Atlanta Market + DEMDACO

We've been sort of taking a little break after our visit to the Atlanta Gift and Home Market.  We've spent a lot of time thinking, dreaming and scheming too! Reflecting on what God has done, where we've been, and where we'd like to go in the future.  Good conversations about the Things With Wings "brand" and our mission to reach as many people as we can with encouraging messages that celebrate family in all its messy glory/reality.  It's been a really, really good period of thanksgiving and perspective!

But now we're realizing we never really posted here on the blog about our trip!   If you follow us on Facebook, (we hope you do!) then you're probably already up to speed.  But it's always good to put everything in one place though too, because who knows, maybe you missed some of it!

Today we'll show you the DEMDACO showroom.   Many of the new January products for "This Thing Called Family" are kitchen - related.  Cute, colorful and still containing encouraging messages, but also serving a purpose.  Double duty! 

So the DEMDACO design team built a 360 degree pillar "kitchen" right in the middle of the showroom!

Look at those scallops at the top! Do they know us, or what?!

    

We finally got to meet Corey, the leader of the Demdaco design team, and thank him for all of his hard work and creative vision.  He told us that he went to every Target in the Minneapolis area to clear out each store's stock of colored rolling pins when he discovered them in the dollar section!

Us with Corey

One of the many cool things that Corey and his team did was to take some of our new wall art and turn them into cupboard doors for the display.  

New kitchen art: "My Kitchen [where all the good stuff happens.]"

Also new, there are a number of small chunky block versions of our mom rules!  Some of them are brand new designs/messages!

There's a new magnetic menu board with a variety of choices like "Fend for yourself" and Mom's night off."

that's a cutting board in the lower left corner!

This house design reads, "We are an amazing, unique, one-of-a-kind, loyal, tight-knit, hug it out, kind of family." You can now find it on a kitchen floor mat and on a set of 4 clear vinyl wipeable placemats.  There is another equally cute set of placemats that has a meal time prayer on it, but we somehow missed getting a photo of it!

More useful items in the new kitchen collection:

melamine tray, oven mitt, pot holder

silverware caddy and trivet

Laura's husband got to join us this year for the first time!  Here he is modeling our new apron and we'll just pretend like he's giving it a thumbs up!

Other new wall art, (upper left + lower right) mini mom rule block and a small house cutting board:

The alphabet program has it's own cute displayer that we love!  The pieces in this collection can be personalized to create your own message.  There are frames, individual letters and key words to help you create a unique family welcome wall.

Our christmas collection had its own featured section:

And a whole other section with lots of tried and true favorites!

We feel blessed beyond measure to be doing this job and to have this kind of presence in the DEMDACO showroom.  There are so many incredible lines at DEMDACO and the design team does a wonderful job of giving them each their own "spotlights" and making them all shine.  Then there are bazillions of other companies out there, with all of their collections.  How anyone ever finds or picks ours is incredibly humbling.

If you are a retailer interested in ordering "This Thing Called Family" you can visit Demdaco's Retailer website to find your local rep or get 2014 showroom info.

If you are a customer wanting to find some of these new items, you should start to see them showing up in gift, home decor and specialty stores very soon!  You can use the store locator to find retailers in your area who carry TTCF.  Also, we never underestimate the power of your "word of mouth!"  YOU are what has made this line a success, and we are so grateful for you!  Tell your favorite gift shops about us and the new kitchen collection or share this post with them!