By Audrey van Petegem, Chief Editor
What does your perfect Mother’s Day look like? For me, it is breakfast in bed with the newspaper and my young girls competing on whose school-made gift I will open first. It is either going out to lunch or walking the dogs with my 20 year old son, who knows that spending an afternoon together has been our tradition on Mother’s Day for the last six years. Simple, right? How easy for us to enjoy this day that became an official celebration for mothers over 100 years ago.
Not all countries, mind you, have a day [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Chief Editor
Here is a great way to say “Will you be mine?” or “You are mine!” this Valentine’s Day.
Baking For Good can transform all those instagram pics you have of each other into sweet treats. Find the best shots of the two of you at your favorite spot or take some up close up and personal pictures of yourselves. Better yet, take some (ahem) photos of just you. Using the instagram filters you can create mini works of art. Send anywhere from one to six photos to Baking For Good and they will turn them into [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
If you are like me, you ditched the idea of having a new year’s resolution years ago. I was tired of setting myself up to fail. Twelve months is a long time to complete a goal. I usually barely made it to the second month. Like most people, exercising more is one of the top five new year’s resolutions, with loosing weight the number one goal.
Only 8% succeed in reaching their goals, with the baby boomer and older generation group having the lowest success rate. This is pretty dismal. Sure, there are a lot of [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
My husband and I are not heavy drinkers but we do love our wine. We always question if we are okay to drive after one glass of wine when we go out, or if we should abstain completely. We grew up in the era before MADD (Moms Against Drunk Drivers) and police DUI check points, when it was not so unusual to have a few and still get behind the wheel.
I was searching for a portable breathalyzer to carry in my purse (remember this article from last year?) when I came across B4UDrink, an interactive [...]

Meet NOVICA. This is a company that gives artists and artisans around the world a global platform to express their true artistic talents and to spur their creativity.
1. We love your website, NOVICA. It’s full of beautiful and lovely gifts for giving and for yourself. What is the idea behind Novica and how did the company start?
NOVICA’s birth came from a desire to cut out the long strings of middlemen and bring handcrafted items directly from the artists to the customers. We’re really committed to helping artisans get recognition for their work while earning a fair income for their skills… [...]

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
We wrote about the movie, Waiting for Superman, two years [...]

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

Last year I combined my two favorite passions in one [...]

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 Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife

Why is it taking soooooo long for us to see a [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
When a company’s motto is “Nothing wasted. Everything gained“, you know that they take a serious stand on green living.
Preserve makes stylish, high performance, eco-friendly products for the home – from personal care to tableware to kitchen products – all at a reasonable price. All their products have innovative designs, bold colors, are eco-chic AND 100% recycled.
Preserve only uses #5 plastics for recycling. Many communities do not recycle #5 plastics so Preserve partnered with Whole Food Markets to create a Gimme 5 bin (#5 plastic containers) at each of their stores making it easier to [...]

Raised to believe that a man needed to look after a woman and that, as her mother used to tell her, ‘single women have no status’, Philippa Sklaar felt that any man was better than no man. If a man looked after her, she owed him. So, for financial security and, admittedly, her relationship addiction, Philippa tolerated abuse, became whoever her husband wanted her to be and lost herself along the way. Her book, Pleased to Meet Myself is aimed at women who suffer from the belief that having anybody is better than nobody and who depend on a relationship [...]