Glorious Spring is here—the perfect opportunity to get the girls out into the garden! Gardening offers the opportunity to relieve stress and connect to nature while growing healthy food or nurturing beautiful blooms. Green thumb or not, here are some quick ideas for gardening-themed girlfriend get-togethers and activities.

Plant a group garden. Many towns have community garden plots that can be rented. Why not rent one with your girlfriends and meet weekly to garden together? It’s a built-in weekly date and everyone can share in the harvest. Or, if one girlfriend has the space for a large garden but doesn’t want to do all the work herself, she can offer the space for the group plot.

Have a “planting bee.” Many hands make light work, so bring your hands and your garden gloves to your girlfriend’s house and help get her spring planting done. Then, load up the wheelbarrow and move on to the next girlfriend’s house, and so on until everyone’s got some spring color in her yard. Be sure to have pitchers of lemonade, iced tea, and water on hand. Read the rest of this entry »

With Mother’s Day less than a month away, it’s time to start thinking about a gift for the important moms in your life, a gift special enough for the women that have helped to make you who you are. Some of us are blessed to have a mom that is like a best girlfriend; nearly all of us have a mom, mother-in-law or mother figure to remember on Mother’s Day. Giving the right gift can be tricky: you’re navigating the fine line between what you can afford, what mom will like and what gift will make mom feel most appreciated. Who knew it would be so complicated? But don’t drop before you shop, girlfriend, because the Girlfriends-In-Chief have come up with a few gift ideas to inspire your Mother’s Day gift giving.

Here are 5 thoughtful gift ideas for special women in your life:

Charitable

Volunteer – Find a cause that mom is passionate about and volunteer together.

Present her with a wrapped or ribbon-tied photo album. In the front, place an invitation stating the day, time and place you have planned for the two of you to do your volunteering together. She can use the album for pictures to remember the special day you shared  helping out those less fortunate. Not only will you both be rewarded  with warm feelings of helping others, but volunteering can help you to grow as individuals as well as help to make your mother/daughter bond a little stronger. It’s a gift filled with warm fuzzies for all. Try searching www.volunteermatch.org to find volunteer opportunities near you.

Inspirational

Motivate – Encourage her to exercise! Give mom a gift certificate for your time as a weekly walking partner.

A key reason many people don’t work out is simply because they  lack motivation. It’s easier to work out if you have someone there  to motivate, get you going and hold you accountable to a workout  schedule. Why not be that motivation for mom to help her get in better shape and to help her feel better about herself?  Schedule a night or two each week ( just make sure you keep up your end of the bargain) to accompany mom on a healthy walk. Not only will you inspire some healthy habits, it will give you some quiet mom/daughter bonding time. Best of all, it’s free! A win/win gift for all.

Green

Plant a garden - Surprise her with a garden! Bring the supplies and your muscle power to plant the garden she always wanted but never had time or energy to create.

Planting a garden in the outdoors is a great option if you have the  yard space. However, If she lives in a townhouse or condo, you can still make an indoor garden together. A garden makes a great gift because it will keep her busy and give her something to look forward to. A gift bearing the fruit of your labor, what could be better than that? Read the rest of this entry »

We all know that we should take care of our bodies; in fact, we beat ourselves up for not doing enough of it, but what if we traded all that guilt and self-abuse in and proclaimed…“My Body is My Temple”? This month’s Girltalk…Taking it Deeper™ challenges you to treat your body to a month of self love. Join us, won’t you? To download this month’s PDF Discussion Guide, click here. For more information on Girltalk, click here.

A personal note from Christine Arylo, founder of Girltalk:

My relationship with my body has never been my strongest relationship. For me it’s not that I hate her, it’s that I forget about her. I can go months without looking at my toes, feeling my calf or noticing that I have this appendage called an arm. I take my body for granted, as if she is always going to be there to be the workhorse I have always expected her to be. As an achiever I have driven her past the brink of exhaustion on many occasions to ‘get the job done’ and the truth is that I have treated her more like a piece of machinery at my beck and call than as the temple that she deserves to be treated as.

The other truth is that without her, I would be nothing. I don’t exist on this planet without her. My spirit needs this form to be on this earth. None of the passions, missions, dreams I have can be accomplished without her. And although I like to think that I am in charge of her, the truth is that very quickly, if I don’t adore her the way a temple deserves to be adored, she will be in charge of me, and I won’t be able to do a darn thing about it.

Just think about any time you didn’t feel good physically — from a canker sore to a cold to a much more serious condition — you were at the mercy of your body, and the only way to change the situation was to treat her well.  Well, what if :

• We treated her well before she revolted and got sick?
• We treated her well, despite our judgments on what she ’should’ be?
• We treated our bodies like temples, and everyday that was the lens through which we made choices?

This month I dare us all to find the answers! Read the rest of this entry »

Rachael Ray was on the cover of USA Weekend last week with party plans to celebrate spring. We love Rachael’s practical approach to entertaining, and in a lot of ways, her philosophy mirrors ours (even though we’re much more likely than she is to let Trader Joe’s do the cooking). Just like GirlfriendCelebrations, Rachael emphasizes keeping your get-togethers “easy, cost-effective, casual and fun.” Here are some of her tips that we especially agree with:

Invite by email, text or phone. Perfectionist expectations are the reason many girlfriends never invite friends over. While beautiful, cute, or inventive invitations are fun to have, they are not a deal-breaker. Do like Rachael and “just tell people to come over.”

Entertain earlier in the day. Having friends over for breakfast, brunch or lunch can be much cheaper than throwing  a dinner party. Plus, it’s refreshingly different!

Offer a signature cocktail. Mixing a big batch of just one cocktail is easier and cheaper than stocking a full bar—plus, it makes your party more special. We served up Pink Perfection cocktails at our e.l.f. Makeup Party and they were a big hit. We literally whipped them up without a recipe using vodka, strawberry lemonade (from Trader Joe’s), Sprite or club soda, and fresh strawberries. Read the rest of this entry »