Ides by Design
note
Professiona1
Secretary s
Week
4/19-4/ 23
(4/21
is Secretary's Day!)
LOCAL DELIVERY
WE SHIP ANYWHERE
Visit Our Website:
www.coolciesbydesign.com
• Cookie Banquets • Gourmet Cookie Basket
• Cookies in a Mug • Cookies On a Stick
• Specialty Baskets • Balloons
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MOW-
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Zard Veddrul Seem/my!
Place Your Order Early
Simsbury Plaza
33250 West 14 Mile Rd.
West Bloomfield
(248) 539-4029
West Bloomfield
Location
Certified Kosher!
1‘
44; ©1997 MGW Group, Inc.
Hours: M-F 9-6, Sat 9-3
09
EVER AY
evoyday 20% off everyday 20% off everyday 20% off everyday 20% off everyday
Our Store Is Still Filled'
LOCATED IN
THE ORCHARD MALL
6385 ORCHARD LAKE ROAD
AT MAPLE
WEST BLOOMFIELD 48322
With Great Gifts
For You and
248.855.4488
MONDAY - SATURDAY
10AM - 5:30 PM
1
Your Friends!
THURSDAY 10 AM - 8 PM
Items Under S25 Excluded.
Your neighborhood store for twenty yew's!
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12 New Lipsticks
12 New Eyeshadows
3 New Blushes
Plus Spring Nail Colors
in Essie and Opi
WEST 13 L_COCIM/11 I IE
S5 III —7323
4/1(
199 (J
102 Detroit Jewish News
Orchard Lake Road in the
West Bloomfield Plaza
OAK PA RK
54 7 —966,9
24695 Coolidge Hwy. at
10 Mile Rd. Plaza
Ys
Resnick, Maurice and Doris Chandler
and Eugene Kraft.
Some clients, she explains, are
too busy to shop Florida furniture
marts; some have illnesses, elderly
parents or business commitments
that keep them in Michigan. "These
people have become my friends,"
she says. "I was in their closets. I
put away their clothes. And they
appreciate the way I stay within
their budgets."
She charges clients a flat fee — 15
to 20 percent — for services that can
include providing tradespeople (car-
penters, painters, plumbers, inspec-
tors, movers), as well as furnishings
and accessories.
Gold has no particular preferences
when it comes to decor. "If they're
early American, I'm early American.
If they're contemporary, I'm contem-
porary." But what is paramount with
all Florida newcomers, she says, is
easy maintenance. Their directive,
says Gold, is "I want to clean it with
a spritz (spray) and play golf."
The other trend is simplicity. Gold
explains, "It's called, 'I've done it. I've
had it. I've moved from French
Provincial to Chinese Chippendale to
Italian Modern. Now I want it
uncluttered.'" She describes the resi-
dence of her clients the Federmans as
ideal: "It's simple and beautiful, clean
and shiny. Nothing is ornate."
Achieving this look requires a will-
ingness to forego unsuitable Michigan
furnishings. Gold counsels clients to
part with heavy French Provincial
pieces that do not fit their new sur-
roundings. She tactfully encourages
household donations to newly arrived
Russian Jews.
She adds that once her clients opt
for Florida's light and airy look, they
feel revitalized, like newlyweds.
Russian Jews in Florida and
Michigan have benefited handsomely
from Gold's refurbishing projects;
some have even inherited kosher pots
and pans.
Gold admits she loves visiting
clients such as Freda Leemon. "She
bakes her own challah and makes
her own gefilte fish. I hang around
her kitchen just to enjoy the aro-
mas." Leemon's discarded pots and
pans went to Russian newcomers.
"We made them instant kosher," she
laughs.
Gold was ready with names of
other Russian families when the
Lipniks and the Levines opted for the
Florida look. Both couples happily
donated their cast-offs to Jewish new
Americans. Gold, in turn, couldn't
resist adding a few touches herself:
wallpaper borders, fluffy towels and
artificial floral arrangements for the
immigrants' new apartments.
Gold's second specialty, settling
estates, began when Arlene Barris'
father, Morton Miller, died. The
Century Village condo in Deerfield
Beach, where he had lived with his
late wife, Helene, was filled with the
couple's belongings. Arlene and hus-
band, Bill, of West Bloomfield,
appealed to Gold for help. "Just send
me the key," Gold suggested. Within
two days she had sorted through their
papers, hauled away furniture, and
arranged for the painting and re-car-
peting that made the unit marketable.
Gold relates both sad and happy
stories when she reminisces about her
experiences in Florida. She describes
sisters squabbling over worthless
belongings while foolishly overlook-
ing Baccarat crystal encrusted with
grime. She chuckles at the concern of
a New York client who worried that
she might not know how to arrange
his kosher kitchen.
"I come from a family where we
didn't tear paper on Shabbos," she
assured him.
She notes a surprising trend toward
kosher kitchens, even among families
who did not keep kosher in their
New York and Michigan homes. "I
label everything for them. You can
buy 'meat' and 'dairy' labels at the flea
market.
If Gold were not a successful
designer, she could make shiduchs
(wedding matches). It was she who,
five years ago, placed an ad in The
Jewish News and screened the
responses before informing her son
Howard, a West Bloomfield builder,
that she had found his soulmate.
Actually it was his soulmate's moth-
er who had replied to Gold's adver-
tisement and had begun a corre-
spondence on behalf of her daugh-
ter, Nicki Sorkin. This led to both
mothers' appearance on national TV
and ultimately to their children's
marriage.
Gold also has a daughter, Lisa
Cooper, an industrial engineer who
lives in San Francisco with her hus-
band and two children, and a son,
David, a 31-year-old bachelor who
lives at Boca West and works for the
local Jewish federation.
Gold and her husband return to
Michigan to visit Howard or take
trips with the Wayne State University
Alumni Association. fl
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