By Laura Latzko With the weather getting cooler, it is a perfect time to start getting out to enjoy outdoor festivities and make special memories with friends and family members. Here are some fall festivals, Halloween events and haunted houses happening in the area. Howl-o-ween Fall Festival Exceptional Pets Cave Creek, a veterinary, day camp, boarding and dog training facility, is partnering with the 98KU ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Carlotta Montanari was a successful actress and TV host in the United States and Italy when, in 2019, she had an epiphany during a commercial shoot. She wanted to work with horses. That year, in Los Angeles, she founded Four Legs on Set, a company that rents high-quality steeds for film productions, private photo shoots, portfolio building, print ads, commercials, music videos ...

By Sue Kern-Fleischer Arizona’s largest and longest-running artist studio tour, Hidden in the Hills, is returning to the North Valley Fridays November 18 and November 26, Saturdays November 19 and November 26, and Sundays November 20 and November 27. Coordinated by the nonprofit Sonoran Arts League, this year’s free, self-guided tour features 174 artists at 47 private studios throughout the scenic Desert Fo ...

By Doyoon Kim The Arizona Law Enforcement K9 Association will continue its work educating the public with the Desert Dog Police K9 Trials and Public Safety Expo. It is set for 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, October 22, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, October 23, at WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 N. Pima Road, Scottsdale. Visitors will witness K9s and their handlers running through on-field obstacles that rep ...

By Allison Brown Nestled under the majestic ponderosa pines surrounded by Flagstaff’s natural beauty sits Little America Flagstaff — a welcome sight for weary Route 66 travelers, a home away from home for returning families or a romantic getaway for couples. No matter the reason for the stay, the Little America Flagstaff hotel can provide the rest, relaxation, hospitality and luxury guests are looking for. ...

By Scianna Garcia Home to the most renowned tourist attractions and the biggest major league sports teams, is Downtown Los Angeles. DTLA has diverse neighborhoods, each with its own personality and community, featuring a number of local businesses and attractions. From its historic theaters on Broadway to the famed murals, there are an endless number of attractions and places to discover when visiting DTLA. ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Arizona Musicfest executive and producing director Allan Naplan is celebrating his 10th anniversary there. His run has been an amazing experience for him. “It’s been a wonderful and exciting ride, so fulfilling and rewarding and successful,” Naplan says. “When I arrived here in 2013 total attendance in a given season was 7,000,” he says. “Last season was 32,000. It’s amazing wh ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski When the pandemic forced Stevie Gillies to attend school virtually, her father thought it would be fun to experiment with creating soap. “My friends and family liked it, and they encouraged us to sell it,” says Stevie, an 11-year-old Anthem Prep student who lives in Cave Creek. With the help of her parents, Steve and Teri Gillies, Stevie caught the entrepreneurial bug and toget ...

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Acclaimed chef Lisa Dahl is ever the optimist — even when it came to opening her second Pisa Lisa in the Village of Oak Creek in July. “I didn’t like the idea of opening the slowest month of the year, but, in a way, it’s a godsend,” Dahl says. “The busiest month is around the corner — September, October. This is giving us the opportunity to ease into it. What I’m thrilled about ...

By Alex Gallagher After taking viewers to the world of Vincent Van Gogh and piloting patrons through the Klimt Revolution, Lighthouse Immersive is leaping into France’s impressionist movement. “Immersive Monet & the Impressionists” is largely centered around the works of Claude Monet and features pieces by 20 other artists — including Édouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edga ...

By Alison Stanton Growing up in a small ranching and farming town in Texas, Allison Kierman remembers often hearing the phrase, “You’d have to sell the farm to pay the taxes.” “This always resonated with me. So, I think I always knew I wanted to be an estate attorney,” says Kierman, managing partner at Kierman Law in Scottsdale. Kierman’s grandparents also helped influence her decision to get into estate pl ...

By Jordan Houston While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to womanhood, today’s “modern woman” is typically expected to strive to “have it all.” She is complex and juggles multiple hats, shifting roles as a mother, homemaker, daughter, successful entrepreneur and everything in between. But with the increasing pressure to balance motherhood with a healthy work-life balance, it begs the question, what do ...

By Jordan Houston Unlike many businesses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paris-Milan Home founder Nathalie Chianura saw a boost in sales. Boasting more 29 years of experience in high-end European furniture, the French native opened the Paris-Milan Home luxury showroom, located at 15551 N. Greenway Hayden Loop, Suite A110, at the beginning of 2019. She has since made waves in the Scottsdale inter ...

By Jordan Houston A Small World Pediatric Dentistry founder Daniela Vasquez-Bolduc is celebrating 15 years of her practice, all while balancing the most important job of all — being a mom. The Scottsdale-based dentistry, located at 5533 E. Bell Road, Suite 115, since its inception in 2007, has built a reputation for itself as a hub for family-friendly and patient-oriented care for infants through adolescenc ...

By Alison Stanton Kerrie Droban Zhivago knew she was going to be a writer from the time she was 7 years old. “I come from a family of writers — one, the former editor of ‘The New York Times,’ wrote a true crime book about the Kitty Genovese murder. I wrote and studied poetry for years, before turning to plays and eventually novels,” Zhivago says. While she loved spending time writing, Zhivago needed to find ...