I’ll keep this one short and sweet because I’m packing my bags—yeah baby, I’m off to Vegas!
No, it’s not what you think! I’m not there to roll the dice or bet on the Super Bowl. Even better, I’m going to World Market Center for the Home Furnishings Las Vegas Market.
What’s that? It is an industry convention and trade show for designers, buyers and retailers, but mainly it’s an opportunity to buy furniture. It can be overwhelming because the show occupies floor upon floor in building after building. There are thousands upon thousands of people, and the displays of furniture and accessories and lighting just go on and on and on!
So it can be overwhelming, but for anyone in the industry, it’s beyond fabulous! I can’t wait, it’s so much fun, like being a kid in a candy store.
I know you’re going to want to take a peek too, so I’ll be sure to send you some pics from Vegas! And who knows, maybe I’ll have a go at the slot machines! Ciao, baby!
I’m getting hot just thinking about it! What, you ask? Our What’s Hot in 2010 Home and Business Trend Fashion Show that we had at our business mixer last week.
We had our first Mix It Up! event of the year at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii last Thursday, and it was smoking! Almost 300 people showed up to mix business with fun. There were delicious pupus, and as always, fun networking games to get the crowd mingling and getting people to meet our online experts.
We even had booths where companies could display their products and services—the biggest and the best belonging to Central Pacific Bank and Central Pacific HomeLoans, our presenting sponsors for the night.
The big winner of the night was Chuck Allen, who won a $1500 diamond and blue topaz pendant from Dale Cripps and Mihye Cortese of Dale Cripps Antiques and Treasures, longtime sponsors of RSVPstyle events.
But the highlight of the evening was our What’s Hot in 2010 fashion show. You know me, I like to do creative, out-of-the box, crazy things, and this was no exception! I emceed as our participating experts worked the runway, showcasing what’s going to be hot in their fields in the coming year. And boy, did they rock the stage!
There was all kinds of action, from Jeff Fox of Kahala Associates throwing money into the crowd to show how he can put money back into your pocket, to Tracy Wright Corvo, who brought out adorable models to illustrate how to adorn your walls with giant art photographs of your child. They were so cute as they paraded onto the stage with their photos in front of their faces.
One of the most creative was American Carpet One, showing why Karndine flooring is hot: It can withstand pets, spike heels and babies, and on top of all that, it’s water-resistant! Very clever.
So if you missed out on all the fun and excitement of this Mix It Up!, be sure to make time for the next. As I always say, Who says you can’t mix business with fun?
Where has the time gone? It almost seems too late to say happy new year—but Happy New Year!
2010 is already going by way too fast. My apologies for not posting sooner. To give you an idea of why, it’s almost 10:00 at night, and we’re still here at the office preparing for Thursday night’s event.
It’s our first big one of the year, a new feature for us, our Mix It Up! business-to-business event. It’s to get businesspeople together to network and do some business in this tough economy. There’s going to be pupus, cocktails—and you know me and games, love ‘em!—and networking games to make sure people are circulating and having a good time.
I’m very excited because we’re doing a first-of-its-kind home and business trend fashion show. What is that? I’m glad you asked. Being that it’s the first month of the year, I’ve asked some of our online experts for their predictions of what’s going to be hot in 2010. I’m going to give you a sneak peek of what’s coming down the catwalk on Thursday.
Color Me Devine is going to strut their predictions for the hottest colors of 2010. I can’t give it all away, but 2010’s accent colors will include apricots, turquoises and aquas.
American Carpet One is going to feature their ever-popular Karndine flooring. I heard that to show how durable it is, they’re even going to have a dog walk down the Karndine runway. How cute is that?
Central Pacific Bank and Central Pacific HomeLoans are the presenting sponsors. Here’s a hint at what they’ll be doing: CPB is cooking up a recipe for success, and their HomeLoans Division is doing double-duty as superheroes!
It’s going to be fun, I can’t wait, but right now I’m totally stressed out. My next blog, I’ll show you all the highlight photos and let you in on all the fun. We’ll have fabulous prizes—I’ll show you those pics too. But for now, back to work!
Hope you are enjoying the holidays and all the festivities that go along with it. I know it can be a stressful time for many, and yes, it has been for the Lee family as well.
Holiday traditions are great, from baking and delivering Christmas cookies to decorating the tree (Nicki is still waiting to put the star on the very top, but Daddy says she’s getting too heavy to lift that far up). If you’re like our family, those traditions include a family Christmas photo.
Since Nicki was born 10 years ago, Darrell and I decided that every Christmas, we’d take a family photo so Nicki and family and friends can see how she’s grown from a baby into a young lady.
With me being the Type A perfectionist, this has evolved into a full-scale production. Now friends and family say they look forward to seeing what we’re going to do that’s new and different from the year before. That’s great, but it adds a whole new level of holiday stress!
This year I turned to Dr. Jon Yoshimura, who happens to be one of our experts. You’ll find him at www.rsvpstyle.com/experts/jonyoshimuradds. He’s an amazing cosmetic dentist with an eye for beauty and detail. His other professional passion is fashion photography, and he’s done some headshots for me that I loved.
My concept this year was to do a glamorous, blinged-out, stylish card with a very simple, sweet, reflective message. Darrell, Nicki and I went to Jon’s studio armed with props—you know me, the homestyler! I brought in an area rug and a red-hot lounge chair along with the fake red gladiolas that sit on my desk, and the three of us dressed in black and bling.
In this image, Jon is taking a picture from atop a ladder so that the area rug becomes part of the background. I wanted the rug’s black-and-white pattern to almost serve as a retro backdrop, and the red to be the pop of color. John simply added a black cloth backdrop, and that was all we needed for a cool, contemporary, totally hot look!
As for the simple message, here it is:
I thought I’d share with you just a couple more favorites from years past. When Nicki was 5, we took a black-and-white photo on beach near the Kahala Hotel. An artist hand-painted Nicki’s grass skirt and I got little coconut shells for her bikini top. The effect was very simple and it felt like old Hawaii.
One of Darrell’s favorites was done two years after. My concept for this was our family all connected and holding hands, lying in a bed of rose petals. It was black and white again, with the color coming from the red petals.
It’s a labor of love coming up with the concept, finding the props and composing a special message. Darrell and Nicki are great sports to go along with Mom’s crazy ideas, but in the end they’re happy with it, it creates great memories for our family, and it’s something to share with others. Now I have a whole nother year to plan the next one!
Merry Christmas! Hope you’re enjoying your family’s holiday traditions!
A few days ago, Lissa, Kara and I took our girls, Megan, Keri and Nicki, to the mall—not just for ordinary Christmas shopping, but for a very special shopping trip. The three girls are Christmas angels for the Children’s Alliance, a non-profit that helps sexually abused children who are taken out of their homes.
The Children’s Alliance runs programs to help the kids regain their self-esteem and create stable home environments for them. They post info to alert and educate people about signs of possible sexual abuse in kids. And during the holidays they find a Christmas angel for each child, who gets to make three Christmas gift wishes totaling up to $50. Kara has served on the board of directors of this amazing charity and has been doing this with Keri for years, and we thought it would be great to let Megan and Nicki become Christmas angels too.
Since Christmas angels don’t meet their kids, we requested children of about the same ages as ours to help them identify better as they chose their gifts. Nicki is 10 and her child is a 9-year-old girl named Jiana. Here’s what Nicki has to say about the experience:
“It makes you feel good inside about what you’re doing. I never guessed how little she wanted—stickers, a Roxy shirt and a board game. If it was me, I would have asked for a Wii game. ”
I loved that the girls really took this mission to heart. They took tons of time really shopping for their child. They worked together and helped each other, asking, How about this? Do you think she’ll like that? Nicki kept saying how she really wanted something special for Jiana to open up on Christmas morning.
That whole afternoon was a selfless activity—no shopping for themselves, just strictly a time to think of other kids.
Kara says that the Children’s Alliance found a Christmas angel for each and every child this year, but there are many other ways that you can help throughout the year. For more information on this wonderful charity, go to www.cahawaii.org.
One of our RSVPstyle experts, broker extraordinaire Kay Mukaigawa of Primary Properties, decided to hold a sunset broker’s open at one of her mega-listings on Kahala Avenue.
How to attract nearly 100 Realtors and brokers to this event? Have a fashion show! Even more creative thinking: Kay’s models were Realtors from a variety of companies. Six in all graced the runway—oops, I mean staircase and hallway!
Fun, flirtatious and funky fashions were provided by In My Closet in Kahala Mall. The jewelry was by Riches, the fabulous accessory kiosk in the same mall, and the shoes were provided by Stuart Weitzman in Ala Moana Center.
And to make it all come together, Kay needed an emcee with a big mouth and a passion for fashion, so of course she asked moi. It was a lot of fun. Everybody noshed on appetizers, enjoyed the fashion show and took in the beautiful Mediterranean-style home, with its handmade wrought iron railings, movie theater, luxurious master bedroom and guest suites and waterfall and swimming pool.
I had a blast getting the girls to work that runway, and even I was outfitted and had the accessories to boot, so of course I couldn’t resist the opportunity to strut my stuff too! A beautiful setting, fun and fashion—what a great combination!
If you’d like to see some Hawaii homes on an upcoming episode of HGTV’s Bang for Your Buck, contact them right away! Cyndi, who’s in charge of tasking for the show, tracked me down through our website and asked me to help put the word out. She told me they’re on a very tight deadline. They’re coming to shoot in the third week of January, and they need three rooms that have been remodeled in the last year.
The show compares three similar-budget remodels of the same type of room to see which does the best job in increasing the property’s value. In other words, their professional designer determines whether the homeowners got a lot of bang for their buck!
Yeah, I know you think all your rooms are great, but they’re specifically looking for rooms that flow from kitchen to dining to family room—basically an open space that serves more than one purpose. The remodel budgets need to be within the $40,000 to $200,000 range.
I think they’re a little desperate here, folks, so we need to help them out. If Cyndi can’t find some rooms, they’re going to another state!
It’ll be fun to do and it’ll be great for putting Hawaii in front of millions of potential tourist eyes also. So if you’d like to be on TV and see your room on TV, you can get more information at www.hgtv.com/bang or contact Cyndi directly at (303) 712-3177 or cortiz@highnoontv.com.
First and foremost, congratulations to Mahealani Richardson and hubby Mike Yasutake, who early Tuesday morning welcomed their baby boy, Sky, into the world. I’m so happy for you, Mahealani!
So obviously, for my KITV homestyle segment yesterday morning I knew I’d be working with Dan, which is always a lot of fun. The topic was something that I had initially planned with Mahealani: decorating your home for the holidays.
But I wanted to add a little twist to the idea—this would not be about anything with candy canes, glitter or Santa Claus on it, but really finding ways to dress up your home with items you may already have, or finding items you can use year-round. A practical yet beautiful approach for the times! Look for the article and photos at www.rsvpstyle.com the first week of December.
But here’s a couple of behind-the-scenes photos of what happened after the camera stopped rolling. Since I was decorating with metallics and the color of champagne, of course I brought in a bottle of bubbly as a prop to fill a couple of glasses for Dan and me to end with a toast to Mahealani! Now, we couldn’t let that prop go to waste! So I also brought in a half-gallon of orange juice to make mimosas for the crew, but of course they’re working, so we drank virgin mimosas >wink-wink< and made a toast with Dan, Yasmin and the crew to the new mom.
So congratulations, Mahealani, I’m sure you’re probably reading this, because you’re not getting any sleep!
Seen any great musicals lately? I did, this past weekend: the Gridiron by the Society of Professional Journalists. The theme was “Doing Less with Less”—we all know what that means! It was hilarious and I’m still laughing!
Of course I have a soft spot for KITV’s Mahealani Richardson, who is in her eighth month of pregnancy. She was singing and dancing her little but off (and boy, that butt is growing—just kidding, Mahea!). She spent a lot of time in a nun’s habit—pretty hilarious, a pregnant nun, she kept blessing herself and rubbing her tummy!
Here’s a backstage photo of her with Justin Cruz, who was also really good. I never knew he could sing and sashay so well!
One of the highlights was Dan Cooke’s impersonation of Linda Lingle, always a crowd favorite! My favorite bit was when Dan did a rap called “Lindalicious,” a takeoff on a song from Fergie, while dressed up in risqué black bondage outfit. It was the combination of his makeup, his outfit, his rap (I was amazed at the natural gangsta that came out of him!) that proved just how well he can combine being a female impersonator and a gangsta rapper all in one. He had everybody rolling in the aisles.
Here you’ll find him with some of his bootie-licious backup dancers including Esme Infante from momslikeme.com—she sure wasn’t acting like a mom that night! You go, girl!
And there was a tribute to Corky Trinidad, the legendary political cartoonist who passed away this year. They showed a lot of his work from the Star-Bulletin, put to song, and it was really touching. You realized how truly talented he was.
Sorry I couldn’t take any photos—I would have forgotten anyway, I was having too much fun! I have to thank Gordon Pang for these backstage photos.
Those of you who attended Macy’s Come+Together event at the Ala Moana store last night know what I’m talking about. It was a huge success, not only for Macy’s but also for the Hawaii Foodbank, beneficiary of the event.
Spike Mendelsohn, cheftestant of Bravo’s Top Chef Season 4, was the main attraction, and what an attraction! In addition to the RSVPstyle fans who turned out, we had a good number of Top Chef fans who were dying to see for themselves if Season 4’s bad boy was seriously that over the top in real life!
Well, Spike was picture-perfect. He was extremely nice, friendly and fun! After a meet-and-greet pupu hour, I opened the show with a quick lesson on how to put together four very different tablescapes worthy of Spike’s menu, all with items from Macy’s home department (you can see our Tablescape article series beginning next week at www.rsvpstyle.com). Mixing colors, styles and textures is not just for your rooms, it’s for your table as well (and even for fashion! Check out the $49 INC top I found at Macy’s just the day before).
Then I joined Spike in the kitchen, where I admittedly do not spend much time, and that’s when the fun began. The only way I know how to stir ingredients on a stovetop is with a spatula. But Spike told me to go ahead and try my hand at flipping his chutney in the pan. I warned the people in the front row that this could be dangerous! Sure enough, a quarter of Spike’s chutney flew out of the pan! Fortunately I didn’t burn anyone.
Spike made a seared tuna to go on top of his Korean pear chutney, with a simple palate cleanser of Big Island hearts of palm and cilantro—yum! We all got to sample it—along with amazing pupus and desserts prepared by the awesome student chefs who helped out.
Then we opened it up to Q&As, which gave the audience a chance to ask questions about cooking, Top Chef and Spike’s brand new handmade burger joint, Good Stuff Eatery, in Washington D.C. The night ended with a chance for people to get an autographed Top Chef cookbook and a photo with Spike.
It was a fun night. Spike was a great guy. Even though he was the cheftestant you loved to hate, in person you could only love Spike. It was his first trip to Hawaii, but we look forward to having him come back soon!
There was all kinds of action, from Jeff Fox of Kahala Associates throwing money into the crowd to show how he can put money back into your pocket, to Tracy Wright Corvo, who brought out adorable models to illustrate how to adorn your walls with giant art photographs of your child. They were so cute as they paraded onto the stage with their photos in front of their faces.
