He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comfort her after a bad day.  

He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and forget regret.

 He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires.

 He will make sure she always feels as though she’s the most beautiful woman in the room and will enable her to be the most confident, sexy, seductive, and invincible.

 No wait ….. sorry ….. I’m thinking of wine.

 Never mind. 

(sorry men, it was just to funny to pass up sharing)

The investor had put in new carpet, counter tops, stainless steel appliances, and lighting and now all it needed was some pizazz.

Home Staging provides the wow factor needed to take it from good to great. This previously beautiful but beige home is now beautiful and bold.

Don’t let your listing be forgotten. Have them professionally staged so the buyer will not only remember it but make an offer!

There is so much truth to this simple statement. One can say…”Well, a bad location on a busy road is why it isn’t selling”. True, but than the price would reflect the bad location. Someone will be willing to overlook the busy road, if it is not overpriced based on the less than ideal location.

Or a potential buyer may say…”I refuse to buy this house as I’ll be spending days removing the wallpaper”. Again true, but that means the house is probably ugly. If people don’t like wallpaper they won’t like the house. If they like wallpaper but not that pattern, they won’t like the house. It doesn’t matter that you the seller likes the wallpaper, it may be “ugly” in the eye of the buyer and that is all that matters. Take the wallpaper down.

Many times sellers think their house is the exception to the rule. That their house is great, that it warrants a higher price, that they don’t need a Home Stager because they have the best decorating and it was expensive.

You may have expensive decorating but if it is too overdone or too taste specific it won’t appeal to the majority of the buyers.

Your house may be special but your Realtor knows your competition. Hire Professionals. Listen to the Professionals. And don’t take it personally.

Price AND Presentation are both important. One without the other will usually result in zero offers.

Do your homework to find a Home Stager and Realtor that will work for you and maybe even have some Tough Love for you. A professional Home Stager and a Realtor have your best interests at heart.

I went through at 30 minute interview with the corporate headquarters of Kirklands last week and I just found out that I made it to the Top 10! Yeah……I am so thrilled and so honored.

The next step is up to America. Voting starts August 3rd and runs for a couple weeks. I will let all my friends know when voting begins and how to vote. I would really appreciate your votes.

So……I hope I get to Toot one more time, when I am one of the Five Top Designers chosen.

I had a wonderful pre-sale day on Wednesday for a couple clients and friends and a TON of things went out the door.

The first morning of the sale was such a mad house I am so glad there were three of us to manage it all. People were grabbing and fighting over things.

Most people that came were bummed that everything was already sold as they loved my stuff and loved the prices! A builder loaded up two HUGE trailers full. Many SUVs went out stuffed with furniture.

Long story short, after the first day 75% of the warehouse items for sale were gone. After Friday, 99.9% of the items were gone. I didn’t even open my doors today! There literally was a few accessories and a couple accent tables left. Unbelievable.

I put a huge sign on my door for today saying “Sold out but thank you for a successful sale”.

At least 100 of my business cards disappeared, people talked to me about my services and I have almost three pages of email addresses that people ASKED ME if they could leave to be contacted for future sales.

So, I have Saturday morning off, a hundred or so of my business cards floating around the area and dozens of email addresses of potential clients! So, was the hard work worth it? I think so. Please disregard my first post on the subject.

 Oh, did I mention that now I get to start shopping for new items!

The first clue: “It is where Timber watches over you sleeping”. (Timber is one of my dogs). There were treats for each dog with the clue to get them to follow along with me. This clue took me forever (I can be slow at times). I went to Timber’s bed which is right next to my bed….makes sense right? No go. I looked in drawers, under the bed, EVERYWHERE.

Finally, my husband says “It’s where Timber watches OVER you sleeping”. Ah ha, we have a picture of a St. Bernard watching a little girl sleeping at a picnic and the girl looks like me when I was little. There was hidden the first gift (new golf cleats for golf shoes) and treats for each dog.

Second Clue: “In a cool place by the Apple Pie” Easy, in the spare bedroom under a painting with Apple Pie in the title and by the air conditioning vent. Gift: New golf shoe bag and of course treats for each dog.

Third Clue:“He sits on guard by the balls of sweaters you have yet to knit”. This took me awhile as I have so many places with balls of yarn in the house but I finally found it next to the St. Bernard statue and there was Danny Gokey’s CD that I have been wanting since March. And two treats for my dogs……..

Next Clue: “It’s where you started the hunt under the sweet music”. Back to the patio and on a shelf under the radio playing my favorite station was the next clue AND treats for my dogs. Did I mention my dogs were having as much fun as me? Note the digging for treats below!

Final Clue: “Check where Tiger plays?” Huh?? He plays on grass, he plays on greens, (searched the yard), he plays in Florida (I asked if we were leaving for FL that night, but no), well, the only place he plays at my house is on the TV. Yup, in the TV armoire was the final gift. New golf shoes. The Paula Creamer Signature Shoes.

So, how fun was that and how sweet was my husband. Love him dearly. Love my doggy kids. What a hoot.

I decided a couple of weeks ago to clear out some of my inventory to make way for new and fresh items. Some of the furniture and accessories I have not used in a while and I have been putting off this sale for over a year.

I have spent hours pulling all the items for sale, moving all the items not for sale out of the way and to one side of the warehouse, arranging all the large items in some sort of order, and displaying the small accessory items in as creative a way as possible in a warehouse.

Did I mention it has been in the 90’s in Minneapolis with high humidity and no air conditioning in the warehouse?

Today there will be hours spent marking everything. Did I mention I have to do my job at the same time as this? Plus mark three days off my calendar to not accept any work!

Did I mention how wonderful my friends are that have been coming by to help sort, move and mark? And every two hour shift of the three day sale is covered with a friend being there with me!

Would it have been easier to list each item separately on Craig’s List than to go through all this work? But that would have meant taking individual pictures, posting each item, fielding phone calls and emails, setting up time to meet people.

I think my conclusion is either way it is a lot of work. Off to my morning appointments and then the warehouse! Oh, tonight I will be making signs. Rrrrr

I found out yesterday that I have been selected as a Semi-Finalist to be one of the next Top MyKirkland’s Designers! Yeah!! How cool is that!!

After all the applications they have narrowed it down to 20. Now I have to go through a 30 minute interview with the corporate office in Nashville. The top 10 will be selected and then America will be able to vote online with Five Designers being Selected. I’m counting on my friends to vote. But only if you are voting for me of course. LOL

I hope I make it to the top 10. I hope I am selected to be one of the Top Designers. If I only make it to the top 20 I will still take it as an honor.

Here are the design before and after photos I submitted with my application.

A little side note about this project. I did EVERY room in the house. LR, DR, FR, TOY ROOM, MB and bedrooms for 6 kids. It was all new paint colors (of which they loved dark), every piece of furniture was new down to lamps, artwork, accessories, drapes, drapery rods, bedding, sheets, bed pillows, and rugs. Only one TV was keep.

I had 10 days to complete the project top to bottom, including all the shopping, coordinating and design day. Out of that 10 days I had only 1 1/2 days to pull it all together with furniture delivery at 9:00 one morning and the big reveal at 3:00 the next day. Not a whole crew, just a team of two. Whew.

Click on the top link above to see more photos of this project.

I bought this cute birdhouse for my enjoyment and to complete a cute vignette in one of my flower gardens. I had doubts that any bird would actually make a home in it. What I found today was amazing. Inside is the most perfectly constructed nest, just the right size for the home and large enough to hold a small family.

Even the curb appeal is perfect. Tiny little twigs placed on the porch to invite the little ones to sit and enjoy the view from the front stoop. I could not have gotten those tiny twigs placed so exact if I had tried.

Isn’t it nice to know that what we train and work so hard to achieve comes so naturally to God’s creatures!

Four other MN towns, all suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul make the top 25.

Plymouth, MN #11, Northwest Suburb

Woodbury, MN #13, Eastern Suburb

Eagan, MN #15, Southeast Suburb

Apple Valley, MN #20 Southeast Suburb

To view the complete list of 100 top cities visit: www.money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2010/index.html