Caden Lane

Okay, I admit. I’ve been a total slacker with updating our blog! I’m sooooo sorry! I promise to make it up to you in the coming weeks, but be patient, b/c on top of everything else… we are moving into our new home next week! (And I am SOOO excited to show off the kiddos new rooms!)

Anyways, we just got back from Vegas last week – it was our annual ABC Kids Expo show! They moved it this year from September to October, and although I loved having the extra break from our crazy summer market schedule – I don’t think the date move was very successful! It was a holiday weekend! Grrrrrr. Regardless, we still had a GREAT market and got to catch up with all our friends – both the designers & our lovely stores!

I took some pics with my iphone. I thought the new iphone was supposed to take better pics? I’m not impressed. But still, here they are… in all their glory!

Set up was a little crazy! We have a 20×20′ booth, and in our crate packing frenzy, somehow we managed to leave HALF our squishy-wood floors back in our storage unit in San Antonio, along with the airpump for our air mattresses! You should have seen Ellyse’s face trying to blow that thing up herself! I had a slight heart-attack with the missing necessities, but thank God for overnight shipping – UPS delivered all our missing goodies the next day, and our booth rocked!

We couldn’t have been happier with the response from our stores on the new Boutique Collection! And they LOVED the NEW PRICE! $389 retail for a 3 piece crib set, baby! More money to buy some BEAUTIFUL wall art to match! Like these amazing banners from Dish & Spoon… (which we also ordered for our store!)

The banner on the far right is my favorite! I ordered one with “Ashlyn Sophia” on it for my daughters new room! The colors were perfect! And I got to meet up with my sweet friend Sherri Blum who is the ARTIST behind some of the most beautiful canvas pieces!

Are you drooling yet? AND, you can check out all of her work HERE, or check out her design firm Jack & Jill Interiors!

More pics to come, so keep checking back!

Sorry I’ve been MIA. We spent last week at the New York Gift Market (NYIGF) and I just got back to the office! Market was a huge success, one of our best NY markets yet!

Ugh, no matter how hard I try, it STILL takes two days to make up for every one day I miss. But I’m back, and we don’t leave for our next market until October – that one is my favorite, vegas… baby. But next week I’ll be back to my daily blogging – I cross my blogger-heart.

I found so many cool new products in New York, here’s a few I think my kiddos would go ga-ga over!

For the creative-kiddos, they can decorate their own playhouse, castle, or pirate ship with these super cool cardboard clubhouses! If you want or NEED one for yourself! Give Nursery Couture a shout – they’d love to order one for you! 210-494-2627

I’m absolutely ordering this for my son’s new room. I’ve been daydreaming about him quietly reading books in it, softly swinging side to side… course, the reality is that it will probably result in a few holes in my wall from him pushing off to see how high he can swing!

And if my daughter gets too jealous… well, they make one for her too!

Now, if I could just find the room in the house to put them….

I really should try to do our entire booth set up in one day more often! Today was so much fun! This morning I got to sleep in, the clock actually said EIGHT am on it when I woke up, that never happens! We got dressed, grabbed a $8.98 latte and orange juice (since when did coffee and juice cost almost $10? I’m in the wrong business!), and headed to Building ONE at the Atlanta America’s Mart.

16 floors of furniture, home decor, rugs, floral, bedding… all at prices well below what you can find online (even though there was minimum orders, but I’m not raining on my parade just yet). It was better than red wine. Better than guacamole & queso. Better than HBO Sunday nights when Sex and the City was no re-runs. It was the shopper’s heaven. I could almost hear the heaven gates open as I walked through the door. Ahhhhhh…… (that’s the angels singing).

Okay, so I’m building a house right now. My dream house. The house that I’ve promised my husband that I’ll live in for more than 3 years. (That’s about how often we’ve moved over the last 8 years.) The entire house is a hacienda-style, minus the saltillo tiles, plus the dark hard wood floors, white walls, and old world feel.

I’m obessing over lines like Aidan Gray, and  Vagabond Vintage. The white washed reclaimed wood. The old world feel, in NEW-unused products. Cracked furniture, grey finishes… LINEN. I really thought I had found a diamond in the rough. A style yet to be discovered. Up until Restoration Hardware took the best selling products from companies like the ones I mentioned above, and either knocked them off, or had them produced under their label (YES, large brands do that sometimes.) And today – my suspicions were confirmed. To my surprise, there was an entire FLOOR of this old-new look. I’d like to say it was upsetting, but honestly, it was AMAZING! I found old suitcases (for $18-$45), white linen upholstered furniture with white wash wood trim (for less than $300), old wine bottles in really cool rusty iron barrels, and lighting fixtures that held wine bottles! Turns out I’m not so original in my new style afterall. Oh well, i guess good taste is contagious.

Speaking of those wine bottles… I know this iphone picture doesn’t do it justice, but the rep for the line (The French Market Collection) had the best idea! She said she had one of these in her home, and every time they finished a bottle for a special occasion – they had the guests (for a wedding, graduation, birthday, etc) sign the bottle, and she hung it on the chandelier. It literally became a permanent scrapbook that served as decor and memories. How awesome is that? Too bad I’d fill it up in 2 weeks. But it’s still a great idea! Lol.

Our final stop of the day was at Golden Stella. The cheap-jewelry haven. There’s no better way to describe this place than rows and rows of beaded craziness. They have every trend setting, color coded, bracelet, necklace, earring, or ring you could ever want. And I swear everything is under $10. Check out my little collection below. (I see a pattern in my buying – turquoise and orange, my wallet in the bottom right corner even matches, hmmm, be a little more daring next time Katy…)

Tomorrow morning is the first day the temps open at market! We have to be there at 9am, ready to sell sell sell! Tomorrow I promise to whip out the iflip and take some video! For those of you who haven’t been to market before, it’s pretty exciting!

Oh! And I found some great new products for the store today. They aren’t on the website yet, but should be arriving at the store in the next few weeks and we will get them online ASAP! We ordered the coolest drying rack, feeding spoons, and bath toys from Boon, and for you super-parents, the coolest little snack organizer from Packin Smart. Plus lots of new Longhorn, Aggie, Baylor Bear, and Texas Tech baby goodies!