Highlights from Atlanta Gift January 2015

I can hardly believe we participated in our thirteenth (!) Atlanta Gift Show in January. This was our first time, however, in a showroom - the very established and fabulous Simblist Group. It's kind of a crazy life-comes-full-circle kind of thing. Would you believe that the very first showroom I ever stepped foot in, way back in 2001 working as a gift market temp, would be the very same showroom that would come to represent my line 14 years later? Crazy.

Our space inside the Simblist Showroom - very sophisticated!

To say I am excited about this would be an understatement, but seriously. I am SO excited! We still had our temporary booth for this market, though, so we actually exhibited in two locations… which meant two sets of samples… which about killed me. We still make everything to order and we have a LOT of styles! Did I mention I had to do all of this right after Christmas, right after we moved our studio? I'm still not sure how I survived.

Being in two locations also meant that my assistant Melanie had to work the booth without me (with help from my husband Greg) while I was in the showroom. This lead to some confusion because some of my customers seem to think that Melanie and I are twins.  Market is one of those weird places where your brain gets very tired and you start assuming things, such as because people work together they must be related. I had never even considered that Melanie and I looked remotely alike until we stood side by side in the Freshie & Zero booth for a few days and people kept asking if we were sisters. Melanie is cute so it's certainly not an insult, but we do find it funny! :) 

Look-a-likes? 

Splitting our line in two places meant that neither of our locations had fabulous sales, but combined we had our best show yet! 

Now for the hard business decision - will I have my temporary booth again next show or rely solely on the showroom and risk losing the booth sales? The verdict is out but I am really hoping not to have to make two sets of samples again (among other thing$)! The showroom is also a lovely place to spend a trade show - the other exhibitors and the reps are all so nice and the showroom is beautifully put together. They also have catered food every day which is quite an upgrade from the PB&J sandwiches we eat for lunch in our booth. Greg & Melanie were jealous. I promise I didn't rub it in their faces...

Oh - you're having BBQ? That's… cool.

Below are just a few photos of our booth in the Boutique section. Melanie wrote a great blog post about prepping for a wholesale show with regards to display - you can read it here. 

Our redesigned Wear Your Story wall - I love the watercolor ombre!

I like to add pops of color - especially pink and minty aqua.  

Detail of our new earrings display