The Succulent Wife's Favorite Things

I knew I wasn't the only one! Anita Renfroe's Total Momsense

Photoshop & Social Web Sites - Buyer Beware

Reminiscent of the Dove commercial where the "plain Jane" young girl becomes transformed, through the good work of innumerable beauty stylists and Photoshop experts, this particular clip tells of the ubiquity of the photo retouching tool. So, what you see probably ain't what you gonna get! Tragic! Except that these Photoshop scammers are pretty good! Hey, I should retouch my photo. Can someone fix that droop, lift the eyes, plump the lips?

... We Climbed in Trees

I capture this last month as we were on our way out of Bryce Canyon and entering the historic little town of Panguitch, UT.

No verbiage needed here. These little road signs say it all...

A Must Read Article in Today's New York Times: The Unintended Consequences of Hyperhydration

Quite the awakening article on America’s exaggerated use of the disposable water bottle .  You will find below some fascinating excerpts to the article written by Jon Mooallem, a contributing writer with the New York Times. This full NY Times magazine article can be found HERE .

The article is mostly about the fact that the Bottle Bill (which in some states refund a nickel for every returned bottle) does NOT cover water bottles and about all the complications in the chanels between manufacturer, distributor, retailer and consumer to arrive at some working solution to handle all this waste. Anyhoo, read on and get enlightened:

"Bottle bills are still surprisingly good at inspiring recycling and reducing litter. But, though they are idiosyncratic in every state, the vast majority of the laws share one colossal, unanticipated flaw: they place a deposit on beer and carbonated beverages only. The bottle bill’s scope, and to some extent the very vision of a more waste-conscious world that first motivated it, has been swiftly trivialized by the ubiquity of bottled water. This year, Americans will drink more than 30 billion single-serving bottles of water. Oregonians will throw out about 170 million empty ones. Those same bottles, filled with something fizzy, would carry nickel deposits."   ...   

"The laws were written in a different era, a less health-obsessed one, when drinking out of a bottle or can meant drinking beer or soda."   ...   

"Americans buy about 215 billion beverage containers every year, more than quadruple those bought in 1971."      ...      

"In her office one morning, Vicki Berger seemed to share this principled insensitivity. When it comes to bottled water, she said, “when are we going to say enough is enough of this product?” (Berger had previously explained her position on water this way: “The product is zilch! You’re buying a friggin’ container!”)"     ....    

"Americans will throw out more than two million tons of PET bottles this year. Even when recycled, it is hard to turn scrap PET into new bottles. More virgin material is always necessary. PET is a petroleum product; it comes from oil. The Container Recycling Institute estimates that 18 million barrels of crude-oil equivalent were needed to replace the bottles we chucked in 2005, bottles that were likely shipped long distances to begin with —from Maine or Calistoga or Fiji."

Oy! I’m guilty of it myself. I buy the 24 pack of 24 oz water bottles. The kids each grab a bottle in the morning on their way to school. What has somewhat alleviated my guilt over consuming all that plastic is that my family recycles like no other  in our community. Yep, we are the ones with the overflowing recycling curbside bins, while my neighbors hardly ever put theirs out. I even bring back my recycling from the office. So does my husband. But this article sure sheds a bright light on this issue and brought on a new decision for me and my family. I am buying sturdy, refillable, dishwasher proof (these bottles, put directly in our mouths accumulate lots of bacteria and need to be washed frequently) bottle for the whole family and we will be taking the time to refill them with our own tap water. I will look to find the best water bottle and will share that with you so that you can buy your own in my store, www.TheSucculentWife.com. Stay tuned for that part.

In fact, I don’t remember ever being this thirsty as a child. Do you? My parents don’t remember needed to carry water bottles on every errand or every car trip we took.  It’s time for us to rethink all this…

My Funny Friend -- Funny in a good way most of the time

You might have already come across this site, www.DribbleGlass.com. If not directly, you undoubtedly saw some "borrowed" images forwarded in one of those emails, you know, the ones with the Powerpoint slideshow of humorous photos. Yep, that's my friend's site, my favorite funny guy, Scott Roeben. We were colleagues not so long ago . I won't mention the company or the URL not to give a free link to the nasty entity that took over the company and which, in our humble and most objective opinion, totally ruined the site, rendering it void of any useful content. Most of that content was written by Scott. It was cool, funny,irreverent all the while being valuable to the reader. That's a tour de force in itself! OK, the site was LasVegas dot com. So, imagine the stuff that we could write about...

Anyhoo, you can still get a taste of Scott's irreverence and humor - and sometimes really, really bad taste, off-colored lamentable sexist jokes - by visiting Dribble Glass. He actually caused quite a stir a while ago with one of his fake billboards, the Southern Comfort advertising itself as "liquid panty remover". Feminist groups were up in arms, believing that this was an actual billboard. The VP marketing for Southern Comfort tried to defend himself and his brand as best he could, but was crucified in the end. Several articles were written about it.

And no one is immune. NO ONE. He knows that I'm part  Hungarian and look at what he did! No respect.

Scott also has a cute (he'll hate that I say that) little book that features some of his billboards and magnets of same. You can buy it here on Amazon.com.

Enjoy, have a laugh. You know how good that is for the spirit.

En Vogue

So, I just found out today, by accident, that TheSucculentWife.com is mentioned in... of all publications: Vogue Magazine, March 2007 edition, page 483. The Succulent Wife was mentioned as the merchant through which one can purchase the Dali Mama Eco Jute Yoga Mats. It's a tiny little mention, with no product photo (and BTW, Dali Mama yoga mats are so much prettier than the boring mat that was actually featured, although it's a "green" mat in keeping with the article's green theme, so I get it).  So, I'm quite pleased. Not b/c the phone has been ringing off the hook (it hasn't) but b/c it means that someone at Vogue has been watching. It think that her name is Laurie Drake (I don't have the magazine in front of me so I can't check) and I need to thank her for taking notice. It's in this spirit of gratitude that I welcome the other illustrious publications to feature any product from The Succulent Wife. But, with a photo, please!  :-)

San Francisco Gift Fair

I'm excited to go to the San Francisco Gift Fair which opens today. It will be one of those wake-up-at-four-am-to-catch-the-six-o'clock-flight days, but I will recover easily. I am looking forward to meeting up with a few of my "ladies", Rae Gedlaman of Jester Swink and Blake van Roekel of Magma.  I have only been to this particular gift show once before but remember enjoying the more intimate and authentic feel that it provided and the better selection of original product. We will see what this brings tomorrow.