Blog Posts by The Succulent Wife

Designer LinersPicture your beautiful bathroom that you have just lovingly freshened up with some new towels, bath mat and cute accessories. Then you take one look a your new waste basket and it's draped with the ugly, ill-fitting shopping bag with handles. Ok, so you get points for re-using but still, it's not a pretty sight and the whole ambiance has just taken a nose dive. This is exactly what Muriel Wiener thought when she came up with the idea for Designerliners that will 'dress the mess!'

These decorative, disposable, reusable and biodegradable liners can be used in any of your home or office waste baskets and will prevent the ugly-shopping-bag-trash-liner eyesore and instead create a colorful accent in your room. Choose from the ten color and patterns that they offer; from pink polka dots to black leopard or, if you do not see one that will work with your unique style, they would be happy to help create with you your own design!

Designerliners not only will put a satisfying smile on

Lost and unclaimed luggage? Someone mistakenly walking away with my suitcase at the carousel? That's just not in our plans this summer. There is nothing like a lost bag (invariably, the one containing all the essentials) to ruin a vacation. So, as I was preparing our family for our summer getaway,

National Smores DayAugust 10 is National S'Mores Day. Thankfully, this "holiday" is an easy one to digest (pun intended in every way, because really, the last thing I need is another holiday to plan for).

Why celebrate S'mores? Tradition and pure yumminess. If there is anything that instantly elicits the thought of a summer camping vacation is has to be S'Mores. It's an American campfire tradition that dates back to the 1920's and it is rumored to have been started by the Girl Scouts. In it's most basic format the S'mores consist of two pieces of graham crackers which sandwich a layer of chocolate and a fire-roasted, melt-y marshmallow.

Want to also pay homage to this traditional summer treat and not just today, but for the remainder of the summer? Here are some ideas:

Hershey Classic Smores

The Classic S'mores - Delicious in its most basic format: boxed graham crackers, store-bought marshmallows and forever classic Hershey chocolate! We've just returned from the 2011 BlogHer Conference

As we traveled cross country on our 2600 miles, 10-day family road trip to Ontario, Canada we found our smart phones indispensable in making our trip a little smoother. With the assistance of GPS capability, a map app, the RoadAhead app and Yelp applications, we were able to enhance the overall organization and quality of our time on the road mostly by avoiding the formerly common incidents of not being able to find a restaurant, gas station, rest stop or lodging when we needed it.

I have found RoadAhead to be an oh-so-smart road travel tool. The GPS enabled app is set up to determine your location and tell you exactly what is to be expected at upcoming exits off major freeways and highways in the United States, in such detail as to tell you how far off the freeway the business is (such as gas station or restaurant) and it can even compare gas prices at gas stations at other exits. Plus it shows the location of rest stops and picnic areas (to let the dogs out too!).

RoadAhead Road Travel App

As

Pantone 175 New ColorsThough I love color (and color on top of color), I had never given much thought to how colors are created. I guess it's something that I always took for granted… That colors just… were.

Turns out that new colors need to be created to match current consumer trends and moods. It's a real science and the authority is, bien sûr, PANTONE.

I thought that you would enjoy this video that quickly walks us through the PANTONE process of researching, adjusting and testing the development of new colors.

Who knew? Well, I certainly feel smarter now.

And, designers and artistes, you will want to check out the PANTONE website for resources, tools and apps for fashion and home color planning.

Color is just plain cool.

We have gave GoPicnic ready-to-eat meals a mention in our Concert in the Park story but felt that this great product deserved to be featured on its own. Created by a flight attendant Julia Stamberger in 2006, GoPicnic meals were first offered on major U.S. airlines as an alternative to the costly but poor quality in-flight meals (you know the kind. Ewww.). The GoPicnic solution? Healthy, ready-to-eat boxed meals - that are no bigger than a hard cover book - that also reduced waste and required zero prep time, thus increasing flight attendant efficiency and improving the overall customer satisfaction. Yeah.

The meals are now available to the public. Woot. I bought a variety of them to take on our road trip. They were perfect because GoPicnic Mealsthey require no refrigeration, no heating or preparation and were compact. Plus, they are nutritional and each meal is well balanced in protein, carbs and fruits and vegetables, with a little healthy sweet treat in each. All are under 400 calories. The

Ispo BrandNew AwardsWe have been exploring lots of websites, products and companies in our quest to bring you the latest and the coolest ideas for Father's Day. It's during this exploration that that we can across this organization, the ISPO BrandNew Awards.

As Succulent Wives, sports paraphernalia is not often on our radar, but we love everything about the concept for the Ipso BrandNew Awards. Reminiscent of the Kickstarter crowdfunding program (which we wrote about here), the Ipso BrandNew Awards also encourages inventors and entrepreneurs to submit their creative concepts. Except that in this case, the awards focus on sporting-goods industry entrepreneurs by giving them an opportunity to introduce themselves on a very visible scale to a potentially global market.

The awards are in their 10th year and, every year the best contestants are selected by an international expert jury which looks at each applicant's product for "best in" innovation, design, brand features, market potential, and

My husband does not, will not and down right hates to shop. I have spent many wasted hours shopping for him, having to return most of what I had bought. I kept telling myself that, from now on, I would not buy him clothes anymore, but it did not make sense. After all, I was at the store anyway, for either myself or one of our children, I might as well look for him also. Since he would never do it on his own… He'd still wear his early 90′s garb if it was just up to him.

Then I discovered TRUNK CLUB MEN'S OUTFITTERS.

Trunk ClubFinally a shopping site designed by a man with a man's needs in mind. TRUNK CLUB MEN'S OUTFITTERS, based in Chicago, is perfect for the man to wardrobe himself with very little effort on his part. Once the customer registers by answering a short questionnaire on sizes, colors, price range and look preference, a stylist will contact him, either by phone, Skype or email, to personalize the shopping experience. The stylist - who basically takes on the role of a wife