By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Right now, all I want in life is to get a good night’s sleep. I know this sounds dramatic, but being menopausal and having the stress of temporarily relocating back to my homeland, as well as renting one home and selling another, I am seriously lacking sleep.I know that having an active lifestyle and eating a healthy diet are the first steps to having a restful sleep but it is just not enough right now to combat my insomnia. I am now disrupting my husband’s sleep, by doing things like playing Words With Friends at [...]

It’s a yearly tradition now. Succulent Wives are styling the Oscar nominees for the third year in a row. Well, you know, we’re playing dress-up with glorious imaginary budgets. It’s too much fun and Polyvore (where we build our looks) is dangerously addictive. See last year’s piece  and the previous year’s too.
Let us know what you think and send us your looks. We’ll add them to the list!
 
SALLY FIELDS, Best Actress Nominee in Lincoln, as imagined by Chris Bradshaw at BOOMboxNetwork.com:
Sally Fields seems more comfortable in black, but this is a dark navy that will still let her stand out. She will [...]

We love these annual recaps by JibJab. Here are some memorable highlights of 2012.
 
I’m pretty sure we say this every year but, thank goodness this one is over. Phew!
In case you’re feeling nostalgic, here is last year’s recap. Interesting. Many repeating characters…

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
I have integrated taking Caltrate twice a day into my healthy lifestyle of eating right and staying active. Watch this brief video on the importance of taking a calcium and vitamin D supplement:

Will you find yourself in New York City this Saturday, August 4? And, if you also happen to be attending the fantastic BlogHer conference, how about concluding the event with a grand finale? By grand finale, we mean our party. One where you will party with people your own age!
Indeed, we are inviting B(L)oomer Influencers (aka female bloggers ages 45+ only, thankyouverymuch. We check ID!) to join us on Saturday August 4, from 7 to 9 pm. The theme of the evening is the celebration of BEAUTY & WISDOM inspired by the beautiful and disquieting images of photographer Robbie Kaye.
Because we [...]

The Succulent Wives are taking a little (very little) time off this summer. While we are still actively working on bringing you new content and ideas every week, we have also decided to bring back some of our favorite posts from the archives, those that are still timely, relevant, useful and that deserve to be revisited. Thanks for allowing us to recharge. We promise that we will be coming back with more new ideas and recommendations for cool stuff than you’ll know what to do with…
By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
As I head up to the cottage I look forward [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Leave it to the French to be the inventors of the bidet. Invented by a French furniture maker in the late 17th hundreds, the bidet was kept in the bedroom beside the chamber pot. Since, at this time, there was no indoor plumbing or toilet paper, the bidet’s sole purpose was to use after the chamber pot to clean the perianal and genital area. Once indoor plumbing became the norm, the bidet was then used whenever one needed to, shall we say, freshen up.
As teenagers traveling through Europe with my parents, my sister and I [...]

We’re girls. We love the movies. We love the Academy Awards. Well, not really. We put up with them because we get to watch Hollywood glam for three (four?) hours. And, mostly, we get to do lots of backseat driving stylin’.
Just as we did last year, we thought we’d have some fun and gather ’round some of our favorite contributors to put together award winning (yes) looks for a few of the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominees.
Interesting note: each of our contributors chose her own nominee and was given no instructions on how to style her. And this [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
With myself turning 50 this year, many of my friends are also doing the same. Surprise parties are being secretly organized for some and for others, they are taking the bull by the horns, so to speak, and organizing their own getaways with their gal pals. Always in search for the perfect gift I wonder if the My Baby Boomer Baby Book would be a great novelty gift to help bring light to the otherwise potentially somber prospect of aging. Although I personally am embracing turning 50 I am not excited about the physical side [...]

By Kristin Fast, Lifestyle Editor and In-House Wit-Cracker
The only way to really get into this post is to request that you follow this link and watch the below video on Fox Fur and Feather Carnivale Merkins, the latest ridiculous way to decorate your bikini zone, and then come back so we can chat…

Good, you’ve returned. Everyone okay? I can wait a moment if you need water or an Advil…
Now, I have mentioned before that I place an inordinate amount of faith in advertising and have fallen prey to far too many Miracle Infomercials… This weakness has been curbed a bit [...]