Penguins In Pink

Every year there seems to be a theme in the plush penguins that are available to us. Last year it was “big eyes”.  It seemed that half of the penguin stuffed animals offered by our distributors had over-sized eyes.  This year it looks like hot colors are in.  Penguin plush in pink, purple, with glitter fabric and floral prints are all the rage.  We’ve never seen so many colorful penguins, and today we added Daisy, a penguin covered from her pink beak to pink webbed feet with a colorful floral pattern. There are a few blue penguins sprinkled in, but mostly we think these penguins are aimed at the female penguin lovers among us? Is this a good thing?  Well, there certainly are plenty of penguins available for purists, so yes.  In the opinion of the Penguin Post colorful, fun plush penguins are a wonderful thing.

Penguin Stuffed Animals

A penguin plush by any other name is still a penguin plush or a stuffed penguin. I’m kind of on the fence. What can I say, I was never a fan of  the term “stuffed animal” as it sounds like I got my penguin at the taxidermist, but people don’t usually say “aw, that’s a cute penguin plush”.  It just sounds too awkward, and only my 5 year daughter can get away with “plushie”.  My un-scientific survey says “stuffed animal” or “stuffed penguin” usually wins out over penguin plush, but to each his /her own.    The worst term for me was when I had my brick and mortar shop at South Street Seaport and people use to ask me “how much are your Teddy Bears?” while pointing at a stuffed penguin on a shelf.  Teddy Bears!?  They were so use to saying Teddy Bear in reference to any plush that they just couldn’t help themselves, even in what was obviously an all-penguin store.  Kind of like calling a Penguin Bank and “Piggy Bank”.  I don’t like it, but I get it none the less.   Still, I digress. Be it penguin plush, stuffed penguin or ee-gads, penguin teddy bear, Penguin Place has just added 10 new ones this month to our ever growing plush penguin “igloo”.   Some look like very realistic like the Adelie plush large and small and Shaggy penguin, and others like Posh, Punk Blackfoot and  Bright Eyes are just cute and kind of silly.  There’s even a very lovely Sweetie Plush Penguin with an embroidered heart who’s arrived a couple of months too late for Valentines Day.  But, nearly a dozen new plush / stuffed penguins only adds to the worlds largest single offering of plush penguins from one store / website.

Now say 10 times fast : Pink Posh Penguin Plush

Penguin Blanket

It’s been a few years since Penguin Place has offered a penguin blanket of any sort, but today marked the arrival of what may be our most beautiful penguin blanket offering ( in a 1970′s sort of way).  This queen size, extremely colorful scene depicting an Emperor Penguin and chick on the Antarctic ice with the vivid polar lights above them, and more penguins on ice in the background will certainly become the centerpiece of your bedroom.  This very cool, retro looking blanket is available in a queen size (95″ x 79″) only, and makes a great looking bed spread, throw or disco wall covering as well as blanket.  This luxury plush blanket is not made from any animal. It is a printed high pile acrylic or acrylic/ polyester blend blanket. It’s called a “plush blanket” and it gets its name from the furry, plush soft texture that feels similar to mink fur. This penguin blanket does not shed, bleed, fade and is machine washable and Dryer safe! They are durable and will last from 10-20 years with normal wear and tear.  Our penguin plush blanket is also allergy free .

Queen Size Penguin Blanket

Happy Penguin St. Patrick’s Day

In my opinion a penguin is as close to a leprechaun as one can get in the natural world.  At least we’d like to think so today.  So Happy Penguin St. Patrick’s Day everyone.   

Patty McPenguin

 

Penguin Shower Cap

Of course it’s real easy to stock our Penguin Place shop with penguin stuffed animals, mugs, and salt and pepper shakers, but we really love the crazy, silly and unique penguin goodies that also make up or crazy, silly and unique website, which is why we’re always happy when something like our Penguin Shower Cap comes back in stock.  Imported from the U.K. this silly penguin is one of our definitive strange penguin items.  No, I’ve never worn one in the shower, and yes I can still love it even if I’ve never worn it.

Penguins For St. Patrick’s Day

As usual Penguin Place is where to find the most unique penguins, as our motto is if we can’t find it, we’ll make it.  Well, that’s not really our motto, but you get the point.  This year we have Patty McPenguin and Seamus McWaddle, we’re not sure which one if the best name but I’m leaning toward McWaddle.   Patty is a seven inch tall Emperor Chick plush with a glittering green top hat complete with four leaf clover on his head and a felt green scarf, as it can be a little chilly on St. Patrick’s Day.  Seamus is a seven inch Emperor also with the top hat and scarf accessories.  They’re both ready to celebrate the day and claim to be penguin sons of Erin. Who’s gonna doubt them?

Patty McPenguin

Colorful Penguin Plush

Every once in a while in the black and white world of penguins comes along something so cool and colorful that even the most conservative of penguin lovers (I like my penguins black & white) relent.   In this case it’s our Peace, Love & Penguin plush. He’s hip, he’s cool, he’s colorful!  He’s a tie-dyed 12″ tall, plush penguin with Peace, Love and Penguin embroidered on his belly!  Brilliant rainbow hues, soft plush, on unique colorful patterns throughout this original looking penguin.  Of course, just like all our Penguin Place plush this very cool, psychedelic patterned penguin is made from the finest quality, child friendly materials that are rigorously tested to ensure that they meet or exceed all US safety standards.

Last Minute Penguin Gift Ideas For Mother’s Day.

With Mother’s Day only a few days away Penguin Place has lots of cool last minute penguins for that penguin loving mom of yours, with fast, same day shipping and even free shipping for domestic orders over $75.

Sterling Silver Earrings For Mom

With scores of penguins in our jewelry section from penguin earrings, bracelets and pendants in gold, brass and silver, to fun penguin mom and chick plush, to adorable houseware related penguin items, like penguin picture frames, potholders, salt and pepper shakers and penguin tote bags, to cool figurines or pajamas.  There’s even a couple of cool new Pink Plush Penguins, that are perfect for mom.  So, with hundreds to choose from there absolutely should be a penguin for mom, and with free, same day shipping on orders over $75, we’re here to make your one stop penguin shopping destination as fun and easy as a casual waddle on the ice.

A Cool Pink Penguin Plush May Be Perfect For Mom!

Penguin Place Mach 5 or 6, or maybe 7

Everyone loves to complain.  Unless you’re Jimmy Stewart or Mother Teresa it’s one of the things we do best as a species, and I’m sure you’re very good at it.   For me, I got lots to complain about, be it the Mets or my three-year-old daughter peeing on the carpet this morning.  But, on a professional level regarding Penguin Place I’ve been pretty fortunate.  I love penguins, and how many people get to make a living at what they love?  If you’re curious, you can see the story of Penguin Place in this link.  About 25 years ago I began my penguin odyssey in a little shop in downtown N.Y. at South St. Seaport, and obviously as with everything in life there were some bumps along the way, but all in all, no major complaints.  I left my brick and mortar penguin existence about 10 years ago  dedicating myself to Penguin-Place.com  as my full time gig.   I ran it out of a windowless, former art studio attached to my downtown Brooklyn loft.  No complaints there.  Then about 5 years ago I realized I needed a new, improved, upgraded version of PP.com as it been about the same site for 8 years or so,  and the world of on-line retail was passing me by at warp speed.   The only people I had ever worked with regarding Penguin Place.com were the folks who designed and maintained my site since its inception way back in 1997.   So, I naturally went to them for the upgrade.  Sure thing, they said.  We can do this for you and then some.  Unfortunately, there had been lots of turnover at this company, and all the folks who worked with the initial PP.com start-up were gone.  The company had downsized lots, and my new designer was working on his first commercial website (found this out after the fact). Not good.  Over budget, and way behind schedule it launched months late, with an iceberg of problems at the worst possible time of the year.  Right at the beginning of the holiday season.  It was a disaster, and it appeared that my designer, who was in way over his head when it came to commercial website construction, was incapable of fixing this.  In a panic as October was turning in November I desperately searched for someone, some company who could fix this and fast, and through a friend I found a west coast developer that specialized with Joomla based websites (which is what I had).   They came to my rescue, patched things up in short order, and in turn gained my trust and gratitude.   All good for the time being, but PP.com site still needed an upgrade, a new look and some big time changes.  My  west coast peeps now had my confidence  as they helped me in my hour of need, and they impressed me with their organizational skills, cool tech lingo and the multiple on-line teleconference meetings.  They seemed committed and were taking the time to put an upgrade plan together.   But, as one deadline after another came and went, the Penguin-Place.com upgrade never came.  Weeks, turned into months and then the months turned into, well you get the picture.  Then this fall, with traffic and sales down, yet another holiday season approaching, and all talk, no action coming from my web developer, I had a feeling no changes were going to happen and was desperate once again.  Because of the antiquated look and feel of Penguin Place, sales were down and the future looked bleak.  So, fed up with all the delays and broken promises, I turned to a local web designer who I liked and talked a good talk. She was enthusiastic and had great ideas.  But, in the end she turned out to be a wonderful designer, with bad communication skills, and as was the case of my original designer back in N.Y.  she also did not have the skills to put together a commercial website, and without it sales and traffic continued to drop.  The check out page / shopping cart, and many nuanced, yet crucial customer service aspects of Penguin Place were still lacking. Some aspects of the website were even worse than before.  I was frustrated beyond words, as I’m sure many of my long time customers were as they tried to navigate the many speed bumps and dead ends that they faced on penguin place.  We limped through this holiday season, and I knew I needed to find a professional web design company to turn this around once and for all.  My  Penguin Place Igloo needed to be righted.  After interviewing a half dozen companies around the world, in the end I choose a local company called Left Click right here in my adopted home town of Northampton.   In fact their office is only about 150 feet from Penguin Place.  Let, me say first off  they’ve been great. The first step to making Penguin Place whole again was not cosmetic, but only to get penguin place to act and interact like a 21st century commercial website.  Including all the things shoppers take for granted. Get the check out page and shopping cart to work properly, easy customer login,  install  multi-tiered shipping options in plain sight on the check out page, a home page slide show, working pagination arrows (that means you can go from one page to the next within a category), customer service friendly e-mail confirmations and working links, etc.  All the basics.  Next came the cosmetic changes and adding things like customer wish lists and even a penguin birthday club, which takes us to our new look PP.com which I’m happy to say we re-launched a few days ago. All this they did within budget and on time.  Great communication, easy to reach, nice people, they know what their doing, good listeners, with good ideas who actually act like they care. And all the time right next door.  So, what I’m saying is as easy as it is to complain, I wanted to say thanks to Left Click.  I wish Penguin Place had found you sooner.

Rookery Of Cool Penguins Returning

These past couple of weeks have marked the return of some classic penguin favorites to our bulging penguin shopping igloo.  Some of these fan favorites have been out of stock for since the holidays like our Wind-Up Rolling Salt & Pepper Shakers, Ceramic Soap Dispenser, Fun Four Penguin Picture Frame, Penguins Of The World Tote Bag,  Bobble Head Bank, Cold Feet and Plush Emperor Backpacks, Emperor Chick Plush Purse, Classic Head Bobber, Adorable Penguin Pendant with Matching Box,  kids Penguin Jack in the Box, Kotobuki  Tea Set, Black & White Personal Fan and Automatic Travel Umbrella.  Other cool waddlers that we’ve welcomed back after a year or so hiatus are our returning Around the World Penguin Travel Set, Mr. Peterman and Waddles Plush, Eco Friendly Flashlight, Emperor Zibby Key Chain, Penguin Suspenders and Penguin Chick Graduate Plush and some are back after being unavailable since our Next Stop…South Pole days like our recently re-discovered Wind-Up Pocket Key Chain and Penguins Of The World Puzzle.

Wind-Up Penguin Salt & Pepper Shakers