Category Archives: Lifestyle

Apr27

La Dolce Vita At Dolci Gelati

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La Dolce Vita At Dolci Gelati

The Author with the co-owner of Dolci Gelati Cafe, Anastasia Dellaccio

When visiting Washington, DC with my family last week, we visited the monuments, the Smithsonian, and the Zoo, but there was one place on our travel agenda that I was most looking forward to.  My friend Anastasia had recently opened an artisan Gelato shop in Takoma Park, MD with her husband, Chef Gianluigi Dellaccio (a former Italian champion water polo player!!), and business partner Marcello Minna.  I knew that my gelato loving family would be as enthusiastic as I was to celebrate our Dolce Vita with some Gelato at Dolci Gelati.  It also happened to be the start of  World Immunization Week, and the week of the United Nations Foundation Shot@Life campaign’s digital #BirthdayBash in honor of its first birthday. It seemed the perfect way to kick off the Shot@Life #BirthdayBash week since I had met Anastasia through The United Nations Foundation where she works. When Dolci Gelati decided to add a flavor called “Shot@Life”, where 50 cents per serving will be donated to the Shot@Life Campaign , she had asked us Shot@Life Champions for flavor ideas.  Vanilla/Pistachio Swirl had won out, and I was eager for a taste.

Photo Courtesy of Dolci Gelati

It is times like this that I am grateful to have a big family, in that way I was able try each of their Gelato flavors along with my own!  Don’t worry, although Gelato tastes as rich as ice cream, it only has 1/3 the fat and none of the artificial ingredients, so gelato is a guilt free indulgence.   Dolci Galati was founded in 2006 and is sold at Nationals’ Stadium, restaurants and markets throughout the Washington Metro area such as Whole Foods, Dean & Delluca, and Taylor Gourmet, but the couple was thrilled to open their first storefront this spring.

 “Gianluigi uses an authentic Italian recipe that has been in his family for generations but mixes in local ingredients and exotic flavors to create a modern twist to a traditional Italian favorite.”- Dolci Gelati

Eating my “Shot@Life” flavor Gelato to kick of the #BirthdayBash

It was so much fun to see Anastasia, get to meet  her family, and to hear her husband’s ideas for combining his skill as a trained Pastry Chef  to come up with creative flavors and treats to offer customers.  With Anastasia’s background working for humanitarian causes at the United Nations Foundation it is no surprise that the couple will offer a Social Good flavor each month as a way to support the causes they care about. Our stop at Dolci Gelati was the perfect sweet way to top off a fun visit with family in DC, and to launch into celebrating the first birthday of Shot@Life.

 

For more information about Dolci Gelati you can visit their website , follow Dolci Gelati on twitter and like them on facebook .
Better yet, go visit them in person!

Dolci Gelati is located at 7000 Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park, MD

Apr22

5 Ways To Go Green This Earth Day

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5 Ways To Go Green This Earth Day

5 ways to go green this Earth Day

Apr4

ONEMoms and FashionABLE Mother’s Day Scarf

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ONEMoms and FashionABLE Mother’s Day Scarf

I’m sure that you remember the gorgeous fashionABLE scarves in the Documama holiday gifts that give back guide.  Each style is more beautiful than the next, but the best part is that each scarf also helps to employ a woman working towards a better life for herself and her family in Ethiopia.  A few months ago in December and January there was a ONE | fashionABLE | ALT challenge / contest held where the Alt community was challenged to design a scarf to be voted on by conference attendees.  The scarf was then handmade in Ethiopia for an exclusive ONE | fashionABLE Mother’s Day Scarf.  The Altitude Summit Community meets up for an annual conference in Utah geared towards design-oriented bloggers, lifestyle brands and companies that want to connect with them to discuss theory, and the love of all things design.  More than 60 designs were submitted to the contest, 12 of which were produced by FashionABLE in Ethiopia.  Four of the twelve were voted on by the ALT community, and the winning scarf is being produced now and will be available on April 15.

As a ONEMoms community partner, today, Thursday, April 4 we are able to offer our documama readers a pre-sale of the chosen design and both ONE.org and FashionABLE are offering two full days of free shipping.  After April 5th the pre-sale will continue with regular shipping. All scarves ordered will be shipped on April 17 in time for Mother’s Day. The scarf is gorgeous, and each handmade scarf takes three days to make.  The chosen scarf is named The Genet,  after one of the amazing women who helped produce it, and is available for purchase through the ONE Store  and fashionABLE websites.

Read Genet’s story to get an idea for the opportunities you are supporting by purchasing a FashionABLE scarf:

Photo of Genet and her daughter provided by ONE.org

“I don’t remember my birth mother, and I don’t know my birthday or actual age, so the timeline of my story is based on my best guess . I was brought from the countryside into the city of Addis at age 3 by an aunt who promised my family I would be sent to school and have a “better life .” Instead, I was groomed to be a housemaid and given so many responsibilities that the load of work become impossible and overwhelming . By age 12, I ran away and began living on  the street . I felt lost and I was continually raped . Eventually, I became pregnant . With a baby at 15, I learned to have sex for money so I could support her. I coped with life through drinking, drugs and smoking . I recently learned about this program and am enrolled in counseling to work through my addictions, my childhood trauma, and learn ways to reconnect with my now 6-year-old daughter.  I am also working at fashionABLE and grateful  to have a job that provides dignity. “

 

This scarf  is definitely on my Mother’s Day wish list!

 

Mar22

March 22nd Is World Water Day

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March 22nd Is World Water Day

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

Many years ago traveling in Africa I took this photo of young girls carrying these huge jugs of water through their village to their homes.  This is a snapshot of a scene that I saw played out time and again in my travels through the continent. Lines at village hand pumps, and heavy jerry cans balanced on heads, hours fetching water that could otherwise have been spent by these young girls in school, or by the women earning a living.   By being there, at times the amount of effort put into accessing the most basic of human necessities, and the conservation required once obtained, became my own reality as well.  Having grown up with an abundance of water, this was a sharp learning curve on what a precious commodity water is.  It is easy to take it for granted when you have it, until you don’t.  According to statistics from WaterAid the average North American uses 400 liters of water every day, while the average person in the developing world uses 10 liters of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. (Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC)) So, while I returned home to the many taps of flowing water inside my house with a new appreciation for that luxury, 783 million people around the world are without clean water to drink.  Combine that fact with the lack of proper sanitation in many of the same regions and the result is 2,000 children who die each day from water related diseases.

The United Nations has established March 22nd as a day to examine water issues around the world.

WaterAid is an International non-profit organization that helps the world’s poorest people to plan, build and manage their own safe water supplies and to improve their sanitation and hygiene.  These basic services transform lives.

“Water is just the beginning of the road out of poverty.  Hours spent carrying water can instead be spent with family, tending crops, raising livestock or starting a business.  Simple changes to sanitation and hygiene practices save thousands of babies’ lives and keep children in school.”- WaterAid.

How you can help:

  • Watch, and share the below video:

 

 

 

Follow WaterAid America on Twitter and Facebook and share their posts on the #20ways that water is just the beginning of the road out of poverty.

  • Join the World Water Day Google+ Hangout at 1.30pm EST on March 22 where WaterAid and other water organizations will be discussing the world water crisis and solutions in a celebration moderated by YouTube star Justine Ezarik.
  • Make a donation: as experts in practical, hands-on water solutions WaterAid has brought clean water to 17.5 million people. But they need your help to achieve their aim of helping 1.4 million more people this year.

 

Visit www.wateraidamerica.org/worldwaterday for all the latest World Water  Day news.

I wrote this post as part of The Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of members of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health.

Our Motto: Individually we are all powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.


Feb26

Kaboom! Playgrounds And The Power Of Play

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Kaboom! Playgrounds And The Power Of Play
 I Must have spent nearly a quarter of the past decade at playgrounds with my kids, so I am thrilled to write about the nonprofit organization,Kaboom! that believes in the power of play.  The neighborhood playground was my office, my social interaction, my snack bar, changing station, and my sanity as a mother.  It was the place we could always go when we needed to get out of the house, and we were there daily.  We could be sure to meet up with other kids and moms wether we planned ahead or not.  For a few hours the kids could climb and shout, and spill their juice boxes all over the ground, which was a few hours less of them doing the same inside our house. As a mother some of my most memorable bonding moments with other mothers took place on the playground, and that’s just what the playground meant to me as a mom!
Playgrounds are really all about the kids and their need to play.  Kids need the freedom to explore and climb, and be physical in a safe place where they can have fun. Growing up my neighborhood playground was such an essential part of my own childhood, I still feel nostalgic when I drive by it. There is the same swing set with the long chains on which I soared and dreamed as a child. The same water fountain is still there where I stood in line on a hot day for a drink, and then got bit by a spider when it was my turn, but tried to act cool because of all of the big kids in line behind me. The climbing castle from which we would jump off the top, and the same fountain where we cooled off in its spray in the summer still stand.   It is hard to imagine where all of that time I spent as a child, and then spent with my own children, would have been spent if we did not have access to the parks we did.

 

Kaboom! is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the United States dedicated to saving play for children, and was founded by Darell Hammond in 1996 after he had read the story of two children who suffocated while playing in an abandoned car.  They had no where else to play.  Not only do children need safe environments for play,but there is extensive research and data on the power of play, and the difference that unstructured play can make on the health and well-being of a child.
“At KaBOOM! we create opportunities for the collaborative sharing and continued improvement of knowledge and tools that anyone needs to build or improve upon playspaces on their own. As advocates of play, we recognize the importance of each child not only having access to a safe and engaging place to play, but also having the time to play—knowing that it makes children happier, fitter, smarter, creative, and more socially adept”
.- KAboom! Website

 

Watch this video about Kaboom! and how it helps provide play spaces for children:

Through Kaboom! communities in need of playgrounds can build that space or their children, and provide those years of essential activity and free play that all kids need.  If your community or a neighborhood you know of is in need of a playground update of a new playground check out the KAboom! Website to find out how you can make kids dreams come true.  If you are passionate about the power of play you can follow Kaboom! on Facebook, and  if you would like to help support Kaboom! and its mission to provide safe play for all children you can donate here.  

 

I wrote this post as part of The Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of members of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health.

Our Motto: Individually we are all powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.

Follow along with us here on Tumblr, on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook for the latest Global Team of 200 news.