Category Archives: Lifestyle

Jan28

No More Excuses! Stream Fitness Videos With Gaiam TV.

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No More Excuses! Stream Fitness Videos With Gaiam TV.

 

Oil Painting by Elizabeth Atalay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My introduction to unlimited access to streaming fitness videos with Gaiam TV could not have come at a better time! I’m not much for New Years resolutions, but I do appreciate the start of the New Year as a great time to re-set routines. Since the holidays my fitness routine has faltered, and in 2013 I am determined to get back on track.  As many of you know, as a mom, having total control over your daily routine is not always an option.  The past few weeks have been a frustrating example of this for me, having just sworn to myself to get back to the gym, and start practicing Yoga on a regular basis. First a dishwasher debacle left me home on six separate days just waiting for service people in what seemed interminable time windows. When they say they’ll be there between 9am-12 noon, why do they come at 11:59 every time?!   Then this morning I am paying the price for what was a fantastic ski weekend in Stowe, VT.   After a fun day of skiing (despite the cold), we had to push it like we always do, and squeeze in a visit to the Trapp Family Lodge, and a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s factory before heading home.  They were both worthy side trips, but we did not get home until around 11pm last night.  Only two out of four of my kids made it to school this morning.

No more excuses though, Read the rest of this entry →

Jan22

Fruition – My Word of The Year

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Fruition – My Word of The Year

The month of January is almost over, I know many New Years resolutions have already been made and broken, but I have finally…finally! Come up with my word of the year. (Remind me next year not to do this exercise, btw, unless of course this year is wildly successful for me!) In my post last week I mentioned that as a participant in the #inspiringmoms network, I was invited to choose my Word of The Year to guide me through 2013.  The Word Of The Year  is to inspire one to live in a more intentional way. So, I was thinking this would be easy, I’d come up with something like Imagine…which I do ALL THE TIME…or Dream…also something I’m always doing, but the more I read through the exercise by Christine Kane that I was using as a guideline, (she nixed my three word idea in her first paragraph! ), the more I realized I couldn’t  choose something I already do as my word, so that also excluded the words happiness, joy, family, and Dolce Far Niente…(remember from Eat,Pray,Love ( three good words!)”the art of doing nothing”? which I have totally perfected by the way).  Nor could I let the random great words that kept popping into my mind like sassafras (a GREAT word) or whirligig (another fun word to say)  be my guiding word for 2013! Read the rest of this entry →

Jan14

What Is Your Word Of The Year?

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What Is Your Word Of The Year?

As a participant in the #inspiringmoms network, I was invited to choose my Word of The Year to guide me through 2013.  Apparently the purpose of choosing a Word Of The Year  is to inspire one to live in a more intentional way.   My initial response was that I could not possibly choose just one word!  That might mean my word of the year should be focus…but  as friends who know me can attest, I am not very good at paring things down….as one friend once described me, I tend more to “take big chunks out of life”.   At a restaurant if I see two things on the menu I equally desire, I will try to get someone to split them with me so that I don’t have to choose just one.   To choose one Word to guide me through the whole next Year proved a daunting challenge to me.   The good news is that I also love a good personal challenge.  I did turn to help from Christine Kane, who has actually written a free guide to  download and use as your word of the year discovery tool.   Honestly I thought I’d just come up with a word, (o.k., I was going to cheat and come up with three but apparently she’s on to me) and write my blog post about my word of the year. After reading her guide (Turns out I’m not the first one to try to sneak in more than one word) I see that I need to spend a bit more time coming up with My Word.  Her philosophy is that typical New Years Resolutions so often fail because they are usually based on specific actions, as opposed to a way of living, a guiding premise.   I am still trying to loose the same 10 pounds my resolution was to loose 10 years ago, so at least in my case she is right!  She decided a word to guide your year would be a better course, and since new years resolutions have not quite worked out for me in the past, I figure why not!? Of course the first thing I knew is that my ONE word I would choose would not be wasted on those ten pounds that have come and gone and yet never dictated my actual level of happiness. Read the rest of this entry →

Nov8

Nordstrom Rack Sneak Peek Party & Grand Opening

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Nordstrom Rack Sneak Peek Party & Grand Opening

It turns out that not only does Nordstrom Rack know how to pick great fashion finds for it’s customers, but it also knows how to throw a great party! I had been invited as a blogger to the Sneak Peek event held at the store for the Warwick Nordstrom Rack last night before it’s Grand Opening today.

As an invited guest I received a Nordstrom’s Rack canvas tote goody bag as I walked in the door, turns out it was perfect foreshadowing in which for me to carry home my haul at the end of the night.  Not even the wind and snow of a Nor’easter could keep Nordstrom Rack fans away, and it was worth braving the storm.  There were servers with trays of amazing appetizers, drinks and desserts provided by Blackstone Catering of Newport, RI who roamed the store all night bringing out a non-stop flow of delectable treat after delectable treat.  D.J. John Grammatis who is out of Chicago, but brought in by Nordstrom to its special events, kept the tunes pulsing throughout the store. Pretty cranberry martinis and glasses of white wine flowed, and the not yet opened to the public store was packed with high-end fashion at discounted prices, and an energetic vibe.  I can not tell you how much I have missed having a Nordstrom Rack nearby, I am incredibly excited to have one open up here.

 I‘ll never forget the day I called up my friend to tell her that I had just bought 3 pairs of shoes at Payless for $30.00.  It took a few moments for her to stop laughing because back then I was not exactly known to be a bargain shopper.  Times had changed for me though, I was no longer the single working girl living in New York City whose stores of choice were my neighborhood boutiques in SoHo or Barney’s New York.  In those days I would not have blinked an eye at buying myself a pair of $300.00 shoes that I loved, so 3 for $30.00 was quite a change for me. The Payless day was while we were living on my husband’s meager training salary and I was a stay at home mother to our three children.  Needless to say I had to learn to change my shopping habits big time!  I began clipping coupons for groceries and thankfully discovered Nordstrom Rack where I could still find the clothes I loved, at prices I could afford.   I learned so much during that time period that even after my husband’s salary began to increase, I could never go back to my free spending ways.

My love for good quality fashion never waned, but by the time I was through with investing more often in Maternity wear and clothes that could get spit up on than chic dresses, we had moved to a new area without a Nordstrom Rack.   Any city with a Nordstrom Rack that I have visited, I’ve made a point to go, now finally nine years later a Nordstrom Rack has come to me!  (Oh, and those $300.00 dollar shoes from Barney’s, I have to say were so worth it , 18 years and a few new soles later, and they still look good.)

Nov6

Vote Today!!!!! (and the day I was paid to put whipped cream on Joe Perry’s Body)

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Vote Today!!!!! (and the day I was paid to put whipped cream on Joe Perry’s Body)

When I was in my early twenties, and worked in film production, I had the great pleasure of smearing whipped cream onto Joe Perry’s body.  (We may have ended up having to use shaving cream because whipped cream melts and drips off too fast with body heat, but my memories on the details of that part are vague.)  I was an assistant prop girl on one of the inaugural Rock The Vote Videos and despite the fact that they ended up using the version where the model is covered in shaving cream instead of licking it off him, the point is that I got to put  whipped cream on Joe Perry  AND meet Steven Tyler all in a days work!!! It was a really fun job!!  Ever since then I have been a passionate supporter of Rock The Vote, (go figure!) an awesome campaign that starting that year in 1992 began a reversal of a 20-year cycle of declining participation of youth voters. Rock the Vote inspired a 20 percent increase  just that year in youth turnout compared to the previous Presidential election.  The PSA’s aired on the then wildly popular cable networks of MTV and VH-1, among others. The Rock The Vote campaign still encourages young people to get out and vote, and yes, every election year I think of that video!   Twenty years later (has it really been that long?!) I still feel passionate about everyone getting out to vote.  Today, I ask you to make sure to get to the polls. Cherish the freedom we have to vote and to have a say in who our next president will be!  We are so fortunate to have this opportunity, to have our voices heard not just for the future of our country, but in a decision that could impact the future of this world.  Not everyone has that ability. But you do.  No matter which candidate you are voting for, don’t take this privilege for granted. Rock your vote!