Milan Milan Milan! Ideas, design and garden furniture!

We stuffed ourselves with chocolate before Easter and we did it throughout the long weekend.....Luckily we're going to be running around like mad this week, so off it comes....she says. My turn now to blog, as Geraldine is busy organising Milan, she speak Italian and I don't, so she gets the enviable job of phoning and checking all reservations. No easy task as I understand it in Italy.We will be visiting all the Italian furniture manufacturers as they have some fab new lines coming out and we will be looking particularly for some outdoor furniture this year. We would like to complement some of our gardens with stylish armchairs, sofas and tables.Outside socialising is important and it we get a good summer, even more so.But it's not just the Italians of course, there's the Dutch, the Danes, the Germans and the French - I'm sure it will be interesting to see what trends come out and will show up on the high street in 3 years time.We will also be scouting around for some new interiors accessories such as door furniture, lighting, homeware and new materials for our more quirky clients. We will also look out for some ceramic tiles - the Italians are so good in this field, and lastly rugs. We decided to look into this closely, several clients have asked about us designing something special for them and we have done 2 commissions so far, but we think we can do better.It will be interesting to see how "green" Milan has become, or not. We always ask our suppliers for their environmental policies, sometimes they surprise us by demonstrating green credentials which we never knew they had, others should know better and we don't buy from them. But we always tell them why - otherwise how can you educate and change the market? Two suppliers, one in Italy and another in Spain, decided to take it on board and are now working at looking at their manufacturing process and how they can make them greener -we even helped with their policies! Now that's what I call partnership!

"I generally spray a heck of a lot in Feb/March, or just befroe the buds appear, then as soon as the leaves have appreared stop... unless I have a real problem with a particular plant - otherwise I would spend my life spraying for blackspot :)"

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