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 "&w 31701th 06tokieln MOW- aft appredation - ( kw 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! .e4,/•• S Corncz C1-/ ct04: Thcz Nczw c-pring 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 C