Atlanta Market Trip January 2012

Customers always get so excited when I post pictures from inside market so I made sure to take some photos with my phone while we were there.  The major home and gift markets happen in January and July and our favorite is in Atlanta.  We've been to Dallas, Chicago, and Kansas City too but they just don't seem to have as many vendors as Atlanta.
Our trip started with a long line for cabs at the airport!

When you arrive at market, you have to register and get a badge because only people who own or buy for stores can be in the buildings.

You have to plan really, really well at market because it is 3 buildings and 6 million square feet!  There are hundreds of vendors that sell everything from rugs to candles to furniture to jewelry.  You can't take anything with you (except in a special cash and carry section) because the purpose of market is to order for future seasons.  We order all of our Christmas in January and Spring in July.

The permanent showrooms are kind of set up like a store.  You go around with a sales rep and tell them what you want and how many to ship.  Then you give them a shipping date.  Here are pics of a very garden, farmhouse inspired showroom called Park Hill.

We ordered the mirror below and some of the boxwood wreaths.  The lamps were too expensive.

 We ordered this cool clothing rack.  It was super expensive but it will be a great display!!  It's an investment or at least that's what we told ourselves as we were ordering it...

We also got a couple of these dress form lamps.

This showroom also had a section of holiday things.  Very natural and pretty!

We found several good lamps in some of the showrooms.  Here are a few that we ordered.

The chandelier above is a mini version of one we've had before.

Some of the permanent showrooms do really cool and interesting things with their displays.  This one caught my eye.  It's a bunch of chandelier ceiling covers made into a lighting feature behind their counter.  I need to post this on our Pinterest page!

Another permanent showroom had silly things displayed around their merchandise like this fuzzy chair.  Emily decided to stop and give the rooster a kiss!

Our favorite showroom is Creative Co-Op.  They just always seem to have lots of things that we love.  It's always crowded too!  Here are some photos inside.

We ordered the table above even though it was a little pricey.  When you see it in person though, the colors and the finish are so nice looking that we thought it was worth the price.

Got some great curtain panels.

Ordered this cute clock on a stand.

We tried on some silly holiday headbands.

We ordered the New York and Chicago versions of this wall canvas map.

We ordered this tree to hang jewerly from.

We had this burlap ribbon and people kept asking to buy it so we ordered more. 

Another favorite permanent room has mostly holiday items.  They do a great job of displaying them with vintage things!

This place has some of the coolest Halloween stuff I've seen!

In the Bethany Lowe showroom, we decided to do a whole paper theme for our Christmas display in 2012 that will be similar to this look.  We found things in other companies that go with the theme too!

The garland above was designed by Wendy Addison and will go perfectly with the paper theme!

In the temporary areas, we found two new lines of candles and lotions.  Aren't they cute?!

This is what the temporary booth areas look like.

These are usually smaller companies that only set up during the week of market.  I didn't get any more pictures because they're really strict about photos. 

Market was a lot of work and a lot of fun.  We're excited to be back so we can start getting deliveries of some of the things we ordered for right now!  I'll post pics on Facebook of new stuff as it comes in so keep checking back!  See ya!

An Essay For My Mom-by Lindsay

    About two years ago, one of our wholesale vendors announced an essay contest.  The requirements were simply to describe why you should win $1,000 of their merchandise and a day of the owners of the company setting up a display in your store. 
     
    My first thoughts upon reading about the contest were that I'd never win.  I was sure there would be hundreds of entries and mine wouldn't even be read.  The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that we have an incredible story.  We have been through a lot to get to where we are now and I felt that if anything, for my mom,  I needed to put our journey on paper.  I needed to write our story, not just for the contest but for us.
    This was my entry:
______________________________________________________________________
Certain lucky people find one true passion in life that drives them in everything they do.  My mom, Angie, has always had a passion for hunting for the unusual, mixing old and new in her decorating, and making the spaces around her feel warm and comfortable.  She has focused this passion into a store that means absolutely everything to her.  For this reason, 2008 was the toughest year of her life and one that left me feeling completely helpless to make it better for her.

    In April of last year, a routine mammogram revealed that my mom had ductal carcinoma in her right breast.  I remember sitting with her in the office looking directly into the face of our doctor as the words came out of her mouth.  It didn't feel real.  I was devastated and panicked but my mom was angry.  The first thing she said to the doctor was, "Well, I don't have time for this.  I own a store!"

   Despite her hesitation to leave the store for a while, she was immediately thrust into a painful mastectomy and later, a reconstruction that was done incorrectly and subsequently re-reconstructed, causing much physical discomfort and lots of time away from her dreams at our shop.  I was working as much as I could to hold things together for her, but in reality, there just wasn't much I could do. I came home from the store every night to find her lying in bed covered in decorating magazines and books, drawing ideas, and talking about getting back to work.  She got better and better each day, and finally, when the time had almost come for her to get back to her life and the store she loved, it happened...

    On Sunday morning, September 15th, we received a frantic call from our landlord.  It had been raining all night from the storms that came with hurricane Ike.  A creek near our store had been completely overwhelmed and had flooded the entire neighborhood.    We didn't even know there was a creek anywhere near our store.  We had never even heard of that area flooding in the past.  Our landlord didn't know whether our store had been affected, but he wanted us to go see what had happened.

    My mom insisted that she ride with my dad and me to see the devastation despite the fact that she still had drains form surgery.  We thought, maybe it's just a couple of inches.  Maybe the water didn't come up far enough to do any damage.  It couldn't have.
  
    I will never forget the sight that came upon us after reaching the top of the hill that overlooked our store.  The area was filled with police and fire trucks.  The street was closed because the water was so high that it was impassible. People were being rescued by boat out of the building next to ours.

  After explaining several times to officers that we owned a store on the street, we made our way on foot to the front of our building.  It was there that we stood, silent and motionless for a very long time, literally watching mud and debris flowing out of our once beautiful home away from home.  My mom started to cry and I realized that she hadn't cried once throughout her diagnosis or treatments.  Standing there, seeing all of our vintage furniture knocked over from the force of the water and all of our little display items floating in brown, smelly floodwater was just too much for her.  She was grieving the loss of so many things in that moment and my dad and I felt completely helpless.

    We spent several weeks cleaning up the mess that was left behind, documenting the damages, and worrying about all the money we would owe.  We had gotten our holiday merchandise on terms from our vendors which means that you pay for it after you've sold it.  Unfortunately, our storage shelving had all collapsed into the water and destroyed every last piece of it.  We were given temporary hope when FEMA declared the site a national disaster area, but quickly found out that the only aid we'd be offered was a loan requiring my parent's house as collateral.

    My mom and I have come a long way since that September morning.  We have moved into a new building and are still slowly recovering from the devastating financial and emotional impact of last year.  Our customers are thrilled that we didn't give up after cancer and a flood and they couldn't be more supportive.  We have been so lucky that our new location is working out and we are busier than ever.  Best of all though, my mom is healthy and cancer free.

    After everything that she has been through, I think my mom deserves to win this contest because she has been so determined to keep doing what she loves.  Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she has picked right up where she left off.  Two thousand eight was a tough year for her and although I felt helpless throughout her struggles, I want to do everything I can to make 2009 a new start for her.  She loves the vintage, natural look of Park Hill's collection and absolutely raved about the showroom in Atlanta.  It would be so wonderful to win this opportunity for her because it would be a way for me to start her new year with some good news and give her a little help in getting back to doing what she loves and was absolutely meant to do.
____________________________________________________________________________

    I got a call from the owner of the company that was holding the contest the next day.  He told me, while getting choked up on his words, that they were coming to St. Louis.  He said that he completely related to the passion that my mom has for all things vintage and cannot imagine being taken away from what he was meant to do for any amount of time.
    I will never forget being able to tell my mom that I'd won an essay contest on behalf of her.  I know it was just a contest, but for us, it really did represent a new start.  It all seems like a blur now, but every once in a while, I get to reminisce about the time we were visited by the sweetest owners of one of our wholesale companies and given a whole display of their amazing merchandise.  It really was a wonderful start to 2009.

   

July Buying Trip to the Atlanta Mart Part 3

I have to apologize that these blogs about Atlanta aren't very orgazized.  I   took about 150 photos and can't remember what happened in what order.  It was all such a blur!  Below is some jewelry we got in the cash and carry building. 

Another jewelry booth where we had to stop was Jill Schwartz.  Her stuff is sooooo cool and we ordere some to sell for Christmas.  Below is her setup which was so quirky and fun and vintage.

We also got to meet her!  She wrote up our order and helped us pick out some great pieces. 



Us with the one and only Jill Schwartz!!!

And as if we weren't already excited about meeting one of our favorite artists, we were shocked to see Wendy Addison standing in the Tinsel Trading area.  Yipee, we've been ordering her glass glitter and paper goodies for years now and finally got to meet her!

Did you know that she's from Missouri?  She was very sweet and we placed an order for some of her creations.

Next, we got a couple of wrappy style bracelets.  These are really popular right now.  Expect to see lots of them!

I want to copy the banner idea below.  They literally took some string, cut out triangles from old paper, and folded the edge over and stapled it.  Easy!!!

some handmade frames we ordered

Not all of market is work.  There are lots of parties, coctails,and celebrations going on.

A lot of showrooms have beer, soda and wine sitting out.  We hardly paid for any food either because there were so many snacks and desserts out.

Some of the showrooms have some "interesting" merchandise...

Can't wait to steal this idea and wrap ribbon around old suitcases.

This pic below is what the aisles in the "high design" temporaries look like.  This is where Cody Foster and Jill Schwartz are set up. 

One evening, we went to Jalapeno Charlie's and sat on the patio upstairs.  The street that the mart is on is very busy and we had a great time people watching. 

One of the showrooms is set up like a cute little candy store.  They put the merchandise in cases that would normally have cakes and pies and the walls are pink.  It's so cute!

That's most of my pictures.  I hope they give you an idea what it's like to go to market.  People are always so interested in what goes on in this magical place!  It was a lot of work, but we ordered the coolest stuff.  I think this is the most excited we've been about what we ordered in a long time.  It will come in at all different times but if you want to know when anything specific is coming, just give me a call or email!  Thanks for reading!  -Lindsay