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
With summer time here it never hurts to mention protection for our [...]

By Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife
Open the car trunk of my car and you will find a dizzying assortment of disparate reusable bags floating about. Some more reusable than others. No two are the same size or even texture. For a supposedly stylish and organized person like me, this is just plain embarrassing.
Cue in the Esse Reusable Bags company. Love their motto: “Making a difference just got a little easier”. And I would add “organized”. That’s especially true with their Carryall Tote, this item being the very subject of this post.

The Carryall Tote is more like a shopping supply system that eliminates [...]

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 [...]

Beatrice Holiday has the cutest bike accessories for the biking fashionista and the biking commuter.
We love the matching seat covers and handlebar bikebags that will have you truly be stylin’ as you will be wheelin’. The unique handlebar bag also converts into a beautiful and functional shoulder bag, to keep all your valuables safe, on and off the bike. All are made with vintage upholstery fabrics that suits the look of a beach cruiser, but would also fit on the handlebar of a Baby Stroller, making this also a great gift for new moms.
Beatrice Holiday also designs a stylish line [...]

The sad state of our economy and our increased willingness to be good to Mother Earth has motivated us to think in new ways about our wardrobes. It’s a case of less is more. It’s a little bit of a scary notion for some of us, to think that maybe only one pair of shoes and less than a dozen garment pieces and and handful of accessories would suffice, but the merits of a minimalist wardrobe need to be considered.
A little over two years ago, we followed The Uniform Project where Sheena Matheiken chose to wear one single dress for [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Last week we wrote about some very cool back to school bags for everyone from preschoolers to the college bound teenager. Now it is all about the lunches. It is important to get the right accessories to make lunchpail lunches something to really look forward to when the lunch bell strikes. A new study has reported that if lunches are above 40 degrees for more than two hours, the lunch should be thrown away. It also states that the insulated bags does not guarantee the lunch will still be cold when ready to consume. Let’s [...]

Remember the days when our mothers and grandmothers pinned up the laundry on the clothesline outside? Ours was a reel line that spanned the yard and went from the patio to the nearby wooden phone pole. I remember handing the clothespins to my mom, picking out the colorful plastic ones over the too-old-fashioned wood pegs (of course, today, I think that the wooden ones are way more charming!).
And then, with the switch-over to electric clothes dryers, air drying became a thing of the past, a blight on the urban landscape even. Until very recently, there was a definite stigma attached [...]

It’s mid-July and it’s getting painfully obvious that, by now, I will not manage to get sun-kissed color on my depressingly white body through normal outdoor activities. I have not had the time – nor the desire – to sit in the sun the get that natural glow. I’m going to have to fake it. And by fake, I mean a “natural”, with natural sunless tanners.
As most of you, I have become acutely aware of the toxic chemicals abundantly present in our personal care and homecare products. I am making a progressive effort to move everything to all-natural products. That [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Summer is approaching and nothing goes better with hot days then cold lemonade. Smart Planet has made an eco friendly Electric Lemonade Maker that is BPA free and FDA certified. The ELM-1 Electric Lemonade Maker makes homemade lemonade so easy it basically does it itself.
I just bought this for Scott for Father’s Day, since he and the girls are always making their own. This will make it far more consistent with the measuring guidelines right on the side of the clear 2 quart pitcher. The automated pitcher not only squeezes the lemons but also stirs all [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Solar power is definitely an important part of the future for electronics. It’s cheap, green, renewable, and universal. With modern devices consuming less and less power, the efficiency of solar cells is increasing. And, as we get increasingly mobile ourselves, we expect our electronic devices to keep up with us, no matter where we are and where we go. Here are few solar products that are well worth your attention. You may even find something here for Father’s Day and new grads…

Laptop Case: This Solar Laptop Case by Voltaic comes with the most powerful battery [...]