Lifestyle / Life & relationships

Each year when November and December roll around, my inbox becomes flooded with gift guides. The brands I’ve bought from and the writers whose newsletters I subscribe to for interesting takes on films and books all begin doing the same thing: curating products for me to buy. I’m not fundamentally opposed to the concept –…

Australia’s distance from everything else, particularly those foreign cultures we align with, only reinforces the idea that we’re the same, but entirely different. What we have is precious and special, and not to be taken for granted. At the recent election, we stood at the precipice and considered adopting aspects of a culture and policies…

The Spanx founder, who has now ventured into footwear with her new business Sneex, said: “I always tell women in particular, money is really fun to make, really fun to spend and really fun to give away. “And I think money just makes you more of who you already were. Like if you were a…

Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on workplace, career and leadership in her advice column, Got a Minute? This week: frustrations with office jargon, an untenable work culture and understanding unfair dismissal time limits. Workplace jargon can be almost impossible to avoid, but you can minimise it.Credit: Dionne Gain I’m really starting to get…

The experts we spoke to all agreed that pods are the most effective cleaners, because they combine elements of powder and liquid detergents, and they typically also contain rinse aid. They can present an issue, though. “The outer shell of pod detergents may not dissolve fully if the water temperature is inadequate, which can result…

What feels a little different with the Gen Z/Millennial dynamic is when Gen X – who remain suspiciously unscathed in the generational spats – enter the equation. By contrast to Gen Z, when I was in my early 20s, I can honestly say the number of times my friends and I sat around dissecting the…

Loading “It validates [the recipient’s] reality by affirming their feelings make sense, we get it, and we take full responsibility for our words and actions.” Apologising not only strengthens relationships, but also changes the way people perceive themselves. “Our self-respect and maturity level rest squarely on our ability to see ourselves objectively, to take a…

Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size Her name is synonymous with home-making, but Martha Stewart says before she became a domestic goddess, a different career beckoned. “I could have been Elle Macpherson,” says Stewart, deadpan. Could Stewart, who has written more than 100 books and inspired generations of dinner-party-throwing women around the world,…

Martha Stewart opens up on the highs and lows of her rich life, and tells writer Jane Rocca why she could have been a supermodel.

French chef and restaurateur Jean-Christophe Novelli is best known locally for being a judge on MasterChef Australia. Reflecting on the important women in his life, the 64-year-old says he views his first marriage as a “recipe that went wrong”, and shares how he met his second wife in an airport, and the close relationship he…