"There’s no place like home!" Book Review: My Dream Home: Dream Home Profile

First, who is Alie James?

"Dreaming Song" is my blog for women. I write about things to make our lives and homes naturally beautiful, healthy, and happy. It's also about my life as a home design consultant, natural health and beauty advocate, resistantly aging baby boomer, e-book author, Photoshop dabbler, country music enthusiast, and reality show philosopher.”

I know Alie from Blog Critics, where she quickly became “My Goggle Ally” and launched our Oprah Mission. I would have to say that Alie is sensitive and insightful with a ton of tenacity!  Her writings offer depth and leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside by always tapping into my fond childhood memories (which are outweighed by bad ones)!  So anyone who can help me focus on the positive parts of my childhood is my hero–in this case, heroine).  

 I recently read her e-book called My Dream Home: Dream Home Profile. 

“It provides customized ideas for your home, while helping you avoid costly mistakes before decorating, furnishing, painting, building, buying or remodeling your Home. Now with Dream Home Profile™, it becomes a real possibility for you to begin your Dream Home, and add that "little bit of extra" to your home!”

Most would think Dream Home Profile is about fancy and expensive…furniture, flooring, faucets, appliances, chandeliers, carpets, closets, paint, wallpaper, and rose gardens.  With ten years in the Home Furnishing Industry, during which Alie James has spoken to over 50,000 women about what they want in their home, I’m confident she knows how to build a home that could be on the cover of “Better Homes and Gardens”.  But Dream Home Profile goes deeper then that.

“You see, it’s not about how big, how beautiful, or how many expensive things you fill your home with.  It’s just about making the place you live, feel like home.”

I’m no “Suzie Home-Maker” but I truly enjoyed Alie’s book (My Dream Home: Dream Home Profile) because it is not about things, it's about a place–a place where lives unfold and memories are made. Dream Home Profile forced me to think about what is REALLY important when it relates to where I live. It enforced my attitude on how critical it is to have a place to escape the hustle and bustle of life, and how important it is to make that place a personal sanctuary for yourself and your family. 

The focus of Dream Home Profile is on how to turn YOUR house (where you live now or where you will live tomorrow) into a home–your refuge! It gave me insight on how to create the home I dream of.   By offering a set of exercises and evaluations, along with worksheets, I was able to distinguish what MY ideal home is–it is safe, clean, organized, bright, spacious, and clutter-free–welcoming, yet private, and yes, I do love roses! Something that is doable–even with a tight budget! 

“That’s all a Dream Home is ... a place or space that feels exactly like a home should feel - a place that you’ve created, and that makes you want to go home.”

There’s no place like home…just ask Dorothy and Alie!  

BOOK REVIEW: “Secrets to Healthy Aging & Ageless Beauty”

“Secrets to Healthy Aging & Ageless Beauty”

by: Alie James
Review by: Christine Lakatos 2-28-09

When I began to read “Secrets to Healthy Aging & Ageless Beauty”, I thought I was getting the usual beauty information and tips, but what I got was a refreshing study. It captured more than my mind, at moments, it captured my soul!

When the preface started with all the ‘self’s’ I thought it was one of those ME books, until I realized the author actually teaches that selfishness (which is unattractive and unhealthy) is a key to "Heathy Aging & Ageless Beauty". Alie James presents a very important and highly neglected "virtue" as the final goal–selflessness, which I was hoping came in a cream or body lotion!

It was in the preface where I was enticed to read with my full attention:

Secrets to Healthy Aging & Ageless Beauty isn’t about loosing or giving up more of yourself than you already have; instead, it’s about finding, and getting to know yourself – your true self – so that you can “truly” become selfless.

Getting to know yourself and becoming selfless has many Health & Beauty benefits, but in addition to Health & Beauty, one of the most important benefits is that it becomes easier for you to be in control, and stay in control of your life.

Also, you’ll find that your needs and wants naturally decrease – in other words, you’ll need and want less for yourself and more for others. Acquiring this virtue will make aging a very positive experience for you, as well as for your loved ones. Selflessness is your key to Healthy Aging and Ageless Beauty.

Later in Chapter 2 “Favorite Days”, I found great depth. I have to admit that reading one of her childhood stories took me back to some of my great childhood moments and DID (both then and as I reflect now) give me sense of inner peace and joy! In fact, I remember as a child my grandmother saying, “Christina, you are happy-go-lucky”. But as life has unfolded with many unpleasant occurrences (in my life and the world), my happy-go-lucky nature seems to be few and far between–thus aging me! My question is, "how do we go back to our childhood nature and still be responsible adults"? Maybe the lesson here is to reflect more often on our GOOD childhood memories to help us experience what the author refers to as “complete Mind & Body Harmony”–thus we can be more at peace and live a life of freedom (which will manifest less stress, better health, contentment, and allow us to age gracefully)! Or better yet, maybe we should recapture our youth in more profound ways!  

I may have to interject my opinion here: I think what gives us “spiritual freedom” as a child is our purity! When our mind, body and soul are pure we can then have true inner peace! This I have experienced as an adult those few times I have lived a pure life in both body and soul, when I have done what is right no matter what, in the simple things life has to offer, and when I have had the privilege to laugh and love. I frequent that place when I am a witness to the purity and innocence of my children, the wholesomeness and motives of animals, the beauty and sounds of nature, and the magic of music. Whenever I am privy to the humility and forgiveness of others, the rare occasions of honesty and integrity, the compassion and complexity of charity work, the nobility and courage of heroes, the wisdom and patience of our elderly, and the mystery and mercy of God! I think that is why scripture (when it speaks of a "peace that surpasses all understanding") teaches us to mediate on what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praise worthy! 

Later in the book, the author addressed the heath and beauty industry and its endless attempt to promote the latest product or program. And just like the health and fitness industry (an area of my expertise) it is a billion dollar industry that will sell you anything, including quick-fix schemes and false promises. And most concentrate on the outer–not inner health and beauty. What a shame! 

The three areas that she discusses to help with beauty are quite interesting:

1. Foundational Health
   
2. The Microdose
   
3. Mind & Body Balance
   

But in the end I love this quote from the author,

“the radiance of Spirit, together with a balanced Mind, Body and Soul, is what makes one naturally beautiful”.

As a woman in the fitness industry, I agreed with her idea of what women want:

“Women of all ages, from the moment they are old enough to look in a mirror, until the day they no longer look, want to look good, feel good, have lots of energy, do the things they want to do, and not have major stress in their lives.”

And I wholeheartedly approve of her summary of what is actually happening:

“Americans are actually “sick, tired and fat”!

How can that possibly be? In this modern age, we Americans are known for our ability to solve the most difficult of problems. In my opinion, I think it’s because of the prosperity of our nation, and because we usually get most of our needs and wants met very easily – too easily perhaps. Our country has adopted a motto, “more is better”. This mental message permeates everything we think, feel and do, and marketers capitalize on our insatiable demands by giving us Biggy Sizes of food, Extreme Sports, Bigger and Better products, Multimedia experiences that make our heads spin, the Mega-Dose supplement philosophy, Super pharmacies, and Do-It-All pills. As you would expect, these words and expressions are now part of the American vocabulary, and sadly the American mindset.

As I enjoyed the premise and the theories in this book, I kept awaiting the practical application–what can I implement into my life to attain this “Healthy Aging & Ageless Beauty”? What I found at the end is a 7-Step Program (with their related summaries)!
• STEP 1 Self – EVALUATION
• STEP 2 Self – IMPROVEMENT
• STEP 3 Self – PERCEPTION
• STEP 4 Self – INDULGENCE
• STEP 5 Self – EMPOWERMENT
• STEP 6 Self – CONFIDENCE
• STEP 7 Self – LESS-NESS

I am eager to start my 7 Steps so I can learn how to age gracefully–especially as I approach 50!

Christine

To find out more about Alie James, this book, and more go to her website www.AlieJames.com.
For more about the Alie–Christine "alliance" and how MY DIVA DIET: A Woman's Last Diet Book got on page #1 of google AND the #3 spot out of 24,000,000 (for diet books)- Read these Blogs: 

My New Google Ally–Alie!

Oprah–You're Going to Love Us!

Until then E.C.L. 

Empower–Challenge–Legacy

xo

My New Google Ally–Alie!

As I go down the path of marketing the MY DIVA DIET mission and our first book, I have spent endless hours on the computer:  You Tube, My Space, Facebook, Ning, Twitter, Ezine, E-Bay, Blogs (including Widget Box, Bodybuilding.com (body space), My Body Site, Fitness Book Channel, One True Media, Photobucket, Jib Jab, Linked In, Hi 5, This Next, Free Press, and much more.  

Prior to the launch of our website (www.MyDivaDiet.com) in August (2008), my young niece taught me about My Space and Facebook as well as some of the other hip social networks.  A friend told me to write articles–thus the Ezine experience, Twitter was an amazing surprise, my first Ning came from the advice of John Kremer (1001 Ways to Market Your Books), and the rest just kind of happened. I even found places I could just chat about my self-publishing adventure at "The Self Publishing Experience"!  And to be totally honest, I didn't even know what a blog was until this past month (I thought it was a bad four letter word–LOL)!   But now I am a blogger!

While doing this much work, I wondered, is this really worth it?  Each week, I would google "MY DIVA DIET", and see what was going on with our name and as noted in previous posts, people are talking!   Now if you google "MY DIVA DIET"–we rock!  

That is all good, but we want everyone that is looking for a diet book on the internet to see ours! But considering the thousands of diet books on the market today, we knew this would be tough, especially since we are self-published (at least for now) and haven't yet implemented a marketing strategy.  So, I would periodically google "diet book" and other ways that people would look for a book about dieting, to see if all this "social networking" was making a difference. Well, if you google "diet book for women", "women's diet book", and "fat-loss diet book for women" we do great.  Today we had a major breakthrough and if you google "diet book (s)" we are on page #1 and #2, (placed #3 of 24,000,000) and according to my partner and website designer–that is a big deal (in less than 7 months).  I guess the next challenge is: "how do we stay on page #1 and #2 of google"? And better yet, how do we get our website on page one with those popular key words "diet books"?  

How did this happen?

My new "google friend", Alie James,  a writer for Blog Critics!  The story starts with one of my google searches–"diet book reviews".  I found a book review "The Younger (Thinner) You Diet" by Alie James on Blogcritics.org. 

I loved the writer's honesty and style.  So I contacted Alie James, and she agreed to do a review of MY DIVA DIET:  A Woman's Last Diet Book. Unbeknownst to me, Alie is an author too and  

I was given the honor of reviewing one of her books, but we will get to that later.  Alie's review was posted on Blogcritics.org and that is how MY DIVA DIET got on page #1 and page #2 of google when you type in "diet book (s)" and have hit the #2 spot!   

EXCERPT of Alie's Review:    

"There is a place for "thinking outside the box", especially when writing a diet book and trying to stand out from the thousands of competitive diet books available to the hungry market of "tired-of-dieting dieters". Christine Lakatos wrote My Diva Diet, and is such a thinker.

To see the full review go to Blog Critics --Book Review:  MY DIVA DIET - Blog Critics (posted on the MY DIVA DIET Expert Review section of our website www.MyDivaDiet.com)

Google is good for finding stuff and new Allys (Alies)! 

Meet Alie

I will post my review of Alie's book "Secrets to Healthy Aging & Ageless Beauty", in my next post–in the meantime check out her website at aliejames.com, and her books and get your FREE duck directory !

My thanks to Alie, Blog Critics and Google!  We have only just begun!  

Until then E.C.L. - Empower–Challenge–Legacy