Carnival of Luxury (and Active Rain) Winners

What a pleasure it has been to go through the entries for the first Carnival of Luxury.

It was fun to read entries not only from outstanding Active Rain real estate professionals (including Active Rain's Jeff Dowler, Eric Carlsen, and Jennifer Kirby), but a rant from a therapist, an art review, advice for creating abundant lifestyles, and the story of a Las Vegas legend who went from a $2500 loan to billionaire status.

Perhaps it is the ultra-warm weather we have been experiencing in San Diego-or the fun of judging, but hot seems to be the word du jour. It is also a convenient way to describe the winners and their blogs in the first Carnival of Luxury:

Hot  Luxury Tips
for Luxury Home Photography (or any home, for that matter) comes from Eric Carlsen and Room Reviews - Prep for Your Pro in VoxuryPopuli. He offers some terrific suggestions for making a home camera-ready. It's a checklist I'll be sharing with my sellers!

Hot Advice
comes from Wanda Grindstaff. Her article, Prosperity and Abundance is Your Birthright - Living with Intent , is full of sage advice on how to live a life full of prosperity and abundance. That and other wise words can be found at Creating Abundant Lifestyles.

Hot Finds
are provided by Jeff Dowler who deserves an award as a Top Luxury Scout for submitting two terrific articles from Richard Lombari's  Premier LA Homes. The first, A Luxury Home: How to Find the Right One is full a great advice. The second, Buying a Luxury Home: Why Use a Realtor is equally outstanding. Thanks, Jeff and hats off to Richard Lombari!

Haute Huts
are provided by the inimitable Dr. Paul Johnson and his Luxury Travel Blog.The winning travel article, is about an amazing hut-on-stilts in Bordeaux, France. Talk about some amazing real estate!

Hot Success Story
submitted by the WorldWide Success Blog tells the inspiring story of Ralph Engelstad's Success Secret and how he built a billionaire fortune starting with a $2500 loan. The founder of Las Vegas' Imperial Palace has terrific advice for anyone seeking success in life.

Hot Luxury Trend
Jennifer Kirby offers what may be one of the hot new luxury trends in safety in Fire Sprinkler Systems in the Luxury Home. Jennifer also had difficulty with our blogging categories and inspired us to create categories that were more fitting to the submissions. 

Hot Luxury Listing
Bradley Woods through his Conceive, Believe, Achieve blog submitted a knock-your-socks-off listing for a beach villa in the French West Indies. It's unclear whether Bradley is a Realtor or not, but he certainly has an eye for fine properties and luxury dreams!

Haute Luxury Art 
Ruth Mitchell and her Buy Outside the Box blog suggests that Priscilla Humay Might be the Sharpest Pencil in the Box. "Art is a many splendored thing. Read about one of the country's finest colored pencil artists," said Mitchell. We agree!

Haute Tempers and Travel Miles
Chicago's Therapy Doc and the Everybody Needs Therapy blog submitted a story about his enormous frustration with British Air and how they use tiny fine print to disclose how quickly their air miles expire. British Air: Beware the blogosphere!

Hot Luxury Gossip 
This is juicy. Did you know that the softening market has even hit the likes of Oracle's Larry Ellison? He has reduced the price of his Atherton, CA home from $25 million to $16 million. This comes from The Silicon Valley Blogger and The Digerati Life in a submission titled: A Steal?  The Former Boss' House Is For Sale at a 35% Discount