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I feel so blessed that I have had the life I have, and because of that I feel compelled to give back every opportunity that I have. Giving people hope and helping others isn't that hard - sometimes it's as easy as just thinking about where you are shopping or making a purchase.
Nothing touches me more than violence to another living being, and the I have been very fortunate to have been introduced to the Genesis Women's Shelter in Dallas.The work they do is amazing, and what hurts me the most is how much of a need there is for safe havens like Genesis.
But back to giving back. Over a year ago Director Jan Langbein shared a story with some of her group about a boy who had come to live at one of the Genesis shelters. This six year old boy had never owned a new pair of shoes, and when he received the new pair of red sneakers he proclaimed that they were magic because the treads on them allowed him to walk up a slide backwards. From that story "Noah's Magic Shoes" came to be.
This beautifully illustrated book is truly a labor of love, and 100% of the proceeds benefit the Genesis Women's Shelter. You can purchase a copy for yourself or to share on the Genesis website. I shared my autographed copy that I purchased at the NorthPark Center event to my daughter who is a teacher. There are classroom lessons on the website prepared by Dr. Larkin Page, Professor of Children's Literature.
Make a difference this year by sharing the story of "Noah's Magic Shoes" - it is a gift that will truly keep on giving.

I just saw an article in Nation's Building News today about The New American Home.  This publication is the official online newspaper of The National Association of Home Builders, and is available to you if you are a member of this amazing organization.
If you are not a member, please feel free to contact us - we'll get the information to you that you need in time to join us at the International Builders Show and tour the home!

I just returned from a magical week in Orlando. Someone said they scatter pixie dust at the airport when you arrive, and I'm starting to believe them. Not only was I able to take part in a home that will probably be one of the the high points of my Lifestylist® career, but I was also blessed to spend some very special time with my kids and grandkids and share my Lifestylist® approach with them. Being a Lifestylist incorporates life and style, and getting creative in the kitchen is definitely part of that.
As part of the staging for The New American Home, I purchased a large amount of beautiful granny smith apples to add color and lifestyle to the kitchen. After we were finished with the shoot, I thought why not recycle them and make a pie with the grandkids? Neither of them had tried making a pie before, and with Thanksgiving being only a week away I thought this could be a great time to make their first.
Jenna may only be 8 yrs old, but she loves to cook and is really good at it. She has taken part in the Jr Chef Camp at the Gaylord Texan that Chef Joanne teaches, and was excited about trying out her culinary skills making a pie. Many adults would be daunted by this task, but Jenna dug right in. After teaching her some basic knife skills and precautions, she peeled and cored all of the apples herself. Brother Christian decided to help us make the crust, and we made a huge mess (sorry Trish!) but I'm sure it was a day that they will always remember.
I am so grateful to have the loving, supportive family I have, and the amazing clients that believe in me and what I do. Here's to the start of a holiday season filled with hope, happiness and lots of pixie dust!

Anyone who has ever spent time in a model home has heard a buyer ask the sales person where they can purchase something that they see in the home. More often than not, the builder and sales team don't have any idea, and that memory point is lost.
Lifestylist Design recently did a home for American Custom Builders that was a "ready to go home" - everything in the home was purchased within 10 miles of the home or was available online. By keeping the number of stores used to a minimum, buyers were easily able to see how they could make their new home look "just as good as the model home". All of the furniture used was from a local Ashley Home Store, and buyers purchasing one of the homes received a discount on their own purchases after they closed on their home.
Take a look at a video we just completed of the home and see for yourself how beautifully this concept can be accomplished.

Being a Lifestylist sometimes means getting off the beaten path, and when you do you never know what you'll discover.
This week I was in Western NY for the opening of the Riedman Development and @home Builders Design Center, and decided to take a different route back to the airport. When I did I drove past The Great Pumpkin Farm and knew I had to check it out. If you are in that area it's a must visit, if not take a look at the video we put together.  Happy Halloween!

I just found out today  Champion Homes has a Facebook page that they are getting ready to add a lot of information and photos to. When I went to check it out, I found photos of the Lifestylist® Designed home we merchandised for them at the Tulsa show and heard that there will be more photos to come of the Texas Show. If you haven't "liked " this page yet be sure to do so - that way you'll be one of the first to see all of the exciting new changes.

Finally - The Great State Fair of Texas is less than a week away! Honestly, I'm way behind on testing recipes, but I'm ready to get started. One of the great things about entering a lot of the cooking competitions is that if you do that for 3 consecutive years you get a season pass! We live only a few miles away from the fairgrounds so many evenings we'll head over to the fair to have dinner.Talk about being a Lifestylist® - I can't think of a better lifestyle than people who are involved with the state and local fairs, and how interesting and diverse the people are who attend them.
After spending so much time on my fair entries, I've come up with a new concept that I've started working on - The Lazy Cook. Note I say cook, not chef -it drives me crazy when people call themselves chefs yet they have no professional training or work experience. To me that totally takes away from how hard these people have worked to earn the title of chef. I love to cook, and as the years go by I'm even more concerned about eating well.
Keep your fingers crossed that this will be a good year - I plan on sharing not only my entries but also the unique (and sometimes weird!) food you can find at a fair.

We just finished part two of the Extreme Model Home Challenge and I couldn't wait to share the results! Champion Homes of Texas is doing an incredible job bringing truly affordable homes to market that are full of amazing options. It's hard to believe that these are budget conscious homes - all of the extras add up to a lot of value.
We had three weeks to add the Lifestylist® Designed touch to these homes and it helps to have great companies that help us meet our deadlines. What was really important to us as far as the merchandising went was to use the right color and scale with the furniture and accessories to show people how they could live in these homes. Even the smaller home has room to do a dining set to seat 4, and the larger home featured a great room large enough to fit a huge leather sectional that will be perfect for football watching parties.
There were too many great ideas in these homes to put in one article, so we are going to do a few separate stories to share the different features. If you want to take a look at these homes in person you need to do it quickly - customers are already fighting over the merchandised smaller home so they probably won't be at the plant for long. For more information contact Marc Mmedders@championhomes.com

Today is an absolutely perfect day The weather has cooled off to where I'm thinking about changing my home decor to suit the cooler temperatures. - it sounds like a lot of work, but a few changes can make all of the difference in how you enjoy your home. One of my favorite ways to warm things up is with area rugs.
One of my designers with Shaw Living just sent me a copy of their 2010 introductions and they are stunning! Whether you are looking for a bold, urban look or a more classic pattern they have something for you and the colors are right on trend.They also have rugs in their Ever-Touch yarns which feel amazing underfoot or make a great place to lay down and watch the football games.
With hard flooring surfaces becoming more popular every day, and area rug is a great way to add color and warmth. This is a model home for American Custom Builders that was Lifestylist® Designed, and you can see what a difference it made adding this Shaw area rug. It was a long, narrow space and the rug helped add color and define the space. In The Home Idea Factory I have summer rugs that are lighter and in more coastal textures, and in the fall I bring out my area rugs that are in deep, rich colors. Add a few new pillow covers and a throw on the sofa and I'm ready to go!

I am so excited! I just learned that Bobby Flay traveled to Tucson and had a "throwdown" with the Matias family at Teresa's Mosaic Cafe. This is a restaurant that we did the interior of, and as with all Lifestylist® Designed challenges we spent a lot of time getting to know the family and their needs before we came up with a plan.
Teresa's is all about family and the wonderful handmade food so the interior had to have as much personality as the family does. To do this we designed tables made of handmade tiles - thousands of them all that we made by hand. It was an extensive amount of work but the results were definitely worth it.
The episode airs on the Food Network - check out dates and times for your area.

As a Lifestylist®, I spend quite a lot of time touring homes in different cities looking for new ideas and trends. Last week I was in South Haven, MI meeting with a client and discovered a great store - Props - who's slogan is: "Your Home is Your Stage... Add Some Drama".

So many times the drama is missing from our homes, and the customer loses interest in the home before they finish their tour. Here are some inexpensive Lifestylist® Designed ideas that  you can use to add some drama to your model homes.

Color    Color can be a really easy way to wake up a home that has been sitting on your lot too long. Paint is one way, but you also do something as simple as changing out the pillows on your upholstery to give a room a new look. Artwork is also a very effective way to change the feel of a room and make it more memorable.

Emotion     Do your homes pull at the potential buyer's heartstrings or just leave them uninspired? Accessories and textures can add warmth and emotion to a home. One of my favorite staging tricks is setting the dining table and having it look like the new buyers are getting ready for a dinner party. Plates, napkins, and glassware can only cost a few dollars each but can give your home a festive feel that the buyers will remember.

Shake Things Up Have you ever noticed that by moving furniture around and changing out accessories you can make the room have a completely different feel? Freshening up your homes might not cost you a dime - it might take a little muscle.

These are only a few ideas that we would love to share with you. If you don't have the time to work on your models yourself we would be happy to provide the services necessary to make your sales center more dramatic. The Home Idea Factory is All About You, and we would love to become your "go to" resource for all of your design needs.

Feel free to contact us to find out more about what we do at: info@lifestylist.com

It's hard to believe it's already time for Homearama again - where does the time go? But this is the perfect time to visit Rochester - the produce season is in full swing, perfect weather and it's also a great time to be thinking about decorating ideas to warm up your home with.
This year this annual event will be held at WaterSong in Penfield August 14th - 22nd. Sponsored by the Rochester Homebuilders Association this 9 days will not only highlight these 5 beautiful homes but there will also be an abundance of wine tasting, cooking demos and decorating seminars.
Lifestylist® Design has teamed up with @home Builders three different years to participate in this great event, but my favorite home was definitely the Ronald McDonald Show House we did a few years ago. We teamed up with the amazing group of volunteers from the Ronald McDonald House and merchandised a home using furniture, artwork and accessories that were donated to Ronald McDonald for their annual ABC Sale.It was truly a Lifestylist® Designed home -  I spent three months going over images they would send me of new donations and digging through their warehouse to find the perfect items for this home and by the end we did!
It was a fun challenge to show how you can do a beautifully decorated home using only "gently cherished" items. The best part was @home Builders then did an online auction and visitors to the home could bid on each room. All of the proceeds then went to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. From this, the dinner auction prize and other events that @home Builders did with the home they were able to raise over $25,000 for the charity. To see photos and get more information about this show house, check out the website we designed for it.

I do love being a Lifestylist®, and getting the opportunity to travel across the country meeting new people and spotting new trends. Recently I was up in the 1,000 Island area of NY and spent a day just driving and looking at the magnificent architecture and natural beauty of that area.
When I found this little cabin tucked by the river I fell in love - especially with the brightly colored Adirondack Chairs in the front of it. Of course I took a picture and never forgot what a great, happy look this was.
Then the other day I was walking through Home Depot and found these bright, happy chairs and I had to have them! Especially since they were only $12.00 each and maintenance free. I love what a difference they made in the backyard of the Idea Factory - even when I'm not out reading a book or birdwatching on them I love just being able to look out the window and seeing the burst of color.
It's easy to use an accent of color to wake up any space. It can be done with pillows in a living room, towels in a bath or with plates in a dining room. Great, fun design doesn't have to be expensive - you just need to be brave enough to try different ideas out.

When I work on a model home, my first priority is bringing the outside in - what's going to make the buyer feel like what he experienced before he walked into the model continues into his model experience?
My son just gave me the perfect example - he is buying a new home in Florida, and was troubled after seeing the new model home because they didn't like the colors or feel of the home after it was merchandised. It bothered them so much they actually considered canceling the sale. The colors and the lack of lifestyle felt like they could have been in any city in any community, but it didn't have the warmth that they anticipated their home would have.
At Lifestylist® Design we focus on lifestyle, and what they buyer hopes to experience in his new life in your new home. We just finished doing a Lifestylist® Designed home for @home Builders in Baldwinsville, NY and I thought I'd share the thought process on how we came up with this home.
Timber Banks is a new incredible planned community near Syracuse, NY that features an 18 hole, Nicklaus designed golf course, river frontage with it's own marina, clubhouse, and a stunning, natural beauty all around you that you can call home. It seemed only natural that I would bring this lifestyle and the colors I saw all around me into the design of the model. We went with some of the foggy greys, clear blue sky, river rocks and eco-greens that we discovered on our walks and as a result when you are in the home it truly pulls the outside in.  Plan a visit to the Timbers yourself and see what we accomplished - contact Teresa Carpenter with @home Builders for more information at:  315-635- 6006.

I'm a huge believer that things happen for a reason. We may not know why at the time, but people, places, and events come into our lives because there's something we need to learn or change.
The USA Film Festival has been a part of my life for over 20 years - a good friend was in the film industry here in Dallas and got me involved. It's been a wonderful organization that my kids have grown up being a part of as well. We now have friends and memories that will last us a lifetime. When I got the screening notice for the USA Film Festival screening of Restrepo I was intrigued- not the type of film I would normally watch but worth taking an evening to stop working and go see. I had no idea how my life would change by this decision as it has with many of the other films I've been able to see as part of the festival.
If you haven't been fortunate enough to hear about this film, I'm honored to fill you in. Restrepo is a documentary about a platoon that is stationed at a 15 man outpost in one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan - Restrepo. What this film isn't about is politics. One of the reasons I love it so much is when I sat down in the theater I thought I'd be watching a film about a war, instead I was treated to a visual and emotional  rollercoaster which by the end had me experiencing every emotion and left me wanting to see the film again, and again, and again. I thought I could come home and write about what I saw, but it's been really hard to put into words my emotions about what I watched. I just can't stop thinking about the film and the men in it, but I consider that a great thing because it's made me re-evaluate lots of things in my own life.
Directors' Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger didn't shoot this on a sound stage, have a 100 million dollar budget or spend their time interviewing generals - they personally spent 14 months with the courageous men of Restrepo doing the filming and everything the soldiers do except guard duty and shooting back during firefights. This is what makes the film so special - they became a part of the troop and were able to capture the very personal side of war.
As a Lifestylist® I spend a lot of time listening and watching to understand the needs and lifestyles of the client. Watching the film and having the opportunity to meet some of these courageous men has given me an entirely new insight on the sacrifice the men and women of our military make for us every day. National Geographic Entertainment is presenting this film and the director's uncanny gift of showing you details that you normally would overlook but you'll now never forget reminds me of the style I love in their media. Bullet shells falling into the soldiers shoe during a gun fight, children in the middle of a burned out war zone in brightly colored clothes, soldiers struggling to carry on after losing one of their own, and most of all looking into the faces and eyes of these very brave men - many who don't even look old enough to drive but are protecting our country.
We were so honored to have director Tim Hetherington and two of the soldiers from Restrepo at the screening to share their thoughts and experiences with us. Respect is something that is earned, and you could tell that all of these men respected each other. Another thing I loved about the film was the way it portrayed the personal side of these men, and even though they were in a war zone they still loved to play practical jokes on each other and just laugh sometimes. USA Film Festival hosted a reception after the film and we were able to ask more questions and learn more about the film and the people. During the Q&A a woman stood up that has a husband stationed in Afghanistan right now, and she said that she wished that every soldier's family member could view the film. It helped her understand what her husband is dealing with on a daily basis.
Restrepo isn't a big budget, big studio film, but it has a story that needs to be seen and told. Show your support and help get this important message out by joining the Restrepo Facebook page and by letting your local movie theaters know that this is a film you want to have come to their venue.
I had mentioned that Restrepo is a life changer, and for me it has been. From now on when I see someone who is serving I'm going to thank them for serving and protecting myself and my country. There is so much we take for granted, and I'm going to try and change that in my own life. With this being the 4th of July weekend Restrepo has given me a lot of think about and be thankful for.

Looking for the perfect home to enjoy lake front living all year long? Look no further - this beautiful 5 bedroom home is what you have been searching for!

Lifestylist® Suzanne Felber and photographer Lisa Stewart visited this week to stage, photograph and help the owner market their home. See why Lifestylist® Marketing can give you the edge you are looking for to help you sell more homes.

Take a look at the You Tube video of the home, or contact Norma K. Smith for more information.

American Custom Builders is inviting neighbors and interested buyers to it's Sneak Peek Sunday today from 1-3pm. Take advantage of the opening to view our latest Lifestylist Designed home and see for yourself this fresh approach to home building and design. All of the furniture is from the local Ashley HomeStore and consumers can go and purchase almost everything they see in the homes themselves. This new marketing approach to model home merchandising is proving to be very successful - come and see the results!