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Stressed? Here’s the Easy Solution – Spend Time With Your Girlfriends!

As the Month of Friendship continues, today’s post reminds us of our Party for the Girls weekend in February: how restorative that time was, how easy and relaxing it was to be among girlfriends, and how we can’t wait to do it again! Girlfriend time is truly a stress-buster, as our guest blogger Debba Haupert explains.

By Debba Haupert

“I didn’t know how much I needed it until I got home,” shared my friend Colleen last week on our Saturday morning walk.

I’ve been really stressed lately and didn’t know when I left the house how much I needed this girlfriend trip.”

Colleen, her sister, and a girlfriend take a road trip every August to shop, shop and, knowing Colleen as well as I do, shop some more. They load the car with a cooler and snacks, and then fill the hours and miles on the way to wherever with laughter, stories, and catching up on their lives. Colleen swears that laughter burns calories – who am I to argue? – so all the treats and meals on their girl’s getaway don’t even count. Their faces literally hurt the entire time from all the giggling, to full out shouts of laughter. (I heard some of their stories – there really were pretty hilarious!)

Funny thing, it wasn’t until after the trip that Colleen realized how much she needed the trip. Not just enjoyed it – like wanting to get out of the house for bit – but truly NEEDED it. She needed to be around her friends, to connect, laugh, share, and, again in Colleen’s case, shop – with her girlfriends. (-:

The American Institute of Stress says that stress induced symptoms or diseases are responsible for 75-90% of visits to primary care physicians. So many other studies (including those in The Tending Instinct) point to the power of female friendship physically reducing stress. Laughing with friends, knowing they’re there for you, and just being around women who care about you is a wonderful and healthy thing.

We get back in touch with ourselves when we reconnect with women who know us as “Linda” or “Anne,” not Mrs., Teacher, Doctor – or any other title.

Our female friends provide a unique support system that has a truly positive impact on our health. (Tell that to your husband when he asks why you need to go shopping with your girlfriends!)

For Colleen and her girlfriends, their weekend together de-stressed them. They consciously felt better when they returned than before their girlfriend getaway. Their lower stress levels were palatable. On top of all that, they have great memories and some really funny stories to laugh over for years to come.

This Month of Friendship that we’re celebrating in the Friendship Circle blogs is a month we all hope inspires you to reach out to new friends, stay in touch with old friends, appreciate and celebrate all your girlfriends. We want you to learn ways to strengthen your long-time friendships, give you some ideas on how to make new friends, and enjoy making memories together and understand why it’s so important – and healthy – to have strong friendships.

All that, and reduce your stress! What could be better?

Debba Haupert is the creator of Girlfriendology.com – the online community for women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friends. Girlfriendology offers inspiring blogs, BlogTalkRadio interviews with amazing women, inspirational quotes, girlfriend gifts and all the fun things you’d share with your girlfriends.

The Friendship Circle (a network of five organizations committed to celebrating the power of female friendships) is partnering in September for aMonth of Friendship. Visit these Friendship Circle websites daily in September for more inspiration and information:

  • The Friendship Blog – by psychologist, professor of psychiatry, and author, Dr. Irene S. Levine (The Friendship Doctor), author of Best Friends Forever: Surviving A Breakup with Your Best Friend. Follow Irene on Twitter.
  • GirlfriendCelebrations – premier source of girls night ideas on the web. Founded by friends Dawn Williams Bertuca and Tina VanZant Bishop. Girlfriend Celebrations on Facebook and Twitter
  • GirlFriendCircles.com - only online community that matches new friends offline by connecting circles of women in local areas, by Shasta Nelson. OnFacebook and Twitter.
  • Girlfriendology.com - online community for women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. Created by Debba Haupert. On Facebook and Twitter.
  • MWF Seeking BFF - chronicles the author’s search for a new best friend after moving to a new city for love, by Rachel Bertsche. Follow Rachel on Twitter.
  • Read the rest of this entry »


Five Ways to Keep Friendships Fresh

As our Month of Friendship posts continue, we’d love to remind you to plan those girls nights! We hope you’ll enjoy our contribution to this week’s celebration, below.

By Dawn Bertuca and Tina Bishop

If you’re reading this on one of the Friendship Circle blogs, then having and keeping girlfriends must be important to you. Perhaps you identified the need for new girlfriends in your life, for whatever reason, and now you’re ready to grow some new friendships. Or, you’re already blessed with good girlfriends but you’re looking for ways to renew and reinforce those female friendships. We’re here to help! In nearly five years of writing about the things girlfriends do together, we’ve learned loads about what does and doesn’t work when girlfriends get together.

On one hand, planning a successful girlfriend get-together is simple if you remember that the number-one thing that girlfriends like to do together is…you guessed it…TALK. Women crave connection. We need time to catch up on each other’s lives. We even have a physiological need to huddle together and talk, according to that now-famous UCLA study. On the other hand, it’s easy to get into a bit of a rut when it comes to girlfriend time. “Bunco” and book clubs are great excuses to get together and gab with the girls, but they sometimes turn stale. Girlfriends stop showing up, and eventually the group —and the relationships—fizzle out. So, what are the keys to making sure your girlfriend time stays fresh?

1. Understand quality time. Sandy Sheehy, author of Connecting: The Enduring Power of Women’s Friendships, says girlfriend relationships naturally strengthen if the women spend enough time together, are honest with each other, support each other equally, and each one feels she is getting something from the relationship. Does your usual girls night fit the bill? If your idea of a girls night is balancing a wine glass and a catalog in your lap while a sales representative tries to sell you candles, makeup, jewelry or kitchenware, then you might be missing the point of “quality time.” You need opportunities to truly connect with your girlfriends without the distraction of a sales pitch.

2. Make friendship a priority. If having girlfriends is important to you, make some time for it in your busy schedule. Commit to making two phone calls a week, or extending one invitation a week, or whatever you need to get the results you want. Be consistent and don’t give up. “Put it on the calendar” is our constant refrain when giving advice to women who say they don’t have enough time with their girlfriends. We’ve found that gathering monthly is about the right frequency for most girlfriend groups. Why not designate the third Thursday of the month, for example, as your “official” girlfriend time?

3. Be specific. Instead of simply suggesting to a friend that you want to get together, take the initiative and make a plan. Invite your girlfriend to a specific time and place so she has to respond. Women who are busy and stressed find it much easier to say yes to “spa party at my place, Thursday night at 7″ than “we really should get together sometime.” You can get some simple girlfriend party ideas at GirlfriendCelebrations.com, or just invite the girls to a favorite restaurant on a specific date.

4. Build in meaning. Learning more about each other is vital to strengthening your friendships. So take your girls nights beyond eating, drinking and gossiping. Experiencing something new together (like learning to bellydance, running a 5K, or volunteering at a homeless shelter) is a classic bonding technique. Or, add a brief connecting activity that helps you understand your gal pals better. It doesn’t have to be lengthy, embarrassing, or corny. We purposely include fun and easy connecting activities in nearly ALL of our girls night party plans. It takes a tiny bit of effort, but pays off in stronger friendships—and that’s definitely worth it.

5. Review the evening. After each girls night, take a few minutes to evaluate. You may want to do this on your own, or together via email. How did the girls night go? Did it meet your expectations? Did you get what you wanted out of the evening? What would have improved the experience? What could you do differently next time? Finally, don’t forget to revel in your achievement. You did it! You made your health and well-being a priority by putting your girls nights on the calendar. Happy Month of Friendship!

Dawn Williams Bertuca and Tina VanZant Bishop are Girlfriends-in-Chief at GirlfriendCelebrations.

The Friendship Circle (a network of five organizations committed to celebrating the power of female friendships) is partnering in September for a Month of Friendship. Visit these Friendship Circle websites daily in September for more inspiration and information:

  • The Friendship Blog – by psychologist, professor of psychiatry, and author, Dr. Irene S. Levine (The Friendship Doctor), author of Best Friends Forever: Surviving A Breakup with Your Best Friend. Follow Irene on Twitter.
  • GirlfriendCelebrations – premier source of girls night ideas on the web. Founded by friends Dawn Williams Bertuca and Tina VanZant Bishop. Girlfriend Celebrations on Facebook and Twitter
  • GirlFriendCircles.com - only online community that matches new friends offline by connecting circles of women in local areas, by Shasta Nelson. OnFacebook and Twitter.
  • Girlfriendology.com - online community for women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. Created by Debba Haupert. On Facebook and Twitter.
  • MWF Seeking BFF - chronicles the author’s search for a new best friend after moving to a new city for love, by Rachel Bertsche. Follow Rachel on Twitter.
  • Read the rest of this entry »


Ask and You Shall Receive

When it comes to making a new friend, who should make the first move? According to today’s guest blogger, Rachel Bertsche of MWF Seeking BFF, YOU should. As the Month of Friendship continues, Rachel reveals how taking a risk paid off in her search for a new BFF.

By Rachel Bertsche

Today is my turn to blog for The Month of Friendship. For those of you who are new to my search, let me give you the Twitter-ized version: After two years of waiting for a local BFF to emerge in my new hometown of Chicago, I’ve decided to go out there and find her.

On Tuesday, I was reminded of exactly why I’ve been forcing myself to ask out potential friends, despite how desperate it can sometimes feel. I was at my favorite boutique, just a block away from my apartment, looking for a dress to wear to an upcoming rehearsal dinner. Well, that and I’ve been trying to befriend the manager since I moved here.

We’ve become friendly enough in the time that I’ve been frequenting her store. The weekend I went wedding dress shopping, I showed her a picture of my potential gown for an “objective” opinion. She’s told me about planning her sister’s bridal shower. She knows what clothes work best on my body and can perhaps get me a discount on said outfits. She’d most certainly fill my fashionable BFF opening.

For a while, before I threw caution to the wind and started asking every potential BFF to dinner, I was too embarrassed to invite her to hang out. What would I say? “Hello I have no friends! Will you take pity on me?” Uh, no thanks.

But now that I’ve been at this a while, I’ve gotten more comfortable in the art of the asking. Like anything, it gets exponentially easier with practice. And the breezier you are (Remember Monica on Richard’s answering machine? “I’m breezy!” I channel this often…) the less awkward the exchange. I promise!

So I went into the store in the middle of the day on Tuesday, and Manager and I were the only people there. After trying on a few dresses, I bought an adorable little black number.

“So do you work every Tuesday?” I asked her at the register.

“Yup.”

“I was wondering… I work from home on Mondays and Tuesdays, and it can get really quiet and isolating. Would you want to get lunch sometime? It’d be nice to get out of the house for a little.”

Manager was so excited. “I’d love to! I really would.” She went on to tell me that she always meets really great people at the store, but she feels like she has to wait for to other person to make the move. “Otherwise, you could be like ‘why’s the salesgirl asking me to lunch?’ It’s unprofessional.”

This had never occurred to me. She’s all 7-feet-tall and impossibly thin and pretty. The idea that maybe she wanted to be my friend too, that maybe something was holding her back never crossed my mind.

So we exchanged numbers and we’re going to have lunch. It could maybe even become a weekly-ish affair. I have a good feeling about this one.

The small-but-significant exchange was an important reminder of why, when we meet someone with BFF potential, we should just go for it. Everyone wants pals. We’re constantly worried that people will think we’re weird for making the first overture toward friendship, but more often than not the other person is flattered. Thrilled, even.

And there could be a million reasons why she hasn’t tried befriending you. Once Manager explained it to me, it made perfect sense that she’d have professional concerns about trying to befriend a customer. But I never would have thought of it on my own.

So this month, why not resolve to finally say something to the would-be friend you’ve been eyeing in yoga class/the grocery store/the office. What’s the worst that could happen? No, seriously, what?

Written by Rachel Bertsche, MWF Seeking BFF chronicles the author’s search for a new best friend after moving to a new city for love. In her engaging daily posts, Bertsche reveals anecdotes from her quest, shares resources for meeting new people, and wonders about modern-day friendship conundrums. MWF Seeking BFF the book will be published by Ballantine in early 2012. Read the rest of this entry »


Five Not-So-Simple Rules for Mending a Broken Friendship

Girlfriend breakups are “the dirty little secret no one talks about,” according to our girlfriend Irene Levine, author of Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend. And she should know. Not only has she written a thoughtful and comforting book on the subject of female friendships, she also expertly answers reader questions about friendship on The Friendship Blog. We are so pleased to feature her post here as we continue our Month of Friendship Series. We believe Irene is truly unique as both an expert and advisor on friendship.

by Irene S. Levine, PhD

Despite the romanticized myth of BFF, the hard truth is that most friendships don’t last forever. In fact, research suggests that when it comes to friendships, there’s a phenomenon somewhat akin to the seven-year itch; half of our friendships change over that time period.

Just like other life-affirming relationships that we treasure—relationships with lovers, husbands, siblings, children, and pets—our closest friendships are imperfect. Friendships are fraught with disappointments and misunderstandings—resulting in some of the highest highs and the lowest lows of our emotional lives.

Remember Anne of Green Gables, the lonely orphan who never had a bosom buddy until she met her neighbor, Diana? Anne instantly realized she had found a soulmate in Diana. But as Anne grew up and her world expanded, the foundation of her once perfect friendship with Diana collapsed, paving the way for the next phase in her life. Given all the transitions that that take place in the lives of women (moving, mating, mothering and managing careers, just to name a few), it’s not surprising that friendships fray. Anne’s story is universal; as people grow and change, their paths diverge. Friends drift apart and even kindred spirits may find themselves circling in different orbits.

The sense of trust, intimacy, energy and connection we feel with a best friend is absolutely exhilarating, but when that friendship begins to erode or drift away, the sense of unease, discomfort, or loss is palpable. So what can you do to mend a broken friendship? Here are some tips for getting over the inevitable bumps:

1. Communicate

There’s a wall of silence between you. She isn’t answering your text messages or voicemails, and is ignoring your Facebook comments. You haven’t seen each other for a week and you used to talk every day. What do you do? Summon up the courage to start a dialogue. If there’s any hope of mending the friendship, you need to find out what’s wrong and resolve it. Sending an email or snail mail (note or card) to your friend, telling her you miss her and want to talk, gives her a chance to respond without being caught off-guard.

2. Apologize

If you know it was you who said or did something wrong—or who didn’t do or say something you should have, own up to the mistake. Apologize sooner rather than later because time has a way of making little problems fester. Of course, if you have a recurrent case of foot-in-the-mouth syndrome, this isn’t going to work.

3. Forgive

Conversely, if you were the one who was wronged and the friendship is important to you, consciously decide to forgive your friend in order to save the friendship. Try to think about what happened from her perspective and accept her apology. If her behavior is consistently ambivalent and unpredictable, forgiveness may not be the right fix.

4. Take a break

You’ve approached your friend to sort out the problem and you’ve been ignored or rebuffed. Perhaps your friend needs more time to get over her anger and disappointment. Propose that you NOT see each other for two weeks or a month. Maybe you need time apart (what I call a friendship sabbatical) to realize how much you mean to each other. On the other hand, you both may breathe a sigh of relief during the trial separation.

5. Downgrade

Maybe your expectations of each other are a mismatch at this time. Perhaps, you need to establish boundaries: Tell her you need more space for yourself and more time with others. Maybe your relationship is based primarily on shared history and your lives have grown too disparate to remain besties. Gradually downgrade to a casual, once-in-a-while friendship. Make the change with grace and respect, leaving the door open for reconnecting in a different way at a different time.

Admittedly, fixing a broken friendship is never easy or simple because the rules of friendships aren’t clear. Compounding the problem, women are often embarrassed or ashamed to talk about friendship problems. If they speak to men, they’re likely to be accused of catfighting. If they speak to other women, opening up about another friend may be seen as a betrayal. As a result, friendship problems often remain the dirty little secret that nobody talks about—except on TheFriendshipBlog.com.

Created by psychologist, author, and professor of psychiatry Dr. Irene S. Levine, TheFriendshipBlog.com is the only authoritative place on the internet for women to anonymously ask and receive advice about their friendship problems and dilemmas. Writing as The Friendship Doctor, Dr. Levine is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and Psychology Today. Her most recent book, Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup With Your Best Friend is based on an online survey of more than 1500 women (anonymous, of course).

The Friendship Circle (a network of five organizations committed to celebrating the power of female friendships) is partnering in September for a Month of Friendship. Visit these Friendship Circle websites daily in September for more inspiration and information:

  • The Friendship Blog – by psychologist, professor of psychiatry, and author, Dr. Irene S. Levine (The Friendship Doctor), author ofBest Friends Forever: Surviving A Breakup with Your Best Friend. Follow Irene on Twitter.
  • GirlfriendCelebrations – premier source of girls night ideas on the web. Founded by friends Dawn Williams Bertuca and Tina VanZant Bishop. Girlfriend Celebrations on Facebook and Twitter
  • GirlFriendCircles.com - only online community that matches new friends offline by connecting circles of women in local areas, by Shasta Nelson. On Facebook and Twitter.
  • Girlfriendology.com - online community for women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. Created by Debba Haupert. On Facebook and Twitter.
  • MWF Seeking BFF - chronicles the author’s search for a new best friend after moving to a new city for love, by Rachel Bertsche.

Read the rest of this entry »


September is the Month of Friendship – And We’re Celebrating With Our Girlfriends!

Guess what, girlfriends? We’ve declared September the Month of Friendship! To celebrate, this week we’re proudly featuring posts by all the bloggers in the Friendship Circle. We think you’re going to enjoy meeting them, exploring their websites and reading what they have to say about female friendship. Look for our own contribution on Friday, but for now, check out this contribution by Debba Haupert, founder of Girlfriendology.

By Debba Haupert

Admit it. We love to celebrate holidays.

Some because we get the day off work (thank you Presidents Lincoln and Washington), some out of respect (Labor Day and Memorial Day), some based on relationships like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We show our love on Valentine’s Day, our gratitude on Thanksgiving and our history on the 4th of July. We even go so far as to recognize our passions with National Ice Cream Month and Rubber Duckie Day, our fears – National Mold Awareness Month (yikes!) and pretend everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.

We’ve got a holiday for just about everything – very event, passion, religion and quirk that we want to recognize, acknowledge, draw attention to and celebrate.

But what about celebrating the unique relationship that is known to make women healthier, happier, less stressed, live longer and even feel more beautiful? Doesn’t that warrant a special celebration? Doesn’t the combination of raised self esteem, being given the gift of laughter when you wanted to cry, having someone to call when you get bad news or just knowing you have a friend who won’t let you down deserve its own celebration?

WE think so.

WE are a group of women who are following our passion of inspiring women to connect, appreciate and celebrate female friendships. We are five writers and friendship experts who have partnered together to promote the benefits of female friendship, ideas on how to connect with and celebrate friends, insights into all aspects of friendship and general ‘girlfriend advice’ for women. We blog, speak, publish, tweet and inspire female friendship every way we can.

We are the “Friendship Circle”

We all believe that we should celebrate female friendship. So we’re partnering in September for a Month of Friendship to bring attention to the need that women have to prioritize their friendships, to provide inspiration on spending time with and celebrating those friendships, and to highlight the benefits in store for females who have strong bonds with their girlfriends.

Who are WE? We’re glad you asked!

The Friendship Blog – Produced by psychologist, professor of psychiatry, and author Dr. Irene S. Levine (The Friendship Doctor), The Friendship Blog is the only authoritative place for women on the internet to anonymously ask and receive advice about their friendship problems and dilemmas. The blog was created in 2007 and helped create the platform for Dr. Levine’s recent book, “Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup With Your Best Friend.” Find her on twitter .

GirlfriendCelebrations – The premier source of girls night ideas on the web. Founded by friends Dawn Williams Bertuca and Tina VanZant Bishop in 2005, the blog offers original ideas for girls night in, girls night out, girlfriend get-togethers and girlfriend getaways. Believing that “Girlfriends Make Life Better™,” these girlfriends take women beyond “bunco” and deliver fun and meaningful ways for female friends to stay connected. Find them on Facebook here and on Twitter and .

GirlFriendCircles.com – The only online community that matches new friends offline by connecting circles of women in local areas. In over 25 cities and growing fast, women between 21-65, are matched and introduced to each other in small groups at local cafes and wine bars to meet other women who value expanding their circle of face-to-face friends. Founder Shasta Nelson, a life coach, blogs weekly on women’s friendship issues. Find Shasta at  and on twitter

Girlfriendology.com – The online community for women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. Girlfriendology offers inspiring blogs, BlogTalkRadio podcast interviews with amazing women, girlfriend gifts, online communities and more. Founded in 2006 by Debba Haupert, Girlfriendology has a large and growing social media community of 19k+ Twitter followers (& we block men!) and 7k+ female Facebook fans. Find Debba at and on twitter .

MWF Seeking BFF – written by Rachel Bertsche, MWF Seeking BFF chronicles the author’s search for a new best friend after moving to a new city for love. In her daily posts, Bertsche reveals anecdotes from her quest, shares resources for meeting new people, and wonders about modern-day friendship conundrums. MWF Seeking BFF the book will be published by Ballantine in early 2012. Find Rachel on twitter .

The Month of Friendship kicks off TODAY and will feature a cross-platform series of blog posts on each of the five participating websites. Each founder will each write a post in her particular area of expertise, with one post appearing on all five websites each day.

So girlfriend, you’re invited to join us on this fun, friend-filled month with the Friendship Circle. Follow these daily blogs, join our Facebook pages and get in the conversation about the incredible blessings and benefits of girlfriends. And, like girlfriends do, share these blogs with your girlfriends. Together we can influence women to support each other, reach out to women in need of a friend and to be the kind of girlfriend we’d love to have.

Celebrate the Month of Friendship with the Friendship Circle!

Debba Haupert  is founder of Girlfriendology.com, the online community of women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. Read the rest of this entry »


Make Girls Night Easier With Peapod

As busy women with hectic calendars, we are always looking for ways to make more time for play in our days. With this in mind, Peapod, the online grocery shopping and delivery service, invited the Girlfriends-In-Chief and some fellow bloggers on a warehouse tour to show us how they could make our lives easier with the click of a mouse. As busy wives and moms, we were all quick to see how Peapod could help de-stress our domestic lives.

Perky Produce
Perky Produce
But what really put the icing on the cake was how Peapod’s delivery service can make entertaining easier: Helping a girlfriend take out the frazzle of eleventh- hour shopping and put the dazzle back in a last-minute soiree. Yes! What we learned can help us—and you— delete one more obstacle to having a fabulous girls night.
Look Who Greeted Us!
Look Who Greeted Us!
Read on to see what we learned about their food quality and offerings for entertaining. And, see the end of this post for a great offer from Peapod that will save you $20 on your next grocery order.

It’s Cold in There

Our tour guide, Tony Stallone, Peapod’s Produce Guru, helped to put all our apprehensions about grocery stores of the 21st century to rest. Being skeptical yet savvy consumers, we initially thought that one would have to physically go to a store to get the freshest produce. But Tony was convincingly quick to point out that in order for Peapod’s service to succeed, the produce has to be better than the produce you would pick for yourself.  Simply put, if you were to pick bad cherries, you would only have yourself to blame. If Peapod were to send you bad cherries, it would not only be the pits for you but for them as well because as a consumer, you’re going to complain. Peapod’s produce goes through a careful inspection process. The fruits and vegetables are not only hand-selected but they are also tasted to ensure a positive experience for the customer. After touring the many different temperature zones in the warehouse (which, it seemed to us, were cool, chilly, cold, colder and freezing—because Peapod takes pride in never breaking the chain of coldness the entire time the food is in their warehouse) and walking among the peppers and apples (each have their own temperature-and humidity-controlled zone, by the way), we were sold on the quality of Peapod’s produce. The fruit in their warehouse looks much better than the room-temperature fruit selection we see at our local Jewel or Ultra. We won’t think twice when it comes to ordering a fruit tray or appetizers from Peapod for our next girls night.

Just a side note, the Produce Guru has his own blog about *drumroll please* produce which you can find here. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to selecting and storing produce: even grandma would be impressed. Here are a few of the tips he shared with us en toure.

  • Strawberries – Inspect the entire box of strawberries, don’t be afraid to turn the box over. The strawberries on the bottom and sides of the box will go bad first. Look especially at the shoulders of the strawberries, that’s where bruising occurs first.  Strawberries will last longer if kept at a colder temperature.
  • Apples – Refrigerate them. Keep them cold or they will go mealy.
  • Avocado – If the button pops off the end easily Makes, it is ripe.
  • Guacomole Dip – To store dip overnight without it turning black, place a plain piece of saran wrap over the dip and gently press down until all of the air is out of dip. Keeping the air from coming in contact with the dip will ensure it stays green.
  • Read the rest of this entry »


Entertaining Shortcuts on Second City Soiree

We had the opportunity to guest blog about entertaining shortcuts on the beautiful entertaining blog Second City Soiree last week and we wanted to give you a peek, girlfriends! Our girlfriend Jen does such a great job bringing you easy, chic entertaining tips as well as gorgeous photography. We were so flattered to be asked to be part of her guest blogger project!

“Are you known as a hostess with the mostess, or do you cringe at the thought of company? Some of us are more gifted than others in the entertaining department—but don’t let that stop you from having the girls over. At GirlfriendCelebrations, we think it’s better to have an imperfect party than not have one at all. We‘ve perfected the art of “shortcut” entertaining. So stop procrastinating and start planning your next girls night with these tips.”

Read the rest, including how to cheat on cleaning, and how to give a potluck pizzazz, on Second City Soiree. Read the rest of this entry »


Coming Soon to a Highway Near You!

Girlfriend-in-Chief Dawn checks out the Camaro

GirlfriendCelebrations is hitting the road, courtesy of Chevrolet, and we want YOU to tell us where to go. We recently attended a fabulous blogger event at Hard Rock Hotel Chicago, put on by our girlfriends at Silicon Valley Moms Group and Chicago Moms Blog. We learned about a lot of interesting products and services, some of  which we’ll be sharing with you soon. We also were among ten lucky bloggers selected to test drive a Chevy for a weekend this summer. Not only are we excited to get our hands on a brand new car—we can choose among some great vehicles including Chevy’s Camaro, Equinox, Tahoe, and Traverse—but we want to make our little excursion as GIRL-FRIENDLY as possible! And, in keeping with the spirit of the Chevy Missions project in Illinois, we are also thinking of ways to use our Chevy vehicle to serve others. As always, our goal is to give YOU more ideas for ways to have fun and meaningful times with YOUR girlfriends. We want to make this good, girlfriends, and we need your ideas! So please, leave your comments on this post with suggestions for:

  • Girlfriend getaway destinations – drivable from Chicago in a weekend?
  • Service project ideas  - perhaps utilizing a larger vehicle?
  • Other ways to use a vehicle for some good girlfriendly fun? (and don’t say camping – though that would make for some entertaining reading!)

We’re looking forward to hearing what you suggest, and to bringing you our adventure later this summer. Thanks, girlfriends!

Photo by the immensely talented Lahleyoo! Read the rest of this entry »


Friendship Circle Rounds Up All the Girlfriendly News

Hey, girlfriends! Want to read more about making, having and keeping friends? We’re pleased to announce that GirlfriendCelebrations has joined forces with four other fabulous blogs to create The Friendship Circle, keeping our online girlfriends better informed on ALL the news that’s fit to publish about friendship. If you’re visiting us here, we think you’ll enjoy visiting them, too. Let’s take a look:

The Friendship Blog: The Friendship Doctor, Irene Levine, dispenses smart and compassionate friendship advice. As a clinical psychologist and award-winning author, she is eminently qualified!

Girlfriendology: The online community for women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. Founder Debba Haupert blogs frequently and interviews inspiring women.

GirlfriendCircles: Shasta Nelson blogs about how to make friends, drawn from her experiences as the founder of GirlfriendCircles, a service that matches women up with potential friends in their cities.

MWFseekingBFF: Rachel Bertsche explores the challenges of trying to make a new friend, chronicling her friendship quest with thoughtful and thought-provoking writing.

GirlfriendCelebrations: And of course, you’ll find ideas for how to spend your girlfriend time on GirlfriendCelebrations. Since 2005, we’ve been providing original thoughts on everything from girls night in to girlfriend getaways, along with articles that help you make the most of your friendships. Read the rest of this entry »


How To Make New Friends

For many, making new friends can be a daunting project.  Let’s face it, putting yourself out there to risk feeling rejected is a shoe than many are not eager to fill. But studies show that finding girlfriends to laugh with and confide in will  not only make you feel better, but can be a life saver as well. Our girlfriend Jessica over at The Improbable Housewife has had to put on that shoe of

A lot of love in the room
uncertainty  and step out of her comfort zone to re-gain her social life and sanity. Listen on as she shares some tips she used to create her own social mojo:

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