Behind the Scenes at Market-July 2013

I cannot believe it's already time to blog about market again!  It seriously feels like I just did this.  I swear that as soon as I turned 30, time went into warp speed mode! If you missed my blog about what we ordered for this Christmas, take a look HERE

 

So now that we're back from Atlanta, we've been reflecting on what we saw there for 2014 and a few things really stood out.  First, gold was EVERYWHERE.  It seemed like anything and everything was gilded(and I loved it).  Second, there were a lot more colors and patterns than we've seen in the past. The neutrals we saw last July seem to have been replaced by some beautiful cobalt blues and emerald greens, among other colors.  The third thing we found was some great new gift lines which will be coming soon for the holidays. The last thing I'm sharing is a few fun displays we saw.   My mom and I had a great time looking for new goodies and I'm excited to share what we found with you!

 

This is the entrance part where you get your badge.  You can only attend market if you buy for a store.

 There are 3 buildings that make up the Atlanta market.  A very confusing series of tunnels at seemingly random floors connects them.  (By the way, if these photos seem, well, not very good to you, it's because photography is actually not allowed at market. I'm basically sneaking you guys in :)

 

 

Here we are in our first showroom of the trip.  We pretty much landed in Atlanta, dropped off our bags, and went straight to market.  We can walk to it from our hotel which is really convenient.

 

 

The golds!

Right away, for Spring of 2014, we started seeing lots of gold.  I was really happy because I happen to love it.  It's so fabulous and classic in any room.  Here's some of the gold we ordered:

 

 This chandelier is so chic and would look awesome above our vintage painted furniture. 

 

 I was really in love with this wall of mirrors and animals.  It's a fun mix of vintage and modern which is what we are hoping to achieve for Spring 2014.

I'm loving the graphic shapes on this mirror.  Above a vintage sideboard or dresser, this piece would add a modern element to a room. 

 

Now for the patterns and colors!

See the cobalt blue bedding on this linen bed?  Last year, it would have just been the neutral linen.  Now, everyone is adding lots of color and pattern.  I'm actually really excited about it. (I was not excited about the prices in this showroom though.  So high end.  Bummer!)

 

 Here's a photo that shows how the golds look with the cobalt and emerald.  Our look won't be quite so retro mod, but we were inspired by the elements here.  Every year, we reevaluate our "look" and try to stay up to date without losing our vintage roots.  We will always love old stuff.  The trick is to make the old stuff look new and fresh. 

 We ordered some throw pillows in vibrant colors because pillows are the easiest way to get started if you're afraid to be adventurous with color.  The employees have already let us know that they are in love with the pillows so I hope we're on the right track!

 The pillow below is my mom's favorite.  She's thinking about taking it home when it gets here.

 

The prints below look like something we've already had in the store, except they have that wonderful green color around them.  Last year, the frames would have been a neutral khaki or white.

 

 A BLUE clock.  I am so in love with it! 

 

Now onto the gifts!

We found candles, scarves, jewelry, and some amazing frames to carry for Christmas. 

 

 

Lots of scarves.  Who doesn't love a scarf in every color???

 

Below is the newest creation from the line of paper table runners we carry.  It's chalkboard runners/paper.  I can't wait to wrap gifts in it.  P.S. The whole chalkboard trend looks like it's staying for a while because we saw a lot of it at market.

 

Some delicious holiday scents we ordered.  I really liked the hobnail glass jars they come in.  This is the same line that makes our favorite Fresh Linen and Cashmere scents.  The one we ordered is called Evergreen Seedlings.

 Some colorful jewels for your holiday parties!

We found a few cute things to give to baby too!  These are actually already in the store.

 

We used to have an artist who made frames like these for us.  She doesn't make them anymore but we found these!  Our hope is that you guys will like them just as much.  These are still handmade in the U.S. too.  That is hard to find.

The frames below are going to be a big hit I think.  Wait until you see them in person.  They way the artist does that turquoise patina is just gorgeous.  We got to meet him and he was really sweet.  I hope we sell a lot of his frames.  Some of them are so large and fabulous that they could stand alone on a wall like a piece of art. They are shipping to us on Sept. 17th.

 Below is a new line of jewelry we ordered that looks soooooo antique.  I am so excited to pick out a piece to wear on New Years!!  I also think it looks high-end but it isn't.  That almost never happens.

 We ordered the cute little line of candles and sprays below that smell like a Christmas tree.  I can't wait for the store to smell like this!

 Below is a monogram bracelet that we ordered for Christmas.  It comes with the little charms on it.  I'm pretty sure they are going to be $29 which is the perfect price point for a nice little gift!  We also ordered some individual charms.  The only problem will be keeping track of which letters we need to reorder.  It seems like we never have the right letter at the right time...

 

Fun displays we saw:

Here's the window looking into Park Hill.  They always use real plants in their displays and I'm jealous that they can keep them alive.  My mom and I are not very good with plants.

Um, this display was fun because there were warm cookies inside.  One of the problems with market is that I always gain weight because there are so many snacks in the showrooms. 

 

I'm always blown away by Gina's displays at Peacock Park.  Look at that spiral staircase!  Awesome!

 

 

We ordered the ridiculously long table pictured below and it actually beat us home.  It's in the store now.

A giant giraffe made of flowers.  I love him!!

You might not be able to tell but the branches and urn below are covered in fabric scraps. Then they wrapped the fabric on birdcages and hung them from the branches.  This is the kind of thing we always want to do but are too busy keeping up with the unfun stuff like bookkeeping and budgeting.

Really pretty showroom.  Really high end.  :(

My mom fell in love with these scraps of wallpaper.  They come in bigger sheets too and have a sticky backing. 

 

 Below is our friend Cindy's booth.  It was her first trip to market and her space looked great!  We are so proud of her for starting this business.  Many of you have ordered her chargers and champagne buckets for weddings.  They are so fabulous.

 

 

Here is the only other picture of us from market.  We each took one of each other at our last breakfast of the trip.  We were kind of sad to leave. :(

Thanks for reading about our trip to Atlanta for market.  It was a lot of fun and we are so incredibly lucky to have Emily, Katie, and Michelle taking care of the store so we can leave without worry!
 I hope you're excited to see some color, pattern, and gold mixing with our vintage furniture.  Our Facebook page is the best place to see when everything comes into the store.  I almost always post something when we get a shipment.  And, as always, we will have TONS of new vintage goods coming in every week. 
If you'd like to see the official video promo for the market we attended, complete with a cameo from some HGTV stars, I've linked to it here.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUcWVY6nLe4&feature=youtu.be

 

See ya soon! -Lindsay

 

Ohio Flea Market Trip

My mom and I rarely get away from the store so we were excited to plan a weekend trip to Ohio for a flea market recently.  Hoping to get a lot of goodies, we rented a 15ft truck from Enterprise.  My mom has never driven a big truck before and she was a little nervous.  Here's a picture of me on the back of it before we left.  Notice my tall boots.  I was ready for anything including mud and rain!

We each took a picture of each other in the truck.  It was so big that it was hard to climb into. 

The drive was about 6 hours...Well, it was supposed to be 6 hours.  A few hours in, there was a light on the dashboard that turned red.  It said DEF level low.  We looked at each other and both said, "What the heck is DEF??"  My mom called Enterprise and asked what to do and we were told that we needed to find some DEF at a truck stop.  Um....ok.  I drove to the nearest gas station and asked the clerk if they had it.  Never heard of it.  Yikes.  Luckily, at the next gas station we tried, there was a truck driver filling the gas tanks underground.  We asked if he could help us and he was so incredibly nice that he actually put it into the tank for us.  He said that DEF(Diesel Exhaust Fluid) is actually cow urine.  I just looked it up and it does say that it's made of urea but I'm not sure they actually get cow urine to make it! 

Tank full of DEF, we made our way through nearly flooded roads to Ohio and checked into the hotel.  As you can see in the picture, the water was on both sides of the roads, threatening to block the way.

We went to bed really early because my mom always says about flea markets, "The early bird gets the vanity!"  Got up at 5 the next morning and checked my phone.  Temperature: 29.  As in, below freezing.  Ugh.  We bundled up as much as we could and headed out. 

It was a little disappointing to see as we pulled up that there weren't many vendors there.  Apparently, not many people are as crazy as us!  They were still sleeping!

 

There were a few cute things but the prices were kind of high.  I found a nice desk and a pretty French chair.  My mom got a potting table, a bench and some small vintage items.

We got the bench below that's made out of an old Eastlake style bed. 

Here's the french chair.  I didn't even care that it was stained.  Stains add character right?

We also got a chippy turquoise table and this chair.  What a fantastic color! 

 

After a VERY cold day of shopping, we headed back to good old St. Louis.  We found a random flea market on the way home where we discovered a lot of guns, livestock, socks, old electronics, and used clothing.  Not exactly what we were looking for.

  Since we hadn't gotten much, we went to see a few of our pickers and filled up the truck. Here's my mom looking proud of herself for filling it. 

 

Even though we ran out of urea for our truck, froze our butts off, and didn't find much, the trip was still a lot of fun!  My mom is hilarious and we somehow never run out of things to talk about.  What should be our next trip to find cool stuff?  If you have any ideas, let us know!