Photo: Cliff Watts

Friends of Summer,

Can you believe it's August already? Hot August nights and the leaves hanging down and the grass on the ground smelling sweet...thank you Neil Diamond. I always want to play that song this month.

I am digitally, technically, challenged but learned a great new thing yesterday.

Please don't LOL, but I did not know that you could play music wirelessly through the speakers in your house directly from your iPad. And can upload movies directly to your TV screen, and the movies maintain their HD quality.

I still think that iPad is a magic box.

I spent my first full week at OWN merging new staff with Harpo folks. Alignment is the first step in getting anything to work. We all had a great week. Although if you saw my tweet, you noticed I could use some better office furniture.

If you aren't exactly in the mood for a heavy casserole or hearty stew tonight, Cristina Ferrare's right there with you. "Eating heavy meals when the heat outside is oppressive can make you feel even more lethargic and uncomfortable," says Oprah's friend and cookbook author. Cristina's advice is to stay away from sugary drinks and diet sodas, and try making your own flavored water instead, using slices of cucumber, lemon, fresh mint and other brighteners. Read all about her ideas for flavored water here, and also check out her recipe for a beautiful summer salad with three options for dressings--each one perfect for steamy days.

The big decade birthdays are confusing to all of us. When you're turning 30, 40, 50, 60, or up are you supposed to throw a huge bash and embrace the moment with joy? Or are you supposed to throw a huge bash and pretend you're embracing the moment with joy? Or are you supposed to slink off into the night with a good friend and a bottle of champagne? There are my questions. My last milestone birthday went a little dimly. Slinking off is never as much fun as you want it to be.

I may not have the kind of space (or passion) that, say, collectors who've amassed a trove of more than 300 Barbie dolls or cache of vintage swimsuits do. But when someone started a champagne flute collection for me 10 years ago, I happily promised to keep it up.

My mismatched set of flutes--born when a friend organized a small birthday gathering--has grown over the years, and the best part is that it actually gets a fair amount of use. It doesn't sit in a display case, but in one of my kitchen cabinets. I break the glasses out every time we're drinking bubbly (which isn't only on New Year's Eve). And, you can find champagne flutes anywhere, from Ireland to your local dollar store. They are are my version of snow globes, available at any and all tourist traps, though they don't get dusty. They're akin to a snow globe you can use.

Sarabeth Levine, who runs the New York and Florida bakery and restaurant Sarabeth's, would agree that collections can be practical: Levine collects cookie jars (they must have stable lids and be light enough that they're easy to lift). Former American Heritage editor Richard Snow collects plates from New York City restaurants he used to go to with his dad when he was a child, prowling eBay for items like a butter dish from the Horn & Hardart automat. "Most antiques, you have to take care of," Snow wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal. "[But] my family eats off [the plates] every night."

Here's the thing. If it were just about practicality, we'd buy the champagne flutes/cookie jar/dinner plates we needed and get on with life. But when there's more to it: the attachment I feel when I take a sip from the very glass that held prosecco as I listened to my sister's speech on my wedding day. That's a feeling a display case of fancy antiques just can't match.

Keep Reading
Debbie Reynolds' Hollywood Treasures
Break Free from the Collectibles Cluttering Your Home
How to Start Collecting Art

Photo: Thinkstock

A debate recently broke out in O's fashion department--a few staffers strongly argued in favor of keeping breasts supported 24/7 to prevent sagging, while the rest of us said strapping our chests down at night just isn't worth the trouble (or discomfort). Which is when our creative director Adam Glassman stepped in, declared it a toss up and asked me to get to the bottom of this bra (or no bra) battle.

I called in the experts, bra whisperer and founder of Intimacy boutiques, Susan Nethero, and Phil Haeck, MD, and president of The American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, to find out what's myth and what's fact when it comes to keeping the (ahem) girls perky.