Dayb 4: Final Day at the Gift Market

At 4:00 a.m. I woke up thinking that I had come down with a cold.  Over the 21 years we have come to Dallas for the Gift Market, we have had some close calls with health issues.  Colds were standard, as well as the flu and the major emergency at the Las Colinas Medical Center with a bleeding ulcer.  Luckily it was just a slight moment of panic and I felt fine all day long.
It was raining when we left for the Market...no fun walking several blocks from the parking lot.  Once we are inside the buildings we have no idea what so ever if there is rain or sunshine.  There is no need to go outside and the vendors here have every reason to keep the buyers inside.
We met our staff around 9:15 a.m. and they left with a list of showrooms to visit.  Thank goodness for Lisa, Doris, Jesse and Sarah.  That makes 4 more experienced pair of eyes and more time to check out the Market, finding lines and ideas Jeff and I would never be able to find time to work on. 
They found a line of watches we will consider.  They double checked me, reminding me of items I had not put on our orders.  It was a matter of re-tracing our steps and making sure those items got on our orders.
So what are we considering?  Possibility of bangles with sorority charms, other licensed charms like The Wizard of Oz, Betty Boop and tons more.  The national rep for this line was once our national sales manager for Kameleon...so it indulged in some gossip and shared experiences to catch up with old friends.
Lisa's size 6 foot helped us to get a handle on the new Lindsay Phillips shoes...we picked 3 styles which we are going to order for August.  Around the corner from LP was the cutest purse and tote line featuring great appliques which we snapped up for our store.
How about Frozen?  In about 2 weeks we will have charm bracelets with the Frozen characters...no doubt those bracelets will "fly out the door".
We ordered some great ceramic pieces for Christmas..remember the name Mud Pie??And our sales rep clued us in that all the major stores will be showing monogrammed mugs, etc this fall.  What we did was order a 72 piece collection of gorgeous mugs with initials.  Put that on your list.
We met with the people from Sweet Shop and got the low down on what is coming out from the chocolate company which has been our standard for 21 years.  There is none better.  Sweet Shop has the license for Price's Chocolate recipes which is why we have been able to continue carrying Annaclairs all these years.
We packed in quite a few other stops during the day, left the Market to eat dinner at the new Mediterrean restaurant we love.  Staff went off to he airport and after a slight delay, took off for Tulsa.
The make over at Sweet Tooth began this weekend...new paint color which should be finished next weekend.  We are really excited about that.  Thank you Steve W., our painter.
Come check out Sweet Tooth...you'll be a very important part of the story we are re-writing.