If you’re curious about living large in small spaces, why not take a vacation from your own home to stay in a tiny house?
A tiny house resort in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania offers custom-designed tiny homes as vacation rentals.
Tiny Estates rents its tiny homes in a variety of architectural and decor styles from modern or minimalist to rustic or traditional as a unique alternative to the typical hotel stay. All homes are fully equipped with a kitchen, living space, bathroom and sleeping area.
After test driving the tiny home lifestyle, if you want to learn more, I recommend a new book “The Joy of Tiny House Living” by home builder Chris Schapnick. It offers advice on the design, construction, legalities of living in a tiny home, and the challenges of downsizing. A tiny house or micro-house is typically 500 to 550 square feet but dwellings under 1000 square feet qualify. The Tiny Home movement is sweeping the nation as people embrace living with fewer financial burdens and belongings.
Fox Chapel Publishing is offering a Tiny Home Getaway Giveaway at Tiny Estates to promote the new book. Click the link to register
For a tour of several designer tiny homes, I invite you to watch this episode of The Design Tourist featuring a trio of tiny homes decorated with the latest trends.
One of the more fascinating installations is a virtual reality book that you can “read” by downloading 
Several years ago, I was introduced to Silver Oak Cabernet as the guest of a friend at a wine tasting dinner. I instantly fell in love with its bold, black fruit character with notes of spice and vanilla and the wine’s oaky finish that comes from American White Oak barrels that the wine ages in. 
For many wine lovers, the art of enjoyment comes from the ability to decipher and appreciate a wine’s bouquet and taste. Silver Oak achieves its subtle perfection by blending the wines prior to barreling.
Jordan sells primarily to restaurants— about 70 percent of their cabs with the remaining 30 percent available in wine stores. Rob Davis, the winemaker, has handcrafted every vintage of Jordan since the inaugural 1976 and is the second-longest tenured winemaker in the US. He is known for a European style of winemaking that isn’t done much in California.
American oak is known for bringing more aggressive aromas of dill and coconut to red wines. French oak is considered more subtle, imparting spice aromas and a silky texture in part because its tannins have a strong attraction to the grape tannins. 
The original dining room was decorated in an 18th-century French style. De Sousa and his staff reimagined the aesthetic, retaining its best architectural features while introducing new design elements to reflect the chef’s culinary philosophy of bringing flavors of the surrounding countryside to the plate. “The Jordan dining room is now not only an homage to old-world France, it’s also a portrait of the surrounding estate and the chef’s philosophy,” notes Geoffrey De Sousa, proprietor of Geoffrey De Sousa Interior Design and De Sousa Hughes. 
Lunch starts with an amuse-bouche paired with NV Brut Jordan Cuvee by Champagne AR Lenoble. 
Next, I taste a 2017 Jordan Russian River Valley Chardonnay. The grapes are hand-picked at night when the fruit is cold to lock in that acidity and flavor. The fruit is then pressed immediately and fermented in French oak barrels and stainless-steel tanks for 6 months.
Chef Knoll pairs the 2017 Chardonnay with Bisque of First Peas and Favas chilled with Maine Lobster. Next, I’m served Roasted Knights Valley Lamb.
The dish is paired with Jordan’s 2015 Cab, that first release aging in only French oak barrels. “2015 was a cooler year yielding more of a French style of wine,” says Mattson. 
Chef Knoll makes sea salts and the estate grows olive trees to produce Jordan Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil, both of which are on the table to enhance the tasting experience. 
While dining, I can’t help but admire the visual metaphors that connect with the estate’s topography. Deep gray walls are painted with Benjamin Moore French Beret and accented with a forest-like patterned wallpaper called Midsummer Night from Wall & Deco, created by graphic designer Lorenzo De Grandis of Milan, Italy. 
The dining room’s original high-back chairs were restored and reupholstered with intricate chair embroidery by a renowned, haute-couture artist based in London. Each embroidery pattern is distinct and inspired by the vibrant, moss-carpeted rocks and lichen found across Jordan Estate. 
French Beaux Arts-inspired lighting illuminates the room selected by San-Francisco based designer Jonathan Browning Studios. Floor-to-ceiling drapes in gold leaf, frame large windows that take in panoramas of the golden hills visible across Jordan’s estate. Dining tables congregate around a bronze fireplace hearth by Sonoma County metalsmith Randell Tuell of Tuell + Reynolds. 
I also learn more about Jordan’s sustainable and holistic practices. The vineyard uses a plant substance called Dust Off on its roads to reduce dust and a clay-based sunscreen on the grapes to prevent sunburn. 
“We take into account the impact every viticultural and winemaking decision has on the native ecosystems under our care. Jordan’s electrical use is carbon neutral, with roughly 90 percent of our electricity coming from hillside solar arrays behind the winery and the rest from renewable resources through the Sonoma Clean Power program,” says Mattson.
Lunch culminates with a Tupelo Honey Baked Alaska featuring spring bee pollen from the Jordan estate apiary and several locally-made artisan cheeses plated with a 2013 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley.
The meal crystalizes a certain synergy that exists in Sonoma County between its many different artists and winemakers who share a common passion for high-quality food made to complement local wines. Jordan, like many local wineries, promotes locally made foods and products with guests. 
Guests at Jordan’s Estate Tour and Tastings can appreciate custom-made serving plates by a ceramic-making husband-wife team, 
My tour ends with a visit to one of the guest suites located in the chateau available
Once a consumer spends $500 with Jordan, she/he becomes a Silver member and gains access to booking Private Tables in the dining room and at the Gold and Platinum levels, overnight stays in the guest suites. For more on booking tastings and tours, go to 
Quivira’s winegrowing program is a collaboration between winemaker Hugh Chappelle and viticulturist Ned Horton, the vineyard manager who aligns the property’s farming practices for fine winemaking. 
For this writer and bibliophile, I had planned the ideal morning. The 
Writers toil alone and words aren’t particularly selfie material. I wondered how the founders managed to fill an entire museum with something others want to see and experience sans the social media lure of competing attractions? The museum supersedes the visual limits of words by capturing the behind-the-scenes struggle— a writer’s daily summoning of the personal muse in hopes of entering that ethereal dimension of creative flow where all sense of time is lost as the words pour forth.
On the Road became a defining work of the Beat Generation, a loose collaborative of artists and writers who rejected the mainstream in favor of the experimental and spiritual. 
My other favorite exhibit was Mind of a Writer. This walls of this inspirational gallery are filled with quotes from famous writers about their creative process and craft. 
The gallery offers insights into how a writer thinks as well as the daily discipline and habits necessary to get the work done. 
I was intrigued by the raw honesty in many of the quotes that capture a writer’s self-doubt and fear that they will never be published— that lurking dread that they have gambled away their time on a manuscript that no one reads. 
Another highlight of my visit was the First Lines exhibit, a wall of handwritten first sentences of novels written by accomplished authors. 
Many of these authors crafted their first lines for stories that have yet to be written.
Whether you consider yourself an author, a journalist, a creative writer or diarist, we all have a shared experience that is made tangible among the museum’s galleries and personified through the literary greats featured. I highly recommend a visit to the American Writers Museum to experience Chicago’s literary treasure. 
I cap off the evening taking in the light show on the surface of the Beacon and Code Wall overlooking the town center. 
The community took root in 1996 when Tavistock purchased Lake Nona Golf and Country Club and began building out its master plan, along the way curating an impressive collection of public art. Today, Lake Nona is home to approximately 15 thousand residents and growing. In 2018, Lake Nona sold 750 homes with 550 families moving in. Most of the community’s
Today, Medical City encompasses more than 2.6 million square feet of clinical, institutional and laboratory buildings. The University of Central Florida has a strong presence in Medical City with the UCF Health Sciences Campus that includes the College of Medicine, the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, and the University of Central Florida (UCF) Lake Nona Cancer Center, which recently moved into a 175,000-square-foot facility vacated by the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. 
Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute recently relocated into a larger, new 35,000-square-foot facility double the size of its previous Lake Nona building. In 2020, UCF Lake Nona Medical Center is set to open as a UCF/HCA Healthcare teaching hospital.
Lake Nona also is a living lab for human performance with a Sports & Performance District, anchored by the USTA National Center, the largest tennis campus in the world with 100 courts in a 270,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility on 64 acres.
Sprinkled throughout the community are retail venues including Lake Nona Village, Lake Nona Plaza, Vickrey Place, Laureate Park Village Center and Lake Nona Creekside which opened in 2019. Soon, residents will be able to use an app to summon a self-driving shuttle to the many nearby amenities. 
The 15-passenger, the battery-powered vehicle has no driver, no steering wheel, no gas pedal, and no brake pedal. Once in operation, they will be the first-ever autonomous public transit vehicles in Central Florida. Launched by the company Beep, headquartered in Lake Nona, and manufactured by Navya, a French company, these autonomous shuttles are marked with decals that read “go-beep.com” and “MOVE NONA.”
Created by 
Anchoring Lake Nona is a mammoth 
“The latest tile trends comprise the most nuanced and interesting design language we have ever had at our disposal. Tiles tell stories through the spaces we create for them. Ceramics this year are daring us to express ourselves and providing all the technical and aesthetic solutions to do so 
Simple and sleek steps aside for the more-is-more design language of Maximalism, expressed in tile with bold colors and contrasting patterns.
Maximalism brings a vibrancy to interior design that in recent years has been zombified with minimalism. Tile designs in clashing prints are expressed as graphic interruptions in contemporary living spaces without overpowering.
Maximalism, on the trend radar since 2018, gains traction as the leading design ethos with decadent textures, colorful tones and pattern clashes.
Self-expression in living spaces becomes playful with asymmetrical, randomized looks in the latest tile styles. Urban inspired designs such as graffiti also lighten up a living space. 
Popular cartoons illustrated on ceramic with Del Conca’s Felix the Cat and pop art inspired graphics take tremendous creative license to experiment with color, size and patterns to create one-of-a-kind surfacing for architects and designers. 
Some of t
One example is Dash by Raw Color with its grid-like pattern, random ever-changing rectangular compositions that combine different shades and different lengths. 
Modern interpretations of Art Deco, the Roaring 20s and organic art nouveau styles are gaining traction in living spaces. Tile designs draw influences from all of the aspects of the era, from fashion to lighting, architecture to jazz and a bohemian spirit in literature, photography, and theatre.
Tile styles reference Cubism, organic floral textiles of the period and geometric 
At the Coverings show, blue made a strong showing in tile designs with blue hues layered on floors and walls.
Expect to see a lot of c
Ceramic Wallpaper
Large porcelain slabs with minimal grout lines create the effect of wallpaper with the technical benefits of ceramic. 
These patterns are digitally printed on large ceramic surfaces that can be used as furnishing elements.
Dramatic Veins
Stone looks are making strong statements with dramatic veining amping up common varieties of stone including carrara, statuario, and travertine. “Popular aggressive stone looks include marble, granites, onyx and quartzite with dramatic veins and patterns,” says Fasan.
Dark marble looks with large swaths dominate this stone-inspired tile category according to Tile Council of North America. Also expect to see more tone on tone larger veins and intense contrast veining.
I saved the best for last. The following tile styles are my favorite picks at Coverings 2019. They rank at the top of my design radar for their fresh designs, fascinating textures and innovative technologies. My best in show pick is The Foundry Collection because it embodies all of the latest trends in tile: imperfectly perfect styling with its timeworn, weathered surfaces, strong use of blue, and mix of textured tile in random patterns. It really encompasses all that is happening at the forefront of design at the moment.
Also, I spotted several collections worth of show stopper status including this worn blue jean inspired tile with a texture that mimics the feel of denim.
My final show stopper pick is this modern interpretation of Terrazzo with geometric accents and large flecks. 
The Adirondack Folk School is on my must-see list of authentic experiences that connect travelers wit
