Bedford Cottage

As we wind 2010 down to a close and gear up for the show season beginning in January, I want to wish everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year!! I would also like to thank everyone who spent time with us either on Facebook, our website, or during the year at the various shows around the country. It has been an amazing year and we look forward to providing you great new product in 2011!

I am on my way to China to finish some product development for January introductions. We have some great new ideas for designs as well as new products. Hopefully we can get them developed and implemented in time. I will try and blog along the way.
I have been to China a number of times but have never gone sightseeing. Time allowing, I hope to get to Beijing and visit the Great Wall. Talk to when on the other side of the world.

Over the last few months, we have been busy designing new yarns, products and new colors in existing throws. I am very pleased with how the new developments have been shaping up. The Brights that I mentioned in my last Blog Post on Color came out great. If you were able to visit us at any of the recent shows you may have seen some of these fresh and vibrant colors. Versions of Wine, Eggplant, Teal and a new Kelly Green were added to Camelot, Canyon and Campbell.

The majority of the yarns used in the Kennebunk Home throws, including Camelot, Canyon and Campbell, are made right at our mill in New Hampshire. Because our yarns are spun, we begin with colored fiber. Although I work with a limited palette of fiber colors, the combinations of colors are endless. When we develop new colors or get color requests from our customers and reps, it’s a bit like cooking to blend together just the perfect color combination. Our new Wine is a mix of several fiber colors including Bright Pink, Red and Wine. For the perfect shade of Eggplant, we mixed our Bright Purple fiber with Wine and just a hint of Red. Often I go back to our yarn archive to get a starting point for these color trials. Sometimes it’s hard to anticipate what 40% of one color mixed with 60% of another will look like. By looking back at what has or hasn’t worked with previous trials, I can usually save time and sample costs. It’s always exciting to receive the cones of new colors and imagine them woven together.

With the new Brights now at the shows, we are already well on the way finalizing further new developments and softer Spring colors for the January 2011 catalog. Design is a never ending process!

It certainly has been a busy busy month for us here at Bedford Cottage. It started with the Atlanta show and what a show it was! Add in my adventures with Buddy, the cat, and it made for quite an interesting week.
Next came the Chicago gift show. We have not participated at the Chicago show in close to 5 years and really did not know what to expect. Thanks to Straaton and his group for setting the booth up and making the show better than we ever imagined. We definitely will be back and want to thank Chicago for making it a success.
This past weekend we had our company picnic. Pictures will be forthcoming but when you mix kids, a pool, badminton, and great weather, a great time by all is inevitable. It became even more fun when Warren and I defeated Leon and my son at badminton. I am very lucky to have such super employees and it is great to see the interaction of all the kids and families.
August is upon us and we have the Vegas and NY gift shows coming up.

Can’t wait!

The show is nearly finished and although traffic is down, we are having a good show. But I want to take a moment to share with you my experiences with Buddy, the cat.
My dear friend who lives in Atlanta, has offered his house for me to stay at while he is on vacation with his family. The only small catch was I needed to feed his cat and let it out after he eats. He told me Buddy is an outdoor cat and just needs to feed at night and in the morning. No problem I thought and the least I could do for staying at his house. How hard could it be?
Well, let me tell you that Buddy and I are not exactly on the same page. Getting Buddy to come in is the easy part. Getting Buddy to go outside when I am ready to go to work is the challenge. Every morning Buddy and I do this dance of me trying to get him outside when he seems quote content to watch me try. It is quite comical trying to get a cat to do something it may not want to do at that moment.
I have two dogs and know how to speak dog. It is clear I don’t know how to speak cat because it is clearly another language. The other morning, as I come out of the shower, I see Buddy has made a bed out of my luggage bag and clothes. Did I mention I am allergic to cats?
So this has been quite an adventure with Buddy the cat. I hope before I leave, he and I will be friends. Thanks for letting me share your house Buddy.

Let me just say, thank goodness I was able to get the printer working because we needed it! We were busy from the opening bell until the very endt. At one point I felt like we needed to have customers take a number.
The customers reactions to the new product was wonderful but they still love our tried and true styles. I love getting a chance to catch-up with all of our customers and hear about the store, family, etc. It is how I stay connected with them thru our products.
In any event, thank you all for making the first day better than I ever imagined. Let’s hope the next few days are as exciting as the first.

We are live at the Atlanta gift show, waiting for the gates to open. There is something to be said about the anticipation of the first day of the show.
First, the set up of the show has its moments and this show set up was no exception. I had printer issues but got that resolved late last night and the booth looks great.
You always hope the customers show up. That is the ultimate question. Then you hope they like the new products. I’ll keep you posted as we are about to begin.

The High Point Furniture is almost over and it was great catching up with customers I haven’t seen since the last High Point Market! It is always nice to see familiar faces again, especially happier faces. I couldn’t be happier to report that business seems to be picking up for our customers.
I love it when our customers walk into our booth and say, “We are out of goods! Show me what’s new and I need them right away”. Traditions of Hilton Head showed up needing goods for sure. Virginia, one of the owners, and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, came to a wonderful conclusion. I’m paraphrasing here, but she thought throws were seasonal only. She has seen the light, and throws can be sold year round. We are discussing some creative ways to better display the product in their store. So anyone playing golf or enjoying the beaches in Hilton Head, please stop by Traditions of Hilton Head. They have a beautiful store.
I also love when our customers sell other customers while in the booth. That is exactly what happened when Sandi with Klopfenstien Furniture, a La-Z-Boy store located in Ft Wayne, Indiana showed up. She loves our throws and we love her. I should have handed her a scanner because her enthusiasm for our products was infectious. Thank you Sandi for your business and your support.
And oh yeah, I met Candice Olson. She was having a signing event for AF Lighting in our showroom and setup shop right in front of our area. I like to think all these people came to see our throws but they really wanted to see Candice. She was great with everyone that stood in line to shake her hand and was genuinely happy to meet and greet all her satisfied fans.
Anyway, thanks again for all your support and next stop is Dallas in June. In the meantime, we will be working hard to develop great new products for the next time we meet.

I am headed to High Point, NC later this week for the Furniture Show. Bedford Cottage is located in the IHFC Building, D-320. This is a massive furniture show that happens twice a year. The show affords me a great opportunity to see our furniture store customers from across the country. I haven’t seen many of them since the last High point show in September. The reps that are going tell me they will be busy with appointments and hope for a great show. We will be ready as well with many new introductions as well as our new scanning system! I have looked at scanning our orders at these shows for a number of years now but felt the timing wasn’t quite right. However, Bedford Cottage has made the plunge. No more hand writing, no more waiting for me to fill out your customer information. This scanning system will allow us to be more efficient, from order taking, to eliminating data entry mistakes do to my wonderful handwriting. Connie in customer service is probably the happiest about that. Now all we need is our customers to show up and order! I’ll be there ready to assist with scanner in hand!

The Kennebunk throws are known for their luscious textures and colors.  Every season, in addition to new styles, we add new colors where needed.  The color additions take into account many factors including color trends and our sales reps’ and customers’ requests. Keeping up on color trends is, of course, an important part of my job. We subscribe to a color trend service for a portion of our information, but this is only a beginning.  How does the information relate to our product?  How does it fit with what we already have in our line?  Do we agree with it? 

Often, the various hats that I wear seem to compliment one another.  During travels to Manhattan for the concept end of my business, Vintage and Antique Textiles, I am constantly exposed to color, style and trends.  It’s amazing how it all interconnects and its great when I can bring it home to the throw line at Bedford Cottage/Kennebunk home.  When I am in New York, I also try to shop the high end of retail and I always walk the floor at the various Gift and Trade shows.  The impressions that are carried away from these excursions help to confirm all that we read, see and hear.

 So!  We are starting to finalize our new products for the Fall and this includes color.  Rich and I have an ongoing debate about color and the Blog seems to be a perfect place to get some outside input!  We will be adding beautiful, rich Jewell tones to several existing styles.  New products will also be keeping to this palette.  My trend and color antennae tell me that we there are some holes for softer, happy Brights.  Rich says, “You can’t add light colors in the Fall!”  I say, “We also need a Coral here, a more Kelly Green there and definitely some bright Pink!”  Well…I know I must be right.  What do you think?