Links That Light Us Up

28th Edition

Hope you are enjoying your weekend! Here are some links to help you escape even more 🙂

Best Cookie- Everyone loves a Girl Scout cookie, but here are 10 things we bet you never knew about the infamous treat.

It's Girl Scout Cookie TimeRachel Freeman via Thrillist

Best Daily Rituals- Take a tip from some of the most brilliant minds around.

10 creative rituals to stealSean Blanda via 99U

Best Little Buddy- 27 tiny animals to melt your heart and the polar vortex.

27 tiny animals that will warm your heartConz Preti via Buzzfeed

Best Dressed- Did the US make Mashable’s best or worst dressed list for the 2014 Sochi Olympic opening ceremony?

Best & Worst of Olympics Opening Ceremony Uniforms via Mashable

Best Suds Are you using the right dish soap? Our favorite will always be Mrs. Myer’s but this article from The Sweet Home puts up a good fight.

Mrs. Myer's Liquid Dish SoapMrs. Myer’s

Best Interview- Find out why Gloria Steinem and Jennifer Aniston are in deep sh*t in this amazing interview.

Jennifer Aniston and Gloria Steinem and Makers Conference-Brian Virgo AOL Inc.Brian Virgo AOL Inc.

Best Friends– Irene and Alice have been friends for 94 years and they are absolutely fabulous.

Best Cesar- Brussels sprouts + bacon + croutons + parmesan = the best Cesar salad you’ve ever had. Jessica from How Sweet It Is has done it again.

Brusssels Cesar Salad from How Sweet It IsHow Sweet It Is

We hope these links light up the rest of your weekend and we look forward to seeing you back here next week!

xo,

The Women on Fire team

P.S. Did you miss last week’s links?

Links That Light Us Up

Welcome to our new feature “Links That Light Us Up.”

At Women on Fire, we are so fortunate to hear about or experience the latest in — practically everything!  From new recipes, restaurants and products to blogs, articles and books.  If it has a link, and we love it and think you would, too, we’ll be sharing here.

Let us know what you think and please feel free to send us any links that “light up” your life. 🙂

So, here we go …let’s start with something yummy!

Best Dessert — We’re ready to ditch the traditional campfire and say YES to S’mores any day (maybe every day). This S’mores Sundae was created by our own Woman On Fire member Phoebe Lapine.  Phoebe is a cookbook author and writes one of our all-time favorite blogs — Feed Me Phoebe.

Feed Me Phoebe's Smore's SUNDAES[pinit]

Best Desk Accessory — These Paris-themed pencils from Amanda Catherine Designs have us inspired to break out our stationery and communicate the old-fashioned way. Can anyone say Women On Fire Paris 2014?? (We are going…so stay tuned for a link on that in the future!) In the meantime, scribble away, mon amies.

Paris Pencils via Amanda Catherine Designs[pinit]

Best Summer Movie Guide – Congratulations to a Women on Fire favorite — author Judy Blume for her first movie release, based on one of her beloved books, Tiger Eyes. It’s terrific family entertainment! Head to the theater or rent it on iTunes. For all your summer movie watching, here’s a great guide to the blockbusters of Summer 2013.

Tiger Eyes Movie from Judy Blume[pinit]

Best New Travel App — What screams Summer louder than the idea of a ROAD TRIP!? Roadtrippers allows you to plan a road trip from start to finish, including best route, projected gas cost, restaurants, points of interest, scenic viewpoints, accommodations, etc. They also have hundreds of pre-planned routes for every part of the country. We’re sold! And we didn’t even have to be: it’s free!

Roadtrippers.com- best free roadtrip app[pinit]

Best Smoothie — This Tropical Pineapple, Mango & Orange Smoothie from Iowa Girl Eats looked so good, we ran to the store as fast as we could for the ingredients. How could we say no that gorgeous color!? (And, it was as heavenly tasting as it looks!)

Tropical Pineapple Mango Smoothie via Iowa Girl Eats[pinit]

Best Spot to Sit — How about a little virtual vacation? Check out these 30 places you’d rather be sitting right now. Jaw-dropping would be an understatement.

30 spots we would rather be sitting right now via Buzzfeed[pinit]

Best Puppy Picture — We just want to squeeeeze this little fur ball.

frenchie pup[pinit]

Best Print — Don’t these wine prints just make you happy?! Perfectly charming in any kitchen, they also would make an amazing gift. We think our resident wine expert Laurie Forster, The Wine Coach, would certainly approve!

Anatomy of Wine Prints[pinit]

Best ‘You Go, Girl’ Documentary — If you haven’t yet heard of MAKERS, be prepared to drop everything to watch these mesmerizing videos of illuminating women. These stories of trailblazing women will inspire you on your own journey. Here’s an example:

[pinit]

Let us know what you liked. Until next time, we hope these links light you up!

xox

Women On Fire

 

 

 

Lean in…With Support!

The cat just looked at me as though I’m from Mars.

Wilber eats dinner every single day at 5PM. On the dot. When I served him his evening meal on this first day of daylight savings time, he was utterly confused.

To him, it was still 4PM. He walked away without even a lick of his Fancy Feast!

How’re you adjusting to the time change? Hope you’re easing into it better than Wilber😉

I just returned from New York City where I met with a number of Women on Fire, which is always so uplifting. I love hearing about your hopes and dreams, challenges and struggles, and sharing what is easier to do together than alone.


Lucky me in the middle of this Women on Fire sandwich with style consultant Holly Getty and finanical expert Manisha Thakor, who was featured in last month’s Women on Fire membership CD package. (Photo by Meredith Schoenberger)

While in New York, I also attended a conversation with Gloria Steinem and women who created Makers, the inspired stories of women trailblazers.

(I invite you to check it outWarning: once you go down the slippery slope of watching and reading about these fascinating women, you can’t stop! My favorite so far is Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon. You can’t believe what happened.)

.
Gloria Steinem, who is 78,  in the center of conversation about the 50-year history of the Women’s Movement with producers and subjects in the “Makers” series.

Nearly everywhere I went last week, including in the conversation with Gloria, people were talking about two women in the national news: Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg.

Marissa Mayer, the chief executive officer at Yahoo, made headlines when she  announced her company would end the worker-friendly practice of telecommuting.

Her reasoning is that it is bad for a collaborative company to have so many employees losing out on interacting and participating in experiences “that are only possible in our offices.”

I see her point. Still, if a male CEO (other than Microsoft’s Bill Gates or Apple’s Tim Cook) banned telecommuting, I doubt it would have been news.

Then there is Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook. She has a big week ahead: she is on 60 Minutes, on the cover of Time Magazine (with the sexist perpetuating headline ‘Don’t Hate Her Because She’s Successful’) and on Tuesday her new book is released.

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead explores what is keeping women from rising to the highest echelons of power.

“We hold ourselves back, in ways big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in,” she proclaims.

This 43-year-old working mother of two small children believes that women underestimate their abilities and “lean back and sit on the sidelines.” She herself admits to times of fear and holding back, and urges women to “lean in.”

Critics accuse her of making women feel as though failing to get ahead and achieve at the same rate as men is their fault. Others attack her because she is a billionnaire and don’t believe her advice resonates with the average woman.

I am eagerly awaiting my copy of the book.  But after reading pre-publication excerpts and interviews, I whole-heartedly support her.

“The time is long overdue to encourage more women to dream the possible dream and encourage more men to support women in the workforce and in the home,” she says.

Well, that is for sure.

Check out this brief video of what she hopes the book will inspire and tell me what you think? You also might watch her famous 2010 TEDx talk  about why women are not making it to the top anywhere in the world.

In her ideal scenario, “I believe this world would be a better place if half of our companies and half our countries are run by women and half our homes are run by men.”

When I think of leaning in, I also think how easy it is to tip over.

So, I also applaud Sheryl Sandberg for creating a foundation for Lean In Circles to support “a program for professional women that encourages them to review social-science research, share stories, receive instruction on career development, and “lean in” to (as opposed to opt out of) their careers.”

I can certainly buy that, too.

At Women on Fire, we’ve been doing just that for 10 years.  We’ve leaned in, listened, supported, shared information, resources and opportunities, and cheered each other on. We know how it works for you to have your dreams. Now it’s time to spread it to the world!


For a decade Women on Fire have shared and cheered each other on in circles of support. Pictured at a New York City gathering last Friday: Janina Sebesky, Holly Getty, Elle Celeste, me! Miriam Posner, Shannon McCaffery and Meredith Schoenberger.

Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg are blazing trails by igniting conversations that need to take place about women in the workplace.

Billionnaire or no, it takes a lot of guts to stand up and be criticized for leaning in to speak their truth.

Maybe one of them might even become powerful enough to ban Daylight Savings Time. 😉