Lifestyle

Candice Held dresses have inspired us at LuxEco Living to think outside the box when it comes to sourcing eco-conscious materials. Saving the environment is not just about finding rare and exotic eco-friendly materials. In fact, sometimes it can be as simple as extending the life of the clothing already in our closets.

What the Frac?  Pollution from the use of thousands of chemicals to derive natural gas from shale is threatening the health of our children...

My new hero, Annie Leonard of the internet phenomenon The Story of Stuff, is at it again.  This time, in honor of World Water...

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 Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Granted, there is an abundance of vegetation that only thrives during the rainy season or in mild warmth....

By Alanna Rosette Brown, a writer/filmmaker, LuxEcoLiving Advocate, and author of Moonpennies. Follow her blog at alannarosette.com Self-doubt is one of our biggest gremlins, as...

By Bernadette Bowman, Comedienne and LuxEco Advocate who writes the LIFE GOES RETROGRADE series To honor and celebrate National Coming Out Day on October 11th, Gay.com is encouraging people who feel like it to write a letter from their older and wiser self to their younger self, way before they understood the word “gay” and all that it means in their respective lives as adults. This endeavor is called “Writes of Passage" and it's proving to be a way of healing for both writer and reader.

By Nancy Chuda Founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEco Living and Healthy Child Healthy World Where do we go when we die? How can we find mercy, forgiveness and love? There is no turning back the clock. Time does not wait for those who are waiting to find answers in their lives. But time does stand still for hours in Malick's fifth feature, The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Palme d'Or before being released in the United States. "The Tree of Life"A superbly conceived but somewhat stilted family drama rich in Christianity's emotional tapestries and the upheavals and uncertainties of life, reveals Brad Pitt who plays father to three sons, one being Sean Penn, brilliantly portrayed in his youth by Hunter McCracken.

Although friendship might not be included in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, I think we can all agree that a lot of our survival requisites could not be met without the help of our dearest friends, if only because we would be too sad to roll out of bed and get that vital glass of water. Food on the other hand is necessary by anyone’s standards. Just a few hours without eating, and I quickly regress from a twenty-one year old human into something more closely resembling an ogre. However, when we take the wonders of food and add that very special additive called best friends, the result is longer lasting than any typical meal.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World LuxEcoLiving "The hair cut that I'm most proud of, to tell the truth,...

  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 Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World There are reasons why you should care and support the California Rangeland...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Grown in the sun and kissed by a babies breath I live...

By Wendy Ross Kaplan a LuxEcoLiving Advocate and contributor You pack your 12-year old a lunch, go through the last minute parent-love/instruction exercise, hug, wave,...

By Alanna Brown, a LuxEcoLiving Advocate, creator of Brown House Online, and author of Moonpennies They're like the bullies on the playground. Those snot-nosed, mainstream-published...

When Jim and I took our vows on October 6th 1984 we had a beautiful wedding. The ceremony and reception were held at the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles California.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Why Your Health Matters Most Walk don't run while searching Google for the...

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...

By Trish Holder Courtesy of Greenspiration Home “We’re going to die,” I pronounced. We were in the third hour of our drive to Folly Beach, SC for...

By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant I recently moved into a new apartment, and with that came a massive scrub down of both old digs and new. My roommates and I spent hours cleaning the old place after moving everything out, but the products we used were hardly eco or health-friendly. When scrubbing the Comet-filled bathroom tub, the smell was so overwhelming that I nearly passed out. While cleaning bathrooms isn’t normally an enjoyable task, it doesn't have to be one that puts people’s health and safety at risk.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World New York, London, Paris, Milano A Models Portfolio Then and Now- Catherine Harle...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Backstage at The Flamingo Hotel Las Vegas Nevada She sings with...

Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, c. 1511, fresco, 480 cm~ 230 cm (189.0 in ~ 90.6 in) By Zhenya Gershman, artist, educator and LuxEco...

By Nancy Chuda founder of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World "There is a fountain of youth; it is your mind, your talents, the creativity...

By  Florence “Flip” Ross a LuxEcoLiving Contributor         I never thought I could disclose My deepest feelings, held inside To put them down in honest prose Would...

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.

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

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 Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant The old diet and exercise routine just doesn’t seem to be working anymore. You eat your fruits and veggies, avoid carbohydrates (well, you try to), and are physically active at least 3 times per week. Yet, when you step on the scale it won’t budge past your old plop-down-on-the-couch-with-a-bag-of-chips weight. What is it going to take to drop the next 10 to 15 pounds? Scientists have discovered that it’s not your diet or exercise routine to blame, it’s a little endocrine-disrupting chemical known as EDC’s or “obesogens” making it impossible to shed the extra fat.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World In a historic setting which rekindles Hollywoods Golden but now...

By Lorri Laird, Editorial Assistant Every day in the United States, millions of store transactions take place, and cashiers and clerks hand over receipts to their customers. What these clerks and cashiers may not know is that they may be exposing themselves and their customers to the dangerous toxin BPA (Bisphenol A) which has been linked to reproductive and behavioral abnormalities as well as certain cancers. While many consumers have become enlightened to the dangers of BPA in certain types of plastics, many may not be aware that some cash register receipts are coated with the substance.

LIB Festival: Celebrating over 10 years, Greenest Festival in America covers celebratory spectacles of art, music, fashion, and design.   Who: Presented by The Do...

The Taste of Yosemite offers more than just gourmet delights

Scientists with the National Institutes of Health are on a mission—being called the Human Microbiome Project—to find out what these microbes do exactly. Which ones are fighting for or against us, and how might they have the potential to counteract disease?

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World You don't want to miss the breakfast or the bed...