(CBS) Americans already have a taste for organic food and organic clothing. Now, the organic trend is making a mark on the world of furniture. In The Early Show’s “Trend Report” Tuesday, House & Garden magazine’s special projects editor, Susanna Salk, shows some stylish examples.

According to Salk:

Such furniture is made with stuffing, upholstery fiber and wood certified as chemical-free. While organic furniture sales make up just a fraction of the $14 billion rung up by the organic industry, the trend is growing. Just as organic food has become acceptable in the mainstream, organic furniture is now moving in the same direction. Read more…

Whether it’s a room fit for a princess, a cowboy or one cool dude, today’s youth furniture is keeping pace with a growing market.

In recent years, the trend has shifted away from disposable or pass-along furnishings toward children’s bedroom furniture designed to last more than 15 years — furniture that “grows up” with the child.

At the recent Spring 2006 market in High Point, N.C., furniture manufacturers trotted out their youth collections and it was clear companies recognize “parents and their offspring alike want furniture choices that are designed and build to last. They also look for style and an easy level of sophistication that’s appealing to the youngest tastes,” says Jackie Hirschhaut, vice president of the American Home Furnishings Alliance. Read more…

Brenda and Mark Cantrell spend hours every week in their yard caring for their English-style garden and tending to the Texas native perennials that line the green path winding around their Eldorado home.

“We both grew up in the country, so we’ve always been around gardens,” Mrs. Cantrell said. “I just love the whole process. I love designing and picking the color schemes.”

The Cantrell’s garden is one of seven that will be featured in the McKinney Garden Club’s annual fundraiser, the McKinney Home and Garden tour. Last year, the tour raised enough funds to donate $4,000 to help landscape the McKinney Performing Arts Center, $500 to benefit Chestnut Square’s schoolhouse landscape project and $500 for the McKinney SPCA’s landscape project.

Cantrell and the six other families on the tour will be given a sneak peak at each other’s homes the friday before the tour. Read more…

Graffiti is something that’s usually discouraged. But yesterday the pavements of Norwich were sprayed with vivid yellow paint - and the perpetrators were somewhat unlikely.

Heads were turned on Tombland as women wielding spray cans and stencils painted flowers on the pathway.

Then Fr James Walsh, Dean of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist, and the Dean of Norwich Cathedral, the Very Rev Graham Smith, helped put the finishing touches to their handiwork in London Street. Read more…

Australian-born Warwick Purser points sadly at a building once filled with ethnic Indonesian bric-a-brac and craft made by villagers living on the outskirts of the quake-hit royal city of Yogyakarta.

The roof of the showroom has collapsed, damaging craft such as pandanus leaf placemats, woven coconut shell ice buckets and black terracota plates that have made their way to department stores such as Macy’s in New York and Harrods in London.

Tembi, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Yogyakarta, is among hundreds of villages hit by Saturday’s quake which killed nearly 6,000 people and left more than 130,000 homeless. Read more…

Home loan seekers usually face a dilemma of whether to opt for fixed rates or floating rates. This is mainly because many of them do not know the exact nature of differentiation between fixed rates and floating rates. There are some fundamental differences between the various rates on offer that individuals must appreciate before opting for a home loan.

To begin with, there are two basic types of home loans based on the interest rate - fixed rates and floating rates. Within the two broad categories exist sub-categories. The differentiation amongst the sub-categories has been outlined below: Read more…

The head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission has asked the banks to “effectively rein in” excessive lending to the real estate sector to curb soaring house prices.

At a policy meeting attended by senior executives of major Chinese banks, commission chairman Liu Mingkang called for “strict scrutinisation” of loans for investment homes, as well as luxury apartments and villas.

The down-payment requirement, as a percentage of the total costs of high-end properties, would be raised, he added, but did not confirm the margin, Xinhua news agency reported. Read more…

For Flint Hills festival, artists to share craft

ST. PAUL

As part of the Flint Hills International Children’s Festival, international and area musicians, theater artists and puppeteers will host free workshops Thursday about the creative process in their work. The music and theater workshops will take place in Rice Park, the puppetry workshop will be in the Ordway Center lobby and a street art demonstration will be held on Market Street, next to Landmark Plaza. All the Thursday events will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. On Friday, a dance workshop will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Washington Street outside the Ordway. Registration is required. Call 651-282-3025 or e-mail classes@ordway.org. Read more…

The Hillsboro Recreation Commission will offer a craft camp beginning Monday, June 5, and each consecutive Monday of the month.

A second camp is planned for every Monday of July. Directed by Kaylene Mueller, campers will be divided into two groups: grades one through three and grades four through six.

The camp is intended to teach youth the fundamentals of craft making.

Youth in grades one to three will meet at the Scout House from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. while youth in grades four to six will meet at the same location from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Read more…

“The office furniture market in the UAE is estimated between AED 700 million and 1 billion, and the carpets and flooring another AED 1 billion,” said Ajai Dayal, General Manager, Retail and Marketing, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group.

“The residential and commercial property market in the Middle East has been moving at an incredible pace and this has led to an increase in demand for new office space and exponential growth in the office furniture business,” he added.

OFIS - the furniture, flooring and interior solutions business of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group - will participate in ‘Office2006 ’, the Middle East’s premier exhibition in office furniture solutions.

Focusing on aesthetics and ergonomic design, OFIS will showcase a wide range of the latest in office furniture and flooring. The brands on show include premium wooden flooring from Parador, Germany; Della Valentina Office systems, free standing desks and storage ideas from Italy; modular desks, storage and partitioning systems from India’s BP Ergo; German engineered ergonomic chairs from Dauphin; Interface flooring solutions, broadloom carpets from Bentley Prince Street and Beaulieu of America, and furniture from Kembo in Holland. Read more…