It’s pack up your bags time for us again, this time to one of our favorite cities… Chicago.

The show this year will be a first for us on a few fronts. Number one, we are finally moving our booth to a brand new space in Lakeside (yes! away from the wall). We’ve doubled our space from previous years; we now have a full 600 square feet of space to fill. We’ve also built a brand new booth that is really magnificent. It’s been six months in the making. Can’t wait to see it on Saturday when we arrive.

Number two, we are launching five of our six new products for 2010 at the show. While they still need to be under wraps for a little while longer, I can tell you that there’s a lot of excitement here about these new projects, and we are thrilled to be showing them for the first time in Chicago.

As always, we look forward to seeing old friends at the show, and making new ones. Plus, we get to sample some of Chicago’s finest cuisine.

We look forward to seeing you there.

For those of you who are readers of Threads, Sew News, Vogue Patterns and many other sewing publications, you know that Cecelia Podolak is amongst other talents, a genuine “pressing expert”. One of the few people that can actually claim this title.

A few months back I called Cecelia to see if she would do a review of our new Digital Velocity V100 iron. A short time later I received in my inbox the most detailed product review a manufacturer could hope for. It is a testament to the type of person Cecelia is, that her review expands a little over four pages long!

If you are looking for a new iron, you owe it to yourself to read her analysis of this remarkable product. You can read the full review here, with thanks to Cecelia for her permission to have the article appear on this blog.

This goes under the category, “Should have posted it weeks ago”.

Kelly’s husband Rick has bought four irons in the last 15 months…. well, you can read the whole thing on Kelly’s I Have A Notion blog.

Thanks for the great review Kelly.

I had the pleasure earlier this week visiting a friend at her companies showroom. Some of you may know Knoll, the world famous maker of chairs and office systems. Their products are absolutely gorgeous, and if you are lucky enough to be using a Knoll chair, or working in an office that uses their products, you know very well the importance good design.

I count myself one of the lucky ones, as I sit in a Knoll Life chairs all day. My back has never been happier. While a top level, designer chair may not be attainable for everyone, I do believe that everyone is entitled to sit in a chair that incorporates some basic ergonomic attributes.

A few weeks back we launched the new SewErgo task chair that offers some great features, at a remarkably affordable price. At $99, I think a major price barrier has been removed. There really is no reason to be sitting in a poorly made, badly designed chair all day. The SewErgo is within everyone’s reach.

Ever since we launched our new line of LED UberLight task lights in 2008, we’ve been telling all who will listen how wonderful they are.

Well the New York Times has confirmed that not only are LED lights more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs, they also require less energy in their production. In fact, “the energy used for incandescent bulbs is almost five times that used for compact fluorescent and LED lamps.

It won’t be long before the standard household 60W incandescent bulb is replaced by energy efficient LEDs.  Read the full article here.

About seven or eight years ago a sewing dealer acquaintance of mine told me we shouldn’t bother introducing our own line of steam presses. “A passing fad” I think was the way he described it. Boy, am I glad I didn’t listen to him. Our Empressa steam press sales have been a bright spot in a challenging economy and they continue to increase every year.

The basic idea behind steam presses is very simple… iron, without using an iron. As time has progressed, the pressing area has increased in size, and the temperature control has become much more consistent as they’ve incorporated new technologies.

We are very pleased to present the latest, and most advanced Empressa ever, the S550.

I’ve barely unpacked my bags from China, and here I am heading off again, this time to Houston for our annual pilgrimage. I’ve still got a pretty good dose of jet lag, but I’m sure that by next week the cobwebs in my head will be a little fainter.

China was great by the way. We met some amazing people saw some cool things, and of course we had food to die for. If you’re ever in Hong Kong, and you love crab, do yourself a favor and head straight for Under Bridge Spicy Crab. It is not to be missed. There must have been a pound of garlic with our crab. It was incredible.

So next week it’s Houston. If anyone out there knows of a great restaurant in Houston, I’d love to hear about it (no steak houses please). If you’re attending the show, we will have our wonderful new Digital Velocity V100 iron on display, and our full line-up of fabric care products. We’d love to see you, so don’t be shy.

This is that wonderful time of year when Alice and I hop onto an Air Canada flight… destined for Shanghai.

Before I get to the airport I take my last deep breaths of Toronto air (not the best, but relative to Shanghai’s it’s like a stroll in the forest) and prepare to sit like a sausage in a meat package for the next 16 hours or so. Needless to say, not my favorite way of spending a Sunday afternoon. Hey, ya gotta suck it up for the cause right?

The nice thing about going away is that I get to spend the next 10 days with my wife Alice. My best friend, soul mate, and for the next 10 days or so, my lifeline, since she’s also my translator. The trip this year will be filled with lot’s of fun and excitement. A trade show in Shanghai, then off to Shenzhen and next to Guangzhou for visits to our factories. After a week of this, there will be a welcome two days off in Hong Kong (Alice’s birthplace) for a much needed rest, and perhaps if there’s time, the worlds best $20.00 Swedish massage.

For those of you who travel for business, you know how exhausting it can be. Yes, we’ll miss the kids (really we will), and yes, it’s going to be a pain in the butt trying to find Wifi zones for my iPhone so I can get to my emails, but traveling is also a bit of a refresh from the daily grind. We get to meet with our partners, break bread (or rice) with them, and hopefully form new friendships. It’s actually a pretty cool perk if you want to know the truth.

And finally, I’d like to also extend a warm L’Shana Tova to all of our Jewish friends and family. To celebrate the season, this morning I ate two pieces (a first for me) of honey cake made by Hava, a friend of my sisters. With apologies to my Aunt Ruth, this cake blew my socks off. HONEY CAKE RULES!

The truth is that my absence has been equal part work overload (thankfully, Art is back today) and part hesitation as to what to do with this whole blog thing. I have to admit I haven’t quite figured out what approach this blog should be taking. But for the time being, I’m going to trust my instincts and just forge ahead with some straight news, and whatever else pops into my head.

So without further ado, it’s time to get back to posting.

Last month we launched the new Digital Velocity V100 compact vapor generator iron. Like any new product, you do the work, sit back, and hope that you’ve gotten someone’s attention. We had so much anticipation for the new V100, (particularly amongst quilters and sewers) so when it finally arrived and started to sell like hot cakes, well to say the least, we were very, very happy (kinda like a proud parent).

For those of you who are curious about the new V100, please call your local dealer for a demo. If they don’t have one, implore that they buy one for their showroom. This is a very special iron, and you are going to love it. I promise.

“A great plus about the Steamboy T1 Steam Floor Mop is that there are no mop buckets filled with cleaner to haul around and that it doesn’t leave your floors slippery or wet.  This is wonderful for our household filled with small children who are prone to slipping on even damp floor surfaces.    My floors are gleaming clean without the use of toxic chemicals and cuts the time of cleaning floors in half!”