Your Invitation to Design

Got lucky in Vegas!

2012-02-08T15:12:00.000-08:00

Boy, did we get lucky in Vegas!

We just got home from the Las Vegas Furniture Market, where our first bit of luck was catching up with Arlene Horna, our Traditional Home magazine sweepstakes winner (you'll find that blog post right below this one).

We checked in at the Venetian, where Arlene is the HR manager. Of course we brought her the traditional Hawaiian goodies: Kona coffee toffee mac nuts, coconut and espresso cookies and dried mango. She was a happy woman! Reconnecting with Arlene was a great welcome after our red-eye flight.

Joining me on this trip were Caty, making her third trip to Vegas with me; CM's newest designer, Tonya; here's Arlene in the middle; and me and Kara, who's come to this awesome furniture and interior decor market with me so many times I've lost count.

Our first afternoon, we got to catch up with Susan Dickerson of Home Accents Today. Lucky for me, she interviewed me, and I found myself on the cover of the next morning's Home Accents market daily! It continues to amaze me how quickly they can turn that around!

And who were we there to shop for? Our lucky design clients! The Cathy's Marketplace design team is working on several residential projects, and we found great inspiration pieces ranging from rugs to furniture.

Lucky for you, we can report some exciting trends in interior decor: Lots of neon and bright, bold colors. Fresh white hues everywhere, from furniture to ceramics to lacquers.

Orange and blue are still strong, as are shades of purple, and we didn't see as much of the blue-and-chocolate combo that was popular a few years ago. Also continuing strong is the trend of mixing materials. Here are two examples: a wood-and-metal table and a metal-and-leather chair.

Bling, sparkle, glamour and fur are all still relevant, and Priscilla Presley is now joining in with her own line. Her showroom is a range of hues of purple, a rock 'n roll edge mixed with glamour and femininity. I actually thought she did a pretty good job and her showroom was intriguing.

Having been to Las Vegas Market for several years now, I'm seeing a sad trend: Fewer rooms with one-of-a-kind pieces. I guess many of the smaller vendors can't afford the time and cost to make the show, which means more of the same old. I mean, you do get to see new colors and styles, but I miss the awe and wonder that I felt five years ago, when there were so many more boutique vendors showcasing their new products and ideas.

Oh well, sign of the times, I guess. The only other negative was I didn't get a chance to have my Reuben sandwich from the Golden Nugget! We had some great dinners, like at Sushi Samba, where we let the waiter pick our menu, which was amazing.

Mainly the trip was all about walking and shopping, from 8 in the morning til 6 at night. You'll be seeing a lot of what we found in our upcoming projects as we beautify homes across Oahu. We'll keep you posted!

Winners all around: Traditional Home's Hawaii sweepstakes prize day!

2011-12-14T17:39:00.000-08:00

Back in February, we were featured in Traditional Home's Hawaii sweepstakes for the magazine's readers. Besides flying over on Hawaiian Air and staying at the Ihilani Resort, one lucky winner got a package of personalized style tips and touring beautiful homes with us!

As much planning as we put into this day, it turned out to be as much a prize for us as it was for our winner.

When Arleen Horna of Las Vegas walked into Cathy's Marketplace last Friday, her smile lit up the showroom. She had such a bright, sunshiny personality that you couldn't help but smile with her! Her son George was supposed to come along, but unfortunately had gotten too much sun during his surf lessons the day before, so Arleen, Kara and I had a total girls' day.

We started out in the showroom with a one-on-one lesson on training your own eye for design. Arleen was a great student!

"I get it!" she said. "It makes so much sense—now I know what to do with my living room."

Let me tell you, that was music to my ears!

And we were off to the first stop on the road tour we had planned: Queen Emma's Summer Palace. The docents gave us a private tour showing what an authentic Hawaiian home looked like---a home for royalty, that is! It was so interesting to see Hawaiian artifacts that have been so faithfully preserved by the Daughters of Hawaii, who are so dedicated to keeping the queen's story and home and spirit alive, from the beautiful koa pieces to precious gifts from English and other royalty. It was definitely a tour worth taking, and I plan to take Nicki back there sometime soon.

Next stop: lunch! The Plumeria Cafe at the Kahala Hotel was decked out in Christmas splendor, while the terrace upstairs was full of Christmas trees and gingerbread houses. The scene brought to life what we had started learning in the showroom, how layering and repetition of colors and textures bring a space together.

Over lunch we learned what Arleen's job is. It's a perfect fit for this total people person: She's a trainer in the human resources department at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas!

Our all-girls' lunch was fun, but I wanted to give Arleen a sense of top-of-the-line home style, Hawaii-style! We turned to a dear friend, Jeff Fox of Kahala Associates, who was so quick to respond when we made our request, it's no wonder his clients love him.

Here's a link to his listing in Diamond Head so you can see what Arleen saw: a $7.6 million oceanfront estate with the most incredible panoramic views. The pictures don't do it justice. You have to hear the ocean and smell its scent---it was just incredible.

Jeff's other listing, a $2.695 million Portlock property, was not oceanfront but also had great ocean views. Here's the link.

By then it was time for Arleen to head back to the Ihilani. We were a little behind schedule, so Arleen would face full traffic on her drive back across the island and I fully expected her to get in her car and take off. But she's such a sweetheart, she stayed and chatted and did a little Christmas shopping in the showroom.

Our good-bye was a little emotional for the both of us. For Arleen the trip to Hawaii was a dream come true. She told me she's been wanting to come here since she was a little girl. She's going to take what she saw and learned back with her and remember it her whole life. Her time with us truly touched her.

It was a great day all around. Arleen got her prize, but Kara and I got so much back from Arleen's happiness and enthusiasm, we felt like we got a gift too! We are so glad we got to spend the day with this wonderful lady, and we wish her all the best.

Ahhh, staycation!

2011-08-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

Shortly after my Vegas trip earlier this month, I had a much-needed staycation with my family at Turtle Bay Resort. We brought along three of Nicki’s girlfriends to make it more of a celebration.

Turtle Bay is one of my favorite places and we love staying in the cottages. They’ve got great rooms and a huge lawn with hammocks in front and obviously the bay, where you see turtles coming up to play in the shore break.

So many activities from horseback riding to surf lessons and fun in the sun on the beach and in the pool!

We had a wonderful, relaxing, fun time full of adventure. Next time I need to chill, I’ll be back!

I haven’t forgotten about highlights from Las Vegas Market—that’s coming up next!

Coming to you from summer Las Vegas Market!

2011-08-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

Our second day in the desert started and ended with a bang. Caty and I arrived at the summer Las Vegas Market early Monday morning, fresh off Hawaiian Air’s Sunday night red-eye from Honolulu. One of my first missions was to meet with Susan Dickenson of Home Accents Today, who wrote that great article that came out in the magazine’s July issue. If you haven’t read it, here it is.

Fittingly, we met her at Groovy Stuff. Not only is this a perennial design favorite of mine, it was also Groovy Stuff founder Chris Bruning, who once lived in Hawaii, who told Susan about me and what we’re doing at the Cathy’s Marketplace retail showroom, and that’s how the feature story came about.

Here at the market yesterday, Susan did a quick interview with me and said it would be out in Home Accents’ Las Vegas Market daily paper today, and lo and behold, here it is!

As if that weren’t exciting enough, the day ended with an appearance by POTUS, aka the former President of the United States, Bill Clinton! Caty went to hear him encourage designers to work together to keep America competitive in the face of global challenges ahead.

Too bad I missed Mr. President himself! Oh well, tomorrow’s our third and final day at Las Vegas Market, and Thursday we’re back home in Hawaii already! We’ve got people to meet, new products to ogle, and interior design trends to keep an eye on! Full report later, I promise!

Still recovering: Cathy's Marketplace warehouse sale

2011-06-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

If you were one of the hundreds of people who came to our first-ever warehouse sale in Kakaako last Saturday, mahalo!

It was definitely a first for us. We signed the lease on a 4,800-square-foot space next to Powerhouse Gym a few weeks ago, and when it filled up we needed to move things out of there! People were lined up at the 10 a.m. start, and of course they got the best deals on designer furniture and accessories that we just didn't have room for at our showroom!

Just about everything you see in these photos was snapped up in the short three-hour sale window (I know, short and sweet!). Many buyers were simply looking to update their rooms; others were Realtors grabbing up perfect pieces for staging houses. (These are before-photos, since once the sale started, Kara, Caty, Courtney, Dave and everybody else was too slammed to remember to take any more!)

It was a tremendous week of unpacking all sorts of consigned sofas, consoles, beds, rugs, you name it! And then arranging them into vignettes, dusting off everything, pricing, tagging: Our crew definitely worked hard!

And it was definitely rewarding meeting all of you. Stay tuned, we'll be having more sales and events, both at the CM warehouse and our CM showroom in Moiliili. So remember, if you have pieces you'd like to consign with us for sale, you're always welcome to give us a call at 738-8488.

And thanks again for coming out and making our first warehouse sale a huge success!

The best birthday ever

2011-06-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday... I won't tell you which one, but I will tell you that I just got the best birthday gift ever from my 11-year-old daughter, Nicki.

Nicki set our table with flowers she bought herself and made a tablecloth with fabric we had leftover from when we redesigned her bedroom. She is making dinner tonight for our family and gave me this homemade card that had me bawling! It was so special that I wanted to share it with you because I am so proud of the young lady she has become.

Happy Birthday, Mommy!
You get me up in the morning and make me breakfast.
After school you ask me how my day was.
You taught me how to walk, now I can run.
You were my first singing coach, and now look how far I've come.
I've done a lot of hard things to do, and I've accomplished many things, but all with the help or because of you.
I want you to know that when you are older and can't make your own breakfast, I'll make your breakfast, and after work, I'll ask you how your day was.
I want you to know that when you're older, and can't walk, I'll be your legs.
Age is not a bad thing, when it represents how many years you've been around people who love you.

Nicki Lee

New KITV appearances, right from the showroom!

2011-05-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

It's been absolutely crazy these last few weeks, renovating and filling the Cathy's Marketplace showroom while organizing a grand opening gala on-site for 400 people. I mean, phew! And now that we're officially open for business, I've finally been able to pick up my homestyle segments on the KITV morning news show again.

There have been some big changes here as well. First, I'm on Sunday mornings now, every Sunday morning instead of every other week, and my segment will air twice: Once at 6:15 and again at 7:15 a.m.

Second, every segment is videotaped right in the showroom. If you've already been by to check us out, you know that means I'll have at my disposal literally scores of furniture pieces, accessories, wall colors, rugs, lamps, throws and unique accents. No more lugging around a few props to spread on a table. My new homestyle tips will be able to illustrate so many more style ideas using the whole array of real-size, real-life pieces!

The first airs this Sunday, May 15 on the morning show with Jodi Leong and Paul Drewes. I met Jodi at the showroom and she is a blast! We hit it off right away.

So please tune in for or Tivo my new homestyle segments every Sunday on KITV, and please tell your friends!

THE SHOWROOM IS OPEN!!!

2011-05-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of http://facebook.com/HawaiiDeals

O.M.G. I can hardly believe it. After months of incredibly hard work by countless people, the Cathy's Marketplace showroom is open for business! We're all so sleep-deprived that it almost seems like a dream ... except that last Thursday night, our showroom in the Varsity Building on University Avenue came alive with a traditional blessing, gourmet dishes, live entertainment by Tahiti Rey and aerial silk dancers, donations pouring in for the American Cancer Society, and 400 invited guests to help us kick off with a bang!

I want to thank all of you who have been waiting these last few months, and those who have given us your support in so many ways. I hope to see you at our showroom at 1110 University Ave. (across from Puck's Alley and Bubbie's Homemade Ice Cream). Our phone number is 738-8488 and our hours are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Here are some snaps from our grand opening gala. See you soon!

The line started early! People started arriving right after the blessing.

Our first guests fill the showroom. Models definitely bring the furniture vignettes to life!

Eye candy of a different sort. The showroom sells accessories as well as furniture.

Our models were a hit, but I don't know how they stayed still all night!
Our friend Sam, left, with CM's Lissa and Chelsey.
And more eye candy! We've filled the space with lots of different decorating styles.
Grey Goose provided a cocktail and martini bar right inside the showroom.
CM's Caty with a friend from Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate.
The showroom even has a wine bar, selling lots of wine accessories (but no wine!).
Time to mingle! Me with guests.
Samadhi sent its aerial burlesque acrobats, who were amazing on the trapeze.

Most of the party took place outside. Here, the VIP tables.

We are so grateful to our platinum sponsor, Dr. Lawrence Tseu, who suggested the American Cancer Society as the beneficiary of the event. Here, Dr. Tseu with former Gov. Linda Lingle.

More eye candy! Actually, these beauties were Dr. Tseu's guests.

Eye candy for the tummy: Deep-fried Hamakua mushroom risotto from Memoirs Catering.

The food did not disappoint. Our friend D.K. Kodama with luscious steak from d.k Steakhouse.
Sansei's famous crab truffle ramen. Look at those truffle bits!
These gals loved Town restaurant's fresh pulled mozzarella.
Our friend Maile from her namesake restaurant, with a perfect pad Thai and Penang curry.
JJ's Bistro's delicious desserts.

My pride and joy, Nicki, sang a special tribute to Dr. Tseu.

Our models were a huge hit, and you can see why!

Jeweler Dale Cripps donated this $5,600 sapphire-and-diamond pendant as the night's grand prize. Also given away in a random drawing: Tickets for 2 on Hawaiian Airlines.

Drawing for the grand prize. Each $50 gift certificate purchased got you one chance to enter, and benefited the American Cancer Society. Now, drumroll, please ...

... And the winner is ...

Toby Tamaye of AT Marketing! Congratulations! Boy, is his wife a lucky woman!

The CM team: Lissa, Chelsey, Caty, me and Kara. I cannot say enough about these amazing gals, and I'm absolutely thrilled to be launching this new chapter with them.

Credit for the photos in this blog goes to
RSVPstyle/CM writer and editor Mari Taketa
and to Hawaii Deals at http://facebook.com/HawaiiDeals

Shooting over to New York for a bit

2011-03-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

Yay! Spring break is here, and even with all that we have to do at work, we're celebrating with our kids. I'm leaving tonight for New York City with Nicki and her troupe, the Shooting Stars, for their off-Broadway performance.

Lissa is also leaving tonight with her family for Las Vegas, and Kara and family left yesterday for Tahoe. Fortunately, we have Chelsey and Caty holding down the fort in Honolulu.

We'll be back in a week to update you with the latest progress from the showroom. I'll also try to post some quick pics for you from the Big Apple, especially from my favorite spots for design inspiration.

Right now, I'm at the airport and I hear our boarding call already. Talk to you soon — and enjoy your spring!

Show-and-tell video: The showroom's taking shape!

2011-03-09T19:07:00.000-08:00

Wow, I thought 2011 definitely started out with a bang, but here it is March already and things are still popping!

One thing I'm especially thrilled about is the new creative director we've brought on board at the Cathy's Marketplace showroom. Caty Rezendes is a designer with an amazing eye, and an absolute sweetie to boot. She's been helping me and the team with the million details that go into transforming a challenging space like the round, landmark Varsity Building and filling it with the new and used pieces that will go up for sale when we open for business.

I thought you might like a sneak peek at some of the transformations and design challenges we've been working on, so I'm trying out a new format for you: my first ever video blog!

Keep an eye right here for more of these quick show-and-tells. I'll do my best to keep you posted!

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

2011-02-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

Yikes! Yesterday was the big day, and I got so caught up celebrating with Darrell and Nicki, the two loves of my life, that I completely forgot the Valentine's poem I had found and saved specially to share with you!

I hope your special day was filled with love and spent happily with those nearest and dearest to you. And today, to all of you from all of us at RSVPstyle, Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

A friend is like a Valentine,
Heartwarming, bringing pleasure,
Connected to good feelings,
With memories to treasure.

Seeing a special Valentine
Brings happiness to stay,
And that's what you do, friend,
You brighten every day!

-- Anonymous

Hot design + inspiration: Highlights from Winter LV Market

2011-02-05T16:38:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! I'm back in Vegas, baby — this time for Winter Las Vegas Market. As you know, this is a veritable smorgasbord of the hottest new trends in interior design, furnishings and accents in the country. I'm here on a dual mission: to find fun, unique items to sell along with your gently used consignment items at our upcoming Cathy's Marketplace showroom, and to supplement the CM items we're using to furnish our Cathy's Marketplace concept house in Diamond Head.

These are both huge jobs, but fortunately I've got awesome help. Joining me on this whirlwind trip are Kara, Caty and Chelsey. Sound like fun? You bet your bootie it was! Here are some highlights from our three days at Winter Las Vegas Market.

Look who we ran into — our friend Travis Blackwood from South Carolina! Travis is our partner in the new Creations bedding line we're currently designing for the national market. He's always a lot of fun and we wished we could have had lunch together, but we were so busy we were literally always eating on the run. Next time, I promise!

Love the eclecticness of these accessories! At LV Market it was color, color everywhere. Bright yellows and oranges are still strong...

...and you also saw lots of turquoise and use of fabric, as in these Asian/Moroccan-inspired lighting fixtures.

Everywhere, it was all about global consciousness and design elements from around the world.

Chelsey's a natural in this organic reclaimed-wood armchair. Doesn't she look more than a bit queenly?

Always on the lookout for a touch of whimsy! Love this duck-footed mirror!

Groovy Stuff: That's the name of Chris Bruning's collection. I found lots of groovy things for our Cathy's Marketplace concept house, which belongs to a friend who loves reclaimed wood and anything unique and interesting. Chris is a fun-loving artist who's lived on Oahu's North Shore. He’s also about sharing and giving back and empowering people, like with the contest he sponsored for university students using reclaimed wood pieces. Is that groovy or what?!

I met designer Casey Fisher of Haute House three or four years ago at LV Market. Casey's signature is one-of-a-kind furniture pieces you would see right out of MTV. He loves bling, loves over the top, loves designing for the Beverly Hills and rock 'n roll crowd, totally my kind of designer!

More from Haute House.

Kara's metallic outfit is a perfect match for HH's metallic ottomans!

Always one of my favorite stops is the Phillips Collection. It's a great family business run by Mark and Julie Phillips and their son Jason, an award-winning designer. They do amazing things with not only reclaimed wood but also unexpected materials like their seatbelt chair. Their use of color is bold, sophisticated and nuanced, and their tongue-in-cheek designs always leave you with a smile and amazement at their creativity and sense of style.

Here's a quick clip of my interview with Jason Phillips, the creative director of Phillips Collection. Can you believe he's just 28 this year?!

Not all work, exactly: After working the market all day and night, in the wee hours Caty and Chelsey had to hit the slot machines. And boy, did they pay for it in the morning!

Phew, what a trip! And I haven't mentioned one of the best parts: To keep company expenses down, four of us girls squeezed into one hotel room with our eight pieces of luggage. Biggest challenge? Sharing bathroom and mirror time, of course! Amazingly, we did not kill each other. It was a great bonding trip and we got a lot accomplished. But I do have to say, there's no place like home!

I'll leave you with this, our last look at Las Vegas Market.

2011-01-23T23:07:00.000-08:00

The gang’s all here and we’re so excited, we’re off to Vegas for the Winter Furniture Market at World Market Center! This is the biggest crew ever going from our companies. Kara’s joining me again, and this time so is Caty, our creative director, and Chelsey, our showroom manager. Lissa and Mari are holding down the fort back home, and I know they’ll be waiting for their lucky chocolate coins!

As you know, Las Vegas Market is an enormous showcase of hot new trends in interior design, furniture and accessories. For me this is the most exciting market ever, because we’re going with two purposes: first, to find the latest, greatest, hottest home accessories for our Cathy’s Marketplace showroom, and second, to find items for our Cathy’s Marketplace concept house.

What’s this about a concept house? Generally we don’t take on private projects, but some friends needed help outfitting their home, and with our showroom opening soon, we decided why not design a concept house and outfit it with items from CathysMarketplace.com as well as things we’ll also be selling in our new showroom?

Boy, do we have a huge task ahead of us. And we’re getting the keys to our showroom next week, so we have to make it a whirlwind trip. We’re flying out on tonight’s red-eye on Hawaiian Airlines, arriving at Las Vegas at 6:30 in the morning, dropping our luggage off and going straight to the market to work the show.

We’ll be scouting and shopping all day Monday and Tuesday and coming home on Wednesday. I think Kara, Caty, Chelsey are in for a great bonding experience—especially since we’re cramming into one hotel room. Hey, the budget’s going toward the new showroom. A company’s gotta do what a company’s gotta do!

Wish us luck, and we’ll keep you posted from Las Vegas. And now we’re off. Yeah baby, Vegas, here we come!

The cutest young retailers

2011-01-17T17:38:00.000-08:00

Thankfully, the rain gods were smiling down upon us yesterday for the Sony Open, and no one was more pleased than my daughter Nicki. You see, one of the benefits of living on Waialae Golf Course is she’s able to have some fun and make some money selling drinks and treats from our back yard.

Bright and early Sunday morning, she was joined by cousin Megan and her friend Emma. They sold coffee, iced tea and iced bottled water and gave away free donut holes to anyone who bought a beverage for $1.50. Later the girls slashed the price to $1 to drive up sales.

They did all of this with a smile, and just as Mama taught, said “Thank you for doing business with me!”

One tip I did have to give them as throngs of golfers were walking by, which is also an important tip for retailing, is to catch the attention of your audience or clientele. So I told Nicki to create a little visual display, which she did by setting up a little table and chairs so her stuffed animals could have a tea party.

Sure enough, this cute display caught the attention of passersby, which allowed them to see the beverages for sale.

The girls tied in their visual display, their marketing prowess and of course a cute smile and a bright “Good morning!”

Good going, girls!

A chance encounter and a real-life tip

2011-01-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

Recently I was at PHF looking at commercial carpeting for our new showroom, and I ran into Dennis and Florence Long, a really nice couple who were there to shop for some upholstery fabric. It turned out Florence had attended one of our workshops!

Florence told me how much she learned and was inspired. She showed me how they came prepared with photos of their space to help in their selection, just as I had taught. In looking at her photos and the direction they were going in, of course I couldn’t help but add my two cents! :)

Here’s a tip I want to share with all of you. The situation that we have here is the Longs are reupholstering their beautiful but slightly weathered sofa. They know they want to tie in the new fabric with the area rug beneath the sofa, which is two shades of blue. The fabric they were looking at was another blue that would tie in nicely with the area rug.

This is something I see all the time: My suggestion to the Longs was to remember our 60-30-10 rule. They were tying in with the dominant color in their space: blue area rug, blue accents in art throughout the room. If blue is already the dominant color, I told the Longs, a very large furniture piece like the sofa should tie in to a secondary color.

I noticed a subtle gold line running through the area rug and suggested that instead of a blue sofa on the blue area rug, which would have made the middle of the living room look like a giant swimming pool, why not instead pick up on the gold and make that the secondary color, and accent with some blue and brown pillows?

Here’s the fabric I recommended. It’s a color they won’t get bored with over time, it’s neutral, and it won’t leave visitors to the Longs’ house thinking, wow, they really do love blue.

I also recommended that they reupholster the side barrel chairs in a coordinating fabric that has some gold but also blues and browns in it, and they can also use the same fabric as accent pillows on the sofa.

This coordinating fabric has a subtle abstract feeling. You can almost see light waves, which will tie in with the eclectic island style the Longs want to go in.

They were thrilled to death and I was thrilled to help them. Design dilemma solved, and I’m off again to get back to sorting out the design dilemmas of our showroom!

We're opening a showroom!

2011-01-08T19:41:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for the news we've been dying to tell you? It's official: We are opening a Cathy's Marketplace showroom, and the countdown has begun!

Our target opening date is the end of February. The space is the circular, glass-fronted first floor of the landmark Varsity Building on University Avenue. We'll have 4,000 square feet to showcase luxury home items consigned to www.CathysMarketplace.com as well as hot, new and unique finds for your home that I think you'll love.

So I gathered together some experts and subcontractors whose help I'm going to need to transform this outdated space that once housed a bank into our showroom. We just had a walk-through on Thursday and boy, do we have design challenges ahead of us!

We'll be figuring out beautiful ways to showcase many of the beautiful items you see for sale at CathysMarketplace.com, and we'll also have a Style Center where you can get inspired and learn. And believe it or not, there's already a stage in the middle of the showroom that will come in very handy, because we'll be videotaping our CathysMarketplace.com Shop with Focus segments there along with lots of other clips to teach, inspire and entertain you.

Stay tuned to this blog and to www.CathysMarketplace.com for more details. Plus I'll be sharing with you our design challenges and how we overcome them. Wish us luck!

Happy New Year, everyone!

2011-01-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

What better way to start a new year and a new decade than with a once-in-a-lifetime date like 1/1/11? Talk about new beginnings!

I've just come home from a New Year's visit with my mother-in-law, followed by a movie with Nicki and Darrell. We're still recovering from the party we threw last night with my family and a few friends from Canada. It was a small but fun-filled evening ... the grown-ups with our champagne and our kids with their chilled apple cider in champagne flutes!

Now, reflecting at home in the quiet of New Year's Day and reflecting on the past year, I've made my New Year's resolution: I'm going to do a much better job of blogging! I promise!

I know I've been remiss, and as usual it's because things are going a mile a minute with RSVPstyle, CathysMarketplace.com and a new venture I'll tell you about very shortly.

In the meantime, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support in 2010 and to wish everyone a very happy, healthy, successful 2011. May we all have a truly wonderful year!

Catching up: May to September

2010-09-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

Phew, I have a lot to catch you up on! Where do I even begin? Let’s start with one of my passions, shopping for furniture! You know me, I love to attend the annual Las Vegas Market to keep up with what’s happening in new furniture designs. Mel, Sam and I were there in July. In three days we ogled our way through three buildings of about 10 storeys each, something like 150 million square feet! My feet hurt just thinking about it. As for designs this year? Movement is still clean and contemporary, with lots of texture and metallics. Just what I love!

Right on the heels of that whirlwind was another trip to South Carolina to finalize details for our bedding and furniture lines. We met up once again with Travis and his family. Boy, am I learning a lot! And it’s a blast. I’m designing totally new textiles that are to be manufactured in coming months. I can’t wait for you to see them and will definitely keep you posted.

In early September we had the privilege of giving something back to the men and woman who give so much for our country. Being asked to do a mini decorating workshop at the Navy Exchange over Labor Day weekend was a thrill for all of us at RSVPstyle. As I did at Macy’s home department last year, I put together live onstage mini-vignettes of rooms for NEX shoppers. Military families are challenged with personalizing temporary housing, so for them I created different looks for bedroom, bathroom and living room. I loved that my mom and dad, a retired major in the U.S. Army, were able to be there. Click here to read more about that story.

Our website and company are built around inspiring people, so it was a real treat when Chaminade University asked me to speak to business students in the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program. I shared my experiences, insights, successes and failures, and most importantly, what I’ve learned through all of it. The best part was the end, when the students stood in line to shake my hand. Seeing their fresh faces and enthusiasm for the future they’re about to embark on reminded me of myself many, many, many years ago!

And now? I’ve done final tweaks for the bedding line. When our manufacturing plant in China is ready, I’ll go have a look at the samples. And tonight I’m writing a short thank you speech. My alma mater, Sacred Hearts Academy, has named me as one of its distinguished alumnae, and they’re honoring six of us at a dinner tomorrow night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It’s a lot to condense so many emotions and thoughts into 90 seconds, but I’m finding it’s a tremendous opportunity to reflect on all that’s been happening.

That’s it for the catch-up. I’ll keep you posted later with more!

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today I had the best Mother's Day ever -- I got to spend it with Mom and Nicki! There's absolutely no better way to spend this special day than with the people you love the most, a point which I really appreciate, having been away from them for nearly a week.

On this beautiful day, I hope you were also able to spend time with the most special people in your lives. And to all you moms out there, I hope you had a Happy Mother's Day!

Aloha from South Carolina!

2010-05-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

For months now, my blogs have few and far between. Yes, I’ve been lazy, number one, but I have also been extremely preoccupied with two huge things that I couldn’t share until they were closer to reality.

The first is Cathy’s Collection. It’s a tremendous undertaking—an online marketplace for upscale new and gently used furniture and things for the home. You may have seen our first ad in the paper letting people know it’s coming and if you have any items to sell, go ahead and sign up! Our whole office and especially Lissa has been nurturing this project for months now, and it’s finally right around the corner!

Now these last few days, Lissa has also been holding down the fort along with Celsie, Sam and Chelsey, while Kara and I have been in South Carolina, working on our brand new bedding line! I can’t announce the details just yet, but when it comes out late this summer, this bedding line is going to be unlike anything that’s on the market!

We’re working with Travis Blackwood and his company, Trinity Source International. I just love these people! Travis and I, we’re like two peas in a pod! He’s like the male version of me. It was so funny, I rolled up the sleeve of my jacket, and the lining matches his shirt! Great minds think alike!

Kara and I had our first taste of real Southern food on our first night in South Carolina with Travis and his lovely wife Christy. We went to the Blue Fin restaurant in Spartanburg, and Kara and I both had the shrimp and grits—mmm-mmm, yummy! But probably the best dish of the night was the golden fried shrimp that Christy had.

The second day, Travis had me booked on Your Carolina, a morning talk show with Jack Roper and Kimberly Kelly that has an audience of about 300,000 people. So click on here and go about halfway through and you’ll find my interview, which is about five minutes.

So that was a lot of fun! We brought Jack and Kimberly fresh leis to show our aloha spirit, and of course traditional macadamia nut candies and Kona coffee that we gave them prior to the show—that put a big smile on their faces!

Dinner was at City Range Steakhouse Grill, where I had the bourbon pecan chicken (it looks half-eaten because I had a few bites before I remembered the camera! I tried to put it back together again). Kara had the brie and apple gouda sausage stuffed chicken breast. One of Trinity’s designers, Angela Lancaster, joined us.

Friday was just as exciting—we got to see where all the action happens at Trinity. They recently moved into their brand new facility, a 25,000-square-foot warehouse. Fifteen thousand feet of it is 40 feet high, which means they can stack racks and double the usable space. Another 3,500 square feet houses a showroom and offices. This is where our bedding will be distributed all over the country!

We miss our girls terribly. We try to catch them in the morning as they get ready for the day and we try to say good night. Our husbands seem to be doing just fine, but the girls miss their moms and we miss them even more!

You know, it’s funny, Southern charm and hospitality so reminds me of home and Hawaii. I’m even starting to say y’all a lot! So see you soon, y’all!

A very special thank you

2010-05-06T17:42:00.000-07:00

I’m writing this blog on the road. Kara and I are on a quick business trip, and as usual, things are going a zillion miles an hour. But often in the last few days, my thoughts have been with The Honolulu Advertiser, and the people who have become our friends.

Two and a half years ago, when Lissa and I met Lee Webber for the first time, we were a tiny business with a ton of determination and not a lot of history. He listened to our vision, asked a few questions and while he didn’t say much, from that day he put his support behind us. As we’ve grown, the Honolulu Advertiser has been there, and I cannot say how much that has meant to us.

With his decision, Lee and the Honolulu Advertiser were not just supporting a fledgling local business. Lee also became a friend and mentor whose door was always open for me to get advice from and bounce ideas off. The sale of the Advertiser means Lee is retiring, but to me he will always remain a friend and mentor.

Clint Schroeder, Tom Kunz and his wife Amy, Mark and Sara Platte all have a special place in our hearts as well. In the ad department, Stella and Dora have been more than patient with our many requests for deadline extensions—and believe me, this has been appreciated!

For Lissa especially, having left the Advertiser’s IT department to start up RSVPstyle with me, the end of the paper hits close to home. Like a lot of people, neither of us would ever have believed that our hometown would one day lose a newspaper that not only we, but our parents and grandparents grew up reading. And like a lot of people, we look forward to what the new paper will bring.

As the Advertiser merges with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin into a new Honolulu Star-Advertiser, we want to say a very heartfelt and personal thank you to all our friends at the Advertiser. From all of us at RSVPstyle, best wishes and good luck to everyone.

A heartfelt (and belated) thank you!

2010-05-02T19:08:00.001-07:00

I’d have to say this has probably been the craziest month of my life—going straight from preparing for our most intensive workshop ever, right into preparing for a Traditional Home magazine interview, photo and video shoot that I’ll tell you about in another blog. Seriously, it was so crazy that at times I thought I was going to have to be institutionalized!

For us the workshop was bittersweet, because while it was fun to launch our new mini-room demos with new sponsors Central Pacific Bank, whose Blenn Fujimoto and crew were amazing, this was also our last workshop with longtime sponsor The Honolulu Advertiser at our side.

Another longtime supporter, Macy’s and Deena Nichols, provided lots of props that I used to create the mini-rooms.

But really, there are so many people to recognize. Sam Brewer and Melanie Kyker worked tirelessly for two weeks prior, running around gathering nearly 100 items to use onstage. The two of them really were my left and right hands in pulling together the pieces, and Melissa Daley Shipman joined them in helping me on workshop day. Douglas Simmons put off his knee surgery so he could help out—now that’s commitment! Thanks also to Juan Rubalcaba from Matador Painting, who painted our ‘walls’ for that day, and The Dudes—Al Ness and Nick Ybl—for constructing our set, and Jay Rea and Wisteria Lane for providing our beautiful onstage wood floor.

Helping out at the office were Celsie Day and Chelsea Sponsler. And I have to mention Melissa Blake from Your Perfect Party and Designed to Perfection, who has become part of our events team and who put together the most beautiful flower arrangements for me to use onstage.

Behind the beautiful directory/workbook that everyone got—not one single copy was left behind at the Convention Center, and that says a lot—were WavenDean Fernandez and Mike Portillo from Mana Brand Marketing, and of course Mari Taketa, our editor who is always right!

Photographers David Cornwell and Dave Rezendes captured some amazing images that you can see in this slideshow. And of course James Brennan, our director who has been with us since day one, and his crew did an amazing job with our Jumbotron projection.

Melissa Chang, our Twitter bird, organized a pre-workshop Twitter contest. It was great to see all the Tweets and Twitpics going out from the workshop! Thanks Melissa and all you Tweeters, I loved your Tweets—keep chirping!

I can’t mention all the sponsors who either participated or donated a prop to use onstage in my demos. We appreciate every one of our Experts.

If I missed any of you, I’m sorry, it’s been a crazy month. But it was a great event—thank you all for your wonderful comments and feedback! It’s great to know how much you enjoyed our new format and how many of you said what a difference it made and that you left feeling inspired, with actually a vision of what you want to create at home. I’m so thrilled to hear that, because that has always been my goal!

And finally and most importantly, I would not have my sanity if it weren’t for the insane hours put in by RSVPstyle’s Lissa Rodrigues and Kara Wagner—you guys are awesome!

90mph again!

2010-03-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

In my work as a design diva who teaches people how to bring style to their spaces, no production is bigger than a workshop. Not only do we put on these all-day affairs for hundreds of attendees, we also combine them with tradeshows featuring dozens of businesses and booths. And you know me, no event is a success unless everybody has fun, so we always jazz up our workshops with high-energy games and fantastic prizes!

This is exactly what I’m in the midst of preparing for. And this time I’m adding a twist: I'll be turning into a magician (of sorts), because I’m going to create beautiful spaces right up onstage before everyone’s eyes! I got the idea from an event we did at Macy’s, where I did this and people came up afterward and said how great it was to see design concepts come to life.

The workshop’s coming up fast—it’ll be on April 10 at the Hawaii Convention Center! Aaaahhhh! Lissa, Kara and I are already going 90mph getting ready. It’s going to be fun, fast and furious. Look for our half-page ad in the Island Life section of this Sunday’s Honolulu Advertiser.

Meanwhile, it's almost the end of the workday and I've still got places to go, things to do, people to see! Aaaahhh!!!

Sin City, here I come!

2010-01-31T23:29:00.000-08:00

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!

What's Hot: A one-of-a-kind fashion show!

2010-01-30T23:10:00.000-08:00

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?

Happy (belated) 2010!

2010-01-19T07:31:00.000-08:00

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!

Merry, merry Christmas!

2009-12-23T22:59:00.000-08:00

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 wellHoliday 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 special kind of shopping

2009-12-15T18:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Here's thinking outside the box!

2009-12-09T10:56:00.000-08:00

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.

Here’s a sneak peek at this fabulous $6.5 million house: www.4902KahalaAve.com

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!

Attention, Hawaii: HGTV needs our help!

2009-12-07T22:47:00.000-08:00

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.

Pregnant nun, cross-dressing gangsta: Who are these people??

2009-10-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

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.

Bravo, Spike!

2009-10-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

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!

All about scale and proportion

2009-10-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

I am not completely packed yet and we’re leaving in a few hours for our first trip to the Big Apple. I’m so excited!

Darrell, Nicki and I are headed to the New York City Wine & Food Festival. It’s going to be a short trip because Nicki’s going back to school on Monday. We’ve got tickets to the sold-out Burger Bash that Rachael Ray is hosting. I love Rachael Ray, I’m so excited! And we’re going to Godiva’s SWEET tasting, hosted by Duff Goldman.

We’ll see all of the sights—the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty—and we scored tickets to the show Wicked. And with all the things I’m doing with Macy’s, I’m looking forward to seeing their flagship store on 34^th Street with the original wooden escalators.

So I was deleting pictures to clear space on my memory card, and I came across some from Sacred Hearts Academy’s 100-year gala last month. It’s a great visual tip to share with you all. When they asked me to design the stage, I thought, are you kidding? I’ve never done a stage before! But it’s for my alma mater, and Lee Webber of the Honolulu Advertiser was the honorary chair—how could I say no?

Anyone who’s been to our workshops knows it’s about layering colors and textures and considering scale and proportion. For a 24 x 18 foot stage at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, I was going to need a lot of scale and proportion.

I designed these tall gold planters with cascading yellow popcorn orchids and asparagus and other ferns to give them height and width proportional to the size of the stage and ballroom. With a Batman-like light shining on the backdrop drapes, we could create any color backdrop.

When people first walked in, the backdrop was amber. Throughout the evening it changed: With Cathy Foy entertaining, you saw lavender, and with Jason Segundo it was royal blue.

Boy, the RSVPstyle fundamentals sure do come in handy! It was a great event for a great cause.

Anyway, I know you’ve probably forgotten about Top Design, but I hope you’ll forgive me for this delay. I have to say I agree with the judges—they picked the right winner, who as you know by now is Antonio.

Poor Dan! Overall, he is the better designer. He knocked the final challenge, designing an entire home for a family, out of the park. I thought his house was completely pulled together. What won the contest for Antonio was his hosting ability—after all, they were looking for the next Design Star, not designer. But Dan has a huge future, and Antonio’s going to be fun to watch.

Gotta get back to my packing. I’m looking forward to a great first trip to New York City, but I’ll check back with you real soon … promise!

A day of beyonds

2009-09-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

The word that keeps coming to mind as the workshop is behind us and I’m writing this blog is beyond:

Beyond expectations. The energy and feedback from the 470 guests who came to learn were incredible. We were trying out a brand new format, combining our workshop with a tradeshow, and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but everyone loved it. During breaks, attendees had a chance to stretch their legs and meet people they wanted to meet with, and our sponsors got to meet face to face with people who had been checking them out online. So that was a huge highlight.
Beyond grateful for the words from people who came up to me and said they had their Aha! moment. The perfect quote was from Susan, who said, ‘Cathy, I had the Aha! moment. Without even going home, I can see my living room and now I know what’s wrong and how to fix it.’ Susan and the others had no idea how much that meant to me, how their words made all that work worthwhile.

Beyond cute: For the first time ever, we had our RSVPstyle logowear. Mel and Mel looked beyond cute in the hoodie and T-shirt that will soon be up on our online store!

Beyond fabulous—did you see the $10,000 Grand Prize diamond necklace? When I drew her name, Joyce Cranmer literally jumped out of her seat! She was shaking so hard that jeweler Dale Cripps needed several minutes to get that clasp fastened around her neck. She turned to me and said, ‘I’ve never won anything except a tape measure from a hardware store!’

At the end of the day, when everybody had packed up and we left the ballroom, Lissa, Kara, Marie and I headed over to Roy’s to have a cocktail and some pupus. We were beyond exhausted! But just extremely satisfied at how the day went.

And now we’re all beyond tired and ready to go to bed for a very long time! We’ve got lots of highlights and photos coming up on our website, so stay tuned!

Ooh la la--$10,000 worth of fabulous!

2009-09-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

No, no, no, I have not forgotten about you—I have just been so overwhelmed with preparations for our workshop on Saturday. I’m taking a break to post this quick blog because we just saw jeweler Dale Cripps yesterday. He’s donating the most amazing prize: Can you believe someone will walk away with a $10,000, five-carat white and natural yellow diamond necklace?

The girls in the office all threatened to quit when they found out they’re not eligible to enter the drawing for this prize. As a matter of fact, I thought about quitting myself!

It’s a modern-style piece that would look fabulous with jeans, or dressy and elegant with a black cocktail dress. Just imagine a woman telling her husband she’s going to this workshop, and then coming home with these diamonds draped around her neck! Well, that’s going to happen to someone, male or female, and it could be you if you already got your ticket to the workshop, because we’re sold out!

Lots more details to plan and we’re setting up the Kalakaua Ballroom at the Hawaii Convention Center tomorrow. Just had to share this fabulousness with you!

Last Mediterranean photos: Shipboard fun!

2009-09-01T02:52:00.000-07:00

Ever since my first cruise to the Caribbean on our honeymoon almost 15 years ago, I've been in love with this way of traveling, and my favorite cruise line is Crystal Cruise. For this Mediterranean food and wine tour, we were lucky enough to be aboard the Crystal Serenity. With Crystal, at-sea days are possibly even more fun than days touring on shore!

Uncle Joseph does a magic trick for the kids on a formal night at sea

Mom and Carolyn on the slots. Can you believe it? My mom hit a $1500 jackpot that night! (Won't tell you how much she gave back!)

Dads and daughters dancing. How cute is that?!

Breakfast with mom and dad. The ocean breeze makes you hungry!

Lobster, anyone? The Grand Buffet certainly lived up to its name!

There's so much food... where do I begin?!

Nicki and classmate Preston celebrate their birthdays together

'The Boys' bonding in the Connoisseurs Lounge over cigars and scotch. (It's a guy thing!)

Mayumi learns a few dance moves from one of the Ambassador Hosts, while Carolyn and Joseph dance in the background

Nicki and new gal pal Alexia make dancing plans of their own

Ahhh! Now this is living! Lounging on the balcony as we sail into a new port

Yes, this was a wonderful family vacation, and Nicki is already asking when our next cruise will be!

It's time to go home. I interviewed Gary Hunter, the Cruise Director, on our last night about the Crystal Cruise experience. (I'll post the video shortly.) Until next time, Crystal Cruise... yes, it is a wonderful world!

Last Mediterranean photos: People

2009-08-31T23:29:00.000-07:00

Beautiful places and amazing food and drink are always fantastic perks of travel, but it's the people you meet who make the experience just that much more special. Here are some of the people I was lucky enough to become friends with.

I loved meeting Eleani and her adorable daughter Anna from Moscow. She's working on their home with an interior designer and bought our DVD to get more inspiration.

Vicki was traveling from Hong Kong with her husband and son. This was her first cruise. We met while dancing at Palm Court. Here, she's dancing with the ship's professional dancer... looks like she could be one herself!

Susan and her sister Shirley are from Scotland. Susan just downsized: She was living in a castle, now she's in a modern townhouse. She came to my workshop to learn how to transition her decorating styles. Wow, I never met anyone who lived in a castle before!

I ran into Jean and her husband David from New York at the photo gallery. David is the wine director for Tribeca Grill and was the favorite guest lecturer on the ship! Darrell and I hope to see Jean and David when we go to New York in October.

Rita and Les are from Arizona. They're in their 80s and are the most adorable couple you could ever meet--they're newlyweds! Four months of marital bliss, and they dance together like they've been married for 40 years!

We met Gina and Tony from Toronto through Nicki, who met their daughter Alexia while both were swimming in the pool. Nicki and Alexia became fast friends. They had a ball together and promised to stay in touch.

Finally, Gary Hunter is the Cruise Director and famous ventriloquist on board the Crystal Serenity. Gary was an absolute doll to work with! He recently built the home of his dreams with his wife in Florida. We had lots to talk about!

NEXT BLOG: Shipboard fun!

Last Mediterranean photos: Places

2009-08-31T22:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's taking me so long to wrap up this cruise blog! I just finished sorting through countless photos, and I want to share the last of our beautiful ports, let you meet some of the people who made this an unforgettable trip, and show some shipboard fun! First up: The Places.

SORRENTO

The beautiful port of Sorrento

A bakery in Pompeii... can you see the brick oven?

The body of a slave as he took his last breath. What a terrible way to die.

Pompeii's justice center. Can you imagine how impressive this was thousands of years ago? It still is!

Art, Suzi and Kara's mom Angela enjoying the tour with the Wagners

LIVORNO

The gang's all here in Pisa. Let's go see if that tower really is leaning...

Yup, it's leaning this much!

Perfect way to cap off a warm day in Italy ... coconut gelato! YUM

CANNES

Here we are in Cannes, and it's just how I imagined it ... FABULOUS!

The biggest private yacht I've ever seen with my own two eyes. It's incredible... and I can't imagine what it must look like inside!

I stumbled upon this home decor store. Totally over the top--looks like Hollywood royalty shops here. I love it!

Walking back to the ship, we passed these gentlemen playing baci ball

ROME

The Coliseum. Do you think there might still be gladiators here?

Yeah, there's one right there!

Trevi Fountain: Scotty makes a wish as he throws in a coin. His wish? To come back to Rome!

St. Peter's Basilica. In a word, awe-inspiring (oops, is that two words?)

Have to shop on the run--we only have one day in Rome!

BARCELONA

Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece. Still a work in progress

Gaudi's Undulating Bench--colorful, beautiful and magical

La Pedrera, Gaudi's last civil job, had intricate ironwork inspired by seaweed

NEXT BLOG: New friendships made from around the world

Ahoy! First workshop on the high seas

2009-08-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of the Mediterranean for me has to be the mini-workshop I gave aboard the Crystal Serenity. It’s the first time I spoke in front of a Crystal audience and my first at-sea workshop ever!

A few days earlier, the cruise director, Gary Hunter, interviewed me for Crystal Cruise TV, which airs the morning of the event to get people excited about wanting to come. Gary also happens to be a pretty famous ventriloquist himself, and the interview was a lot of fun. We’ll post part of it here soon.

Totally impressed with Gary’s setup up on the bridge deck. Can you believe it was a three-camera shoot?

I kept the workshop pretty short—I had to, since I only had an hour! I focused on colors, showing how to layer colors into a space and tie them into Mediterranean mementos people may have bought, such as a work of art or a rug from Turkey.

This was a food-and-wine cruise, and my workshop happened to be up against a red wine lecture and a demo by a mixologist! Poor Darrell, I even had to convince him to come, and a lot of the wives in our Hawaii group dragged their husbands to my show! Mahalo, guys!

Believe me, giving a workshop itself on the Mediterranean high seas was a thrill for this Hawaii girl! It doesn’t matter, you can meet people from the opposite end of the world, and they still have the same challenges: how to incorporate color, how to find their style. I have to say, I was thrilled to meet some fascinating people—I’ll tell you about them in my next blog.

A whirlwind of a cruise: Mediterranean photos

2009-08-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

We arrived back at home, sweet home a few days ago with absolutely no time to recover from jetlag. I'm so thankful to have had this amazing vacation with family and friends, because we have all been off and running with school and work! Meanwhile, I quickly sorted through some photos to compile into a Mediterranean roundup.

Our group from Hawaii is ready and excited to explore Turkey!

A master weaver at her loom

Look at the texture! Kara and I can't stop admiring the colors and patterns

I think Dean, Darrell and Scott are making fun of us!

Terraced houses at Ephesus

A postcard-perfect blue day in Santorini

Hey Suzi, Keri and Kara: Are you having fun?

The Wagners make it to the top of a Sicilian volcano!

Corso Umberto: Can you spot our ship?

Mom, Nicki and I can't wait to start shopping in Sicily!

We had a beautiful day of sailing and swimming

Ayaka can't get over the size of those prawns: What a feast!

Happy girls = happy vacation. An amazing time with family and friends, amazing sights and incredible food. We'll treasure these memories forever.

Let's eat--European style!

2009-08-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

OK, I’m a little bit behind on my blogging here. We’ve already been to Greece, Turkey and Italy and are cruising toward the final stops of the voyage (everywhere’s been amazing, by the way!) and we have even given our first-ever Learn to Decorate with Style mini-workshop aboard the high seas!

I’m just popping in to quickly post some food photos I took in the early part of the trip.

A big group of us stopped for lunch at Psara's in Plaka. The kids had the best table in the house with a view overlooking the city. Thank goodness they had their own corner... they were noisy!

My lunch: a mixed grill plate with chicken, sausage, pork and lamb with spinach and carrots. It was delicious!

Not to be out done, Kara ordered the pork chop in ouzo sauce. She said it was ooohh so yummy.

Aaahh — good food, great vacation.

Still more eating. Dinner that night was on the rooftop of the Ledra Marriott overlooking the Acropolis, with enough delicious food to feed the Trojan army.

That’s it for now. More later!

Off and running

2009-08-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

After traveling about 30 hours and on only five hours of sleep, Darrell, Nicki, my mom and dad and I awoke in Athens with lots of energy and ready for our first adventure. With only a few minutes to spare, we jumped onto the first tour bus of the day to see the sights of Athens.

First stop, the Olympic Stadium, home of the first modern Olympics. Nicki was excited to pass me the baton. This mother-daughter duo won the design team relay race!

At the Temple of Zeus. the God of all Gods (my dad thought that was his title!).

This is the last photo of mom and me smiling before our long hot trek up to the Acropolis. It felt like it was over 120 but it was probably just over 100 degrees.

The Parthenon... aaaaahhhhh-mazing! How did they build this thousands of years ago?

During our tour among the thousands of people on top of the Acropolis, we ran into Keoni, Kara and Keri. The girls were so happy to find each other.

After getting lost in Plaka with Joseph and Carolyn, we discovered this quaint street.

Greek dinner show, a la Paradise Cove luau in Hawaii.

I hope everybody back home has made it through all that rain we've been hearing about! I'll be back later with more photos...

Hi all! Turkey's fantastic, but...

2009-08-10T20:35:00.001-07:00

Aaack! I've been having trouble with Internet access, so am hoping this goes through, but Greece and Turkey have been amazing, our shipboard workshop is coming up, and I promise I will post photos when I get a better connection! Aaack! TTYS everybody!

Design Star: back on track

2009-08-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

My favorite TV show, Design Star, redeemed itself from last week’s awful kitchen challenge. Phew! There really was nowhere to go but up, since the contestants embarrassed themselves and the show. Now my favorite designers are back in the lead, and can you believe that Torie, everybody’s weak link, is right up there with them!

This week’s challenge was my favorite: the white room, where each designer starts off with an identical white space. It’s a total blank slate, and a perfect opportunity for each designer to showcase their talent, imagination and ability to execute their design.

And—are you ready? All the design elements had to be purchased from a grocery store. Who dreams up these things? These producers are insane! They must be laughing their butts off, coming up with ideas to make things as difficult and high-stress as possible.

The top three rooms selected by the judges were my exact picks. My favorite was Dan, who raided the produce aisle and chose apples as his main design element. He created a very moody, sophisticated, rich-looking room in reds and browns. It was phenomenal. Vern Yip said it was the most thought-out room he’d ever seen on Design Star—total high praise, and well deserved.

Nathan painted his walls a matte black and dripped milk down them to create an interesting striped effect. Then he strung up his own fresh orange chandelier, which totally killed. Those strings of sliced oranges must have made the room smell divine!

But the shocker was Torie, who was voted onto the show by her fellow contestants because they thought she’d be easy to beat. Last week when the designers were choosing their kitchen teams, Torie was chosen dead last.

Well guess what? Torie totally stepped up and pulled off a hip, young space, with vibrant colors that went from magenta and yellow to black and white zebra stripes on the floor. She even scrunched up garbage bags and colorful napkins to make some bold wall art that everybody was asking about. A bit crazy, yet not chaotic, because there was uniformity in the stripes and balance in the colors.

The rest of the group was mediocre at best. But let’s face it. I know I’d be hard-pressed to come up with ideas for decorating with cereal boxes and fruit!

Again, I have to give it to the judges. They voted out Jen, the color specialist, who never proved her ability in what was supposed to be her strong suit. She tried to be eclectic and create this contemporary Japanese room, but the colors didn’t work, her idea fell flat, and her scale and proportion were off. Her room amounted to scatterings of little things, and there was really nothing to draw your eye in.

I can’t wait for the next episode. Unfortunately, that’s going to have to wait until I get back from my trip. I’m mixing business with pleasure—this is our family vacation, but I’ll also be teaching a home decorating workshop aboard the Crystal Serenity. I’ll be posting photos as we go along.

But first, AAARGHHH! I’ve got to get back to my packing!

Kitchen disaster

2009-07-29T23:10:00.000-07:00

On Design Star, they call it the dreaded kitchen challenge, and for very good reason. The second episode of my favorite show was really disappointing.

Not one contestant, in my opinion, truly stepped up and showed their talent. One team finished, but the end result looked amateurish, and the other team did not even complete their kitchen.

The homeowners who got a completed kitchen had asked for a Moroccan/Mediterranean theme. Accessorizing is my favorite part, but it looked like the design team went shopping at Ross and picked out everything that had a mosaic or was red or green. The guy in charge of accessorizing was Jason, who brags a lot, but his staging skills leave a lot to be desired. Has he never heard of the concept less is more?

Had the losing team finished their concept, I think they would have won. But they had very poor time management and execution. Their leader, Amy, was voted off because she was a weak leader, crumbled under the pressure, and really didn’t step up herself.

However, I did not feel that she was the one who should have been let go. Tashica was in the bottom two again, and I think it was definitely her time to go. So Tashica, you better step up, because three strikes and you’re out!

The losing team’s kitchen was so poorly executed, and it belonged to a real family that was pinning their hopes on the quality of the design contestants on the show. But cabinets weren’t set properly, counters weren’t aligned and baseboards were missing, so Clive actually announced that an HGTV crew would be going in to clean up the work. The losing team all looked like they just wanted to hide.

I've tried to post pictures, but for some reason that's not working for me this week. But you can see the results for yourself if you go to www.hgtv.com.

So, sad to say, I give my favorite show two thumbs down for this week. Let’s hope things get better this Sunday!

It's gonna be good!

2009-07-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

Did you tune in on Sunday night to HGTV’s Design Star? If you didn’t, you missed out—the show was fabulous! It blew away last season by a mile, and let me tell you why: Everything was better—the judges, the contestants, and the design. And the home that they’re staying in!

Judges Candace Olsen, Vern Yip and Genevieve Gorder were brutally honest, fair and very helpful in their critiques. One contestant even mentioned in the waiting room after being ripped to shreds that she learned more listening to the judges than she had in school.

All in all, the contestants seem better, stronger and more interesting than last season’s lot. I’ll just mention what I thought were the best and worst designs of the week.

First, the worst. NataLee and Tashica’s room was unfinished and poorly executed. Crybaby NataLee got booted off, and deservedly so. However, I do not believe they had the worst design. They had a decent concept and design, they just could not execute it well. I still think Natalie should have been voted off, but in my opinion the worst design belonged to Jason and Jen. They tried to be unique and interesting, but their design fell flat. After they explained, in response to puzzled questions, that the room was designed with a National Geographic writer in mind, Candace Olsen even said that no space should have to be explained. It didn’t make any sense, it wasn’t functional, and it wasn’t designed well. There was one lonely chair in a corner, a chair at a desk was way too small. A room can be interesting and over the top, but still cohesive.

The best design, hands down, belonged to Dan and Nathan. My prediction: These will be the guys to beat. They both seemed cool and collected, had good vision and execution, they worked well together, and right away came up with the brilliant idea of going bold with a wall mural that Nathan drew from one wall down to the floor and up the other wall. Simply amazing. Dramatic, beautiful and in his word, chaotic.

They balanced that chaotic feel with wood planks on an adjacent wall that added something natural and with more symmetry. And Dan built a big, bold, white dining table that grounded the space and created balance, because it was such a big space with a lot of chaotic pattern. It blew me away. All the judges loved it.

The worst idea of the show was allowing the 10 contestants to pick their 11th cast mate. They brought in three more design contestants, each said a few words and showed their body of work and credentials. Then the 10 contestants cast their blind votes. Obviously they weren’t going to pick the best possible challenger. They voted in the least threatening, who became the final contestant, Torie. The strongest one by far, who should have been on the show, was the brunette.

So, if you didn’t get a chance to tune in, I’m telling you, this is a show to watch! Check it out this Sunday night—and let me know what you thought!

Time for Design Star!

2009-07-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

I saw a commercial the other day that got me jumping off the sofa. The new season of HGTV’s Design Star is starting this Sunday. I love that show! Do you love that show?

The first year’s winner was cutie-pie David Bromstad. You remember him, the guy who couldn’t keep his shirt on? Men and women all appreciated him taking it off, but that got to be old news after a while. He won Season 1, and that was a very well-deserved win.

The Season 2 winner was Kim Myles. She now has her show, Myles of Style. She’s got a great smile and personality and good design sensibilities as well. Both of them seem to have done very well with their own shows.

But hmmm, whatever happened to Season 3’s winner? Come to think of it, I cannot even remember who won last season! I think it came down to two people who I wasn’t all that excited about, and one of them won. So I guess that tells you that not everybody is cut out to be a design star.

Hopefully this season will have a better group of candidates. I’m always amazed at the challenges they come up with, and how the designers are able to pull off some pretty incredible rooms in the short time frames they’re given. It’s drama, it’s catty, it’s over the top, and it’s fabulous!

The show will be on HGTV Sunday nights at 10/9 Central. I’ll be tuning in and giving you my thoughts, and I want to hear what you thought also!

Tastes like America

2009-07-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! As you enjoy hot dogs, fireworks and barbecues with your families, let's take a moment to think of those men and women in uniform who are fighting to keep our country free so that we can celebrate and enjoy Independence Day!

On Thursday, Iolani School (where Nicki and Megan are spending their summer) held their 4th of July parade, and I wanted to share with you some of the highlights from that day.

The theme was Always Faithful. The program started with all the classes marching around the football field while the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Band played a variety of patriotic songs on the field. Uncle Sam, one of the students dressed in a cute costume, was the emcee and he took a turn at conducting the band.

Besides all the parents and grandparents, you had the famous "Go for Broke" 442nd Regimental Combat Team from World War II taking part as well!

There was song and dance, and music that filled you with pride. But I must admit, my biggest moment of pride was when Nicki took her place on the field. You see, she was one of three students asked to recite her poem about America, and here it is:

A Recipe for America
By Nicki Lee

Mix fireworks and hamburgers in a White House bowl,
Add blueberries and strawberries and put them in whole.
Add a tablespoon of Democracy and a teaspoon of pie,
Then mix it and stir it, and watch the Bald Eagle fly!
Stir in the Liberty Bell and Yellowstone Park,
And make sure to say, "HI" to Amelia Earhart.
Add a bit of freedom and President Obama,
And when you are done, it should taste like America!!

See, even a 9-year-old knows what America tastes like ... yes, freedom is delicious!

Design dilemma: 2 TVs on one wall

2009-06-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

I was writing the latest article in our Makeover Style Tip Series when I realized I was veering off course. The article was about how we solved the problem of two big-screen TVs on the same wall of the Agenas’ living room: One TV was for the adults, and one was for the four kids. There was no way of getting rid of one of the TVs. So what to do?

Well, that’s certainly straightforward enough. The problem was, I kept digressing into what other people with the same problem could do. Once I realized the problem, the solution was simple: blog about it!

To see how we solved the problem for the Agenas, you can check out the article at www.rsvpstyle.com/contest/makeover/dilemma7. And if you have this problem but are not lucky enough to have friends who are glass artists and can create custom artwork to hide one of the TVs, read on.

You do not need to spend a lot of money or do any special construction. A more affordable option that would minimize one of the TVs would be to put it in a bookshelf or an entertainment center with doors. Or simply move it to an adjacent wall so that both are not viewed in the same plane.

If that’s not possible, even angling one TV in a corner and flanking it with plants would provide a different treatment that could also solve the dilemma.

The bottom line: If you need to have more than one TV in a room, be sure to give them different visual treatments. You’ll still be able to enjoy them without the distraction of a pair of TVs staring at you when you walk in.

Birthday cake .... again ?!

2009-06-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

More Gemini babies! James Brennan, our video producer, and Kara Wagner, our office manager, are also celebrating their birthdays this month, so we headed to Stuart Anderson’s Cattle Company in Pearl City.

James’ birthday wish had already come true: This restaurant has his absolute favorite sandwich in the world, their chicken, avocado and bacon sandwich. I swear, this guy is soon going to grow feathers! He eats nothing but chicken every time we’re with him.

We all ended up choosing the same thing, except for Lissa, who had to be the rebel and try the French dip. It was OK, but I would highly recommend that if you’re a chicken lover like James, this is the place you have to go and the sandwich you want is the amazing chicken, avocado and bacon!

Kara has the sweet tooth, so we let her pick the dessert. She was still contemplating what her birthday wish would be as they got ready to blow out the candles on their birthday cake/mud pie.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to sing Happy Birthday—the wait staff took care of that—because none of us can carry a tune. Thank you, wait staff! And oodles of happy birthday wishes to our very own James and Kara!

Our day in the sun

2009-06-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

I’m sure this will come as no surprise to many of you, but I’m not a golfer. I don’t like the sun, I’m not athletic, and chasing a little white ball around for half the day is not my idea of fun. However, supporting good friends and a great cause and having some mojitos sounds like a party to me!

Last weekend, Kay Mukaigawa and Nelson Oyadomari of Primary Properties and Primary Residential Mortgage held their annual MDA golf tournament. Lissa and I attended last year as guests; this year we decided to sponsor one of the holes.

We were on the seventh hole—don’t ask me what green that is or whatever—but it was a nice, shady spot to serve up drinks … with style!

It was a hot afternoon, absolutely perfect for some nice, cool libations. We served up virgin mojitos and mango mojitos—yum! Cheers to Sommer Meyer, regional sales manager of Bacardi USA, for providing us with the amazing mojito mixers. All we had to do was get pitchers and mix a part of this with a part of that, squeeze in some fresh lime and mint, pour it over ice, and voila, we had our mojitos!

So when people came up to our table, we offered up drinks and asked them to hit the boogie button. When they hit it, it played Shake Your Groove Thing. We were having fun!

We even had Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona stop by our booth, one of the very few who passed on our mojitos! Maybe he had to work right after.

We had a great time getting to know the golfers and heckling them on their golf swings. But the highlight for me was when one of the teams came by and said, Hey, do any one of you want to hit for us? I was like Yeah! Lissa golfs! And I snapped this shot of her drive.

And although I’m no golfer, their appreciative wow must mean she’s pretty good!

And the celebration continues

2009-06-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

Yay, party party party! Everyone’s special day comes around only once a year, right? And I certainly got maximum mileage out of mine! The next day, my dear friends Mary Lavoie and Brenda Chung threw me a birthday party at Mary’s house. About 25 people came by. It was great to see so many faces I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Food is so important, but I don’t seem to do a good job with photos … by the time I remember the camera, the food’s always half-gone. There was prosciutto with melon, caprese salad, osso bucco, a seafood pasta and a meatball pasta, all of it homemade. It was an Italian-themed dinner with one of my favorite desserts, tiramisu, and thank goodness Mary only put five candles on it! I don’t think it could have held the actual number.

Lissa and I had a chance to catch up with Deena Nichols, and although you’re not supposed to talk shop at a party, we couldn’t help it. The possibility of working with Macy’s on a corporate level? Too exciting!

I had a great time with my friends, and then it was time to blow out the candles and make a wish. My wish was that next year’s birthday comes much slower—they come way too fast these days!

Birthday burger

2009-06-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that food is very important to RSVPstyle. Anyone’s birthday is an excuse to go out to lunch. Finally it’s my turn!

I just celebrated my birthday last week, and the decision on where to go was pretty easy. Back to the Counter: A, because I love burgers and don’t eat them very often, and B, because Nicki and Megan are on summer break and would be coming along too.

Kara and Melissa are out of town, but Mari and Marie joined Lissa, me and the kids, and off we went to Kahala Mall. The burger was huge, as usual, but yummy, and yes, I did finish the whole thing.

Mari and Marie split a beef burger with blue cheese and cranberries as well as the special of the month, an ahi burger with greens and a wasabi aioli—a little too artsy-fartsy for me! Bacon, mushroom and cheese I think are all a true burger need.

Instead of my usual diet Coke, I decided to go with their mango mojito because we’d be making mojitos of our own in a few days. It was light, refreshing and yummy—the citrus taste went well with the ranch dripping off my bacon and cheese!

I got some great gifts, birthday kisses and a full tummy. What more could a birthday girl ask for?

A star is born--or rather, six stars are born!

2009-06-04T02:48:00.000-07:00

Finally, the day is here! It’s our long anticipated living room makeover show! But as beautiful as it is, the star is not the living room. It’s the quiet yet effective father of four, Chris Agena, and his bubbly and organized wife, Jo Ann.

Chris and Jo Ann are a totally typical Hawaii couple. He’s a postal worker, she’s a schoolteacher, and they’ve never been in front of a TV camera in their life. They’re the focus of the show: they learn the basic RSVPstyle design principles and transform their living room—with a little help from me—but their four kids manage to steal the show every time they’re on camera. >wink wink<>

With only seven weeks to design, remodel, decorate and film the entire grueling process, Chris and Jo Ann quickly learned the ropes of video production. They got used to the pose—being photographed displaying everything on their hands, feet and backs—so that when shooting of one scene continued on different days, they could show up wearing the exact same things. After the first day, Jo Ann learned to let us know whenever there was a shine on her nose, and I’d get out my compact and give her a quick touchup.

The first time we filmed their confessionals, we had them stand on top of apple crates to get the best angle. After that, Chris was always ready with those crates. Was he a great man about the house! If the crew couldn’t get around to doing something, whether it was touching up paint, screwing in light bulbs, even sewing—yes, I repeat, sewing—the curtains for his dining room, Chris was ready to volunteer.

Jo Ann kept her cell phone on standby and was always ready to field family emergencies, whether it was her mom calling about a sick uncle, or a message from the kids. In between takes, there she was, checking up on the kids and other relatives and still managing to run her household.

And although we spent little time with them on camera, we sure got to know the Agena kids pretty well, and boy, are they charmers and stars in their own right! Their friends have been telling them they’ve seen them on TV and in the newspaper, and now they’ll get their primetime TV debut!

One of my favorite moments was on the final day of filming, when we took this picture for a newspaper ad. I yelled, OK, everybody put your arms out! Chris, Jo Ann, Matthew and Caleb were at one end; at the other, I held Sarah’s hand. Little Noah, who always seems to have a special little smile for me, slyly pushed Sarah’s hand out of mine so that he could hold my hand instead. When Sarah said hey! and grabbed my hand back, I held both their hands in mine. It was a perfect way to keep the peace, get the shot and end the show—and it’s still a charmer of a memory for me.

Yes, the Agenas truly are stars, and they are ready for their hour in prime time!

Our baby girl is growing up!

2009-05-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

Today was Melissa’s last day of work as a single woman. She and Taio will be getting married next week Saturday. So Lissa, who’s just back from her trip, and I decided to take her out to lunch. (Kara is away on a trip—boy, did she miss out! Oh well, more food for us!)

We headed out to one of our favorite places, Maile’s Thai Bistro in Hawaii Kai. Melissa and Taio are going off to Thailand for their honeymoon, so what better place could we choose?

By the time we got there, we were famished. The waiter brought us our water, and before he even placed the menus down, we told him what we wanted: green curry with shrimp, pad khi mao—a moist, delicious rice noodle with chicken and basil in a spicy shoyu sauce—and ong choy with beef, and of course, sticky rice: two orders!

The food was delicious! And we always do this, we meant to take pictures of each dish, but we were almost halfway done when we realized we had forgotten the pictures!

Everything was half-gone, but we scooped samples onto one plate so you could get a glimpse of what we enjoyed.

As old married women, we gave Melissa some advice on her upcoming nuptials: most important, do all the work and get all the headaches out of the way, so on the actual day she can actually enjoy her moment.

And then it was time for her gifts. I had gotten Melissa these really cute, white, almost eyelet-looking designer pajamas from Bedhead. Melissa is such a beachy girl, and they say some stars in L.A. wear them as beach cover-ups. The line was featured on Oprah’s favorites show, and I do love it. And I gave her some fun and naughty bath bombs and things like that. Lissa gave her a beautiful Murano glass heart pendant necklace and some earrings.

Even though it was just the three of us, we still had to follow tradition and make her wear her wrappings. Not enough for a dress, so we had to settle for just dressing her head. We made a veil and enjoyed a few laughs before devouring our dessert, the apple banana tapioca and mango sticky rice.

After that, it was back to the office, back to work, and then it was time for Melissa to fly off. The next time we see her, she’ll be Mrs. Melissa Shipman!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world ...

2009-05-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Phew! Post-production work on our TV special is almost done, but I'm still slaving away in sunny Honolulu. Why is that?

Well, take a look at what business partner Lissa's been up to these last few weeks:

Does this look fair to you? That's right, she's smiling away and sipping a luscious sangria right there on the beach. Would you like to guess where in the world she is?

What was that? Did you happen to say Sorrento? As in Sorrento on the beautiful Italian coast? Well, you're absolutely right.

Lissa's been on a Mediterranean cruise with her mom, Carol. It's just the two of them, no worries in the world. Not the best timing, work-wise (when is it ever?), but how many of us ever get the chance to take a grown-up trip with just our mom, or just our dad? This trip will make lifetime memories for both of them, and I'm truly happy they're getting to spend this quality time together.

Meanwhile, here's a glimpse of what's been arriving in my inbox every few days:

Carol waving from the ship off Mykonos

Lissa finds great texture in Pompeii!

... and a victim of the big volcanic eruption there.

Gaudi's Holy Family Church in Barcelona

Carol prays at the church of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace in Monaco

This is the breakfast scene Lissa and Carol have to endure every morning

Poor Lissa! She says she's having a hard time keeping up with all the tours every day, and the food! She says it's fantastic, and she's having a hard time keeping up with that, too!

But seriously, if you see this, I know you and your mom are having a great time. Come back refreshed, because I am beat!

COUNTDOWN: June 4 at 8 p.m.!

2009-05-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I know I've been MIA for too long, and I do feel bad about that. It's because we've been wrapping up our TV special.

The Agenas' living room is DONE, absolutely final-mentally 100% totally totally DONE! They love it, the show sponsors who came to our open house loved it, and wow, do I love it!

We've been burning the midnight oil in post-production, so my schedule hasn't gotten any easier. Last night we were phone-conferencing about edits till past 1 a.m., and I am so fried.

But I just wanted to let you know that the countdown has begun! The show airs exactly four weeks from today, so mark your calendars for a transformation you'll have to see to believe:

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 8 p.m. on KITV! YIPPEE!!!

Life behind-the-scenes

2009-04-17T17:20:00.001-07:00

Acting and being on TV may seem glamorous to some, but not to me. Not after the experience I’ve had filming our how-to DVD series and this upcoming $30,000 Style My Room TV show. Don’t get me wrong, it can be fun and exciting but it’s also a lot of work and takes a REALLY long time. And for a person like me who doesn’t like to wait around and wants everything done yesterday, it’s difficult to hurry up and wait.

Here’s what I mean.

We had an on location shoot for our Style My Room Makeover show at American Carpet One a few days ago. Call time was 8 a.m., that’s when the crew needs to show up. It generally takes about an hour-and-a-half to set up the lights—you don’t want shadows on faces and people looking green under commercial fluorescent lights, right? So while that’s happening, it’s time for us to get miked up, do a sound check and have our coffee and donuts.

This is also a good time to look over my lines. There are no cue cards, no teleprompters, so I can’t remember word for word what’s on the script. At the same time, I’m trying to be spontaneous and make the Agenas, our fantastic Style My Room Contest winners, comfortable on camera. At the end of the take, sometimes I can’t remember what I said! That’s why we have an assistant producer who makes sure I’ve covered the important ideas. After all, the show chronicles the Agenas as they learn how to decorate their own home and the show needs to unfold in a way that makes sense so our viewers can learn along with them.

Then we do a run through of the scene so that both cameramen and the lighting guys know how to block the shot. Blocking is where the director lets everyone know where their marks are, including the Agenas, me and the cameramen. We do a couple of dry runs and then it’s action.

WHOOPS! Not so fast! Someone hears a popping sound in someone’s mic, or the lighting isn’t quite right or the battery on that camera just went dead. You get the drift? It all adds up to being a long day.

But you know, this is the nature of the business and that’s partly why major motion pictures can cost over a hundred million dollars.

Fortunately, we have a great crew to work with, starting from the top with our director James Brennan, our two camera guys, the grip and the lighting guys, the sound guy…you’d be amazed at the number of people on board for this shoot. Everybody gets along and has a lot of fun. It’s a family environment and we’re all working toward a common goal—to get the show over with! Just kidding! To turn out a really great show, I mean.

Location shoots like this one at American Carpet One are a little more difficult because we’re mindful that we’re in a place of business. Customers are coming in, phone calls are being made, business is going on as usual. Every distraction adds to the delay, but everyone at American Carpet One was so easy to work with and so accommodating that it wasn’t that bad at all.

Our day ended right on time, just before five o’clock. We filmed two sequences—our flooring and window treatment segments—and a little teaser tip for our website. And by five sharp we had cleaned up and were ready to go. It’s a wrap! …until our next shoot!

What a great Easter!

2009-04-15T02:05:00.000-07:00

For many people Easter is a very spiritual time. But for all children, Easter is also a day of bunnies, eggs and chocolate—lots of it! Our kids are no different.

We had our family over yesterday and we wanted to do something special for our girls. Nicki and Megan have been so patient with us with our crazy work schedule. Weekdays, weekends, it’s just work, work, work, especially with the Style My Room Contest in full production mode. But not on Easter!

We promised the girls a fun day and we did not disappoint. We invited Nicki’s friend Charles over and started the morning with decorating Easter eggs. Boy did they have fun! The mess on the newspaper-covered table and floor proved it. They dyed their Easter eggs, painted, colored, and stickered all over them. They had a ball.

We were on a creative roll so we baked some cupcakes and let the kids go to town decorating them. Talk about sweet! We had chocolate frosting and cream cheese frosting, and on top of all that the candy sprinkles! Thankfully, no one got a tummy ache even though they ate as much as they decorated.

The highlight of the day, which they of course pestered us about all morning, was the Easter egg hunt. We secluded the kids in Nicki’s room. The grownups, including Grandma and Papa, hid the plastic eggs near the trampoline, under the bushes, under the hose. Then we unleashed the kids into the yard.

OK, we kind of went nuts. For only three kids, we hid 250 eggs with everything in them from candy to loose change to small toys. And we hid three special golden eggs that each had a $10 bill in it, and an egg with a wind-up chick.

They just had the best time running all over the place! It probably took about 10-15 minutes for them to find all the eggs. There were so many of them and so well-hidden, too. The last to be found were the golden eggs. Nicki, fierce little competitor that she is, found the most. She had a little over 100 eggs in her basket.

The day wound down with them opening their loot, eating and counting as they went. And if that wasn’t enough, we ended with a family game of Wii bowling.

Boy, these holidays can get exhausting! But it sure was fun. Hope you had a happy Easter, too!

The highs and lows of our contest makeover

2009-04-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Let me just start out with the highest of the highs. The Agena family has been an absolute dream to work with, sincerely. They truly deserve this $30,000 living room makeover. They’ve risen to every challenge, they’ve done the homework I’ve asked of them, they’ve been learning and applying what they’re learning, and making time for our schedule, all while working full-time and managing a busy household with four young, active kids.

As for the lows, being overwhelmed pretty much sums it up. For six years I’ve remodeled and fully furnished homes, so I know what it’s like to juggle schedules, act as a general, and keep the job and crew going. But boy, has this one been challenging!

Not only have I been acting as project manager to keep job and crew going, see that things get done on time and all the sponsors are happy, I’ve also been cramming a top-to-bottom living room remodel into seven weeks, mapping out a script, and coordinating the job schedule with a shooting schedule in order to turn this entire makeover into a one-hour TV show!

Aaaarghhh! What a nightmare! One person’s ready to move to the next step, but we can’t, because we haven’t filmed or photographed it yet. And by the time we’re ready, they’re not.

And throughout it all, I’m teaching the Agenas design and décor lessons to help them achieve their dream space.

But when they’re telling me how much they’re enjoying it and how much they’ve learned already, I know it’s worth it. And in the end, when the show airs on KITV, I know you’ll agree with me.

But until then, I. Am. Stressing!

It’s Girl Scout cookie time!

2009-03-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

Just returned from my family vacation on Friday, well rested, rejuvenated and ready to go!

Had a day to unpack and get settled back into home, and then it was time to get back to work—but not RSVPstyle work. Mommy duty called: It’s that time of year again when Girl Scout cookies are for sale, and Lissa and I had volunteered to head booth sales for our daughters’ Brownie troop.

We set up shop in front of Safeway Hawaii Kai. Brownie Troop 313 had two shifts, from 9 to 11 and 11 to 1. Lissa and I got there bright and early to set up a table, post a banner and set out all Thin Mints, Do-Si-Dos, Tagalongs and other cookies.

The first shift of girls showed up raring to go—after all, I did give them a Cookie Sales 101 course a few weeks ago. Everyone looked great—cute, happy and wearing their Brownie sashes. With smiles on their faces they greeted everyone with, Good morning! Would you like to sample or purchase some Girl Scout cookies?

By the time our daughters showed up for their 11 cookie shift, the first shift had done so well there weren’t enough cookies for the second shift! We had to scramble, calling around to see if anyone had more cookies, can you believe that? Boy, I wish I could hire them.

In the end, some parents came through, glad to unload some of their unsold boxes, so our girls could close their deals in front of Safeway. Grandma and Papa even stopped by to show their support and buy a few boxes.

Sales went so well that when our shift was up at 1, the girls didn’t want to stop—they continued selling til 1:45.

By then everyone was starving—and no, I did not want to eat any cookies, thank you very much!

See you next week!

2009-03-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

OMG, I can’t begin to tell you how crazy things have been! We’re a week into videotaping our $30,000 Style My Room makeover show, and the Agenas have been an absolute dream to work with.

They’re positive, can-do personalities, which is perfect because they’ve dealt with all four kids coming down with stomach flu, a super-early appearance on KITV4, full-day excursions to scope out flooring, lighting, window treatments and furniture, and repeated invasions by an army of contractors and videographers—all in one week. I’m going to let them tell you all about it—you can follow their blog right here at this website, by going back to the homepage.

Right now I’m in a whirlwind of packing for a family trip to Lake Tahoe. I promised Darrell and Nicki that for the next five days, there’ll be no blogging or e-mailing! No skiing either, for me anyway. Say what you want, I guess I’m just not a natural! While everyone is on the slopes, my plans are to curl up in front of the fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate and some magazines to drift through … and before I know it, I’ll be back, fully recharged and ready to go!

Here’s hoping those of you with Spring Break plans are looking forward to some well-deserved R&R with your families. And to everybody out there, Happy Spring!

And … rolling!

2009-03-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

Our grand prize winners, the Agenas, had known for a week that they had won our Style My Room contest. No one can say grass grows under our feet: we started production on our one-hour Style My Room Makeover special yesterday, the very day The Honolulu Advertiser announced that the Agenas had won.

We set our call time for 9 a.m. Because we were invading a family’s home, we decided not to set a crazy-early call time like some of the days during production of our DVD last year. The Agenas do have four young kids, after all, and we didn’t want to cause too much commotion on a Sunday morning in their quiet neighborhood.

Our crew consisted of two video guys, our director, James, two grips (lighting guys), and of course Lissa, Kara, Melissa and myself—talk about a full house!

We shot the first segment outside on the sidewalk, and were probably the talk of the neighborhood. Cars slowed down to watch, neighbors came walking by, everyone wondered what all the commotion was about.

We shot the rest of the morning inside the house, which would have been a little bit cooler if not for all the lighting we had. The kids were great. Sarah, the youngest, was really cute. She kept going around yelling, “…and … Action!” I don’t know where she got that from, because James doesn’t say that! But it was very funny.

Once their part was done, Jo Ann’s mom and brother came to pick them up, because we knew they would soon get bored with our rigid schedule.

We are a low-budget production. There’s no hair and makeup person—well I guess there is: me! And we don’t have a great lunch table with all the fixins. Papa John’s had to suffice. Everyone ate on the fly, whenever they had a moment of down time.

The final shots of the day were done outside, by the infamous clothes line where we ambushed Jo Ann with the great news. This is where we filmed the “confessionals,” where Chris and Jo Ann got to share their thoughts on all the happenings. They were actually put up on little crates to get more of the background greenery into the shot. Lissa was just out of the shot, asking the questions, and we brought out diffuse lighting to make everybody look good.

Stay tuned—this is the first of my behind-the-scenes reports as we stay with the Agenas through their living room makeover.My, my, the things that go on behind the scenes!

Carpet, pets and kids: some solutions

2009-03-13T02:45:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that my KITV appearances have been slightly off recently. This is because we’ll be introducing our Grand Prize winners live on the air next Wednesday.

So for my segment just yesterday, realizing that a lot of people who entered our contest have been wanting to learn about flooring options, I decided to talk about one of our second-place winners.

The George family of Mililani was our sixth weekly winner, receiving $1,500 in carpeting generously provided by Marc Haine and The Floor Store. Their living room photo shows sadly soiled carpeting from their big old dog and their cute little girl. It definitely needed to be changed!

So here comes Marc to the rescue, and it was my job yesterday to show some of the options available to the Georges. Check out the video on our home page to see the three options that I showed—the Pirate’s Cove line (their “bullet-proof” carpet that’s soil- and stain-resistant), another one with pattern, and the new Precious Metals collection.

Now here’s what I didn’t have time to go into. The Georges are a second place winner, so they get the carpet but not the entire living room. They have to work with what’s already there. So what do they have?
They’re starting with what looks like a microfiber sofa. Good choice: neutral, easy to work with.

The Pirate’s Cove option would definitely help, given their big dog/small child situation—they may want to pick a complementary color or go with a deeper brown so it doesn’t blend in with the sofa. Better yet, a carpeting option that has a slight texture or pattern would add a little bit of interest to the room.

The Precious Metals collection also has a really good stain warranty, but with a higher price point, it might not be in the budget for their second-place prize (maybe they could upgrade?). Here’s a picture of a Precious Metals carpet with a candlestick to show how nicely it works with accessories and accents that have a metallic sheen.

Definitely throw color on the wall!

What seems to be the Georges’ focal point right now? The Bowflex exercise equipment! How about artwork? Even one of their daughter’s paintings, nicely framed, would add color and character.

Finally, I wrapped up with tips on underlayment. Even if you select a more inexpensive, thinner carpet, you can make it feel a bit more plush and expensive with the right underlayment, and it doesn’t have to break the bank.

A really good choice for those of us who have kids or big pets is the underlayment I showed. Because the moisture barrier is on the top as well as the bottom, you won’t retain any odor from doggie no-nos that otherwise get soaked into your pad.

Hope these tips have helped you. Congratulations again to the George family and thanks to The Floor Store for coming to the aid of a family that is serving our country.

And by the way, don’t forget, my KITV schedule is still slightly off—next week I’ll be on again, this time with the Grand Prize winners of our $30,000 Style My Room contest. Tune in at 6:45 a.m. to meet them!

It’s over

2009-03-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

After all these weeks, the $30,000 Style My Room contest has come to a close. We’re no longer taking entries, but are in the final phase of selecting our grand prize winner. And I can tell you, it has been a huge process. We have not taken this lightly. The overwhelming response has touched and uplifted us.

We wish we could give everyone a prize. It’s been the most difficult thing, narrowing down well over 1,000 entries to just a few finalists. Fortunately we’ve had a lot of help and support from our sponsors, who also sit on the judging committee.

There have been entries from people who we just want to be friends with and have enjoyed meeting, both virtually and in person. You’ve inspired us to want to do more with our company and our website.

There have been heartfelt stories, funny stories, and most importantly, stories of you wanting to learn to be empowered to do your own space.

Just yesterday a gentleman submitted his entry, saying he would be happy for the opportunity to learn and get guidance from me—and that if he won, he would donate the $30,000 grand prize to the family of Asa Yamashita, the Waianae High School teacher who was killed last week. He said, I’d be happy to give up the $30,000 to the family that really does need something.

So here’s a heartfelt thank you to all of you who entered. We read every one of your stories. The contest may be over, but hopefully our time with you isn’t. Please continue to stay in contact with us. Move your photos on over to our online community so we can help you there. We’ll keep putting up teaching videos, articles and events. We want to do everything we can to help you attain those dreams you have for your living room!

Birthday burger—mmm, mmm!

2009-02-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

Food is very important in our office, and whenever it’s someone’s birthday, we go out to lunch to celebrate at the place of that person’s choice.

Lissa’s birthday is next Tuesday, but without even asking, I knew where she’d want to go: the newly opened Counter in Kahala Mall. She loves a good burger! Lucky for her, Kara and I graciously went last night, just to make sure things would be up to Lissa’s standards! Needless to say, they absolutely were—so I told Lissa to mark her calendar for lunch next week. I even called Mari and Mel to join us.

Well, as the morning progressed, Lissa announced, I’m hungry. Forget next week, I want to go now! I guess her stomach rules over her heart, because she didn’t even care that Mari and Mel couldn’t join us on such last-minute notice. So Kara, Melissa, Lissa and I dropped everything and headed out.

The place is pumping day and night. Fortunately we didn’t have too long a wait before we sat down to order. Lissa could not stop smiling!

Let me just say that as much as I love The Counter, I was not all that thrilled about going today. After all, my tummy was still recovering from last night’s hamburger, shoestring onion rings, fries and fixings!

The menu, for a first-timer, is pretty easy to grasp. You build your own burger. Pick your toppings from gourmet cheese to standard lettuce-tomato-onions to exotic shallots and homemade guacamole and dried cranberries.

We started off with the fifty-fifty combination of the sweet potato and regular French fries, and got a full order of the light, crispy and mouth-wateringly delicious shoestring onion rings—which can also be a topping for your burger, by the way.

Those delectables were almost gone by the time our burgers arrived. Birthday girl Lissa selected a pretty safe burger of grilled onions, mushrooms, lettuce and tomatoes. Kara was a little more daring with her Gruyere cheese, shoestring onions, guacamole, honey-cured bacon and tomato. (Why don’t you just save yourself some time and pack it right on the hips?)

Melissa opted for the mushrooms, guacamole, sprouts and Gruyere with honey-mustard dipping sauce on the side. And I was trying to be good, in light of last night’s bacon cheeseburger, so I decided to try their turkey burger in a bowl over greens. I added some feta cheese, sautéed mushrooms, onions and tomatoes. It was good, but I have to admit, the beef burger with bacon was better!

We had a quick lunch because there were tons of people waiting for our table. Later, when Mari heard about the sinful thing we had done, she made sure to lecture Lissa about how it’s bad luck to celebrate your birthday early, so we’re just going to have to repeat the tradition all over again next week. That’s fine with me—let’s just not make it tomorrow!

An incredible home fashion show-and-tell

2009-02-21T16:36:00.000-08:00

When I was asked to do a mini-workshop at Macy’s, I knew right away what I was going to teach. How I was going to teach it was another matter!

The topic of the evening would be shopping with focus, and how you can easily transform a bedroom, a bathroom, even a living room space on any budget. The exciting part was that the workshop would be on a special stage next to Macy’s Ala Moana’s fourth floor home department. What a dream come true for a local girl!

But that was exactly the challenge as well—I’d be right in the middle of the department store, meaning no PowerPoint images to illustrate my points as I would normally have. It was also theater seating—no tables, which make it easier for people to take notes.

I knew I had to do something completely different. Macy’s is known for fashion, so how about a fashion show for the home? Instead of models changing clothes, how about switching out onstage props? By changing clothes—whoops! I mean changing colors, textures and styles with bedding or towels or accessories, I’d change the look of three rooms!

About 100 people came on a Thursday night, and culinary students in chef’s whites circulated through the crowd with trays of fantastic pupus and non-alcoholic drinks. I felt bad that lots of people had to stand, but people were so nice and even gave up seats for each other.

I started out with bedrooms. ICI Paints was nice enough to paint 6x4’ poster boards in different colors to serve as my “walls.” Against purple and lavender shades called Pinot Noir and Wildflower, I showed how to create a beautiful plum-and-silver space in three different price points by changing bedding, pillows, lamps and accessories. And yes, I did use Bed in a Bag (but not just any Bed in a Bag—this was Martha Stewart’s line!).

Then I moved on to the bathroom. The point there was even if you’re stuck with white walls, you can create a spa-like bathroom or even an over-the-top diva glam bathroom by changing out textures and accessories like towels and soap holders.

I topped off the evening by transforming a living room from an island to a contemporary to an Asian look, all in five minutes, by changing paint colors and accessories.

Phew! I’m exhausted just thinking about it. It was fun, fast and furious. When it was over, I thanked Macy’s Deena Nichols, who had invited me, for the opportunity. She made one of my childhood dreams come true—being part of a fashion show at Macy’s! All of this was not only fun, it was for a great cause. It was a free workshop, and we also raised some money for the American Heart Association.

And I have to give a high five to our fabulous crew, who came through as usual. Thank you to everybody who stopped in on a Thursday evening! Thank you, Macy’s! We had a ball!

Valentines for your home

2009-02-15T16:34:00.000-08:00

Roses, chocolate, perfume—all great gifts for Valentine’s Day. I hope you got (or got to give) some of these treats and that you had a fabulous Valentine’s Day yesterday!

This past week, as I was shopping for gifts for my big sweetie and my little sweetie, I came across some great Valentine-inspired ideas for the home. These are gifts you can even give yourself—and you can give them all year long!

The first I saw was an amazing glass vessel sink at The Kitchen Bath & Closet Showroom in Kilohana Square. It was red, of course, and would be just perfect for a hot, sexy, one-of-a-kind powder room. It was on a black granite counter, but really, you could put this atop almost anything. It was $690.

Paired with it was a stunning bronze faucet for $490. It would not be practical for a master bath that needs to be used constantly, but for a powder room it would be perfect.

Gifts that won’t break the bank: In Macy’s, I found a darling hand-painted glass votive by Kosta Boda for $65. This would be great on a vanity or bedside table to remind someone of your love all year long.

And how about the sweet smell of love? I found at Tori Richard at Ala Moana—yes, I do know they’re not a home store; can you tell I might have been shopping for an aloha shirt?—a Malie reed diffuser offering the scent of mango nectar. It smelled so yummy! That was $58.

Then finally, in Shirokiya of all places, a great gift that anyone can afford: a love mouse pad or coasters designed with cherry blossoms and the Japanese character for love. Either one is $10. Cute, affordable, a gift that speaks of the blossoming of love!

These are just some ideas that will keep the message of affection in your home all year round. So go out and treat yourself or someone you love!