Our Contributors
Here’s a nod to our fabulous contributors who, like us, strive to make the every day more meaningful, powerful and fun. We hope that you enjoy reading them. We are certainly grateful for having them share their expertise with us.
PS: You can find the posts written by each by entering their name in the search box.
CONTRIBUTORS
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Carol Cassara is a writer, blogger, college professor and former corporate executive who is busy making her own dreams come true. In 2009, she remarried her first husband after they’d been divorced for 27 years. Naturally, with a story that good, a memoir is in progress. She, her husband and two dogs live in the San Francisco Bay area. You might know her as Middle-Aged-Diva, but she now blogs at CarolCassara.com. |
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Marjie Killeen thinks her forties are her coolest decade so far. Since turning 40 she has sung in a rock band, produced a local access TV show, and earned her Masters in Written Communication from National-Louis University. She blogs about this unexpectedly fulfilling time of life at www.fortyfabulous.blogspot.com and is the regular “Sex & the Suburbs” columnist for MakeitBetter.net magazine. Marjie lives in Wilmette, IL with her husband and their two teenaged children. |
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Kristin Fast lives in The OC with her 1 husband, 3 children and 4 dogs… all cozy together in a 1200 square foot house by the sea. She is overeducated, underemployed and she likes it that way. Her favorite drink is whiskey, her passport is always up to date and she still believes that she can grow up to be Nancy Drew. You can find Kristin and her love of ellipsis on the Internet at her personal blog, kkfast.blogspot.com It’s All Fun and Games as well as at the celebrity snark site, Mamarazzi.org. |
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Tara Riceberg is the owner of TWEAK a styling company and TWEAK99, an online shop that has 99 accents for your home, all under $99.00. Tara has lectured at the Pacific Design Center and has appeared on radio and television shows for NBC, Style, and USA networks as a lifestyle expert. Tara has styled homes from Los Angeles to New York and has been the go-to gal for planning celebrity parties. She was just hired this year by Party City as their Celebration Expert. When she is not spanning the globe, she is at home hosting intimate parties for her friends. |
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Amie Valpone, HHC, AADP is a Manhattan based Culinary Marketing Consultant, recipe developer and food writer specializing in Gluten Free, Soy-Free and Dairy Free Culinary Nutrition. Amie writes a blog The Healthy Apple and is also the Publisher and Marketing Director of the online gluten-free magazine, Easy Eats. Amie believes in everything in moderation.Never using the word ‘diet,’ she stands by the truth that “each of us has control over what we put into our mouths and these choices impact our bodies now and in the future.” |
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Susan Keats ~ In 2010 Susan received life-changing news after a routine mammogram. She had breast cancer. After plenty of tears, anxiety and soul searching, she finished treatments and is now entering a year of renewal, growth, and recovery. Susan hopes that those who are just stepping into the experience of illnesses or crises will find the same comfort and inspiration that she felt when others shared their experiences and wisdom with her. She is looking forward to rediscovering parts of herself that she had allowed to fall away. This is going to be a great year! |
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Shari Bonnin believes she has perfected the art of multi-tasking/crafting and lives a joyous (thanks to my adorable husband and 2 Whippets) and crazed but adventurous (thanks to my teenage daughter and teenage son) life in Southern California. She loves to try new ethnic restaurants and her dream job would be a restaurant critic. Until then, she loves to spend time with friends and family, go to the beach, collect art, dance flamenco, do photography, knit, crochet, and make jewelry. Sewing is her new adventure. Shari’s jewelry and accessories can be found on her website at www.bonnindesigns.com |
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Natalie Greggain is a Raw Food and Healthy Nutrition expert. As women, we spend way too much time agonizing over how we will get perfect bodies, but we are never happy with ourselves. The problem? We are too fixated on image. We need to spend more energy eating healthy foods and getting regular exercise. Once we shift our focus from image to healthy balance, we begin to eat better, look better, feel better and therefore are able to spend more time appreciating all of life’s succulent wonders. Natalie doesn’t eat 100% raw foods, or even a 100% vegan diet, but she has figured out how to incorporate these healthy lifestyles into a manageable, and balanced life that keeps her happy. She will be sharing her knowledge, tips and recipes with us occasionally on the Succulent Wife. Learn more from Natalie at her online store, Purely Juicers. |
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Kym Tolson is a Certified Hypnotherapist approved by the National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists as well as a Licensed Therapist (LCSW) and Certified Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC). She utilizes hypnosis daily in her professional practice to affect positive change in clients who are experiencing difficulties with a variety of behaviors. She is the owner of Hypnotransformations, LLC. Her online hypnotherapy sessions are available in CD and MP3 download formats. Her hypnosis sessions allow you to be hypnotized whenever you have spare time to spend transforming your life for the better. She covers a wide range of topics and if your need is not already available, she can personalize a custom session to accommodate any goal. All that is needed is a desire for positive change and the commitment to listen to the hypnosis session on a consistent basis. You can download her many hypnosis CD’s on her site or on Etsy. |
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Margaret Plouff‘s personal wellness journey has reached a highpoint. For several years, as owner of Nature’s Cupboard, she learned what was at the root of a couple childhood illnesses that had caused her concern into young adulthood. She has always enjoyed combining holistic and natural remedies for herself, her family, and the community. Nowadays, Margaret is experiencing optimum, vibrant health. She knows it is achievable to anyone who puts their mind to it. In fact, her one-on-one consultations provide information that easily translates into graceful aging for her clients. She is owner of Focused Wisdom for Modern Health. |
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Liza Kovacs, is a movement specialist living in beautiful Panama. Once a professional ballet dancer, she now teaches students of all ages, imparting beauty, wellbeing and health through the moving body. Gathering momentum entering her 40’s she completed a MA in Dance Pedagogy, a MSc in Dance Science from Trinity Laban (UK), squeezed in certifications in Pilates, extensive studies in Laban Movement Analysis, anatomy and biochemistry in NYC. She is a wife, mother, blogger (lizakovacs.com) and an eternal student. Follow her on Twitter at @mindyourstep and you can book time with her on Wello.co for a movement session. |
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Sylvia Sabes is a born traveler, who has happily slept in Ugandian huts, colonial palaces, Cuban dormitories and exotic resorts. She is equally at ease getting around in the back of a Toyota pickup truck with 30 fellow travelers, 6 chickens and a goat, as by private jet with CEOs or rock stars. She has traveled the globe, living and working in the US, Canada and France. Her true passion is sharing her travel experience with others and getting them out there exploring the world. |
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Maria Boustead is co-founder of Po Campo, a company devoted to making fashionable and functional bicycle accessories for city women. Maria spent many years as an industrial design consultant, helping to bring well-designed products to market for her clients. With Po Campo, she applies her talents to one of her own passions: getting more people to use bicycles for transportation. Po Campo’s products are designed to fit into your lifestyle and they are made with pride in Chicago, IL. When not working on spreading the gospel of urban bicycling to the world, Maria enjoys reading, traveling, drinking coffee and, well, biking around town. |
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Jennifer Urezzio is a master intuitive, author, teacher and speaker. She founded her own business, Blooming Grove, Know Soul’s Language’s parent company, in 2004 in response to her intuitive senses and ability to help others feel better about themselves both holistically and naturally, working closely with them to generate a feeling of strength and well-being. She also founded a new paradigm of divine guidance — Know Soul’s Language — where she guides clients to understand their Soul’s Language. This new way of understanding how the soul expresses itself is being embraced by top healers, lifestyle coaches and CEOs all over the country. |
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Kristin Thomas has spent the past 25 years in the field of education. She is an educational consultant advising students and their families who are seeking guidance in the college admissions process. As a former teacher and current wife and mother of three “emerging adults”, she brings a unique perspective to issues in the world of education. A passion for educating young people also lead her to become a board member of the Indigenous Education foundation of Tanzania which builds secondary schools in Eastern Africa. When she isn’t parenting or consulting, you’ll find her racing her stand-up paddleboard in the waterways of Southern California. Learn more about Kristin at LagunaCC.com. |
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Mrs/Dr. T is snarky PhD scientist attempting to deconstruct and communicate the dorky world of research to pretty much anyone that will listen. After 20 years of working in the nutrition industry, she is quick to agree, disagree or mock others when it comes to evaluating new findings on health and wellness…and pretty much everything else. In between her full-time job in nutrition research and micromanaging her 3 pre-teen daughters, she blogs about women’s health and related interests under an alias at TheDecadeofShe.blogspot.com. |
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Lisa Hughes Anderson - “You can’t take it with you, but you can make it for others.” Lisa is a plein-air painter, creative writer, roving photographer and passionate cook. Cooking up an inspired meal for others, putting striking detail of everyday life on film, journaling a child’s venture into maturity…Her observations are written to make you feel as if you are sitting at the kitchen table next to her. Her photographs are meant to catch your attention with focused simplicity and her food & art gifts are treasured by her recipients. Lisa is the proud mom of 3 boys and a pony sized Labradoodle. She is married to her “partner in time” husband and shares her time between Washington State and SoCal. Find her blog at Sound-Thoughts.com. |
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Greg Patent is an award-winning cookbook author and food writer. His book, Baking in America, won the 2003 James Beard Award, and A Baker’s Odyssey, a book celebrating America’s immigrant baking heritage, won the 2008 Cordon d’Or Award. His articles have appeared in Saveur, Bon Appétit, Gastronomica, Fine Cooking, Woman’s Day, Family Circle, and other national publications. Baking is his passion, and he swears he inherited it from his two grandmas, one Iraqi and the other Russian. He lives in Missoula, Montana, with his fabulous wife, Dorothy, where he blogs at TheBakingWizard.com, writes about food for his local paper (the Missoulian), and co-hosts a weekly radio show about food (The Food Guys) on Montana Public Radio. |
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