How to Live A Luxurious Life on a Not-So-Luxury Budget - Tonya Leigh. Like Coco Chanel, I love luxury!
My heart does palpitations when I walk by the boutiques in Paris. A three-star Michelin restaurant evokes moans and groans. And, a fabulous handbag and a hotel staff that is constantly saying “my pleasure” at my every request makes my heart melt. I even developed a Society where I have the honor of mentoring a passionate group of women while we travel to some of the most luxurious places in the world, such as Aspen, Paris and Monaco. I believe it’s important that women learn how to infuse their businesses, lives and souls with luxury. Call me vain, materialistic or whatever word you have for people like me.
Here’s what you should know about me. I’m also not a money coach, meaning I don’t teach you how to make more money. I want to show you how to do the same, because I know deep down, you’d probably enjoy a nice bottle of wine or a night at the Ritz Carlton. So, let’s think of luxury as this: quality people, experiences and things. Travel trends for 2014: private vacation rentals on the rise. As 2013 winds down the travel pundits and industry insiders are making their annual predictions for travel trends that will shape the coming year.
Apart from some of the continuing trends, such as the role of social media and technology in informing and shaping travel decisions, a number of this year’s predictions indicate a rise in demand for privately owned rentals and villas over hotels in the coming year. Some of the forecasters say so directly. Trusted travel advisor Wendy Perrin asserts that “travelers will increasingly choose homes over hotels” as one of the top predictions on her Perrin Post travel blog for Conde Nast Traveler. This builds on her observation that “people substituted vacation rentals for hotel rooms” as one of the biggest changes in travel from 2013. The “space, privacy, local flavor and savings” that come with such accommodation being credited with this trend.
Alan Hazel is Owner and Director of Cortijo El Carligto. Life’s Little Luxuries. They say life is about the small stuff, and I couldn’t agree more.
Whether that means finding a pretty flower in your garden, singing in the car all by yourself, or finding one last quarter at the bottom of your purse when you’re parking at a meter–it really is all about the little things. Luxury exhibitions - showcasing luxury lifestyle. YouTube superstars: the generation taking on TV – and winning. The moment I realised I was middle-aged came at 4.25pm on a Monday a month or so ago.
I was at the BFI on London's Southbank and had just watched a 15-minute documentary called Becoming YouTube, made by a young film-maker called Benjamin Cook. Cook, who has postbox-red hair and a painful-looking piercing in his lower lip, was now on stage in discussion with four fellow YouTubers, all in their early 20s. I had no idea who they were but I was in a minority of one. Among them, the five have almost 4m registered fans ('subscribers' to their YouTube channels) around the world, and millions more are intimately familiar with their work and lives. Escape to Reality. Greetings from a tropical island in Southeast Asia.
It's a fairly typical island, as these things go. It took a while to make it here, with connecting flights through Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. It operates on island time, where breakfast goes until 11am and happy hour is at least a four-hour period beginning in the late afternoon and continuing indefinitely. Apparently there's a beach of some sort. (I like looking out at the water, but I'm not a beach person.) Don't get me wrong. But as nice as it is, I didn't come to escape.
INITAL IDEA. Dior's feminine haute couture show is set against white orchids. Pale dresses and jumpsuits were presented against a backdrop of orchid-covered walls at fashion house Dior's haute couture show in Paris (+ slideshow).
The Dior show took place in a simple cylindrical white pavilion, located among foliage in the gardens of Musée Rodin. As part of the set designed by creative director Raf Simons, white orchids with pink centres covered the walls inside and light shone from two concentric rings of baton-shaped strips in the floor. Black chairs for guests, arranged in curved rows in front of the walls, contrasted with the otherwise all-white interior. The collection largely echoed the pale, floral set design and featured light-coloured garments mixed with dark items. Jump suits and utility coats were made feminine with floral details and belts that bunched material at the waist. Dark coats stopped just before the ankle to reveal flashes of bright wide-legged trousers. Lightsaber Combat Academy Unleashes Both Jedi, Sith. As its website explains, the LudoSport Combat Academy is organized as a non-profit amateur sports association “that practises and teaches a new type of sport: Lightsaber Combat.”
First established in Milan in 2006, the academy is affiliated with the Italian amateur sports league UISP (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti), has several locations throughout Italy, and plans to open several British, Irish, and Russian locations soon. Classes began this summer in Cheltenham, England, where a small but dedicated group of light saber combatants have already begun to gather. After attending an international boot camp to train as an instructor, local musician Jordan Court now teaches Apprentices and Padawans at the new center.