Atlanta buying trip July 2014

It's time for another blog about Market in Atlanta!  If you're not familiar with wholesale markets, it's basically a huge show that happens twice a year where retailers can order their product to sell in the store.  We like the Atlanta show because it has a good mix of furniture, home decor, holiday items, jewelry, and bath products.  We can see most everything in one place, including a few booths with handmade items.  It's also a great way to see upcoming trends in decor because it's where the brand new products are shown a season ahead.

 During the July market, we ordered Spring of 2015(and we always end up buying things to ship now too!)  I hope you enjoy the pictures I took.  I tried to get a few close ups of what we ordered as well as some general pictures so you guys can feel a little bit like you're there!  Oh, and, we ordered a LOT of things that I didn't get pictures of.  It was too hard to concentrate!

 Above, standing on the corner with lots of other people trying to get to Market.
Below, I was trying to show that there are 3 large buildings with bridges connecting them.  It's so confusing and hard to find things because not all the floors are connected.  It took us 3 ten hour days just to get through the first building.

Our favorite showroom overall is Creative Co-Op.  They have such a variety of items and reasonable prices.  Here are some pics of their showroom and what we ordered. These items are coming now.  Yippee!!!

Above: A jewelry display

Below: Some cool darts you can use as picture hangers.  They also looked great piled into a clear glass jar.  They're vintage inspired but the colors make them look modern so we need them for the store.

 Below:  We saw LOTS of Southwest and Native American influences in the decor for 2015.  Not the ugly, 80's kind, but a modern version with brights mixed in with deep colors like the blue on the wall and natural elements like skulls and unfinished wood.

 Below, we are always looking for cool wall art and thought this map print looked like it was actually old.  We hardly ever find vintage wall art this large so if we can find a good looking reproduction, we're happy.  I'm pretty sure we ordered the dog prints below it too.

 My mom loved these old looking game wheels.  The trio would be awesome on a sofa table or buffet.

 Below, we reordered the gold petal mirror and the gold bar cart.  We saw lots of gold and brass bar carts at market but most were very high end. :(

 Got this chandelier.

The picture is terrible but we got this pale yellow, 6 ft tall floor clock.  I've never really seen one this color so I'm very excited to put it in the store. It will be about $425.

We've ordered their wooden numbers before and begged them to make letters too.  We were so happy to see that they finally made them!  They're lightweight and colorful.

 Lots of things to look at in this showroom.  It's so hard to decide what to get!  We always spend like 2 hours here.

We saw a few chandeliers we liked in a place where we've never ordered.  We hesitantly walked in and looked at the prices.  Not too bad!  They aren't CHEAP but they are obviously made very well and the finishes are nice looking.  We often find that chandeliers we like are in the $1,000 range and well, that isn't very fun!!  Below are the styles we ordered. They will all be around $450 retail and they're the right size for dining rooms. My mom is taking one of them home for her entryway.

 The one below is surrounded by glass.  I just love it!

We were able to walk to our hotel each night.  We used to stay far away from market to save money but we figured out quickly that it's totally worth it to spend a little more to be close to the buildings. Here's the view from our floor.

Our view at night.  Instagrammed of course.

One of the popular themes we saw for home decor was a blue and white, sort of hand painted, hand dyed look. Not a preppy blue and white, but a sort of bohemian look.
We ordered these plates.

 Below: These pillows look purple in the picture(darn cell phone!) but they're actually blue velvet with a hand dyed look.  I love them so we ordered a few.

 Here's a rug we got to go with the blue theme.

 I really wanted the chandeliers you can see in the picture below but my mom thought they were too pricey.  Darn it!!

We had to really be thinking about Spring which was so hard because we're prepping our Fall and Christmas items right now.  Below are some of the things we ordered for Spring of next year.  Sorry, these items won't be here for a while.

 Above, those are real dried hydrangeas.  They'll look good in the baskets we ordered below.

 This sign is wood and very large.  Great colors for Spring.

 This huge cage was on sale so we snapped it up.  We've been debating about getting some finches for the store.  Wouldn't they be cute on real branches in here?!  Our only worry is that it might be messy.  Do any of you have experience with finches??

 White framed botanicals?  Yes, please! They'll go with everything!

 This is a sweet little light that looks like a cage.  I love when people put a pair of lights like this over nightstands.

This next photo is my absolute favorite thing from all of market!  We saw lots of arrows in general and I fell in love with an arrow table in a really high end showroom.  It was like $400 wholesale for a tiny side table. I almost cried.  The very next day, I found almost the exact same one at a great price!!  I can't wait for them to get here!!!  Look at the legs!

 I know that you guys like to see pictures of market so you can pretend like you're there so I took a few of just showrooms and displays in general. Here they are: 

Keep in mind, I only took pics of the good ones.  There are a LOT of ugly things there too!

Jewelry is always a really fun part of Market.  There are TONS of vendors that sell jewelry and it's nearly impossible to figure out what to choose.  I pretty much wanted everything.  Our strategy is basically to focus on things that seem like great quality, but aren't high end.  There's sort of a sweet spot in there that only a few vendors fulfill.
One of the good ones is Grandmother's Buttons.  They use antique and vintage buttons in their designs.  It's all handmade in Louisiana.  They were so nice and excited that they had just won an award for Best Display.
I asked them to take our picture and it's the only one of the 2 of us at Market.

Above left-Me, Lindsay Mathey 

Right, my mom, Angie Mathey

 Here are just a couple of the many pieces we ordered.

Another artist had some cool vintage looking jewelry that we loved.

 Below, another artist we ordered from.  She uses more metal in her work.

 We saw lots of natural crystals in both jewelry designs and home decor.  They're going to be popular soon!

Above- I'm probably the most excited about these constellation necklaces.  I'm going to take home a Scorpio one!  These are coming for Christmas!  What a cool gift!!  The back says which sign corresponds with the constellation on the front.  

As far as kids decor, we didn't find a lot.  My mom and I both loved these map themed animal heads though.  Great for a boy or girl and they don't look too babyish.  

 Below: Little handmade bibs with pacifiers.  We just love them for baby gifts.

 My mom has been wanting to order Blabla dolls for years!  I've always hesitated because they are a little more expensive than some of our other baby gifts, but my goodness, they're cute.  They're also handmade and organic.  I'm hoping the grandmas that want to spoil their grand babies will buy them!

 These are just a couple of the styles we ordered.  I love that the bunny has a little bag on his side and that the boy kitty is named Sardine.

One last thing to show you guys are these hand poured candles.  They are made in hand painted bowls and they are already at The White Rabbit!  They must have shipped them before we even left the show! I think these make awesome house warming gifts!

As everything comes in, we will post them on our Facebook page.  Check it out if you haven't.  It's the best way to see all of our newest items.  I only took pictures of a small handful of what we ordered so there is a lot more to come!  Thanks for reading! -Lindsay