It’s hot as heck here today – the 1st day of August and it’s supposed to reach 106 degrees! So today instead of even trying to do anything outside I decided to work on one of my new goals and start simplifying my life and style.

Have you noticed how easy it is to make impulse purchases now and how things just start piling up? I think I inherited a little of my parents recession-fear mentality and it’s hard for me to pass up anything free like the little soaps and shampoos that you get in hotels.  As a Lifestylist® I’m always picking up cool and unusual items that I plan on using for staging or merchandising a model home – thanks heavens the Home Idea Factory has lots of storage or I’d be in big trouble!

Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to The Family Place – an amazing resource for abused women and families. I serve on the board for HomeAid / HomeBuilders Care in Dallas and we just built new apartments, a clinic and a school room for them and it was so rewarding to see what we were able to accomplish. We were also able to meet some of the women who live there and what a difference the Family Place has made in our lives. As we toured we also found out what a great need they have for some of those things I’ve been collecting and today I’m going to start simplifying my life to help them with their fresh start.

Ronald McDonald House in Rochester, NY is another charity very close to my heart.  A few years ago we did a home that was merchandised completely with items that had been donated to the charity, then auctioned off to benefit Ronald McDonald House. I’ll be forever grateful to the volunteers and Rochester community who donated such beautiful items to work with!

Towels, sheets, bath products, diapers… these are all things we may have an abundance of but don’t want to throw out the ones that we don’t use as much anymore. Stuffed animals that we tend to collect at fairs and in crane games would be cherished by a child that had to leave everything behind to get to safety.

It feels so good to clean away some of the clutter and know that these items are going to help someone else. The less you have to organize the easier it will be!

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.

One of my favorite lifestyle items that many people don’t think about is towels. Think about how many times a day you use one, but when it’s time to make a purchase we spend more time worrying about cost and color than value. A typical family of 4 owns 15 towels, and we tend to hold on to them longer than maybe we should. My parents own a lake house and received 20 beach towels that were promotional items at least 10 years ago and we still use them!

My favorite store to buy towels from is JC Penney. They always have sales going on, but you can get a luxurious bath towel in beautiful current colors for under $10.00. As a Lifestylist® and model home merchandiser I buy a lot of towels for my job, and JC Penney is always my first stop for this purchase. Their sheets and bedding can’t be beat as well. Instead of buying all of your towels the same color, try buying coordinating colors. That way you can mix and match, and each family member or houseguest can have their own color so you’ll always know which is yours!

We found out today that Lifestylist® Design and articles by Lifestylist® Suzanne Felber are being featured in a new book – The Manufactured Housing Revolution. Published by mhmsm.com, this book will be full of great articles and information that you can use every day. Information about the Trailer Diva will be included as well – if you aren’t familiar with this personality you should be!

We also got a mention on the back cover so we are very excited! To get your own copy, check out mhmsm.com today.

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.

Summer is officially here, and many of us are wondering how to keep the kids (or guests) entertained. When I was much younger, we used to go to the beach on Lake Erie with my Aunt Julie who is an artist. She always had great ideas on how we could do art projects using found objects, and we used to love making animals by gluing river rocks together then adding color and faces using Sharpie markers.

When I started my first company – Memory Merchandising – I wanted to stand out from the crowd so I made all of my own business cards using rubber stamps for an imprint that I then tinted using Prismacolor pencils. I’ve been told that people still have kept some of those because they thought they were so unique.

Today while I was web surfing I found two great websites full of ideas that can keep all of us busy for the entire year, if not more!

Sharpie Uncapped is a really fun site that has all kinds of ideas on how you can get creative with a Sharpie. I personally love the mugs, and think I may be heading out to Staples today to buy some new colors and play. I also love how they play up the talents of various artists and how they are really embracing the art community. If we had more companies like this the world might become a more colorful place.

Prismacolor has an amazing site as well, and I can’t wait to spend more time on it. You can upload your works of art to be showcased on their site, and a feature I really love is the color coordinator. You can use a virtual color wheel and they will tell you which of their products matches that color.

Congratulations to both of these companies for having websites that just aren’t about selling but offer great information that anyone can appreciate and use. I have some thank-you cards I need to send out – think I’ll be trying some of their ideas and making some handmade ones! Lifestylist Designed greeting cards here I come!

There are days (actually most of them!) when I love being a Lifestylist®, and this week was a great one. I was able to work with the amazing team at Champion Homes of Texas and finish the XTreme Model Home Challenge, then I was invited to the corporate headquarters for DalTile to view some new products they are working on.

Honestly, I don’t know why more companies don’t ask for our help – being able to give input to DalTile helps all of us in the long run. They get to learn about what we need and haven’t been able to find, and by learning about what DalTile is working on I’m able to be sure that my clients know about these amazing new and current products so they can take advantage of them as well.

DalTile has always done an amazing job of understanding the needs of designers and builders and delivering beautiful products that are exactly what the homeowner is looking for. After spending a few days with their team, I think I know know how they achieve this – they listen. The innovative new products they will be launching that we got to see are obviously the product of really listening to and understanding the lifestyle of today’s buyer. With more people wanting the ease of maintenance that tile affords as well as it being so family and pet friendly, tile is going to become even more important in tomorrow’s homes. I can’t give everything away, but soon you will be seeing tile that is so simple to install even I could do it and they are using new technologies to produce glass and mixed materials into mosaics that are worthy of being hung in a museum, but you will be able to easily install them in your own home. It was like they could read my mind – things that I had only dreamed about being able to use in my homes will soon be a reality.

Tile can be very intimidating to a novice homeowner, and with so many beautiful choices it can be very hard to choose what is your favorite. DalTile has helped take some of the guesswork out of this by having an easy to use website full of ideas. They also have design centers around the country that are staffed with some of the most knowledgeable designers I’ve ever worked with, and they are full of inspirations on how you can use tile to create your own dream home. They were very helpful to me when I was working on the new Design Center for @home Builders that will be opening soon – if you have a chance to stop by you should. They also helped me design the great kitchen backsplash for the new model home that just opened at Frisco Ranch for American Custom Builders.

Now it’s my turn to listen. I would love to hear about how you have used tile in your home. Feel free to contact us at: answers@lifestylist.com and share your beautiful rooms with us!

We are starting a new blog – Lifestylist® Advisory Services. As Lifestylists® we are out in the trenches every day finding new sources, great foodie destinations and  traveling from coast to coast truly experiencing life and style. On our new blog we will share the best and the worst of customer experiences, and we already have some experiences that might surprise you. The best part is that all of this is at no charge to you – please just let the businesses that you learned about here know where you found out about them.

Have you had some experiences you would like to share with us? Email us at: answers@lifestylist.com and we’ll share the best ones on the Lifestylist® Advisory.

Summer is definitely here, and I decided to celebrate this Memorial Day weekend by trying out my Lifestylist® skills making something I’ve been craving – homemade ice cream. Lucky for me JC Penney had a great sale on so I got a great deal on my new Cuisinart Flavor Duo and it’s exactly what I wanted – easy prep and cleanup and you don’t need a bunch of items that you already wouldn’t have around the house. No rock salt needed – this uses two freezer bowls that easily fit and can stay in your freezer. I LOVE that it has the two separate bowls so you can make two different flavors at the same time without making more than you can eat in a weekend.

For my test run I opted for a fresh peach ice cream using peaches grown at the wonderful Lemley Farms in Tyler. They have a stall at our local Farmers Market and I couldn’t pass them up. I like a custard style ice cream which means you have to do some cooking but it was well worth it. There are some recipes in the instruction manual for ice cream where you just add ingredients – no cooking necessary.

The entire process could not have been easier, and sitting on the porch eating fresh ice cream brought back such great memories of the times our family shared when we all got together of all of the holidays. Now I can’t wait for my grandkids to visit so I can make some ice cream and memories with them as well.

Today was a great day – I got a lot of work done on my gardens then we went to our local farmers market to pick up some goodies for the week.

The Home Idea Factory is in an area of Dallas called Oak Cliff and we are very fortunate because we are close to town but it’s an older established area that is really coming into it’s own. Some amazing restaurants have opened, I’ve heard there is now an organic coop and now we even have our own coffee company – Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters. So today we picked up some coffee, and sampled our way through the local farmer stalls at the Dallas Farmers Market. Local peaches were just coming into season and there also was a bounty of tomatoes, onions, squash and cucumbers. It’s going to be a healthy tasty week around here!

Some vendors are only there weekends and we discovered the Lucky Layla Farms which had amazing cheeses. I bought the Fresh Campesino which was perfect with my tomatoes, avocados and cucumbers for lunch. I’m going to make some homemade ice cream to use with the peaches for dessert.

One of the best things about being a Lifestylist is getting to explore what’s out there and figure out how to make it approachable and accessible. I was amazed how much I saved by buying at the farmers market vs. a typical grocery store – I got 5 huge beautiful tomatoes that were picked that morning for $1 each! My goodies helped me make a quick and healthy lunch for under $1.50 per serving.

We have got to support our local farmers and businesses. The Lemley family has been bring exceptional tomatoes, peaches and other produce to the farmer’s market for over 30 years. I know that a lot of the better restaurants in town also buy from them and I can’t imagine a summer without their goodies. It’s exciting to have all of these choices now and I plan on supported them so they are here for years to come.