One fun nugget of info I wanted to pass along... Maitland-Smith (one of the beautiful showrooms we toured) is celebrating thirty years of near limitless design options. To mark their anniversary they are offering you an opportunity to enter and win a design competition. There will be winners in four different categories and each will receive their creation at no cost, delivered to their door. Your creation (should you win) will be on display during High Point Market 2010, and you'll be invited to a private soirée to mark the occasion. How festive!Choose one of over 500 pieces and customize it any way that you see fit. Enter by December 16, 2009. So put on your thinking cap and start imagining something fabulous!

{editorial note... see the lovely chair above? That's from the Maitland-Smith showroom. The photo hardly does it justice. The seat and interior are done in a yummy David Hicks/Kelly Wearstler type fabric...but the outside and back are uphostered in leather. It was divine!}