By Natalie Greggain, Contributing Raw Food Editor
Note: The Succulent Wife is thrilled to welcome Natalie Greggain of Purely Juicers as a raw food expert & contributing editor. Yeah!  Natalie’s upcoming articles will certainly demystify raw food and juicing practices while providing all the essential tips & tricks on how to easily introduce raw foodism into our complicated lives. Stay tuned for more how-to articles on raw food and juicing along with some pretty fantastic (and easy) recipes.
Raw Foodism has been around for centuries but it has become increasingly popular over the last 5 years. I find that whenever the [...]

An “Ads of the World” July 2009 Winner. Certainly gets the point across.

Check out the cause here.

I’m married to a lawyer. When people ask what kind of lawyer, he answers “a good one”. I say “a nice one”. Which is probably why he is no longer really practicing as a lawyer. You can’t be a nice lawyer for long without it coming back to bite you in the derriere and that just gets really aggravating. But I’m only mentioning all this because, as a corporate attorney, he’s always, constantly had clients looking for funding. I’ve heard all the ugly financing stories, the rapacious VCs, etc. And the small companies, or individuals whose projects could really change [...]

Judy Ebert (she goes by artist name jbEbert) is one of the fabulous artists who displays her jewelry on 1000markets, among other places. I think that her work is simply arresting. There is such an abundance of jewelry makers out there that when I find a – pun-intended – pearl like Judy, I need to tell everyone I can.
It appears that her talents were obvious very early on as she was hand-picked, at the age of 8, to train and apprentice in the art department of Carnegie Tech (I’m not sure that I could even tie my own shoes when [...]

(We’re all adults here, yes? If so, please feel free to read on…)
Matt Titus, relationship expert, says this: “The thing that kills a marriage is familiarity”.  As one who will be celebrating her 21st wedding anniversary tomorrow, I totally get it. Which is why I think that Sexy Slang’s line of products is quite interesting, even for us old folks, to keep things fresh and spirited.
I wrote about Sexy Slang’s debut product a few months ago. That was fun. The company is now taking it to the next level with the introduction of two new products. First, the “Naughty & [...]

I’m thankful that Madeleine at ArtQuiver contacted me to tell me about the $5000 giveaway that the gallery is promoting. I’m happy to share that with you, at the bottom of this article, but really, aside from the tremendous giveaway, I’m mostly excited to share about the ArtQuiver online gallery concept because, The Succulent Wife loves, more than anything else, to discover – and promote – independent artists and businesses and endeavors. So, let me tell you…
The ArtQuiver online gallery just launched this last April. It showcases original artwork from hand-picked artists. “Meritocracy” is the method of selection from a [...]

I ran into lots of cool independent designers and boutiques at Chicago’s Sidewalk Sale (put on by the Chicago Department of Cultural affairs, bless their heart) in Daley Plaza last month. Kate Boggiano’s collection is one that caught my attention immediately. And, while Kate B. actually focuses her designs on high-quality, non-trendy women’s shirts and blouses, it is her wardrobe-must-have-basics leggings and tank tops that had me going.
Good, comfortable leggings are not so easy to find. That is, until I bought a pair of Kate’s capri (cropped) leggings. Her long and cropped leggings come in an assortment of good basic [...]

When I think of The Wizard of Oz, I usually only think of it as a political and economic allegory about the status industrial society at the end of the 19th century. This is where Oz and the Yellow Brick Road represent gold, the Tin Man represents the industrial worker, the Scarecrow is the Farmer, the Lion the politician, the Munchkins are the ordinary citizens, etc..
But, thank goodness that there are people like Julienne LaFleur who still see all the magic of the movie. Julienne, in her first book, Lessons From Oz, has created a philosophical allegory. It’s a fun [...]

Watching Revolutionary Road, my latest Netflix arrival, last night precipitated my need to write this entry today. Just as April Wheeler desperately looked to create a “life worth living”, happiness is still, 50, 60 years later – has always been-  our most sought-after emotion. Yet it is so often so elusive.
So, that’s why I thought that this new little iPhone app was so interesting. The TrackYourHappiness.org is actually a volunteer experiment done through iPhone surveys. It was developed by Matt Killingsworth as doctoral research at Harvard University. You can read more about it here . Essentially, respondents answer a [...]