This is your place to connect with other members, discover new bloggers, and chat about what's on your mind. Join the conversation on any of our must-read user posts, offer your best recipe to our Shine Supper Club, or submit your challenge to our Style Editor Joanna Douglas for "Find it Fridays".

The Shine Community is always online and here for support. Post your thoughts in the comment box below or ask for advice in a blog post. We'll gather the most popular questions on this page so you can return and continue the conversation.

Click the pink "My Shine" tab to get started or see our Help page for step-by-step instructions here. You can also email Brenda @ Shine_CommunityManager if you're having difficulties getting started.

It's great to have you here!

What's on your mind today?

Welcome to the Shine Community!

Read More »from Welcome to Our Community!

Shine has been upgraded with a sleek new look, more categories, and lots of fun new modules like our new Pets Channel, Work + Money, Shine At Home and the new My Shine tab. But here's the best part -- our new blogging platform is now powered by Yahoo! Contributor Network.

Here's what these improvements and changes mean to you:

- Blogging templates with updated designs and a cleaner interface

- Separate slideshow templates and an image gallery you can use to store your favorite pictures for later use.

- Updated blog menus for previewing, editing, and deleting your blog posts, with filtering and data exporting capabilities.

 

You'll be able to create original Shine blog posts just as before and enjoy all these new features once you  activate your Yahoo! Contributor Network account. Other advantages of your new account: You can create content for many different Yahoo! websites (like Yahoo! News, Sports, and Finance), all of which will appear on your contributor profile page. You

Read More »from Meet the New Shine!

ReutersThe 2008 Presidential election is finally over, and the country has spoken. Barack Obama is now the 44th President of the United States.

And no matter who you voted for today, you must admit -- it's truly been a historic run for the White House. We saw the first African-American nominee and first serious female candidate. We saw one of the longest and hardest-fought primary seasons ever. And when we lost our female candidate, we later gained a female VP candidate in Sarah Palin. Then we recently saw a massive financial meltdown, which changed the campaign completely. And, finally, now here we are today with the most historic moment of all.

So, now the healing of the nation begins. This has been one of the most divisive elections, in that our now President-elect was accused of being a Muslim, a Communist, a Socialist, and a terrorist (none of which are true, and McCain will even admit that). In light of all this, I can't help but be inspired by Obama's words tonight: "And to those

Read More »from History is made: America's 44th President, Barack Obama

Photo Credit: Getty ImagesElection Day is Tuesday, November 4th. Are you ready to vote?

At Shine, we've been talking about the many dramatic, inspiring, humorous and flat-out entertaining campaign efforts.

But most importantly, we want to make sure that your voices are heard. And that every single vote counts.

Scroll through our checklist to ensure that you're in prime voting form before you head to the polls on Tuesday.

• Are you registered to vote? If you're not registered to vote, you're in a pickle. Only a handful of states allow you to register at the polls on voting day. To find out if you are registered to vote, contact your county elections office. Stat.

• Have you turned in your absentee ballot? Every state has different deadlines for the submission of absentee ballots. If you haven't mailed your absentee ballot yet, your safest bet is to hand delivering your vote. The League of Women Voters is a fantastic resource and has a tool that will let your check the absentee voting instructions

Read More »from Election 2008: Get ready to vote!

Getty ImagesWe've had a string of stunning blue-sky, perfect September days here in the New York area, and today is no exception. It is the kind of day that makes seven years disappear in an instant, and a morning that looks so happy is suddenly achingly sad. We remember, all too clearly, that fateful, terrible blue-sky morning. As we should.

I live in a town where 17 dads and moms who rode the train to work in the morning didn't return home. Many others lost family members. They all have rebuilt their lives with grace and the support of family and friends, but it's so important to stop and remember what they have gone through to get to today. Just as we need to remember the people they loved who died on the morning of September 11, 2001.

My kids were little seven years ago, and somehow their amazing teachers shielded them from the horror all day. My first-grade son at the time had no idea his cherished first-grade teacher was worried sick about her husband. (He was okay). I remember telling

Read More »from Remembering 9/11

Associated PressTonight, Governor Sarah Palin accepted the Republican nomination for Vice President, and for the last two days, Shine readers chimed in about this historic nominee. We were so impressed with the responses to yesterday's story about Palin that we highlighted your comments and blog posts. Here are some highlights.








The double standard
First off, the most popular opinion shared by most Shine readers by far was, if Palin were a man, she'd be measured very much by a different standard. Reader honey_lovebug commented: "Has it been asked of Obama if he can raise a family while in office? Why should it be asked of her?" And Boss# writes: "I'll say it again, what about the father's place in the family? Why is it just the mom [who] is so important?....How 'bout holding men accountable for their involvement with their families? I think that's just as important if not more so."

And a lot of you were actually outraged by our posts, saying that our questions were downright insulting to women, like

Read More »from Now it’s your turn: Shine readers’ thoughts on Sarah Palin

http://gov.state.ak.usSo, it's official: John McCain announced on Friday that he's picked a woman as his running mate, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. And while most of us here at Shine are normally thrilled to see a strong-willed, principled woman rise to such great heights in the halls of power, we're still all sorting through why it is we just feel so conflicted if not sometimes a little disappointed in this woman.

We're not talking about Palin's politics; we're talking about her as a metaphor. She's the latest example of just how complicated it is being a modern woman. She's a total briar patch of strengths, weaknesses, triumphs, and outrage. That's why we here on Shine have been busy blogging about all those things that impress us, infuriate us, makes us envious, and confuse us completely.

Sarah Palin is a self-proclaimed feminist role model. The way she sees it, she proves that any woman can work a high-powered job and ascend through the ranks, all while having as many children as you want and being a

Read More »from Why we’re perplexed by Sarah Palin

New Line / HBOIt's finally here! The much-anticipated "Sex and the City: The Movie" comes out this weekend, and many of us 'Sex' addicts will be shaking up some cosmos with our best gal pals ahead of a night at the movies to celebrate.

We, the editors here at Shine, have been having our own virtual cosmo party here on the site by blogging about the last 10 fabulous years with Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha. That's right; it was June 1998 when the first episode aired on HBO, and my how the world is different now thanks to them. For one, the pretty-in-pink cosmopolitan cocktail is now a favorite of ladies nationwide. And how many of you would have coveted Jimmy Choos or Manolos before Carrie sported them? Also, would we have even blinked 10 years ago if someone was talking about going to bed with their "rabbit?"

So many great moments to cherish, and we've done our best here to sum them up. Hope you enjoy our little trip down SATC memory lane.

Jennifer Romolini starts us off with her

Read More »from 10 Years of 'Sex:' How "Sex and the City" changed our lives