Press | Cecileleveelifestyle

Inspired Design...

Not even a pandemic could press pause on Design Week JA 2020! The launch of the week-long event took place online yesterday at 10:00 am. For two-and-a-half hours, viewers were engaged by a panel of industry experts who did a smashing job at providing...

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The Awakening...

Oh, the romance of a beach house! The glimmering sunrise rushing across the ocean as it winks through the gauzy, white curtains that drape the wooden louvres and arouse you with the pledge of another fabulous day. Looking pretty can be quite simple...

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Talk Dirt(y)...

Gone are the days when the only time the haute and fab would be caught with dirt under their dainty little digits would be when dusting the safari dirt off their designer boots during a Champagne-fuelled search for the big five on a private reserve...

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Coversations in...

So far, we have shared some interesting facts about the riesling and merlot grape varietals. This week our focus shifts to chardonnay, a green-skinned (white) grape variety used in the production of white wine. Chardonnay originated in the Burgundy...

The Sanctuary...

The statement “My home is my sanctuary” has never been more poetic than now. In fact, our homes have become endroits of solace and respite, veritable sanctuaries to feed our collective souls. Design and decorating are always moving part...

Hanover Charities...

Whoever said a Sunday well spent brings a week of content must’ve been talking about Polo at Chukka Sandy Bay Ranch in Hanover...

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Polo & hats...

The women went to their rose gardens this year, unleashing their creative juices, outdoing each other with hats made from flowers at the Hanover Charities/Chukka Foundation annual polo event at Chukka Adventures in Sandy Bay on Sunday...

Women in wine...

I t's November, and the Jamaica Observer's Salut is almost here! This year, the company celebrates wines, champagnes and spirits. For the month of November, however, we will celebrate all the fabulous women in wine. The very first on this list is no...

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Somthing Extra...

The Newport RI International Polo Team played alongside Jamaica’s finest polo players, recently, as Hanover Charities and Chukka Foundation celebrated 10 years of the Chukka-Hanover Charities Polo Event...

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The design convo...

An all-woman panel of architects and interior designers took design faithfuls on a trip down memory lane when the S Hotel hosted the penultimate event for the Jamaica Observer's Design Week Ja 2019 Conversations in Design series. Held last Saturday...

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Modify Me ...

Self-taught artist Danielle Lee, who has been painting over the past seven years, has become an expert in the field of tattoo art. She recently opened Modify Me at the Iconic Fearview Plaza in Montego Bay...

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Table Talk...

I have watched the growing success and significance of The Jamaica Observer Table Talk Food Awards with admiration. It is more than a celebration of the island's vibrant food culture; it raises the bar through recognition of players...

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SO Readers...

1 The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand This book really resonated with me, and reflects one of my favourite quotes: “In matters of style swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” Thomas Jefferson The protagonist...

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Make It Premuim...

Good design does not happen in a vacuum, even though the concept of design can be as subjective as what is defined as good taste. As subjective as the theory is, there are some basics that must be considered in your execution: location, climate...

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The Flowering...

Christmas is a-coming and yes, we know that the geese are getting fat, and the old man no longer wants a penny but a few dollar notes in his hat. And on lives the traditions of the Christmas season: the decorations, the mistletoe, and the centrepiece...

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Something Extra...

Restaurant Week outings continued this week with Houseboat-Mondavi wine pairing dinner and a stop at Fromage Brasserie with members of the Jamaica Tourist Board family. Here are some of the social highlights...

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Fit for Royalty

Luxury resort Half Moon upped the ante on its guest chef series with the latest instalment featuring Chef John Higgins at Sugar Mill Restaurant, a fortnight ago. Chef Higgins, a Scot by birth, is the director of the prestigious George Brown College...

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Wine with Grace...

Back in February 2016, GraceKennedy Limited entered the wine market with the launch of Harbour Wines and Spirits. Since then, customers and consumers alike have been able to experience a wide range of wines with a variety of tastes...

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A Designed Life

The enchantment and mystique of Hedonism II are two of many folklores. A concept started in 1976 as Negril Beach Village by legendary hotelier John Issa, the hotel changed its name to Hedonism II in 1981. It is affectionately called Hedo...

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Ambushed...

Last Thursday, the Jamaica Observer hosted the 20th staging of the Table Talk Food Awards. With over 30 awards up for grabs and 120 nominees to choose from at this year's ritzy affair, little did I know that a surprise was in store for me onstage...

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Design Week

THE Jamaica Observer yesterday launched Design Week JA 2017 with a brunch at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston. Aimed at stakeholders in the design, construction and real estate industries, as well as homeowners and homemaker...

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Stirring The Pot...

Wine With Me, located on Norman Manley Boulevard, was our final Stirring The Pot stop Sunday and, as difficult as it was to leave The Cliff, quite frankly, turning down an opportunity to spend time with the inimitable Cecile Levee is unheard of, and...

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Pouring Wine With...

Finally , I got the opportunity to visit Wine With Me and pour wine with Cecile Levee at her revised, relocated wine bar located at the Beachcomber Hotel on Norman Manley Blvd in Negril. Chris Reckord (CR): How did you get involved with wine? Did...

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Wine Lovers

Thursday Food announced the promise and now shares the delivery of Wine With Me, Cecile Levee’s ever-so-comfy wine haven at the Beachcomber Hotel on Norman Manley Blvd in Negril. It was worth the trip and is as exquisite as it is comfy...

Iyanla Inspires...

WHEN acclaimed motivational speaker and author Rev Dr Iyanla Vanzant’s set ended at the Montego Bay Convention Centre Sunday afternoon, patrons – who would have either flown in from the United Kingdom (UK), the United States...

Wine With Me...

Design maven Cecile Levee, who has been super-busy creating über-fab interiors, has thankfully carved out enough time to recreate Wine With Me, Negril, and to share with Thursday Food that “Wine With Me, Jamaica’s first premium...

Indulging with...

A Taste of Home (Indulge Issue 5) INDULGE the magazine, is a celebration of Jamaica's culinary landscape. Enjoy issue 5. Taste is everythin...

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Oh, Christmas Tre...

Any holiday that affords the opportunity to spend time with family and friends, partaking in yummilicious food and copious amounts of wine and sorrel, I am all in. I love everything about Christmas: the Christmas breeze, the excitement of shopping...

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'Diner' is Served...

The prevailing mystery surrounding ‘the world’s largest dinner party’, Le Dîner En Blanc, is always more a question of where the annual dinner in white is set to take place, rather than the classic guesswork of who’s...

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Here's How We...

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Beauty on and Off...

Franchise holder of the Miss Jamaica World Beauty Pageant, Laura Butler, promised the competition would defy all stereotypes in its 38th staging, and she delivered on that promise...

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The RSVP Issue

Welcome to our annual RSVP issue — inviting the in-crowd. The parties have certainly started in earnest, but as the discerning set are only too aware it has never been about quantity. Clinking glasses with those with real access...

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Voyeurism

I am going to say it. I am ... a voyeur. A shameless, unabashed certified peeping Tom or in my case, Tomasita. I have to admit this is an affliction that consumes a tremendous amount of my time and my life. Am I an addict? Should I be conce...

Something Extra

We continue to share highlights from the Miss Jamaica World beauty pageant in the Second City on Saturday, where Laurie-Ann Chin walked away as the night's big winner. Then, on Sunday it was time to head to the SportsMax sports zone...

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RSVP: Inviting the...

Shortlisting invites for your next social do can be as stressful as finding the perfect dress. Who are those truly worth knowing? The ones with power and prestige, the 'it' factor and the 'wow' charm, old money, new money and yes, broke-but-still...

Lunch at MoMA

First, it was Holly Golightly having breakfast at Tiffany's, and now me, Cecile Levee, lunching at MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art). Holly longed for jewellery...

Help Wanted...

One year and six months later, I am still searching for my Jean, Marcie or my Verona. Still nothing much has changed, the house still looks "like foreign" (so says my former housekeeper: The Klepto), still no radio or Flow cable television...

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Surfing the canvas...

Young, handsome and talented, Alexander "Alex" Williams — like so many naturally talented artists — is genuinely awed by the hoopla about his paintings. "They're okay," he says. After all, he whips one up in just four hours. "I have...

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Stefan Spath, bold...

It became for many much more than a memorable meal designed by a culinary genius -Stefan Spath, regional executive chef - Couples Negril, presented two Saturdays ago at 'Wine With Me' a symphony of local delights that not only tantalised the taste b...

A Passion for Des...

Neil Hall is a man who takes design and style seriously. A Kingstonian by birth, he left Jamaica for the US in the late-sixties. An army brat who moved around with his enlisted dad, he eventually settled at the University of Florida...

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Jamaican Girls...

Jamaica's Anita Baker and Sherina Slater will be the two local entrants this Saturday when 21 young females from across the Caribbean converge in Trinidad to compete in the much-anticipated regional finale...

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Live, Laugh & Deco...

By happy chance a few months ago a new blog appeared in my inbox. I was immediately taken by the graphics, which were clean and to the point. Then I glanced at the upper right-hand side of the page at the smiling faces of two fabulous women...

Davinci Hotel...

Hotels continuously try to raise the proverbial bar: pillow menus, bottled water menus, thread counts and the benefits of Turkish robes versus cotton ones, (most of it pure fluff), but all in the good name of luxury. They speak to the heart...

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The Big Food Idea...

Cecile Levee is the kind of entrepreneur your business ethics professor, back in college, warned you never to become. "I take the risks that every MIT, Harvard and Columbia business lecturer teaches students never to take," she says...

100 Most Invited...

SO is heralding the start of the season with a haute list of the biggest 'social sceners' this side of The Rock. They're the ones who everyone wants to know, see or be seen with; their names are neatly etched on envelopments and cards ever so kin

How The West is...

IT'S taken almost a year for Cecile Levee to open her wine bar, aptly called 'Wine with me'. "I wanted a place," shares Levee in-between staff briefing and stocktaking, "that looked and felt fabulous. I mean a place that felt warm, welcoming and woul...

The Show Before...

BY NOVIA McDONALD-WHYTEContributing editor THAT breakfast remains the single most important meal of the day, even when you're in the beautiful city of Montego Bay, have plans to get to Trelawny's Multi-purpose Stadium in the early afternoon and th...