This week we're having coffee with none other than Matthew Mead, the creative genius behind Matthew Mead Style and the style editor-at-large for Country Home magazine. Matthew's style is loved by many - take a quick jaunt over to his website and I'm sure you'll see why. Join us this morning as we share a cup of coffee with Matthew.

Name: Matthew Mead
Location: Concord, New Hampshire

Share some fun details about your home life:
I just turned 39 years old and live in the Concord, New Hampshire area which is about an hour from Boston and 5 hours from NYC. I have two step-daughters both in college and have been married to my wife, Jenny for 11 years. We have a 1920's bungalow which was updated with some modern amenities and we spend our quiet moments at home watching movies. I have been style-editor-at-large with Country Home magazine for the past 10 years and I love it. I have a column called "hands on style" which runs in all the issues and contribute many stories to the main edit of the magazine as well as produce many of the covers.

How did you get started in design?
I was interested in design from the early 80's when Clarkson Potter began publishing lifestyle books by people like Martha Stewart, Mary Emmerling and Lee Bailey. I began by collecting antiques and doing a great many antiques shows and meeting people. I wrote to some of the Clarkson Potter authors and got to meet many of them. In the 90's I became friends with Mary Emmerling and worked on her magazine, Mary Emmerling's Country Magazine and soon began contributing to Country Home and other publications.

What was the inspiration behind Matthew Mead Style?
Fun, simple, two step ideas that anyone can do with easy to find supplies and items you might even have around the house. And we pay particular attention to the seasons . . . I am very known for great seasonal ideas. Our site changes four times a year and we have great download tags, wraps and paper designs all created by me and my team.

What aspects of your job are your favorite?
Planning, designing and now photographing my ideas. I love working with colors and collectibles and reinventing them through new ideas.

What is one thing you wish everyone knew about your field?
There is a great deal of grueling packing and unpacking, moving and shifting, toting and schlepping . . . these are the main part of the job and it can become truly overwhelming, especially when dealing with weather.

What has been the highlight of your career to date?
My website, holiday magazine and my new book on entertaining due out in fall 2008 . . . these are labors of love and achievement and bring me so much satisfaction.

When you travel, what is one thing you can't live without?
I fedex my luggage and it is a luxury I won't do without. No waiting once you arrive and no toting . . . it is a very freeing thing. I would love to have luggage and carry on free flights to streamline travel. I would rather spend my time at the flea market then in the luggage line.

Tell us some of your favorite shops, both on the cheap and to indulge:
I love small stores run by simple purveyors. On the high side you can't beat a store like Bell'ochio in San Francisco . . . it is a small store, but filled with ribbons, boxes, Parisian finds and lots of inspiration. On the cheap I love The White Elephant in Essex, MA. It is open on the weekends only and can have so many great junk finds.

Let us in on one off the beaten path place we must visit while in your town:
It is about 45 minutes from me in a small town called Wilton, NH called White Home Collection. It has a yard filled with farmhouse items like old troughs, wagons, zinc topped tables, urns and planters.

Do you have anything else to share that we may be interested in?
I don't do this all by myself . . . my wife heads up much of the planning and purchasing of supplies and I have two assistants who are both named Lisa, we call them "the Lisa's". They help with planning, crafting, moving, making, creating, cooking, etc. I am blessed to have such a skillful, talented and wonderful team . . . I couldn't do it without them.

My goal is to have my own magazine and television show so that we can share all of our great ideas. I love to hear from my site surfers and am always on hand to dispense advice and ideas. I love to talk shop so please feel free to e-mail and send a brief line about why you would purchase my magazine.

If you were here I would offer you some Chocolate silk pie with your coffee . . . see the recipe on my fall site that launched in Mid-September.

Get your style fix! Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on our future Over a Cup of Coffee interviews!