Posts Tagged ‘makeover’
New Year, Time to Makeover the House
Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Decorating gurus Shanon Munn and Amanda Welch of Ambi Design Studio, based out of McLean, share their tips for starting 2012 with a freshly updated home.
By Lorin Drinkard
Check out the size of your rugs.
“Almost every time I walk into new project, there’s a room that has a rug that is too small for the space,” says Munn. “It makes the space seem small and choppy.” What should be done about an undersized rug? “My recommendation is to simply get rid of the rug and use bare wood floors. Or get a bigger rug.” Check out retailers like Timothy Paul, Marie Hill Oriental and Target for good selections.
Adjust the height of Your artwork.
Don’t base where art should hang upon where your eye height is. “People hang artwork at wrong height all the time,” says Munn. What are the downsides of too high or too low frames? “It can take a room that would otherwise be well-designed and ruin it.” Both Munn and Welch swear by this rule of thumb when taking a nail to the wall: In general, for an eight-foot wall, hang on center at five feet.
photobank.ch/shutterstock.com
Leave organizing to the professionals.
With the start of a new year, it’s easy to make resolutions like, “I’m going to keep my house tidy and organized all the time.” What’s not easy is actually making that a reality. “We hire professionals to do our taxes, clean our teeth, so why wouldn’t we hire them to organize our homes?” asks Munn. With the assistance of a trained professional, it’s possible to finally get your house in order and get rid of unnecessary items (an organizer has no emotional attachment to them). “They’ll help you sort through and donate—they don’t just throw things away,” says Welch.”
Switch out the shower curtain and towels.
For an inexpensive way to add new life to your bathroom or guest bathroom, change the current pattern, be it floral, striped or otherwise, for a fun, different style. “It will feel like a total different room,” says Munn. “If you had white, add a pattern. It’s a small room so it doesn’t take much money to update it.”
Go green.
When you add plants, flowers or ferns to any room in the home, it gives an instant boost. “Plants make a room feel vibrant and alive,” says Munn. Whether they’re roses bought from the farmers market or leafy greenery picked up from a home decorating store such as Home Goods or Michael’s Crafts, your home will become a bit more cheery and renewed with the latest addition
Recover older, worn-out furniture.
Although reupholstering furniture can be pricey, the investment to your home is worth the money. “Most upholstery shops have fabric books, and the labor for a dining chair is usually less than $100,” says Munn. Take a stained ottoman or tired office chair from drab to fab with a furniture facelift.
(January 2012)
Posted by Lynn Norusis / Monday, September 19th, 2011
VRE cracking down on fare evaders
Longtime volunteer gets home makeover
Bears on the prowl in Woodbridge
One-year-old drowns in Reston hotel
VA Historical Society unveils slave-name database
NoVA Volunteer Gets a Home Makeover
Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Friday, September 16th, 2011
Friday, Sept. 16, 2011
Yesterday I got wind of a pretty cool story about an amazing Northern Virginian who has volunteered an unbelievable amount of time to his community. He recently received an unexpected and absolutely amazing gift in return for his service! I thought I would share this heartwarming story with you.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Gary Gaal of Alexandria has volunteered 19,000 hours to the Fairfax County community via the fire department and to the Wintergreen Ski Patrol and also earned the 2011 Lee District Community Champion Award for his efforts. Gaal works at the Pentagon for the Department of Army. He was at work on 9-11-01 and activated the Army Crisis Action Team. Because of his commitment to his community and his country, Case Design/Remodeling awarded the Ply Gem 2011 Designed Exterior Giveaway to Gaal. The Community Emergency Response Team and a few other organizations nominated Gaal for this honor. The $50,000 home makeover included new windows, siding, stone veneer, roofing, garage doors, entry door and weatherization materials for a more energy efficient, low maintenance home.
Before (Courtesy Case Design/Remodeling, Inc.)
After (Courtesy Case Design/Remodeling, Inc.)
“The Case award is just incredible. There is no way I could afford even the new windows,” says Gaal, who moved into his now almost 40-year-old home in 1991. “My wife is ecstatic. She has wanted new windows and doors for the last 10 years.”
Paul Cuzzolino, second lieutenant of the Franconia District Station of the Fairfax Country Police Department who has worked closely with Gaal for the last two years, adds, “It’s my opinion that having a military background enables Gary to understand what it means to give something ‘back to the community.’ He uses his coolness and ‘bedside manner’ when dealing with those in crisis, not over or under reacting and getting the job done. Patience and understanding are his strong points.”
-Rebekah Lowe
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, December 15th, 2008
Because it’s simply easier to make do with the gleam of a beauty do-over
By Susan Anspach / Photography by Jonathan Timmes
Long before we steadied the shutter for the first of the Fall Makeovers “before” shots, we turned to you to find who among your educators, spouses, business professionals, sons and daughters could most benefit from a boost in the form of a fresh look.
The call for candidates went out on a Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, we feared the floodgates falling clean off. Suffice it to say, there was no lack of interest, because—let’s face it—hardly any among us couldn’t use a buffer. When it comes time to shine, it seems, all Northern Virginia needs is a glimmer of incentive.
Melissa Sorensen
Age: 39 Location: Woodbridge Occupation: Owner of Insightful Solutions
Procedures: Vertical mastopexy, six labial porcelain veneers, two porcelain crowns, bite equilibration, outfitting, hair cut and color, makeup
An eight-year ‘roller coaster’ brought nearly a decade of rises and cancerous falls
When prompted to offer an overview of information on the past few years of her life, 39-year-old Melissa Sorensen of Woodbridge only speaks for about a minute before veering the course of conversation toward her husband, retired Army Lt. Col. Scott Sorensen, and the fight against the pulse-threatening attacks on his body the couple’s past eight years have seen.
The dates tracking the progression of his battles with both bone marrow and esophageal cancer—first diagnosis, June 2000; the second, January 2006—she can rattle off in rounds. The progression of a series of setbacks—last-minute transplant match fallouts, aborted surgeries, blocked and leaking chest tubes, bout after failed bout of chemotherapy and radiation—she dictates in as clear and as neatly even a tone as a seasoned broadcast reporter.
Still, when she considers the moment she first heard her husband voice the word “leukemia,” “I get the same feeling in my stomach, like going up and then coming down on a roller coaster, leaving part of yourself behind you … I still get that same feeling looking back that I felt that day.
“He was 38; I was 31. It could not have been more out of the blue.”
Scott passed away on May 1, a little more than one month after having entered his wife into the Fall Makeovers contest, and nearly a decade since the Sorensens first set out to tackle what would prove to be his fatal health setbacks. In a March email to Northern Virginia Magazine, Scott wrote, “I am truly convinced that I would not be walking around today if it were not for her. There may, in fact, be someone out there who is more deserving of one of your makeovers, but I would not know who.”
Open arms,Open mind: A caregiver agrees to a comeback
Upon the April receipt of the makeover win, Melissa said she was “dumbfounded … exceedingly shocked.” She wasn’t the one who’d suffered cancer, she pointed out. She couldn’t describe the physical sensations accompanying a round of radiation; nor could she put into words what a bone-marrow transfer felt like. “I thought [Scott] would submit the letter, and I’d be reading about someone else six months later in the magazine.”
Still, as a caregiver, Melissa admitted to a deep exhaustion underlying her seemingly up-tempo energy. “I’m tired,” she said. “I would just like something new. And by new, I don’t mean new clothes, but just a new, different experience. Something totally out of the ordinary than what I would ever do for myself.”
Before
Melissa, a self-employed certified professional organizer, cited only a few absolutes in terms of off-limits beauty experiments. What she was after, she explained, was something that matched her down-to-earth, no-nonsense personality. “I’d prefer not coming out with a mohawk. I am, so much, what you see is what you get … I feel time is better used elsewhere than primping and preening in front of a mirror.”
After Scott passed away, Melissa accepted the terms of the makeover. Consulting family members strongly encouraged her to go through with the beauty treatments. “They said that this is what Scott would want,” Melissa said. “He took the time to write a letter, and I feel like I want to follow through with it.”
A light lift, fresh face and new spin on a color wheel
Melissa’s out-patient vertical mastopexy included a small reduction in a combination procedure that was “virtually effortless,” according to Sterling-based cosmetic surgeon Dr. David Berman. “Every surgery has a risk, but with plastics, there are general formulas to follow.”
Her crowns and veneers, compliments of Sterling’s Protech dental studio, were put in place by Alexandria cosmetic dentist Dr. Charley Varipapa, who also equilibrated her bite. “She had some old bondings, some spaces, some pointy eye teeth we wanted to deal with,” Varipapa explained as he hovered over Melissa’s mouth, installing her permanents as he pointed out the special attention paid to alignment, durability and the “punchy realness” of the halos, or translucent strips rimming the bottoms of the teeth. “At the same time, you’re trying to be as conservative in dental work as possible, to do just the right amount, so that you not only look good, but are able to function … All set?”
Melissa pulled herself upright, studied her mouth in the mirror. “Thank you,” she said, flashing two rows of white.
“They’re you,” he nodded. “They’re your teeth.”
Her ensemble she selected courtesy of J. Jill, whose Tysons branch store manager Reshea Neal fitted her for a “desk-to-dress” outfit, “something I can wear with a client but then if I want to go to dinner, I can go to dinner.”
“I’m in a rut, I’ll just put it out there,” added Melissa, who said she tends to hide behind muted or earthy tones. “When I first met my husband, it took two months before he finally said, ‘Do you own anything other than black?’”
In selecting an outfit, Neal made note of Melissa’s gold and green shading. “Greens and yellows are good for her, and if you can wear yellows, you can wear reds because it’s a complement,” she said, pulling a patterned red top off its hanger.
“This is something that will take her into another season but still be versatile, good for business.”
For purposes of hair and makeup, PR @ Partners’ Fresh Look Director Mary Shaffer Clendaniel first went to work adding volume and movement to Melissa’s strands. “Fine, limp hair benefits immensely from hair color. It is the best tool to get more lift.” Working with a rich, auburn shade with honey-gold highlights that play up Melissa’s eye undertones, Clendaniel fashioned a long pixie style that combined razored edges and sharper textures. “Also, the diagonal lines I used give her the option of parting on either side, and wearing bangs or not.”
Since Melissa typically wears very little makeup, “I wanted to give her some options to work with without making her feel like a painted lady,” the stylist said, ticking off a recipe of primer, moisturizer mixed with a light, diffusing foundation, all topped with loose powder—“the best way to get a summertime face that’s fresh.”
Making time to get to know ‘a more modern me’
Her first word that came to mind was “different: It’s me, but different.” Her first thought: “I want to go home and tell Scott.”
Instead, Melissa, who made the decision to be made over at her mother and sister’s urging, would return home to her neighbor, “who was just awestruck. She was like, ‘Oh, my God. You look fabulous!’ Then she dragged her husband over to see me.”
While Melissa said she has happily acquainted her old self with her new look—“this is probably me with an edge, a more modern me”—the leeway she lent her beauty pros brought about an image she couldn’t immediately identify. “During the shoot at one point I saw myself on the screen, and I kind of had to do a double take,” she laughed.
“I was fine going a little outside my comfort zone, since I was pretty much a hair virgin. In my 40 years, I think I’ve only highlighted twice. And the tray of makeup that [Clendaniel] brought out … I was like, Oh, God, OK, now we’re in trouble.”
Her makeup tips, she took to heart. “It was like, the dot to dot, down to my level.” The hair, she “definitely” plans to maintain—especially in light of a prep time that doesn’t nudge back any little hands. “She cut it so that it was versatile, so I can do it quickly in the morning, dress it up for the evenings.”
Some of which she’s now finding she can now devote to her own person. “I’ve spent two-and-a-half years not doing anything for myself,” Melissa said. “For me, it was very much a treat to have somebody even doing my hair.”
Stefanie Cardillo
Age: 22 Location: Arlington Occupation: Nanny and college student
Procedures: Chairside teeth whitening, replacement fillings, outfitting, hair cut and color, makeup
Coming home again: Striking out on her own at school brought setbacks
Expectations are something that 22-year-old nanny Stefanie Cardillo tries to keep at arm’s length. In her past four years, split between home at Blacksburg and home in Arlington, hers have veered far from what she once considered par for course.
She began work on her bachelor’s at Virginia Tech in 2004, where “I didn’t have a huge group of friends, but a good, closely knit group that I adored,” Stefanie said. Summers and school breaks between semesters were spent tackling odd jobs at malls; during the academic year, she chipped away at credit requirements for her English major. The downtime always came as something of a relief, she explained, as she was fighting against what her psychiatrist at the time believed to be clinical depression, but was re-diagnosed in November of 2006 as being bipolar disorder.
A dangerous reaction to a revised regimen of medication that fall was then toppled by what her mother describes as the emotional upheaval of having her best friend shot in the hand the day of the school’s violent April 2007 incident. Though she was able to finish out the spring semester, “I didn’t have the knowledge or the tools to handle what was happening, so I let myself fall back down.”
Because of the two sharply negative setbacks, the summer of 2007 proved to be “basically a battle” between Stefanie and her mother and father, both of whom, by this time, were urging her to remain at home for the fall to seek local counseling.
Stefanie won out and moved back to Virginia Tech, where it took her less than a few months to realize what she now considers a mistake. “I got fired from my job, and I crashed.”
Last November, she called her mother in tears. “She asked me, ‘Do you want to come home?’ Yeah. I did … Finally this time, I was like, OK. I’m not good here.”
Waffling energy and wavering enthusiasm mean taking on one day at a time
Patricia Cardillo, who didn’t tell her daughter she was nominating her for the makeover at the time of entering her, sat her down with the news of the win in April. “Wait, am I in trouble?” Stefanie had asked. “No, but I may be,” her mother said.
Before shot
“Initially, it was like, Wait, you think I need a makeover?” said Stefanie, today a Northern Virginia nanny of two. “It was about 20 minutes later that I got really excited.”
According to Patricia, she threw her daughter’s name and story in the ring in the hopes of boosting her energy more than anything else. “I know she’s worn out,” she said. “She says she’s tired of being sick … I’d love to give something special to Stefanie to show her how good things can happen, too.”
Her daily routine before the mirror is basic at best, Stefanie said, and varies based on her morning energy levels. “Some days I do really good … Most days, not so much. Once or twice a week I try and look nice. I shower, actually blow-dry my hair instead of just letting it air-dry, wear makeup. Cover-up and eyeliner, because I don’t know how to work the other stuff.” Her wardrobe she described as “definitely casual.” “I don’t think I have a ‘look.’”
Nor does the lifestyle for which she’s striving. Stefanie said she isn’t sure what the coming years, or even months, hold for her social and professional life. She knows she needs to complete her bachelor’s, and wants to pick up college courses locally in child psychology, but it’s unclear as to when the degree will be completed, or what she’ll do with it once it’s in her grasp. She said she hasn’t quite formulated the image she wants to convey, since she can’t as of yet identify the beholders.
As such, “I’m willing to try anything,” said Stefanie, who added she most wants to simply enjoy the procedural components of the makeover. She suspects that, after all, is the other reason her mother nominated her in the first place. “I think my mom just wants to see me happy … I haven’t been happy for a while.”
Tending to beaming eyes, textured ends and bringing out a smile
Stefanie’s turnaround took the direction of inside, out: She proved to be a candidate for whitening at Gainesville Dental Associates, where Dr. Theo Batistas had a few of her fillings replaced and oversaw the direction of her chairside whitening procedures, the success of which “really depends on an individual patient,” explained coordinator Erin Kehl. “Some people have naturally grayish teeth. She does not; hers will whiten well.” An equally effective alternative, Kehl added, are the take-home trays most dentists’ offices offer, which take more time but cause less sensitivity to teeth and are about half the cost.
The following week’s clothes fitting at Reston’s South Moon Under further lit Stefanie’s face. She allowed herself to smile into the mirror only after lighting upon a cropped white jacket with gold accents—ones that make the piece fall-transitional, sales associate Jill Mejia-Wetzel pointed out.
“I was nervous!” Stefanie admitted, fingering the jacket’s edge.
“Don’t be nervous! Clothes are fun—you can create any shape you want with the right pieces,” Mejia-Wetzel said. “Do you like gold?”
Stefanie gave herself another full-length once-over before breaking into another grin. “I never did before.”
Turning to her tresses, Stefanie met with stylist David Bakir of Springfield’s Jon David Salon, where she was treated to gold and red highlights and crown layers that, according to Bakir, compensated for her hair “being on the finer side.” He styled the new cut with attention to certain sections with a large-sized curling iron to work in a variation of textures. “Not every section—that would defeat the whole purpose,” he explained.
Stefanie’s makeup artist, Mei Shields, swears by the pigment in artistry lines such as Bare Escentuals and Smashbox for her work, which she performs both as a professional for Jon David and a freelancer. “Stefanie told me she’s really very simple in terms of what she does every day, so what I did, and what I’m encouraging her to do, is to focus on her eyes to bring it all together … The most beautiful feature are the woman’s eyes and bone structure.”
Shields, who applied a primer for Stefanie’s “after” shots, explained she wouldn’t require one on a regular basis and that, if people strive to take care of their skin, most have an “underlying natural beauty.” “A little dabble of this or that can enhance plenty from day to day.”
In other words, small steps, but at times steep ones. Stefanie pursed her lips into an “O” before allowing them to curl upwards on their own. “I think this might be the first time I’ve ever worn lipstick.”
Fashioning a look to love (naturally), with room to grow
“I was more than pleasantly surprised,” said Stefanie, who only confessed makeover concerns she’d had from the start of the process after her final post-pose had been shot.
“I was very nervous about the clothes because before I left school I put on some weight and, you know, when that happens, you kind of revert to baggy sweatpants and sweatshirts; you’re not wanting to shop as much. It drains you. It’s hard to do for yourself.”
Beyond the fitting, Stefanie, who from the beauty do-over’s beginning day stressed a desire to strive for a natural look at day’s end, was concerned to place her hair in an unknown professional’s hands. “The hair color was next what I was most nervous about because people have complimented my natural hair color since I was 2.”
She twirled a strand, studied it, smiled. “It really enhanced what I have, and it does, it looks natural … I feel like it looks like me.”
Her cut she said she plans to let grow out a bit—“I like putting it up in ponytails … I do work with kids, so sometimes I have no motivation”—which Bakir emphasized is angled and colored to be able to do. “Maintenance-wise with the color is basically non-existent,” he said. “Maybe every four or five months. It’s just very soft.”
A slew of approving beauty pros and photographers aside, it took a third party—those who first encouraged her to treat herself—for the final effect to sink in. When her parents beheld the finished product, “They actually both complimented me. My mom loves my hair. She’s actually thinking about going [to Jon David Salon] to get her hair done.
“And they said I looked pretty. It meant a lot.”
(September 2008)