MOP DROP & ROLL Nite!

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Hair Recycling Information for
Salons, Pet Groomers & Individuals

Come Join the Party & do A Groovy thing!

Ally OX and SHISO Restaurant proudly announce:
MOP DROP & ROLL Nite!

Tuesday December 9th, 2008 6-8:00 p.m.
Hair may only be dropped off on this nite! Bring your bags of human or animal hair to Shiso Restaurant located @
522 Broadway, Sonoma Ca, 95476
just a half block South of the historic town Plaza.

Throw your bags in the awaiting VAN parked out front.
There is a $2 Transportation fee for each bag donated. But… For every bag you donate, you’ll receive a Coupon for $2- off any Menu Item at SHISO that nite!
Enjoy Award Winning Cuisine, Industry comraderie, give-aways, and Salon Themed Sushi created just for us!

RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED – 707-933-9331 www.shisorestaurant.com
For all other inquiries contact Ally @ 707-227-4858
EACH BAG YOU BRING HELPS TO SUSTAIN SONOMA, SAVE ANIMALS, & KEEP OCEANS CLEAN!

Sonoma Salon Spearheads a Hair-raising Solution

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Sonoma Salon Spearheads a Hair-raising Solution to the Tragedy of Oil Spills and Hosts Salon Summit
Sunday, April 6th from 4:00 -5:00 p.m.
at Fiorini Italian Bakery,
248 W. Napa Street, Sonoma CA, 95476

Hair stylists and hair salon owners are invited to set aside personal styles and come together at Fiorini’s Cakes and Cookies, to learn how to transform hair waste into ecological wonder. Speakers will share ideas on how stylists and salon owners can “green” their business and cut their water bills

Organizer and Sonoma’s hair-recycling pioneer, Ally Ox of Grazia Bianchi Salon says, “Approximately 50 lbs. of cut hair is dumped into Sonoma’s waste stream per day where it will remain basically forever. But it doesn’t have to go there. We’ve discovered a recycling program that sews cut hair into Hair Mats that are used to soak up the more than 700 million gallons of oil that are spilled into our oceans annually. This technology has entered the limelight due to the tragic oil spill that occurred recently in the San Francisco Bay.”

“I think that this gathering is not only going to be a blast but a groundbreaking start of something really powerful. We take care of people everyday, why not put the planet on our list?” says Ox.

Grazia Bianchi, Owner of Grazia Bianchi Salon says, “Our clients love knowing that not only are they getting the best hair cut in town when they come here, but they’re also help saving sea life! It’s beautiful for everyone!”

Stylists and salon owners are invited to set aside your scissors and unite to create a better world for all of us! R.S.V.P. to Ally Ox at 227-4858 or email: Ally Ox now allyteas@yahoo.co.uk to reserve your spot!

For more information on Sonoma’s first Salon Summit contact organizer Ally Ox, Stylist at
Grazia Bianchi Salon in Sonoma.

The Wishing Year: A House, a Man, My Soul a Memoir of Fulfilled Desire

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

One New Year’s Day, Noelle Oxenhandler took stock of her life and found that she was alone after a long marriage, seemingly doomed to perpetual house rental and separated from the spiritual community that once had sustained her. With little left to lose, she launched a year’s experiment in desire, forcing herself to take the plunge and try the path of Putting It Out There. It wasn’t easy. A skeptic at heart, and a practicing Buddhist as well, Oxenhandler had grown up with a strong aversion to mixing spiritual and earthly matters. Still, she suspended her doubts and went for it all: a new love, a healed soul, and the 2RBD/1.5 BA of her dreams. Thus began her initiation into the art of wishing brazenly.

In this charming, compelling, and ultimately joyful book, Oxenhandler records a journey that is at once comic and poignant, light and dark, earthy and spiritual. Along the way she wonders: Does wishing have power? Is there danger in wishing? Are some wishes more worthy than others? And what about the ancient link between suffering and desire? To answer her questions, she delves into the history of wishing, from the rain dance and deer song of primeval magic to modern beliefs about mind over matter, prosperity consciousness, and the law of attraction.

As the months go by, Oxenhandler is humbled to discover the courage it takes to make a wish and thus open oneself to the unknown. She is surprised when her experiment expands to include other people and other places in ways she never imagined. But most of all, she is amazed to find that there is, indeed, both power and danger in the act of wishing. For soon her wishes begin to come true–in ways that meet, subvert, and overflow her expectations. And what started as a year’s dare turns into a way of life.

A delightfully candid memoir, unfettered, poetic, and ripe with discovery, Oxenhandler’s journey into the art and soul of wishing will inspire even the most skeptical reader to search the skies for the next shooting star.

Noelle Oxenhandler is the author of two previous nonfiction books, A Grief Out of Season and The Eros of Parenthood. Her essays have appeared in many national and literary magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Vogue, Tricycle, Parabola, Utne Reader, and O: The Oprah Magazine. She has taught in the graduate writing program at Sarah Lawrence College and is a member of the creative writing faculty at Sonoma State University in California. A practicing Buddhist for more than thirty years, Oxenhandler is the mother of a grown daughter and lives in Northern California.

Are You a Cosmetics Clown?

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Along with spandex and big hair, this is one look that should have stayed in the ’80s.
The trend now is lip liner in a shade close to your natural lip color. Line and color in your pucker, then top with sheer gloss.

If you do use dark liner, like a red or berry shade, fill in your mouth completely, and then top with clear gloss, not a light lipstick.

Beauty Disasters

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

You've overdone the peroxide, the trout pout and the fake tan. NEED HELP?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ask us for ideas on how to reverse your grooming disasters!

Eyewear Created by Danilo Carraro of Venice

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Highly innovative eyewear concept featuring a perfect mix of style and comfort. Three collections-Classic, Rubber and Light —whose wide range of models enable you to choose the right product to express your personal style and satisfy your specific needs.

Grazia Bianchi—U. S Agent and Distributor
All models are available in 11 colors with your choice of glossy or matte finish Wholesale prices available on request

To View our on-line catalog click here http://www.bianchi-salon.com/html/eye_wear.html

TO ORDER
Please call for information on purchasing
any of the styles shown in our catalog 707.996.6002 • 707.996.8135
or E-mail Grazia at grazia@bianchi-salon.com

Officer Versace needs your HELP!

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Officer Versace needs your help spotting those Fashion Faux Pas. PLAY FASHION COP submit your worst Fashion Faux Pas and win a free service at Bianchi Salon & Spa. Winners announced every month! Visible Panty Lines, Butt Cracks, Camel Toes. . .these are just a few to get you started.

The Top Cops are weighing in!!

New chef at Fiorini creates fresh lunch menu for each day

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Five years after Grazia Bianchi and baker son-in-law Massimo Fiorini opened Il Pasticciere Fiorini on West Napa Street, they have brought in a Cordon Bleu-trained chef to upgrade the midday meal menu. Raquel Arroyo is developing a different offering for each day of the week (Tuesday through Saturday) that will be added to the existing lunch choices.
Speaking in the charming patois of a woman who was born in Peru, attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and has traveled most of the rest of the world, Raquel Arroyo explained her approach.

“Food is about the heart, and it is culture. We nourish our bodies so our brains can function.
“I create, “ she said, “I don’t invent.” She innovates,” explained Michael Wearing, Bianchi’s husband. “That’s what executive chefs do. Raquel’s food is the quintessence of creativity and originality.

“In my brief association with Raquel I have a learned a lot.” Arroyo’s menu for last week featured several of the pasta-and-salad lunches that will be her trademark offering. One included a salad of greens, red beets and sliced yellow potatoes (small ones, which she says have less water than larger potatoes) in a raspberry vinaigrette, accompanied by a vegetable lasagna that was nearly as light as a soufflé. Each day will feature a different meal; the menu will be posted on the Web site, fiorinisonoma.com. So far, none costs more than $10.

According to Arroyo, all her food is pure and fresh. As she put it so succinctly, “There is nothing in my freezer for tomorrow.” After cooking and traveling around the world for 35 years, Arroyo retired from the restaurant business some 15 years ago, after running her own places in Pleasanton and Berkeley. She subsequently moved from the East Bay to Sonoma to be near her daughter. After her daughter relocated to southern California, Arroyo had time on her hands and talent to spare.

“So Mom is now cooking again,” said Arroyo. She has been a longtime customer at Grazia, Bianchi’s salon (which recently consolidated from two locations—one on East Napa Street—to a single space behind Fiorini). The two women have become fast friends.

Meanwhile, Fiorini continues to offer its established roster of paninis, quiches, salads and offbeat choices such as a tuna-artichoke sandwich that tastes a lot better than it sounds. Touted as Sonoma’s only “truly Italian bakery,” the café is also known for its extensive selection of breads, cakes, pizzas, calzones, cakes, cookies, brioches and tortes that Massimo Fiorini – who, like Bianchi, is a native of Tuscany – has been making since he started baking in Lucca and later made him famous during his long stint at San Francisco’s acclaimed Victoria Pastry Company in North Beach.

See Website
Hours: 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Tuesday-Sunday
Luncheon is served from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.