Lifestyle: 5 Books to Get You Prepared for "Life After College"

You've graduated from college and now have a brand new diploma. You have absolutely no idea what to do with your life or do you? The transition from college life to the "real world" can be fun and exciting or worrisome and stressful.

This is a huge lifestyle changes for a twenty-something? You have to figure out how to navigate through life and have to start taking total responsiblity for yourself. From finding a job to paying bills and finding a place to live. Don't despair there are some helpful books to help you sort out your "new" life. They have advice from job searching to living with roommates or moving back in with mom and dad. Below are five books to get you started on your new life after college:


The Yo-Yo Principle: A common Sense Guide to Creating a Life of Success After College by David Pollard



Ramen Noodles, Rent and Resumes by Kristen Fischer



Life After College: What Your Parents and Professors Never Taught You by Chachanna Simpson



How to Survive the Real World: Life After College Graduation by Andrea Syrtash



Graduate!:Everything You Need to Succeed After College by Kristen Gustafson

Good Housekeeping's 10 Pet Dangers You Didn't Know About

We love our pets they are just like another member of the family. I know my dogs feel like family, that's for sure. We know that there are hazards for caring for them. We know not to give dogs chocolate and anti-freeze but there are other dangers that could harm our little family members. Good Housekeeping magazine has a list of 10 Pet Dangers You Didn't Know About.

1. Sugar Substitutes
If your dog steals a diet cookie, call a vet. Xylitol - a sweetener used in many sugar-free candies, chewing gums, baked goods, and toothpastes - can cause low blood sugar and liver damage in dogs, reports a study published in 2006 in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. And it doesn't take that much xylitol to create problems: The study says a 22-pound dog that ingests just a gram of the stuff should be treated by a vet.

2. Liquid Potpourri
A cat or dog can be badly burned lapping up hot oils and detergents. And many of the liquid-potpourri ingredients can breed ulcers in your animal's mouth, throat, and /or gastrointestinal tract. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center has seen 330 such cases since 2001, most involving cats. (Experts think the formulas are also toxic to dogs, but cats appear more sensitive to exposure and are more likely to climb up to reach simmer pots.) About 10% of incidents are life threatening.

3. Medications
No sensible pet owner would leave an open prescription bottle within paw's reach. But beware of closed childproof containers as well: "Animals can crush them," warns Dr. Steven Hansen, D.V.M., of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Animal Poison Control Center. "I once gave my dog an empty bottle with its cap on and timed how fast she could open it," he says. "She knocked it around and chewed on it - and got it open within 15 seconds." The scariest part: Swallowing prescription pills could kill your pet. So keep your four-footed friends away from all medication, closed or open.

4. Lilies
They make a dazzling centerpiece, but also can be lethal to your cat: The ASPCA receives dozens of calls each spring from pet owners whose kitty ate a lily. "Ingesting even very small amounts can result in kidney damage," say Ann Hohenhaus, D.V.M., chair of the department of medicine at the Animal Medical Center in New York City. Dogs can also get sick from eating azalea or rhododendron, which can lead to vomiting, drooling, diarrhea, weakness, depression of the central nervous system, and, in rare cases, death.

5. Polyurethane Glue
You'd never think this stuff would attract your dog, but the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center reports a 309% increase in glue related incidents since 2002. "Dogs see a bottle lying on the floor and think it's a toy," explains Dr. Hansen. But glue, he says, is bad news. "When swallowed, it goes to the stomach, absorbs moisture, and expands to form a large, rock-like mass." So if your dog's stomach is swollen, take him to a vet: The pooch may need to have a glob of glue surgically removed.

6. Onions and Garlic
They contain disulfides, sulfur compounds that can cause gastrointestinal irritation to pets and harm their red blood cells. "One year, at Passover time, I treated a dog with severe anemia," recalls Dr. Hohenhaus. "It turned out she'd eaten too much of Grandma's chopped liver, which was loaded with onions and garlic." Tip: Don't let your pet stick his snout in the trash. "If an animal comes across a leftover roast covered with onions, he thinks, Bonus!" says Dr. Hohenhaus. "The next thing you know, he's vomiting all the way to the ER."

7. Grapes and Raisins
"We're not sure why they're so toxic to dogs, but they can trigger gastrointestinal problems like vomiting and diarrhea, or, more commonly, kidney failure," says Karen Halligan, D.V.M., director of veterinary services at the ASPCA of Los Angeles and author of Doc Halligan's What Every Pet Owner Should Know. In fact, of the 140 cases the ASPCA saw between April 2003 and 2004, many were life threatening - and seven dogs ultimately died.

8. Pennies
While a pooch can choke on any coin, pennies are particularly dangerous because they're made with zinc, which is toxic to animals. (When a penny sits in your pet's stomach, the zinc leaches out into the red blood cells, resulting in severe anemia and kidney problems.) The newer the penny, the more likely it is to be deadly. That's because pennies minted after 1982 are 99.2% zinc; those minted earlier are only 5%.

9. Macadamia Nuts
Dogs have become dramatically ill from ingesting just a handful of these. The nuts contain an unknown toxin that can upset your pet's digestive tract and muscles, setting off severe weakness (and sometimes paralysis), mild vomiting and diarrhea. The good news: Virtually all dogs recover within 48 hours of ingestion, whether or not they're treated by a vet.

10. Pine-oil Cleaners
Scrub your floor with something else - the phenol in these products can cause serious liver damage in cats, says Dr. Hohenhaus. And it doesn't take much for a kitty to be exposed: Your fur ball might unknowingly lap up a spill - or just try to clean off her feet.

Women's Health Presents Are You Game Outdoor Summer Festival in NYC on July 11th

-- Free Summer Festival to Feature Euro Bungee, Rock Climbing Wall, Virtual Surfing, Workout Classes, Beauty & Spa Treatments, Fashion Shows, Karaoke and More --

WHAT:

Women’s Health’s annual summer festival, Are You Game?, is returning to New York for the third year. Building on the success of last year’s events in New York and Chicago, which were attended by more than 4,000 people, Are You Game? will allow urban women to experience the ultimate in outdoor fun and adventure. Are You Game? will be open to the public at no cost and will offer a host of fun and athletic challenges and activities, such as:

* Euro Bungee
* Rock Climbing
* Beauty and Spa Treatments
* Workout Classes including: Masala Bhangra, Million Dollar Knockout, Hula Hoop Pilates, and more!
* Virtual Surfing
* Fashion Shows
* Karaoke
* Happy Hour
* And MUCH MORE for the thousands of expected visitors!


WHEN:

Saturday, July 11th, 2009
From 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

WHERE:

Manhattan’s Hudson River Park at Pier 46
(Charles Street and West Street)

PRICE: Free

WHO:

Women’s Health presents Are You Game? along with the following sponsors: American Laser Centers, ASICS, Champion, Edy’s, Garnier, Heartland Brewery, Maybelline New York, Oakley, and Subaru of America, Inc.

As the official spa partner for the event, Oasis Day Spa will provide all spa and beauty services for the “Workout to Knockout” pavilion, while Crunch, the official gym partner for Are You Game?, will instruct all the workout classes.

As the official beneficiary of the event, Susan G. Komen for the Cure will host a donation station where attendees will have the opportunity to make a donation.

For more information regarding Are You Game?, please visit http://www.womenshealthmag.com/areyougame

Or contact:

Allison Keane at 212.808.1676, Allison.Keane@rodale.com,
Erin Clinton at 212.808.1683, Erin.Clinton@rodale.com

Baltimore Recognizes Its African American History This July 4th Holiday Weekend

City-wide African American Heritage Festival Includes Nationally Known Entertainers and Accommodations Packages to Celebrate Baltimore’s History

BALTIMORE, MD June 23 -- Looking for an Independence Day getaway? Come spend the July 4th weekend in Baltimore for the 8th Annual African American Heritage Festival. From July 3-5 at M&T Bank Stadium visitors can celebrate the history, culture, education, heritage and arts that embrace and promote the rich African American traditions of Baltimore.

The largest African American festival on the East Coast will feature carnival rides, new educational and historical exhibits, an interactive children's area and a variety of specialized villages offering free educational, financial and health services and resources.

These villages will also feature special programming including exhibits from the Reginald F. Lewis and National Great Blacks in Wax Museums, a spelling bee competition, fashion show, step show, family reunion planning resources and much more.

Teena Marie kicks off the musical entertainment on Friday evening followed by En Vogue and a 4th of July Fireworks celebration on Saturday. The festival concludes with a performance by Anita Baker on Sunday evening. Visitors can also enjoy performances by Tony Toni Tone, Chubb Rock, Rob Base, Laura Izibor and others throughout the weekend. General admission tickets are $5 and children 12 and under are free. New this year, the Main Stage concerts will also feature a limited amount of reserved seating available via Ticketmaster for $40, $50 and $80. This includes admission into the festival grounds and activities.

Information on special Baltimore hotel offerings can be found online at www.baltimore.org/packages.

For more information on African American Heritage Festival, please visit www.ahhf.net.
The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association (BACVA) – the official sales and marketing organization for Baltimore that generates economic benefits for stakeholders through the attraction of convention, group and leisure visitors.

For more information, please visit www.baltimore.org.

###

Contact Information:

Robert Einhorn of M. Silver Associates
robert@msilver-pr.com

Monee Cottman of Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association
mcottman@baltimore.org

Elle Decor Features Socialite Aerin Lauder's NY Homes

Elle Decor features the Manhattan apartment and Hampton home of Aerin Lauder in the July/August issue. Lauder (who is also featured on the cover) is the granddaughter of the legendary Estée Lauder and currently serves as the senior vice president and creative director of Estée Lauder.

Quote from the article:

Lauder honors Estée’s style, but that doesn’t mean everything has stayed the same. She and her husband, Eric Zinterhofer, have expanded the house (which she inherited from her grandmother), where they spend most weekends and holidays, to better accommodate their active life with their two young sons. And not every tradition remains valid. She laughs as she reports, “Last year a friend decided to light up one of my grandfather’s cigars from the 1960s that we had kept around for sentimental reasons. He said, ‘This tastes funny,’ and I said, ‘Well, it should!’”


Lauder's Manhattan Apartment:

Living Room


Dressing Room


Library


Dining Room


Kitchen


Lauder's East Hampton Home:

Dining Room


Kitchen


Living Room


Library


Estée Lauder’s Former Bedroom


Master Bedroom

To read the entire article and view more pictures, pick up the July/August issue of Elle Decor.

Style and Focus News Bites 6/26

Style and Focus Lifestyle PR would like to send out condolences to the families of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon.

** Sony Comments on the Passing of Michael Jackson. Commenting on his passing, Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, CEO and President, Sony Corporation, said: "Michael Jackson was a brilliant troubadour for his generation, a genius whose music reflected the passion and creativity of an era. His artistry and magnetism changed the music landscape forever. We have been profoundly affected by his originality, creativity and amazing body of work. The entire Sony family extends our deepest condolences to his family and to the millions of fans around the world who loved him." (Press Release)

** According to the London Times, a study shows that One in Five Women Choose to be Childless as Careers Takes Precedence. One in five women are remaining childless as a growing proportion choose a career over raising a family, according to the study published yesterday. The trend is most marked among women of higher social class, with better qualifications, and who were brought up as an only child. The study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that remaining childless is a lifestyle choice. In the past childlessness was due to poverty, poor nutrition and low marriage rates caused by war and emigration. The proportion of women childless in England and Wales has increased from an estimated 10 percent of a 1945 cohort to 19 percent of women born in 1960.

** Will Your Friends Influence Your Shopping Habits and Interests. That's what two marketing companies, 33Across and Media6Degrees, will be analyzing whether there is a connection between social networking sites, advertising and your friends, and they are not interested in the basic friend lists, but in interactions on the sites, taking note when a user visits a friend’s page, sends a video or exchanges an instant message. In turn, they can identify people who are friends with a company’s existing customers, and then advertise to them.

Instead of using research to identify which Web sites are popular with certain demographic targets, these companies let “the consumer do the heavy lifting for you purely because of the proximity of that customer to other customers,” Mr. Steele said. “There’s a certain traction that you get when you target consumers that you know talk to each other, that you don’t get when you advertise like you would in print.”

Advertisers, eager for any information that allows them to waste fewer ads and spend less money, are trying Media6Degrees and 33Across to see whether friendships are a better indicator of who might like their products than other indicators like age, gender, geography or interests.

It may be valuable for advertisers, but for publishers, it is not great news — tactics like this mean that advertisers can assemble promising audiences while bypassing expensive sites like, say, CNN.com or ESPN.com. And privacy advocates are complaining about online tracking, a subject Congress is examining. (New York Times)

** Beauty Retailer ULTA Celebrates the First-Ever Recipients of the ULTA Enrich, Empower & Enlighten Scholarship. ULTA, "the store on everyone's lips," is honoring today the inaugural recipients of the ULTA Enrich, Empower & Enlighten Scholarship. Committed to positively impacting the future of women, ULTA launched in 2008 the ULTA Enrich, Empower & Enlighten Scholarship Fund to benefit outstanding high school senior girls in select communities across the country.

Sixteen deserving young women were selected based on their academic achievements, community involvement, leadership qualities and commitment to continuing their education; each girl received a scholarship to the educational institution of her choice. The young women also were offered the opportunity to take advantage of a special trip to Chicago for today's awards luncheon and shopping spree at ULTA on State Street with Lyn Kirby, President and CEO of ULTA. (Press Release)

The 2008-2009 ULTA Enrich, Empower & Enlighten Scholarship recipients are:

1. Alexa Del Tufo of Mooresville, NC
2. Katherine Strelzyk of Chicago, IL
3. Alyssa Bilyeu of Chesterfield, MO
4. Laura Rodriguez of Harker Heights, TX
5. Aparna Ghosh of Ann Arbor, MI
6. Leigh Anna Logsdon of Lubbock, TX
7. Chi Wai Tsang of Chicago, IL
8. Lily Marucci of Casa Grande, AZ
9. Emily Gold of Farmingdale, NY
10. Maria del Pilar Delgado deLeon of Fort Collins, CO
11. Emina Becirovic of Omaha, NE
12. Megan Whitehead of Sandy, UT
13. Jessica Morrison of Dunwoody, GA
14. Sarah Eisenberg of New Lenox, IL
15. Julia Alice White of Wellington, FL
16. Shelby Kretz of Toledo, OH

The Halo Headband -- A Must Have for Outdoor Enthusiast

If you exercise outdoors then this is the one product you will need - besides sunscreen. The Halo Headband (shown Halo I - tie version, $12.95) is designed to keep sweat from running down your face not matter how much you sweat. And who wants sweat getting into their eyes especially those ladies who wear eye liner and mascara while working out. The headbands are available in additional colors.