Ultimate Lifestylist

Happy Holidays from our home to yours 

It's a new year with new opportunities. Smart technology is becoming mainstream and more affordable, we are spending a lot more time living and working at home, and people are turning on the cooktop for teh first time and experimenting with cooking. People are interested in learning about wine, not just drinking it, and there are lots of fun things in store for us. We can't wait to share! Happy 2021 - we thought that you would never get here! 

What a great month January has been! So many products and ideas it's hard to know where to start, but after attending the International Builders Show, The Kitchen and Bath Show, Design and Construction Week and the World Market Furniture Show, it's clear that natural stone products are stealing the show. We wrote about some of our favorite new trends on our Lifestylist Page, and now that we are back we've noticed some beautiful examples on Houzz as well. We also discovered MIA+BSI and their Use Natural Stone website - an easy to read and understand resource to decide which products are best for you.

Greetings From Orlando! We are hear to work and discover all of the new products and ideas during Design and Construction Week 2017. There is going to be so much to see and do - we are thrilled that we're able to get here early and get a sneak peek at what's going to debut on Tuesday.

Design and Construction is a marriage of The International Builders Show and the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show. It was such a great idea to bring these shows together - we love having everything at one time under the same roof!

My heart is not only in the home, it's in the kitchen. My day starts and ends there, it's that central place that makes my house a home.

Attending Design and Construction Week has become one of my favorite times of the year.  It's the perfect time to discover what's new and to network without professionals in our industry.

We came to Orlando before the show starts to get a view of what happens behind the scenes. The show opens Tuesday, but getting to see how much work is going on before the show opens makes up appreciate it even more.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to get live views of what makes this show so special.

What an innovative year 2015 turned out to be! Design and building trends shared innovations that we truly have only dreamed about, and 2016 is promising to be even more innovative in what products are offered for sale.

Ultimate Lifestylist® Suzanne Felber was asked to create a Lifestylist List of her top 10 trends in building for Candy'sDirt - read about which were her favorites.

Find out which products will be her favorites in 2016 by following her on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

It's true - holiday decorating seems to start earlier every year, and this year is no exception. We started seeing artificial trees, lights and ornaments in the stores in July which is crazy! Even though we are still having 70 degree days in Texas we've decided it's time to join in and start pulling out our favorite decorations and recipes - maybe this year we'll even take the tree down before February!

We love the State Fair of Texas. It's everything we love about living in Texas in one location - food, rides, creative arts, livestock competitions... and of course great people watching.

This photo is one of our favorites from this year - nothing comes between a girl and her steer when she's a member of FFA.

There are some great innovations happening in housing, especially in factory built housing. Many of the leaders of this sector have gathered in San Diego to network about what the future should hold. We are honored to have been asked to be part of this very prestigious group.

Labor Day is what seems like the last hurray of Summer.  Fall doesn't officially arrive until the 23nd but people pack up their vacation homes, enjoy this 3 day weekend and get ready for what's ahead.

We've had such a great Summer we don't want it to end here, especially when it comes to enjoying all of the fresh, locally grown produce we've been enjoying.

After another trip to the Farmers Market we are ready to see how we can make some of this goodness last - we already have berries and peaches in the freezer, and we are using tomatoes to make a marinara this morning. We'll be sharing recipes and ideas on our Lifestylist page and with Thermador.

Enjoy every minute of this beautiful day!

It's been a busy year, and this Lifestylist® has spent quite a bit of time traveling to visit clients and homeowners. Because of that I haven't spent as much time at The Home Idea Factory, but today I got to make up for that and experience again why I love living and working here.
Visiting The Workroom yesterday really got me inspired and I looked at what was around me with different eyes. Things I would have thrown away are now going to be recycled - just wait until you see what I am planning on doing with the two birds nests I found!
It may be Fall and we are almost to the middle of November, but things are still blooming. Daisy - my rescue dog helped me explore - take a look at some of the special finds we made today.

It's hard to believe that's it's been 10 years since Katrina set her eye on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. So much of the media was focused on New Orleans, but the entire Gulf Coast especially in Mississippi has yet to fully recover from her wrath.
When it became obvious that here was going to be extensive loss of housing , the Manufactured Housing Institute and the manufactured housing community sprung into action to make sue that people would have a place to live that was safe.
A few years after the storm MHI's magazine: Modern Homes had an article written by Lifestylist® Suzanne Felber with photography by Lisa Stewart Photography that shared what progress had been made, and what an important part of the rebuilding process manufactured housing played.
You can read a copy of the article here.

Oak Cliff dwellers know how to party, and the Mardi Gras parade is always one of the best parades of the year.

This year the Winnetka Heights neighborhood stole the show with their Wizard of Oz floats: There's No Place Like Home. We agree - why would you want to live anywhere but Oak Cliff?

Are you looking for ideas on how to plan the perfect wedding? Our Lifestylist Weddings page is full of helpful information. You can also check out our Pinterest page for more easy, inexpensive ideas.

The holidays have come and gone, and now we are busy getting ready to attend the International Builders Show and to learn about all of the new ideas and products that will be available to consumers this year.

We can't wait to share everything with you here, and in our social media sources. To find out what we find as we find it, follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. Be sure and "like" us on these - we'll be uploading all day long so you won't want to miss a thing.

Just when I thought I had heard it all.

We've been trying to get into the holiday spirit and since many of our friends and family are out of state I've been embracing buying online. We are busy compiling the Lifestylist® List which is full of our favorite gift ideas for this year and we've been spending a lot of time trying to find the perfect products.

I've had some wonderful experiences - Amazon.com can't be beat, especially with their new Amazon Smile program where you can shop and a percentage will go to the nonprofit of your choice.

In the spirit of giving, Shared Housing which is one of our favorite nonprofits were in need of some televisions so we gave them all of ours and got online to buy a few more. We had some Sears gift cards to use up so we went to their site and found one that would suit our needs.

Here's where things went really off track. First of all, with all of the talk this year about people stealing your information, fake sites and viruses, I was concerned when I went to the Sears.com and saw how many things were misspelled -often a sign of a fraudulent site. I did some checking and it seemed to be authentic even though I was having trouble with it and made my purchase, and a few minutes later I got a call from someone who said they were in fraud prevention and needed to ask me some questions to verify I made the purchase. Really, really strange questions so I got cold feet and said cancel my order.

A few days later I decided to call Sears and try to order the same item. They said they were honoring their "Cyber Week" pricing all week and when I talked to Mr. Jhon he said he could honor that pricing - he would just need to credit the difference back to my credit card at the end of the transaction.

Then I get another crazy call wanted to confirm personal information including my ex-husbands birthday and date of birth! At this point I just wanted to get what I ordered and be done with it so I complied. Go figure - after checking my credit card balance the credit was never given so here we go again.

After wasting over an hour with people this morning trying to resolve this, they put me through to a man who said their name was Master and that's how I should address him. And that no matter what I was told and promised I wouldn't be getting the credit on my credit card as I was promised, but they would be sending me another gift card.

I had stopped buying from Sears years ago because they never honored a very expensive warranty they sold me on a range - today I'm remembering why I swore that would be my last purchase.

Remember the Sears and Roebuck catalog when your word meant something and it was an American company based on integrity. Days like today really make me miss the qualities that company and so many others were built upon. And Master - best of luck with your career, you might want to find a new profession.

What a great week it has been! Spending time with family and friends, then a night at the beach before a busy couple of days with clients.

There was a wedding happening on the beach at sunset and we got this shot -hope this is the beginning of a wonderful forever.

I love New York. There is no other city like it in the world, and every day that we get to spend there turns into an adventure.

When I was lucky enough to have a place to stay in Tribeca I started the NYC Lifestylist blog, and I still enjoy writing about the small local places that you might just walk by and never notice. One of the places I always made sure that I visited is Porto Rico Importing Company - a company that has been offering the finest cofees and teas since 1907.

Their birthday sale is always worth shopping and stocking up at, and it's going on right now until October 31st. If you aren't lucky enough to be in NY and can buy at their store you can visit their website and buy online, and there's free shipping for orders over $75.00!

My favorite beans that they sell are Peter's Blend - smooth but with enough substance to it that it wakes me up in the morning.

Happy Birthday Porto Rico from the Lifestylist family!