My mom and I go to Market twice a year to place orders for merchandise for The White Rabbit. I love to blog about it afterward so you guys can get an idea of what it's like. We just got back last week and I can't wait to show you the pictures! Next week, I'll post pictures of the Christmas items we ordered, but for now, I'll just show the decor that's coming right away.
This Market was a very special one because our friend, Susan, set up a wholesale space for the very first time. Susan, along with 2 other moms, Julie and Crystal, create the BEST vintage inspired home decor, gifts and jewelry. We've carried Knollwood Lane for many years and now it will be available for other stores in other cities to carry! We usually go to Atlanta for Market but we just HAD to be there to see her temporary space in Dallas. I took pictures so you guys could see how pretty it was!
This is our group. Such great ladies!!!
This is Susan's space. She spent months planning how everything would be laid out.
Don't you love her "St. Louis" sign? There's a chalkboard sign next to it that says "ships from" so people know her things are handmade right here in STL. (She has an ETSY sight too. Find it
HERE)
The coolest part was, they won an award for Best Visual Presentation!!! It's hard to see in the picture but Susan is holding her award. The hard work paid off!!
We are so happy that we went to Dallas instead of Atlanta because it was really fun to hang out with the Knollwood Lane girls after Market in the evenings. Susan got a lot of wholesale orders and we went to dinner to celebrate! Here's a picture of the Hilton Anatole where we stayed. It's probably the biggest hotel I've ever seen. It had maps to help you get around and there were "campuses."
Now, onto our buying experience for The White Rabbit! The lobby of Market always has little vignettes to entice you to visit certain showrooms. The one below had a lot of elements we noticed are going to be trendy in home decor; metallic touches mixed with organics, raw wood, fur, birch(It's on the wall), and mixing lots of textures. We like to mix in some of these elements with our vintage items to give it a cozier look.
There are 3 different buildings to navigate and honestly, not a lot of rhyme or reason to how it's organized. It's very overwhelming. We spent a week there and and felt like we didn't see everything.
Now I'll show you guys some of the things we saw up in the showrooms.
Lots of gold was still popular.
A new sunburst mirror we ordered. It's just a little bit Mad Men right? (Update-This is in the store now!)
Ordered this gold crown. It's already in the store.
Before you ask if this feather chandelier thing is for sale, it isn't. They sell the feathers individually and in a garland. They were just showing something cool you can do with it. We did order the feathers though so that's something we can try to copy!
We saw a lot of gilded items that used to only be in the high end showrooms showing up in the more affordable ones. Finally!
Already in the store!
Park Hill is always one of our fave's. It has a very farmhouse feel. The owners are masters of display and we look forward to seeing what they put together every Market.
There were dried hops hanging from the ceiling and it made you feel like you were outside in a garden. We ordered them to use in the store.
Park Hill is mostly a home decor showroom but there are others that are more gift focused. We ordered a few things that caught our eye in some of those.
Below is a pretty tote. It's great for someone who has moved a lot or travels.
One of the showrooms had a really cute wall that looked like a chalkboard. We liked the bunnies!!
My favorite notebooks! I asked for these for Christmas and then my mom said, "why don't we carry these?!" We ordered them and I'm really excited to have some pretty paper in the store.
**update-these are in the store now!***
These are darling little dishes for jewelry or change or keys. They'd make a sweet little hostess gift.
Some pretty handmade frames we ordered. I love it when we can find handmade items that we can afford! She had a few other styles that will be in the store soon. So darling.
We found a line of organic baby items that will be so great for shower gifts. These are swaddle blankets. I loved the gray whale patterned one. There's a porcupine too. :)
A lot of the showrooms have glass fronts so they can entice you to come in! Would you go into this one?
Colorful pillows for a kid's room. We ordered the dog ones and the squirrel and fox.
Some wall decor we ordered.
Ok so did any of you watch Flipping Out on Bravo? It's one of my favorite shows ever and I am obsessed with Jeff Lewis. He has this dry sense of humor and is a total perfectionist. He reminds me a lot of my brother. We knew that he was going to be speaking at Market but we didn't expect to be able to see him. We just happened to be walking through the atrium while he was talking and listened for a few minutes. I was SO excited! He is seriously my favorite!
After listening for a bit, we decided it was time to get back to work so we went back up to see more showrooms. About an hour later, I spotted him in a showroom we normally shop in. A small group of people were getting their picture taken with him and they were trying to wrap it up. I heard the lady say, "ok, those are the last people. We're going to get out of here." My mom and I gave a really disappointed face and she said, "ok, just these last two. That's it." I couldn't believe it!!!!!
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! We met Jeff Lewis!!! Yeah, I'm probably more excited than you guys are, but seriously, he's my favorite t.v. personality of all time. (Miss NeNe Leaks is a close second!) FYI, if you're a fan of the show, Gage was there out in the hallway waiting for him. Aww! So cute!
Ok, Ok, calm down. Let's get back to the shopping! Here are a couple of cool looking showrooms.
Gina from Peacock Park had a life sized horse in her showroom. Look at that tail. I could almost swear it was like a real taxidermy horse. Not sure...
We re-ordered Le Moo from them. She is just so fab. She's already here!
There is a whole building of cash and carry items in Dallas. One side is for jewelry and clothing and the other side is for vintage goods. My mom got stuck in this booth with all the pretty linens and painted furniture.
Here's my mom checking out some prices. Most of it was too expensive for us; Texas is known for having high prices when it comes to the vintage goods. It was fun to look though!
Have any of you ever had Royer's pie??? OMG, they had a truck there in the cash and carry area and we got warm chocolate chip pie with a scoop of ice cream. I was in HEAVEN! It was amazing! It's funny how different sweets taste when they are fresh and homemade instead of store bought. No preservatives! Just lots of butter and sugar!
This is the only "selfie" we took! We were on the shuttle in the morning of the last day, headed to the cash and carry building again. So. Very. Tired. But excited about getting more cash and carry goodies.
Found some great leather bracelets. These are so great layered with other bangles. We brought them back with us so they're in the store!
Look at this amazing treehouse! One of the clothing vendors had it at the entrance to their booth! Wow!!
There was a fashion show put on by the cash and carry vendors and someone made a tepee for the end of the runway! So cool!!!
That's all the pictures I took other than the Christmas items we ordered. I'll post another blog about Christmas orders next week. I figured some of you wouldn't want to see Christmas stuff right now!!
Overall, it was a really exciting trip to Dallas. We ordered great stuff for the store, brought back some fun jewelry, and had a lot of fun with friends. I hope you enjoyed reading about it and get a chance to stop in and see the new stuff soon! -Lindsay
