Liz: I’ve got to believe that the job you have is so much fun, my problem with it would be I’d want everything that I produced and so my house would be this clutter of horrible place

Margo: Oh you know it’s interesting because I do have way too much in my house because I collect things that inspire me.   But when you, for me when I’m around it all the time and get to enjoy it every day so the need to take it home isn’t as strong as you’d think it would be.

Liz: I’ve heard that from other people who have wonderful shops and they say, ‘I am around it in the store so I don’t have to bring it to the house with me’.

Margo: Right

Liz: But what sort of things do inspire you?

Margo: Oh gosh, well old things mostly and the things that, the two sort of favorite categories are old funky things and things that small artisans have come up with themselves.  I’m continually inspired by what people create.  Which is why, you know, I love that kind of relationship I have with Home Companion because you stand for that so much.  So those are the things that inspire me the most.  And then travel and just I’m always, always looking, I think from an early age I grew up with a very visual mum who’s a designer and you know I can remember being somewhere early on and we were walking in the city and she would say, ‘look up, don’t look down at the sidewalk, or necessarily in all the windows, you know look at the building at the architecture and the funny cornices and something you might be missing.  So I was just all the time looking at things what other people might miss.

Liz: When you say old funky things I mean that strikes a cord with me, what sort of retro are you talking about, what sort of era?

Margo: I, you know I kind of fan, again I like things especially that might have been handmade by somebody then, well most of the things were, but for instant I have a collection of hand embroidered maps of the U.K and those are from the 1800’s and later, but then I equally love an old repaired tricycle that some dad made, or you know a grandmothers hand knitted afghan that might have been washed by mistake, or bits of wonderful, there’s so many things, old letters, old graphics, things that were done before we were so technical and we could squeeze them out so easily.

Liz: And the things that you look at and you can imagine the story behind them.

Margo: Yes or that I just wish they could talk; there must be such a story behind it.   I have always been attracted to recycle things, like I have a way to many hooked rugs because to me that is the ultimate end, used and recycled because those were so often done with somebody’s wool work pants or you know things they really needed a warm rug and they used what they had around them.  So

Liz: Right, it’s just.

Margo: I love that kind of thing.

Liz: Whatever they had, it’s not like they could go to the store.

Margo: Right it wasn’t so easy then, no Target.

Liz: Yes, how did they live?

Margo: I don’t know.  I’m sure they were much better at it than we are.

Liz: No doubt about that.

Margo: Just looking around I have a little care mat, a tin can, I have, I’m just looking around my office, I have crown made out of old keys that were all welded together, I have a picture frame that somebody made into a shadow box and it has some old things in it. Old jars of mine that my mum painted me for Christmas, and an old metal basket that I have tipped on its end and used for something else.  You know things like that.

Liz: I don’t want to say that people back then were more creative, because I don’t believe they were but perhaps they were more resourceful.  I guess they had to be.

Margo: And to us maybe it seemed creative, but to them I’m sure they look at, you know somebody would look at something that I would cherish and think, ‘oh, that old thing’ I kneaded bread and that everyday, yes that’s why I like it.

Liz: And speaking of creative, you are the creative director of Midwest and its Seasons of Cannon Falls line every year you guys do something that’s really unique you do the Seasons of Cannon Falls Yuletide Show House in Minnesota, and I would have to believe though that year after year decorating  for Christmas does it ever get same or do you start out by saying, ‘what are we going to do that’s different?’ How do you approach it, and how can the people at home use your tips?

Margo: You know every year, it’s interesting because growing up I loved bringing out the same things every year.  The favorite nativity and you know, those old ornament, some of which maybe I had made in nursery school, I still remembered that time, I can still remember it to this day or that my mom would keep those old nativity pieces wrapped in the same piece of tissue paper every year so that it would get softer and softer and softer and just that whole tradition thing I love so in that way it sort of has two chapters for me because there would maybe one new special ornament and see when your young that’s what you know, these things that you love and cherish can seem very special and the decorating is you know, maybe something on the dinning room table would change but then there were something that’s like the nativity or the stockings you’d put out or thing like that but as I’ve kind of grown up and certainly now when my job is to make it look different every time I’m inspired by the unique and creative things that we make every year that are different, I mean when you think about it we are doing innovation for Christmas 09 right now and people want Santa’s and people want snowmen and people want reindeer and so every year we’ve got to, the ten artists that work for me, we all have to put our heads together and come up with this years Santa’s or snowman or reindeer or whatever it is and it’s, I’m always completely impressed by the sort of unfailing newness, but at the same time I just want to do something wonderful with that, I’m inspired by the creations themselves to make a little vignette or this year the tree can have these pale blue balls on it, or like for instant when we did the photo shoot for the catalog I really took each one of those artisan creations apart and thought how can I make them sing.  I just love doing that, I could do it all day long and make it look different every time and bringing in what simple little thing might set this off.  And as far as tips for how people can do it themselves if it’s something you’ve had your whole life or it is something you just got that’s brand new, you know maybe a new wreath will inspire hanging an old ornament from the center of it or maybe an old garden shrub on the table so the greens will inspire a new kind of way to set the middle of your table, I think it’s just a mix of tradition and newness and just what make you feel good.

Liz: Even though the theme is Christmas there are so many elements within Christmas, you have the Santa, you have the Christmas tree, you’ve got the religious element, you got snowmen, you’ve got you know just what ever else is out there so you really can’t over load you house with different themes of Christmas.

Margo: Yes.

Liz: Very easy to do.  Do you suggest or do you do yourself a single simple thing like we’re going to start with Santa Claus or we’re going to start with stars or snowmen or something along those lines.

Margo: You know I do and I know there are different takes on it because I know people that will have, you know, themed Christmas trees and several in their house and more power to them, they keep us in business, I tend to start with a favorite thing, I have two favorite snowmen by a California artist that find their way somewhere maybe I’ll do a whole thing on the mantel with those two, or maybe they’ll be on a shelf in the kitchen or I’ll do that snowy thing on the table but I’ll have them those kind of thing or maybe, one year I found and amazing old paint smeared vintage candelabra from a church that really in the shape of a tree, and then everything, that was my inspiration or a box of old of Florida sort of aged crafter wonderful bead project and I found probably18 of this beaded ornaments so that became where I started from.  But it always includes those favorite things.   It might be a color and I’ll tend to do, say I have, I really want to use this bright thing that I love and I really want to use this pale mix so maybe in one room it will be more of a pale story and in another room it will be a bright story but to me growing up the Christmas tree always has the favorite ornaments the only thing that maybe set it aside was my mum would always put red trim or something on it to make it, that was the cohesive thing  but it was so good to all the things that meant to much to us.

Liz: Well speaking of color, when I’m looking through the magazine article on your yuletide show house one of the pages is this pale blue gray wall and everything in the room revolves sort of around that color which is not what I would consider a traditional Christmas color but it really works.

Margo: Yes.

Liz: So there’re things besides red and green we can do. 

Margo:  There really are and that’s a really interesting one to even talk about because that’s probably one of my favorite ones to do.  To me when I think of winter, white, snow has so much blue to it and we have sort of a, it’s not a joke it’s the truth here, you know we always try and maybe have a little blue ornament trim or blue scarf in our faithful part of development and marketing partners will say, ‘blue doesn’t sell, blue doesn’t sell, blue doesn’t sell, but I love that icy it reminds me of fresh fallen snow kind of color as well or the sky you know when it’s a sunny day and its cold outside and you have that blue it’s the same way I like to work with various colors of green, I think Christmas used to be sort of one green now its chartreuse and it’s hunter green and a sage green all mixed together so you can bend the rules a little, it’s what makes you feel Christmassy and feel like decorating and celebrating.

Liz: I’ve got to ask you, I mean 90 % of all Americans say that blue is their favorite color, why does the marketing department say blue doesn’t sell.

Margo: Well because traditional, when you, well one of the sort of things you have to do is like say your doing a theme and you package a red ball and a green ball together if you put a blue ball in with that three, the red and green usual sell first.

Liz: Interesting.

Margo: It is interesting but even this Christmas if you go out and look around there so much more blue this year different shades blue, turquoise and things like that, so we always try to have it in there to just add and we’ll put it in say like a selection of trim and by trims I mean more a plain ornament that might not be a character, balls and garland and ticks that might have a little blue and I must say it’s a bit of a battle for me but I think this year I did pretty well getting the blue colors in there and Charlottes line has the most wonderful soft blue in it.   You know it’s just fun to play, because we have those traditions that we always like to find what inspires the next person.

Liz: Is your industry just like the clothing design industry where you know there’s going to be a color of the season or a shape of the season and you have to get it right?

Margo: That’s absolutely plain and good and I think the challenging thing for this industry is you know that but you know that it’s grounded into this as well so you have to have that red coated Santa.  But you also need to show that you’re paying attention and have like Christmas of  09 there will be purple in there because the Paris show and on the runways  there’s purple, purple, purple so we have to, we want to, nod to that as well.  It’s not going to take over the showroom but there will be a tree where you’ll see trend, a color trend and there will be another tree where you might see something that’s more like bling as a trend   Or we try and infuse those little things along the way too because it is playful it is like fashion you have to have your plaids and Santa’s and things like that too because it’s great.

Liz: Thanks for the tip on purple I’m going to tell all my friends you just wait and see in two years it’s all going to be purple and they’re going to think I’m so smart, and they are going to say, ‘how did you know that?’

Margo: You’re right and you’re going to start seeing it sooner.  Our trick as a wholesaler is that we’ll see something now and a direct manufacturer say like a larger store like a Target they can put it in right away because they design and it’s goes on the shelves maybe a few months later, but we tend to, our customers, our best customers tend to be smaller boutique-ish retailers and we just love standing for those kind of businesses so there will be purple.

Liz: You know I was looking over you’re web site and it has a list of different places of where your products are carried, and I was so impressed, you run the gamete you’re in  Cracker Barrel, you’re in the Navy Exchange and you’re in Lord and Taylor, I mean you just appeal to everyone.

Margo: We do, we have been in business over 55 years and we really do try to appeal to everyone and think of everyone and you know I don’t mean like, ‘oh, we try to do something for everyone’.  We just try to do products and sell products that make people feel good.  And I’m always intrigued by to just doing looking up a baby registry at a store here in Minnesota, a baby store and the gal from the store e-mailed me back and said I just saw your tag line under your name and we have just hung your Mickelmas ornaments in our window and it just makes me smile, you know I forget Christmas is over the holidays in general it’s a time to celebrate and decorate differently and we’re a happy purveyor of those goods.   It’s a job that makes me smile.

Liz:     Oh well, that means so much.  In the town that I live in one of our cutest little boutiques it carries your products and it’s one of these places you were talking about, that you just go in and you feel good.

Margo: Yes.

Liz: You walk around and you look at everything and you think, ‘I want all of these’

Margo: Isn’t that nice.

Liz: How am I going to do that?

Margo: I know I just try not to, like I have a hand in pretty much every product that goes out the door whether it’s just a comment or a thought or a color choice or whatever it might be, then sometimes it’s overwhelming but there might be just one thing and I see it set out by itself I think, ‘oh, I have to have that’.  Or when an article gives me an idea and I think, ‘I’m even going to have to buy that’.   You know it’s exciting, the whole process is great and I love it.   I had a retail store myself for ten years and was a Midwest customer at one point and I, it was because of what we stood for at that point, artists and things like that, that made me think, wow here’s big company that gets small still which I think in this day and age is harder and harder to find.

Liz: You mentioned that there are some of the items you see that they are just so clever and so unique and cool that you want them for yourself.  It always tickles me when I’m talking to my artists and creative people they’ll tell me the story about thing that they created that they thought was just going to bring the house down, they knew would be the stampede of the show and people universally ignore it. Have you ever had one of those products when you’ve thought, ‘wow this is it’, and it wasn’t?

Margo: Oh if there was a crystal ball, you know.   Absolutely, its that, and I find, because I’m so am not from a corporate background I find in a corporate world you know you have to kind of have to figure those things out before they even sell sometimes, to work numbers and work on what your going to innovate from for the next year, it’s always interesting what bubbles to the surface.   Actually we have a good story in the company, about five years ago one of the artists developed what has become known as the serenity angel it’s our sort of angel that’s pewter, she’s all pewter and she’s very graceful looking and she’ll have a different quote on her wings, well when that first was done it kind of went through the whole process and it was ok’d and then at some point along the way Kathy Brecken  who was then the president, who’s dad started the company, she and a few of the other executives decided it really wasn’t appropriate for Midwest and to pull it but the container was already on the water so all the products went to our outlet store and after a couple a weeks the girl from the outlet store called and said, ‘I just have to tell you  this is flying off the shelves, this angel, these angels’.  So we brought it back into the line and it became hands down our best selling line for about three years.

Liz: Wow.

Margo: I know so you really never know and that’s the delightful part and that’s what keeps you trying the next thing I think.

Liz: One final question. That I just want to touch on because I know all those people who are listening and who are getting ready to decorate their homes for the holidays, you say something in the article that I don t do is that you decorate your kitchen.   You say in the article, ‘Don’t overlook the kitchen when you’re decorating for the yuletide season’ and I never think to do anything in the kitchen, I thought that was so clever to put some of your beautiful…

Margo:  You know where do we spend our time.

Liz: You are right.

Margo: And I just, and again like I mentioned those two favorite snowmen of mine I’m thinking of myself in the kitchen this year where they might just have to go, because, and I love hanging things in the window, or even kids picture in that one photograph you mentioned there’s a wonderful kids drawing of a Christmas tree that one of the girls I work with her daughters actually in the article and she did that knowing we were doing a photo shoot, I just love things that.   That to me are the traditions that stay around, like yes the kitchen, don’t overlook it, there’s empty glasses sitting around so I put, I might put sparkly ornaments in them or something like that just makes me smile.   And I don’t know if you have an old copies of Home Companion around, but three Decembers ago my house was in there in Atlanta and you’ll see the kitchen decorated, and the bathroom decorated, and the porch decorated, and I think we decorated every inch and it was so much fun, because I knew Kathy was coming in and she kind of gave me a warning and there was not a stone left unturned and I can’t summon the energy to do that every year but maybe this year it will only be the kitchen.

Liz: Well then you’ve answered my last question that you’re surrounded by Christmas everyday leading up to the Christmas season, are you a bah-humbug at home, sounds like your not?

Margo: Well you know, sometimes it depends on travel and things like that but it’s easier I’d say for me now surrounded every day by Christmas is almost easier than being a retailer where your working everyday with up until Christmas with the products.  It’s easier for me to decorate now and I’m just inspired, sometimes it will be getting out those old things. I have a way over the top collection of old vintage beaded garland and I’ve never gotten them all out at once time until Kathy came to help me with the house and I had 54 of them and you know I thought I love it and at the time you were surrounded by the same stuff everyday at home so pick a time to just, if you have that day to set it up and maybe a day and half to take it down.   It’s so nice to see your old favorites and then put them away again.  So I do try and bring that magic out.

Liz: Margo this has been a delightful conversation I want to thank you so much for taking part.

Margo: Well thank you and I just so appreciate your interest and Happy Holidays to everyone and may it be delightful.

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