Official disclaimer: I wrote this blog pre-snowpocalypse
The dust has started to settle post the Christmas shopping hustle and bustle and our Texas snowstorm. We’ve gotten all the trees stored back upstairs and while we left the winter wonderland scenes in the windows there are just a few touches of love. It continues to be a strange time in this world around us… and I know that is an understatement. We’ve been grateful to have continued to travel to our area of Texas and a recent re-run of our episode from the DayTripper on PBS.
Watch our Day Tripper Episode
I’m not really sure where the month of January went to. Once the schools started back up and parents went back to work the week days here got a little quieter. As many know January is a big buying time for retail stores. We journey over to Dallas about six times a year to do our buying for the different seasons. Mom and I spent about two days buying new gift items from some of our favorite showrooms and making sure to find some new and unique items for our Christmas decor selections.
Let me tell you all of the 80s trends are back!
From banana hair clips, shoulder pads, neon, and puffy sleeves…it is here. I left the shoulder pads and puffy sleeves for some other stores to buy! Christmas is also throwing it back with all of the vintage themed (like your grandmothers) style decor. Very excited to have found some extremely fun and unique paper mache lines called Glitterville. We are going to use some of these items to sell, but also have an extremely fun display.
Dad and I spent the next four days focused on the western market. This was everything from Cinch, Ariat, Wrangler and more! Every day was a full schedule of eight or more meetings with our vendors, booking mostly all of our fall deliveries. Crazy to say, but they schedule fall deliveries to start in August. You have to pay close attention to items to be worn in freezing temps not arriving when it is still 100+. Just your normal everyday trends to report back from the western world of fashion. The main concern is the issue everyone is facing with getting inventory here from overseas, but that’s a whole other conversation.
Market was obviously very different since these masks put me on a whole other personal anxiety level, but we made due. Because the show must go on and we can not quit living our lives or closing down business.
When I was younger I remember my grandparents always saying how fast the days had flown by and they just didn’t know where they went. I never believed them since it felt like the school day would never end. I’m just shy of turning thirty (yikes) and I find myself saying this on the regular now. Even with the world feeling all out of sorts we still get wrapped up in our daily lives just to look back at the time behind us as short memories.
My point is to step back, enjoy the little moments with your loved ones and document what you can with pictures. I send you much love and many good vibes as you near the end of the month!
Happy Trails,
Karoline
