Dirtiest Rug in 2011

We picked up the record breaker dirtiest rug of 2011 this morning for cleaning. It is a hand knotted Persian Heriz carpet full of dust, dirt, and stains.

Heriz rugs have geometrical designs with broken lines. This design is in strong contrast with floral curvilinear designs of most rugs. Older Heriz carpets are usually made with softer colors, such as light blue, , ivory, rust and, khaki, and pink. The term Serapi has been known to identify older, pre-World War II Heriz rugs. There is no village or town named Serapi, but it implies a very old Heriz carpet that is very high in quality. These pieces typically have a depressed warp, the softer tones and large geometric designs. They do stay very true to the typical Heriz pattern, with a big medallion in the center, corner spandrels and geometric shapes.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Ashkan Sobhe and Kash Sobhe

It is the 7th day of Spring and Iranian new year began seven days ago when we had the first day of Spring last Monday. Persians celebrate their new year Nowruz (meaning new day) for thirteen days. The day 13 is called the Nature Day and everybody goes out to the nature and spends a good quality time with family and friends.

Since we still are in the celebration mood, we have our Haft Seen, a major Nowruz traditional table setting which includes seven specific items starting with the letter 'S'. I just took this photo few days ago. My older son Ashkan (24) is in red and my younger son Kash (Khashaiar, 19) is in white shirt with tie. He had just got home from school.

Kash studies business and information technology at CSUN, California State University Northridge, 25 miles north of our home in Los Angeles. Kash is in love with video productions and that is his hobby and his passion. He has all kinds of editing soft-wares.

Ashkan graduated from CSUN in 2009. He also studied Information Systems and Information Technology . Ashkan has his own Internet marketing company called IT Chair, Inc. He specializes in (SEO) search engine optimization. He registered his company years ago, when he was only a teenager. He wrote his own book on Online Marketing when he was a college student.

He is truly amazing at what he does. IT Chair, Inc. has become one of the fastest growing companies in their field. They are located on 850 Wilshire Blvd. on the 8th floor between La Cienega Blvd. and Fairfax Blvd. here in Los Angeles, a couple of miles from my rug gallery. His staff, programmers, and employees love the working environment Ashkan has created for them. Two aquariums full of different types of fish and shrimps with a couple of naughty turtles, a refrigerator full of soft drinks, ice creams, and organic food stuff with a table full of chocolate bars, candies, M & M, cookies, and other snacks make his working environment fun, and relaxing. At the same time, to keep IT Chair the best SEO company out there and make their clients more money, Ashkan and his employees work extremely hard and smart. When it comes to work and getting business done, there is no kidding around and everybody is dead-serious. Google ranks IT Chair the number one company in their field in the entire Los Angeles area.

When it comes to my family, I am a very proud father and husband. I am not lucky. I am blessed!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Koofteh, A Great Persian Dinner

I was very tired when I got home from work last night around 7.00 pm. It was delightful to see that dinner was ready and the smell of the delicious Persian Koofteh was all over the house. Koofteh is a large stuffed meatball made with ground beef, rice, turmeric, salt, pepper, parsley, leek, dill, onion, and many more vegetables and spices. This is one of my wife's specialties. To make it fancier and more delicious, she puts un-shelled boiled egg along with cooked plums inside each Koofteh. You have to taste it to feel what I am talking about!

After few minutes, my two sons Ashkan (24) and Kash (Khashaiar, 19) got home and we all had a wonderful delicious Persian dinner together. This was served with fresh vegetables and toorshi, Persian pickles. Nothing can be more joyful than having a good meal with your loved ones.


Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Persian New Year Nowruz in Westwood, Los Angeles

There was a big gathering of Iranians and non-Iranians who celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year, yesterday in Westwood, here in Los Angeles. It started from 11:00 am and lasted until 5:00 pm. Thousands of people attended this beautiful event on Westwood Blvd. Police had closed down the street. There was a big stage with singers and musicians playing live. Plenty of Persian food in several Persian cuisines, a big Haft-Seen ( A major Nowruz traditional table setting which includes seven specific items starting with the letter 'S'), Persian dancers with folk dresses and many more events.

We saw several of our friends whom we had not seen for a long time. It was lots of fun. Several city dignitaries, council members, treasurer and vice mayor attended the event and talked about the Persian community and its contribution to the city of LA. It was last year that the city of LA announced and named Westwood, Persian Square.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

A Busy Saturday

It was Saturday and I came to work at 11:00 am. Contrary to my expectations, we were very busy today. We sold one runner to a returning customer. We also sold a 5' x 8' rug to another client.

We had three different customers who brought us rugs for cleaning and repair. Two of these clients had rugs damaged by their dogs. One of these dogs was a very mellow golden retriever who had chewed off and eaten a part of a hand knotted Afghan rug in 20 minutes when the customer was taking shower! The size of the damage was 10' x 10'.

The second rug damaged by dog was from another returning customer who had this hand knotted Persian rug in the family for a long time. When you have dogs and receive unconditional love from them, there maybe a price to pay!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Animal Trappings

Kyrgyz Animal Trapping

Early 20^th century. Wool/wool

Used primarily as decorations for horses, donkeys and camels. These trappings are head ornaments.

$275

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

BNI Regional Networking Workshop

We had a BNI regional networking workshop which started today at 7:00 am in the Olympic Collection in west Los Angeles. Our Money Makers chapter was the host so we were all there at 6:00 am!!

Breakfast of all kinds were self served. It was fun and educational with so many networking opportunities and contacts to be made. I do not have the numbers but it is my guess that more than 150 members and guests participated in this event.

Here are ten networking tips for savvy networkers that I picked up today:

1- Be prepared. Savvy networkers always have their networking tools with them. An ample supply of business cards, name badges, flyers, brochures, etc.
2- Arrive early, be relaxed and focus on learning about the other people in the room.
3- Have a plan. Have an idea of what the goal is for each event you attend.
4- Be a giver and /or connector. When you focus on "giving" and being helpful to others, the "getting" will come later.
5- Leave your troubles behind. Put on a happy face at the door. This the "show time".
6- Listen with focus. When someone is speaking with you, give that person your entire focus.
7-Be genuine. There is a huge difference between being INTERESTED and in trying to be INTERESTING. Be genuine in your interactions with others at an event. It comes back to building trust, to building "brand YOU".
8- Do teach/Don't sell. We know that the immediate sale of a product or a service is not the goal in networking.
9- Follow up. After the event, send a thank you card to each person that you had direct contact with. mention something from your discussion in the thank you card.
10-Follow up some more. Depending on where you look, marketing statistics state that it takes 7 to 12 impressions for a customer to make a buying decision. Meeting face to face is the 1st impression. An e-mail, a phone call, another card, a lunch date ... don't stop after 1 or 2 impressions. Keep going and dig deeper until you build the relationship you need to sell.

I guess I gave you enough valuable tips from this early morning BNI networking event. Now, I have to get back to work and practice what I learned there and preached here in this post!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Edward Fields Carpet

Since I published my earlier post on Edward Fields carpets a year ago on March 23, 2010, I have received many phone calls and e-mails regarding other Edward Fields carpets. Some of the owners of these beautiful high end carpets have pieces to sell. Some need advice on cleaning and repair. Few have had maintenance and insurance issues.

The pictures here belong to a house in Beverly Hills, CA with Edward Fields carpets. Our client who owned this house sold it and wanted us to remove the carpets, clean them, and install them in his new house. He had these carpets for almost forty years custom made for this house.

These carpets are expensive but at the same time, the material mostly wool and the dye is of such a great quality that last for decades. Having good rugs and carpets are good investment while you can use and enjoy them as well.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Tabriz Rug Repair Los Angeles

We picked up few Persian Tabriz rugs for cleaning and repair. One of them a nice 7' x 10' hand knotted Tabriz rug with silk foundation was damaged in the previous rug cleaning done by a cleaning company in Reseda, California.

After we did our professional rug cleaning, we did a cosmetic repair and implant of fringes on one end of the damaged rug. We delivered the rugs on Saturday afternoon. Our customer was very happy with the results.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Nowruz Persian New Year and President Obama

Today is March 21st, 2011 and the first day of Spring and when Iranian new year begins. It officially started yesterday Sunday afternoon at 4:20 pm Pacific Standard Time. President Obama sent a Nowruz Persian New Year message.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Nowruz Persian New Year at LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art

We attended a special event at LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Sunday March 13, 2011 here in Los Angeles. It was to celebrate the Iranian New Year called Nowruz meaning new day. We will have the first day of Spring on this coming Sunday March, 20th and this is when the Iranian new year officially begins.

There were several occasions and events held in LACMA this past Sunday. Farhang Foundation had partnered with LACMA to have these series of events. There were Persian folk and classic dances by Rosa Rojas Ensemble, Haft-Seen ( A major Nowruz traditional table setting which includes seven specific items starting with the letter 'S'), screening of the top films of 2011 Farhang Foundation Short Film Festival, children & youth program, and many more events. The prestigious Heritage Award 2011 was also given to Ms. Simin Behbahani in recognition of her lifetime extraordinary contribution to contemporary Persian poetry inspired by her deep love of truth.

The event started at 11:00 am and ended at 4:00 pm. My family and I along with hundreds who visited LACMA enjoyed the programs very much. We also visited several of the collections and the exhibitions at the Museum. Since I have dual membership, we did not have to pay for the tickets. I specially liked the Elizabeth Taylor in Iran exhibition.

In the evening we went to Aram Persian Restaurant in Beverly Hills and had Persian food. It was a nice and relaxing day after a week of busy work. Spending time with family and loved ones is always fun and wonderful.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Rug Sale Saint Patrick's Day

For this upcoming weekend we decided to have a rug sale for Saint Patrick's Day on our green rugs. As I have talked about them before in other blog posts, we have rugs which are referred to as Green Rugs. These Gabbeh rugs are woven by tribal ladies in the outskirts of Shiraz, Iran. From cutting the wool from the sheep, preparing the yarn, dyeing the wool, to weaving and producing the rug, everything is done through natural ways without any use of chemicals and everything is harmless to the environment.

This coming weekend we are going with the Saint Patrick's Day's theme of green and putting all of our Green Rugs on Sale with 30% OFF of all of our Green Rugs! And as always we will have our Professional Deep Rug Cleaning, Pet Urine Stain Removal, and Oriental Rug Repair.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

Rug Appraisal Rug Appraisers in Los Angeles

Some of our customers contact us and need rug appraisals. This can be for insurance purposes in case if they want to insure their rugs. Sometimes they have had water damages in their homes and they need to get appraisal to determine the lost value of the rugs due to flood caused by pipe breakage, laundry machine, or similar causes.

In some cases when parents pass away, the heirs would like to know the value of the rugs they have to be able to split the rugs. And this is when our appraisal services come in. In some cases, customers just want to know today's market value of their rugs and this has nothing to do with the legal or insurance aspects.

We have two types of rates and jobs. One is verbal and for information purposes. The other type is issuing certificates with all the technical details such as the origin, design, size, construction, knots per square inch and today's market value. For our own file, we also take high resolution digital pictures of the rugs.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.RugIdea.com
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085