Was just thinking that I should mention that we had several items actually go DOWN in price for 2010 – off the top of my head, they are:
Nitrile Touch Gloves (yes, our best-selling gloves!)
Copper Markers
Copper Tags
Green & Tan Plant Coasters
Super Soft Kneeling Pads

Life is good, eh?

Our 2010 catalog has been mailed, so everyone who’s on our list should have received it by now. Please let us know if you haven’t! We’re excited about all the new items, but most especially the OXO garden tool line. We’ll be heading to Atlanta for AmericasMart the first week of January – looking forward to seeing many of you there. We love the new location of the garden temps (Bldg. 2W, third floor, booth 722) – great lighting, and a big bonus of being able to see outside through those nice windows. In the meantime, have a terrific holiday season. All of us here wish all of you a Happy, Healthy, and Profitable New Year!

Last month I headed down to Atlanta to combine a little business and a little pleasure.  I spent a day walking the aisles at the Super Floral Show, which is mostly flowers, but I did find a couple of interesting items that we may be adding to our catalog.

Then I spent 5 days up at my brother’s lake house on Lake Burton in northern Georgia.  Wow… there is nothing more relaxing than sitting atop a boat house, jumping in the lake when it gets too warm, drying off while reading a good book, and then dropping off to sleep.  When I’d wake up it’d be time to hit the water again.  I earned my keep by doing some weeding & clean-up chores.

Then it was back to Atlanta to the National Lawn & Garden Show, which is the show with an appointment format… kind of like speed dating for products.  I had a full day Thursday of 42 appts., and am now sorting through all the information and trying to come up with a great selection of new items.  We hope to have some of these items in stock soon… I’ll blog about them as they’re available.

I must be the only person in our industry who actually takes vacation in May.  Since the National Hardware Show is in Las Vegas, and my favorite place for vacation is Southern Utah, it just makes sense to combine the two.  The days at the show were well-spent – I found some great new products which we’ll show at the summer shows (PANTS & IGC), sat in on a couple of really interesting seminars, and enjoyed a great visit over lunch w/Yale Youngblood of Garden Center Magazine.

The vacation part of the trip was terrific…  five days in Escalante, Utah, one of the most beautiful areas in the country.  We hiked into Calf Creek Falls, which is a stunning waterfall at the end of a beautiful trail along the creek.  We hiked down (and down, and down) into a wash and through a narrow slot canyon (and then up, and up, and up to get back to the car).  I love walking through the desert and seeing so many flowering plants – penstemons of many colors, cacti, and LOTS of  plants that I can’t name… so different from the plants here in the East.  That’s one of the reasons that a vacation out West is so great – it’s a vastly different landscape from the East.  In addition to our hikes, we made sure we spent plenty of time relaxing, sitting & enjoying the views.

I would be remiss if I didn’t add that the reason I can do this in May is that Amy is in the office keeping DBS running smoothly without me.  Thank you Amy.  Life is good.

Lynne

In the last week we’ve gone from a spring-like weekend, to snow on Monday, to a spring-like day today.  Tomorrow will feel like summer, with temps in the high 80′s expected.  Will spend some time getting my gardens ready to plant my dahlias.

I spend my evenings sitting outside listening to the spring peepers – my favorite sound in the world.  I sit on our front porch trying to take it all in and keep it with me for the rest of the year.  We have a swamp across the road and a small pond in our front yard, so it can be pretty loud.  And soon the toads will start trilling.  Life is good.

In another week or so I’ll head out to the Hardware Show and try to find some new & exciting products to add to our catalog.  My husband Chuck will go with me, and we’ll spend a week after the show in southern Utah hiking and sightseeing in the Escalante area.