It’s hard to believe, but Lit. on Fire has now been in business for four years!
Jessica Stephenson is the owner of the store and we did a blog on her store when she first opened up in the back of the Sunbeam Building. Here’s a link to that post from July 8, 2015.
A year later she expanded the store and opened up a back room. And then a year after that she moved into her very own store on West Main Street and that’s where we’re headed today to celebrate her fourth year in business.
But first, we must get cake and when we must get cake there’s only one place to go…
Trefzger’s Bakery! MBIP friend and official Let Them Eat Cake artist, Kayla designed a special cake for this celebration, but sadly she was not working when we went in to pick it up. That’s Molly holding the cake and the cake is unbelievable as always! Kayla is such a talented baker and cake artist! When I asked Molly how much it was, she told me there was no charge, Kayla paid for it!
That was so nice and I truly want to thank Kayla for that nice gesture! In fact I want to put up a picture of Kayla, so through the magic of Photoshop…
There’s Kayla with the amazing cake she baked and designed!
Thank you so much Kayla, the cake is magical as always and it was so nice of you to pick up the tab! I hope to see you the next time I’m in Peoria’s legendary bakery!
Okay, here we are at Lit. on Fire Used Books on West Main Street. I love the storefront, let’s go inside and present Jessica with her anniversary cake!
He she is opening it up and she absolutely loved it and sent out a thank you to Kayla for not only baking and designing it but paying for it too!
Kayla always amazes me with her cakes and this one is so fabulous! We didn’t want to cut into it right away, so let’s take a look around in the store first!
Before we start the tour, I gave Jessica a special birthday hat to wear for this celebratory day!
The store looks fantastic as always and there’s such a wonderful selection of books in here.
There’s also comfortable couches and places to sit and Jessica encourages people to hang out and read before you buy.
There’s a Lit. On Fire section over here which has free Get Lit. zines, tote bags and coffee mugs!
Behold the obligatory first dollar spent in here almost four years ago to this date!
Jessica told me that the gentleman who first pulled out this dollar to support this fine local business was none other than Andrew McGlothlen! Cheers to Andrew for supporting local business!
There’s a back room that houses even more books! What a fantastic selection of books and there’s some of the original shelves with graffiti from the past four years. Somebody should make a book of this!
Hmmm…Faces? Shouldn’t Rod Stewart be on the cover of this?
Oh wait, here he is…never mind!
Of course my favorite section in here is the Local Authors section because in the end, it’s all about ME!
Uh oh, Jessica just broke out her Get Lit. lighter, looks like it’s time to…
Light the candles and get this cake party started!
Once again thanks to Kayla and Trefzger’s for such an amazing cake! It look fantastic all lit up!
Jessica made a wish and blew out the candles and she didn’t even spit on the cake! Wonderful job Jessica!
Then it was time to cut the cake and it tasted so good! Tom had a slice as did Jessica and Steve Spain who owns and operates The Costume Trunk next door came over and joined the party!
Jessica had the official anniversary party last Friday at the store with two special guest authors, Cody Ashbury and J. Lawson.
She also made a special announcement which I’m going to make right here and now and here we go…
In addition to this beautiful book store that she’s built and grown over the last four years, Jessica now has a Lit. on Fire online store!
This store sells new books and you can order from home and have them shipped to your door or to the store!
Click here or on the picture above to check it out. You can also access it from the Lit. on Fire website.
Now you can buy local online!
Happy 4th Anniversary, Jessica! Thanks for providing Peoria with such a cool and fun local store!
Continued success for the next 444 years!
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712 W. Main Street
Peoria
309-634-5383
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