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Articles

Homes & Lifestyles

Resort Homes: Living the Resort Life
Most people love vacationing at a beautiful resort and enjoy golf, swimming, find dining, strolling along the beach, hitting the slopes or perhaps luxuriating at the spa. Then it’s time to come home - back to reality. Today’s resort homes make it possible for you to live that resort lifestyle year round - or as often as you prefer.

Mountain Homes: Living the High Life
Snow falls softly outside the window, mountain peaks glisten in the distance. You wrap your hands around the steaming mug of chocolate, snuggle deeper into the chenille blanket and watch the crackling fire in the massive rock fireplace...the shadows dancing off the aged log walls. You’re in the mountain home you’ve dreamed of since you were a child. But dream homes rarely happen by chance.

I Love the New Fall Fashions, But Where Do I Put Them?
You love that new jacket. It’s going to be great with the fabulous outfit you found last weekend. You rush home with it, open the closet door, and everything explodes. You barely find a spot to hang up the jacket - and you many never see it again. Help!

Scents and Sensibilities: Decorating with Smell
Scent is power. Of all the five senses, the sense of smell usually evokes the strongest response in humans - memories, moods, appetites, even sensuality. Most women are especially sensitive to smells. Creating home ambience through scent is one of the best ways to put the finishing touches on any space.

Old Style - New Trends
Today’s newest home decorating trends reflect the traditions and heritage of the Old West. Anything cowboy is hot, not only in conventional western homes, but in urban areas across the country. Today’s western style is different from the dude ranches of the 1920s and 1930s that featured heavy furniture, Texas longhorns, and wagon wheels. In 2006, personality is everything and eclectic seems to be the key.

Grand Entrance: First Impressions are Made at First Glance
Your entryway - the foyer - is the first impression visitors have of your home. Whether you’re building a new home, remodeling an existing one, or redecorating, there are some great ways to design a grand entrance. The entryway, both just outside the door and just inside in the foyer, should bring a feeling of anticipation. “The entryway should be like a movie trailer, giving you a preview of what’s to come in the rest of the house,” says Anita Lang Mueller, owner of Interior Motives in Fountain Hills.

China in a Bull Market: Western tableware sets new standards, new opportunities
If your exposure to western-themed dinnerware was limited to the Roy Rogers lunchbox you took to school, wait till you feast your eyes on western tableware and savor the possibilities it can bring to your store.

Unique Living: Eclectic to Old World
Furniture boutiques offer an eclectic and personal alternative to large furniture showrooms. The word boutique comes from the French word for shop and excludes large department stores and even high-end chains. That clearly defines Scottsdale’s furniture boutiques.

Line + Space: Integrating Art and Architecture
Quite integration of structure and landscape plus an architectural image born of the soul - these are elements that set Line and Space apart from other architectural firms.

Estates for Sale: Design & Architecture
Originally constructed in 1297 as a ramparted fortress, Castle Sighartstein was transformed into a Baroque country castle in the 18th century, with period additions including a drawbridge.

Let the Sun Shine In: Open-air shoes are hot summer styles
Nothing says summer better than a great pair of flip-flops or sandals. The western market has long offered women a variety of sandal styles, but that market is now bigger and better than ever. Several major players in the shoe industry and some newcomers, are heating things up with creative designs in sandals, flip-flops and mules for summer.

Detoxing the Body: The Need to Clean
Today’s world is full of toxins: environmental toxins such as pollution; chemicals in our food and water; excess sugar and refined products; nutritional deficiencies in our bodies. All of this can overwhelm our natural detoxification systems. We forget that we need to cleanse our bodies much like we do our teeth, hair, and skin. If detox is a route you want to try, knowing how to do it and choosing the best method for your system is crucial for success.

Corral Necklace Customers (and add to the bottom line)
Slip a necklace around a woman’s neck, and watch her beam. Necklaces have an uncanny ability to make a woman feel special, romantic and beautiful. And the fashion industry has noticed western-style jewelry in particular, which imparts a romantic exotic feel.

Cool Straws Are Hot
Today...women’s hats, especially those with a western flair, are hot. First there was Urban Cowboy in the 1980s, then along came Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride in the late 1990s, and Madonna donned a cowboy hat on a recent album cover and on tour. Suddenly, women’s hats were everywhere.

Footloose & Fancy: Today’s Alternative Women’s Western Footwear
Dorothy clicked the heels of her ruby slippers three times and found herself back in Kansas. These days, you’re likely to find more than ruby slippers in Kansas. The women’s western shoe market is all about rubies -- and shiny tuds, Austrian crystals, and color. Plenty of color. In fact, color is driving the western shoe market today.

Spas
You stretch out on a chaise tucked in a quiet corner snuggle into your soft oversized robe and sip a cup of green tea. Your mind begins to drift and your eyes feel heavy. You’re at the spa taking the stress out of your over-stressed life.

Horses: The Bluegrass Way of Life
Every little girl dreams of horses. She wants a pony before she wants a bike. She reads stories about legendary stallions and loving mares. She spends lazy summer days dreaming of the wind in her hair as she goes flying across an open pasture on the back of a magnificent animal. But horses are more than a young girl’s dreams. They are a lifestyle unto themselves where a single horse might be worth millions and legends are created in moments. Nowhere is that more evident than in the Horse Capital of the World -- Lexington, Kentucky.

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