How You Look and Feel

In the categories of fashion and health and beauty, I’ve covered hot topics such as whether or not to preserve your child’s cord blood, in-demand subjects such as alternatives to cosmetic surgery, and tough questions like how to place your loved one in senior care. Pieces have been featured on iVillage, SheKnows, SeniorsForLiving, and Disney’s Family.com.

Hair

How to Talk to Your Colorist

How to Tame Unruly Curls

Color for Curly Hair

Skin and Makeup

Winter Skin Care for Kids

Winterize Your Skin from Head to Toe

Acne at 40?

How to Manage Skin Problems During Pregnancy

Hollywood “It” Girls Due for Make-Unders

How to Get Your Feet Sandal-Ready

5 Tips for an Ouchless Wax

How to Select the Right Eyeshadow

Cosmetic Surgery and Body Issues

Get a New Face on Your Lunch Break

8 Ways to Boost Your Energy

10 Tips for Maintaining Weight Loss During the Holidays

Frown Turned Upside-Down: One Woman’s Adventure in Plastic Surgery

Mommy Makeover: Top 4 Cosmetic Procedures for Moms

Fashion

How to Shop Secondhand for the Holidays

Fall Maternity Fashion

You Know You’re a Fashion Nightmare When…

Who Says You Have to Match?

Discount Shopping Made Easy (PDF)

Bridal

Zen Bride: How One Bride-to-Be is Keeping Her Sanity

The Helpful Groom

Wedding Blues: Discover Something New & Blue for the Big Day

Pregnancy and Parenting

The Great Cord Blood Debate

Baby Brain? Think Again

Is Parental Stress a Cause of Autism in Children?

Medications During Pregnancy (PDF)

VBAC – Is Vaginal Birth Possible After a C-Section? (PDF)

Postpartum Depression: Gena Lee Nolin Shares Her Experience (PDF)

11 Ways to Beat New-Mom Fatigue

Food for Mom: The Dos and Don’ts While Breastfeeding

Sex

How to Keep Sex Exciting When Trying to Conceive

Do’s and Don’ts of Postpartum Sex (PDF)

Discussing Sex and Birth Control with Your Teen

Senior Care

Alzheimer’s Care: Options and Choices

Home Care: When Extra Help is Needed

Strategies for Making a Decision You’re Comfortable With

Do Dentists Blog? You Bet Your Teeth They Do

Let’s face it – Web 2.0 is where it’s at these days and if you don’t play the game you can lose out on serious online traffic. So this savvy cosmetic dentistry practice decided that they needed a blog to enhance their presence in cyberspace.

I write a handful of blog posts for them every month that they can publish at their leisure and voila! Regular content, fat and happy search engines, and more business for some smiling dentists. Here are a handful of posts written for this cosmetic dentistry blog.

Any business can implement a blog and make it work. Don’t want to write blog posts yourself? You know where to find me.

Fertility-Friendly Feng Shui Tips

Can your house be too feng shui? Not if you’re trying to conceive… at least according to these feng shui experts. Couples struggling with infertility will find these fertility-friendly tips easy to implement – you can feng shui your house quickly and without great expense. There are even tips to help ignite the love and romance areas of the home for balanced baby-making digs.

Trying to conceive? Consider implementing some feng shui into your décor to aid in your efforts. Feng shui experts offer suggestions about how to balance the home and bedroom to create a fertility-friendly environment.

A couple has plenty on their minds when they’re trying to conceive and many must submit themselves to many things (including painful tests and procedures) to have a baby. You may want to consider these easy-to-implement feng shui tips to help turn your baby-making environment into a serene and balanced room to increase fertility.

Featured on SheKnows. Read the full article.

Like this article? Check out the sister story: “Feng Shui the Baby Nursery in 6 Steps.”

Seven Chakras, Hundreds of Names

If you’re interested in the chakras, this article features baby names inspired by the seven centers of sacred architecture in the body, aka “spinning wheels.” You won’t be surprised to find some serious outside-of-the-box names here, but some traditional names are also associated with these energy centers.

There are seven main centers of spiritual energy in the human body known as chakras. Every human has them – the bundle of joy you’re expecting will develop their own energy centers as they grow and mature. The word “chakra” is a Sanskrit term meaning “wheel.” In fact, these “spinning wheels” collect vibrations, energy and information from our surroundings and have a great variety of associations.

Though chakras are all about being in balance, that doesn’t mean you need to give your child seven names that correspond with each chakra. With a chakra-inspired first or middle name, you can give your baby a positive foundation that will be a constant reminder of how important it is to keep their body, mind and soul in check so they can function at their highest potential.

Featured on BabyHold. Read the full article.

Giving Birth After a C-Section

A much-contested topic these days is whether or not it’s safe for moms to give birth vaginally after having had a C-section. This article consults doctors with differing opinions to show both sides of the issue and offers up anecdotes from moms who have been-there-done-that.

It’s a common belief that if a woman has had one cesarean delivery, subsequent deliveries must also happen by cesarean or c-section. New research is attempting to prove otherwise, giving moms hope for a future vaginal birth. Hear what experts and real moms have to say about the risks and benefits of a vaginal birth after cesarean or VBAC.

Featured on SheKnows.com. Read the full article.

Safe Remedies for Mothers-to-Be

Just because a woman is pregnant, that doesn’t mean the typical aches and pains go away. In fact, having a bun in the oven can create even more twinges and squeaks and troubles. But mamas-to-be have a harder time navigating the medicine cabinet. This article – featuring advice from an ob/gyn, chiropractor, yoga instructor, and natural wellness specialist – sheds light on what’s safe for mom to take when baby is in utero… and what’s not.

Featured on SheKnows. Read the full article.

Getting Busy After Baby

Getting busy got you that baby… but what’s the scoop on when you can get back to business again after the birth of your newborn? Doctors chime in on what’s safe, what’s not, surprises you can expect (some good, some not so good), and how your bedroom behaviors may be affected since baby came screaming into life.

Wherever your libido stands after giving birth, before you jump back in the sack again there are some do’s and don’ts you should familiarize yourself with so you know what to expect of postpartum sex.

TheSkinnyScoop.com, a site where moms survey other moms, asked their community the question, “How soon after your first child did you and your partner start having sex again?” 7 percent answered that they had sex again at one month, 50 percent at two months, 36 percent at three months, and 7 percent at six months or more.

Whether or not you fit into that 50 percent category, this stat brings us to our first postpartum sex “don’t.”

Don’t compare yourself to other moms…

Featured on SheKnows. Read the full article.

Gena Lee Nolin Shares Her Story

Even in today’s tell-all world, the affliction of postpartum depression is still too hush-hush. Celebs like Gena Lee Nolin – who has suffered and recovered from PPD – are trying to change the perceptions about this disease to help new moms find relief in a life that should be fraught with joy, not grief. This article includes the symptoms of PPD, the difference between PPD and the baby blues, and how to begin coping.

Actress Gena Lee Nolin, who is best-known for her time as the conniving blonde beauty Neely Capshaw on Baywatch, is in real life a devoted mother of three. She personally experienced the trials and triumphs of postpartum depression (PPD) after giving birth to all of her children and calls it, “One of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through and one of my greatest accomplishments.”

With celebrities like Nolin and Brooke Shields speaking out on PPD you have probably heard the term, but may be wondering exactly what it is.

Dr. Peter Swanljung, staff psychiatrist at Friends Hospital in Philadelphia, says postpartum depression (PPD) symptoms are similar to depression symptoms that would come on for any other reason. “What makes postpartum depression different is timing. If depression symptoms begin within four weeks of childbirth, it can be classified as postpartum depression.”

Featured on SheKnows. Read the full article.

Coloring Outside the Curls

Having endured my own disastrous (understatement) home hair-coloring adventures, I thought it only right to consult the curly hair experts about the best ways for corkscrew girls to get the color they actually want.

While many curly girls might prefer to show up at the salon with their hair in a less-than-stellar state and wait for the colorist to work his or her magic, that’s actually one of the worst things a curly girl can do. “Wear your hair as you would on a daily basis,” Harbinger says. Gals, this means no ball caps, ponytails or extra styling products so the hair designer can get a clear idea of where the curls fall. “You’re presenting the canvas that we’re going to paint,” she explains.

A technique patented as Pintura was developed at the Devachan Salon and “captures the movement of the curls without the use of foil.” Harbinger describes foils as the worst option for highlighting curly hair as the color gets loose and looks like one big blotch on the head. The Pintura method allows the colorist to choose selective curls and paint them in their natural form to create rippling highlights.

Featured on iVillage.com. Read the full article.

Plastic Beauty… If You Can Afford It

For some reason, I’m incapable of watching plastic surgery shows on television without turning away. But to write this article I actually stood in the operating room, mere inches from the slicing and dicing. The nurse had smelling salts for me, just in case, but I’m proud to say I didn’t droop one bit. We even listened to a little Frank Sinatra as this brave woman got herself a fresh face.

On the corner of Dr. Csaba Magassy’s desk in his McLean office stands a miniature statue of Venus. The plump, fleshy icon, Roman goddess of beauty and love, is an anachronism in today’s Barbie-doll slim ideal of proportion and beauty. For Ann Boyer, neither the mythological nor societal vision of beauty makes any difference to her. “I want to be who I am,” she says.

Originally from Britain, she is a 59-year-old educational consultant who lives and works in McLean. She is also a devoted patient of Dr. Magassy, one of the region’s most highly-regarded plastic surgeons.

On the first of November, Boyer indulged in an $11,000 birthday gift from her husband.

Featured in the print and online versions of Northern Virginia Magazine. Read the full article.

Embrace Your Curls!

Being a curly girl myself, naturally I understand the plight of my fellow corkscrew gals. For iVillage.com, I pulled together this slideshow of great products and methods for making the most of Mother Nature’s sense of humor.

First things first—to make your curls into happy curls, you have to love that you have them at all. And that means it’s time to detox from any straightening routine. The only styling tool you really need is hair gel so trash those brushes and irons. When you devote yourself to the scalp you were born with and let your curly girl out, you’ll create the enviable curls that so many women covet. Allow your curls to see the light of day and embrace what your mama gave you!

Featured on iVillage.com. Read the full article.

P.S. If you are a curly girl, I highly recommend Deva Curl and Deva Care products – they changed my life!

Top Plastic Surgeries for Moms

Breast lifts, breast augmentation, tummy tucks, liposuction… there are plenty of moms out there who go for the full-body, plastic surgery work-up once they’ve decided their childbearing years are officially behind them.

Sometimes no amount of dieting or exercising is enough to make your post-baby body spring back into the shape you once knew. For the moms who aren’t willing to live with the unrecognizable changes their bellies, breasts, thighs and beyond have endured, there are dramatic solutions.

Today, plastic surgeons offer Mommy Makeover packages that can include several procedures at once. There’s no need to be embarrassed about your altered shape. Yes, you got a beautiful baby by sacrificing your figure, but you aren’t being a selfish mom by wanting to focus on yourself.

Featured on SheKnows.com. Read the full article.