All photos in this post by Coco of COCOCOZY

New COCOCOZY Naturals linen pillow covers were a big seller at the New York International Gift Fair. (above)

I just woke up this morning.  Late.  Slept in.  Haven’t slept in in weeks.  Fair season is officially over and the COCOCOZY booth is packed away until the summer.

I had so much fun at the New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF)…a great time meeting so many nice people, introducing new COCOCOZY textiles to buyers, hanging out with fab Associate Operations Manager KS (who loves the color pink) in the booth, chatting with our neighbors and I got about a half hour to walk around the fair and see what else is new for Spring.

The fair closed at noon yesterday and we were done packing up the booth by 4p.  It took us about a day and half to set everything up and just 4 hours to break everything down.  It is a little sad when they start rolling up the carpet at the fair and then when the mass tear down starts.  The good news is that we all know that in a few months we’ll be doing it all again.

So with that…some final images from the winter New York International Gift Fair!

Our new colorways and styles  in the COCOCOZY luxury linen collection have been a huge hit…sea foam green, sea green and charcoal grey seem to be in for spring! (above)

Pantone Christmas ornaments and vinyl folding chairs from Seletti! (above and below)

More color in the form of Harvey & Strait cocktail napkins for spring! Harvey & Strait were are our across the way neighbors at the fair and it was a pleasure spending the week with them! (above and below)

Pom Pom at Home’s oversized cable knit pillows were oh so popular at the show! As chance would have it, my friends Hilde and her son Sam Leiaghat who are from Los Angeles, were COCOCOZY next door neighbors at the show.  We spent a nice amount of time enjoying their company! (above)

One last shot of the booth on the last day of the New York International Gift Fair…and then….

The carpet is rolled up….

Everything in the booth comes down….

And the lights go off…and the show comes to a close…until next time…

I get a little emotional some times…when I think of how lucky I have been.  Don’t get me wrong…we are still building COCOCOZY…and while the we’ve increased our sales significantly during this fair season (woohoo) with lots of new customers and stores coming on board (yay), the company has a long long way to go before we’re “there”.  I feel very lucky still to even have the opportunity to try to build something and to hopefully help a few people and inspire them along the way try to build their dreams.

I cried a few times at dinners out with my good friends during this trip.  Best of friend AM thinks I may just have been tired…because I’ve been working so hard (late nights, early mornings, 2 full time jobs for almost a year and half)…but I think I was more crying thankful tears than tired ones. Both times I teared up I was with best of friend AM who has been a constant rock through this, other best of friend FF who flew in all the way from New Orleans with friend FM, AM’s sweet hubby JE and KS.  While we were all sitting out to dinner as everyone was chatting, I started to think about the wonderful people in my life including my mom and my sis DS (who came all the way to NYC to hang out with me before the show), my extended family (AJ, SS, RM, MP, JP, LB, MA, AY, ES, LS, JS (family friend who is like family) and so many more), and  friends like NS, BN, JD, AZ, RK, CJ, JT, JLF, A.Ro, AT, JL, RRM, AG and fab Associate Operations Manager KS (who loves the color pink) and all of the lovely supportive readers who came by during the week at the gift fair to cheer us on.  I was a little tired of talking about all that we’ve done this last year to start up this business (not tired of talking to people but I felt like talking so much about COCOCOZY was boring to others and I was leading my own “brag fest”), but each time someone said they were inspired by the COCOCOZY story…it energized me.  So I cried at dinner…not sad tears…but happy ones…

There’s a long road to travel before my business gets to where I want it to be…lots of hard work ahead…I will I’m sure cry “tired tears”, “scared tears”, “disappointment tears”, “sad tears” at some point during this journey of building a business (and hopefully I’ll have the strength of character to wipe those kinds of tears away and keep plugging along)…but this week during the NYIGF winter show, the tears shed were happy and thankful tears.

Happy Friday!

xo
Coco

P.S. Let’s see…want to make sure to mention all of the wonderful people I met.  Connecticut based interior designer Liz Joy from Shorely Chic blog stopped by…we had a nice long chat during a slow period in the booth. Liz is awesome…she is like me…leading a double life of sorts…Liz has a day job and then blogs and does interior design on the side. I hope my babbling was helpful to her. While Liz was there at the booth, New York designer Mimi McAndrew stopped in as well…Mimi was quite lovely too. Designer Keita Turner also stopped by to say hi earlier in the week. Home accessories designer Dabney Lee stopped by with her whole team to say hi.

P.P.S. Oh and how could I forget, interior designer Maria Koundourou of MK Square Studio, who interned for me way back when and who is now an interior designer came by too – what a delight to meet Maria in person after having worked with her virtually so long ago…I was so so so so happy to have some time to talk with her…she was and is delightful.  I may be emailing her today for some help on a project in fact!

P.P.P.S. Good friend CJ stopped by the booth yesterday.  She was so sweet, she helped us start the break down of the booth.  We later went to drinks with her and her talented NYC interior designer sister Jennifer Jones who runs of J Logan Interiors.  KS and I were so hungry after working all afternoon to break down the booth that we gobbled down appetizers at a rate that I think was surprising to both Jennifer and CJ!  Ooops!

P.P.P.P.S.  Also, a thank you to KH and DG who have been so entirely supportive…they work with the gift fair and they have been such a great and fabulous help.

P.P.P.P.P.S.  A stand out to me at the fair were the pillows from Luru Home…started by two sisters.  Their blue and white imported pillows are gorgeous.  They stopped by the booth to say thanks at the beginning of the show because they said I chatted with them at the last show and gave them some advice about showing their collection.  I don’t remember speaking with them back then but was so happy to know that something I said may have been helpful.  Then I went down the aisle and saw their collection…just wonderful. Never got around to taking pictures of their display but I’ll do a post on them in the future!

P.P.P.P.P.P.S.  Happy happy Friday again!

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S.  Did I mention how best of friend AM got me to stop my welling tears at the dinner table?  She threatened that we (she, her hubby and I) would walk the 5 blocks from the restaurant to her house instead of taking a cab.  I am a Los Angelenos through and through…why walk when you can drive?  Plus it was FREEZING outside (reminder that anything below 70 degrees Farenheit for me is FREEZING).  So I immediately stopped the sappy emotional blubbering since I knew I did NOT want to walk home.  We ended up walking home.  I was duped!  LOL!

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Oooohhhh just saw that our Special Edition Valentines Day Candle is featured on Casa Sugar today! Yippee!

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S.  I have officially overdone it with P.S.s today.  I know.  Will get it under control for the next post.  I wonder if I can write a post without a single P.S.?  I’ll try tomorrow.  I just have so much stuff to chit chat about and aside thought bubbles going at all times, the P.S. has been a great platform for all of my many random thoughts.  Thank goodness I am no longer in school…if I had any kind of writing professor they would surely give me bad marks for this misuse and abuse of the P.S.  P.S. Am sorry for misusing the P.S.  🙂

All photos in this post by Coco of COCOCOZY