Market

Another buying trip has come and gone. We always hit the ground running....well this trip not as early as the last...we left St. Louis at 10:30 am....I did NOT have to get up at 3:00 am this time:) One thing I KNOW is that we found some great goodies....and I know I placed orders because I have a stack of Purchase Orders sitting in my color coordinated accordion file folder...stacked by ship dates. Sooooo I will share a look into our trip....the post turned out to be longer than I expected.....

Day 1 we arrive pretty much on time in Atlanta and head to the luggage carousal to pick up our luggage (mine was green tagged with a caution sign b/c I was just 4 lbs away from being charged!). Okay so you might be thinking seriously Jamie why are giving us a play by play of your trip.....I thought this was going to be the highlight reel. And to that I would like to say "Patience my dear....patience." Let me just say if you have not been lucky enough to visit the Atlanta airport.....its busy! It makes Lambert look like a small country airport...people are coming and going, from all over the globe...there is a constant hum of activity. It is not uncommon to see uniformed military members roaming around gates. So as we anticipated the arrival of our luggage on the carousal I noticed 3 uniformed military members (Army, I think) standing together. I started thinking about a Super Bowl commercial (by the way GO PATRIOTS!!!!) from a few years back....it showed a line of Military men and woman walking through an airport. The travelers in the airport stopped what they were doing to give these brave men and women a standing ovation....it brought tears to my eyes just to think about it. So let me tell you I was surprised when I started hearing one person clapping (seriously!) we turn around and there is an older gentleman part of the USO (I think) leading a line of at least 50 Military Members single file and clapping his heart out. Immediately my mom and our friend Kathy from The Homestead started clapping....we all followed suit. It was one of the most touching scenes I have had the opportunity to witness in quite a while.

We only had a couple of hours to shop on Day 1....so we used our time wisely and shopped our fashion jewelry lines that we buy and bring home with us. We have a bag full...so if you stop in and don't see something you are looking for, you are more than welcome to root through our bag of jewelry goodness and see if any of those pieces are to your liking! We also stocked up on watches....some new designs and our tried and trues.

Day 2 started off with the Temporary booths in Building 3 and we found some great things! A great new stationary line and we are adding to our hilarious Shannon Martin collection, a jewelry line that creates each piece with antique buttons and such, a handmade line of frames, photo albums, and other goodies. We also revisited our line of vintage flatware jewelry...the creator and artist Maureen has been busy repurposing flatware into wearable fashions...each piece is truly unique. We found a new line of fashion handbags and were excited to find the vintage doorknobs turned wine/olive oil stoppers have some new friends....like the Fleur de Lis finials, the golf balls (to arrive before Father's Day), pool balls, AND also using vintage flatware....these all make great gifts or are a fun treat for yourself. We are excited to expand our selection of inspirational jewelry....we are anticipating the arrival of a line in time for Mother's Day and Graduations that will help you say it all. They are truly quality pieces, such care and thought are put into the production of each one....we can't wait for everyone to see them.

We tried to wrap the day up by starting to create the 2008 Christmas Collection....but we were on overload and ended up visiting one of our favorite Home Fragrance showrooms and called it a day!

Day 3 With the intention of finishing the process of visiting the Temporary Booth floors we headed to Building 1. Now my mom may not agree, but I LOVE the Temporaries...this is where you find the fun and the funky.....those goodies that don't appeal to the masses....BECAUSE they are different....which is our goal...to offer goodies that you won't find too many other places. Building 1 is the High Design area....ahhhh goodness abounds! Now don't let me lead you to believe that there is booth after booth of amazing finds....there definitely are booths stocked full of great design elements and creative displays, but they are spaced out by other vendors who don't appeal to me....the spaced out part is where my mom finds her hidden resentment towards the Temporaries...alright let's be honest she doesn't hide it very well. We have a lot of ground to cover in the amount of time we are at the show....so we have to quickly make our way through the aisles. It is not possible to stand at one end of an aisle look down and know you won't find something fabulous.....so it is essential to travel the entire aisle and to make it a point to visit every aisle. We did visit every aisle and found some wonderful things. Here is a brief look at what we found... We were lucky enough to meet the owners and creators of K. Hall Designs...one of our most popular home fragrance lines that are created in St. Louis. We will be adding a few new scents to our collection PLUS we will begin carrying diffuser refills very soon....our first shipment is scheduled for the beginning of February. We also found some great new lines that offer wonderful elements to add to the style of your home, another line of tubs and containers covered in fun and fresh colors a stylish way to store toys or just about anything! We found a new line that just recently made its debut stateside. They have a long history in Europe and offer well priced goods that will add so much to dahlias....and your homes too! We reordered from our favorite paper line and from Maximal Art.

As we wrapped up our ordering here we had enough time to visit some floors in Building 2 and placed a few orders before closing time. We are excited about a new home fragrance line that offers unique scents and their diffusers are embossed glass....finally a diffuser that can become a design element in your home...yay! We also reordered from a favorite vendor in a new showroom for them....the poor sales guy that helped me....I think we both had headaches by the time we were done....between going back and forth from the catalog to the order form and him being as descriptive as possible....I was ready for the night to be over:)

Day 4 We started right where we left off the night before, in Building 2 trying to find some great pick up goodies for the shop. For the most part I don't like the huge showrooms in this building. They are filled primarily with gift-y gift items...not us. We love to find a great item to give to a friend, sister, mom, cousin, aunt, dad, uncle, son, daughter, whoever, but we don't want it to LOOK like its sitting 12 deep on a plastic shelf. So I think this building is easier for me because I can walk past a showroom and do a perimeter cruise to know whether I should take the time to actually go in. Let's take a brief look at what we found....We were pleasantly surprised by one line of that offers both seasonal and everyday decor....their spring items were priced right and had style! We found a new line that offers some great tees for Mom's...they will make you laugh out loud. We found some hand beaded jewelry that has an understated elegance, a great price point, and fabulous quality....can you tell I like it?! Our favorite art line did not fail to impress with their new designs. We found a new line of bath and body to introduce...fun packaging and an overall great product. We also finally ordered from a line that is straight out of France...I have been studying their catalog for close to a year.....some wonderful goodies are on the way. Okay when planning for our trip I always map out the places we HAVE to visit...E. Barrett is always on our list. Much to my surprise when I began putting our plan together I couldn't find them anywhere....I was a little alarmed. As they make the best soaps and my customers LOVE them! So I was so happy to receive a little postcard before I left letting me know that they had moved showrooms and were much more centrally located. So when I visited their new home for the first time I was relieved to see it was new and improved! I try to beat the closing sign on a showroom, but didn't make it in time!

Day 5 We start our day right where we left off and try to finish Building 2 so we can begin the mind boggling decisions of Building 1. We finish up the few floors we have left and were pleasantly surprised to find a vendor we have had before has changed their offerings again! But this time its wonderful..they are importing antiques from Europe and Asia....and their prices are awesome...I can't wait to get the items in.

We move on to Building 1 and order some goodies....they are just great staples to have for the shop. We have a dinner engagement planned for the evening, so I time it so we can visit a Christmas showroom right before closing, planning on starting here tomorrow. Little did I know my Christmas 2008 vision would come to me right then and there and I would know exactly what direction I was going to take....but it did. So we found a sales rep and started our ordering....we moved through it pretty quickly...I like to think I have a good eye and I can make a decision whether it will work or not. So feeling very accomplished we finished our Monday evening and headed to our dinner engagement.

I had been looking forward to this day....this evening really for a few weeks now. We were going to dinner with a friend of mine, Abby. We met earlier this Spring in the blog world. We have since been in contact regularly...we both are young business owners trying to make it. We are from different areas of the country and have our own styles for our shops, but we can relate to each other's struggles and triumphs. We had never before met...talked on the phone once, but that's it. We arrive to dinner and find Abby and her mom are already there and waiting for us.....we take our seats, order our frozen margaritas and get down to chatting in earnest. Talking about anything and everything....it was like we'd known each other forever. We all had so much fun.

Day 6 Our final day....We found some last minute goodies....a new line of letterpress cards. We revisited a line that offers rusty tin pockets and found some great new items from them. We also placed our Holiday orders with our favorite vintage reproduction lines.

I have a tendency to over analyze and worry that we won't have enough time while we are in Atlanta....so I booked us on the 9:30 pm flight back to St. Louis. As it turns out we ended up being ready to leave for the airport by 2:00....oops! So we hung out for a bit in order to wait for the shuttle to begin running to take us back to our hotel and then headed to the airport. We arrived home safe and sound. Until July I bid you adieu Atlanta.