With much accomplished on Friday I headed to the mart early Saturday morning to loop back to three Home Decor and Gift Vendors that I had briefly visited late on Friday afternoon. Each one had their own specialties that I am excited to bring into the store in order to offer the latest and greatest in the gift and home decor industry. See a couple sneak peek pictures. Grande Trunke Home will now carry pottery, new glassware, including vases, hurricanes and bowls, and a brand new line of metal accessories. My favorite though is in the gift line; oil and tealight burning ceramic containers and round garden balls with sayings that will touch your heart. The round garden balls can sit on a patio table or be stuck into the ground using a metal garden stake (included). These are just being introduced this spring and I really believe customers will fall in love with them. They are gift boxed in beautiful packaging and will make fabulous gifts for the upcoming holidays.
I also visited Uttermost, who offers beautiful lamps, mirrors, clocks, pictures and tabletop accessories. I carry a large array of their line and am always amazed at the quality, design and correlation between the products. They introduced many new items at the mart and I just had to pick up a few for the store, including a few pieces for the spring for the garden.
To round out the day, I spent some time in search of new girlfriend cards and plaques. You may or may not have heard about the Dolly Mama Card line. They are absolutely hysterical, and I know they will fit into the feel and what my customers like to buy. Look for these at the store next month.
I could have easily spent another day or two vistiting the temporary showrooms, but my time was up, and my shopping partner, who had provided other points of view on whether or not to purchase, my mother, was totally exhausted!
Another great trip to market and I am so excited to start receiving these new products in the store to keep it fresh for my customers and continue to provide high quality distinctive items.
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The first official day at the the Atlanta Mart, Friday, January 11! Oh what fun and so many products and gifts to see! I made my way into Building 1 of 3 in the morning and discovered some awesome pottery that had a very tuscan look. This is becoming very popular again! I also found some little girl's porcelain tea sets with pink and purple flowers that I couldn't resist and porcelain purse banks that are so cute and would make wonderful gifts. For boys they had porcelain sail boats in bright colors that were also banks. Onto Building 2 in the afternoon where I went to numerous showrooms looking for masculine gift and home decor items for Father's Day and unique gift items for all occassions. Clocks of all kinds were shown in different styles and colors, and I made some notes to return to several of the vendors to decide which ones to purchase.
My best find of the day was drink wear, attachable coasters for the "foot" of your glass! Offered in various styles, I chose "bling bling", a leopard print, "fun in the sun", coasters with seashells, and several other styles; so fun for the summer with indoor and outdoor entertaining. They even had a couple styles made in a different material for boats!
One more day and lots of shopping to get accomplished.
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I left bright and early this morning bound for Atanta, GA to attend the International Home, Gift and Apparel Show at the AmericasMart Atlanta, however upon arrival at the airport I made a detour to Nadeau Imports, a wholesaler who imports antique furniture reproductions and other pieces, including accessories large and small from Indonesia, India, and China. Nadeau ensures each item has character, functionality and value and has recently featured their furniture on the covers of Traditional Home and Cottage Living. Needless to say, after several hours walking through the warehouse I tagged several pieces of furniture, including a large distressed gold armoire, a teal cabinet with locking glass doors and a red hand carved bench with a moroccan flair that also opens for storage.
After leaving Nadeau I quickly checked into the hotel and made a dash to the Mart to register before it closed for the day. Fortunately, I was able to get registered, however the showrooms closed at 6:00pm. I was able to get a sneak peak at several of the showrooms though, peaking through the closed glass windows and doors to plan my Friday. I eyed beautiful crackle glass vases that shimmered in the light, masculine desk clocks and lamps with beautiful big shades, much different from the typical round shade you see in the larger retail chains. I can envision all of these in Grande Trunke Home!
More to follow tomorrow!
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