Lifestyle

By Stephanie Nickolson, Healthy Green Interior Designer and LuxEco Advocate Originally published at Natural Home & Garden Air pollution abounds in our homes and businesses, but many air purification systems are not safe to use. A Key to Healthy Green Design in your home starts with purifying indoor air quality with plants. Have you ever walked into a store, restaurant or other environment and couldn’t stand the heavily scented aroma that someone used to try and cover up another (worse) scent? Well, I have. It’s one of my favorite stores that I frequent and whenever I enter the washroom, I cannot wait to get out of there as the air is so heavily perfumed it makes me feel ill. This is not an effective remedy, nor is it healthy. Anything that exudes that much fragrance is certainly loaded with phthalates. Most commercial air fresheners mask odors but do nothing to remediate them.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEco Living and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Having just returned from Burgundy, France as...

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

As victims of busy schedules, we are easily seduced by the drive-thru lines of fast food traps that promise quick service for low cost and oftentimes, low-quality food. We’ve seen their brightly colored signs along freeways, tempting our growling stomachs, but why should we have to sacrifice quality and health in the interest of saving time and money? Many fast food chains have caught on and are modifying their business initiatives to promote healthier and more eco-friendly practices.

By Florence “Flip” Ross, LuxEco Advocate Since I was fortunate to have just celebrated my 88th birthday, I assume I am the oldest person writing for LuxEco Living. Therefore, allow me to tell you what life was like back in my day, and how we treated the environment. We didn't. We simply accepted things as they were, and I did not become aware of our world and how to keep it clean. It was just sufficient to live it.

By Alanna Brown, a LuxEcoLiving Advocate, creator of Brown House Online, and author of Moonpennies John Locke broke an independent publishing record in 2011. He...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World The Citizen Hotel in Sacramento is a dog friendly,...

When I was a little girl, I remember my mother saying to me, “Nighty, night, don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Fortunately for me, I had no idea what she was talking about, as I had never encountered a bed bug. But that may not be the case for millions of people the world over, as more and more bed bug infestations are currently being reported

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."

We got lucky! Six years ago we adopted the most "labradorable" puppy.

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant (originally published on eHow.com) In the month of April 2010, the United States spent $25.5 billion on electricity, using a total of 266.3 billion kilowatthours. While those numbers include retail sales to residential, industrial and commercial sectors, household owners have the power to drastically decrease electricity use overall by dropping the residential portion. Home dwellers have many options for reducing their monthly electric bill while simultaneously helping the environment.

By Nancy Chuda founder of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World In 1991, we lost our only child to a rare non-hereditary...

By Robyn O'Brien, Founder of Allergy Kids Foundation and LuxEco Advocate Now, I’m not sure where you stand on this whole food thing. But if you’re anything like me, you probably don’t want someone telling you what to eat. So when friends first started trying to educate me about terms like organic, local, natural and grass fed, I have to admit, I tuned out (and probably rolled my eyes). Because the reality is that food is never just food. Food is comfort. Food is family. It is security. It is politics. And it is loaded.

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.

By Kerin Van Hoosear, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of Seasonal Cooking with Kerin Did you know that most kids’ meals in restaurants have twice as many calories as the meal you’d serve them at home? Not only are the majority of these meals laden with saturated fat and salt, but some even reach a whopping 1,000 calories! Such a meal is high in calories for an adult, and for a child that’s just ridiculous.

By Hannah Canvasser LuxEco Editorial Assistant Vegetarians can receive the proper proteins and nutrients they need with many health benefits. The trick? Eating meat, occasionally. Obesity is a current main health topic because it is unfortunately a growing one. With obesity rates rising in America many studies have aimed their focus to find the root of the problem, narrowing in on eating trends in the United States. It was typical of my grandparent’s generation to sit down to red meat three times a day. Maybe some sausage and eggs for breakfast, a beef casserole for lunch, and meatloaf and french bread for dinner; sound a little excessive on the arteries? In 1971, Vegetarians and Vegans became popular with Frances Moore Lappé's publication of Diet for a Small Planet- revealing the waste build up behind grain-fed meat production, and arguing that a plant diet is best for one’s body and the earth. Though Lappe was one of the first to come out with valid arguments against grain-fed meat production, being a Vegetarian does have its set-backs, and receiving proper proteins and nutrients wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

    Green Lighting By Lush Huxley, Editorial Assistant LuxEco Living On a bright and sunny Wednesday in Los Angeles, I am sitting in a pleasant backyard under...

Silicone Valley start up, Bloom Energy, endeavors to make personal power plant boxes available for every household. Founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, inventor and...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Sophie Uliano is the guru of all things green that coincide with feeling and looking gorgeous. An advocate of eco-friendly living without the sacrifice of beauty and glamour, she is the New York Times best-selling author of “Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life,” “The Gorgeously Green Diet,” and “Do It Gorgeously: How to Make Less Toxic, Less Expensive, and More Beautiful Products.” Her breadth of knowledge is tremendous, ranging from non-toxic skin care, to gardening, to eco-friendly home restoration.

By Grace Robertson, LuxEco Advocate Keeping Austin Weird With…South Congress Trailers! Austin is a great place to live because of its’ fun people, great music, and uniqueness. Its’ motto is Keep Austin Weird, which is a perfect name for this individualistic place. In my opinion, walking in downtown Austin is a whole different experience from walking in any other city.

By Nicole Boreham, LuxEco Marketing Assistant There are many important questions deriving from the Sixties. What is the legacy of the Sixties? What has changed? What aspects of the Sixties are important to maintain and preserve for future generations? What has really changed? How can we learn from the mistakes of the past?

She's not a purist. She's a magician. Kit Kemp is one of the most talented designers in the world today.Step into any of her Firmdale properties in the UK or fly "over the pond" and land in the heart of Soho New York at the stellar Crosby and you are in for a life changing experience that takes luxury living and staycations to new heights.

By Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of the Resplendent Repurposing series I found a black leather unisex blazer from the Gap: $20.00 at Goodwill in Van Nuys. Someone recently told me he owns the identical blazer. He paid $300.00 for it. by Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant

By Zhenya Gershman, Artist, Educator and LuxEco Advocate 1. The true deadly sin is not to make art 2. The only taboo in art is bad art 3....

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Hotel Cheval celebrates the bold beauty and history of legendary 17th...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World For most people the diagnosis of cancer is a daunting...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World. It...

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.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World.   In Paris, fashion takes on new heights when it comes...

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...

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.

By Stephanie Nickolson a contributing LuxEcoLiving advocate and Interior Designer How To Create Your Own Residential Oasis   It wasn't that long ago that...

This article originally appeared in  The New York Times The ‘Busy’ Trap By TIM KREIDER If you live in America in the 21st century you've probably...

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate Lori Dennis’ desire to be part of the solution to waste and pollution in the interior design and construction fields led her to write “Green Interior Design” which came out last month. Along with beautiful images of her work, it is a manual of resources for anyone wishing to create green interiors.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World What's a hat got to do with it? The Kentucky...