I met Nikki B. Frias (rightmost on the picture, together with her Mom and Nana) when I attended the “Steakhouse Fundamentals” cooking class at the Los Gatos store of Sur La Table, more than 6 months ago. Nikki is the culinary manager there and also the instructor for that class. Although we’ve met only once, I still remember her hair that’s dark and curly, her eyes that spark passion, and her laughter that is contagious.
When I started to put more attention into cooking lately (given that my life in the past was more spent on study then work, and someone else always took care of the cooking, until recently I moved on to live on my own, with kids), I was determined to get good at it. For me to be good at something, I need to fall in love with it.

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Guest post by Natalie Hatter
On August 6, 2010 I will be turning 40. Nearing the end of my 39th year, and by far one of the most challenging, I come to this major milestone in my life with a moment of hesitation and concern.
My life’s resume contains none of the conventional accomplishments of a “successful life”: I have never been married, I have no children, I don’t even own a home. Ok, I did finish a bachelors degree in the mid-90′s so there is that. Nope, I went with a more freestyle life plan.

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Guest post by Charyl Le
My name is Charyl Le. I am a hairstylist at Tangerine Hair Studio in San Jose during the day, and a bartender at Zen Lounge in Mountain View at night and on the weekends. I’ve been bartending for four years at several places. I’m a Pisces.
It’s kind of hard to sum up everything I love about bartending into one single thing, but if I had to absolutely choose, I love the interaction with people and the entertainment I get from tending bar for these people. I also can’t really complain about being able to party and make money at the same time also.

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When I first met Philippe Lee, it was in 2003. I was planning for my wedding. I searched Internet for a local wedding photographer and my attention was grabbed by the photos on the website for the studio owned by him and his wife, both photographers.
What attracted me the most were the photos of their own wedding and family, a handsome couple with 2 little kids, happy moments beautiful scenes.
I paid a visit to their studio, which was also their home, but later didn’t use their service as we went out of town for the wedding. Then there was no further contact and they have not been in my mind, until less than a month ago, when I noticed Philippe on Facebook.

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Guest post by Claudia Lopez
How to plan the perfect evening along with a relaxing bath? Rule #1: Look forward to it!
Most of us have a day that consists of pretty much the same routine: work, kids, dinner, etc. What better than to “look forward” to the end of the day  a.k.a “blissful bath”.
Below I will guide you into entering an evening of indulgence, where you can take yourself to total relaxation.  From the time we wake up in the morning to the time we go to sleep, our schedules are packed to the hilt. We are so busy trying to be everything for everyone else, we forget about ourselves. We take so much pride in trying to make sure everyone else is taken care of.  So why do we not make the time to do something for ourselves?

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Guest post by Natalia Barulich

ABOUT ME
I am Natalia Barulich. I grew up in the Bay Area of California and trained with Sarah Jane Maesor & Ayako Takahashi. I have been dancing since I was 3 years old, now I am 18 years old. And I am a Capricorn.
At age 15, I moved to Washington D.C. to dance with the prestigious Kirov Academy of Ballet under the training of Jacqueline Achmedowa. I then went on to dance with the Diablo Ballet as an apprentice, and this past year I danced in the corps de ballet with the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami.

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One of the bedtime stories my kids ask repeatedly from me, is the story of Rainbow Flower. I read similar story from a book when I was small: a little girl was given a beautiful flower by an old woman, it had 7 petals, each in one different color of rainbow. She was told that picking each petal off she could have one wish come true.
The girl was excited and didn’t hesitate to wish for candies, toys, playground… soon she had only 1 petal left. All of a sudden she didn’t know what wish to make any more, because she realized that this was her last chance and all her previous granted wishes hadn’t made her feel “fulfilled”. At that moment she saw a boy who couldn’t walk because of a bad leg, and she decided to make the wish to have him cured. She felt much happier afterward.

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Determining baby’s gender before conception has been a hot topic for long time. Many people don’t care, but many others have a preference of the gender for all kinds of reasons. In my case, I had always wanted to have a girl and a boy, and preferably the first one to be a girl, as I thought being a big sister helps prevent some natural fragility in a girl.
When I conceived my first I didn’t go with any gender selection method, although I did choose the year and astrology sign the baby would be born at. It turned out to be a girl. 2 years later when I planned to have my second, I got serious about gender selection. I wanted a boy for this time.

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Have you wished your eyelashes were longer? I did (besides a dozen other things I wished for my look). I never tried, but after noticing the popularity, I am taking a closer look at eyelash extensions.
Like hair extensions, eyelash extensions add length and thickness to natural eyelashes. Through the help of an expert, synthetic lashes, which come in different lengths, colors and thicknesses, are applied on one’s original eyelashes, and can stay for weeks or longer. Compared to “fake” or “false” eyelashes, eyelash extensions are applied one extension to one lash.

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Today a young girlfriend asked me about how to keep off the cravings for food. I am not a nutrition professional but I did have personal experience on this, and today I regard myself at a relatively healthy place, so I replied with a list of things in my mind.
Food cravings seem to be more associated with women than men, and it seems to often be associated with stress or boredom, or habit. I had the tendency to overeat since I was at middle school. I was like, either no food in my sight, or I will eat them all! Especially food high in carbohydrate and crunchy.

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#1
I am not into doing much in daily makeup, but I’ve always wanted to find some good makeup artist, whom I could turn to for important events.
So far I’ve attended 2 such events. One was my wedding 6 years ago. I booked hotel salon and did a pre-run the day before wedding, for both hair and makeup. The makeup was professional but I felt not myself when looking into the mirror. So the next day I did my own makeup, the result of which made me feel more comfortable, though not perfect.

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Chris Hallford is the owner of Exercise Progression,  where he and his team help people on improving pain and injuries through exercise, lifestyle modifications, nutrition, and pain release technique.
I paid visits to him when I was preparing for my first half-marathon last Fall.   I often felt short of breath and tense back muscles even before I started training for the run,  for which I didn’t get much relief through doctor or massage.    When I registered for the half-marathon,  never having run long distance before, I wasn’t sure I could stick to the end.

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Do you have a childhood item that you have always been attached to, regardless of how old you grow? I do. That’s my apple doll.
I saw the doll for the first time when I was in 5th grade, living in Beijing. I visited a park with friends and spotted the doll that was hung on the wall, behind a store counter. I didn’t have enough money with me at that point to buy it.
But after I returned home I couldn’t forget the doll. I took money out of my piggy bank, and went on a bus back to the park, in the light rain. And I got her.

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Stress has been a companion in my life for some time.  Many times I cannot avoid the sources of stress, so it has become important for me to look for medium of relaxation, from the surroundings, using all my senses, wherever I go.
The scents, from the skin care and hair care products we use, from perfume, from nature, from people around us and places we go to,… as I’ve noticed more and more lately, play an important role in soothing or irritating our moods.

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Guest post by Bill Lulofs
Massage can have great health benefits, as well as beauty benefits. Massage practitioners use a combination of techniques that aim to help the client’s body and spirit experience some type of natural healing.
When we think of massage we often think of the more popular types.

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