Lifestyle

By Nancy and James Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founders of Healthy Child Healthy World. Contributing editorial from Bethany Colson, Assitant Managing...

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate. Jill Salisbury, founder of Chicago based el: Environmental Language, formally educated and trained as an Interior Designer, has found her true calling and passion in the design and manufacturing of furniture. Ten plus years ago, while working as an interior designer, she began learning about the benefits of sustainability but wasn’t able to find furnishings that were stylish and had any kind of environmental initiative. “There wasn’t anything available and I felt the Interior Design community needed to have what I call the Eco-Chic Alternative where you can have style with environmental integrity and promote a healthy indoor air quality for your clients.”

It's a jewel of a hideaway in the confines of one of the wealthiest locations in all the world...   Palm Beach Florida. What The...

By: Janelle Sorensen, courtesy of Healthy Child Healthy World Looking for a pediatrician is no easy task, especially if your concerns and parenting methods aren’t exactly the same as mainstream America. My husband and I scoured the city for a full year before finding the right one for our daughters. But, it totally paid off. We found an amazingly supportive and brilliant pediatrician whose philosophy was to tell us everything she knew and then let us choose what to do. She had only one provision; if she ever thought the results of a treatment were sub-par, then she would intervene with an alternate recommendation. That never happened and I was always overwhelmed with how much she knew. She could rattle off statistics about best practices in the EU, pertinent studies regarding alternative remedies, and recent outbreaks that could put my children at risk. She was a dream come true. But, alas, we moved. Now we are on the hunt again.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World To B or not to B at the Four Seasons...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant These days, any given suited politician, uniformed worker, outfitted student, or swaddled infant wears a garment no far cry from that of Iron Man. Synthesized and industrialized just like the incredible transforming suit, our clothing comes with all sorts of modern finishes. We purchase the wrinkle-free, stain resistant, flame retardant, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-static, odor-resistant, permanent-press, non-shrink fabric, smoothed-to-boot with softening agents. But the irony in this is that these resistant retardant protectants end up doing more harm than good. Every anti-fill-in-the-blank means more chemicals in your clothing.

"The Milestone Hotel in London was just voted the #2 city hotel in Europe and the # 1 World's Best Hotel by Travel + Leisure"

By Alanna Brown, a LuxEcoLiving Advocate, creator of Brown House Online, and author of Moonpennies The gatekeepers are gone. The agent, the editor, the lawyer,...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant I came across this MSN health article on walking and, as an avid walker myself (I walk an average of 12 miles per week), I had to share what I learned. Regular brisk walking can do wonders for your health, and it’s so simple! No gym fees, nowhere to drive to, no certain time to be at that aerobics class. You can just walk out the door at your favorite time of day, pop in a set of headphones, and tour the neighborhood. Research shows there are 8 incredible benefits to this type of moderate exercise.

Think Fresh Horman's Best Pickles for Mother's Day

By Sahar Ghaffari, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant The cosmetic market today is saturated with thousands of products that claim to tighten, moisturize, and smooth your skin; but usually these claims come with a hefty cost, artificial ingredients, and not necessarily the results you were hoping for. However, the answers to some of your skin problems could be secretly hidden right in your very own kitchen.

By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant We can all thank the sun for making trash disposal a more eco-friendly task; and while we’re at it, we can also thank the creators of BigBelly Solar Trash Cans. These solar powered beefy looking trash cans are sprouting up on street corners in several metropolitan areas with goals of being more cost, time and energy efficient.

The historic passage of last night's health care reform bill will positively effect millions of American's with immediate benefits as outlined in the House...

Healthy Child Healthy World provides parents with information that can prevent many childhood diseases. Our research team is powered by Environmental Working Group's comprehensive database which provides cutting edge scientific research which links human health to exposure to chemicals in the environment.

  Green Business Networking Proudly Celebrates Fifth Year, With... You? It's hard to believe, but tomorrow's mixer will also be our FIFTH anniversary! Time flies...

By Janelle Sorensen, Chief Communications Officer, Healthy Child Healthy World Expert Opinion courtesy of Healthy Child Healthy World When my husband and I toured schools to...

by Linsley Oaks, LuxEco Editorial Assistant EcoEmotions are very high right now.  There are a lot of fingers pointing across our headlines about the oil spill. ...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and co-founders of Healthy Child Healthy World West Hollywood California, The Palm Restaurant Photos courtesy of LuxEcoLiving...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World The french may think they know it all or even have...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Menopause is not inherited it's a fact of...

  Repurposing wealth for the preservation of natures most incredible gifts. An environmental habitat shared in perpetuity and the opportunity to connect with nature. The Point...

By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Imagine walking into a fast-food restaurant with a menu sans greasy cheeseburgers, replaced by roasted chicken wraps and pork-and-sweet potato...

By Kerin Van Hoosear, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of Season Cooking with Kerin In a country where childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the last thirty years, it is refreshing to see teachers like Mark Wagner combat that statistical nightmare. As head of the Organic Garden Club at Palmquist Elementary School in Oceanside, Calif., he’s getting kids excited about gardening and eating right. “I really wanted to promote nutrition awareness. That was my main goal,” Wagner says. When he arrived at Palmquist four years ago, the school garden was a fenced-in patch of waist-high weeds. Now it’s filled with ground crops and fruit trees that the students are not just excited to grow, but to eat as well.

By Maria Danova, translator & musicologist, contributor to project AWE "The Secret of the Magic Flute: Western Music & Esotericism"  ...in my pieces the musicians usually...

By Christopher David Kaufman, Internet Entrepreneur and LuxEco Advocate Those of us interested in clean energy, healthy and non-toxic environments have, depending on our age, been told that we need to do more with less. That we as a “Consumer Society” need to buy less, create less, just stop making a human imprint on the face of the earth. Humans are bad for the earth, our corporations are destroying everything and why bring anyone into this world where polar ice caps are melting, CO2 is rising, and landfills are out of control.

Bushmans Kloof is Stunning! Spectacular! A haven for culinary delights! A once in a lifetime experience... nothing can compare to this Relais & Châteaux property part of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World "Reiner's new flick reaps a pot of gold...

Kelle Groom's nonfiction memoir, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl (Free Press) is a title wave of emotions wrapped in heart-shaped box, a keepsake for all time.

By: Molly Cimikoski, Editorial Assistant Last week, LuxEco Living was lucky enough to be graced with a phone interview from New York Times bestselling author,...

by Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Approximately one billion Valentine cards are sent worldwide each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. One billion. How many trees does that represent? Perhaps you ought to reconsider. By LuxEco Editorial Assistant Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano

by Zhenya Gershman, Artist and Art Historian, co-Founder of Project AWE You are in an art museum.  Suddenly you feel that someone is staring at...

Giving Birth to LuxEco Living LuxEcoLiving incorporates three basic principles; food, shelter, and love. Each attribute defines and identifies a new cultural paradigm shift....

By Lush Huxley, Editorial Assistant Beth Nielsen Chapman is one such songwriter who has succeeded in the competitive field of modern music. You may not have heard of her, but her resume is stacked (as they say). She’s written for the likes of Willie Nelson, Elton John, and Mary Carpenter, and performed with country crooners Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt. Remember the Faith Hill song “This Kiss?” Yeah, she wrote that too. Beth’s very well respected and established among the songwriting community in Nashville, TN, where she makes her home. Her story is an unconventional one. In the 70s, Beth was being lauded among record company big shots as one of the songwriting world’s up-and-comers. Around 1979, her song “If I’d Only Known” appeared next to Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train” in the “Singles to Watch” section of industry magazines across the country. However, when her record failed to meet the expectations of the label, the big money people pulled the plug on her publishing deal. Perceiving her musical career as virtually terminated, Chapman entered a new chapter of her life as domesticated mother and housewife. But the songwriting bug stayed with her.

By Amanda Nisenson, Opera Singer and LuxEco Advocate The night before I was born, my mother was reading an article about Beverly Sills, (May 25, 1929 – July 2, 2007) the famous opera singer who performed for huge audiences around the world. My Great Aunt used to brag about how she knew Beverly Sills growing up in Brooklyn, and how much she enjoyed being friends with “Bubbles,” as Ms. Sills was called then. The article continued to explain that this nickname was given to her because she was born with Bubbles in her mouth. The next day, June 17th was the day that I came into the world, and to my mother’s great surprise, I was born with Bubbles in my mouth. She could not believe the coincidence, and announced to the doctor that I would become a singer! Years later, shortly before Beverly Sills died, my mother had the great fortune to meet the legendary singer, and actually got the opportunity to ask in person, if she did indeed know my Great Aunt. After a questionable pause, Ms. Sills burst out laughing in recollection of this zany character from her childhood.

Organic grape farmers feel they are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to the current labeling of organic wines. By Brooke Rewa, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Organic shopping can be confusing. Organic wine shopping, even more so. Many of us don't have time to stop and read every ingredient on the products we are looking to purchase at the grocery store. This is why we look for known "stamps of approval." The biggest stamp we look for when shopping organic is that of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA sets very high standards for what can be labeled certified organic; which is why we as consumers trust them. They have taken these standards to new levels in the wine industry and it could be doing more harm than good for the world of organics. When perusing your local grocer for an organic wine you will find two different labels; one clearly labeled certified organic and one labeled "made with organic grapes". This is where things get confusing and where organic grape farmers get upset. In order to be labeled certified organic by the USDA wine must be made from 100% organic grapes and contain no added sulfites. Sulfites occur naturally when grapes are fermented to make wine, it is impossible for any wine to be completely sulfite-free. Wine makers have been adding sulfites for centuries. Sulfur protects wine from oxidizing, allows for a longer shelf life and prevents unwanted organisms from growing in th