The Asolo Theatre Company had a mega-hit on its hands last summer with Menopause the Musical, drawing more than 45,000 people-mostly women of a certain age-during its 15-week run and keeping house manager Ed Folts very busy indeed. "People came from all over the state to see it," he says. "Some brought their whole neighborhoods." [...]

Maria Baker listens to the Spirit, because the Lord has been there for her through plenty of difficult times. So when she and her granddaughter, Char-laé Shorter, boarded a SCAT bus five years ago, she believes the Spirit inspired a passenger who had noticed the young girl’s graceful form to tell Baker about a program [...]

Real estate agent Charlotte Hedge tried for six months to sell the 1920s waterfront sea captain’s house. Narrow hallways and small rooms made it difficult, because "people couldn’t visualize what to put in these nooks and crannies and little rooms," she says. So Hedge tried a hot new marketing tool: She had the house professionally [...]

When Dr. Richard and Judy Baise built their two-story Southern-traditional Beneva Oaks home in 1984, Cook’s Custom Cabinetry designed and installed the kitchen. That was four young grandchildren ago. Recently, responding to their expanded family and growing entertaining needs, the couple asked owner Ron Cook and his wife/business partner, Margaret, to whip up a bigger, [...]

For sun-drenched transplants and visitors, Thanksgiving in Sarasota begs a tropical adjustment to tradition. We asked the hospitality experts at the Ritz-Carlton to fashion the perfect Florida-style Thanksgiving, and they assembled a feast of flavors, served against a sunset, Gulf-front backdrop at the idyllic Members Beach Club on Lido Key. The menu, created by the [...]

Catherine Kerr’s clients, Mary and Andy Schleiffart of Michigan and Siesta Key, loved their pretty new house in a quiet Osprey neighborhood. But the décor of the bedrooms put them to sleep. So how does a decorator transform ho-hum into happy and hospitable? Kerr called on color. "The bedrooms in this house looked identical to [...]

Of all the seasons in a Florida gardener’s life, none may be quite so pleasant as autumn. At last a mellowed sun has replaced summer’s white heat. Late afternoon fog rolls in from the Gulf, the scent of wood burning wafts through the crisp evening air, and daylight hours are still sufficient to make gardening [...]

Nov. 3 A dinner for 250 VIPs at the home of Charles and Kim Githler, prepared by chef Roy Yamaguchi and his culinary dream team, kicks off this two-day event, which continues the next day at the Ritz-Carlton with speakers including Steve Forbes, Wall Street Digest publisher Donald Rowe, Bob Stovall and other financial and [...]