A success, once again!
Man oh man I got through it all! The 4 shows in 2 weeks, the trip to Atlanta, The Handmade Market- and I am still alive. The trip to Atlanta was fun- though not terribly profitable. I made okay money at the show- but it ad been a pricey one to get into and with gas money, a place to stay, and some (great) eats I pretty much ended up breaking even. Wendy (from WPR jewelry) and I shared the ride, hotel and show booth to save $$, and I had a great time getting to know her better. The 6.5 hour drive both ways certainly didn't feel like 6.5 hours as we were chatting the entire time about anything under the sun. 
The hotel we stayed at was adorable, it was an old little building almost entirely still with original everything. It was located in a great part of town, near Virginia highlands and little five points, and it had probably 20 local restaurants in walking distance, not to mention the boutiques and shops- and that was only down one street!
The first day was pretty much all work and no play. Wendy picked me up at 5.30am and we drove straight down, as we arrived in Atlanta we had to navigate our way around two Peachtree streets before we found THE Peachtree that housed The Biltmore where the show was at. We went in, set up for about an hour and a half and then headed over to the hotel to check in and chill out for a few minutes. We then headed back out to the show to finish setting up, grabbing some Doc Greens on the way over (yum!). When we got back to set up we actually got a chance to admire the building that is The Biltmore. It was really pretty stunning- the room we were in looked like all the chandeliers, crown molding, columns and everything were stunning, there were all these cameo looking faces allover the tops of the walls and the ceilings (we were in "The Georgia Ballroom" look at it, isn't it gorgeous!)). It looked like Wedgwood China up there!
The show ended at 10 pm, and after we finished packing and breaking down at about 11 we rolled into a kinda grungy 24 hour diner near the hotel, I had a good greasy burger Wendy had something from the breakfast menu and after that we collapsed in our beds.
The next morning we got a chance to walk around the neighborhood around the hotel a bit and explore. There were some great little neighborhoods right there that had giant oaks with the most incredible color fall leaves. Some went from green to yellow to orange to red all on the same tree! We found a apparently popular and great Thai restaurant and stuffed ourselves on their delicious foods before heading back out to Raleigh.
The Handmade Market was also incredible! As you can see in my previous post we got some great press in the Independent, and the day of the market- on Saturday we also got a blurb in the N&O. This and all out other hundreds of advertising efforts caused a line to form at the front doors before the market even opened! The fun continued when we noticed from our tallying sheet at the front door that in the first 40 minutes 140 people had already been counted. We had 250 goodie bags courtesy of the Little Black Book too that were GONE within 50 minutes.
Needless to say our hard work advertising the Market had once again paid off and then some. I am still kind of buzzing from the excitement. We have already received a ton of incredibly great reports and feedback from our vendors, which is what counts! I regret not taking a lot of time this market to walk around and meeting all the vendors and checking out their goods. I ran in there a few times, but I was kinda rushed- so I only quickly chatted with a few of the vendors that I already knew, and then ran back out. Note to self- spend a good bit of time in the main vendor room next time!
I still have a few shows left before the holidays but they are all in town and I am not helping organize any of them so those are going to be a breeze. Now I am just plugging away at the spring jewelry collections again. I have finally finished designing the 4 collections, but now I have to time, price, describe and photo them, all in approximately 2 weeks- wish me luck!
The hotel we stayed at was adorable, it was an old little building almost entirely still with original everything. It was located in a great part of town, near Virginia highlands and little five points, and it had probably 20 local restaurants in walking distance, not to mention the boutiques and shops- and that was only down one street!
The first day was pretty much all work and no play. Wendy picked me up at 5.30am and we drove straight down, as we arrived in Atlanta we had to navigate our way around two Peachtree streets before we found THE Peachtree that housed The Biltmore where the show was at. We went in, set up for about an hour and a half and then headed over to the hotel to check in and chill out for a few minutes. We then headed back out to the show to finish setting up, grabbing some Doc Greens on the way over (yum!). When we got back to set up we actually got a chance to admire the building that is The Biltmore. It was really pretty stunning- the room we were in looked like all the chandeliers, crown molding, columns and everything were stunning, there were all these cameo looking faces allover the tops of the walls and the ceilings (we were in "The Georgia Ballroom" look at it, isn't it gorgeous!)). It looked like Wedgwood China up there!
The show ended at 10 pm, and after we finished packing and breaking down at about 11 we rolled into a kinda grungy 24 hour diner near the hotel, I had a good greasy burger Wendy had something from the breakfast menu and after that we collapsed in our beds.
The next morning we got a chance to walk around the neighborhood around the hotel a bit and explore. There were some great little neighborhoods right there that had giant oaks with the most incredible color fall leaves. Some went from green to yellow to orange to red all on the same tree! We found a apparently popular and great Thai restaurant and stuffed ourselves on their delicious foods before heading back out to Raleigh.
The Handmade Market was also incredible! As you can see in my previous post we got some great press in the Independent, and the day of the market- on Saturday we also got a blurb in the N&O. This and all out other hundreds of advertising efforts caused a line to form at the front doors before the market even opened! The fun continued when we noticed from our tallying sheet at the front door that in the first 40 minutes 140 people had already been counted. We had 250 goodie bags courtesy of the Little Black Book too that were GONE within 50 minutes.
Needless to say our hard work advertising the Market had once again paid off and then some. I am still kind of buzzing from the excitement. We have already received a ton of incredibly great reports and feedback from our vendors, which is what counts! I regret not taking a lot of time this market to walk around and meeting all the vendors and checking out their goods. I ran in there a few times, but I was kinda rushed- so I only quickly chatted with a few of the vendors that I already knew, and then ran back out. Note to self- spend a good bit of time in the main vendor room next time!
I still have a few shows left before the holidays but they are all in town and I am not helping organize any of them so those are going to be a breeze. Now I am just plugging away at the spring jewelry collections again. I have finally finished designing the 4 collections, but now I have to time, price, describe and photo them, all in approximately 2 weeks- wish me luck!