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TRENDS

HERE AND NOW

Green for Spring and the Perfect
Mother's Day Gift for Expectant Moms

New local boutiques, businesses and brands
you may not know — but should.

By Lynne Konstantin

Prime Steak &- 100 Wines by the Glass

Fleming's features the finest prime steaks and an
award-winning list of 100 wines by the glass.
Join us for an evening with family and friends
in our lively, relaxed atmosphere.

F4

PRIME STEAKHOUSE & WINE BAR

323 North Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham
248-723-0134
www.FlemingsSteakhouse.com/BirmMI

1729080

Aft, RENAISSANCE MEDIA

S‘Y 4 SOLUTIONS
"1 ""■■■■ ww__ —

A N11 Service Custom Publishin g

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& Fine Jewelry
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Guide

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Contact
Kevin Browett or
Debbie Schultz

29200 Northwestern Hwy.
Suite 110
Southfield, MI 48034

248.354.6060

34 May 2012 I

RED TIMID

HOME TURF
Alicia Blas'two teenaged sons are
skaters.
"One day, a fireman stopped by
my house and said,'You've always
got a gaggle of boys skateboarding
outside your house, and you can't
see your address:That got me think-
ing," says Blas.
The master gardener in two states
headed to Home Depot and bought
a load of AstroTurf. "I laid it out in my
living room and realized,'I can make
everything out of this stuff:"
So she started with her now-cov-
eted (by Rachael Ray, among others)
maintenance-free house numbers
and named her business Firmly
Planted.
Blas, who grew up in Farmington
Hills and is a Hillel Day School, King-
swood-Cranbrook and Harrison High
School graduate, went to art school
at Chicago's Columbia College and
launched her career working as a
photo stylist for big-name stores and
magazines, including Blooming-
dales, Macy's and Target.
Hired to style the set design for a
Sears shoot featuring garage doors,
aluminum siding and paint, some-
one else on the shoot pointed out to
her that she was missing her calling.
"She said,'You should be doing
gardens:" Blas recalls.

Realizing the stranger was right,
Blas, 50, studied to become a master
gardener in Florida, where she had
moved with her husband before
moving on to California, where she
had to study again to become a mas-
ter gardener of that state's specific
zones.
"I love working with plants and
flowers,"says Blas, who wanted
to know all she could about their
names, origins and very best applica-
tions."But I'm a designer, too, so I like
to try to put everything together.
My goal is to be a Igardenologisf — I
want to help people create a whole
out of the inside and the outside:'
To that end, she has been studying
feng shui (as well as Kabbalah), an
ancient Chinese system of improv-
ing one's energy by living in har-
mony with one's surroundings. And
in 2010, she founded Firmly Planted,
a collection of boldly hued, playfully
designed and eco-friendly indoor-

THE BUZZ

Spring Sensations

Our favorite shopping picks for women, men, the
home, kids and more. This month, it's beginning to
feel a lot like (almost) summer.

By Lynne Konstantin

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
A sky-high twist on the traditional Swedish clog,
these chic wooden sandals on a Spanish pine
base wrap your foot in a luxuriously soft nu-
buck strap. Available in Marine (shown) and
Stone. $184. Love Child, Royal Oak
(248-545-5683; lovechildkids.com ).

AMERICAN ICON
Originally known as the Westport chair (for the New York
State town in which it was created) in the early 1900s and
created for comfortable viewing of the Adirondack Moun-
tains, the Adirondack chair later was renamed for the region

www.redthreadmagazine.com