nss right around the corner

it's officially less than one month until i leave for the annual national stationery show in new york. even more, it's only two weeks until my shipment has to go out with everything i will need! it's always such a rush to get everything done and out the door in time.

this will be my fourth time at the show. you'd think by now, i'd have everything planned out and ready to go. every year i tell myself that i'm going to re-use everything from the year before to make my life easier. then, somehow, plans change and i end up doing things way different than i planned. with each year, i learn something new.

this year i'm trying to maximize our set-up time as much as possible. it will probably still take an entire day to set my booth up, but our time and efforts will be used in much smarter ways than before. i probably have close to double the products i had last year which means more time setting them up. so i've tried to find ways to cut the time out of other places.

i'm also trying to save some money this year. instead of getting my foam core walls color matched to a specific pms color, i'm opting for white and bringing in color other ways. hopefully saving somewhere around $400. not a bad savings! i'm also opting to bring my own lights this year. instead of spending something ridiculous like $400 for them to supply and hang crappy lights, (like i've done in the past) i went to home depot and purchased my own for under $30....and i can re-use them every year! so just between those two things, that's a super savings of almost $800!

hopefully with some cooperation from the little dude, and a little help from the big dude, i'll be able to wrap up most of the packing for the show this weekend. there's always last minute stuff to contend with, but if i can get the majority done, i'll be feeling a lot more comfortable. wish me luck!