by Roberta Murphy

This is a short-notice deal, and reservations must be made by March 24, 2007, but what a great opportunity to steal away to Puerto Vallarta for a weeklong tropical vacation. According to Forbes Traveler, this all-inclusive package runs $999 and includes both airfare (from a number of West and Midwest airports) as well as accommodations and meals at the four-and-a-half star beachfront Marival Resort and Suites.

Ideal for families, the Marival offers a waterpark for kids, a rock climbing wall, camping(?) and miniature golf. Those seeking serenity will appreciate the spa and yoga classes.

For additional information, contact Travel by Jen at 800 603 3178.

We tip our hats to: Forbes Traveler

by Roberta Murphy

Talk about tiny phones! This petite model might even fit in a jeweled Judith Leiber evening bag or in form-fitting European pockets.

The amazing C3 camera flip phone from Pantech (see photo on left with phone on keyboard) measures just 1.69. by 2.72 inches and weighs in at just 2.5 ounces. Its no fatty, either, measuring just 0.8 inches thick.

Billed as the worlds smallest camera flip phone, the C3 offers a VGA camera, interchangeable face plates, along with email and instant messaging capabilities. Currently, this little wonder is available only through Cingular Wireless with some great pricing incentives.

The Pantech C3 features and reviews are pretty impressive.

by Roberta Murphy

What a terrific idea! The œL List is being developed and will hopefully provide a roundup of the top luxury blogs in the world. Upon its approximate completion, the luxury shopper should be able to find everything from fabulous jewelry, to top shelf travel to ultra luxurious global real estate.

Here is the starter list, along with instructions for adding luxury blogs. Please add any favorite luxury blog sites and pass along.

If youre a luxury blogger, heres what you need to do:

• 1. Write a post
• 2. Copy/paste the link list (and these instructions!) from the post where you discovered the L-List.
• 3. Make sure the links are active and correct.
• 4. If your blog is on the list, remove it its not a self-promotion post. As Tim Fehlman (Z-List) said : œDont worry, because if your name is on mine, its on others and will spread.
• Add your favourite luxury blogs on to the list.
• Add the URL of the blog where youve discovered the L-List as well.
• Publish the post.

Drumroll: Heres the list of nominees and some of my personal favorites!

A Luxury TravelBlog
B Glam
blavish
Blog-Tique
Bornrich
Deluxe Blog.it
Foodaholic
Good Luck Deluxe
GourmetStation
High Chic
Janus Thinking
Living the Luxe Life
Lussorian
Luxist
Luxury Clues
Luxury Housing Trend
Luxury Launches
Luxury Portfolio
Luxury Reviewer
Luxus.fr
Restaurant Girl
Social Diva
Sybarites
Tango Diva
The Delicious Life
The Informed Traveler
The Lobby
Vagablond
Vinography
Wine Goddess

Other great blogrolls:

Updated Luxury Blogs

Hot Tomatoes and Cool Blogs

Real Estate and Luxury Blog Roll

by Roberta Murphy

Last night, I had spent a fun evening with an interesting Carlsbad Realtor who probably set a world record in San Diego luxury home upgrade sales in the late 1990s into 2003. Sharas experiences in new luxury home sales will be an article for another time, but I thought it might be important to peer into the current hot items being demanded for new luxury homes.

The list isnt hot off the press, but is certainly worth repeating. Last fall, Forbes reported on the features that were topping the lists for new, high-end luxury homes. An important thread running through this list is the importance of green in home features. Those eco-friendly items are all big energy savers, as well as being non-toxic building materials, earth-friendly woods, and energy efficient technologies that integrate lighting, heating, security and communications controls in the home.

The Forbes short list?

• Spa-like bathrooms with saunas, towel warming drawers, amd heated floors. Serenity is the guiding mood.
• Extensive computer-controlled systems to sensor control panels throughout the home. Light the pool, turn on the tub the spa or outdoor lighting, view surveillance camers scanning the outdoors or check to see if the garage door is closed. The possibilities are limitless.
• Space flexibility. How about floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that slide aside to open up a room? Or a wall of glass doors that move aside to bring the outdoors in? Or the indoors out?
• Outdoor kitchens are still on the must-have list. The compleat outdoor kitchen and entertaining area can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000 or more. In addition to WOW-end outdoor cooking eqipment, the luxe owner might want a cabana, granite surfaces, wine cooler, ice maker , warming drawer, dishwasher and more. And swimming pools are also going over the deep and. Another story in the making.
• Oenophiles rejoice! Custom wine storage made the list. Make it a wine cave, make it a small room, just make it for wine and keep the temperature and humidity under control.

For additional luxury home gadgets and reading, see:

The Snoring Room
The Self Service Spa (Do it at home?)
Long-Lasting Roses
Induction-Cooktop for the Luxury Kitchen
Ultimate Phone for the Luxury Bath
How to Hide the Bedroom TV
Switchable Mirror Glass Windows
SONOS: The Ultimate Sound System
Haute Refrigerators for Cool Kitchens?
The Overflowing Infinity Tub
Wine Storage for Oenophiles
The Illuminated Bathtub

by Roberta Murphy

In an emerging trend, more and more upscale spas are offering a self service option. Perhaps they are hoping to appeal to the spa-shy or those who might see the spa visit as a social opportunity, where friends or significant others can apply treatments to each other.

Wrap your pampered brain around this scenario reported by The Wall Street Journal: At Manhattans Townhouse Spa, you can receive a massage treatment from a robotic wave capsule machine and at Las Vegas Canyon Ranch, you will soon be able to help yourself at self-serve salt scrub and aloe rub stations. Why, I wonder, would the spa industry be removing its own trained fingers from such a high-touch industry?

WSJ reports that the $9.7 billion spa industry is pressing this do-it-yourself option as a way to not only lure new business, but to save on labor costs as well. Also, the industry has aggressively expanded throughout the country and competition is keen.This expansion spiked labor costs 8 percent in the last year alone, with trained massage facial, massage and treatment specialists earning as much as $50 per hour.

San Diegos La Costa Resort and Spa has been offering a variaton on self-pampering for the last three years. For $60, guests and members gain entry to the Spa and are able to enjoy a day of relaxation by the courtyard pool with its Roman showers and indoor steam rooms, saunas, showers, cleansing products, jetted spas and meditation areas. Fruited waters and teas are complimentary. If a personalized service such as a massage or facial is purchased, the $60 fee is waived and a hotel stay or membership is not required. Luxurious spa products are available for use and purchase and can be used during ones spa experience.

by Roberta Murphy

All right. I confess to occasional bouts of bumbling wordlessness when:

• Someone confesses to being diagnosed with cancer.
• When infertile friends share they are considering adoption after years of infertility.
• A family friend shares his Alzheimers diagnosis.
• Our neighbors announce their divorce.
• My brother-in-law loses his job.
• Life surprises.

It appears Hallmark Cards is going to allow me my silence, and instead hand over one of their new Journeys of Life greeting cards that shares the prescripted words I would want to share if only I could. Hallmark has a collection of 176 cards that cover not only lifes trials and tragedies, but its celebrations as well. The four main themes these cards cover are hoping, coping, healing and joy. That covers a lot of life.

Hallmarks best line? Welcome to The New Normal!

Meanwhile, Im still struggling to find normal or something close to it.

Last night I wrote about  Kohler’s $6000 overflowing bathtub that has been added to my Dream List, but now have a more practical and traditional suggestion for Valentine’s Day. 

How about some award-winning and long-lasting flowers?

Our friend, Marian Meyers with the infectious smile and impeccable taste in wine and food, owns FlowerGram, an online service that just took top honors in beauty and lasting floral freshness. It was a War of the Roses contest conducted by New York’s ABC Channel 7 affiliate. They compared several online sellers of flowers, and FlowerGram’s bouquet took top honors (and was also one of the most reasonable in cost). It was the only bouquet to earn a coverted “A” and to last a full week.

 To keep those Valentine roses fresh for the longest period of time, the flower lady advises to immediately cut the stems with a sharp knife (scissors might mash the stem), place in fresh water with a drop of bleach to kill unwanted bacteria, and repeat the process in a couple of days.

Am I surprised that Marian’s flowers are lusher and last longer than anyone else’s? Absolutely not! If you were to snag an invitation to one of  Marian and Roger’s parties, you would understand what I mean. We hope to see them in Encinitas tonight. Let’s hope for flaming sunsets and outstanding wine!

I am seasoned enough to have had more than a few stoves and cooktops in my cooking life. There have been the ones I hate (Frigidaire’s electric/glass cooktop, for example) because they have no self control—and allow little from me. Favorites have included a great big commercial Garland with six burners, large oven, a salamander and a spacious grill.

Those were the days!

But the hands down favorite cooktop of my life was an induction model we had in the mountains. It looked like a typical black glass electric cooktop, but the similarities ended there. To everyone’s delight, it would bring water to a rolling boil in a flash, and the water would stop its movement immediately when the power was shut off. The cooking surface remained cool (except from reflected heat of the pan), and control over cooking temperature was perfect. It was even better than gas ranges.

 This morning, I discovered that the difficult-to-find induction cooktop is in the news. Reading about PATH’s selection of the Top Ten Technologies for the Housing Industry in 2007, it was a thrill to see the induction stovetop make the grade.

And it’s about time. The induction cooktop is not only a superior cooking surface compared to all others (my opinion), it also achieves power savings of 40 to 70 percent compared to conventional stovetops. 

How does this technology work? According to the Induction Site

Induction is a third method, completely different from all other cooking technologies– it does not involve generating heat which is then transferred to the cooking vessel, it makes the cooking vessel itself the original generator of the cooking heat.

I have already started shopping online, and my early choice would be the Viking 36” All Induction Pro Series Cooktop. It seems to offer the most burners, and is manufactured by a great American name.

It may not be the most beautiful appliance in the modern kitchen, but for cooking precision and easy clean-up, it can’t be beat. Soap and water can dispense with most cooking spills, because the surface doesn’t get hot enough to burn these messes into the surface.

It’s a great cooking appliance for cooks who love speed, precision, and energy savings—but hate clean-ups!

For other fun luxury home appliance and improvement reading, see:

Switchable Mirror Glass Windows
Sonos: The Expandable Sound System
Wine Storage for Oenophiles
Haute Refrigerators for Cool Kitchens
A Hummer for the Links or Estate?
The Venetian Plaster Master

by Roberta Murphy

The way I figure, its early Sunday morning and a great time to read about and share cool discoveries and they are not always about real estate or luxury estates in San Diego.

This one is too rich not to share: A Free MIT Education.

Thanks to a web-based electronic publishing initiative, this incredible opportunity from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is being generously funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and MIT with support of the Ab Initio software firm.

It is an educational opportunity of a lifetime for self-learners and those gifted with spare time and curiosity. There are currently over 1500 courses available, ranging from engineering (of course) to foreign languages, to philosophy, history, urban and women studies and special offerings from the Sloan School of Management.

How does it work? It is a publication of MIT course materials that do not require any registration, attendance or homework. You are on your own and work at your own pace. No degrees or certifications are granted, nor is there access to the MIT faculty.

The cost? Free.

The benefit? Priceless.

by Roberta Murphy

I used to joke about needing a cell phone implant that I could answer with the twitch of a nose. That way I wouldnt have to play hide and seek with my phone and jump out of the shower when I hear it ringing. (Its really not that bad these days. I am a recovered celloholic who only occasionally relapses). Fujitsu Genies, after three long years of research, have come out with an amazing phone that is not only waterproof, but can ring underwater.

This slim .7 inch Fujitsu F703i can be held three feet underwater for 30minutes and offers a 2.2 inch QVGA TFT LCD, a decent 1.3 megapixel camera and a .1 megapixel internal camera for video calls. Have a dirty phone? You can now wash it! Given the times that my cell phones have gotten that tell-tale internal red dot that reveals water exposure, I am thinking that a washable phone should be a must. A big thanks for this find goes to the SciFi Blog:

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/02/01/waterproof_phon.html