Caden Lane

Day 1 of setup at Atlanta Market (the actual market starts on Friday)! You’d think after 6 years I’d be used to this by now, but still, the night before I leave, I can barely get any sleep obsessing over what we might have forgotten… if our stores will like the new collection…. if our walls will fall over mid-show… if our crates don’t show up… if we arrive on the wrong date… if my teeth will fall out…. if someone will chase me and I can only run in slow motion… and if a tsunami will hit. Okay, I’m a little neurotic.

So, as promised – and for those of you who have never been to market – here’s a few pics from today’s set up. Amy and I had a record breaking ONE DAY set up! Which means, tomorrow is reserved for a day full of shopping – including a visit to my favorite cheap-y Golden Stella which has all the cute trendy jewelry at DIRT CHEAP MARKET prices! Come to mama!

These pictures were taken with my iphone, so excuse the bad lighting!

Picture #1  is the basically how the booth starts out! We lay down a foam hard wood floor tile (that’s super squishy, and helps with the loooong 9 hr day on our feet). Then we put up our 8′ tall white panels… and get ready to decorate. The oh-so-fabulous white curtains and blue carpet are a gracious gift from America’s Mart, and unfortunately, some booths keep just that! Sure would be nice if we got a little more with the small fortune we pay to exhibit at these things… I’m just sayin’.

IDEA: if I can remember, tomorrow I’ll take pics of bad ass booths and their ghetto counterparts! Walking the isles of market is one of my favorite things to do! And it amazes me every year at the creativity and magnitude of some of these booths.

Picture #2 is the half way point! Once we have the floors down, the walls up, paper hung, and the cribs & table assembled… the decorating begins. (All with only ONE broken nail today, thank you very much…) So that’s it! It’s nothing super glamorous, but it’s cute, and inviting, and has our smiling faces inside! How can you NOT want to place a huge order if you were to shop this booth! (See picture #3) Our Vegas booth is the best! We show almost every bedding set, and have a massive 20×20 booth! That is NOT a one day-er.

So, that’s about all I can muster up tonight. It was a long day. My back is killing me, I’ve stuffeed my face with pizza, poured a BIG glass of “hotel” wine, we just watched “It’s Complicated” in our hotel room, and I’m D-O-N-E.

Luckily, Amy did not require me to bathe her, feed her, or remind her to go potty before bed. Funny how a work trip can turn into a semi-vacation.