Feb2

#26Acts Of Kindness, Remembering Rachel D’Avino

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#26Acts Of Kindness, Remembering Rachel D’Avino

This post is extremely difficult for me to write.  Nothing we do will ever bring back any of the victims of the December 14th 2012 shooting in Newtown, CT. Just to think of that day, and those lives lost, washes me in a feeling of sadness, and despair.  The world continues to turn,  we all go on, we went back to routines like putting our kids on the bus to school, and going to work. But we are changed. In an attempt to counterbalance the horror with some good,  members of the Global Team of 200, including myself, are joining Ann Curry’s  #26Acts of Kindness movement by participating in a blog relay and link-up of  26 Act of Kindness.  We have committed to remembering the victims of the Newtown shooting with 26 bloggers posting for 26 days, each day highlighting one individual victim, and promoting the idea, initiated by Ann Curry, of 26 act of kindness.

“After the experience in Newtown. I thought, “What if? Imagine if everyone could commit to doing one act of kindness for every one of those children killed in Newtown.” So that’s what I tweeted. And guess what? People committed. I said in my tweet, “I’m in. RT if you’re in.” Not only did they commit to 20 acts of kindness, they wanted to up it to 26 acts of kindness for every child and adult who was lost at the school.”- Ann Curry

 

#26Acts of kindness will hopefully inspire ongoing, simple, daily acts that touch each other’s lives.  Kindness to your loved ones or strangers, acts large or small. Acts of kindness towards each other to perhaps make this world a better place.

Nothing we do can bring Rachel D’Avino back to her family, to her boyfriend, soon to be fiancé, or to all of the possibilities her young life still held. Read the rest of this entry →

Jan30

Love & Water

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Love & Water

Love & Water

“Water Is The Driving Force In Nature”- Leonardo da Vinci

Love is another driving force in human nature, like water it has the ability to be pure and powerful, and we need to help each other like we need Love & Water.  Water is the lifeblood of the world, and it is hard to appreciate how valuable it is unless you don’t have it.

Worldwide 800 million people do not have access to it and 2.5 billion have nowhere safe and clean to go to the toilet.  As a result, 2,000 children die every day from easily prevented diarrheal diseases with countless more unable to attend school. Millions of women are unable to work because they spend so much time collecting water and caring for sick children.- Water Aid

Clean water and sanitation are two issues that I am passionate about. Read the rest of this entry →

Jan29

StyleWeek Northeast Does Red On The Runway To Benefit The American Heart Association

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StyleWeek Northeast Does Red On The Runway To Benefit The American Heart Association

Last Night, was the second night of StyleWeek Northeast and the Red On The Runway StyleWeek fashion show challenge featured first responders, survivors, caregivers, and advocates of Heart Disease strutting down the runway to benefit The American Heart Association.  Heart disease is the number 1 killer of both men and women in America, and the American Heart Association is working hard to raise awareness, and promote preventative healthy lifestyle changes to help curb that statistic.  Survivors, first responders, caregivers and advocates working as models were paired with designers to walk the runway in one of a kind designs to help raise money and awareness, and to kick off Heart Month in February.

The winning design by Kara Wickman

The show was set up as a design challenge and a panel of judges including John Smith the RISD museum director, Christina Robbio of Redken, Jenna Pelletier from the Providence journal, Ashley Erling of The Rhode Show, Jayne Avery from Massachusetts College of Art, Jim Hannon from the School of Fashion Design in Boston, Rachel Russell of Lola Boutique, and stylist Jill Marinelli  selected the winning design by Kara Wickman.

With Congressman David Cicilline

It was great fun to see some of my husbands’ friends and colleagues strutting their stuff on the runway like Pediatric Cardiologist Sara Ford and Cardiologist Michael Gilson.  Other models included Jill Andy, and Nurse Lisa Connelly.  A few friends from our town who took to the catwalk were first responder Fire Fighter Mike Mernick and  Tara Wood a heart attack survivor. Tara’s story highlights the need to break down stereotypes about who is at risk of heart disease. She was 44, slim, low cholesterol and blood pressure with healthy fitness, and eating habits, with no family history, yet it happened to her.   Martin Ortiz walked the walk, he is not only a survivor, but also the father of StyleWeek Northeast founder Rosanna Ortiz Sinel.  Also modeling were Paul Brooks, survivor, caregiver and AHA board member, and Mary Velardo who lost her husband to a heart attack in 2009 (pictured above in the winning dress). Model Louise Dinsmore lost her three year old daughter to a congenital heart defect , and went on to found  the Gabrielle Dinsmore Heart & HopeFund , and Gabrielle’s Heart camp to provide a fun, safe summer camp experience to children with heart disease, and honor Gabrielle’s memory.

The StyleWeek Northeast Red on the Runway show was a great girls night out.  We had fun shopping at the accessory showcase, ogling fun designs like the Haute Tags sold by fellow blogger Becky DiStefano, and fabulous handbags by designer Kent Stetson, taking in the fashion show, and socializing during the cocktail hour. StyleWeek Northeast runs through Saturday at the Biltmore in Providence so, check out the schedule, because there are five more fabulous, fashionable fun-filled nights ahead!

With Miss Rhode Island (I know it’s like we’re quadruplets!)

Kent Stetson handbags

Haute Tags

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 →