It's crazy to think that we're now celebrating 5 years as a business. 5 years ago I didn't think I'd be here and quite honest still be here!
It has also been a crazy 5 years, from our first market to our first sold-out product. So many things have happened in the past few years and we want to take you down memory lane for just a little bit!
2020: We opened our business with a few Once Upon a Time themed products, we first of called ourselves "Lil Disney Store" but we quickly knew that wouldn't be very copyright friendly - oops - so we changed our name to Lil Magic Store. The name we still use today.
So yes we started out as a business only selling Once Upon a Time inspired items, bookmarks / keychains. A small collection of some musical themed items but not a lot. Started out on Etsy - which has unfortunately been deleted by Etsy now - which helped build a following a lot.
2021: Online for a year, started drawing more and more and this is the point where we introduced Bookmarks and Prints. Not long after we got our cutting machine and focussed a lot on keychains - specially Marvel keychains - people were so enthusiastic about this that we started to sell more and more keychains. The Marvel collection was soon followed by a Musical Theatre collection. First time we also launched Christmas Baubles - that we plan on bringing back - and they sold out so fast we didn't even have time to make new ones and had to stop producing them haha.
2022: We started to create more and more bookmarks and focussed more on being a Bookish Business. Online we were doing great and that was pretty awesome. Had at least 2-3 orders per week on Etsy which was crazy! 2022 was also the first year we had a market stall, on ascension day 2022. Our hometown had a "Maker Market" planned and we signed up, well, it was a FAIL! There were basically no customers at all, made 25 euros maybe. The town was a ghost town, there were basically no people in and around the city. (as it was a national holiday lol)
This year we also made the first batch of our Dog Cookie Jars and oh did we love that! It had been the most amazing thing to create and until this day people still love it! It was also the first year we started making totebags - well that's a slight obsession now haha
Our first Advent Calendar on Instagram also took flight, sales for 12 days during Christmas, it was so cool!
2023: We created Valentines Cards for the first time, it was quite hard to master but we did it. It wasn't a popular product but we liked them. We haven't made cards like this since. And then it happened - 3 events in one year.
March 4: Scheltema Amsterdam, Booklovers Extravaganza - our first ever real bookish event. As we started focussing more and more on books we took this event and we loved every second of it. We want to thank Destiny and the Scheltema team for letting us come to the event, it was so awesome! My love for the Scheltema Bookstore was also found at this event. My dear best friend came with me and we still do events together, and I love her for coming with me. Without her - I wouldn't be here either!
May 6-7: Heroes Made in Asia, our first COMIC CON!!!! Oh my god, pinch me!! We had no clue what to expect, no clue what to do but we had so much fun, it was such a great event that we signed in to be there again the year after. HMIA made us fall in love with events and we started focussing on that more after this event.
Oktober 1: YALFU in Utrecht! This was so much fun as well (I mean all events are) I went with another dear friend and I introduced him to events like this. He had been a great help during this event and I'm thankful for him as well. It's great to share this with the people you love! At this event we introduced our first ever Advent Calendars & Seasonal Collections. It was so amazing and we met so many lovely people!
We officially hit 600 sales on Etsy - and soon after the store unfortunately closed by Etsy - and celebrated that. It was a huge milestone! We published our first ever website to get around the Etsy Fees, it was a different website than the one you're looking at now.
SIX the Musical was playing in Amsterdam and Rotterdam for the first time ever and we created T-Shirts to match it. As well as Mamma Mia! sweatshirts, both have been a hit ever since creating them.
2024: The year we had multiple events and had quite the lot of fun. Also the year that Etsy closed our shop and we finally moved to Shopify! - and let me tell you this platform is AMAZING!
Events:
24-25 February - Heroes Made in Asia, Gorichem
October 12 - Spicy & Steamy Book Event, Amsterdam
Oktober 26 - Booklovers Extravaganza, Amsterdam
In 2024 we also introduced a fan favorite product: TEA !!!!! Oh my and does everyone love our tea's. Firstly introduced at Heroes Made in Asia - and we sold out of most teas at just 1 day. Crazy! Looking back we now have about 20 flavours, when we had maybe 10 back in the beginning.
De 3 Biggetjes came back and we took that oppertunity to create new merch for this Musical. At this point we started focussing only on Theatre & Books - leaving all we did in the past, in the past. Buttons started coming after that, as well as new Advent Calendars & Seasonal Collections. We still suck at doing social media and we're trying to be better at it but that doesn't make it any better haha.
and so we move to 2025: These first 4 months have been eye opening, we introduced new products, had a big stand at Heroes Made in Asia again. Had a second event as well, in Utrecht! It was a new event for us but it was so much fun, such a cute event.
And we have things planned for 2025, of course more on that soon but we can tell you some things for now!
Events of 2025 (for now)
3-4 May - Comic Con Holland
10 May - MH Books Events
4 October - Spicy & Steamy Bookevent
8 November - Fantastic Reads
More events when confirmed can be found on our "Events" page!
For 2025 we have Advent Calendars planned, heck yes!
We're looking into creating more Journals, like a Movie or Concert Journal! Coloring books and a reading Challange Journal.
There's also stickers and sticker sheets coming.
We're also looking into creating new and more Christmas Baubles!
Now we want to take a moment to thank YOU, the amazing customers! You guys are crazy, lovely and kind. Most of you have been with us since the bitter beginning and we loved to see that, some of y'all have even been here since our Etsy days and that's even more crazy. Thanks to you we are where we are and that's so wonderful. THANK YOU! and cheers to another 5 years!
love, mari x