SEQUIM — Kelbi’s World, a 3,200-square-foot store that opened last Saturday in Sequim’s Rock Plaza, is one fantastical environment.
“Let me give you a tour,” owner Kelbi Folkerson Tite said as a reporter peeked inside this week.
And so all was revealed: This is no mere toy store.
It’s “where stuffed animals are born,” chosen, stuffed, named and dressed by shoppers, be they children, parents or grandparents.
It’s also where the staff are “fairies” named Rainflower, Buttercup, Rosebud, Starbright and Sunbeam.
Kelbi’s World has many rooms, beginning with a garden furnished with clothes and shoes to buy for stuffed bunnies, dogs, frogs, pandas and penguins, plus a wishing well and snow-white “butterfly chairs” where Folkerson Tite says the butterflies land.
Mural of fairy, unicorn
A shimmering mural shows a fairy and unicorn; next to that is a purple board where grown-ups can write sweet things about their kids.
Next door is the Princess Room where little girls receive their fairy names, to be forever used when they come to Kelbi’s.
All of this leads to the party room, “where you can have any party you want to have, at any age,” Folkerson Tite proclaimed.
For a 90-minute celebration, replete with an animal to stuff for each guest and “Kelbi’s show featuring her special friends,” including Dolly the hippo and Harold the shy white mouse, it’s $10 per guest with a minimum of $60 per party.
For additional charges, guests choose which treats they like, from a list that includes ice cream and cupcakes at $2 each per person, and pizzas ranging from $9.99 to $14.99.
Time in the Princess Room is another $10 per princess for hair, nails and makeup sessions.
The entertainer and hostess for it all is Folkerson Tite, who comes from a cinematic family.
Her father, Bob Folkerson, is a retired stunt man, while her sister Cindy Folkerson’s stunt work includes “Broken Arrow” with John Travolta and “Poltergeist.”
Folkerson Tite, for her part, was a performer at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif.
She had a cast of characters in her shows at Camp Snoopy, the littler kids’ territory inside Knott’s.
Then she moved to Las Vegas, where she worked as a “living statue” — a street performer at The Venetian resort and casino.
Having had enough of Vegas after seven years there, Folkerson Tite began looking online for a good place to keep her horses.
“We found the perfect place,” just outside town, she said.
This new venture, Folkerson Tite said, “is all about the love.”
A main event here is the filling of stuffed animals with fuzzy material — “love” as the fairy-employees call it — and the process that follows.
Shoppers get to give their animals candy-colored “hearts,” birth certificates and modules with lullabies or animal sounds. Then there are the clothes and shoes, from pink pumps to imitation Birkenstocks.
Making an 8-inch stuffed animal costs $9.99, while the 16-inch animals run $19.99 each.
Sequim is fertile ground
Folkerson Tite said she sees Sequim as a fertile place for her garden of delights.
“I thought, there are a lot of young families here,” she said, “and grandmas and grandpas like to shop.”
She’s hired five part-time fairies, and decided to keep Kelbi’s World open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The phone number is 360-681-ROCK (7625), since Kelbi’s is in Rock Plaza, the shopping center on Old Olympic Highway at Sequim-Dungeness Way.
“The really coolest part,” Folkerson Tite added, “is that we really rock out.”
At any given moment she likes to turn on and turn up the chipmunks music, and dance with the kids and their folks.
“My world,” she said, “is their world.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
