One of my high school friends, Beth, recently sent me a note on Facebook asking why I wasn't on Pinterest.  She said she went looking for my boards to see what I liked. FLATTERING! I hadn't heard of this site -- this was about five short weeks ago. She said that I would love it and it could be addictive, and my invitation to join arrived shortly after that via email. Addictive? Check. Love it? Check. As a person deeply involved in the visuals of life, not only as a photographer myself, but art collector, seamstress and former art gallery owner (and cook!), this place was for made for me (you'll feel the same about yourself). It's a glorious collection of beautiful images and though...

New from San Diego, California: San Diego Association of REALTORS selects Kimberly Dotseth as its 2011 Broker of the Year. On Saturday, January 12, 2012, I was named the 2011 Broker of the Year by the San Diego Association of REALTORS, a tremendous honor considering our chapter of the National Association of REALTORS has over 11,000 members in San Diego County. We are also the largest branch of NAR in the state of California. If interested, the press release is here: And if I can help you when selling or buying your home, you know that I am right here for you ~ let's get to work on your behalf! ~Kimberly

They say you're supposed to blog weekly, then work got in the way. The majority of my deals for 2011 came in the second half of the year, then totally piled on in December. All but one are closed as of Thursday. So I missed a few weeks of writing, but for reasons that make me happy and feeling satisfied when it comes to my career. It's the end of the year now, about 2 PM on New Year's Eve Day, and I am home for the day until we go to dinner tonight. Kerry is taking me to Cafe Chloe, one of our all time favorite restaurants in San Diego. We'll finish the evening at home with a bottle of French Champagne, already chilling. There are so many things to be grateful for. Taking stock of...

This email arrived today from a client who recently closed escrow, completely unsolicited and unedited. I will protect the writer's identity so I took it out.  As you can imagine, it made my day. This career has made me endlessly happy and all the other things I did prior to selling residential real estate and owning a real estate brokerage lead me here.  I dreamed of moments like this.  Thanks to the writer of course, and all those who get us to the points in our lives where we are blessed with this kind of communication: Hi Kim, I feel so bad that it has taken me so long to sit down and write you a note, but I wanted to be sure I had the time to genuinely express how grateful we...

It's now Year 7 of using Shutterfly.com for our annual Christmas card and their designs keep getting better.  While cheaper photo cards are out there, the quality at Shutterfly is completely unsurpassed. We also created wedding books for our families using Shutterfly in 2004, and last year created canvas photos for family holiday gifts. It's also fun to go back into my account year after year and see all the accumulating finished "projects" that get stored. So in a way it's a memory bank too. This year's card is done. What do you think? It will be a matte finish, high premium (heavy) paper -- can't wait to get them!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Dear Blogosphere, Where did the time go? My absence from a regular blog post has been long, but it's only due to very good things. Lots of multiple closings, lots of deals, good listings, lots of clients. Hopefully happy clients! I will be back to you shortly. For today, I leave you with my favorite piece of art on the planet, Nike of Samothrace -- the sculpture at the Louvre sometimes called Winged Victory. Long may she fly. -Kimberly

Recently, Parade Magazine had an article on how to help veterans in easy ways that are not expensive. I decided to try all the links before I shared them with you and these are the ones that are my favorites: Homes For Our Troops constructs homes for severely injured vets who served after 9/11. Make a cash or equipment donation. The Disabled American Veterans provides free transportation to men and women unable to travel to the VA for medical purposes. You can volunteer to drive a DAV van for those in need. I have a particular soft spot for Guardian Angels for Soldiers' Pet, where you can foster care for a soldier's pet while they serve our country or while they are receiving...

It means that we consumers with disposable income who buy jeans and medicine and cinnamon and shrimp and almonds and gadgets and CDs and everything else you can imagine, have slaves working for us. This new and shocking website was introduced about a month ago and had such overwhelming demand that it crashed on the first day and was gone. Re-tooling the site and boosting servers, the site reemerged today and I was able to take the test. Of course I already knew my weaknesses: clothes and gadgets. Not every gadget known to humankind (I am not an Apple product user, so there), but many, many gadgets. A few years ago I asked my family to please stop buying me clothes for presents...