Beck | The Collective Beck | The Collective Location: 2613 University Ave. Contact: 563-213-8909 Online: beckthecollective.com It’s a weekday morning as Jess Deppe begins readying for the day — flipping on lights, cueing up music, scrolling through her calendar and steadying a swivel chair facing an oversized mirror in her intimate salon. For Deppe, who...

From fitness conscious consumers to busy moms who always are on the go, casual athletic attire has become a socially acceptable and on-trend style. It’s so popular, it carries its own name: Athleisure. The trend continues in this season’s forecast for spring and summer fashion. It might sound like a piece of cake to dress...

Most women are taught to think about hormones in terms of supplements, lab work or life stage. But one of the most powerful regulators of hormone balance is something far simpler and often overlooked: light. Specifically, morning light. Within the first 30 to 60 minutes of waking, your body is primed to receive a signal...

Every time you go for a swim, some of your sunscreen gets left behind. An estimated 25% of applied sunscreen washes off during recreational water activities, releasing some 5,000 tons annually in reef areas alone, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives. That’s equivalent to the weight of about 1,000 elephants, and many of...

Bryan Vander Dussen spent years as a dairy farmer before shifting to selling farm-raised beef. In the past year, he and his wife have been making another transition: Cooking up recipes in their kitchen that turn organ fat from his animals into tallow balm that buyers are eager to slather on their skin. One tricky...

I love the idea of transforming garbage into free mulch and fertilizer. Composting is a win-win: I save money and keep my eggshells, coffee grounds and weeds out of a landfill. Compost is the single best additive available for improving any soil type. Is your soil too sandy? Add compost. Too dense? Add compost. Lacking...

Furniture layout and placement often can be a dilemma for homeowners. Aspects such as where to place a sofa and where a television should be placed can be visual hurdles. Strategic furniture placement comes from pre-planning, taking the time to create a floor plan and evaluating where items should be placed in a room. When...

Spring is in full force, and before long, we’ll be getting our gardens ready for the fruits and vegetables we hope to grow over the summer and turn into salads and other fresh dishes. As May brings sunshine and warm, balmy nights that call out for cooking out, don’t limit yourself to burgers or chicken....

There’s something about the letter A that just makes someone, or something, feel more important. It’s the first letter a toddler learns in the alphabet song, as well as proof of a job well done from a teacher. It’s also a pretty important vowel that’s necessary for the pronunciation of countless words and sentence construction....