BellaSugar

FABTV: Madonna "Cherish"

FabSugar — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:34:33 PDT

Madonna is a frequent visitor on FABTV but never has she been so upbeat than in this sing-a-long song. I love how Madonna manages to be sensual and not overtly sexual in her wet shirtdress and boy cut. While the mermen's glistening bodies are nice, my favorite bits are Madonna hamming it up for the camera. She looks like she's having so much fun rolling around in the waves and flirting with us. No surprise this black-and-white video was directed by Herb Ritts, who also directed my favorite Janet Jackson video. It's Summer Fabbies? Cherish the joy.

Matters-of-the-Heart Makeup

BellaSugar — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:59:15 PDT

Sometimes it's all about first impressions. Just like a name can make a guy more attractive, it can also add allure to your makeup. If cosmetics are considered art, then it's correct to think that they elicit emotion. For those of you who have been tagged by Cupid's arrow, here are three products you'll be sure to fall madly in love with.

La Bella Donna Mineral Light Lip Color in Beloved ($22) is a sweet and seductive high pigment natural looking pink lipstick that contains vitamin C and sun protection. It also keep lips smooth, supple and smooch-able.

For two more matters-of-the-heart makeup products,

MAC LIpstick in Cherish ($14) is a soft muted peachy-beige satin lipstick that feels super-creamy on your lips. It looks best with a neutral lip liner and dab of silvery gloss right in the center of your lower lip.

Clinique Colour Surge Eye Shadow Duo in Be Mine ($17.50) is an intense, yet lightweight eye shadow duo containing taupe and a light pink shade.

Michelle Obama's All-American Apple Cobbler

Anna Monette Roberts — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:15:36 PDT

Michelle Obama's first cookbook American Grown will be released on May 29, and we're cooking up some of Michelle's tried-and-true recipes like this apple cobbler, a favorite of President Obama.

The First Lady has a unique, slow method of preparing this cobbler. She marinates the apples in their spicy, sugary juices overnight, then slow cooks the cobbler at a low temperature to gradually break down the apples and crisp up the crust. The end result is absolutely heavenly: the cinnamon and nutmeg are perfectly balanced; the slow marination and long cook-time create a complex, caramel flavor; the apples dissolve upon bite, and the crust is as crispy as promised.

I used the lesser amount of sugar, and opted for a crisscross pattern on the top of the cobbler rather than covering the entire baking dish. Despite the 12 or more hours it requires to make this cobbler, it is a cherished, special occasion treat to be enjoyed during family gatherings or neighborhood barbecues.

Make the recipe here.

How Not to Destroy Your Marriage

The Good Men Project — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:30:42 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Today, Mark Tyrrell offers eight relationship tools to make your marriage work.

"All marriages are happy. It's the living together afterward that causes all the trouble." - Raymond Hull

So how do you make your marriage work? Or do you just blindly hope it'll take care of itself?

Think of a hot, successful date with someone you’re attracted to. You have fun, great conversation and more sexual chemistry than a warehouse full of pheromones. You don’t have to “work at” the date because it’s self sustaining. It runs as smoothly as the gliding hand of a classical guitar maestro and you can’t wait for another rendition.

Teenage Dating in a Twilight-Hunger Games World

But marriage, or any long term relationship; well that’s a whole other caboodle.

If we’re not careful, marriage can deteriorate into little more than a torturous assault course; littered with routine boredoms, frustrations and resentments. Couple all that with external pressures and sometimes marriage feels not worth the effort. But there are major benefits to being hitched or committed, other than just a beneficial tax regime.

Healthy marriage; healthy people.

Being happily married bestows heaps of health benefits. You might be forgiven for thinking that if you’re married you don’t live longer it just seems like it but, no, a good marriage really can help you clock up more years (1) and married people are happier (2) even though they don’t always look it from the outside.

But when marriage doesn’t work it can feel being manacled to a maniac, marooned with a misogynist or nailed to a nag. And I don’t care what the studies say, that’s not healthy. You may hear couples say stuff like: “We are making our marriage work!” but how do we do this?

Making it work.

We pay lip service to “working on the marriage” but what is the work we need to do? Marriage vows such as “to love and to cherish” and “forsaking all others, for better or for worse” don’t really tell us how to make it work, although they give us a clue.

Fortunately a ton of research has been done on what to do and not do to make your marriage, or any intimate relationship work. Follow the guidelines here to become “good at marriage."

Tip one: Be romantic but keep it real.

We are all (force?) fed romance in movies and novels. The handsome man gets the beautiful woman. But what I wonder is what happens after our romantic couple ride off into the sunset together? What do they do exactly? Bicker? Moan at one another? Start to ignore each other?

After all that romance, our beautiful couple is bound to have massive expectations of their life together. But when rose tinted expectations clash with day to reality, watch out!

Romance is vital in any relationship. Always seeing the best in your partner helps to keep things intimate and love should be expressed. But if you have been raised on Mills and Boon Romance novels or feel-good movies, then your own romantic expectations can work against the sustainability of your long term relationship.

When day to day life fails to live up to the giddy, heady lust-filled days of the pre-settled down romance people can become angry, even blame one another: “This wasn’t what I signed up for." They find it hard to take the rough with the smooth because they never really figured there would be any rough.

Expectations not diluted with at least a dash of realism can be a royal road to relationship ruin. Your partner may be an angel, but they have feet of clay. You must learn to love those feet or at least accept them a bit!

Get the rest after the jump!

Danny Seo Celebrates Earth Day With a One Kings Lane Tastemaker Sale to Benefit Charity

Guest Writer — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:00:00 PDT

We're excited to present a post from guest writer, eco lifestyle expert, and all-around awesome guy Danny Seo.

Late last year, I had the privilege to sit down with one of the co-founders of One Kings Lane, Ali Pincus, and talk about our favorite places to shop, how I'm addicted to the home shopping site, and to talk about ways I could get involved with One Kings Lane. We came up with the idea for me to do a TasteMaker tag sale where I could collect some of my favorite vintage and antique items from my home and put them up for sale on the site. I agreed under one condition: if we could donate the proceeds to my favorite charity, Baby Buggy.

Baby Buggy, in case you aren't familiar, is the wonderful nonprofit founded by Jessica Seinfeld that has the motto "Love, Recycled." It's so appropriate because they accept lightly used baby gear, clothes, and new baby and children essentials to help families in the greatest need. They are a clearinghouse of sorts that works with a network of nonprofits who call Baby Buggy with a wish list of goods they desperately need. And like a fairy godmother, Baby Buggy always comes to the rescue. With the proceeds from this sale, Baby Buggy will be able to buy the most needed essentials to help families in need. In the spirit of Earth Day, selling vintage and antique items is green for Mother Earth since it's reusing what already exists; the sale proceeds will coincidentally help many mothers here on Earth.

In this special CasaSugar post, I'm excited to give you a sneak peek at three items for sale and the unique story behind them. I've traveled the world for work and always found time to visit out-of-the-way antique stores, flea markets, and galleries to search for beautiful things. I hope whoever buys these goodies will cherish them as much as I have over the years.

Indian ArrowHead Collection When I was filming my TV show "Simply Green with Danny Seo" (all episodes on Hulu now), I made a point to visit a small antique store in the sleepy town of Point Pleasent, PN. Down an alley and past a blacksmith shop (of all things!), I found a little antiques store that was going out of business. Rummaging through box after box, I came across a collection of mounted arrowheads, all hand mounted on colorful felt with a hand pounded metal backing in glossy black frames. What I loved about these pieces is that clearly someone had scavenged the woods of Pennsylvania for each arrowhead, cleaned them, and displayed them in a very beautiful and interesting pattern. I also love the pop of color in the background.

Keep reading to learn about two more special items from the sale

The Hunger Games: A Satisfying Adaptation and a Stunning Movie

Shannon Vestal — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:20:28 PDT

If you've been holding your breath about The Hunger Games, it's time to let it out, because the movie fulfills any and all hopes you could have. Not only is the adaptation loyal to its cherished source material, as a film, it's simply incredible.

Based on Suzanne Collins's novel, The Hunger Games portrays a dystopian future in which what's presumed to be North America has been broken up into 12 districts surrounding an ultra-rich, powerful Capitol. To remind the districts of their subordination, the Capitol holds an annual event in which one teen girl and boy (known as tributes) from each district are forced to fight to the death (until only one remains) as a televised show. At the center of all this is Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a 16-year-old from one of the poorest districts, who volunteers to participate in the place of her younger sister, Prim. The movie follows Katniss from her hardscrabble life at home with her family and best friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) to the flamboyant excess of the Capitol and into the action-packed arena as she does everything she can to survive. The story is already well-known to legions of readers, and director Gary Ross brings Collins's novel to life as a visual treat, with an emotional punch as strong as the film's heroine.

To find out why I thought The Hunger Games is so fantastic, just keep reading.

Your Prepregnancy Bucket List

LilSugar — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:27:40 PDT

If you're starting to think about getting pregnant, you've probably heard plenty of advice on all of the things you should be doing: getting your finances in order, taking prenatal vitamins, learning your company's maternity leave policy . . . but what about the fun stuff? The trips you want to take, and the splurges you want to make? We've come up with the ultimate bucket list of all the purely selfish, indulgent things that you should enjoy before you become pregnant, because oh baby, is your life about to change!

The Trip of a Lifetime If there's a vacation destination that you and your significant other have always talked about traveling to, but deemed too expensive, far away, or impractical, now's a great time to splurge and go for it.
Adventures Always dreamed of skydiving, mountain climbing, or taking flying lessons? Take the plunge! Once women become mothers, their mindsets are apt to change, and a sense of responsibility often outweighs that of adventure.
Get in Your Girl Time While being a mom doesn't mean that you'll have to cut ties with your girlfriends, it sometimes does make fitting in plans (especially evening plans) a lot more challenging. Take advantage of this time, and enjoy going out with your girlfriends. Stay out an hour later than you'd planned, have another glass of wine, and enjoy their company.
Culture Vulture If you count leisurely afternoons perusing art galleries or scoring tickets to the hottest show in town as favorite pastimes, soak it up now (and continue to do so once you get pregnant!) Once "me time" means having to hire a babysitter, you may find yourself hesitant to devote three hours of your day to checking out an exhibition or show.
Spread Out Depending on where you live, your soon-to-be nursery space may be the only cherished "free space" in the house or apartment. If you're currently using it as a guest room, take advantage and invite out-of-town friends and family to come spend a weekend before that queen-size bed is replaced by a crib!
Indulge in Something You Deserve Whether it's a spa day, a pair of shoes, or a completely superfluous kitchen gadget, go for it now. Babies need lots of stuff . . . tons of it, in fact. And then there's college savings to start planning for. This may be your last time to spend on yourself without feeling guilty, so treat yourself - just this one time. We promise we won't tell!
Encourage Your Husband to be a Little Selfish as Well If you're thinking about a baby, you're probably not in this alone. The hypothetical little person that you can't stop thinking about is going to have a huge impact on both of you. So encourage your husband or partner to buy the new TV, join that basketball league he keeps talking about, or take a golfing trip with his buddies now.
Sleep Late It may not sound like a tremendous indulgence, but once you have a lil one to worry about, even the best laid plans for a great night's sleep are going to be put to rest. So if your weekend schedule allows it, go ahead, be lazy and love it.

Elizabeth Berkley Is Pregnant! Test Your Saved by the Bell Star Parent IQ

LilSugar — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:57:56 PST

Congrats to Elizabeth Berkley, the latest star of the cast of Saved by the Bell to enter into parenthood! Berkley announced her pregnancy yesterday via Twitter: "In life there are moments you cherish forever and this is one of them. Greg and I are so excited to be expecting our 1st child this summer." Dad is artist Greg Lauren, who Berkley wed in 2003.

In honor of Berkley's big news, we invite you to test your knowledge of other former Saved by the Bell star parents. And if you can't get enough '80s and '90s TV trivia, see how you rank when it comes to the babies of Beverly Hills, 90210.

Sources: Amazon.com/Getty

Take the Quiz

Glee-ful Highlights From Episode "Heart"

Lizzie Fuhr — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:38:32 PST

It's Valentine's Day at McKinley, and everyone gets in on the action in this week's episode of Glee. For the lesson, Mr. Schuester wants everyone to choose a great love song to perform, which means a lot of the action takes place in the relationship department. Finn and Rachel try to get everyone excited about their upcoming nuptials; Brittany and Santana deal with scrutiny of the nature of their relationship, and Mercedes and Sam may love each other, but they just can't seem to get it together.

At first, I was pretty excited that "Heart" was going to be an episode full of musical numbers, but it feels a little plot driven for my taste. Regardless, there's a lot happened this week, so get in on all details after the jump.

6 Ways To Be Your Own Best Valentine

YourTango — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:00:17 PST

We're happy to present this excerpt from one of our favorite sites, YourTango.

Once again, February 14th is right around the corner. And this year, for whatever reason, you don't have a Valentine to call your own. You may be single or separated, divorced or widowed. Unfortunately, so many of us who find ourselves in this situation fall into feelings of deep inadequacy and despair. We tell ourselves: "I'm not good enough; something's wrong with me; I'll never find someone." The reasons why we're "alone" don't matter. What matters is learning how to address these feelings so that you embrace Valentine's Day 2012, feeling the fullness of love rather than the black hole of emptiness and lack.

Here are six proven ways for you to be your own best Valentine this year:

Avoid the black hole! You may be tempted to judge or blame yourself because you are alone. Don't do it! Say to yourself, as often as necessary, what your deepest wisdom knows to be true: "I am lovable and connected to everyone, forever." You don't have to believe it for this to work! Cherish the daily miracles that might easily be missed - the smile of a stranger, the movement of a child, a lovely connection with a service person.
Buy yourself the most beautiful Valentine's Day Card several days before the "big day." Then spend some time writing a heartfelt note to yourself and literally mail it to your own address. When the card arrives in your mailbox, enjoy opening it and reading it on Valentine's Day. Inhale your message, feeling its beauty in your heart. Then let that radiate to your whole body.

Get the other ideas when you finish reading the rest of the story on YourTango: 6 Ways To Be Your Own Best Valentine

Written by Dr. Lynda Klau for YourTango.