There’s a wave of nostalgia going around and being shared all over the internet. Among others there is the “My Mom, the Style Icon” blog (I wrote about it here), where you can submit way-back-when photos of your mom in stylish retro garb. And we’ve seen the endearing now & then pictures of best buddies in high school yearbooks. Now Ze Frank is giving everyone a platform to submit their before and after photos: the Young Me, Now Me website.
I can’t believe the effort some people went through to replicate the scene.

Note from the Succulent Wife: I am thrilled to present you with this first in a series of articles by Kym Tolson, Certified Hypnotherapist (among other things!). Even though I’ve experienced hypnotherapy with success on a number of occasions, it has always very mysterious to me and, I’m guessing perhaps to you too. So, after meeting Kym on 1000Markets where she has a shop, I thought I would invite her to share her thoughts and insights to help us demystify the subject. Enjoy and please share your thoughts.
By Kym Tolson, Guest Author
Did you know that you are hypnotized on a [...]

This “toy” or, shall we say craft, line got our attention because we thought it was the perfect manifestation of the combined ideals of teaching creativity and environmental awareness. The Castaway Kits are the invention of the Trash for Teaching (T4T) group. They collect all sorts of manufacturing cast-off materials that were destined for the landfill. Things like cardboard cones and tubes and die-cut chips and fabric scraps… All with various colors, shapes and textures. What a great way to inspire imagination and to enforce spatial development while also teaching our kids that fun & play does not need to [...]

So simple, yet we needed Whitelines® paper to show us how the paper we’ve been writing on all these years is actually… distracting. We never thought about it this way, but the dark lines + the dark ink that we write with fight for attention on the white paper. Whitelines “re-engineered” the paper so that it becomes white lines on a toned paper. See?

With the “old” way, the clashes of the ink on the dark lines reduce our concentration. This “interference” doesn’t happen with Whitelines which also boasts of other benefits of using their paper: it produces less glare in [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Contributing Editor
Don’t you just hate those reusable water bottles that have such a small opening on top that makes them so hard to clean? Plus, when you drink from it there is a nasty metallic taste to the water. Well! I just discovered these stainless steel water bottles from Good Life Gear that I just love! The reason that they are so great is that you can screw off the entire top to effectively clean the bottle. Plus you can actually put ice in it (it’s the little things, you know…)!!! The bottles also have a [...]

We are so much more “aware” consumers nowadays and we want to know what – exactly what – we are putting in our mouths, on our skin, in our homes. Is it healthy? Is it safe? Is it sustainable? Thanks to the GoodGuide, we can now verify this information on over 70,000 food, toy, personal care and household items.
While still in beta mode, the GoodGuide already “provides the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of the products in your home.” It analyzes and rates food, personal care products, household cleaners and [...]

Know someone who’s not so lucky with her amorous relationships? That wants to forget all about Valentine’s Day and instead vent a little? Or a lot. Here’s a cute gift line for those who live with many of the “didn’t put the cover back on the toothpaste” type of annoyances.
The Would It Kill Him® line features the edgy yet vulnerable Miranda June character. She is Laura Brucato’s creation and artistic outlet, used to unleash frustrations gained during a series of unfortunate romantic relationships. Actually, Miranda is very much Laura’s alter ego. Miranda is the one who fully expresses the extent [...]

So, I’ve been married 21 years now – to the same man, thankyouverymuch. We have a great trusting partnership of a marriage. It’s filled with laughter, kids, housework and more than enough joy to compensate for all the challenges. I’m imagining and planning on my husband and I growing old together. Which is why, when I was offered to review the couple’s relationship book by Marty Babits, I could not connect to it and passed. However, I’m thinking that the article below sent to me by the author’s publicist might be worth sharing. Though some of the tips are cliché [...]

I can’t remember how I came across this blog, but I was completely charmed and immediately submitted a photo of my mom (that’s her in the straw hat).

The “My Mom, the Style Icon” blog is written by Piper Weiss, an editor and writer featured in the likes of the New York Daily News, VH1 and bestweekever.tv. She came up with this the idea of creating the mom-as-style-icon website as she came across some amazing old pictures of her mom in the 60’s: “She was dressed in the most incredible frocks and she had a real attitude. I instantly realized I’d [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Contributing Editor
Before Christmas I went to visit my BFF Anne-Marie in Chicago and she treated me to a chocolate tour she found on Groupon (she loves Groupon and wrote all about it here). It was a walking tour of downtown Chicago and it was a wonderful way to see the city while sampling some amazing chocolate treats. One such treat was a delightfully and creatively delicious chocolate bar from Chocri, a German company that customizes chocolate bar(s), each made-to-order. At the time, the company had not yet launched in the U.S., but Chocri is here now, [...]