{"id":642,"date":"2015-03-15T18:50:31","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T18:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/?page_id=642"},"modified":"2015-03-15T23:20:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-15T23:20:06","slug":"more-room-to-play-bainbridges-calico-cat-toy-shoppe-keeps-expanding","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/more-room-to-play-bainbridges-calico-cat-toy-shoppe-keeps-expanding\/","title":{"rendered":"More room to play: Bainbridge&#8217;s Calico Cat Toy Shoppe keeps expanding"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 576px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-642-1\" width=\"576\" height=\"324\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/112814_Calico_Cat_Toy.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/112814_Calico_Cat_Toy.mp4\">http:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/112814_Calico_Cat_Toy.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>Published online: <strong>Sunday,\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Nov. 30, 2014<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 Print:\u00a0<strong>Monday, Dec. 1<\/strong><strong>, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BAINBRIDGE ISLAND \u2014 Calico Cat Toy Shoppe in Winslow is magic to Janie Ekberg, who took her children to the store and now her grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the center of Bainbridge Island. It\u2019s a magical place. It\u2019s all about kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The magic of Calico recently expanded, giving children and their parents a little more space.<\/p>\n<p>Owner Elisabeth Dahl bought the store next door, tore down the wall and nearly doubled the store\u2019s space in the Winslow Green shopping area.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_643\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Calico_Cat_Toy1_10172251_ver1.0_900_675.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-643\" class=\"wp-image-643\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Calico_Cat_Toy1_10172251_ver1.0_900_675-620x384.jpg\" alt=\"Calico Cat Toy Shoppe on Bainbridge Island is known for being a kid-friendly store, where children can play with many of the items for sale. The shop recently expanded its main toy store. (Rachel Anne Seymour\/Kitsap Sun)\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Calico_Cat_Toy1_10172251_ver1.0_900_675-620x384.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Calico_Cat_Toy1_10172251_ver1.0_900_675-806x500.jpg 806w, https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Calico_Cat_Toy1_10172251_ver1.0_900_675-484x300.jpg 484w, https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Calico_Cat_Toy1_10172251_ver1.0_900_675-81x50.jpg 81w, https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Calico_Cat_Toy1_10172251_ver1.0_900_675.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-643\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Calico Cat Toy Shoppe on Bainbridge Island is known for being a kid-friendly store, where children can play with many of the items for sale. The shop recently expanded its main toy store. (Rachel Anne Seymour\/Kitsap Sun)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The September expansion added 700 square feet to the original store\u2019s 1,000 square feet. A game and puzzle store next door, which Dahl bought in 2009, has another 1,000 square feet. The wall between the toy store and the game store is a firewall and could not be removed, Dahl said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are freaking out, like it\u2019s the coolest thing ever,\u201d said Elisabeth\u2019s 17-year-old daughter, Cydney.<\/p>\n<p>Even after moving board games and puzzles next door in 2009, the main toy store at 104 Winslow Way W still felt claustrophobic, said Dahl\u2019s husband, Tim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been so crowded for years and years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>When the chance for a second expansion came, Dahl jumped at it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mom has been talking about wanting to do something bigger for a long time,\u201d Cydney said. \u201cWhen she first bought the store, she really had an idea of what the store was going to look like in her head. And now, with the expansion, we\u2019re a lot closer to what that looks like. She told me this morning, \u2018When I bought the store, this is what I wanted to do with it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dahl and her family closed shop for a few days, allowing for a quick wall demolition before reopening within a week.<\/p>\n<p>The expansion was necessary to bring customers what they wanted, Cydney said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything that we have in here now is the exact amount of things we had in the store before,\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t turn around and smack into someone else. You can actually move around well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The expansion has allowed a few additional toys, too. Calico now has more Legos, puppets, art supplies and science-centered toys, as well as brand-new toys \u2014 bikes and scooters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow you can actually see all of the toys they have in here,\u201d Rebecca Rockefeller said.<\/p>\n<p>Calico is the Rockefellers\u2019 favorite toy store, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Rockefeller and her 8-year-old daughter, Mira Rockefeller Campbell, were in the store on Black Friday, but not for Christmas gifts. Mira was searching for a birthday gift for her sister.<\/p>\n<p>The store isn\u2019t the Rockefellers\u2019 favorite because it\u2019s close, it because of the well-made toys, Rebecca said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not all mass produced, plastic toys,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Several of the toys are from Seattle-area toy makers, Dahl said.<\/p>\n<p>Quality isn\u2019t the only reason customers come back.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a store where children can play and touch the merchandise, Ekberg said. That\u2019s part of the magic she mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>During Friday\u2019s visit to the store, her 2-year-old granddaughter played the drums and tested the spinning tops.<\/p>\n<p>The magic isn\u2019t only in the toys, the friendly employees add to the experience, Ekberg said.<\/p>\n<p>Many of those friendly employees were working at the store before Dahl bought it in 2007. The toy store has been in business for 31 years, Dahl said.<\/p>\n<p>After expansions on both sides of the original store, Ekberg had one question for Dahl: \u201cWhat way are you going next?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published online: Sunday,\u00a0Nov. 30, 2014\u00a0 \u00a0 Print:\u00a0Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 BAINBRIDGE ISLAND \u2014 Calico Cat Toy Shoppe in Winslow is magic to Janie Ekberg, who took her children to the store and now her grandchildren. \u201cIt\u2019s the center of Bainbridge Island. It\u2019s a magical place. It\u2019s all about kids,\u201d she said. The magic of Calico [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-642","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":739,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642\/revisions\/739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelanneseymour.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}