Blog Posts by Leslie H, The Robin Studio

Joanna Douglas' articles sure create talk in the Shine community.

As a reader and blog writer on this very unique site, I've spent a lot of time reading the articles and the comments they generate. I've also read the objective written by the Shine staff. I like that there is a forum like this that encompasses so many areas that are of interest to women. The success of this site so far is that they haven't limited what they write about: Politics, family, health, fashion, sex. All these and more make up women's interests and it's refreshing to see what's new on the site every day.

I've read Joanna's articles and a lot of the comments generated by them. Although she's gotten complaints (where I haven't seen other Shine staff get) the point is that people read her articles. She is by no means my favorite and she writes about things that just aren't important to ME, the fact of her popularity is evident. If she is generating discussion, she's doing her job.

Her latest article on the

Something strange and unexpected just happened to me today.

I was tooling around my favorite sites online and stopped on a food page. I'm a confirmed Foodie. To those of you who don't know that term, it means I love food, love to cook, love to try new recipes, love to watch cooking shows… love to cook. You get the idea. Wandering through the kitchen section in a department store can take hours! A casserole dish can make my mouth water. And that's when it's empty! When my Mastering the Art of French Cooking finally came in the mail, I carried it around the house like a newborn. (Go ahead and laugh, I did look funny!)

Anytime I get a new cookbook, I get excited and read every line, even if I probably won't make the dish. My Barefoot Contessa cookbooks have sticky notes that have faded so much I can't read them, but I know what they're marking because I keep returning to those recipes. I may not need to have the details anymore, but I like opening the book. It signals the

My friend Jeanne is buying tubs.

Plastic tubs. Come the spring she will be moving from New York to Colorado where her family lives. The buying of tubs is the classic first step in the "packing it all up" process. I've moved a lot in my life. Unfortunately, because moving sucks. The whole process is time-consuming, can be stressful and always takes more work than you thought.

In this instance there's an extra element that will make this move significant. She will be leaving behind the life she created with her partner of 10 years, who died last May. This move will force her to confront a lot of things she's been able to leave on the back burner for a while. And she won't be the only one. Her partner was my best friend. Confrontation will be forced on me as well.

The house they lived in is across the street from my house. When I moved back into Albany from the back-of beyond, they graciously let me live with them for over a year. And I wasn't the first wayward traveler they

The holidays are over, but the cold winter days are still here. January and February can be the coldest (and sometimes the snowiest!) months of the season. Most of us love to see snow during the holidays. It reminds us of the season when we get distracted by the daily grind and makes us think of the days when we were young and the words "Snow Day" meant no school and hours to play outside.

But after the presents have been opened and we return to our regular work weeks, the snow and the cold lose their appeal and become a commuting nuisance and a wardrobe challenge! (How does one make 17 layers look sexy or even feminine?)

Unless you're a real winter sports fan, which sadly I'm not so much anymore, winter forces us to be inside most of the time. I find myself getting very frustrated and fidgety with my house. I see projects in every corner of every room that need attention. I think humans are a lot like any animal that has to make it through cold weather; we get pack-rat

Here we go, you're saying, another list of yet more things you should be doing. As if you don't have a list a mile long already. Or multiple lists, even! I know mine is several years' worth of accumulated wishes and desires. I don't know who came up with this concept of resolutions to begin with and why the new year must be the harbinger. There have been a few years when I turned my cheek to the call from all quarters that the New Year meant.
You know: "Hello? Get Going!!!" Some years just came in like another day on the calendar. That was good enough then… and sometimes, quite an accomplishment in itself. But that's another story altogether.

This year, however, I seem to have had a change of view. I think the dawning of a new decade, and the end of a very, very tough year, deserves a bit more recognition. So I decided to think of a few resolutions that would be fitting for me, and make a good beginning to 2010. What I came up with has a positive spin that I hope bodes well

It's the Holiday season again and I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but the same thing seems to happen to me every year. From about mid-September all the way up to Christmas Eve, I have numerous conversations in my head. I tell myself that this year I'll be on top of it! This year I will be prepared and start early. This year I will not wait until the last minute. This year I will know exactly what I'm getting everyone and will get it and mail it early. THIS will be the year. So you can imagine what I'm doing to myself: creating stress, worry, anxiety, self-doubt, unreasonable expectations, oh my god the list goes on! And it's ME doing it! Well, me and the non-stop-commercial-overload-retail-push-gotta-get-this-year's-hot-"it"-item-----you know what I'm saying. Every year I remember the last year's failures and disappointments. I remember last year's mistakes and vow to learn from them. And every year I don't.

The thing is: I do