Checking out NY NOW

This past weekend, Nicole (of Nicole's Threads) and I headed to the big city to check out the Mothership of all wholesale trade shows: NY NOW. The first step of deciding whether you want to exhibit at a show or not is by doing a walk through to scope it out. We got to be buyers for Nicole's mom who has a lovely shop (she carries my work!) in Dallas, PA called Earth and Wears (thanks Lyn!). Still we felt totally out of our element and like we didn't belong there. Talk about being a tiny minnow in a vast sea. Everything about this seemed overwhelming. It didn't help that we flew there on the 6am flight and had to get up at 4am, setting the tone for the trip as a bit of weary one. 

Blurry eyed and heading to the airtrain at 7:30 am

It was cold and dreary but exciting to be in the city.

Our room at Yotel was like living in an Ipad. Very funky and futuristic. 

Ready to hit the show!

This awesome erector set thing is the Yobot and it will store your stuff for you at Yotel. So cool.

We enjoyed this little cafe on the way...

This is one corner of one floor of the show. The aisles go on forever and each floor of the Javits center is GIANT. Sensory overload to max.

Found my friend Tabbatha (Tabbatha Henry Designs) in the Handmade section. So cool to see her all set up there and killin' it.

Also finally got to meet and hang with Christine of Chocolate and Steel who was also killin' it. So great to spend time with her later and pick her brain. Had fun meeting up with friends Rachel and Nicolette from Sweet Lady Jane and Trinket for drinks and getting more advice from the buyer's perspective. Now Sweet lady Jane is going to be carrying Christine's work - yay for networking! 

Our plane got cancelled due to weather so we had an extra night and got to spend time chatting with friends and folks at the bar. We met Fran and Jim from Rich Frog in Winooski - small world!

Now just trying to process it all and then the decision of whether to apply to the show...

Our flight was rescheduled for an entire day later and we needed to get back so we rented a car and headed home but we did make one small (big) stop at IKEA to buy desks! I finally bought the standing/sitting desk I've been looking at and I can't wait to put it together.  Check it out:

Gonna be doing some rearranging to replace my desk and make it fit in my studio... so much to do and so much to think about!