Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to fall in love all over again with your significant other? As one of Michael Leunig’s quotes states, “Love one another and you will be happy; it is as simple and as difficult as that.” My husband and I say ‘I love you’ probably 20 times a day and although we mean it, we may have lost some of the passion in the words. Sometimes it takes a little effort to really demonstrate our true love.

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Happy New Year!  I am very excited about this year! I am turning 50 and I am truly embracing it! Here is a video about my plans for this year:

The Succulent Wife is celebrating its 5th year as a blog. As some of you know, we started as an online gift shop for women artists to share their stories and their work. Since then we have grown to share the stories and products of people, companies and corporations that we love and wish to support. We often get

The Gift Giving Advisory Board (GGAB for short) is announcing our top holiday gift recommendations of 2011! Our board members have been working hard the entire year to seek out the most meaningful, unique and one-of-a-kind gift ideas and have compiled them into our sponsored, but oh-so-highly-curated, 2011 Holiday Gift Guide.

The Gift Giving Advisory Board is pleased to present the first edition of its Hostess Gift Guide, a carefully edited guide presented by our expert members which include the women of WickedlyChic.com, TheGiftInsider.com, MissMalaprop.com and us, here at TheSucculentWife.com. What do you really need to know about us? It’s that we KNOW gifts.

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
I know that I’ve mentioned that my mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor. I know how passionate she is about the fight to end cancer, because even as a very, very private person, she is very open about being a 6th year breast cancer survivor, she wears lots of pink and supports cancer research in a multitude of ways.
So, when I found out about Save the ta-tas Pink Hair Project,

Sure. Deal-of-the-Day (DOTD) and Private Sales sites are ubiquitous now. Most everyone I know is subscribed to Groupon, LivingSocial, ideeli and some other fledgling local and fashion & travel deal sites. As much as we, customers, enjoy a good deal, it’s getting dizzying to navigate the DOTD landscape (which is why we recommended an aggregator like DealRadar.com which we wrote about last year. It helps a little). And, we are experiencing some DOTD fatigue…

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Being Canadian and living in the United States, it amazes me that there are so many differences in our foods. I understand that some things are different since Canada has a marked British legacy, as it only gained full autonomy from the U.K. in 1982. Add the fact the we have a strong French influence too, this makes some of dishes uniquely Canadian, such as, Tourtière. That said, I feel that our palates are not that dissimilar.

When I host a party, whether it is one of my children’s birthday parties, a New Year’s Eve party or just a casual get-together, I like to keep it simple. Sure, it’s easy to head to one of those party destinations that do all the work for you, but I find there is nothing like having a party in your home. It takes a bit more effort but it is so much more rewarding and guests really appreciate the effort!

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Lost and unclaimed luggage? Someone mistakenly walking away with my suitcase at the carousel? That’s just not in our plans this summer. There is nothing like a lost bag (invariably, the one containing all the essentials) to ruin a vacation. So, as I was preparing our family for our summer getaway,