To market, to market, to buy a fat pig...or moss spheres.

This morning at 6:15am I pulled out of the driveway. I left one heat box for another...Atlanta July Market...again!

I always fly into Charlotte and make the drive with Linda. It does seem just a little silly to have an overlay in Atlanta on the way to Charlotte...to be picked up from the airport, and drive to Atlanta...(is there something wrong with this picture?!) On the up side, there is no one more entertaining than Linda, and the ride down is spent catching up, planning vendors to see and generally making good use of our time together.

For you return readers, you can always count on my good and bad picks at market for the next few days! I'll keep you posted, so check in each night. For you new readers, the Atlanta Market is full of Southern charm, food, and three professional buildings to the retail trade, each 20 stories high and about 50 showrooms per floor! (I so wanted to bring my pedometer, but forgot it!) We are on our feet about 12 hours a day...sometimes, more. (Never mind, Linda had knee surgery a few weeks ago...you'll see how it has impacted her shoe wardrobe!).

We checked in to our room, newly redecorated. I have often dreamed of designing a posh hotel chain, so of course I have my critique of our new accommodations.

I will say, that I was thrilled to see that our room was punctuated by colorful orange accents, such a compliment to my favorite rolling cart!

...the newly designed room did not take into accommodation the need for two shoe mavens..

...our tiniest of tiny closet (more like a single wardrobe!)

...the geometric urban patterned carpet, cool.






















One (actually, the only!) piece of art in the room...bright and fun composition...

Sheer draperies...not so good. Actually, bad. Bad, bad, bad, very bad. SO BAD! (Not one for the "remember" file).

Of course, no room would be complete without a large flat screen for early morning and late night news casts.On occasion, we have been know to rent a movie. (How I wish we could view it from the bathtub during a foot soak!)

...the bleak evidence of Linda's foot surgery! She's doomed for flats all week. Hmmm. Maybe this could a new trend for us!











Lastly, every year we travel to this market during Linda's birthday! (She's so good to keep coming). I always come armed with her gift and we celebrate by having our one nice meal of the week. I'm thankful it comes early in the week of long days, as I will admit that by mid to late week, we just want to sit quietly with room service.

And so, another market week begins. Stay tuned for the reports!

Welcome all and come back soon!

Linda has departed.

Entertainment over...

Hard working friend, gone.

Sad,sad,sad, so sad.Very sad.SAD.

I'm am happy to report, however, that we had a very successful Grand Opening. Four days of entertaining our clients, old and new. Four days of replenishing inventory after busy days. Four days of making our refreshing drink (compliments of my daughter, Jessie's recipe), and four days of nightly baking.

As promised, here is the recipe for Jessie's refreshing and super easy drink! (The glass samovar helps make it glamorous, and shortly, you can purchase your own from Black-eyed Susan).

One two litre bottle of Sprite Zero

One packet (pitcher size) crystal light lemonade

One sliced cucumber (I think it's prettiest sliced on the diagonal)

Plenty of ice!

We had many great responses and good reactions to our new and larger space. More room for jewelry! More room for vintage furniture finds! More room for accents, small and large. More room for art and mirrors! More room for my design studio and all of my favorite resources!

I'll have to say that I'm looking forward to having a wee bit more calm life. The old space is completely empty, the new space completely redesigned and merchandised (that is, for this moment!). After all, more traffic means more sales and more sales means more work...you get the picture. The Princeton Designer House is progressing (so far, without any appearances from me, but I hope to resolve that issue this week), and it does, indeed, seem like life could take on a bit slower pace.

I hope you'll take time to come by the new retail space and see it for yourself. We're settling in and beginning to feel quite at home...even have visions of turning some additional space into something fun. Christmas has begun to come in the back door (yes, truly) and it feels like summer is upon us. Thanks for all the support and for the many personal visits and wishes for success.

This image give you some idea of the end of the day...grand opening completed! Change is always a constant at Black-eyed Susan. If you come often, you'll see new inspirations and changes all around. Come see the magic.

Meet Eddie!

I'm so happy to say that we made some major progress today! Of course, that was after Sneelock and I worked until 11:30 the night before installing the brackets and rods for the fabric books and furniture fabrics.

I made a decision to keep my silk library. Ah, the wonder of silk! There is a wonderful range of silks in solid taffeta's, satin stripes, embellished embroidered silks, printed wonders...the list goes on and on! For those of you who enjoy textiles, they are quite a joy. Take a look at the pile of books I brought over from the previous design studio:

While working on organizing and sorting by vendor and size, one of my cutest clients came in. Enter Eddie and daughter, Wendy. Eddie has been a darling repeat customer of mine for as long as I can recall. She was admiring a table that I had fashioned out of a tall table base and a large floor mirror! I agreed with her that I liked the look. Our conversation went something like this, and from that moment,I knew that I would need to share this one.

Eddie: "That table is great!"

Susan: "It is, isn't it! It's cute, but it's not very functional."

Eddie: "...just like us!"

That pretty much says how I am functioning these days! I guess by my tired appearance, it was pretty apparent. Eddie then indulged me with a self portrait for this purpose.

So, meet my cute friend, Eddie, with the greatest sense of humor! She lit up my day.

I had to tell Eddie that several years ago, my own darling Mother said, "I'm too old to be pretty , but I can still be cute!" We both decided that we would also settle for cute! And now, I'll look forward to the next time this cute lady comes to visit. Thanks, Eddie!