Baby, was it cold outside!  And inside for that matter!  The floor of the AmericasMart that housed the License & Design Section (Bldg 2, floor 3) never did get warm.  Who knew it would be below freezing the entire show! Brrr!

After a 7 hour drive, Captain Hubby & I arrived in Atlanta around 2:30 pm on Wednesday.  We were able to set up my booth ~ (which he designed the displays for and everyone wanted to buy :-) ~ in record time leaving me all day Thursday to hit the showrooms, visit clients, see new product on the shelves and invite a few new contacts down to the L&D show.

Forgive me for the lack of photos, but my camera just didn’t want to operate properly.  Hmmm..an iPhone has a camera…maybe I need one of those…  Anyhoo, first stop was to see ThemeNaps, a recent addition to my licensing partners, where they were debuting several new designs of mine.  I heard these were selling like crazy…yay!

I was excited to see a large array of my designs on the shelves at Thirstystone, both on coasters and placemats….   Loads and loads of new flags, as well as some door mats, mailbox covers and address markers in the Evergreen Showroom….  Adorable new birthday card in Leanin’ Tree’s “Growing Expressions” line ~ there are seeds in the paper and if you plant it, it will grow wildflowers!  How fun! … A variety of new stationery products by M. Middleton, a division of Design Design Inc. ~ they couldn’t have made them cuter - gold foil, little jewels ~ I just can’t wait to get samples!… Four new rugs with Homefires…Flags, windsocks & thermometers with Toland…  You never get tired of seeing your hard work on display, ready to sell, sell, sell!  While at the show, I also received word that two lines of fabric I design for a private label has been ordered by Joann Fabrics - hooray!

Here I am, ready for the Thursday evening L&D Meet & Mingle to start.  I was pleasantly surprised at the good turnout.

Actually, the whole show was great.  I felt like I was jumping of a cliff, casting my fate to the wind, spinning the wheel of chance..whatever you want to call it, when I signed up for this show.  I am on board to do it again next year and feel it was worth it.  Of course, the proof will come down the road…  But I felt I had a good mix of companies I already do business with (always nice to have face time & discuss new things), companies I had tried (and failed) to get meetings with in the past who had now found me, and new companies that I’d never heard of.

Here’s my handsome Captain Hubby holding down the fort… (actually, I think he was checking on his boat)… I can’t even tell you how amazingly helpful he was from the minute I signed up for this show and all the way throughout.  What a guy :-)

Here’s me & Carol Eldridge goofing off between our booths…

My art buddy Martha Collins stopped by.  And it was great to see loads of other art buddies pop by to say hello as well.

Treating ourselves to dinner at the Ritz after a hard day… (L-R: Captain Hubby, me, Ellen Crimi-Trent, Captain Eldridge, Carol Eldridge)…

On Sunday afternoon, this crazy marching band came through the exhibit hall and were going all over all the buildings.  There had to have been at least 30-35 of these folks, all dressed crazy, playing instruments, dancing.  They were called “The Marching Abomination” and were hired by the Mart for entertainment.  It was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen.  Wish I’d thought to shoot some video because their routine was funny, but I was laughing too hard…and snapping pics with a broken camera…. One even ran through my booth.

OK, so I need to get on with my show follow up, of which I am wading through hip-deep!

And a BIG thank you to everyone ~ fellow artists & clients alike ~ who told me they enjoyed my blog.  I was seriously considering giving it up this year, but I am re-inspired to keep it going!

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