Putumayo Kids just released what’s destined to be your kid’s new favorite: Jazz Playground. From bebop and swing to Latin and African jazz, this multicultural CD celebrates the vibrant diversity and global influence of jazz and will get the whole family grooving. (Read on for a chance to win some Putumayo CDs.)

I’ve loved their Playground series since my daughter was young and would play a CD over and over and over again. We quickly realized that Putumayo CDs pleased her as well as us! It turns out that Dan Storper, founder of Putumayo, had that exact plan in mind:

With our children’s series, my professional goals and responsibilities as a father of a 4-year-old son seem to merge. I’m always looking for songs that William will love and, despite playing scores of time, won’t drive my wife and me crazy. Jazz Playground is filled with lots of loveable, jazzy songs that are great fun for kids but which parents not only can bear but may even press the replay button for themselves. One of the songs, Cumbamba, by Cuban-American, Jose Conde, was recorded especially for this CD after I’d heard a scratchy, early version that I thought would sound nice if re-recorded. The cross-cultural collaborations and tasteful versions of children’s favorites like Sing a Song of Sixpence, Mary Had a Little Lamb and the Spiderman theme song make this a one of kind musical journey that the whole family can appreciate.

Want a taste? Try this track from Oran Etkin for Little Lamb Jam.

Note: you can simply listen online using the player below, or you can “right click” to download the mp3 file.

Want more? Pick up Jazz Playground, now available in our stores. Bebop, swing and all that jazz: cool tunes for global kids!

Want to win? By March 16th, enter a comment letting us know what CD you or your kids listen to incessantly, and we’ll choose a random winner to receive a 5-title Putumayo package – a little something for everyone.

Even if you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by wearing green or drinking green beer, we wholeheartedly recommend eating something green too – and not just on March 17th! Start planning your menu to make sure you have something green on your plate. Here are some of our favorite green foods and recipes:

It’s never too early in the day to eat some greens. Try adding a boost of green to your morning routine with a Get Your Greens Smoothie.

For lunch, how about a Quick Hummus and Vegetable-Stuffed Pita? Pack it full of your favorite green veggies like cucumber, lettuce, green onions and sprouts.

Double your green quotient with edamame and avocado in this super tasty guacamole, great as a dip or sandwich spread.

Or triple the green factor in this fresh salad of lentils, arugula and pesto.

For dinner, you could start the meal on a green note with Creamy Spring Asparagus Soup.

Then make a classic St. Patty’s Day feast of Corned Beef and Cabbage Rolls.

Another tasty option is Cabbage and Cheddar Gratin. Serve it alongside corned beef, or on its own as a vegetarian main dish.

Corned beef not your thing? Try green eggs and ham in this Pancetta Pesto Souffle.

Whether you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or not, you can’t go wrong with a side of Creamy Sesame Greens.

And how about a little something sweet with a little something green? This gets tricky… Carrot Zucchini Cupcakes fit the bill.

Or Cranberry-Pistachio Oatmeal Lace Cookies are flecked with green nuts.

And may we recommend drinking a few cups of green tea on St. Patrick’s Day? Get the whole story on green tea.

What’s going to be green on your menu this St. Patrick’s Day? Let us know in the comments below!

As a coach and teacher I am asked several times a week, “How do I get from here to where I want to be”?

My answer is always the same.  First answer this, how did you get where you are now?  Your thoughts, beliefs, feelings and actions got you exactly where you are and those will get you anywhere else you want to be.  You have only to change the beliefs, thoughts, feelings and actions to line up with a new place.  It’s like going on a journey in your car.  You choose a destination and then move in that direction.  You don’t stop and go hither and yon, you stay on course until you arrive where you planned.  Your thoughts, actions and feelings are lined up with the new destination.  You believe that it’s possible for you to travel there and you steadily move in that direction until at last you arrive.

This is the easy way to move from one place or one circumstance to another.  You get a clear picture in your head and follow that until you arrive.  Simple, plain, clear and easy, yet so many get side tracked by all the stuff to look at and feel about on the journey.  You stop thinking and feeling about the new place and get caught up in the stuff along the way that you don’t like.  It’s like stopping at ever restaurant on the road, it would take a long time to get to your destination.  You might get there, but it would be a long journey. 

In order to get into a new set of circumstances you must change what you are believing and paying attention to.  It’s a matter of choice and practice.  You’ve practiced your current creative beliefs for many years, so you must now practice something new.  Get clear about what you wish to experience.  Line up only with that.  Stop paying so much attention to stuff you don’t want to experience.  Notice it for a moment, let it remind you of your destination and motivate you to move forward again.

Stay focused by noticing all the signs along the road that are telling you that the journey is lining up.  Notice all the good stuff, pay loads of attention to it.  Take appreciation breaks throughout the day to really feel gratitude for all the wonders and joy presently in your life.  This is one of the most powerful things you can do to change you and thus your creations.  Appreciate everything.  Leave nothing out, love it all, appreciate it all.  Everything has a gift, a message for you, always reminding you of who you are and how powerful you are.

When you take responsibility for all that is in your life now realizing that you are the one who did that, it’s easy to shift your thinking to “I can create whatever I desire”.  This is real power folks.  Knowing yourself to be the one doing it all in cooperation with Source Energy.  Open up to all the possibilities, play, enjoy.  You are after all, the ONE with the power .

You’ve got to get my eBook on how to be happy and live happy.  It takes you through the steps of making the choice of BEing happy. Get your copy today!

Tagged: being happy, beliefs, changing thoughts, creating your life, Law of Attraction, Source energy

I’ve been intrigued by the Brazilian and keratin hair treatments that seem to be all the rage right now.  On Naturallycurly.com right now, there’s a curly girl, Michelle, who shares her experience with the Brazilian blowout treatment.  If you’re as curious as I am, give it a look-see: http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curl-products/i-did-a-brazilian-blowout?utm_source=nc_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20100309.

My friend, Wendi, is supposed to be having a keratin treatment sometime soon, so I’m hoping to get her to guest blog about it.

Have you ever tried any of the treatments?  If so, tell me all about it in the comments!

Another celeb I loved was Sandra Bullock.  I have a total girl crush on her and have decided that she and I would make the best of friends.

Okay, now I’m starting to sound creepy here…moving on.

Her makeup artist was Angela Levin for Chanel.

Keep reading for the deets…

Beauty Inspiration:

Tonight was Sandra’s big night and she was in a happy, ethereal mood. I
wanted her to look like the true movie star she is, so we went with modern
classy Hollywood – dewy skin, soft eyes, and a bold classic red lip.

Angela prepped Sandra’s skin with Chanel Sublimage Fluid. She then used a foundation brush to apply Chanel Vitalumiere Satin Smoothing Fluid Makeup in Shell all over the face.

Angela created a structured brow with the soft brown powder in the limited edition Les Regards de Chanel Palette. She lined Sandra’s eyes with the darker brown shade in the same palette.

Finally, she applied three coats of Chanel Inimitable Waterproof Mascara in Noir for sexy, glamorous lashes. To create the real focus of Sandra’s look- a gorgeous, bold red lip – Angela applied Chanel Rouge Coco Lip Colour in Paris.

She finished the look by gently dabbing a bit of the same lip colour on the apples of Sandra’s cheeks – Angela’s signature makeup trick.

Try your local Chanel counter or chanel.com for products used.

image courtesy of telegraph.co.uk

Quite poorly, actually…

I usually stay away from juices because they have a lot of calories and don’t really fill me up. While I was sick however, I craved orange juice. It was one of the foods my mother gave me plenty of when I was sick because the vitamin C was thought to help with colds back in the Seventies. While I lay on the couch, unable to do anything more than read some comic books and gossip magazines, I drank almost a gallon of orange juice.

Probably not the healthiest choice available to me.

What should I have done? Shouldn’t I just stop trying to diet when I’m sick? No. Following my diet plan would have probably helped me get healthy quicker, but I abandoned it at the first moment of ailment. Why?

Comfort.

Comfort food has its name for a very important reason. It makes us feel a little better. Did the orange juice and the Tyson Chicken Cordon Blue Bites make my sinuses drain? No. Did the french fries and cheeseburger make my muscle aches go away? No. Did the macaroni and cheese ease my dizziness? No. How exactly did all that food make me feel better?

It didn’t. Comfort food makes my BRAIN feel better not my BODY.

So, how do I fix this? How do I make my brain feel better without abusing my body?

The New Comfort

There are several ways to comfort myself without stuffing my face. Firstly, is to nurture myself WITHOUT food. Here is a list of things that make me feel comforted.

• A warm bed: A heated mattress pad or cuddly husband, either will do.
• A SOFT blanket: Not the scratchy afghan I huddled under on the couch. I should have found a soft blanket that makes me feel hugged by a cloud.
• Quiet music: Instead of watching endless episodes of South Park, I should have listened to some soothing music. It would have helped me sleep, which is what I needed more than anything.
• Light reading: I got this one right. I curled up with a stack of comic books and gossip magazines. Not enough intellect to tax my mind, but just enough entertainment to distract me from the pain.
• A purring kitty: Maggie, purring, warm and kneading on my shoulder was another comforting moment in my day.
• A humidifier or vaporizer: The new vaporizers are a lot safer than they used to be when I was a kid, but the vapor in the air is different, somehow. I’d like to find an old Vicks vaporizer that risks burning me every time I fill it just to get that thick and watery humidity in my room.

Giving myself this sort of nurturing will help me need comfort food less. What do I do about those cravings for comfort food, when they do come?

The New Comfort FOOD

Macaroni and cheese, chicken soup and orange juice used to be the foods that I ate when I was sick. In fact, they were the staples of my diet this last time around. They don’t actually cure me, however, although there is a case for chicken soup. All they do is make me feel better emotionally.

The only way to solve the comfort food problem is to teach my body to crave new comfort foods.

Next time I’m sad, sick or upset, instead of turning to high fat, high carb and high salt foods, I need to turn to healthy foods. If every time I got sick, I ate apples, I would start to crave apples every time I got sick. Comfort food isn’t some magical combination of ingredients that makes me instantly calm. It’s the mere act of repetition that makes it comforting to me. I need to retrain my body to crave healthy food instead of what it currently craves.

I suspect this will take a while before the new cravings take hold and override the years of abuse I’ve done to myself. As soon as I’m able to make that leap, I’ll tell you about it.

Some listeners ask for a recap of our podcasts so they can refer to it later. So, here you go. (Don’t forget to listen to the podcast for more details and information, though.)

Lifestyle Tips for Balancing Energy

• Many of us experience reduced energy due to our physiology working in overdrive for extended periods of time.
• What causes the physiology to work in overdrive is not always simply working too hard or getting inadequate sleep.
• An underlying element in lowered energy may be related to poor digestion, poor assimilation, and poor elimination.
• The outcomes can surface into symptoms that we associate with the “stress of life” such as sleep difficulties, and lowered energy.
• While it is true that many of us migrate to stimulating energy products that are really common – over the counter types of products that can give us a quick boost of energy – this approach does not address the underlying elements.
• Often overly stimulating approaches without proper adaptogenic and causative approaches can further deepen the stress to the physiology.
• Another concern is that these stimulating items may be filled with unnatural ingredients.
• The body is fully equipped to achieve optimal energy when obstacles to wellness are removed. That’s a real foundational practicing aspect to naturopathic medicine.
• Our approach to optimal energy levels should always draw upon the wisdom inherent within the body and mind. To do this we must keep impurities in the body to a minimum.
• There are many adaptogenic plants that serve us well to both protect us from stress as well as activate the natural energy systems of the body.
• The expert’s favorite herbal remedies are Rhodiola Rosea, American or Korean Ginseng, the Ashwagandha plant from India, Holy Basil ( a very popular herb now used in India and now in the U.S. for optimizing energy,) and Schizandra berry (often referred to as “the 5 flavored herb.”)
• Every one of these is considered an adaptogenic plant – which means that they facilitate the body’s adaptogenic systems and allow us to respond to stress more effectively.
• Other strategies that are very important are to adopt a dietary plan that maintains an alkaline chemistry within the blood. Whole and fresh vegetables, fruits, grains, seeds, and nuts provide the opportunity to prevent the body from becoming overly acidic.
• Another strategy is to consume adequate clean water daily drinking small amounts throughout the entire day.
• Maintaining a healthy posture can also optimize energy and for this reason a regular practice of yoga is often very valuable.