I’m finally going to do it. I am ordering Susan Susanka’s Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live. I will probably order all the other Not So Big books, too. I have to. I feel like every newspaper Home & Garden section and every shelter magazine I have picked up for months has praised the Not So Big series. Of course I am exaggerating, but the reviews have been great. Now I want to read them all for myself. It’s not that I have resisted buying these books for Continue reading...

I have just arrived in Frankfurt, Germany for the Heimtextil trade fair. This once-per-year event is the largest trade fair for home textiles. I haven’t missed it since I first started attending in the middle 1990’s. The trip from Minneapolis to Frankfurt requires a stop in Detroit. From Detroit to Frankfurt is something between a seven and eight hour flight, depending on the tailwinds. I usually read magazines and newspapers between MSP and DET, then I bring out the books for the Continue reading...

Like many in my generation, I feel as though I can’t escape the topic of retirement. I am confronted with articles about it in everything I pick up—and I pick up a wide range of publications. I think about it every time I sign checks going to the various retirement plans of those at Marketing Directions who have opted to participate. My father stresses that we must plan for it, my husband and I worry that we haven’t saved enough for it (did I mention that we need to pay for two college Continue reading...

I love to read but I rarely have enough time to read as much as I would like. When I have long flights, I relish the uninterrupted time with my newspapers, my perpetual stack of magazines and my trade journals. Only after I am finished with them will I allow myself to move on to a novel (I’m anxious to start Amy Tan’s latest, Saving Fish From Drowning). Flying to San Francisco this afternoon I had the pleasure of reading rather than skimming—a real luxury! The November issue of Continue reading...

I have just spent an exciting week in Thailand giving trend seminars in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Getting there begins with a 12 hour flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo, then a flight of about 6 hours to Bangkok. There is always a certain level of excitement on the way there. On the way back it just feels way too long. On the bright side, I have lots of time for reading. After I finished a great fiction, The Secret Life of Bees, I went straight for a non-fiction book I had just bought at Continue reading...

I picked up Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat a couple of weeks ago. It's well written and easy to read. This is a great book that I recommend to everyone who cares about the amazing ways in which the global economy is playing out today and how it will play out in the future. But for as much as I'm enjoying that book I haven't finished it yet. I got sidetracked by a little paperback by Barry Schwartz called The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. This book has shot to the Continue reading...

I have just spent the past few days in Frankfurt, Germany where I have been thin-slicing at the Ambiente trade fair. What is thin-slicing, you might ask? To find our, you must read Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point. I started his new book on the plane to Frankfurt and I just could not put it down. In Blink, Gladwell talks about the adaptive unconscious, where our brains draw fast conclusions through an unconscious, rapid recognition of elements like Continue reading...

I bought a book with an interesting title a few months ago. I haven't had time to crack the cover until now. Now I have lots of time. At the beginning of each year, I travel to Europe three times in about 35 days for a series of trade fairs. And while I take a lot of time to write while I fly (we produce Trend Album™ CD-ROM trend reports from all of them), the 20 hours or so of waiting and flying for each round trip gives me time for so much more. It's enough time to not only write, Continue reading...

A magazine called  Inspired House has become a favorite of mine over the past year, and I highly recommended it. So you might wonder why it took me until December 27 to read this month’s issue. It’s all because of the vast numbers of books, magazines and catalogs that we receive and read at The Trend Curve™. There are so many that even our favorites sometimes have to wait! In the December issue of Inspired House, an eight-page feature called How to Choose a Wood Floor caught my Continue reading...