Today I am in Surrey, England at a delightful old mansion-turned-hotel called the Oatlands Park Hotel. Everything here is quaint and very English. At left I am in the lobby, along with editorial correspondent Mary Sausen. We took this picture while having afternoon tea among the lovely Christmas decorations.
This is an in-between day on my European schedule. Early tomorrow morning I will be on my way to Hamburg, Germany to look at more Christmas décor items and trim. I will send another Trend Flash™ update of the top trends at retail to subscribers, just as I did from Paris.
For tonight, I am relaxing in my room. I still want to finish Amy Tan’s Saving Fish from Drowning and get my Christmas list together for the kids (I am really hoping for the March of the Penguins DVD but I know I have to give them more than one option). I hope to find CNN on one station or another so I can get an update on the headlines from home. New subscribers can email Cathy to receive the Trend Flash from Paris if you haven’t seen it already. Current subscribers should add trendcurve.com to their email list so Trend Flash updates (we send them out with topline trends from every market and trade fair we attend) can get to you right away.
I am also reviewing my pictures from Paris tonight. In several of them, I felt compelled to concentrated on the store front rather than products inside the store. That’s because of the elaborate display windows featuring Holiday stories told in vignettes. I felt transported back to my childhood as I watched the animated dogs and cats, rabbits and squirrels act out scenes from Christmas tales. It didn’t matter that I do not know the stories; the windows were still delightful. This window is from Printemps with what I think are dancing squirrels dressed all in Greens.