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The Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows gets 5 Paws! Excellent location, fabulous service and extra treats for Journey.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief  of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World "You step into the main greeting room and you know...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant The powers-that-be have refused the natural solutions being publicly offered by nation-wide volunteers for cleanup of the BP oil disaster. Instead, they have chosen to dump chemical dispersants on the spill site; namely, Corexit. Talk about adding insult to injury. With several urgent prompts being made by eco-concerned citizens, it seems BP’s decided approach—for now, anyway—is to further pollute the already distressed Gulf.

“Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore.” These are the first two phrases that Tosca sings in her famous Act 2 aria, “Vissi d’arte.” The English translation means, “I lived for art, I lived for love.” Puccini’s Tosca was one of Maria Callas’ most infamous operatic roles and the prime example of life imitating art. Callas’ life ended on September 16, 1977 in a Paris apartment. It is said that she died of a broken heart as did opera singer Floria Tosca at the end of the opera. Callas had an extra special gift which was reflected in the art form of opera. Transforming passion through music for the world to hear was what she sacrificed her life for.

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 of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Solvang California, Bacon and Brine Chef Pink and Courtney Rae are...

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.

By: Francine LeFrak, Founder of Same Sky, a company that handcrafts glass bead bracelets made in Rwanda and LuxEco Advocate My dream is for the empowerment of women and eradication of poverty. In 1994, 1 million people were murdered in 100 days in Rwanda. I spent eight and a half years trying to produce a film about this massacre-- I wanted to tell the story of this genocide. Ultimately, the film never got produced. I was still left with the passion to shed light on this important story. By that time, my focus had also turned to the empowerment of women and girls. It was with the mission of helping the women in Africa that Same Sky was born.

It's a safe bet to say that there aren't too many people in the world who haven't experienced the warm soothing smell of cinnamon as it slowly bakes into your grandmother's extra syrupy sweet potatoes, or as it blends with the apples and buttery crust from your mom's apple pie. What most of us, particularly in the Western World, fail to realize is that we are victims of a very cruel irony.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World. The New Hotel Roblin is the Paris Perfect Seated in the...

By Nancy and James Chuda founder of LuxEcoLiving and co-founders of Healthy Child Healthy World The Best Cheese in the World Series LuxEcoLiving caught these cheese...

In Tom Shadyac's Film "I Am," he poses a solution to a battered world: Compassion- It will right whats wrong with the world. By Nancy Chuda c0-founder and Editor-in-Chief LuxEco Living and Healthy Child Healthy World As a society we are not immune to disasters-- not in the face of mother nature who rules. Man does not have dominion over nature. But what man instinctively has is the desire to help those in need. Having compassion is the only way we will survive through disaster and hardship.

Author of Family Dinner and Producer of Inconvenient Truth, Laurie David shares her concern about antibiotics in food production and what that means for the overall health concerns. By Laurie David, Author, Producer and LuxEco Advocate Originally posted on Huffington Post I worry. A lot. My worry gene works overtime. A doctor once told me it's called an "overactive checker" (or as I like to think of it, my OC). As far as afflictions go, it's not terrible. OC's are good to have around. They see danger from miles away. They pay close attention. Motherhood can be particularly tough on OC's. We know too well that there's no such thing as "out of sight out of mind." But over the years I have come to terms with my checker, and now consider it a trusted friend. It was my checker that helped me raise my kids with a minimum of cuts and scratches, rear three dogs from eight-week-old puppies, and eventually opened my eyes to the looming dangers of global warming. It's the same trusted checker that is screaming, "Wake up! Wake up!" on the issue of antibiotic resistance.

"The sound of water is so   relaxing," says Peter Logan of Peter Logan Designs in Tujunga California.  "And the water garden is a...

By Elizabeth Grossman, Author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden...

Washington's Fiscal Policy This Year Takes Aim At the EPA By Slashing a Great Deal of Support By Derin Richardson, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant President Obama signed, sealed and delivered the new 2011 fiscal budget last Friday--the result of a less than stellar and certainly bitter congressional compromise that hinders environmental efforts even more so than previous years.

By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Designers and scientists have been working on different approaches to transportation issues as they become a greater concern with the ever-growing population. China has begun to address their own issues of overcrowding and transportation with their new concept busses that will drive above cars. Imagine driving through a tunnel that is moving above you!

By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant First up on our journey through Lotusland is the Lotus Garden: a center for spirituality. Lotus flowers are significant to many eastern cultures, such as the Buddhist and Hindu religions. This beautiful flower emerges from the murky depths of mud and contrasts the dark water with its vibrant petals.

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 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.

I'm not going to drop into the expected female rhetoric as to why Hillary...I will leave that to Gloria Steinem and all of her predecessors who paved the way for this act of liberation at a time when our world needs to heal more than ever.

By Jessica Borges, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant The start of a new year beings motivation to do bigger and better things than the previous year. If improving fitness is one of your resolutions, why not hit a gym that not only helps you shed pounds but also helps the environment? Green gyms and fitness centers are proliferating as we become more conscious of how the health of the planet relates to their own health.

By Bernadette Bowman, Comedienne and LuxEco Advocate who writes the LIFE GOES RETROGRADE series. UGH. It’s PMS Week.  I cannot tell a lie. I have the...

By Nancy Chuda Founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEco Living and Healthy Child Healthy World President Obama's State of the Union address did not include what I consider the essential principles for living a vibrant and healthy life... Nine objectives for sustainable living which nurture and foster human happiness, more importantly, make time to enjoy life. 1. psychological well-being 2. physical health 3. time or work-life balance 4. social connection and community vitality 5. education 6. access to arts, culture and recreation 7. environmental quality and access to nature 8. good governance 9. material well-being

By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Join LuxEco Living as we explore the wonder and magic of Lotusland in Santa Barbara California. In today’s episode...

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 LuxEco Living and Healthy Child Healthy World Enter Wael Ghonim, a charismatic young Google executive who helped launch the protests in Tahrir Square. His heroism validates what a real social network can do. Sorkin and Facebook aside, certainly not as newsworthy, will win the Oscar for best Original Screenplay not because of a few Harvard grads, but Google. The Umpire of all networks which will always win... it just makes adsense! Life imitates with purpose as the world watches Wael's Facebook page, as he herds the hordes of young brave Egyptians as they face off in the streets urging President Hosni Mubarak to step down. The cacophony of people, police, military, women, men and press from around the globe could not visually hold the power or the purpose that the Internet is providing.

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 Lush Huxley, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant Move over Al Gore and make room for the ladies. The Western world isn’t the only hemisphere freaking out...

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 Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Venice Italy To step into her shoes is like following...

How to navigate high fructose corn syrup and sugar substitutes to avoid harmful artificial sweeteners in favor of plant based alternatives. By: Molly Cimikoski, Editorial Assistant What if products that contain high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, which are marketed to assist in living a healthier lifestyle, are actually the ones making us sick? As of 2007, American consumers were spending 21 billion dollars 21 billion dollars annually on diet, or low calorie, drinks. From the outsider perspective, this still seems like progress compared to the alternative statistic, with 64% of Americans qualifying as overweight or obese. But what if you found out that the sugar alternatives that many diet products promote are not only ineffective as weight loss methods, but are also dangerous to your health?

By Bethany Colson, Managing Editor of LuxEcoLiving.com I have often heard from environmentalists and natural health experts that you can chart the introduction of chemicals (particularly petrochemicals) to our society and see the graph begin to sharply incline after WWII and reach epic proportions from the 1980's. Likewise, you could chart the increase in cancers, diabetes, obesity, autism, heart disease and asthma and see the same stratospheric rise. In fact, you could put the two charts on top of each and see the obvious correlation.

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 Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in Chief LuxEcoLiving and co-founder Healthy Child Healthy World Queribus Castle and the Cru overlooking Maury France If you had to...