Lifestyle

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant The iconic Barataria Bay, a Gulf of Mexico bay located in southeastern Louisiana, is being destroyed by oil still gushing from the Deepwater Horizon blowout. The formerly thriving estuary, rich with virgin cypress trees and an array of wildlife, has been known historically—as the site of an original colony—and literarily—as depicted by Kate Chopin in “The Awakening.” It is beloved by its inhabitants, who knew it, not so long ago, as some of the best fishing in the region.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Sunstone Winery Santa Ynez California Life happens! Even in the best laid plans...

Last month James Cameron was invited to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) fundraiser at FOX studios to discuss the meaning, the message and...

“As a group, it's our intention with this album to create songs with a message of compassion and hope,” said Newton-John. “They are for anyone facing a time of challenge in their life, whether it is grieving a loss - or on the journey to health and recovery.”

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 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 James and Nancy Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Hotel Bristol Kärntner Ring 1  1010 Vienna, Austria Discovering the finest Austrian Art at...

By: Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant for Resplendent Repurposing series If you have seniors on your gift list, you may be struggling with what to buy them. The best, and greenest answer may be: Nothing, as in no-thing. It’s the old story: What to get the person who has everything? Most older people have more junk than they’ll ever need – and are trying to get rid of it. Very often they’re downscaling, going from a multi-bedroom house to a smaller one, an apartment or into assisted living. The last thing they want is one more dust-catcher. So don’t buy them any, unless they’ve specifically requested it. (Ever wonder what percentage of landfill contents are made up of unwanted gifts? I’ll bet the number is staggering.)

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.

Forrest Gump may have been on to something when he compared life to chocolates. You really never know what you’re gonna get in a box of chocolates, do you? The truth behind chocolate is more bitter than sweet. The Ivory Coast produces 40% of the world's chocolate, and it just so happens to also be notorious for this little thing called child slavery. Children, both local and from other third world countries, are sold to farms in this area where they are physically abused while working in risky and inhumane conditions. Some children are sold into the trade by parents who are tricked into believing their children will have better lives at the farm. Others are trafficked, stolen from their families, lured by the promise of…chocolate. In these farms they are forced to work 60 hour weeks with little or no food (depending on their performance on the field). These children lose their fundamental human rights when they enter these farms and “modern” society turns a blind eye to the atrocities. Every time we buy a box of chocolate that is not fair trade stamped, we (often unknowingly) endorse child slavery.

By: Nancy Chuda, co-founder of LuxEcoLiving.com and Healthy Child Healthy World "One need not be in California long before he feels his soul beginning to stir. The air is magnetized...the consciousness awakens ...the soul must speak." Ganna Walska, the flamboyant opera singer who wrote those words in her memoir, had not merely tired of New York. After a six-week stay in the Hollywood Hills in 1940, the 53-year-old Mrs. Walska truly believed that her destiny lay in this "sunny land" where "people are decidedly more interested in your being than in your pocket."

By Nancy Chuda, co-founder of LuxEcoLiving.com and Healthy Child Healthy World A divine inspiration. A remarkable event. An outstanding evening. Jim and I were treated to one of the most memorable moments in our lives—at Coleman Farm’s annual dinner. Their mission is to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it.

Image: Artist's Model Mark Snyder and Artist Zhenya Gershman,  Franklin Londin 3-d Photography On Friday May 15th, a historic event took place at the Los...

They were thought to have been extinct since the 1980's but the thumbnail sized Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly (also known as the El...

It's no surprise! Country music starlet Kellie Pickler and Heroes' star Milo Ventimiglia are pretty sexy. Both were named Sexiest Vegetarians ...

By Nancy Chuda, Founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEco Living and Founder of Healthy Child Healthy World While amping up for this year's Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, CA and getting the LuxEco team ready for our "Green Light" Initiative in which we search out and highlight the best natural, organic and eco-friendly products that the Green Movement has to offer, I can't help but to reflect on the evolving nature of "GREEN." Jim and I attended the first Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, CA almost two decades ago... and it was far from gluten-free. We were young, energetic, and held an undying faith that our world was unnaturally occurring; wearing Birkenstock and eating jerky we found our tribe. Or did we? back then, fair-trade was a hearty handshake.

For 20 years, Lauren Vidal remains true to the uniqueness of its creations and gives the contemporary woman her own image, focusing on overlays creating purely light styles punctuated by unstructured volumes.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Saying goodbye to a feathered friend We lost her yesterday. It...

By Bernadette Bowman, Comedienne and LuxEco Advocate who writes the LIFE GOES RETROGRADE series I apologize for my absence the past few weeks, but I was squatting at the Betty Ford Clinic in a serious rehab program. Unbeknownst to me (that would be called denial) in addition to my toxic, time consuming addiction to Facebook (who, by the way, is okay with our just being “friends”), I also discovered, when I no longer had Facebook to be my “other relationship,” that I had a pretty sick and needy relationship with my cell phone.

By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant MyBike is an electric bicycle retailer based in Boston, MA that provides an alternative mode of transportation that reduces individuals’ carbon footprints, as well as the stress and hassle of sitting in traffic. With motor vehicles as the single biggest source of air pollution it’s about time we find less abrasive ways to get around.

Be Educated, Be Inspired by WOTGG - Celebrate The Green Generation, Saturday May 14. Don’t miss the inspirational feel-good event of the year! EDUCATE ...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Seeing Citizen Kane...

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.

What happens when you pair artisan farmstead cheese from Cowgirl Creamery in northern California with some of the finest master cheesemakers from The Wisconsin Cheeseman and you add the finest varietal wines, both reds and white, from one the most magnificent wineries in the world?

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate With as much time as we spend in our homes these days, we want to create a home that is a retreat, that is what we speak to, but we want our retreat to be safe so this is definitely going to be an option. Certainly they don’t have to take it all the way to major extremes, but they can do little things that will make a huge difference in their health, their design and in the environment.

By Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant "And unlike the mindless, wasteful consumerism that our culture celebrates, it's a conscious, conscientious, sustainable lifestyle that is eco-responsible. If you've been looking for a way to live your values, here's a rebellious, joyous way to do just that."

Courtesy of Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, Principal Investigator for Mount Sinai's WTC Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program. Founding  and Honorary Board...

We were treated to the culinary talents of a genius! We had literally just returned from the land of Alain Ducasse, Provence France, where we had been seated for an array of tasting menus, literally, for days and nights, by his top chefs... our taste buds had been spoiled fresh until we met chef Jeremy Tummel... my oh my!

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World " Sitting in front of the mountain that gave birth to Paul...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Travels with Journey, The Hallmark Inn Davis, California "The capacity for hope is...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant For those who spend the extra dough to shop organically, it is fair to expect that a market touting the sale of only organic goods should supply consumers with fodder and non-fodder products on an even keel. One such market, the well-known and widely shopped Whole Foods, is making sure those expectations are met. As of June 1, 2011, the organic grocery chain will require that all personal care products and cosmetics making an “organic” claim can prove it.

Introduction by Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World The horses have it! Today, in Louisville at the...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World   The Brothers know how to bring home the...

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...

By: Linsley Oaks, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant Running across a field might seem like the last thing anyone should do after slinging $12 dixie cups...