff I've already bought, but haven't yet staged? Let's hope next week gives me more of a sense of accomplishment, giftwise.