My friend Carole is awesome (left in photo). Recently she’s been through ’stuff’ (medical and relationship not-so-fun stuff), yet she comes out of it with her passionate personality and super-sized heart fully engaged. She embraces life on a daily basis with joy and this amazing robust energy. It’s kinda like a B12 shot just to be around her!

Unfortunately, I don’t get to be around her very often. We live about an hour from each other. This past weekend we shared a cup of coffee and a fun conversation – and not virtually, face-to-face where we could share hugs, conversations and smiles. She’s that kind of friend with whom you pick up where you left off. She’s also the kind of friend who goes out of her way to be my ‘cheerleader’ and assist me in reaching my goals (like her blog about our recent Biz commercial – Thanks Carole!)

I’m grateful for my friend Carole and for our friendship that doesn’t change even when addresses, jobs and life ’stuff’ do.

We’re on Day Two in our celebration of a ‘Month of Friendship‘ and we’re celebrating friendship today by chatting about ‘girlfriend gratitude.’ and ways to express that appreciation for friends.

The first step in the girlfriend gratitude process is to stop for a moment and recognize the amazing women in your life.

Who brings energy and excitement into your life? What friend can make you laugh just when you thought you were going to cry? Who is the first person you call when you’ve got news to share? Does she know how much her friendship means to you?

Gratitude is great, but if left unexpressed, it doesn’t give joy or spread to others. If we don’t recognize and act on our feelings of appreciation, we can take things and people for granted. Not a good friendship scenario.

Today, BIG day two of this Month of Friendship, identify one friend who has made a difference in your life. Select a friend from whom you’ve possibly learned important lessons. Choose a BFF who is there for you, who makes you feel comfortable with them and yourself, whom you know wants the best for you and will support you no matter what.

Now, let’s come up with a way to show some girlfriend gratitude. If you’re a blogger, you could write about her* and the things you appreciate about her (like I did for my friend Carole). If you’re an artist or crafter, get creative in your expression of gratitude – make her a card, a painting, or any type of handmade girlfriend gift. For those of you who love to bake/cook, make her a cake or dinner. Invite her to lunch and give her a card that will make her cry -in a good way! (-: Call her up and tell her how much her friendship means to you. Or email her with the three top things you love about being her friend. Find a creative way of showing your appreciation.

Express your girlfriend gratitude. Celebrate this Month of Friendship with us by making steps toward being a better friend.

Please share your thoughts and stories below and on our Facebook friends page. You’ll inspire others and we’ll spread girlfriend gratitude

* If you blog about your girlfriend gratitude, let us know! We’ll link to it and possibly publish it on Girlfriendology!

I so respect women who passionately reach out to help other women. They inspire me to be more supportive, proactive and involved in women’s causes and in sharing information that can help women, and, in this case, possibly save their lives.

So when KANDI JAEGER approached Girlfriendology about sharing information on Uterine Cancer, we knew it was going to be great girlfriend advice and info. As she shares, September is Gynecological Cancer Awareness Month so it’s perfect timing for sharing this information with your girlfriends. Together we can make the world better with our friendships and healthier by sharing information like Kandi shares here:

Did you know it’s predicted that one in four women will suffer from Uterine Cancer in their lifetime? Yet, breast and ovarian cancers are the women’s cancers we hear most about. There is not a national group for Uterine/Endometrial cancer.

September is Gynecological Cancer Awareness Month, and with that, I’d like to share some information that will make you think and arm you with the right questions and thoughts to make you aware of what’s happening in your body.

Uterine cancer is the most common gynecologic cancer (i.e., cancer that originates in female reproductive system). It originates in the inner lining of the uterus and accounts for about 90% of uterine cancers. Uterine sarcoma originates in the myometrium and accounts for less than 10% of cases. Uterine cancer usually occurs after menopause. But it may also occur around the time that menopause begins. That’s why it is so important to pay attention to your monthly cycles. Abnormal vaginal bleeding is the most common symptom of uterine cancer. Women should not assume that abnormal vaginal bleeding is part of menopause. In the United States, endometrial cancer is more common in Caucasian women and uterine sarcoma is more common in African American women.

A woman should see her doctor if she has any of the following symptoms: Unusual vaginal bleeding or discharge, difficult or painful urination, pain during intercourse or pain in the pelvic area.

These symptoms can be caused by cancer or other less serious conditions. Most often they are not cancer, but only a doctor can tell for sure. So be sure that you pay attention to what your body is telling you. You check your breasts monthly in the shower, so take the same precautions and watch what the rest of your body is saying. You will hear that endometrial cancer is probably the “best” if any can be called “best” gyn cancer to get as it is usually can be caught very early and thus often surgery alone may be the cure.

For me after almost two years into menopause, I had a cycle begin at the end of February. I knew that wasn’t right and called my doctor right away. I had just had my annual exam not 60 days prior, and was really worried. The doctor gave me a typical pelvic exam, and explained that my annual pap test did not screen for nor detect Uterine or Ovarian cancers; it was only for Cervical cancer. I then had a transvaginal ultrasound, and an endometrial biopsy in the doctors office, which showed increased thickness in the uterine wall. The cells from the biopsy showed Atypical cells for Uterine Cancer.

This was followed up with a D&C which confirmed the cancer. I was then scheduled for a complete total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oopherectomy. Also known as TAH-BSO (so much easier to say!). During the surgery, they removed 17 lymph nodes that were all negative, and found that the cancer was Stage 1 Grade B. Three days in the hospital, followed by five weeks of recovery, and I feel great. I didn’t need chemotherapy or radiation, since it was found early. I actually have more energy than I did in the past, and knowing that I paid attention to my body, gave me a new outlook on life.

So in this month of Gynecological Cancer awareness, I urge you to think about all of the parts of your body, and watch, think and learn. Your family and loved ones will be happy that you did. Join us on Facebook (My fight Against Uterine Cancer) if you need support for yourself or a Girlfriend, you’ll be happy you did.

KANDI JAEGER: 25 years working in the Commercial Real Estate industry in Cincinnati Ohio, Kandi is the mother of two sons, and been married to Steve for 32 years. Kandi is involved in many civic and philanthropic activies in her community. Currently Kandi holds the position of Senior Brokerage Administrator and Office Manager of Equity Inc. In her spare time Kandi enjoys kayaking on the Whitewater River, Ham Radio and spending quality time with her family.

Share this with your girlfriends so we can hopefully avoid this terrible cancer. And THANKS Kandi for passionately sharing great girlfriend advice!

Check out these ways to be a better friend to a friend with cancer.

Today’s Month of Friendship guest blog is by another one of our ‘Friendship Circle‘ girlfriends – the Friendship Doctor herself, Irene Levine PhD. She’ll help you be a better friend by patching that potentially broken friendship with …

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

The dirty little secret no one talks about

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 cat-fighting. 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 The Friendship Blog.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).

THANKS IRENE! Come back to Girlfriendology.com everyday in September for more girlfriend inspiration in honor of our Month of Friendship and the National Women’s Friendship Month.

Share your comments and how you’ve handled mending a broken friendship. We’d love to hear from YOU!

It’s September 1, aka: the first day of better friendships for you, the beginning of new connections, the day that begins the month where girlfriends kinda sneak up the priority chain to make your friendships better and stronger.

It’s the Month of Friendship here at Girlfriendology (and also for our friends in the Friendship Circle) and we’re celebrating with 30 days and 30 ways to be a better friend and celebrate those relationships that make us healthier, happier, less stressed, live longer and feel more beautiful – girlfriends!

Day 1: Throw a Girlfriend Dinner Party

Tonight the girls in the photo will gather at Jill’s house. We’ll bring a typically-odd selection of appetizers, desserts and whatever we could grab on the way out the door – but it will all be tasty and perfect for our gathering. We’ll catch up on Jill’s trip to Haiti, find out how Lauren’s pregnancy is going, get updates on jobs and families, and just share our lives. Hugs, laughter and wine will generously flow and I’m pretty sure the neighbors will know this girlfriend dinner is underway!

While the dinner tonight isn’t specifically a ‘Month of Friendship’ celebration, unofficially it is. We don’t need a formal excuse or ‘holiday’ to connect and share. We shouldn’t have to wait until a designated day/month to ‘break bread’ with girlfriends, we just need to find the time and make a plan. Our girlfriend group hasn’t gathered in too long so the timing is perfect – as it always is when friends get together.

So, today’s Friendship Month recommendation/way to celebrate friendship is to host a dinner party for your girlfriends.

Invite the amazing women who help you through life to a dinner at your home or favorite restaurant. Make the dinner extra special with:

• A personalized card with friendship quote for each friend or with a photo of you and your friend(s) (or frame it as a gift).
• A small gift or gift bag that you’ve made for your friends (I filled a little bag with things from the dollar store a couple years ago for National Women’s Friendship month – like a journal and frame that I personalized, and earrings that I made for each friend).
• A poem that you’ve written or a song that you can play that reminds you of them and how much their friendship is to you.
• A CD that you’ve created from friendship songs – like ‘For Good’ from Wicked, ‘You’ve got a Friend‘ by Carole King, ‘Thank You for being a Friend‘ from the Golden Girls, ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me‘ from ToyStory/Randy Newman and ‘Lean on Me‘ by Bill Withers.
• Bring a camera to capture the smiles. Then frame these or put into mini scrapbooks later as a girlfriend gift and reminder of your friendship and this fun girlfriend dinner party.
• A little speech to express your girlfriend gratitude. Tell each friend something you love about her, why her friendship is so important to you, how she has made your life better by being your friend.

Consciously stop during the evening and look at each friend.

Recognize the wonderful women before you – how each one adds to your life, the lessons you’ve learned from/with them, the memories you share, the fun moments to come. Think about how different your life would be without them in it, how they make you feel when you hear their voice and see their smiles, how you feel accepted and beautiful in their presence. Restore your commitment to stay in touch with each other a little better. Make plans to do this again – and set the date.

Celebrate this month of friendship by being a better friend. It’s going to be a great month girlfriends.

(And see you tonight girlfriends! Can’t wait to catch up!)

I love the anticipation of special moments. Presents to open, laughs to share, smiles to greet me and arms open to hug. I embrace the hope of good things to come. New friends and the lessons they’ll teach me, trust that my true friends will be in my life for a long, long time and hope for cures for my friends’ cancers (we’ve got to have hope, right?).

As a friend, I want only the best for my friends and love knowing they wish the same for me. As a friend, I want to accompany them on this journey through life – through the highs and lows, around scary corners if necessary and into the light of knowing that together we can make it. Together we can do amazing, wonderful things. Together we can help each other reach our dreams, be better people and live our lives with purpose and joy.

That’s what friendship is about. That’s our goal at Girlfriendology – to inspire you to be a better friend, to share and appreciate those special moments, and to celebrate the friends who are family and family who are friends.

That’s the basis of our celebration of September as a Month of Friendship. We want to inspire, challenge, share and connect … women with old friends, new friends, trusted, caring friends, friends who share our sense of humor and cry our tears, friends we’ll make memories with for the rest of our lives. We want this to be the start of new friendships, the month where girlfriend groups connect and launch, where you and your BFF start new traditions of staying in touch and where you reach out to someone who needs a friend.

We’re thrilled to celebrate this Month of Friendship with four other female friendship sites: GirlfriendCelebrations.com, GirlfriendCircles.com, TheFriendshipBlog.com and MWFseekingBFF.com. Each day we’ll share blog posts on girlfriend celebrations, inspiration, connections, advice and more – so stop by each day to see what these amazing friends (Tina, Dawn, Shasta, Irene and Rachel) have to share to inspire you. (Starting off with this guest blog by Shasta from GirlfriendCircles about if “needing new friends is normal.”)

On Girlfriendology we’ll also be sharing ways to celebrate your friends – little things you can do to build into these friendship, enjoy time together, make memories with your fabulous female friends. Some come back everyday and share your thoughts in the comments and on our Facebook page.

ALSO THIS WEEK ON GIRLFRIENDOLOGY …

How’s Your Self Esteem? How’s your passion for life? We’ll talk with an amazing woman KELLY SAJONIA who blogs under “Naked Girl In a Dress” (awesome blog – you should check it out!). Kelly has a great story to tell of starting over after 20 years of marriage and getting back in touch with her self esteem. We’ll talk about challenging topic for so many of us on FRIDAY, September 3rd at 2-2:30pm ET (11-11:30am PT) on BlogTalkRadio. Join us and let’s help each other see what our friends see in us!

Meet beautiful (in so many ways!) girlfriend ROBIN FELTNER. She’s following her dream of creating ‘eco chic’ beauty items like lotions, scrubs, sprays and more (and was just featured in Rachel Ray magazine! Congrats girlfriend!) with her company SUPERNATURAL BOTANICALS. We spoke with her on last week’s BlogTalkRadio show about everything from great girlfriend skin care advice to how her girlfriends have helped her along the way to entrepreneurial success. What a cool woman!

Did you see the Biz commercial or ad? We’re thrilled to have Girlfriendology featured on a national ad campaign by such an awesome brand! Check out the Biz commercial and get a $2 off coupon!

This week’s Girlfriend Shopping – You know how gifts from a girlfriend usually are your favorite?! How friends know what you’d love but possibly wouldn’t buy for yourself? We’ve got those kind of girlfriend gifts – great gifts and ways to make her friend as special as her friendship is to you.

GIRLFRIEND GROUPS - We’re on the search for the most amazing, unique, inspiring girlfriend groups. Do you and your friends have a fun, female-only investment club, knitting circle, gourmet club, networking partners or a different take on a Book Club? (Or do you know of such groups?) Let us know! PLEASE! Thanks girlfriend!

INSPIRATION

And to end this little update, we all need some inspiration. This is our most popular ‘”Liked” quote on our Girlfriendology Facebook page for the previous week:

“A friend is: a push when you’ve stopped. A word when you’re lonely. A guide when you’re searching. A smile when you’re sad. A song when you’re glad. A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future & accepts you today, just the way you are.”

(from ‘Friendship is a Blessing’ book)

HAVE A GREAT WEEK GIRLFRIENDS!

For a special (or dreaded) birthday, when she didn’t get the promotion she deserved, on the anniversary of a sad event, just to surprise her and make her day – give a girlfriend gift that makes her smile and is a thoughtful reminder of how much you appreciate her friendship. And what better way with ‘friendship flowers’ to cheer her up and make it a memorable day?!

Here’s some great girlfriend gift ideas to turn any day into a celebration of friendship:

WallCandy Flower Decals – Share these when she needs a flower (that won’t drop leaves on the rug!) around to brighten her day. This delicate flower garden bursting with color and life. These delightful flower wall stickers can be positioned to create a lush meadow or repositioned to create individual bouquets. WHAT’S INCLUDED: 12 bright pink, 12 light pink and 24 yellow flowers, 12 butterflies and 12 blue birds. (WallCandy® Arts designs and manufactures modern peel and stick decorating kits for the wall. WallCandy decals are printed on art book quality presses utilizing the highest quality material in the industry. Removable and reusable, non-toxic, lead-free, VOC free and made in the USA. WallCandy is a family company owned and operated by moms.

Cabochon Accessory Set - They’d only be more perfect if they were orange to match the Girlfriendology friendship flower! (-: This cheery set of cabochon will remind your girlfriend of you every time she wears them! The bright dahlias will accent her and her outfit. The earrings are mounted on a surgical steel post with a comfortable bullet end and they are 15mm. And the Hair clip is mounted on a silver hair snapper. The Hair clip flower is 32mm and total clip is 2 1/2 inches. They also come in Pink, Grey and  Turquoise.

Hand-stamped Sterling Necklace – You could say “Thanks for being my BFF!,” “You are Beautiful” or “Follow Your Dreams” – anything that makes this a special gift for your girlfriend. It’s a beautiful sterling silver disc that will hand-stamped with your message, distressed, brushed, cupped, and polished. Love how it’s such a simple and beautiful girlfriend gift. Holds up to 20 characters.Choose from our selection of hand-made, vintage-inspired beads: antique pearl ~ turquoise ~ black ~ brown.

Classic sterling silver freshwater pearl and mystic topaz gemstone earrings – Is she a classic? A one-of-a-kind friend? She’ll love these timeless earrings. The freshwater pearls and mystic topaz gemstones are hand wire wrapped with sterling silver wire. The gemstone and pearl combination is just stunning!

Chic Cupcake Wrappers – Make her birthday or any day extra special with these fab cupcake wrappers. Bake up some of her favorite treats and treat her to a wonderful celebration of her special day or just of your friendship. These Cupcake wrappers come in a number  of exquisite designs and offer a sophisticated elegance to any special occasion. (Wouldn’t these be fun for a ’special birthday?!’) Regular size available in packs of 12 or 50 while Mini size is available in packs of 18.

For more girlfriend gifts, check out these gift ideas: gifts for women who love to travel, birthday gifts for girlfriends, and gifts for friends who love chocolate.

It’s so important to have a support system of friends. So important! While online and long distance friends are amazing, sometimes you just need to go have a glass of wine or get a manicure together with your ‘bestie’ (BFF). What happens when your BFF is across the country? Is that normal to need new friends?

It’s September and we’re celebrating the Month of Friendship with some of our girlfriends, like SHASTA NELSON who share this inspiration with us on what’s the norm when it comes to friends. Enjoy!

Needing New Friends is Normal!

When I moved to San Francisco, I had an amazing circle of friends spread across the country but soon realized that as much as I loved Facebook and my iPhone—I certainly didn’t want all my relationships to be limited to them. I reached a point where I wanted to make new memories with friends, rather than the reporting of life or re-living of the past that we tend to do with “those we used to be close to.”

I needed present friends. I needed local friends. I needed new friends.

Normalize New Friends

Those are hard words to say though, for some reason. We have this stigma that to admit needing friends might somehow be misinterpreted as saying “No one likes me” or “I have no friends.”  It taps into all our insecurities, fears and any shame we have over any relationship that didn’t last forever.

In fact, most friendships don’t last forever. Reported in September’s MORE magazine, Sally Koslow says that “the average person now replaces half her friends every seven years.” At first I gasped when I read that, and then I nodded in recognition.

The truth is that there are multiple times in our lives when we need to expand our circle of friends! Tons of times! Whether it’s a move, a break-up/divorce, a realization that all your friends have kids/are single/moved away, a change in jobs or decision to work from home, a life-changing experience, a new hobby, a shift in life focus when our kids move out or we retire…. The list could go on-and-on! None of those reasons are a judgment against us! They are simply stages of life that remind us that while a couple of our friendships might prevail through differences, the truth is that we all need to be constantly replenishing our circle of friends to ensure it’s meaningful for who we are now.

Need New Friends

There have been numerous reports linking a circle of supportive friends to lowering stress levels, increasing happiness, prevention of diseases, faster recovery rates for healing and greater chance of reaching life goals. Add to that the reports that relationships improve your odds of survival by 50 percent, and we have a serious reminder that our friendships are not a nice-to-have, but a necessity!

The research published in July in the journal PLoS Medicine, compared low social connectedness to have the same health impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, to being an alcoholic, as more harmful than not exercising and twice as harmful as obesity!

I’m not a big fan of telling people how many friends they need.  We’re all different, but studies seem to suggest people are happiest with somewhere between 5-10 meaningful friendships. And other reports show that half of us have less than two people we’d call real friends. There seems to be some discrepancy between our experience and our ideal?

Note that there is a difference between how many people you’re friendly with versus how many people you call a friend. Huge difference. It’s common to assume we have lots of friends, but when we examine it we realize we simply know a lot of friendly people through work and school. An easy test for me is to ask myself “How many people would I feel comfortable asking for a ride to the airport?” or “Who is in my life that I could text last-minute to see if they were available to hang out without it feeling weird?” Easy things—we’re not even talking about taking care of your kids when they’re sick!

Invite New Friends

Recognizing who is in our circle and acknowledging if, and when, we need to invite more meaningful friendships into our lives is part of taking care of our well-being.

I’ll be the first to admit, it was often more tempting to call an established friend and tell her about my need to go shopping than it was to call up a potential friend to see if she wanted to go shopping. In the beginning it was less meaningful to talk to a new friend than to call someone who already knew me, but I held the truth that, like dating, I simply had to put the consistent time into my new relationships to create those bonds

It didn’t “just happen.” Friendships don’t just show up. Fun people might.  But turning them into friendships simply is an investment we have to make.

And now, every Tuesday night, I have girls’ night with the same four women in San Francisco. I know who to call for a ride to the airport and who to text for a last-minute get together!

So, now, my passion is helping foster that process for everyone else! Do it for your health & happiness!

Shasta Nelson, life coach and founder of GirlFriendCircles.com the only online community that matches new friends offline by connecting circles of women in local areas. She blogs weekly about women’s friendships at GirlFriendCircles.com/Blog and is hosting friendship events in Chicago, San Francisco and L.A this month.

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. 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. MWF Seeking BFF the book will be published by Ballantine in early 2012. Follow Rachel on Twitter.

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.” Follow Irene on Twitter.

GirlfriendCelebrations – The premier source of girls night ideas on the web. Founded by friends Dawn Williams Bertuca and Tina VanZant Bishop (shown here) 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. Girlfriend Celebrations on Facebook and Twitter

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. On Facebook and 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. Follow Rachel on Twitter.

Girlfriendology.com - (US!) 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 (and we block men!) and 7k+ female Facebook fans. On Facebook and 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!

Note: Here on Girlfriendology, we’ll be providing daily inspiration for this month long celebration of female friendship. Please share your ideas and comments on our Facebook page and make plans with your friends for this amazing month celebrating girlfriends!

You may have found us today in your local paper. (Pretty cool, eh?!) Girlfriendology founder, Debba Haupert, was featured in the Biz detergent ad that went out to 57 million households. (Except Cincinnati, where we are!) And, we got to do a commerical for Biz Blast Packs too. (Check out the Biz $2 off coupon too and how you can win a new washer!)

We’re glad you found your way to Girlfriendology!

Girlfriendology is the online community of women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. Our goal is to inspire you to be a better friend and to appreciate your friends. We love to share things with you like girlfriend advice (on taking stains out – sign up here to get that info!). We have girlfriend gifts, interviews with inspiring women and a fun Facebook female community where we share inspiring/funny videos for your daily lunch break, inspirational quotes and fun conversations.

Female friendship makes women healthier, happier, less stressed, live longer and feel more beautiful.

So don’t miss out on any of the amazing benefits that come from being a better friend. Join us as we make the world a better place, one friendship at a time.

WELCOME! Please take a look around:

Some of recent, popular blog posts: Eat, Pray, Love – what’s your one word?,Our review of Eat, Pray, Love,Be a better friend – take a day off together, and our favorite chick flicks.

Blogs about how to be a better friend … to a friend who’s grieving, when a friend loses a parent, when a friend loses a pet and how to stay in touch with long distance friends.

Girlfriend gifts – for friends who love chocolate (and who doesn’t?!), for girlfriends who love to travel and for girlfriend birthday gifts.

Elizabeth Gilbert, in the book and movie “Eat, Pray, Love,” asked what the one word defined several cities – like New York was “Ambition” (or “soot”), London was “Stuffy” and Rome was “Sex.” The ‘one word’ definition was then given as a personal challenge – to define yourself in one word.

It’s an interesting, introspective exercise that explores our core beliefs, dreams, goals, hopes, values. And, with just one word, we’re forced to simmer through our history, past all the titles and ‘hats we wear,’ through what others think of us and on to what really is important, what brings us joy and how we want to live our lives.

From  this exercise and the perspective of girlfriends, I think it’s a great conversation – for drinks after the movie, a long distance call or sharing coffee with your BFF on her porch. What word defines you? What single title or description is core to who you are – and do your girlfriends have a different perspective on how you define yourself? Do they see things in you that perhaps you don’t? Or possibly have you not shared your life with them as much as you assume you have, so it’s new news to them? Do you know each other as well as you think you do?

Thankfully with our best friends, we can trust each other on our personal journey through self-discovery and the continuing challenge of defining our true selves (and loving that person just the way we are). With the women in our lives who know us as who we really are and who we want to be, a kind of  ’soulmate sister,’ we can honestly acknowledge our strengths, weaknesses and, even when buried under layers of history and expectations, our fears and dreams. Together we can challenge each other to grow into the person we want to become and to celebrate the woman that we are. As girlfriends, we can define ourselves and celebrate our journey along the way toward that ‘one word.’

My word? (But you can have it as yours too!) FRIEND. I want to be a better friend. I want to strive everyday to be more thoughtful, to remember birthdays, send thank you notes, to be a better listener. I want to make my friends feel as special as their friendship is to me. And I want to inspire women to be better friends, to be more supportive of other women (friends or not yet friends) and to consciously appreciate the amazing girlfriends in our lives. Just think how much happier women (and all the people in our lives) would be, if we all had a positive support system (aka: girlfriends). And we’d be healthier, less stressed, have higher self-esteem. We’d live longer, happy lives filled with beautiful memories of times spent with friends. What a wonderful world that would be.

“To make the world a better place, one friendship at a time.”

Lofty goal? Silly? That’s okay. You gotta have a goal and that’s why we started Girlfriendology. Because it would be a wonderful world filled with friends. It all starts with connecting with other women, sharing your lives, going to a movie together and having a conversation. Make plans with new or not-so-new friends. It starts with one friendship at a time.

And, thanks for being a friend and reading this. If you’d like, check the LIKE button below to share with your Facebook friends.

What’s your word? (why?)

San Francisco, CA (August 25, 2010) – We all know about the importance of friendship to staying happy and socially engaged, but here’s another reason to make sure you keep making those weekly dates with your BFFs: According to recent findings, they might be literally saving your life. The July 2010 PLoS Medicine journal reports that having the support of a great circle of friends increases your odds of survival by 50%. (That’s more than quitting smoking.)

The news comes as no surprise to The Friendship Circle, a network of five organizations committed to celebrating the power of female friendships. Made up of experts in the fields of psychology, social media, and relationships, the Friendship Circle is dedicated to espousing publicly what we already know intuitively: that meaningful friendships are essential to living a healthy, happy, and fulfilled life. And this September, the community will come together to launch a special event: The Month of Friendship.

The Month of Friendship kicks off during the week of August 30^th, with 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.

The community effort is designed to increase women’s awareness of the resources available to them in finding and fostering healthy friendships, and to continue promoting the importance that female friendships play in boosting our health and emotional well being.

Members of the circle include:

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.”

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.

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.

GirlfriendCelebrations - is 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.

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.

For more information on The Friendship Circle or the Month of Friendship, please visit the websites listed above and Contact Amy Cunha, BigPicture PR, 415.362.2085  415.362.2085   or amy@bigpicpr.com.

# # #

It’s a fun week here in Girlfriendology Headquarters. We’ve met some fans this week (who always get a hug!), had some sitings of our commercial (kinda cool!) and had our local Book Club which always gets me excited for our online Book Club. So, here’s the weekly update:

Honestly - we love Biz detergent! They’ve included us in their commercial (have you seen it? you can here as well as get a $2 off coupon!) and now a print ad and fab coupon that will come out on Sunday, August 29th (this Sunday!) to 57 million households (except Cincinnati area!). It’s such an honor to work with them. They’re committed to their product and the solutions that it offers (and their fans – from our mothers to moms everywhere, LOVE their product!). Look for the coupons in this week’s paper and online. And check out their online coupons too. Every girlfriend who signs up for the newsletter starting this weekend (for the next month) will get a “Girlfriend Advice Cheat Sheet of Stain Removal Tips.” (And you can enter to win a new washer too!)

Don’t forget to join us on MONDAY, (This Monday – August 30th) 7-8pm ET on Girlfriendology.com for our monthly online Book Club. We’re excited to be joined by the author, CATHIE BECK, who wrote a great friendship book: “Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship.” Just come to Girlfriendology.com and the latest blog will lead you to the page where we’ll comment and refresh the page to see new comments. See you online – at Book Club!!

Do you LOVE Chocolate? And, do you LOVE great Girlfriend Gifts? We’ve combined the two in this week’s girlfriend gift shopping guide – Chocolate Lover Girlfriend Gifts. From edibles to facials, we’ve got great girlfriend gift recommendations with happiness antioxidants built right in.

And, don’t forget to ‘Like’ us and stop by the Girlfriendology Facebook page for our daily funny or inspiring videos, quotes and fun girlfriend-y conversations.

What do you think about male-female vs. female-female friendships? Check out the surprising

Just a little Girlfriend Inspiration

“We know not where our dreams will take us,

but we can probably see quite clearly where we’ll go without them.”

Marilyn Grey

Go for your dreams girlfriends! And have a fun, friend-filled week!

Did you know that 40% of women don’t just LOVE chocolate, they CRAVE it? Do you also know any women who admit to preferring chocolate over sex?! (No comment on that one!) They’re out there based on several studies on the positive effects of chocolate. These studies reveal that several of the chemicals found in chocolate have a positive psychological effect on women – chocolate actually can make us happy!

So, if you’re celebrating a girlfriend’s ‘happy’ birthday, we’ve got the chocolate girlfriend gifts to make her just giddy!

Chocolate / Coconut bars – 12 bars of sweet happiness! From Organic Foods, these Chocolate / Coconut bars are healthy, nutritious and taste of tropical coconut blended with organic dark chocolate.

Chocolate Cappuccino Lips “to-go”! – Perfect for the girlie-girl chocolate over, this Chocolate Edible Lip Scrub pairs with Chocolate Lip Balm (Chocolate Cappuccino flavor) to create the perfect little kit for soft, chocolately lips on the go. She’ll be able to exfoliate and moisturize her lips daily with our edible lip scrub – made from organic brown sugar, organic oils, organic honey and vitamin E. Follow up with our lip balm for luscious, chocolatey, and most definitely delicious lips!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies – Wouldn’t your girlfriend love to be surprised with these chocolate treats?! Enjoy the best of both worlds with a treat that combines a rich, chocolate brownie with moist, delicious chocolate chip cookies. 1 dozen made-to-order cookies shipped anywhere in the US in beautiful, eco-friendly packaging.

Ingredients: organic unbleached flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, semisweet chocolate, powdered sugar, organic unsalted butter, cocoa powder, milk, organic eggs, organic vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt

Chocolate-Cherry Cordial Gourmet Coffee – My girlfriend Ellen LOVES chocolate cherry treats, including flavored coffee like this from Cafetea’. What girlfriend of yours would think of you every time she treats herself to a cup of this flavorful coffee? She’ll love the taste of  sweet fresh cherries, smothered with warm chocolates. Yummmm.

Nutra-Lift White Chocolate Mousse Anti-Aging Mask – The ultimate girlfriend indulgence – chocolate and pampering! She’ll crave this white chocolate mousse mask and just perhaps she’ll invite you over a girls night to enjoy it too! Ingredients: certified organic aloe vera gel, organic white cocoa, hyaluronic acid, organic white cocoa butter, organic honey, muscadine grape skins, plant cellulose, vegetable glycerin, natural cetyl esters, L-Carnitine, white tea, sea weed & algae, ascorbly palmitate, lipadure, DMAE, alpha lipoic acid, natural ginger, natural mixed tocopherols (vitamin E),vegetable sodium pca, olive leaf extract, lavender, natural allantoin.

What’s your favorite girlfriend gift to give or receive?

For more girlfriend gifts: Gifts for women who love to travel, Birthday gifts for girlfriends

Research shows, we need our female friendships. (They make us healthier, happier, less stressed, live longer and feel more beautiful – pretty dang impressive bennie’s, right?) It is our hope at Girlfriendology is to inspire your female friendships, and help you appreciate and celebrate the amazing women in your lives. And, as lofty as it seems, our goal is the make the world a better place, one friendship at a time. Seriously! (Why not?!)

But, what about our friendships with guys? From our partners/husbands who should be our ‘best friends,’ to casual male friends who we connect with over any common interest or situation, can these mixed-gender friendships take the place of female friendships?

I posed the following question (and received these somewhat surprising responses) to our Facebook and Twitter communities:

How do your guy-friend friendships differ from your girlfriendships?

Replies:

• No drama
• No competition, and they’re protective of me. Open and honest conversations that are not judgmental. And yes no drama.
• Easier too talk too, they don’t judge
• Guys seem more understanding and even supportive
• My guy friends are just friends to hang out with as a group such as couples hanging out. But they can be very supportive!!!
• No drama, sometimes more respect, and advice from the other side…
• No drama and b.s….my guy friendships are much more fun and less difficult to figure out! I don’t have to psychoanalyze them.
• Way less drama!
• Much less drama!
• I’ve recently found that I feel less pressure to be “nice” all the time to my guy-friends than with my girlfriends!

I know I’m pretty female-friendly-centric, but those answers left me wondering: what’s up with all the drama, girlfriends? Maybe that’s a reminder that women need Girlfriendology – we need inspiration to be a better friend, ideas for making our girlfriends feel as special as their friendship is to us and a ‘no drama’ place for women to connect.

Personally, I enjoy having guy friends. I appreciate their perspective and insights. Especially for a few true, trusted guy friends, I value their opinion and enjoy spending time with them.

However (and you knew that was coming, right?), there is nothing like women connecting, laughing, sharing, caring and spending time together. For example, last night was a neighborhood book club. I cannot imagine laughing and sharing like we did if it wasn’t all women. Honestly, it was therapeutic. It was silly. It was loud. And it was wonderful. I came home feeling happy and thankful. After time together with these great girlfriends, I was re-energized and re-connected. That is what girlfriendship is all about.

Yes, it’s nice to have guy friends. And, yes, apparently there can be some drama in the girlfriend world. But, nonetheless, we NEED girlfriends. We live healthier, happier, less stressed lives when we share them with our female friends. So, let’s maybe cut some of the drama. Reach out to new and old friends. Try not to judge or feel we have to compete. Let’s be the kind of friend we’d love to have. Let’s be a better friend.

I love how women share girlfriend advice. Practical, helpful, insightful info shared between friends is one of the many blessings of girlfriends. From girlfriends, I’ve learned what make-up to buy, how to apply it and, now, even how to get it out of my clothes!

Today on The Balancing Act (the morning women’s show on Lifetime), first I learned how to get blood, mustard, grass and more out of clothes. AND, they announced a new Back-to-School Sweepstakes where you can win a new Washer and a year of Biz detergent.

Plus, you can win a bunch more stuff. And, being a girlfriend, I didn’t want to keep it all to myself so here’s just a few of the prizes:

• From Biz: $500 Best Buy Gift Card – to go toward washing machine and a one-year supply of Biz
• From Well-Pict Berries, Inc: a 16GB iPad with Wi-Fi
• From Mid’s Homestyle Pasta Sauces: Four Cases of Assorted Mids Products
• From Richell USA Inc: A 3-in-1 Convertible Elite Pet Gate and 6-month supply of Paw Trax Doggy Pads
• From DuPont for healthy cooking: A Farberware® Millenium® Aluminum – Bronze 12 piece set coated with DuPont™ Teflon® Professional with Metal Guard nonstick coating, a 12 piece ProBake™ bakeware set with Teflon® nonstick coating
• From DuPont for safe vision / safe driving: A set of Teflon® wiper blades for your car and a pair of Carl Zeiss Individual Clear Coat lenses with Teflon® Elite coating for your glasses.

p.s. To remove make-up, it’s always best to treat the stain as soon as possible and remove any excess that may be on the garment. Wet the stained area with warm water and apply Biz liquid directly.  This is a pre-treat.  You can also use the powder to form a paste by mixing enough water and Biz powder for form a paste like consistency.  Use a plastic spoon or something similar to mix and apply to the stained area.  Again, wet the stained area with warm water then apply the Biz and water paste. Also, I’ve used the Biz Blast Packs and they have special enzymes to remove stains. Just in case you need some girlfriend stain removal advice!

Disclosure: We’re thrilled to work with Biz. I did a recent commercial and will be in a print ad August 29th and October 31st. Girlfriendology was compensated for the ads and for working with Biz (and hope to work with them more – they’re really great people!). However, as an ethical blogger and business, we offer this disclosure and commitment that we only share companies and information that we’d share with our girlfriends. (Like how to get stains out!)

Girlfriend groups are gathering, like I did with three of my friends this week. It’s the perfect summer movie for women based on it’s adventure, life lessons and self-discovery focus, and if you’re a Julia Roberts fan or like food and handsome men, you and your girlfriends might need to hit a movie this weekend!

To give a girlfriend review on this new movie, I have to go back to the beginning, my beginning. I read “Eat, Pray, Love,” by Elizabeth Gilbert on a plane to Frankfurt and a train to Paris and all the nights between transatlantic flights. (I was traveling with non-girlfriends co-workers so it wasn’t as fun as it should have been!) It was a perfect escape each night as I read until I couldn’t stay awake any longer – each page calling to my love of travel and the fantasy of indulging in the amazing vistas, pastas and adventures of Italy, India and Indonesia. For me, there was a definite spiritual connection and fascination with the concept of exploring the world while looking for yourself.

When we read ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ for our June Girlfriendology online Book Club, I had given away my copy of the book to a friend, so I listened to it on CDs. I was afraid I’d miss a lot of the personality of the book and the wonderful, well-written words of Elizabeth Gilbert. Instead, since it was narrated by the author, I could hear the conversations, the accents, the pronunciations like hearing her speak of “Luca Spaghetti” and Giovani and could hear their voices answer.

As you may have gathered by now, I am a hopeless romantic traveler with far too few stamps in my passport and a deep, do-whatever-it-takes longing to fix that. The book/movie spoke to my love of foreign adventures and memories of observing families interacting on the London tube or the smiles of beautiful children in South Africa. Yep. Hopeless romantic traveler, so this book (and movie) spoke to my personal foreign dreams and longing to wander through life and countries.

Back to the movie … Julia Roberts plays the role of Liz well – from the anticipation of pizza from Naples in her joyful face, to the pain of walking away from someone she loves. I loved Viola Davis as her BFF (and possibly publisher). Their friendship felt comfortable and trusting, intimate and supporting. (Although I would find it difficult to be away from my BFFs for a full year!) I like to think of them hanging out over coffee or a glass of wine, sharing baby and Bali stories for years to come.

There were definitely things I would have kept from the book (the ‘brown dog’ story, summoning spirits to help in her divorce, being in the palm of God’s hand). But, in my humble and personal opinion, the movie was a good translation of the book. And, I’ll be back. I have several more girlfriends that I plan to see this movie with in the coming weeks.

Yes, I know the arguments against the book and movie – Liz is self-indulgent, spoiled, and unappreciative of an amazing opportunity. In life, and in this book/movie, often you get out of it what you want and depending on where you’re at in your life when you experience it. If you’re like me and long for adventure and travel, you’ll enjoy living through her adventures vicariously. If you’re on a journey of self discovery (okay, and what woman isn’t in some way?), you may relate to the lessons of love and loss, of acceptance and loving yourself. And if you’re wondering where and with whom the future will lead you, it’s a reminder to open and follow your heart.

One recommendation from our Facebook Fans/Friends for when you’re going as a girlfriend group to this movie: plan to go out for Italian food afterwards with your girlfriends to discuss the movie. (You’ll possibly be craving spaghetti and pizza. Or was that just me?!) Even if you only have time for a drink or a prolonged walk to the car, explore your immediate response to the movie. That’s one of the great things about girlfriends, we love to share our thoughts with each other.

What lessons can you learn about your friends by their comments? Are they on a journey themselves? Are they an adventurer, romantic, skeptic or foodie?

Don’t miss an opportunity to have amazing conversations, share your thoughts and open up your life and dreams to our girlfriends.

Have you gone with your girlfriends? What things did you learn about them from the movie?

Other Girlfriendology girlfriend movie reviews: Sex and the City 2 and  Julie & Julia.

That’s such a tough situation. How can I be a better friend when my friend is in pain? How can I be there for her when she’s grieving a parent, spouse, pet or, God forbid, a child?

Being there when our friends need us is one of the most noble and helpful things we can offer our girlfriends. Life is going to hand us ups and downs and real friends stick around for those and everything in between.

Meet Amy. She’s a MOM. Loves her kids, loves teaching and preparing them for all the ups and downs that life may bring them. As you’ll see below, Amy has an incredible story about grief and the painful and profound lessons she’s learned in a very low, LOW time of her life.

It’s been hotter here in the mid-west than a mid-day sidewalk BOGO shoe sale (at the equator)! (Okay, just dang hot!) We hope you’re having a great Summer and spending lots of time with your girlfriends. Here’s what’s going on on Girlfriendology:

* BLOGTALKRADIO INTERVIEW – Have you ever gone through real, deep, painful, blinding grief? Or, have you ever tried to be a better friend to a friend who is grieving? Our guest for this week’s BlogTalkRadio show is someone who knows grief. AMY is the homeschooling mother of five living children and is due in one month. She blogs about raising kids and homeschooling at RaisingArrows.net. Amy is also the mother of Emily who left her arms at seven months. Amy knows grief and blogs about it to a huge following of others who deal with incredible pain and sadness. How can you be better friend to a girlfriend who is grieving? Listen in to this week’s BlogTalkRadio interview with Amy on Friday, August 20th at 2-2:30pm ET. Chat or call in your questions. Learn from this brave girlfriend who offers amazing insights into grieving, being a friend to someone going through a terrible loss as well being a mom and homeschooler to many. {Share!}

* BIZ COMMERCIAL -We’re thrilled to be featured in a new commercial for BIZ detergent. Check it out below! Also, watch your newspapers on Sunday, August 29th as a print ad (with great coupons) will be send to 57 million households! (So funny to be on a commercial!) {Be clean!}

Click here to view the embedded video.

* NEW NEWSLETTER – We’ve switched to FeedBlitz for our newsletter (if you’re interested in their services, I have a code (Debba7444) for 10% off through September 16th – just go to FeedBlitz and check out their RSS, newsletter and social media services. (Great for blogs!) So you’ll get this compilation update once a week if you’re on our RSS or newsletter list. (thanks!)

* GIRLFRIEND GIFTS – This week we featured Girlfriend Birthday Gifts. Check um out! And visit our new OpenSky Shop where we hand-pick all kinds of gifts for girlfriends. {Shop}

* EAT, PRAY, LOVE – Have you seen it? I’m going tonight with girlfriends and will report back on the blog tomorrow. Add your reviews to our Facebook Fan Page!

* AUGUST BOOK CLUB – Don’t forget! Book Club, the last Monday night of the month (August 30th) and we’re reading “Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship,” by girlfriend author CATHIE BECK. Cathie will join us online to chat about this fab, friend-filled book!  7-8pm ET

And, we’re looking for GIRLFRIEND GROUPS (and celebrities with Girlfriend Groups!).

Please let us know if you are in a fun group or know of some – thanks!

Who better to find the perfect gift and throw the best birthday celebration? The wonderful women who love you and know you so well, they often give you gifts you didn’t even know you wanted/needed, but somehow you can’t imagine the day without them or their thoughtful, fun presents.

Girlfriends tend to pick up on what birthday gifts we would love to receive. They listen for clues, watch for signs, note our personal style and preferences, and even wrap or share the present in a special way. They notice when we need time off and give us a massage or manicure gift certificate (and then, per Linda – one of our girlfriends on our Facebook page, babysit the kids so we can enjoy the pampering). They hear us mention our favorite fragrance or author and respond with their latest offering. And girlfriends never give practical, functional gifts – unless we really do want a Magic Bullet (my girlfriends Cath and Anne’s favorite ‘appliance!’), teeth whitener or need a new pair of running shoes.

So, just in case you need a little ‘girlfriend birthday inspiration,’ here are a few great girlfriend birthday gift ideas:

BIRTHDAY CAKE COFFEE – Know a girlfriend who loves coffee AND birthday cake? This would make a fun, fabulous gift – with a girlfriend-y mug! Facts: Contains fine quality Brazilian coffee, lower in acidity, comes in buttery vanilla flavor and freshness maintained from growth till packaging.

HIPPY BEADED BRACELET – I love wearing jewelry from a girlfriend. Every time it catches my eye, I think of her and our friendship – and smile! (And, I also love giving a gift that I’d love to receive myself!) Facts: Single strand beaded bracelet, Imparts a funny and funky look, includes glass millefiori colorful beads and beads are created with flowers and pyschodelic pattern.

BELLARINA SCARF – I love wearing scarves! The way they add a design element to an outfit, the colorful way they accent the ensemble and the fun ways you can wear them. (And we even talked about scarves here!) This scarf is perfect for the girlfriend who has a funkyy but feminine side. It flows from summer light to winter white and will make a fashion statement for you and your girlfriends who would love receiving this as their favorite birthday gift!

We’ve made this kit so cost effective so that you can conveniently keep one wherever you need your make up to be. Keep one at work, school, in the car or pick one up just for travel.

TERRA FIRMA COSMETICS ON-THE-GO KIT – We asked You (okay, so girlfriends on our Girlfriendology Facebook fan page) what your favorite girlfriend birthday gifts to give and receive and several of you said: make-up. So, we’ve got a great girlfriend birthday gift for you!

We’ve made this kit so cost effective so that you can conveniently keep one wherever you need your make up to be. Keep one at work, school, in the car or pick one up just for travel. She’ll/you’ll fall in love with your makeup all over again.  This kit contains:

• 1-50grm Volume Mineral Foundation-Bare Earth
• 1-”Pretty-n-Pink” Finishing Mineral Powder
• 1-”Bewitching Black” STACKED Mascara
• 1-”Tickled Pink” Tinted Lip Blam
• 1-Mineral Eyeshadow in our most wearable shade “Beach House”
• 1-Logo Bag in either Black or Pink (dependant on availability)

LILY ORGANICS HOME SPA – This is a solo for the girlfriend who needs a little pampering. Reduces stress and makes it easy with step-by-step instructions for the most relaxing two hours of her life. It’s a perfect gift for yourself, friends or family who are stressed, getting married, expecting & new mothers, suffering loss, getting divorced, etc. With it you/she will relax, reflect and mostly important re-energize! This spa kit contains: cleansers, astringent, herbal moisturizer, facial herbs for a relaxing stream, a hot oil treatment, botanical enzyme exfoliant mask, lotions, creams, incense, bath oil, candle, cotton balls, relaxing tea, meditations and eye toning pads.

What’s YOUR favorite girlfriend birthday gift to give or receive?

And check out more girlfriend gifts ideas from Girlfriendology:

• Gifts for girlfriends who love to travel
• Gifts for girlfriends who love chocolate
• Custom Girlfriendology girlfriend gifts
• Summer Girlfriend Gifts – great for birthdays and surprise gifts

When was the last time you took a new road? Ate foods you’ve never tasted before or made a new friend?

Life is an adventure. It’s a wild ride through our 20s, 30s and beyond. From the changing landscape of relationships to possibly marriage and motherhood; physical, financial and emotional swings; to the lessons learned along the way, it’s generally not for the weak or whimpy, and definitely not for those traveling through life alone.

Thankfully we have our girlfriends. Old friends who have known us for years, through relationships, hairstyles and a variety of jeans sizes. To new friends we love connecting with, learning about/from and with whom we enjoy watching our friendship grow.

Stop and think a bit about what’s new in your life and who’s new in your circle of friends. Nothing or no one new? Embrace the adventure of life and friendships. Go for it Girlfriend! Don’t wait for tomorrow to take a new road, meet a new friend, be the kind of friend you’d love to have.

Be a better friend … because life really is better together with your girlfriends!

Speaking of new …

This Girlfriendology newsletter is changing. We’re going with a new way of staying in touch with you so you’ll notice a change next week.

We’re working with Feedblitz - a company who will help us automate and manage our RSS feeds, newsletters, etc. (If you have a blog or website, I highly recommend them! They offer great customer service and products!)

A few things to make the process easy:

• Add feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com to your address books or email whitelists immediately.
• Only unsubscribe using the links we provide in each email, not your ISP’s spam or abuse buttons.
• You’ll receive a message from FeedBlitz letting you know that the change has taken place.

If you have any feedback, issues or problems receiving the newsletter, please let us know!

More New News! Girlfriendology – as seen on TV!

We’re thrilled to be selected by Biz detergent to represent girlfriends and great girlfriend advice for their new Blast Packs. Check out the commercial (& let us know on our Facebook page if you see it!) and watch for the flyer (& fab coupons!) on Sunday, August 29th. (Going out to 57 million households!)

More exciting news …

We’re working on a book on Girlfriend Groups! Do you have or know of a fun, funny, creative, silly group of women who have a club/group? Share! Send us an email at info (at) girlfriendology (dot) com.

AND … we need your help! We need to find a female celebrity who has a girlfriend group. If you see anything in the celebrity news/magazines, please let us know! Thanks girlfriend!

(More BIG news to come! Thanks for all your friendships, encouragement and support!)

August Girlfriendology Online Book Club

Listen to our friend (and girlfriend author) CATHIE BECK on our recent BlogTalkRadio show and you’ll meet a new friend! Read her new book, Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship and you’ll be ready for our August online Book Club! Join us:

Monday, August 30th from 7-8pm ET

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store!

This week on Girlfriendology …

* Girlfriends are Teachers – We learn so much from our girlfriends …Mathematics – If 40% shoes at DSW are really cheaper than BOGOs at Payless (Buy one, get one), Economics – What nail polish lasts the longest or cheap wine is okay to buy/drink, Psychology – What guys really mean when they say …, History – Who dated whom in the past, when the last time shoulder pads were in fashion. And so much more! Thanks to the fabulous female friends in our lives, we share knowledge and life lessons we learn along the way … Read More »

* Be a Better Friend. Take a Day Off Together – When was the last time you spent time – quality time- with your girlfriend(s)? Disclaimer: I never said I was the perfect girlfriend. Running Girlfriendology comes with a few ‘expectations.’ 1.That I’m everyone’s BFF. (Wish I could be. Know I can’t be.) and 2. That I’m the perfect girlfriend. (See Disclaimer.) Girlfriend … I work a lot. I work late (until 11 last night). Early, weekends, even have work brainstorming sessions with my friends over a meal, coffee or while walking together. I’m not complaining. I feel passionately about Girlfriendology and in any role I can play on inspiring women to be a better friend … Read More »

* Girlfriend Gifts for Friends who Love to Travel – Know the girlfriend who LOVES to travel? Or want gifts for your girlfriend get-away trip? Having just returned from a fun girlfriend trip to New York City, I can’t wait to plan my next girlfriend get-away! (Thanks Patty for being a great traveling companion!) Something about spending time with a girlfriend and going on an adventure together makes travel even more fun. So, we’ve got a few girlfriend gifts for trips together or just for those fun friends who love to travel. Here’s our first girlfriend gifts from …Read More »

* Got a Girlfriend Group? Share with Girlfriendology! Do you have a girlfriend group? Do you play Bunco? Have a Book Club? Invest $, Craft or Exercise – together? Do you get together with your girlfriends on a regular basis and have a ‘purpose’ to your group? (For example: reading, knitting, Bunco or movies.) Do you have a fun name for your group and possibly rituals that only girlfriends in your group know? Are you closer with these friends because of your group and the fun times you’ve shared together? Having a fun set of friends, with a common purpose/bond, and meeting with them on a regular basis to do something fun is a great way to turn acquaintances into friends and friends into BFFs. Kinda like we were kids and we had our own ‘club,’ there’s just something special about … Read More »

* High School Reunions, Self Esteem and Girlfriends – Did you know that girlfriends impact your self esteem? Do you remember high school? The uncertainties of fitting in, if the right person/people liked you, dressing like or different than the popular kids. If you didn’t have a great BFF or supportive girlfriend group, high school was probably a tough time for your self esteem. Per a study by Dove on beauty and The Tending Instinct (a wonderful book on ‘women, men and the biology of relationships’), female friendships make us feel more beautiful. Yep, having girlfriends gives a boost to our self esteem and … Read More »

(More new stuff!) Check out our NEW Girlfriendology Gift Shop

We happy to partner with OpenSky to bring you girlfriend gifts in a custom Girlfriendology online store. This week we featured girlfriend gifts for those friends who love to travel (and hopefully travel with you!). Like this fashionable and functional ‘Crusing Caddie’ bag. Check ‘em out!

Girlfriendology Girlfriend Gifts – Perfume, jewelry and more. Exclusive Girlfriendology gifts, all made in the U.S. and great ways to remind her how much her friendship means to you.

Thanks for shopping from these and our other affiliates for girlfriend gifts and more! Sierra Trading Post – Great Deals, Great Brands, UncommonGoods – uncommon gifts!, Handbag Heaven – Best Selling Handbags, OldNavy.com – Trends & Sales (great combo!), American Express® Gift Cards – for every occasion, Affordable Scarves – Style and savings!, GiftTree.com – gifts, gift baskets, wine, etc.!, Crocs.com – Feel the love!, Gift Ideas from Vera Bradley, Endless.com – shoes, purses & more, and save big at drugstore.com!, Orbitz.com- Take a Girlfriend Trip!

Note: Girlfriendology is funded by affiliate shopping – so shop away! (Please, for your girlfriends?!)

Inspiration

“No matter what accomplishments you make in life, somebody helps you.”

Wilma Rudolph

(Overcame being a preemie in 1940 and polio to become the fastest woman in the world, Olympian & women’s/civil rights pioneer – aka: one inspiring woman!)

Girlfriend – have a great weekend with your friends. Go meet some NEW friends, take some NEW roads and have a NEW adventure!

• Mathematics – If 40% off shoes at DSW are cheaper than BOGOs at Payless (Buy one, get one)
• Economics – What nail polish lasts the longest or cheap wine is okay to buy/drink
• Psychology – What guys really mean when they say …
• History – Who dated whom in the past, when the last time shoulder pads were in fashion

And so much more!

Thanks to the fabulous female friends in our lives, we share knowledge and life lessons we learn along the way.

A few of us actually took it a step further and became teachers who influence and care for our children and the future of our world. Girlfriend Shara Clark offered this ‘ode to Girlfriends who teach.’

Girlfriends Who Teach

Let me start by stating the obvious. All girlfriends are teachers. They teach us so many valuable lessons about life, love and ourselves. (Who else can lovingly remind you that you’re not always as perfect as you think you are?)

But beyond the everyday, some of our girlfriends have chosen to teach for their life’s work, and I’m so thankful for their passion and dedication. Straight out of college, I’d often wondered why I didn’t choose teaching for my profession. On the surface, it seems so easy. Short school days. Recess. Summer vacation. And, who doesn’t love a good spring break?

But, now that I’ve got kids of my own and I’m walking the halls from a different perspective, I realize it’s not that easy. After spending just a few minutes in a class of rambunctious students, I’m looking for the door!

And, it’s so much more than just reading a few books and assigning homework. The amazing girlfriend teachers I know are pouring their lives and energy into their students. They’re not just teaching their students, they teach me too. Important lessons like:

• Look beyond the surface. Every child (and person) has something that is valuable. It’s our job to find the promise in people.
• Creativity and wonder should always be a part of our lives—no matter how old we get.
• Everything can be put to use. Egg cartons, straws and old magazines can be turned into a fleet of pirate ships with a little glue and imagination.

So a big shout out to teacher girlfriends everywhere who inspire the next generation to try harder, think bigger, love learning and expand their horizons.

Movie stars, rock stars and sports figures get their award nights, and its time we recognized and honored teachers! If you’ve crossed paths with a teacher who amazes you or has touched the lives of your children, nominate her for the Great American Teacher Awards.

It’s a national award program that culminates with a red-carpet gala honoring five finalists. Announced at the event, the winner receives $10,000 plus $5,000 for her school and other amazing prizes! The deadline for applications is September 1, 2010, so nominate a girlfriend or apply today at www.greatamericanteacherawards.com.

Our girlfriend teachers work so hard to inspire others, let’s celebrate them!

Shara Clark is a wife, mother of two energetic boys and a busy communications professional. A working mom, she is constantly walking the work-life balance tightrope and is thankful for the friends and family holding the safety net! Shara works for one of the sponsor companies for the Great American Teacher Awards.

So, what girlfriends / teachers should you nominate for the Great American Teacher Awards?

What lessons do you learn from your girlfriends?

Disclaimer: I never said I was the perfect girlfriend.

Running Girlfriendology comes with a few ‘expectations.’ 1.That I’m everyone’s BFF. (Wish I could be. Know I can’t be.) and 2. That  I’m the perfect girlfriend. (See Disclaimer.)

Girlfriend … I work a lot. I work late (until 11 last night). Early, weekends, even have work brainstorming sessions with my friends over a meal, coffee or while walking together. I’m not complaining. I feel passionately about Girlfriendology and in any role I can play on inspiring women to be a better friend. (Then they inspire others to be better friends and we all end up in a better, happier, less stressful world.)

So when offered the opportunity to take the day off, I generally decline. I find an excuse or just be honest and tell my friends that I need to work. I’m kinda a fun-kill that way! The girl who talks about girlfriendship doesn’t have time to spend with her girlfriends. Yep, that would be me. NOT the perfect girlfriend. Guilty, as charged.

Meet my girlfriend Anne – salesperson extraordinaire. The kind of girl who doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. The pack-leader friend who ‘makes lists and takes names.’ (All in a good way, Anne!) Add to the mix, two other girlfriends and four tickets to the ATP tournament (to watch the best women in professional tennis). Then just throw in a flush of Facebook message back and forth, and all of a sudden we’re in the planning stages for a day OFF work.

(My brain: “Wait! Did you say a day OFF work?! But what about the blog posts? Facebook page updates? Tweets with girlfriends to keep them aware of what is going on at Girlfriendology? Who’s in charge here, sister-friend?!)

Unfortunately our friend Michelle couldn’t join us due to a broken Air Conditioner at her home – and in this 100+ degree heat, that’s completely understandable. (And definitely beats a whimpy “I have to work” excuse.)

So, excuses aside and with a work-must-wait attitude, I took the day off – with my girlfriends. I hung out, laughed, got shushed (Sshhh! It’s a Tennis Tournament – not a girlfriend catch-up fest – or at least it is for some people!) and shared our lives. From dripping sweat to ‘chillin’ out together in the Club House, to discovering that our toenails matched (see above!), it was a great day with girlfriends.

It bonded us. Stress, like our make-up, melted away with each giggle and sssshushing. Work worries evaporated and were replaced with conversations and connections. Expectations that we (or, maybe just me) put on ourselves to perform were relaxed and postponed for, no doubt, another day. But for one day, this day, we were just three girlfriends enjoying time together. The weather, venue, event didn’t matter. We were just together and that was a great lesson on being a better friend. Sometimes we just need to take time out for each other.

I’m still FAR from being the perfect girlfriend, but I made a step closer to being a better friend. For me, taking a day off work is a big deal – but I know that my girlfriends are worth it and a much bigger deal.

When was the last time you took a day off to spend time with your friends? What did you do? What friends would you love to spend time with?

And … what’s stopping you? Go spend time with your BFFs and come back to Girlfriendology and share your friendship adventures. You’ll inspire other women.

THANKS Anne & Julie for a fun, friend-filled day!

Having just returned from a fun girlfriend trip to New York City, I can’t wait to plan my next girlfriend get-away! (Thanks Patty for being a great traveling companion!) Something about spending time with a girlfriend and going on an adventure together makes travel even more fun. So, we’ve got a few girlfriend gifts for trips together or just for those fun friends who love to travel.

Here’s our first girlfriend gifts from our OpenSky Shop. Check out these wonderful gifts for women who travel:

Honestly – I want this gift! Having just walked the streets of NYC, taken a steamy subway and spent the afternoon in Central Park – in the heat of summer, we (my girlfriend and I) should have hydrated much more. The Go Caddy™ is a compact tote that has multi-compartments to hold all your items by your side for hands free traveling or on the go fitness.

• Holds a variety of bottle sizes up to 1.5 liter, of your favorite beverage. (Bottle not included). Size: 4” dia. x 10” tall. BONUS! A water bottle cooler sleeve is included!
• Comfortable 1″ x 54″ adjustable strap. This extra long strap allows you to wear it over your shoulder or sling style. Our unisex Caddy makes it perfect for the whole family!
• Pleated deep front pocket with flapped Velcro closure easily fits a cruise ship pass (if you are on one), charge card, money, license/identification, etc. NOW with an additional hideaway interior pocket lets you store any valuable you may bring along. Size: 4 1/2” wide x 7” tall.
• Elastic back pouch is roomy enough so you can bring your cell phone, camera, a map and glasses. Size: 4 3/4” wide x 7” tall.
• Stylish and durable metal clip to hold keys. There is an additional “D” ring for the little extra you may want to clip on such as an eyeglass or pill case. Manufactured in luxurious Microfiber with a rubber backing. Packs flat for traveling.

What for the girlfriend who loves to stay in shape but finds it difficult to do on the road? Well, you can’t rely on the hotel workout room – sometimes you have to bring your own equipment like this from J/Fit. (I remember traveling quite a bit for my job and doing the stairs of hotels. I wish I’d had this kit when I was traveling!).  Here’s the traveling girl’s workout system:

• Contains all equipment for complete body workout, compact and portable.
• Includes five different resistant cords, door anchor, two ankle straps, two handles, instructional guide and a carry bag.
• Great for traveling or at office.
• Fits easily in any briefcase.

Remember the ‘good, old days’ when you got a meal on your flight?! Now, you’re on your own or charged $4 for a can of nuts (seriously, that was an option on my flight yesterday!). I always pack some nutrition bars for flights, car trips and just to have in my laptop bag for a long meeting on an empty stomach. I love these Probiotic Bars – perfect for traveling or giving to the on-the-go girl:

• Contains 15 bars, available in three flavors:

Chocolate: Rich, delicious chocolate makes for a perfect dessert or a naughty tasting, but truly healthy treat.

Apricot-Coconut: Organic apricots with just a hint of coconut combine for a fruity, fresh snack.

Lemon- Poppyseed: Imagine your favorite lemon poppyseed cake transformed into a good for you bar! Refreshing and delicious.

• Packed with 9g of soluble and insoluble fiber, each bar contains probiotics.
• Organic and low calorie snack.
• Boosts bodies immunity and eliminates unwanted toxins.

Which would be YOUR favorite flavor?

After about 45 minutes in the security-check line yesterday, I was begging to just get through. My carry-on bag wasn’t rolling so well (it’s final voyage I’m afraid!) and my big, leather backpack with laptop in it was dang heavy. Next purchases for me: a new ‘regulation sized’ carry-on bag and a lighter laptop option. Like maybe this checkpoint-friendly (and we’re all about ‘friendly’ here on Girlfriendology!) Laptop Bag:

• Converts from a sleek, padded laptop sleeve to a tote, with a flip of the flap! (patented)
• Convertibility = versatility. Protect your laptop while inside another bag, or carry it on its own
• “Checkpoint-friendly” design lets you put the Skin through airport screening without removing your laptop.

Am I the only klutzo traveler? Maybe it’s the distraction of being somewhere different and exploring new places, but spills seem to find me even when I’m just walking down a street, sitting by a lake or riding a train. So, here’s the perfect traveling companion for you and your girlfriends who love to travel:

Madame Paulette Professional Stain Removal Kit:

• Package includes six stain removal kits.
• Each kit is 5.12 inches x 3.25 inches x 0.5 inches.
• Removes stains from clothing.
• Fits in purse, and jacket pockets easily.

And, if you’re planning a trip with your girlfriend(s), don’t forget to book it through Orbitz.com. I loved Orbitz this week while traveling! They called me before flights and told me that my flight was canceled (turned out better – got an earlier flight!) and that my gate changed – and the airline people didn’t even tell us!

For more girlfriend travel inspiration:

• Girlfriend Advice for Girlfriend Getaways - plan some time with the girls, reconnect & make great memories!
• Improve your Marriage – get away with your girlfriends – really! It’s good for your marriage!
• Women’s Travel Gifts – some more ideas!

Do you get together with your girlfriends on a regular basis and have a ‘purpose’ to your group? (For example: reading, knitting, Bunco or movies.) Do you have a fun name for your group and possibly rituals that only girlfriends in your group know? Are you closer with these friends because of your group and the fun times you’ve shared together?

Having a fun set of friends, with a common purpose/bond, and meeting with them on a regular basis to do something fun is a great way to turn acquaintances into friends and friends into BFFs. Kinda like we were kids and we had our own ‘club,’ there’s just something special about bringing together a group of women to share time and experiences with each other.

We’re looking for Girlfriend Groups to feature in an upcoming book and some fun opportunities.

We’d love to hear from you if you have a girlfriend group or club. Groups should have a purpose or common connection – like girlfriends who invest financially together, gourmet girlfriends who cook together, an unique slant on a Book Club, women who get together on a regular basis for a trip together or to climb mountains.

We’d love to know things like:

• Who started the group? How? When? Why?
• Who all is in the group?
• What is the group name/purpose?
• How often do you get together? Why type of activities?
• What’s your favorite thing about the group?
• How has the group impacted your friendships?
• Advice for women who want to start a girlfriend group?

Girlfriend groups are a wonderful way of connecting with new and old friends on a regular basis, and we can’t wait to hear about your own girlfriend group. Please send emails to info (at) girlfriendology.com with your email and name.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to be featured in a book or inspired by some amazing girlfriend groups?! And, please share with your girlfriends. We can’t wait to hear about your girlfriend groups! Thanks friends!

Do you remember high school? The uncertainties of fitting in, if the right person/people liked you, dressing like or different than the popular kids. If you didn’t have a great BFF or supportive girlfriend group, high school was probably a tough time for your self esteem.

Per a study by Dove on beauty and The Tending Instinct (a wonderful book on ‘women, men and the biology of relationships’), female friendships make us feel more beautiful. Yep, having girlfriends gives a boost to our self esteem and confidence. (We all know this – we feel completely ourselves, comfortable, accepted and even more beautiful when we’re with our girlfriends.)

For guest blogger, NANCY BECK, a high school reunion was a trip back to the days of insecurities, uncertainties and accessing relationships. Fortunately  she connected with her old girlfriends to make the reunion fun and friend-filled. (Can you imagine doing stand-up comedy in front of your former classmates?! Yikes!)

Thanks Nancy!

Do you remember High School? What do you wish you knew then that you know now? Did you have a girlfriend group to help you though those potentially emotional and challenging years? Share your experiences and lessons (or your own stand-up jokes!).

Well, Biz detergent came to Girlfriendology to help them get the word out about a new product and we’re thrilled to be featured sharing Girlfriend advice (aka: Girlfriendology advice), on a new product Biz has – BLAST PACKS.

You’ll find us on national TV commercials (also shown on their site) as well as a circular that will appear in over 57 million Sunday newspapers on Aug. 29th. Whoo hoo! (With a $2 coupon like this one!)

Why BIZ? Well, if you check out their Facebook page, you’ll see that people LOVE their stain fighting detergents/products. (LOVE them!) Good brand to work with – right? And they have a new product coming out called “Blast Packs.” Blast Packs are tiny detergent-y super enzymes (officially – EnzaMix) in a packet that goes in with your normal detergent to supercharge your cleaning and get out stains. (I’ve tried these on my husband’s messy clothes from a recent construction/Habitat trip, and they cleaned them! I’ll share before and after photos in a future blog!)

Why Girlfriendology? Well, we’re all about girlfriend advice and sharing. For any of our friends with kids, sports, pets, homes that have ketchup, whatever … BIZ is the stain-fighting solution. (Again, people LOVE them.)  So we’re thrilled and honored to be included in this product launch!

Don’t forget to check out this $2 coupon for Biz and the circular in your August 29th newspaper!

Thanks BIZ for this opportunity to be featured with your ‘girlfriend advice worthy’ new product – Blast Packs!

Disclosure: And yes, Girlfriendology was compensated for my time but is a product I’d recommend to my girlfriends!

It was International Friendship Day and a busy week of girlfriends joining in the Girlfriendology community. So here’s a round up of some of the amazing connections, conversations and confessions of girlfriends on Girlfriendology and our Facebook Fan Page:

Some of our daily inspirational quotes (don’t want you to miss any!):

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” — Leo Buscaglia

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

“You gain strength, courage & confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.” — Margaret Wheatley

“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together, there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem & smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart – I’ll always be with you.” — Winnie the Pooh (the official Int’l Friendship Day Ambassador of Friendship)

“What great thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined … to strengthen each other … to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.” — Mary Anne Evans (pen name: George Eliot)

“While the right FRIENDS are near us, we feel that all is well. Our everyday life blossoms suddenly into bright possibilities.” Helen Keller

“A FRIEND never defends a husband who gets his wife an electric skillet for her birthday.” Erma Bombeck (-;

Here’s our favorite, we’d recommend them to a girlfriend videos:

Our over all favorite: Maya Angelou

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hot in Cleveland

And a few Girlfriendology Classics:

Girlfriend Groups – & please share your stories/groups!

What’s your BFF IQ? Challenge a girlfriend on this BFF quiz.

International Friendship Day – hasn’t changed much since 2009!

Our friendship review of Julie & Julia.

And the HOT topic last week on Girlfriendology: Chick Flicks – did you share your favorites?

Coming this week on Girlfriendology – Guest blog by our girlfriend and girlfriend author, CATHIE BECK. We’re getting into August and discussing girlfriend groups and get-togethers. Know any pro’s we should interview or get a guest blog from?

What would you love to discuss on Girlfriendology? Share & we’ll chat about it – with our girlfriends!

Whether you’re reading this on August 1, 2010 – the first Sunday of August and official ‘International Friendship Day,’ and any random day after it – it’s a great time to celebrate female friendship. We women know that we couldn’t live without our girlfriends so why not plan some time together to celebrate your friendship?

Here are 10 ways to celebrate International Friendship Day – or any day – with your girlfriends: (And thanks to the girlfriends noted who shared their ideas on Girlfriendology and Facebook!)

1. The Classic Mani/Pedi - Nothing says ‘girlfriend time’ like a little pampering in the company of a friend. Combine it with lunch or a cocktail to get in a full afternoon of BFF time. You might just have to make this a regular ritual. (And, speaking of BFFs, here’s a BFF Quiz to test your best buddy knowledge!)

2. Sunday Brunch – You’re just a mimosa away from making memories with your favorite female friends. Make it a special weekend with your friends by reserving a table at a great breakfast spot. Give yourselves ample time to dine and chat. (And capture the memories with photos to share on Girlfriendology!) Thanks ELLEN!

3. Pool Time – Gotta love being around your friends who love you regardless how you look in a bathing suit! LISA shared that she and her friends are planning some pool time with each other and their Kindles. (I just saw the new Kindles – thinner, lighter, cheaper, etc. Very cool!)

4. Walk/Talk – This is my favorite way to exercise – with a friend! Walk trails at a park together or explore a new neighborhood. If the weather isn’t cooperating with your plans, walk laps at a mall or school. Miles go quickly when you’re lost in girlfriend conversation!

5. Karaoke & Dancing – BIRGITTA and her girlfriends are going out this weekend – watch out! Grab your fun, silly, singer-or-not girlfriends and hit the town.

6. Gourmet Girlfriends – Create the menu and divvy up the recipes to your gourmet gal pals. Have everyone over for a memorable meal with friends (which means calories don’t count!).

7. Crafty Girlfriend Card/Gift-making Party – You know the girlfriends who always have glue or paint on their nails or random balls of yarn rolling around their car?! Invite them and your other creative friends over to make cards or gifts for all your girlfriends. Stick to simple projects – like earrings, cards, bookmarks or embellishing journals. Create memories together and for those lucky gift/card recipient friends.

8. Progressive Dinner - ROBERTA and her girlfriends are going to one place for cocktails and appetizers, another for dinner and a great dessert place to end the evening. Love that – no one has to clean their house or do any dishes!

9. Make-up Swap Party – Inspired by a recent visit with my BFF (some girlie-girl therapy!). Invite the girls and their spare make-up (un-used), lotions and hair accessories over. Girlfriends can receive a ticket for every item they bring to exchange for a new-to-them beauty item. Then, bring out more make-up and do a make-over on each other. Try a new eye shadow or lip shade. Trust your girlfriends to fix your hair then hit the town with your new look.

10. Phone a Friend – We’ve designated Sunday as the day to call up your girlfriends and catch up on her/your lives. Plus, weekends usually are free minutes – so CALL! Celebrate Friendship Day by laughing over old times, crying if needed and planning future events together – it just takes a few minutes to call and reconnect with friends. Pick up the phone!

What other things are you doing to celebrate International Friendship Day? Share and inspire!

More on International Friendship Day – History and celebration of Friendship Day.

According to Wikipedia, the first Sunday in August (August 1, 2010) is designated as International Friendship Day. Actually, here’s what they have to say:

The United States Congress, in 1935, proclaimed the first Sunday of August as National Friendship Day. Since then, celebration of National Friendship Day became an annual event. Following the popularity and success of Friendship Day in US, several other countries adopted the tradition of dedicating a day to friends. Today, Friendship Day is enthusiastically celebrated by several countries across the world. In 1997, the United Nations named Winnie the Pooh as the world’s Ambassador of Friendship. Many friends wish each other with exchange of gifts and cards on this day. “Friendship bands” are very popular in India, Nepal, and parts of South America. With the advent of social networking sites, friendship day is also being celebrated online. The commercialization of the Friendship Day celebrations has led to some dismissing it as a “marketing gimmick“.

We’ve ‘celebrated’ Friendship Day since 1935. Where  was I? Have you seen Happy Friendship Day cards, gifts or events? The amazing relationship that makes us healthier, happier, less stressed, live longer and feel more beautiful and we ‘celebrate’ it by it being just another day. Hmmm – I think there’s an opportunity there to spread the word and start bringing friends together. (Kinda our goal here at Girlfriendology!) Let’s reconnect with friends and to step forward in showing our ‘girlfriend gratitude.’ (Join me? Share how you’re celebrating Friendship Day in the comments below or on our Facebook page!) Let’s not be the country who started the movement then ‘dropped the ball’ in celebrating it. Plan a celebration of friends, with your friends, in honor of this 2010 Friendship Day – and share your photos and stories here on Girlfriendology.

How do you feel about Winnie the Pooh as the Ambassador of Friendship? (Okay, I’d prefer female representation since typically female friendships bring so many benefits to women and our families and communities – but I don’t have a better recommendation. Do you? Share below!) Don’t get me wrong. Anyone who says the following is okay in my book as a friendship ambassador:

“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together, there is something you must always remember: You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart – I’ll always be with you.”

And, I’m not going to address that “marketing gimmick” comment. Friendship isn’t a marketing gimmick. It’s the amazing relationship of people who share our lives, divide our cares, double our joy and who make the passing of time a pleasure. It’s laughter, tears, hugs, and (-: (for those digital relationships). They’re the ones who believe we’re brave, strong and smart. And, thankfully, they’re always with us – in personal or in spirit.

Celebrate your friendships – on International Friendship Day and all year. And share your celebrations here and on our Girlfriendology Facebook page. Spread the friendship inspiration. Because, together we really can make the world a better place – one friendship at a time.

More Friendship Day blog posts:

• 10 Ways to Celebrate International Friendship Day
• The Ambassador of Friendship Day – Winnie the Pooh
• 2009 International Friendship Day – don’t you wonder who added the ‘marketing gimmick’ comment to Wikipedia?
• National Women’s Friendship Month – why do we celebrate friendship?

Last week my DH (aka: ‘dear husband’) was out of town. My plan was to diet, exercise and do lots of work. Reality: I did pretty well on my eating healthy (he wasn’t around to spoil me with carbs!) and got the treadmill in a few times as well as a bunch of dog walks. I did work lots but maybe not quite as much as I anticipated.

Why not? My girlfriends. I had a happy hour with Tina, Becky and Lynn. (High high) Wine on the porch with Anne. Another happy hour with the Cincinnati.com LOL Bloggers (thanks Chris & co.!). I had meeting with Bridgett and went to a movie with Penny. All HIGH highs. It was a wonderful way to enjoy the week by reconnecting with so many of my favorite females.

The big HIGH and LOW came on Saturday. I attended a funeral for a friend (former co-worker, super nice guy, dad to five kiddos). So terribly sad. (And kinda freaky because his brother looks exactly like him.) So low, super LOW.

Fortunately I was able to go with my BFF and spend time with her and some other wonderful former co-workers. After the funeral, we spent another hour or so on her sofa talking girl stuff. By the time I left, she had filled a gift bag with make-up and girlie goodies. In the midst of a LOW low was a HIGH high – just for spending time with my dear friend.

My lesson: In high and low times, my girlfriends are there for me. And, I need to make more time for my friends – whether if my DH is home or not. It rejuvenated me and reminded me of how blessed I am to have such great girlfriends.

Girlfriend – spend time with your friends. Be a better friend … because life really is better together with your girlfriends!

August Girlfriendology Online Book Club

Listen to our friend (and girlfriend author) CATHIE BECK on our recent BlogTalkRadio show and you’ll meet a new friend! Read her new book, Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship and you’ll be ready for our August online Book Club! Save the date:

Monday, August 30th from 7-8pm ET

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store!

This week on Girlfriendology …

* Happy Birthday Girlfriend – Who else remembers all the fun times over the years and still ‘forget’ the actual number? Who other than our fabulous female friends can make us laugh, give us the best birthday gifts (especially if it’s time together) and remind us how life and friendship are to be celebrated?! So, TODAY is YOUR day. All day. Celebrate a year of … Read More »

* Want to know the best Chick Flicks? Ask your girlfriends! Our Girlfriendology girlfriends shared almost 100 great chick flicks that you should see, share, give to a girlfriend. Because … we love to watch them, have them on in the background when we’re cleaning the house or fixing meals. We love to give and receive them. We just LOVE a good romantic comedy, light and silly. We might happen to love an actress (Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Diane Lane, for example) or actor (lots of Hugh Grant, Heath Ledger and Keanu Reeves fans!) that … Read More »

* Fun and Frugal Girlfriend Gifts - Don’t you love to give (and receive!) special gifts to/from girlfriends? You don’t have to have a BIG budget to make a BIG deal over your BFF. Today’s guest blogger (and this Friday’s BlogTalkRadio guest!), NIKKI BALDERAS thinks chocolate cake or chicken pot pie just might be the perfect girlfriend gift to give (and what girlfriend wouldn’t love it?!). So, here’s Nikki’s ‘girlfriend advice on: Giving a girlfriend a gift … just because. Buying for a girlfriend doesn’t always have to be … Read More »

* Be a Better Friend – Five great ways to be a great friend. Are you the kind of friend you’d love to have? Here are five great ways to be a great friend: Shared by our girlfriend author (and fun+ interview!) CATHIE BECK, author of “Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship” (which just happens to be our August Girlfriendology Book Club book). 1. Make a conscious decision to listen. Meet a friend for lunch, … Read More »

This Week’s Girlfriendology Classics:

* Speaking of ‘Chick Flicks’ this week, here’s a favorite: Julie & Julia.

* Every woman should have/do … Check out Maya Angelou and our girlfriend’s wonderful women’s wisdom.

* A wise, wonderful woman shares insights into Emotional Eating – which challenges a lot of us. (Me? Bad haircut = Taco Bell, seriously!)

The Latest Girlfriend BUZZ:

* WOW! We’re happy-dance happy over this amazing community of over 5,000+ women who are sharing, caring and connecting with each other on our Girlfriendology Facebook page. Join us! (Daily inspiring quotes, lunch videos, fun discussions, girlfriend ’stuff!’)

#FNI – Foodies’ Night In Twitter Party on Monday, 4-6pm EST with girlfriends from Cooking With Caitlin. Come talk SANDWICHES this week with some great foodie friends!

Girlfriendology BlogTalkRadio guest: NIKKI BALDERAS, Coupon Cookin’

You almost can’t beat this topic for girlfriend advice – frugal gourmet (combining two of our favorite things!). NIKKI BALDERAS is a busy mom of three very busy girls. Lucky for us, she still finds time to share recipes and ideas for the frugal gourmet on her blog: Coupon Cookin’. (And, she even found time to share these frugal girlfriend gift ideas!) This is going to be a fun, frugal, foodie conversation. JOIN US TODAY – 2-2:30pm EST on BlogTalkRadio. LISTEN IN TO THIS GREAT GIRLFRIEND!

Thanks CATHIE BECK, author of “Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship,” for the wonderful discussion on friendship in last week’s BlogTalkRadio show. Then read her book for the August Girlfriendology Book Club and her guest blog on five ways to be a great friend.

Opening Soon – to an internet near you … Girlfriendology Gift Shop

We can’t keep it a secret any longer -
we’re opening a new girlfriend gift shop!

OpenSky is a new way of bringing girlfriend gifts to you in a custom Girlfriendology online store. What’s so special about that? We’ll only recommend gifts that we’d give to our girlfriends (or would love to receive!). And we’ll make it easy for you to shop for the perfect birthday, holiday, special day or any day gift for a friend or for yourself.

Why OpenSky and what kind of site/shop will that be? Well, OpenSky is a partnership with bloggers to create sites where you can buy from people you know (i.e., Girlfriendology). We all know that trust is the best way to shop and the … Read More »

Girlfriendology Girlfriend Gifts – Perfume, jewelry and more. Exclusive Girlfriendology gifts, all made in the U.S. and great ways to remind her how much her friendship means to you.

Thanks for shopping from these and our other affiliates for girlfriend gifts and more! Sierra Trading Post – Great Deals, Great Brands, UncommonGoods – uncommon gifts!, Handbag Heaven – Best Selling Handbags, OldNavy.com – Trends & Sales (great combo!), American Express® Gift Cards – for every occasion, Affordable Scarves – Style and savings!, GiftTree.com – gifts, gift baskets, wine, etc.!, Crocs.com – Feel the love!, Gift Ideas from Vera Bradley, Endless.com – shoes, purses & more, and save big at drugstore.com!, Orbitz.com- Take a Girlfriend Trip!

Note: Girlfriendology is funded by affiliate shopping – so shop away! (Please, for your girlfriends?!)

Inspiration – Sunday is National Friendship Day
Plan some special time with the special friends in your life!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain

Girlfriend – have a great weekend with your friends. And go explore … dream … discover!

Join us TODAY at 2:00pm EDT (11am PST) for our great BlogTalkRadio interview! Check out what’s new on Girlfriendology! Thanks girlfriend!

p.s. And … be a friend to Girlfriendology! Share this blog with your girlfriends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button below and also, when you’re on our Facebook page, SHARE IT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIENDS. (Please?!) Thanks girlfriend!

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store! May we get you a coffee while you shop?

Follow us on Twitter, Find us on Facebook, Join our LinkedIn Group

OpenSky is a new way of bringing girlfriend gifts to you in a custom Girlfriendology online store. What’s so special about that? We’ll only recommend gifts that we’d give to our girlfriends (or would love to receive!). And we’ll make it easy for you to shop for the perfect birthday, holiday, special day or any day gift for a friend or for yourself.

Why OpenSky and what kind of site/shop will that be? Well, OpenSky is a partnership with bloggers to create sites where you can buy from people you know (i.e., Girlfriendology). We all know that trust is the best way to shop and the OpenSky partnership works with vendors who offer quality products at affordable prices – all the girlfriend gifts you’d love to give, receive or recommend to a friend.

If you check out the banner on our home page, it is counting down the minutes until we’ll have the store up and running so come on back here in the coming week/days/hours to help us launch the new girlfriend. (You can sign up here for notice of the site launching and register to win a prize!)

Because I can’t  and won’t recommend things on Girlfriendology that I wouldn’t suggest to a friend, OpenSky let me go shopping early!. (-: I had my pick of dozens of gifts – from accessories to appliances, cool home furnishings to organizational products.

I passed on all that, ’cause I’m kinda a geeky girl. I feel in love with some Swarowski Crystal ‘bedazzled’ ChicBuds – retractable earphones. They offered several colors (no orange to go with the Girlfriendology flower, unfortunately) so I went with green, to match my iPhone case.

I love them! I love that they’re easily retractable so they stay neat in my laptop bag or travel gear. I think the Swarowski Crystals make them look cool and the sound is awesome. I’m a happy girl. And, I’d definitely give these to a techie girlfriend.

So, come on back to Girlfriendology on August 10th to enter the Girlfriendology girlfriend gift(s!) shop! (And sign up here for a reminder and chance to win a prize!)

Who else can make us remember all the fun times over the years and still ‘forget’ the actual number? Who other than our fabulous female friends can make us laugh, give us the best birthday gifts (especially if it’s time together) and remind us how life and friendship are to be celebrated?!

So, TODAY is YOUR day. All day. The sun rose just to shine on you. The stars want to sparkle like birthday candles – just for you! Even the clouds may want to make an appearance just to be near you. And your girlfriends want your day to be PERFECT and your coming year to be AMAZING.

Celebrate a year of lessons learned and happy times (hopefully!) with friends. Anticipate the coming seasons of adventures to share with friends and new memories to create.

Wishing you a fun, friend-filled day and coming year. Happy Birthday dear Girlfriend!

————————————-

If you’re new to Girlfriendology, WELCOME! You’re in the community of women who understand that we need our girlfriends. (They actually make us healthier, happier, less stressed, live longer and feel more beautiful. Seriously! They’re that important!) We’re here to – like a good friend, inspire you, remind you of the joy of friendship, sometimes amuse and share ideas/information with you (things you’d share with a girlfriend), and challenge you to be a better friend – the kind of friend you’d love to have.

Here’s a little tour of Girlfriendology.com:

* Daily inspiring blogs – From how to be a better friend to great girlfriend gift ideas, we share all the fun stuff that girlfriends do – like girlfriend advice and inspiration. Why do you need girlfriend inspiration? Have you listened to/watched the news lately? We need our friends and some positive inspiration to remind us of the important things in life – like friends and spending time together.

* We have a weekly newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on all the latest girlfriend ’scoop.’ Stuff like you’d share with your friends – stuff like girlfriend advice and what’s the latest buzz between BFFs. We also have a weekly BlogTalkRadio show where we chat with inspiring women. Listen in on our ‘fun, friend-filled Fridays’ – 2-2:30pm ET / 11-11:30am PT on BlogTalkRadio.com/Girlfriendology.

* You’re on Facebook? So are we! We post inspiring quotes, weekday funny/inspiring ‘girlfriend lunch break’ videos, links we’d share with a friend and conversations between women to make our lives better, easier and more fun. It’s a great place to just stop by and add a comment or post a question or recommendation for other girlfriends. Fan/Like us on Facebook and suggest to your girlfriends – spread the word and the girlfriend gratitude. (Plus, follow us on Twitter – we’re there too!)

* And if there is anything else that we can do to inspire and celebrate female friendship, we’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. Be a friend to Girlfriendology and share! And …

Happy Birthday Girlfriend!

Most of us women LOVE Chick Flicks.

We love to watch them, have them on in the background when we’re cleaning the house or fixing meals. We love to give and receive them. We just LOVE a good romantic comedy, light and silly. We might happen to love an actress (Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Diane Lane, for example) or actor (lots of Hugh Grant, Heath Ledger and Keanu Reeves fans!) that influences our theater preferences.

As much as we love chick flicks, we love to share them with our girlfriends like this list of almost 100 great chick flicks that you, our Girlfriendology girlfriends (THANKS!), recommend:

1. 10 Things I Hate about You – Ainslie LM

2. 27 Dresses – Jenn W, Kimberly B

3. 50 First Dates – @kayeporter

4. A Knight’s Tale – Ainslie LM

5. A Little Romance – Rachel B

6. A Walk in the Clouds – Grey M

7. A Walk to Remember – E’lana W

8. About Last Night – Ann KK

9. All about Eve – Ainslie LM

10. American President – @joannemaly

11. An Affair to Remember – Kathie BG, Kimberly B, @EllisTweet

12. An Officer and A Gentleman – Lee-Lisa W,

13. Atonement – E’lana W

14. Autumn in New York – Rosvetta MS

15. Beaches – Deedy WF, Wenell H

16. Because I Said So – Kimberly B

17. Bonnie and Clyde – Jane HH

18. Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Kimberly B

19. Breakfast Club – Ainslie LM

20. Bridges of Madison County – Terri S

21. Bridget Jones’ Diary – Rachel B, Ainslie LM, @KnittyLT

22. Bring it On – Ainslie LM

23. Calendar Girls – Kimberly B, @HeidiFerber

24. Can’t Buy Me Love – Ainslie LM

25. Casanova -@kayeporter

26. Dear John – E’lana W

27. Devil Wears Prada – Kandi J, Ainslie LM

28. Dirty Dancing – Cathy LH, @ajsouthern

29. Emma – Amy M

30. Enchanted – Ainslie LM

31. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – @kayeporter

32. Everafter – Jenn W, Kimberly B, @kayeporter

33. French Kiss – @TrendyBindi, @kayeporter

34. Fried Green Tomatoes – Rhonda BD, @KnittyLT, @kayeporter

35. Georgia Rules – Kandi J

36. Heartburn – Tracey RR

37. Hitch – Eleanor D

38. Hope Floats – @TheHipHostess

39. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days – Theresa E

40. Julie and Julia – Kimberly B, @savvyhost, @TheHipHostess, @kayeporter

41. Kate & Leopold – @kayeporter

42. Knocked Up – Ainslie LM

43. LA Story – @kayeporter

44. Lake House – Grey M

45. Letters to Juliet – Eleanor D

46. Love Actually – Rachel B

47. Love Story – Rosvetta MS

48. Mama Mia! – Marnie RS, @GinnyPowell

49. Muriel’s Wedding – @kayeporter

50. Must Love Dogs – Sandra M, Kimberly B

51. My Best Friend’s Wedding – Rosvetta MS, @psmom

52. My Sister’s Keeper – Janie T

53. Mystic Pizza – Ainslie LM, @ajsouthern

54. Notting Hill – Julie PW, Jenn W, @ajsouthern

55. Postcards from the Edge – Mea H

56. Pretty in Pink – @lisavielee

57. Pretty Woman – Rhonda BD, Rosvetta MS

58. Price and Prejudice – Amy, Ainslie LM, @alliumonorcas

59. Private Benjamin – Patricia BP

60. Raising Helen – @CordnPleat

61. Return to Me – Sandra M

62. Runaway Bride – @survivingstores

63. Say Anything – @kayeporter

64. Serendipity – Roxanne C, Kimberly B, @CuteAngel79

65. Sex and the City – Rachel B, Brenda JS, Kimberly B

66. Shag – @psmom

67. Shakespeare in Love – @kayeporter

68. Singing in the Rain – @kayeporter

69. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – Susan GE, @neeniebelle

70. Sixteen Candles – @lisavielee

71. Sleepless in Seattle – Rachel B, Kimberly B, @EllisTweet, @KnittyLT

72. Some Kind of Wonderful – @ajsouthern

73. Something’s Gotta Give – Kimberly B, Jenn W

74. Sound of Music – Ainslie LM

75. Steel Magnolias – Rhonda BD, Rachel B, Jennifer M, Kandi J, @producingk, @savinfamlymoney, @happy housewife, @kayeporter, @CordnPleat

76. Stepmom – Tracey RR

77. Strictly Ballroom – @kayeporter

78. Sweet Home Alabama – Melissa BW, @CordnPleat

79. Sweet November – Grey M

80. Take the Lead – @kayeporter

81. The Answer Man – @kayeporter

82. The Black Stallion – Ainslie LM

83. The Holiday – E’lana W, Kimberly B, Jenn W

84. The Notebook – Pamela SP, @HolyCraft, @KnittyLT, @lisavielee

85. The Secret Life of Bees – Janie T

86. The Sweetest Thing – Kandi J

87. The Truth about Cats & Dogs – Sandra M, @kayeporter

88. The Ugly Truth – Kimberly B

89. Thelma & Louise – Geraldine HB, @neeniebelle

90. Thomas Crown Affair – @psmom

92. Under the Tuscan Sun – Janie T, Kimberly B, Ainslie LM

92. Waiting to Exhale – @producingk

93. When Harry Met Sally – @TheHipHostess

94. Where the Heart Is – Kandi J

95. Ya-ya Sisterhood – Susan GE, @TheHipHostess

96. You’ve Got Mail – Amy M , Rachel B, Kimberly B, Jenn W, @CuteAngel79, @EllisTweet, @ajsouthern

What Chick Flicks would you recommend to a girlfriend? Share!

p.s. And … be a friend to Girlfriendology! Share this blog with your girlfriends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button below and also, when you’re on our Facebook page, SHARE IT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIENDS. (Please?!) Thanks girlfriend!

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store! May we get you a coffee while you shop?

Follow us on Twitter, Find us on Facebook, Join our LinkedIn Group

Shared by our girlfriend author (and great interview!) CATHIE BECK, author of “Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship” (which just happens to be our August Girlfriendology Book Club book!)

1. Make a conscious decision to listen. Meet a friend for lunch, a glass of wine – whatever – and, before you arrive, decided it’s going to be “her night.” Let her talk about herself all night long. We all need that now and again.

2. When a friend’s in crisis, try and think of what you can do to give them the tiniest bit of comfort – for them – NOT fix their problems, not advise them, … just something that, no matter how miserable they are, will bring them a tiny smile. Treat them to a massage. Take them a Boston Chicken dinner. Suggest a bubble bath and an hour of Patsy Cline for the evening.

3. Totally surprise a friend. Buy her a pair of beautiful shoes – for the hell of it. Offer to organize and host her birthday party. Call her and tell her that you’re taking her kids for an afternoon or evening – immediately – and that you won’t take no for an answer.

4. Remind her of all of her exceptional qualities. Make sure you give her TEN of them. Make sure they are sincere.

5. Thank her. Thank her for that favor she did you. Thank her for being funny. Thank her for all the time she’s managed to find for YOU.

THANK YOU CATHIE for sharing these reminders and ways to be a better friend!

What other great ways can you be a great friend?

(And start reading “Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship” by Cathie Beck for our August Girlfriendology online Book Club!)

There’s something amazing that happens when women share their thoughts, ideas, challenges and lives. We connect, learn and de-stress. And, in the case of a book club, we also learn about the book and how other women view the topic – which, in this case, is pretty close-to-home for most women.

TONIGHT – Monday, July 26th, 7-8pm ET, we’re chatting online with women (aka: YOU?!) regarding the book: Women Food and God, by Geneen Roth – Right HERE on this page! (Just refresh to update discussion.)

And, since we believe in a ‘no stress book club,’ come join us even if you haven’t read the book yet because we all can discuss our relationships with our friends and food. (Good, bad or indifferent – all women have a relationship with food! It’s actually part of our DNA.)

So, bring yourself and whatever food, drinks or neither to this page tonight and join in on the fabulous, fun, female-friendly online book club conversation! See you here tonight!

What problems would we solve? Diseases could we cure? Dreams could we reach? If we only stepped forward, volunteered our unique knowledge, collaborated, shared our positive energy, and basically helped each other achieve so much more than we can on our own.

I know, I’m a whimp, but that idea can bring tears to my eyes. We are a powerful, smart, amazing community – especially if we share what we know and support each other in reaching our potential.

Let’s try it. Let’s try sharing what we know. Let’s even start with little things like helping a new friend adapt to our neighborhood by sharing the best places/times to shop, or helping a new mom adjust with some tried-and-true tips, or teaching a friend what we know about LinkedIn. Let’s look out for each other – take meals to friends when they’re not well, water their plants when they’re on vacation or just find ways to make each others lives easier.

Share what you know. Help each other. Be a better friend … because life really is better together with your girlfriends!

p.s. Speaking of sharing info, there’s a wonderful series of audio/presentations on business topics shared at the recent Savvy Blogging Summit. Check them out – especially the SEO class, plus media kit, monetization, building community and J.D. Roth keynote. Just sharing what I know!

MONDAY – yep, Monday!

Join us for the July Girlfriendology Book Club as we discuss “Women Food and God,” by Geneen Roth. When?

Monday, July 26th from 7-8pm ET

Join us on Girlfriendology – even if you haven’t read the book. You’ll have fun chatting with girlfriends online!

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store!

This week on Girlfriendology …

* Who’s on LinkedIn (and needs a LinkedIn profile!)? Job Seekers, Bloggers and Girlfriends! Recently several girlfriends (as well as a great group of professional women I spoke to yesterday!) asked for advice on how to create a great LinkedIn profile. So, since they were seeking this girlfriend advice, I thought I’d share with the rest of my girlfriends (aka: YOU!). First, who needs to have a LinkedIn profile? Without blinking: “YOU.” The number of professional people and companies on LinkedIn is … Read More »

* Frugal Girlfriend Fun – Being on a budget (or trying to be!) doesn’t mean you don’t have to give up spending time with your friends. Today’s guest blog by BRANDY WATTS, of Savin’ Some, shares some great girlfriend advice for frugal and fun girlfriend get-togethers. (Also, be a better friend to a friend looking for a job or trying to save money by planning an affordable girl’s night out!) | Frugal Girlfriend Fun!! If you like to have fun with the girls but are on a limited budget, have no fear … Read More »

* Girlfriends – Good for your Health – How’s your health, girlfriend? To be honest, my girlfriend Allison’s* health (having dealt with some pretty serious cancer surgeries) isn’t great. Yet, even in the midst of ’stuff’ going on in her life, she still took time to forward me the following meaningful girlfriend message. (Thanks Allison!) | A Thought to Share – A a friend just finished taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body connection – the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker …Read More »

This Week’s Girlfriendology Classics:

* We’ve come a long way baby – FRIENDS in the time of “Mad Men.”

* A celebration of Female Friendship – celebrate it!

The Latest BUZZ:

* We need YOUR girlfriend stories! Every week we’ll feature one story of girlfriends who inspire, assist, challenge, celebrate our friendship.

Join us Monday for #FNI – Foodies’ Night In Twitter Party on Monday, 4-6pm EST with girlfriends from Cooking With Caitlin. Come talk food with some great foodie friends!

Girlfriendology BlogTalkRadio guest: CATHIE BECK

How do you celebrate friendship? How ’bout with some ‘cheap cabernet?’ Actually, that’s the name of a NEW girlfriend book that just launched this week by our guest today – CATHIE BECK. Cathie wrote this award-winning memoir, Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship, a wickedly funny and smart memoir about female friendship. This is going to be a fun, friend-filled conversation – . LISTEN IN TO THIS GREAT GIRLFRIEND!

Thanks JANNA ANTENORCRUZ for your great insights in sharing our stories in last week’s BlogTalkRadio show. LISTEN IN – you’ll be inspired!

Girlfriend Gifts & Links!

Girlfriendology Girlfriend Gifts - Perfume, jewelry and more. Exclusive Girlfriendology gifts, all made in the U.S. and great ways to remind her how much her friendship means to you.

Thanks for shopping from these and our other affiliates for girlfriend gifts and more! Sierra Trading Post – Great Deals, Great Brands, UncommonGoods – uncommon gifts!, Handbag Heaven – Best Selling Handbags, OldNavy.com – Trends & Sales (great combo!), American Express® Gift Cards – for every occasion, Affordable Scarves – Style and savings!, GiftTree.com – gifts, gift baskets, wine, etc.!, Crocs.com – Feel the love!, Gift Ideas from Vera Bradley, Endless.com – shoes, purses & more, and save big at drugstore.com!, Orbitz.com- Take a Girlfriend Trip!

Note: Girlfriendology is funded by affiliate shopping – so shop away! (Please, for your girlfriends?!)

Inspiration

“When you’re down & troubled, & you need a helping hand, & nothing, no nothing is going right. Close your eyes & think of me & soon I will be there to brighten up even your darkest nights.”

Carole King

Show girlfriend gratitude for those friends who will brighten up even your darkest nights, girlfriend! Have a fun, friend-filled weekend!

How’s your LinkedIn profile girlfriend?

Recently several girlfriends (as well as a great group of professional women I spoke to yesterday!) asked for advice on how to create a great LinkedIn profile. So, since they were seeking this girlfriend advice, I thought I’d share with the rest of my girlfriends. (aka: YOU!)

First, who needs to have a LinkedIn profile? Without blinking: “YOU.” The number of professional people and companies on LinkedIn is staggering. (Per Wikipedia: “As of June 21, 2010, LinkedIn had more than 70 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.” Companies are using LinkedIn to post and find candidates for jobs, promote their businesses, identify thought-leaders and find qualified people/blogs/businesses with whom to do business. People are using LinkedIn to post their profiles, share updates (spread the word on what they’re doing); connect with previous, current and future co-workers and friends; make contact with companies (potential blog sponsors or business partners), do research on companies and others in their field, promote themselves and their businesses, and strengthen their brand/business. Seriously, it’s almost considered ‘unprofessional’ to not be on LinkedIn.

Maybe you’re on LinkedIn, or you’re just getting started, either way – here’s some girlfriend advice on how to have a LinkedIn profile as great as you are, girlfriend! (-: (And here’s some girlfriend advice on how to be a better friend to a friend looking for a job.)

5 Tips for a Great LinkedIn Profile (for my girlfriends!)

1. Put your best ‘face forward’ – Grab their attention with a quality, smiling profile photo. I know, some women worry about discrimination or that they don’t like photos of themselves but this is your best way to ‘brand’ yourself. The photo should be close-up (‘head shot’) and high-quality (not an avatar, blurry photo, group photo or your company logo – actually those are all prohibited by LinkedIn, although some people do try them). I’ve heard that the response rate of a profile with a smiling photo to a not-so-good photo is substantial. People want to do business with, people they’d like to actually know/like.  To add your photo, go to the ‘Edit my Profile’ page. Click [Edit] in the upper right corner where there is a box for your photo. Then browse the photos on your computer (have a photo cropped and ready to go) and insert it.
2. “Tell me about Yourself” – The summary is the first thing that people/companies read about you. It should be an introduction to you – your objectives, skills, experience and even your goals. Remember to use any ‘key words’ that companies may use in searching for someone like you and use different versions of the words/phrases so they make sure and find you. For example, I taught LinkedIn to Realtors and encouraged them to use both “Realtor” and “Real Estate professional” in their summary. Cover all your bases! I think it’s important to keep this area positive (don’t share why you are lost your job or sound bitter!) and based on your goals. Feel free to check out my LinkedIn profile and let me know what you think!
3. Custom URL - This little tip shows that you’re LinkedIn savvy! Secure a custom URL for your profile – basically, www.linkedin.com/in/YourName. When you open a LinkedIn account (which is free – there is no need to pay for the premium account unless you’re an HR professional who will need to access hundreds of profiles, etc.), you’ll be given an URL for your site with some mumbo-jumbo numbers/letters at the end of the URL. Just go into “Edit My Profile” and click [Edit] next to the URL (shown here with the green arrow) and put in just your name (they don’t allow hyphens). If your name is not available, try a version of it like /DanaSmithTX or /LindaMyerMKTG. Now promote this wonderful custom URL by including it on your email signature, business card, blog, resume, tweets, etc. Don’t be shy!
4. “You did a great job!” – Yes, everyone loves to hear that but its more than just an ego boost on LinkedIn, it’s a wonderful way of having someone else promote you/your blog or business. LinkedIn is a wonderful tool for requesting, receiving and sharing recommendations. It allows you to request a recommendation – like after you’ve successfully worked with a company or did a great job as a volunteer. Request recommendations by clicking on ‘Recommendations’ – a drop-down menu under the profile tab at the top of the page. Click ‘Request Recommendation’ which will allow you to pick the job/company you were working with when you ‘did a great job.’ You must be connected through LinkedIn to make a recommendation or recommendation request. (So connect in advance of this request.)Then create your message (asking them to please recommend you) and, if appropriate, offer to provide a recommendation for them if you thought they’ve done a great job too. You will have the opportunity to approve or deny their recommendation. I have asked for a correction in a recommendation when they’ve had a typo or if they recommended me for something that wasn’t helpful in my professional profile. NOTE: One of the great sessions at the recent Savvy Blogging Summit talked about how you should create and distribute a Media Kit. I have used recommendation quotess from my LinkedIn profile in my media kit as endorsements for my work as well as included some quotes on my media page on Girlfriendology to show that others’ have been happy with my work and thought I did a ‘great job!’ (You can get all the materials/audio from the Savvy Blogging Summit here!)
5. The more the merrier! – In addition to making a lot of connections, researching companies/competitors/partners/etc., LinkedIn offers you the opportunity to connect with whole groups of like-minded people. The groups in LinkedIn are professional (like Avon and Women’s Wear Daily), business/hobby-based (from BlogHer, to Girlfriendology, to Women for Hire) and personal (college/sorority alumni, former employees of …, local groups) – just about any group of people with something in common (there’s even a LinkedIn group for ’shoe lovers’!). Groups are easy/free to join (you typically have to be approved which is an easy process) and connect you with people who you now can reach out to to network with (LinkedIn style!). Once you’re in a group, you can look through profiles of the other members and request a connection or contact them. (You don’t have access to people you’re not linked with – unless you share a group.) Use the groups to grow your connections, network, post/answer questions (especially great when in an industry/subject group where you can establish yourself as an expert and promote yourself/your business!) and stay on top of what is going on in that particular community. In Cincinnati, there are over 14,000 professionals in the LinkedCincinnati group (headed by our girlfriend Jennifer McClure!). This is an amazing group to network with, learn from and share requests/information. You can post questions, updates, information and requests on the community communications (a daily eNewsletter in this case) and build your network with wonderful professional connections. As a blogger, you can connect with PR companies and brand contacts as well as other bloggers. And, you can find new girlfriends among these groups of people with similar experience and interest.

So, that’s my top five tips for a great LinkedIn profile. What do YOU recommend?

p.s. If you’d like permission to reprint this blog post, please leave your request and contact information in the comments below. Thanks! If you liked this article, please LIKE us on the Facebook button below. And, note, we are an affiliate of the Savvy Blogging Summit recordings but they are well worth the minimal cost – especially the SEO one! (and the Media Kit, Monetization, Building Community and Keynote by J.D. Roth)

More girlfriend job support and Girlfriendology blog posts:

• Be a better friend to a friend looking for a job
• Jobs, women and stress
• Girlfriend advice for work-life balance
  

Being on a budget (or trying to be!) doesn’t mean you don’t have to give up spending time with your friends. Today’s guest blog by BRANDY WATTS, of Savin’ Some, shares some great girlfriend advice for frugal and fun girlfriend get-togethers. (Also, be a better friend to a friend looking for a job or trying to save money by planning an affordable girl’s night out!)

Frugal Girlfriend Fun!!

If you like to have fun with the girls but are on a limited budget, have no fear, there are options. Everyone knows how fun and relaxing it can be to spend time with girlfriends. I don’t know what it is, but being around a group of your closest friends always makes things better.

If you have been trying to plan a “girl’s night out or in” but have been a little limited due to everyone’s budget, I have good news. There are tons of great fun ideas that you and your girlfriends can enjoy at home.

Have a Pedi Party!! Get together with the girls and tell everyone to bring some of their favorite nail polish. Set up little stations around the room, and treat each other to a pedicure. To make it even more fun, serve up some sweet snacks and fun drinks. What could be better than a party and a pedicure??

Have a Swap Shop!! Send out invites to all of your girlfriends, with instructions to clean out your closets and bring over the clothes, shoes, and accessories that they no longer use. When everyone arrives, place everything in piles (clothing, shoes, and accessories) and go shopping. Everyone will leave with something that is new to them, and the best part is that it’s free!!

Have a cooking party. Everyone, or almost everyone, cooks, so why not do it together. Make a list of recipes that everyone likes and distribute a shopping list. On the party day everyone will gather with their ingredients, and prepare the recipes together. At the end of the party, everyone leaves with meals that are ready to go, plus you will have had a blast making them.

What about a crafting party?? Do you and your girls love to craft? If so, set up a crafting party. Find one or even a couple of crafts that everyone is interested in and plan a party. Everyone can contribute $5.00 or so for the supplies, and leave with a great craft.

There are countless ideas when it comes to frugal girlfriend fun; you just have to get a little creative.

Brandy is a homeschooling, crafting, blogging mother of five. Her blog, www.savinsome.com, is full of ideas on how you can save time, money, and sanity.

Thanks Brandy for sharing this great girlfriend advice on frugal and fun girlfriend get-togethers!

What do you and your friends do to ‘get a little creative’ and have frugal girlfriend get-togethers?

p.s. And … be a friend to Girlfriendology! Share this blog with your girlfriends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button below and also, when you’re on our Facebook page, SHARE IT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIENDS. (Please?!) Thanks girlfriend!

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store! May we get you a coffee while you shop?

Follow us on Twitter, Find us on Facebook, Join our LinkedIn Group

To be honest, my girlfriend Allison’s* health (having dealt with some pretty serious cancer surgeries) isn’t great. Yet, even in the midst of ’stuff’ going on in her life, she still took time to forward me the following meaningful girlfriend message. (Thanks Allison!)

A Thought to Share

A a friend just finished taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body connection--the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford and a male ) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality “girlfriend time” helps us to create more serotonin–a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, golf? Yes. But their feelings?–rarely. Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There’s a tendency to think that when we are “exercising” we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged–not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very very lucky. So, let’s toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it’s very good for our health.

p.s. I researched the above article and was unable to find the source but did find lots of blogs and websites who felt it was meaningful enough to share as well. I hope you enjoyed it and that it inspires you to be a better friend! Plus I’ve read similar research (like this by the NY Times – What are Friends for? A longer life!) so I believe these statements to be true. Girlfriends are good for your health!

* Allison is one of the two girlfriends  who inspired me to start Girlfriendology when I was at a loss when they were diagnosed with cancer. You can read more on ‘a toast to Allison‘ about her cancer journey on Girlfriendology.

p.s. And … be a friend to Girlfriendology! Share this blog with your girlfriends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button below and also, when you’re on our Facebook page, SHARE IT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIENDS. (Please?!) Thanks girlfriend!

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store!

Follow us on Twitter, Find us on Facebook, Join our LinkedIn Group

What are your and your girlfriends’ dreams?

I ran into an old coworker girlfriend yesterday. “B” and I both left the corporate world several years ago to start our own businesses. We were/are passionate entrepreneurs who didn’t fit in a 8-5 office environment and our friendship bonded over our dreams and schemes to follow them.

B hasn’t had an easy road to her dreams. She’s had to deal with legal and financial issues that weren’t her fault. She put her house and everything she owns on the line to pursue her dreams and, fortunately, she still has her home and dreams. She now is in the process of starting over but she knows she’ll be okay because she still has passion and friends who support her.

Sometimes we have to start over on the road to our dreams. Thankfully we have our girlfriends to accompany us on this journey and to help us find our way toward the life we dream of and deserve.

Is a friend dreaming of a new job?
Have a girlfriend who is a passionate entrepreneur?

Support your girlfriends in achieving their goals. And celebrate together any steps in the direction of your/her dreams. Be a better friend … because life really is better together with your girlfriends!

CONGRATS to the Winners of the Crystal Light + Lilith Fair + Girlfriendology Twitter Party!!

We gave away 10 tickets to the 2010 Lilith Fair concert series plus a whole lotta tasty treats with our sponsor, Crystal Light, last week.

Thanks to all the girlfriends who participated and
to our sponsors: Crystal Light and Lilith Fair!

Why does Oprah say she’ll never diet again?

Because she read the book we’re reading for the July Girlfriendology Book Club (per your recommendation!): “Women Food and God,” by Geneen Roth. JOIN US …

Monday, July 26th from 7-8pm ET

We need your input: Should we hold the Book Club on Girlfriendology or on Twitter? Share what you think on our Facebook page (as well as more Book Club suggestions!).

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store!

Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook Join our group on LinkedIn

This week on Girlfriendology …

* Slacker’s Guide to Friendship – So where does Girlfriendology get off thinking you should try to be a better friend? What right do we have to add guilt to your booked-solid, multiple-hat-wearing, juggling babies and daggers kind of life? Before we try to respond to all that, we read the following blog recently and had to share it. Thankfully, the author/blogger kindly agreed to … Read More »

* Top 10 Reasons to join the #CrystalLightLilith Twitter Party with Girlfriendology! - Use #CrystalLightLilith (and follow @CrystalLight and @Girlfriendology) for TODAY’s Crystal Light – Lilith Fair Twitter Party and win fabulous prizes like five sets of tickets to Lilith Fair! (Rules/info here.) Plus samples of Crystal Light Pure Fitness and more! What are the Top Ten reasons to join the #CrystalLightLilith Twitter Party? Drumroll please …Read More »

* 10 Lessons from Savvy Blogging Summit - Held in Breckenridge, CO, this conference was hosted by five fabulous female frugal bloggers and positioned to, as their tag line states, take your blog to new heights. Unlike other (primarily) women blogger conferences which tend to focus on drama, swag bags and parties, this conference was all about learning how to make our blogs into successful businesses and connecting with other bloggers (which is always fun!). Since you couldn’t all attend, here’s my version of girlfriend advice – 10 lessons I learned at … Read More »

* Girlfriend Recommendation: Family Movie Night, The Jensen Project - Sometimes you just have to share a girlfriend recommendation, right? Well, this one is going out to all of you with kids and who want to spend some quality time together. This Friday night is the second movie created by a production company (working with P&G and Walmart) that develop movies for ‘Family Movie Night.’ (They were the ones that introduced us to ‘The Secrets of the Mountain‘ previously!) Their goal is to create quality entertainment that … Read More »

* Be a Better Friend to a Friend Looking for a Job – As girlfriends, and in these ‘economic times’ as well as changes in our/friends’ lifestage, most of us have friends who are unemployed or may just need to find a different job. It’s a tough time to look for a job and a rough road to navigate – especially by ourselves. As someone who wants to be a better friend, we need to be there for each other in good and bad, happy and sad, employed and ‘OMG, What am I going to do with my life?’ times. So, here’s some girlfriend advice on being a friend to a friend looking for a job … Read More »

* Girlfriends help make Dreams a Reality – Do you share your dreams with your girlfriends? Well, you might want to! As your friend, we want to share in your dreams (and celebrating when we reach our dreams!). With the support of our girlfriends, as well as their ideas, connections and assistance, we are more equipped to achieve our goals and see our dreams become reality! Accountability girlfriends can help us stay on track and offer suggestions. Girlfriend groups (like an entrepreneurial group or a blogger network), can give us the power of … Read More »

This Week’s Girlfriendology Classics:

* Girlfriend Advice for Finding a new Job - Career coach and girlfriend, JULIE BAUKE, shares great girlfriend advice for interviewing well.

* Entrepreneurial Girlfriends Helping Each Other – I love my passionate friends who are supportive and inspiring. Thanks girlfriends!

* Great girlfriends deserve great girlfriend gifts – right? Here’s our girlfriend advice for some fun friend-filled books and girlfriend gifts!

* Thankful for friends - Especially those friends who become family. You know who they are!

* Girlfriends, Moms, Sisters – Ode to the women who bless our lives.

The Latest Girlfriendology BUZZ:

* We need YOUR girlfriend stories! Every week we’ll feature one story of girlfriends who inspire, assist, challenge, celebrate our friendship. Share your story!

Join us Monday for #FNI – Foodies’ Night In Twitter Party on Monday, 4-6pm EST with girlfriends from Cooking With Caitlin. Come talk food with some great foodie friends!

Girlfriendology BlogTalkRadio guest: JANNA ANTENORCRUZ

Did your mom have a lot of friends growing up? Are you following in her ‘friendship footsteps? And, actually, how much do you know about your mother and her childhood? Girlfriend JANNA ANTENORCRUZ believes we need to pass along our stories to our children – of our childhood. She’s recording women’s stories on her site Mommy’s Piggy Tales. She’ll share the power of stories on Friday – 2-2:30pm EST on BlogTalkRadio. LISTEN TO THIS INSPIRING GIRLFRIEND!

Thanks RACHEL BERTSCHE for sharing great insights in finding new friends, like her blogging/book journey called “MWF seeking BFF.” LISTEN IN – you’ll be inspired!

NEW Girlfriendology Affiliates – check ‘um out!

Girlfriendology Girlfriend Gifts – Perfume, jewelry and more. Exclusive Girlfriendology gifts, all made in the U.S. and great ways to remind her how much her friendship means to you.

Thanks for shopping from these and our other affiliates for girlfriend gifts and more! Sierra Trading Post – Great Deals, Great Brands, UncommonGoods – uncommon gifts!, Handbag Heaven – Best Selling Handbags, OldNavy.com – Trends & Sales (great combo!), American Express® Gift Cards – for every occasion, Affordable Scarves – Style and savings!, GiftTree.com – gifts, gift baskets, wine, etc.!, Crocs.com – Feel the love!, Gift Ideas from Vera Bradley, Endless.com – shoes, purses & more, and save big at drugstore.com!, Orbitz.com- Take a Girlfriend Trip!

Note: Girlfriendology is funded by affiliate shopping – so shop away! (Please, for your girlfriends?!)

Inspiration

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child and the smiling faces. Smell the rain and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential and fight for your dreams.”

Ashley Smith

What makes you happy? What do you dream about accomplishing?

Do your girlfriends know your hopes and dreams? Do you share your goals and ideas with the wonderful women in your life?

You might want to! As your friend, we want to share in your dreams (and celebrating when we reach our dreams!). With the support of our girlfriends, as well as their ideas, connections and assistance, we are more equipped to achieve our goals and see our dreams become a reality!. Accountability girlfriends can help us stay on track and offer suggestions. Girlfriend groups (like an entrepreneurial group or a blogger network), can give us the power of a team even when we’re going it alone. We can accomplish amazing things with the support and encouragement of girlfriends!

Want some proof? Check out how blogger JANNA ANTENORCRUZ’s girlfriends have helped her reach her dreams! (And join us on Friday as we interview Janna on our Girlfriendology BlogTalkRadio show, 2-2:30pm EST, July 16th.)

Girlfriends Helped Me Make My Dream a Reality

Without girlfriends I never would have started my new blog Mommy’s Piggy TALES.

It all started in January 2010 when I had a rough idea for a new blog or meme inspired by my grandmother, and I asked my girlfriend Melissa if we could meet at Barnes and Noble to discuss the idea. I treated her to a blond brownie and Jones soda and then picked her brain. I needed help choosing a name for the project but couldn’t come up with a name I liked. We decided to walk around the children’s book section for inspiration, and after about ten minutes Melissa said, “Piggy Tales?”

I immediately thought of a picture I had of me in piggy tales and thought it was perfect name with it’s double meaning. I want my daughter to know her mommy once wore piggy tails just like she does as I share the tales from my life.

I attended Blissdom in February and met some girlfriends who loved to blog just like me. Meeting other women who understood my passion for something that took more time than a hobby and could have the potential for generating some income was wonderful.

During March and April I called my blogger girlfriends Tamara, Amber, and Mary to see what they thought of my top secret idea, and if they had heard of any other blogs like it. I also asked them for any advice they had for pursuing my blog concept. I sent emails as well to several close blogger girlfriends like Kim and Carrie.

They all had different perspectives and helpful tips, but they all had one thing in common. They all said “Go for it!” I then contacted Jo-Lynne, a blog designer, and took action on all the talking I’d been doing. When the design was finished, I called on all my online girlfriends to participate in Mommy’s Piggy Tales.

And now here we are July 2010 with a group of 45 girlfriends recording our youth together each week. We started on June 10 sharing our birth stories and how we got our names, and we are working our way up to age eighteen. We record a few memories from each year of our life once a week and this week we wrote about fourth grade.

These girls have shared their stories with me, and made my life richer. It’s pretty hard to hear someone’s life stories and not be moved and feel a certain connection with them.

I have cried, laugh out loud, and gotten chills reading their stories. Their stories have such value and I feel humbled to have had a small part in facilitating a blog to help them be heard, and preserve their story for generations both now and later.

MommysPiggyTALES.com Record YOUR Youth in 15 posts or vlogs, Second session begins October 7, 2010.
Twitter: @AdventureMomJ and Janna also blogs at TheAdventureofMotherhood.com

What are YOUR dreams? Do your girlfriends know them? How do they help you in your journey to live your best life and reach your dreams?

p.s. And … be a friend to Girlfriendology! Share this blog with your girlfriends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button below and also, when you’re on our Facebook page, SHARE IT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIENDS. (Please?!) Thanks girlfriend!

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store! May we get you a coffee while you shop?

Follow us on Twitter, Find us on Facebook

As girlfriends, and in these ‘economic times’ as well as changes in our/friends’ lifestage, most of us have friends who are unemployed or may just need to find a different job. (Or maybe it’s us that is going through a job search or stress!) It’s a tough time to look for a job and a rough road to navigate – especially by ourselves.

As someone who wants to be a better friend, we need to be there for each other in good and bad, happy and sad, employed and ‘OMG, What am I going to do with my life?’ times. So, here’s some girlfriend advice on being a friend to a friend looking for a job (or who needs to find a new job) – our girlfriends dealing with job stress (and who doesn’t have that more?!).

We’ve all been there, so let’s be there for each other. Please add your girlfriend advice for finding a job or dealing with job stress in the comments area below.

1. Be a Friend. Listen. Be available to walk, talk or just take her mind off the situation by sharing some gooey cheese fries, chocolate in any form and a glass (or three) of wine. Friends are there for their friends and she needs you to be there for her. So often girlfriends are our personal ‘cheerleaders’ so ‘bring out the pompoms‘ and remind her of the great things she’s done, of her accomplishments and successes, and all the ways she has helped you. And, if she needs to cry or vent, let her – but try to offer some comic relief or positive news/insights to end the conversation in a hopeful way.

2. Share what you know. I’ve taught LinkedIn so this weekend I’m working with my girlfriend Becky on her profile and how to use LinkedIn to find a new job. Here are a few articles on creating a great LinkedIn profile shared by @MagneticWomen, aka Rhonda: Guy Kawasaki’s guide to a LinkedIn Profile, Chris Brogan’s ‘Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You and What Recruiters look for in a LinkedIn profile. (Thanks Rhonda!) Do some research for her – on companies and local job seeker groups. What else do you know that can help your friend in her job search? Or … WHO do you know? Share contacts! Make connections on LinkedIn. Review and proof her resume. Brainstorm businesses to explore. Find stories of how others got their jobs and pass them along to keep her optimistic.

3. Be thoughtful. Ask her how things are going but be aware and respectful. (I’ve been there before – sometimes there’s nothing new to report so understand if she doesn’t want to talk about it.) Check with her after an interview to see how it went. Meet for coffee or ice cream to celebrate a potential opportunity. Offer to watch her kids during interviews so she doesn’t have to worry about that. Help her find great interview outfits (possibly by shopping consignment stores). Plan girlfriend get-togethers or events at friends’ homes or places that are inexpensive so it doesn’t cause her more stress to join you. Stay aware of her mood and how she’s feeling about things. Identify if she needs to get out of the house and do something to take her mind off her job search stress. Keep her busy so she doesn’t have time to worry about things!

4. Practice Random Acts of Kindness. Leave a card on her door with a cheerful message or a bouquet of orange gerbera daisies. (-:  Follow frugal sites with her (share frugral advice like this from the LOL Savings Summit) and go ‘cheap shopping’ together. Reach out to others to find contacts and job opportunities and share with her.

5. Dream Together. Girlfriends often know us best so we’re a perfect  team to dream and scheme about our dreams. Gather some scrapbook or craft materials and create ‘Vision Boards’ together, explore the amazing options available for your futures with the wonderful friend(s) who will cheer you along toward your goals. And cheer for each other as you move in the direction of your dreams!

How have your girlfriends helped you when you were searching for a job? What have you done to help a friend find a job?

Share and inspire!

Here’s more girlfriend advice on jobs and dealing with job loss and stress:

• Girlfriend advice for a great LinkedIn profile
• Jobs, women and stress
• Creatively dream with your girlfriends

p.s. And … be a friend to Girlfriendology! Share this blog with your girlfriends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button below and also, when you’re on our Facebook page, SHARE IT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIENDS. (Please?!) Thanks girlfriend!

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store! May we get you a coffee while you shop?

Follow us on Twitter, Find us on Facebook

Sometimes you just have to share a girlfriend recommendation, right? Well, this one is going out to all of you with kids and who want to spend some quality time together.

This Friday night is the second movie created by a production company (working with P&G and Walmart) that develop movies for ‘Family Movie Night.’ (They were the ones that introduced us to ‘The Secrets of the Mountain‘ previously!) Their goal is to create quality entertainment that the whole family can watch together.

The Jensen Project is airing this Friday, JULY 16th at 8pm on NBC.

Here’s the summary:

The world is hanging by a string. Can this family pull it together? After a 16-year absence, Claire and Matt Thompson are reintroduced to The Jensen Project — a secret community of geniuses conducting advanced underground research to solve the world’s most difficult problems. The former scientists, accompanied by their tech-minded teenage son Brody, are thrust into a frantic pursuit to keep a potentially dangerous technology from falling into the wrong hands. As the family races against the clock to stop the group’s rogue faction, they discover an important truth. In this high-pressure, high-tech world, sometimes the smartest thing we can do is lean on each other.

As with ‘Secrets of the Mountain,’ Randy Jackson and a cast of amazing singers have created a soundtrack to accompany this family movie. Here’s the trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Spend time with people you love this Friday for “Family Movie Night.”

Other girlfriend recommendations for spending time with your family? Please share!

Full disclosure: I was not compensated for sharing this information. I just hope that girlfriends and their families enjoy it. (And I guy I kinda know is the writer and one of the singer – so excited for him!)

Held in Breckenridge, CO, this conference was hosted by five fabulous female frugal bloggers and positioned to, as their tag line states, take your blog to new heights. Unlike other (primarily) women blogger conferences which tend to focus on drama, swag bags and parties, this conference was all about learning how to make our blogs into successful businesses and connecting with other bloggers (which is always fun!). (You don’t have to miss out on the info – check it out here: Click here to get Savvy Blogging presentations – written and audio.)

Since you couldn’t all attend, here’s my version of girlfriend advice – 10 lessons I learned at the 2010 Savvy Blogging Summit conference:

1. Sharing and learning with amazing women is a wonderful thing! Over a snack break, across the table at a meal or sitting together in the sessions, sometimes the big ‘Ah-ha’ moments come in little conversations. I love learning from/with women who share my passion for blogging and social media, and who generously share their knowledge. Combine trust and respect of each other, and together we’re all better off when we treat each other as girlfriends and offer our ideas and support. Here’s a few of the amazing bloggers I met and with whom I am thrilled to share ideas: (click through and check out their blogs!)

• My roomies: Kelly, Karen and Jackie - thanks for the great conversations and for making it not so strange to stay with three strangers!
• More inspiring, smart and sharing bloggers: Tiffany – Eat at Home Cooks; Jamie – I am a Money Magnet; Dana – A Slob Comes Clean; Alissa – Faith, Family, Frugality; Angie – Many Little Blessings; Mary – Giving Up on Perfect; Kelly – Faithful Provisions; Rachel – Surviving the Stores (and Truvia lover!); Lauren – Mama’s Laundry Talk; Catherine – Frugal Homemaker Plus; Jennifer – Coupon Mommie; Brandy – Savin’ Some; Janna – Mommy’s Piggy Tales; Briana – Bargain Briana; Jen – Beauty and Bedlam; Tonya – Traveling Praters; Amy – Amy’s Finer Things; Tara – Feels like Home; Amy – Raising Arrows; and so many more that I don’t have cards/info for.

2. You need a great team to accomplish great things (like a fab conference). There wouldn’t be sharing and learning without …

• The fabulous Savvy Blogging Summit host bloggers: (local and LOL) girlfriend Andrea (listen in to this interview with Andrea), Toni, Erin (whom we had on this BlogTalkRadio show), Crystal C and Crystal P.
• Cool Sponsors who helped make this event possible: FeedBlitz, Lijit, BlogFrog, Escalate Media, Bake me a Wish, Shop at Home.com, Office Max, Savings.com, Mission Foods and Viglink.

Smart Speakers: J.D. Roth, Joy, Troy (great SEO session!), “Values Val,” David, Melissa, Jim and Lisa.

‘Girlfriend advice’ from the sessions, aka: Lessons from Savvy Blogging Summit:

3. Treat your Blog like a Business – Jim Summers, father of Erin/$5 Dinners, shared helpful legal advice for bloggers like incorporating into an LLC, getting an EIN and using these to get a corporate banking account. He encouraged us to treat our blogs like businesses and to include due dates and terms on our contracts. (Great job Jim!)

4. Work Smarter: Optimize and Prioritize - Lisa encouraged us to set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timed); and to set/limit email and social media times to be most efficient. (One time management tool recommended by several presenters was LeechBlock – a Firefox download/system for limiting your time on social media sites.) To keep us productive, Lisa recommends de-cluttering our desk during the last five minutes of the day.

5. Design for Your Readers – Joy, from 5 J’s, shared design and CSS recommendations like: keep your line length (on your blog pages) to 12-15 words max – or readers won’t be readers. She also shared helpful info on reader usability and encouraged us to use Firebug to analyze and change code on blogs/sites.

6. Tell a Story – This was a repeated theme for blog content during the Savvy Blogging Summit. We all have a story and need to share it with our readers. Jesse Odell, from Launch Squad, shared that stories are clear, relevant, authentic and engaging – and they’re essential to building a community around your blog. (Look for more stories of Girlfriendology and the amazing girlfriends in our community in the future!)

7. Be ‘ready for your close up’ – Bloggers can grow our brands (and possibly income) by professionally working with the Media and PR agencies. “Value Val” is a popular on-air talent in Atlanta and shared these TV tips: Give specific, great info; speak in full sentences (repeat the question with your answers) and speak in full sentences in 10-25 second sound bits. Melissa Hourigan shared information on creating and distributing a digital press kit. These press kits, per Melissa, should have: an ‘about you,’ goals, about the blog, contact information and stats. She also instructed us to know the demographics of our online audience and be able to communicate our range of influence (like through social media). Melissa recommends putting your media kit information in to a Google Doc or PDF so you can send it to the media.

8. Businesses make $$$, right? – We shared an elevator at the hotel with some non-bloggers. They kinda scoffed bloggers and wondered how we make money. (I kinda helped them ’see the light’ on this profession and professionals – but nicely!) J.D. Roth lead this discussion about how we, as the Savvy Blogging Summit said, can ‘take our blog to new heights.’ Here’s some insights shared by J.D. and the attendees: don’t give too many advertising options (never more than two ads displayed in the same screen), test the placement of ads, know what posts on our sites generate the most traffic and optimize these with ads/offers, diversify our ads and efforts, and various monetization options: eBooks, affiliate sales, reselling products, being a brand ambassador or consultant, ad revenue and paid membership models.

9. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – Troy Lerner from Booyah! Advertising shared a ton of great info for ‘giving Google what they want’ (so they give you the traffic you want!). Here’s a laundry list of SEO advice (from someone I’d trust to give SEO advice!): you don’t need to worry about <no follow> tags – Google doesn’t acknowledge them, spend more of your time on LINKS than content, do not have duplicate page titles, have a robots.txt page, to avoid ‘duplicate content’ change at least one word, and Google likes keywords in Anchor Text Links. (Note: I can’t answer techie questions on any of these – Google them!) He recommends 2-4 links per 500 words of text and that blog posts be 300-600 words. For more info, he recommends Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Land.

10. Get outta town! Sometimes you just have to leave the comfort of your home office and visit a new place to get new ideas. Breckenridge, CO is beautiful (see?!) and was a perfect location for the summit (after the killer altitude headache ended 24-hours after reaching that elevation). I love travel and find that my brain needs a different environment to look at my business in a different and needed way. And I love the conversations and connections made between creative, passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs.

Thanks to all the amazing people who made this Savvy Blogging Summit such a success – the host bloggers, sponsors, speakers and attendees. It was a joy to meet so many of you, to learn together and to share in this event with you!

Are you attending (or have you previously) any women blogger events? What do you hope to learn? How do you plan to take your blog to new heights?

WHOO HOO! Now you can buy the audio/info from these great sessions. Click here to visit Savvy Blogging.

I’d HIGHLY recommend the SEO session (worth the cost of the whole conference!), Law and Accounting (especially if you wonder how to incorporate/set-up your blog/business), Media Kit workshop (working on the Girlfriendology Media Kit right now!), Building community, Monetization and the opening keynote speech by J.D. Roth.

Note: I am an affiliate for these session recordings but I wouldn’t recommend them if they weren’t great!

Use #CrystalLightLilith (and follow @CrystalLight and @Girlfriendology) for TODAY’s Crystal Light – Lilith Fair Twitter Party and win fabulous prizes like 5 sets of tickets to Lilith Fair! (Rules/info here.) Plus samples of Crystal Light Pure Fitness and more!

What are the Top Ten reasons to join the #CrystalLightLilith Twitter Party? Drumroll please …

10. You don’t have to dress up or put on make-up. It’s a TWITTER party!

9. No high calorie treats to tempt you like spinach-artichoke dip, fried chicken or guacamole and chips. (Unless you bring your own!)

8. You can listen to Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow or Kelly Clarkson super-loud and no one will complain. (Okay … maybe a neighbor if they sleep during the day but share a Crystal Light with them and they’ll probably be okay!)

7. You don’t have to leave the comfort of your computer (and you might even be able to party at work and no one will know!).

6. Enlist a girlfriend to join in the party and agree that if she wins she’ll take you and if you win you’ll take her. You just doubled your odds!

5. It’s the best hydrated party in town! (Tis the season to hydrate and Crystal Light makes it a yummy way to stay cool and satisfied!)

4. It’s beats an Oprah re-run! (- (Love ya Oprah – but now that you’re in re-run season you’ll have time to join in on this Twitter party!)

3. You can WIN Crystal Light Pure Fitness drinks and merchandise! (These are sweetened naturally and contain electrolytes that your body needs – and they taste great!)

2. You can WIN Lilith Fair merchandise to make you the coolest gal on the block!

1. You can win one of 5 sets of TICKETS to LILITH FAIR! Take your favorite friend and go enjoy a summer concert that celebrates women in music.

JOIN US! 3-4pm ET on Twitter – just use #CrystalLightLilith to chat, tweet and win!

So where does Girlfriendology get off thinking you should try to be a better friend? What right do we have to add guilt to your booked-solid, multiple-hat-wearing, juggling babies and daggers kind of life?

Before we try to respond to all that, we read the following blog recently and had to share it. Thankfully, the author/blogger kindly agreed to share it with you. (Thanks Bethany Smith and I can totally relate to your feeling of being ‘Crazy busy and sometimes just crazy.’ Thanks for your great girlfriend advice and for sharing the truth!)

The Slacker’s Guide to Friendship

I ended up lonely.

I am good at being alone, but I reached a point where I wanted, needed, a girlfriend or two around, and I was at a loss of who to call.

Where was I?

Yes! No friends.

I decided to do something about it.

ONE DAY. ONE FRIEND.

Say it with me. One day. One friend.

Every day, I reach out to one person. It can be a visit, phone call, substantial email, or actual letter. It has to be meaningful. (Facebook comments no longer count.)

And you know what? I’m finding it takes five minutes. FIVE MINUTES. I will talk longer if that’s what is needed, or I have extra time, but five minutes, to someone else who may be feeling lonely, is a big deal. Let me repeat that: FIVE MINUTES, TO SOMEONE WHO IS LONELY, IS A VERY BIG DEAL. (She says from experience.)

If I haven’t gotten back to you yet, well… I am a year or two behind.

One more thing: I first started with a list, but I found that the day I didn’t want to talk to Ansley Adams (name changed to protect my catty-ness), I abandoned the list all together. On day two. So: no list. Just a person on my heart. One day. One friend.

How do you keep your friends?

Bethany Smith is a writer and English teacher. She blogs weekly here.

Bethany is right. You can build friendships in just five minutes per day. You just have to make the effort and understand that the returns on your investment will come in ways that will surprise you and make you happy. (In addition to making you healthier, less stressed, live longer and feel more beautiful.) You’ll build friendships that may last longer than your romantic relationships. You’ll create memories that will make you smile for the rest of your life. And you’ll be happier – not lonely. Isn’t that worth it for five minutes per day?

Share how you make and stay in touch with your friends.

p.s. And … be a friend to Girlfriendology! Share this blog with your girlfriends by clicking the Facebook LIKE button below and also, when you’re on our Facebook page, SHARE IT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIENDS. (Please?!) Thanks girlfriend!

And fortunately, that independence allows me the opportunity to be dependent. I’m blessed to have a dependable husband, new roof (yeah!), dog (the cat isn’t always dependable!) and 4-year old car. And I’m so honored to have friends, on whom I can depend. Thoughtful, helpful, wonderful, beautiful girlfriends who are there for me to get together with for a movie (thanks Julie!), to take care of that dog (thanks Penny and Jill!), share ideas/info for Girlfriendology (thanks Barb, Terri, Joanne, Sue, Judi, etc.), and who look out for me at all times (too many to name! Thanks to you all!). I depend on all of you to help me reach my dreams and live the life I imagine.

Who do you depend on? What girlfriends are there for you to dream with, scheme with or just laugh with? What friends make your day whenever you’re together?

Celebrate independence and dependence this weekend – with your girlfriends. Celebrate friendship and freedom. Have a great 4th of July weekend. Spend time together with your girlfriends and enjoy life. Those are the happy times from which memories are made. And, remember to …

… Be a better friend – because life really is better together with your girlfriends!

Crystal Light + Lilith Fair + Girlfriendology Twitter Party = Tickets, Products & WINNERS!

Love LILITH? Gotta keep cool in the summer with some CRYSTAL LIGHT? Then join us for the:

@CrystalLight @Girlfriendology
#CrystalLightLilith Twitter Party
Wednesday, July 7th 3-4pm ET / noon-1pm PT

We’ll chat about Summer, the Concerts, staying cool and hydrated and we’ll give away:

* 10 Tickets to 2010 Lilith Fair - Celebrating women in music like Sarah McLachlin, Sheryl Crow, Queen Latifah and many, many more!
* Crystal Light- and Lilith-branded merchandise and Crystal Light Pure Fitness samples

Here’s all the info and a place to register for a reminder.

Share with your girlfriends and double your chances (they’ll take you and you’ll take them!) to go to the Summer’s HOTTEST Concert and win some of the COOLEST Crystal Light refreshments. Thanks Crystal Light and Lilith Fair!

July Girlfriendology Book Club – What are you reading?

Whenever I mention my Book Club, women ask: “What are you reading?” Well, that’s up to YOU!

Each month we ask for YOUR recommendations and you recommended “Women, Food and God,” by Geneen Roth. JOIN US …

Monday, July 26th from 7-8pm ET

Now we’re asking YOU: Should we hold the Book Club on Girlfriendology or on Twitter? Share what you think on our Facebook page (as well as more Book Club suggestions!).

And THANKS to the amazing women who joined us Monday night for the June Book Club. There were some amazing connections, great conversations and shared support. THANKS! We had a fabulous discussion on Eat, Pray, Love. Fabulous, fun female friends!!

Stop by to the Girlfriendology Book Club Book Store!

This week on Girlfriendology …

* Girlfriend Pals make the best Spa Gals! Need to Relax? Rejuvenate? and Reconnect with your Girlfriends? Then you need a spa trip with your favorite female friends! Recently we interviewed Spa Home lifestyle guru (and a great girlfriend!) CANDY SILVASY. (Listen to the interview! It’s very inspiring and shares lots of great girlfriend advice on making your home more spa-like as well as recommendations for girlfriend spa trips, etc.) Candy also kindly shared … Read More »

* Crystal Light and Lilith Fair – Twitter Party with Girlfriendology! Girlfriends share great info, right? Fun events, healthy tips, opportunities to WIN stuff … 1. It’s Summer. We’re thirsty. We (and our kids, girlfriends, etc.) need to stay hydrated. There’s a cool way of rejuvenating our bodies with CRYSTAL LIGHT. (Warning: this post/Twitter party may make you THIRSTY!) 2. It’s Summer. And a great concert celebrating women in music is coming! Returning after a 10 year hiatus, LILITH FAIR, is bringing amazing female musicians …  Read More »

* Seeking BFFs – Courageously! Have you reached out to find new girlfriends? Just guessing – why not? As  much as we KNOW we need friends – they provide support, laughter, community and much more, it’s not something that we busy females seem to do. And, before we can ‘be a better friend,’ we need to find the friends to be better to! Here’s a guest blog by RACHEL BERTSCHE, from MWF Seeking BFF, on finding new friends (and listen to us interview her this FRIDAY, 2pm EST/11am PST on BlogTalkRadio!): A few weeks ago, a fellow book-clubber asked me how my friend search was going. I told her … Read More »

* Be a Better Friend – to a Friend during Pet Loss – We’ve covered how to be a better friend when a friend loses a parent or is dealing with cancer, but what about how to be a better friend when a girlfriend loses her beloved pup? My BFF Terri (who is so thoughtful and sweet that she inspired this Girlfriendology blog) had a terrible tragedy over the weekend. She and her husband had to put their sweet, funny ‘puppy’ Monty to sleep. He had been dealing with seizures and medical issues for a while, but they’ve  … Read More »

* Girlfriend Gifts for Friends who have Lost a Pet – Knowing that your friends share your pain helps when you lose a pet. Girlfriend gifts are a great way to express that concern, sympathy and friendship. I remember when Stella, our 12-year old beloved golden retriever, died. It broke our hearts and there was little that could console that sadness. Thankfully our friends understood and offered their support, sympathy and sentiments.They reached out to us to help us deal with losing a beloved pet. They also offered some very … Read More »

This Week’s Girlfriendology Classics:

* Girlfriend Get-togethers – spend time with friends. Need some ‘girlfriend therapy‘? Call up the gals!

* The Health Benefits of Good Friends - Seriously! Friendships keep us healthier, happier, less stressed and live longer (and laugh lots more!).

* Furballs, Hugs and Girlfriend Gratitude – Thankful for friends who help during the tough, rough (ruff!) times.

* New in Town? How did YOU make friends? – Finding new friends – when you move or just need some new friends!

Girlfriendology BlogTalkRadio guest: RACHEL BERTSCHE

What happens when you set out to look for BFFs? We’re going to find out when we talk with RACHEL BERTSCHE. Rachel is a web producer and journalist in Chicago. She’s a former editor at O, the Oprah Magazine and has written for dozens of publications. She blogs about her search for BFF on MWF Seeking BFF. Her book, MWF Seeking BFF, will be out in 2012. Listen in as we talk about this journey to find a BFF and the great girlfriend advice she can offer! JOIN US – Friday – 2-2:30pm EST on BlogTalkRadio.

And get some great, relaxing spa/home advice from our great guest (and girlfriend) from last week – CANDY SILVASY, aka: “Art of the Spa.” She’s traveled to over 90 spas in 8 countries, has authored spa books and created celebrity spas. LISTEN IN!

Red, White and Blue Girlfriend Gifts – Seriously!

* THE RED TENT, by Anita Diamant – This book was a favorite of our neighborhood Book Club.

* WHITE FLIP CAMCORDER – Do you FLIP?! I love mine! Super easy-to-use and now in UltraHD.

* VERA BRADLEY OLIVIA NAVY MEDITERRANEAN PURSE – Perfect, lightweight Summer bag.

* KITCHENMAID EMPIRE RED STAND MIXER – 5-quarts, 10-speeds, great fun for gourmet girlfriends.

* WHITE GOLD DRAGONFLY DIAMOND EARRINGS – Perfect for a Summer birthday!

* LUCKY BRAND BREEZY NAVY SUMMER SCARF – Cotton and cool.

Girlfriendology Girlfriend Gifts – Perfume, jewelry and more. Exclusive Girlfriendology gifts, all made in the U.S. and great ways to remind her how much her friendship means to you.

Thanks for shopping from these and our other affiliates for girlfriend gifts and more! Sierra Trading Post – Great Deals, Great Brands, UncommonGoods – uncommon gifts!, Handbag Heaven – Best Selling Handbags, OldNavy.com – Trends & Sales (great combo!), American Express® Gift Cards – for every occasion, Affordable Scarves – Style and savings!, GiftTree.com – gifts, gift baskets, wine, etc.!, Crocs.com – Feel the love!, Gift Ideas from Vera Bradley, Endless.com – shoes, purses & more, and save big at drugstore.com!, Orbitz.com- Get outta town girlfriend! Orbitz.com  has LOTS of vacation specials for you and your friends. You GO girlfriend!

Note: Girlfriendology is funded by affiliate shopping – so shop away! (Please, for your girlfriends?!)

Inspiration

“When I say, ‘I love you,’ it’s not because I want you or because I can’t have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I’ve seen your kindness and your strength. I’ve seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You’re a hell of a woman.”

Spike to Buff

Feel loved girlfriend! You’re a hell of a woman! Have a fun, friend-filled 4th of July weekend!