Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to the opportunities that 2007 will bring - are you? I also was thinking back on the past year, and wanted stop and take a moment to thank some very important people in my life:

First, I'd like to thank everyone who had to put up with me during my renovation... my assistant Mary is on the top of this list. Her desk got just as dusty as mine did. Secondly, I'd like to thank all the people who took the time to hand write me notes of thanks, tithes, books, and gifts (I can't believe I get so many of these.) I know how hard it is for me to find the time to handwrite a note to someone, so I really appreciate the fact that strangers do that for me. Thirdly, I'd like to thank everyone who is still out there recommending my book to others and buying them for friends. And finally, I'd like to thank all my teachers - some who call themselves that and the others who don't - who so generously gave me the gift of knowledge that I have so I can help others. There really is no better feeling than to be of service to others.

A few of my yearly consultation clients have a common feng shui situation working against them. It seems they have a mistrust in the universal flow of energy and make up for it by loading up their feng shui cures to the point of utter clutter! Trust me here, if one is good, fifty is not better.

Space equals opportunity - let me repeat that - space equals opportunity. If your space is filled up, nothing new can come your way.

I've been very hard on these gals (all single, and all looking for love for some reason) ordering them to strip their rooms and homes of their overdone cures.

Luckily for one client, she's just a 5 minute drive from my house. I literally went to her house and took everything extraneous from one room to show her how much extra stuff she had in it. The pile was huge....about 80 hearts, 25 pictures of couples, a million pink things including pink construction paper hidden behind everything.

What needs to be germinated in this person is trust. Trust that love is available to her, trust that the universe will react to her intentions, trust that a little cure with intention can go a very long way. Luckily, this gal trusts me enough to not sock me in the eye as I attack her home with de-cluttering fervor. I can't wait to see how she and the others change over the next year.

So, take a look - or better yet, have someone else take a look at your feng shui cures to see if you've overdone it. And if they say yes, start creating space by removing almost all of your cures and trust in the power of nothingness - (oh yea, you can go to your skills and knowledge gua for help with trust!)

I recently consulted with a client who had just moved into her new home and was excited to show me how she painted each room with feng shui in mind. Unfortunately, what she didn't do was calculate into the mix the furnishings that were going into the room or the function of the room. Needless to say, the result was a bit off, to say the least.

Because of this, and the fact that a lot of the success stories that I get involve purple paint somewhere, I decided to take the time to give you some tips about color. I know I concentrated on color a lot in Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life, but that was because I was trying to get you to visualize color to remember each gua while reading my little black and white feng shui book. As I stated in chapter one, there are nine ways to change the energy of a space and color is one of them. There is no need to throw out every rule about good design in the name of feng shui.

If you need tips on how to choose wall colors for a room, here are mine:

1. Hire a professional interior designer if you are absolutely lost. Let them borrow my book if you want them to consider feng shui or understand what you are trying to achieve, but let them figure out what exact color best highlights the furnishings of the room. If it makes you feel any better, I "wrote the book on feng shui" and have a design degree in landscape architecture, and I always refer to my interior designer for the exact colors to match/highlight my furnishings.

If you've been following my newsletters, you know that I completely renovated my home. Would you be surprised that I don't have the nine colors of the bagua painted in my rooms? Would you believe that I put a square and rectangular limestone floors and yellow walls in my career gua entry? Yep! I certainly did. Because I know that I can balance it all out with a mirror here and a picture of fish in water there, and oh yes, I painted the sub flooring all the nine colors, too - so it's hidden underneath the floor. See. There are so many different ways to find balance without making your house end up looking like a circus!

2. If you are starting from scratch, I'd recommend first figuring out how the room is going to function. Get your best positions for main pieces of furniture and then start thinking about color. Think of both the element for that gua and the particular gua colors I mention in my book. (The element for skills and knowledge and relationship is earth, an the element for prosperity is wood, and the element for helpful people is metal - these are not in my book.)

If you have furnishings already, start with figuring out what colors work from a feng shui perspective (either element or gua colors will work to support ya here!) that also works with the comforter, couch, curtains, rug or whatever else is going in there. This leads me to tip number three...

3. It is a heck of a lot easier to find a paint to match your furnishings than it is to find furnishing to match (or go with) the paint. So, before buying paint, buy the stuff that goes in the room and then find the paint that goes with it.

4. I recommend keeping the ceilings white unless you have a designer that knows how to pull off a colored ceiling. I've seen too many "color caves" to not suggest this.

5. Consider painting one wall before you do the whole room to see if the color works for you, and reserve the right to change your mind. Many people choose way to saturated paint colors because they only see the little chip and can't imagine it in a whole room. Believe it or not, I have figured out that if I don't like the chip because it doesn't look like much, or looks faded or boring, I love it on the walls. And when I love the chip, I hate it when the whole room is that color because its too much.6. Consider hiring professional painters - especially if you have new construction.

My entire house is painted three colors of yellow with the exception of my master bath, which is a grey green (in the family gua), because I wanted it to feel like a spa. Three yellows right next to each other on the paint chip...one light, one a tad darker and one a tad darker than that. They are my neutral background color that I have matched other colors with to decorate in each room. There's yellow and reds in one room, yellows and greens in another, and yellows and browns in others, etc.

My designer and I decided which color would go where in each room. Yes, I used two or three of the yellows in each room, but it is extremely subtle. I usually have to point it out to people that the room is painted different colors because we look at the light coming into the room and factor it into the equation - or sometimes we just choose the headboard or other accent wall to get the darkest color and the other one or two colors take off from there, depending on the light. I find that using this little technique with multiple, close colors really makes a room pop with energy.

The reason we choose yellow other than the fact that we like it, was that we live in a "one address." I'm always looking for ways to support relationship and communication chi (which yellow is great for) even though I did "the address cure" to change the chi. The house also had a very "watery" feel to it - both in it's relationship to the street (yes, it sits lower than the street - can you believe it? :)) and had a vapor emission situation where the indoors always had higher humidity levels from slab emissions. So, limestone and yellows were for us. (Perhaps when the website gets redone I'll be able to throw in a few pictures!)

I hope that explanation helps you understand a bit of how I got to the decisions I made for this house so you can follow along for yours.

Success Story #1

Hey Karen! Here is my story. After reading your book I have been gradually making changes around our house without the knowledge of my family. When I put a purple table cloth on our patio table with an antique piggy bank in our prosperity area my family laughed at me and thought I was nuts. I have been a day care provider for 25 years. Well, I picked up a new client and after a couple of months I received my first tip I had ever been given. A $100 dollar bill. Now who has the last laugh! V

Success Story #2

I love your book. I found it at the library when I was looking for help decorating. It makes a lot of sense to me. My success story-- I am drowning in debt so I wrote a thank you note for releasing me from my financial burden. I put this in a silver envelope and put it in the helpful people corner of my money gua. Today my mom dropped in and gave me $200 without me asking for it. I still need thousands but the cash sure helps.

Success Story #3

Question: My son is 10 and still has a bed-wetting problem. Do you have any suggestions for me with this situation? I'm begging here.

Answer: Bed-wetting is a cold condition affecting the water element. I would start with immediate changes in diet. First, reduce and cut out frozen foods (like ice creams, etc.) raw foods, and excess fruits. Definitely halt the consumption of cold refrigerated drinks. Switch to cooked foods, cooked fruits and warm drinks. Miso soup is excellent for the water element and brings balance back and strengthens the bladder muscle.I'd also make sure that your son's bed is in a safe position - headboard up against a solid (hopefully interior) wall. He should not have any doors in line with his bed. If so, cure with a crystal between the two. According to Louise Hay's book, You Can Heal Your Life - bed-wetting is a fear of a parent - usually the father, so a safe-feeling furniture position is a must. Affirmations may be helpful to support feeling safe.

Obviously, removing any water element from his room, like posters of beach and ocean scenes or black and blue colors and replacing them with more earthy, inward colors may further help the situation.

If there is a bathroom adjacent to his bedroom, you may want to place a mirror against the bedroom wall that separates his room from the bathroom facing the bathroom with intentions of pushing the water away from him. Do this after you have removed all other water items from the room.

1. Toss out-dated medicines, vitamins, and foods.

2. Scrub your pots and pans, and shine them up with the intention of holding healthy chi for you and your family and friends all year. Then, sharpen your knives with the same intention.

Feng Shui Palace Product Specials is the link. Red and Pink crystals are on special this month. Get them early so you are ready for the February newsletter on relationships! To get your prosperity areas covered for the year, I'll put purple crystals on special, too!

I think this pretty much sums things up for the new year!

The Secret

ORANGE COUNTY, CA

January 6, 2007

One-Day Feng Shui Seminar

From 10AM to 5PM, Karen will be giving her best feng shui tips in a one-day level 2 feng shui seminar at Awakenings in Laguna Hills, CA. (25260 LaPaz Road, Laguna Hills, CA.)

The class registration fee is $297.00. Reserve your spot now by calling Awakenings at 949-457-0797. To register online, visit Feng Shui Palace Seminars

Read Karen's book Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life before attending to have an understanding of basic introductory feng shui terminology and concepts. To purchase a copy of Move Your Stuff, go to: Feng Shui Palace Products

Everyone that comes to this workshop will receive a coupon for $200 off a telephone or on site consultation (if local) with me and a complete 7 CD set of Conversations with Karen, valued at $74.95. CD topics include: A Typical Consultation with Karen, Highlighting the Bedroom, Around the Bagua, The 5 Elements, The 9 Traditional Cures, Rich House - Poor House, Maximize Your Curb Appeal.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA

January 18-22, February 1-2, March 2-4, April 27-30, May 25-27, 2007

I am available for consultations in the area. Call me at 714-508-9935 to set up a time.

January 19 and February 2, 2007

Friday Night Feng Shui -Seminar Series

Karen will be giving her best feng shui tips in a two part series on Friday nights in the San Francisco Bay area at the JW Marriot, San Francisco CA. (500 Post Street at Mason.) The two Friday night sessions are held on January 19 and February 2. The sessions begin PROMPTLY at 6:30PM and will end at 10PM. The class registration fee is $297.00. Reserve your spot now by clicking at . Feng Shui Palace Seminars

Read Karen's book Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life before attending to have an understanding of basic introductory feng shui terminology and concepts. To purchase a copy of Move Your Stuff, go to: Feng Shui Palace Products

Everyone that comes to this workshop will receive a coupon for $200 off a telephone or on site consultation (if local) with me and a complete 7 CD set of Conversations with Karen, valued at $74.95. CD topics include: A Typical Consultation with Karen, Highlighting the Bedroom, Around the Bagua, The 5 Elements, The 9 Traditional Cures, Rich House - Poor House, Maximize Your Curb Appeal.

With intentions of being of service,

Karen

If you are having trouble reading this newsletter, please go to the newsletter that is printed online at Feng Shui Palace Newsletter