I was at the fabulous CABoom V Design Show in Santa Monica, CA this past weekend. Even though it was a few days away from St. Patty's, there was a definite Green feeling. Easily half of the booths focused on "green" products. Our designs were a perfect fit. In fact, nearly every parent at the show has been a customer for one or more of our products or they were when they walked away.

Ours was one of only about eight juvenile products booths (others include Orbit, Pixel, Clek, Boon, DucDuc, etc.) The rest was all grown up stuff, so I spent part of the day on Saturday walking around, enjoying the amazing products. I am also in active shopping mode because we are up-fitting new office space for later this Spring. Our hope is to have it as green as possible, while staying within budget. So far we are eyeing a carpet provider who will recycle the existing flooring, a contractor who works 'green', and various natural and recycled material. I found all sorts of inspiration at the show. Three of my favorites were:

loll designs ... my new friends from my home state of Minnesota. These guys create recycled outdoor furniture that is really nice and yet looks easy for us to keep clean. We will finally have a space to eat outside, so I want something that will last for a while.

Reiss f.d. manufactured in my new home state of North Carolina, this is a collection of bentwood products. Like many people here, the designer is a Svan customer. We will probably be his customer soon as well. I hope to get at least one piece for our lobby.

Neoporte. Okay, they aren't as green as the others, but they are just plain cool! Neoporte creates custom doors and glass. My hope is that they can fashion a special piece in our entryway that will create a great feeling as you enter the space. My dream is that they can etch my kids' handprints into the glass somehow, like my parents did when they laid concrete at our house when I was a child.

There were tons of other great products, but well out of my budget including Eames chairs , Delaorobia sofas, and more.

This was a super cool show, but the highlights of my trip were personal. First, it was my mom's birthday (it was a big one, but I am not telling you here). She and my dad were in town to work on a Habitat for Humanity build and my dad brought her by the show. She didn't know that I was there, and we had my sister fly in from Minnesota. It was a huge surprise! We had a great day together, just the four of us. We realized that it was the first time in many, many years since we had been just the four of us hanging out together with no husbands or kids. It was very special.

I also had a blast from the past when I met up with an old high school buddy and his fabulous wife. They are cinematographers here in L.A. It's so wonderful when your friends are being successful at what they love.

All-in-all, it was a near perfect trip. I look forward to visiting CA again in about a month when we come out for the launch of Pregnancy Awareness Month.