Did Olivia Wilde read about the trends to watch for at the Globes this year? I pleaded with her to wear something darker and sultrier to make her look even better than she has on past Red Carpets. Well, tonight she turned the heat up with a slinky Gucci dress.

Zuma Press 

In addition to her great fashion sense, she also has a very big heart. Did you catch lots of the celebrities on the Red Carpet sporting large red ribbons? They were in support of the current relief effort in Haiti. Well, Olivia is taking that ribbon one step further by auction off her sultry Gucci dress off and donating all the proceeds to the non-profit organization Artists for Peace and Justice. Can she do anything wrong? 

Wilde is not the only one who has openly supported the relief effort; Amy Poehler (also mentioned in our trends to watch at the Globes), Meryl Streep, and Gerard Butler will be auctioning their Globes goods with Artists for Peace and Justice. 

Sandra Bullock (also beautiful!) donated $1 million dollars to the effort earlier today. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt equaled that amount right after they heard about the devastation and George Clooney announced a nationwide telethon which will air on E! and several other television stations on Friday January 29, 2010. 

Stayed with us here at Splendicity as we keep you updated about how we all can help with the relief effort in Haiti.

Ashley Shute spends eight hours a day working as a blue jean and t-shirt wearing community organizer in San Antonio. The other 16 hours are dedicated to dreaming about and shopping for the latest luxury fashions. Her style icon is Jacqueline Kennedy; classic, clean, and always professional. You will never find a fake bag in her closet and she wants a collection of Manolo Blahnik shoes before she turns 30.

For years, I have coveted over a platter that hangs in my friend’s kitchen.  Her young child’s precious handprint forms a turkey in the center with the words “Give Thanks” cascading over the top of the dish. 

I have always loved that memento and vowed someday I would take my children to a “paint your own pottery” place to create the same platter with them. 

Truth be told, I don’t have patience for paint your own pottery places.  Those places drain the life out of me.  There’s way too many color choices and way too many breakables lying about for my four year old to literally act like a bull in a china shop.  Therefore, my inability to make stupid decisions paired with my “You break it; you buy it” fear has kept me away.  I simply avoid the scene entirely and we find other ways to let our creative juices flow without shattering dishes along with our self-esteem. 

Then, last week Allana, Emmalynn and I attended a birthday party at You Do the Dishes in New Tampa.  My girls were thrilled to paint a small figurine and begged me to paint more.  Finally, I felt the inspiration to paint a handprint turkey platter.  The timing was perfect.  The staff was so helpful and hands-on that my anxiety over perfectionism and colors was greatly reduced. 

Ready to gobble up more fun, the girls were so excited to paint a dish for Mommy.  I couldn’t believe what angels sat before me.  Allana picked the colors without hesitation and Emmalynn avoided knocking over shelves of pottery.  Plus, the supportive staff helped make our handprint project a success. 

A few days later, our turkey handprint platter was ready.  I couldn’t wait to see how it came out!  I finally possessed my own precious timeless piece to hang in my kitchen! 

And then, my heart sank.  A large crack appeared down the center of the platter.  My precious turkey dish was now trash. 

I began to feel sorry myself and whined about not having a turkey platter for Thanksgiving.  I had waited years for this dish and now it seemed I was the real turkey. 

The owner explained that occasionally the heat in the kiln will causes pieces to crack and she reassured me I could make another at no additional cost. 

Even though I could easily make another, could I replicate the whole experience?  Would my children be as willing and well-behaved as before? 

Then, I realized how ridiculously shallow I sounded.  It’s just a dish. 

I should be thankful that my children have hands to make turkey handprints. 

I should be thankful that I can even afford to make this dish when other families lack food for their dishes. 

I should be thankful that I have a car to drive to pottery place and a home for us and all our belongings. 

I should be thankful that I have two healthy children and be grateful for every moment we spend together even when they drive my crazy. 

I should be thankful for my health and my husband’s health. 

From this experience, I was grateful for my cracked dish and the lesson in humility it gave me.  Like the dish, my life is not perfect but it’s full of many blessings.  So, for my husband, my two beautiful girls, the occasional cracked dish, the handprints and marker murals on walls and the many other messy blessings in my life… 

I give thanks.

I was pretty shocked when Michael Jackson died – not because I thought he was in the best of health, but he was such a big part of my teenage years. I wasn’t a breathless fan with his poster on my bedroom wall but I did enjoy his music.

In 1992, I remember listening to a concert of his in Munich from a nearby hilltop, with several thousand other penniless fans. It’s one of those memories that takes you back to where you were in your life. I can clearly picture the stormy evening sky, warm but a little threatening. Unable to afford study abroad, I found a way to pay for my summer in Europe as part of a university work abroad program. I worked in Siemens’ corporate legal department. That summer was lonely, wonderful and a big influence on me.

At that time a junior in college, I hadn’t decided whether I wanted to be a lawyer or a professor like my father. I’m now surprised how few career options I gave myself. It was an exciting international time – the Berlin Wall had come down and I had recently returned to Checkpoint Charlie, 12 years after I’d lived in West Berlin as a child. Gone were the mines and anti-tank “crosses” and in their place… grass.

I can think of a lot of school and career advice to give myself back then – be more confident in yourself, take a little more time to smell the roses, give yourself more options, don’t be too influenced by what your friends are doing, etc., etc. – the usual cliches. But if I knew all those things from the beginning, then life so far would not have been as interesting. Being too wise would’ve been predictable and boring.

I didn’t tune into the Jackson memorial service today; I’ll stick with my own memories of that time period in my life and how his music was a part of it. The funny thing is that the energy his music brought out in me is still there. So I’m confident that 2 career paths later – and more to come, it will be there to power me forward.

This blog post was graciously submitted to BizzyWomen by The Career Key Blog, run by Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D.  The Career Key™ gives you expert help with your career search and career choices  career change, career planning, job skills, and choosing a college major. Our career assessment helps you find a career by matching your personality with careers and providing you complete and accurate information about each career you choose to explore.

By Margot Pritzker
 
For thousands of Chicagoans being laid off from what once were steady jobs, it’s the first time they’ve had to update their resume or remember decades-old interviewing tips they learned from their college career counselor. Job clubs have become popular, but when you suddenly find yourself at home, unemployed, spending your day searching Monster.com, how do you keep your skills sharp and leverage all networking opportunities?
 
Volunteer. But do it using your professional skills.
 
It’s easy to think of volunteering as a way to fill the hours in a day or to give back to a cause you care about, especially if you can no longer write a donation check. But for the highly-skilled professionals finding themselves laid off and in search of work, volunteering your professional skills is a great way to add substance to your resume, as well as network.
 
Not only does volunteering in this way provide non-profits with much-needed expertise, it will also allow an unemployed professional to maintain skills, add an interesting – and relevant – resume line, network with a wider variety of people, and get out of the house and into the professional world again. People often talk about having a ‘foot in the door.’ While the non-profit itself may not be able to offer a job, just being around other professionals will allow you to hear about opportunities first – from a non-profits’ clients, partners, colleagues’ friends, etc. You may even be able to get some tips to freshen your resume or cover letter from your new ‘colleagues’.’
 
The first step is to find a volunteer position that truly utilizes the special set of skills a professional can bring to the table. Often, non-profits don’t know where their volunteers are coming from or what kinds of skills they may have. Even if they are aware, non-profits don’t always know how to ask for specialized help. And volunteers don’t always think to offer it.
    
There are many online services that help link volunteers and nonprofits, including WomenOnCall.org, which specifically matches professional women volunteers with nonprofits. Explore what’s best for you, but most importantly get out there and see what’s in it for you – at the same time making a difference.

Margot Pritzker is the founder and president of WomenOnCall.org, Chicago’s first online network that seeks to successfully match women who are committed to volunteering their professional expertise with non-profit organizations.  These organizations have specific and immediate volunteer needs, and are thrilled to have women with such skills helping out.   

Ask anyone what they think the previous occupation of a Congressman was, and they’ll probably say “lawyer.” Or career politician. They might picture someone in a stuffy suit, making lots of promises they don’t keep. And it’s true that many members of Congress have backgrounds in law or business, and often have great personal wealth or super-connected families at their disposal to give them a leg up in the campaign.

But Adriel Hampton is refreshing because he’s not any of those things. Adriel is currently running for Congress in the 10th district of California — and he’s one of our very own social media guys, among other things. He’s a pioneer and thought leader in the realm of government 2.0 and open government. He even made headlines for how he announced his Congressional campaign: via Twitter.

Last week I had the chance to interview Adriel about his bid for Congress — check out what he had to say about politics, government, social media, and transparency. This is a guy who truly believes in changing American politics and OPENING government to the people. He’s running for Congress to bring real change to Congress – I’d say that’s something to get excited about.

Nisha Chittal is a writer and journalist who currently serves as Associate Editor of CitizenJanePolitics.com and is a political columnist for UniversityChic.com. Her personal blog is Politicoholic, where she offers commentary on a range of topics, including but not limited to politics, technology, and the changing role of women and Generation Y in politics today.

Adriel Hampton is a journalist, Gov 2.0 and new media strategist, public servant, and licensed private investigator. He is running for U.S. Congress in the 2009 special election for California’s 10th District. Follow him on Twitter at @adrielhampton or @adriel4congress.

I am always looking for new ways to be more environmentally sensitive. My goal is to teach my kids these valuable lessons so that they will carry them into adulthood.

Within the past few weeks, our family switched from paper to cloth napkins. I actually had purchased a few dozen cloth napkins at a yard sale several years ago but never used them. They were just plain cloth napkins and the kids liked the paper napkins that always had flowers, bugs, fruit or some other design on them.

I recently discovered LunchMates from Lilypad Baby. I think I first met the mom entrepreneur owner on Twitter, but I cannot remember. When I contacted Kathie Papera, she was very willing to send me a sample of her 5-pack cotton napkins.

I was anxious to finally make the switch, but the real test was to see what my boys thought. Once they saw the fun designs, which included airplanes, fish, cowboys, bicycles and cars they made the switch permanently. Now they fight over the designs at dinner time.

Lilypad LunchMates is a set of 5 reusable cloth napkins that comes in coordinating Vintage Boy, Bright Fun Boy, Flower Girl and Bright Girlie Girl. The company uses repurposed fabric to keep it from going in the landfill. That means they are not purchasing “styles” to sell, rather they are using the fabric that they liberated from the cutting facility as well as their excess fabric that would typically just get tossed.

This was a refreshing change from paper napkins. My boys could get the fun designs they like, and we could all have peace of mind knowing we were helping to save natural resources – trees.

If you figure a package of 400-count paper napkins averages about $4.00, and if a family of four uses one pack every six weeks, paper napkins can cost a household about $35 a year. For the same amount of money, you can purchase 15 Lilypad LunchMates (three sets of five at $11.95 each).

Their napkins are 100% cotton and handmade in the USA. They are also durable and hold up to multiple washings. I was worried that they may stain easily from jelly, spaghetti sauce and other foods, but the fabric cleans great.

Lilypad Baby may not be well known for their fun and functional cloth napkins, but they are recognized for their personalized gifts for babies, moms and dads.

I liked the product so much that I just purchased all their styles. I am going to replace the old yard sale napkins I bought that are not as fun.

Traci Bisson has been a mom since February 2000 and an entrepreneur since August 2000. Eight weeks after she returned from maternity leave, the company where she had been employed for five years went out of business. She decided to try doing her own thing and failed miserably. After another year of working for two different companies (the first laid off the department she worked in and the other was showing signs of going under), she decided to try entrepreneurship again. Raising her two children and growing her company, Bisson Barcelona, has been both challenging and rewarding. Her story has been told in dozens of publications, including the Associated Press, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB.com), Plan Ahead Get Ahead (cover story), Union Leader, The Portsmouth Herald, Our Times and Seacoast Ventures.

With being green all the rage, here are 3 top blogs that deal with leading environmental issues:

For people who want to live a more ‘green’ lifestyle, but don’t know where to start,  check out the lazy environmentalist.com

Looking for the latest in environmental law, have a look at Environmental Law Prof Blog.

If you’d like to be a more ‘green’ aware parent read the teensygreen blog.