On a recent drive to the beach, my kids and I glumly watched the black clouds rolling in as we all collectively whined, "Rain again ?" Fortunately the CD I chose to turn on at that moment was Asheba's totally fun calypso and world beat r…
We love looking for fun, off-the-beaten-path back to school items so much, we're not just doing it for our own readers, we're doing it this week for our friends at Indie Fixx who asked us to drum up some of our favorite back to school pi…
I am a Photoshop spaz, so I love finding programs that let me do cool things with my photos with little to no mental anguish. It's not just a great tool as a blogger, it's cool when I'm uploading them into e-invitations or videos or keep…
The new fall kids' shoes from CMP fave Livie and Luca are starting to slowly appear on the website and I am absolutely loving the new mushroom-adorned Woodland Boot which is a fun, Hobbit-esque update to the London Boots we were digging …
We love Oliver Chin, author of the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac Series. In his latest book, Baltazar and the Flying Pirates , Chin teams up with illustrator (and blogger!) Justin Roth in this, um, high-flying tale of adventure and fortu…
At the end of last summer, I scored my daughter a pair of Zutano canvas shoes on sale. They got her through early fall, through a couple of warm-weather winter vacations, and surprisingly, right through this summer. I guess it pays to bu…
My son and I are currently in heavy negotiations over the impending redo of his this-is-it-until-you-go-to-college room d?cor . I've already said no to black walls, but the thing we both agreed on instantly were using these Critters wall…
As a child, I'd spend three long days driving to visit my grandmother each summer and, out of boredom, would pretend my bare hands and feet were puppets. Pretty pathetic, but times were tough and it was too hot in our hatchback to go the…
We're so excited to bring you the first of our new weekly Etsy round-ups. Tune in every Wednesday for more delicious handmade goodness. Everyone knows that when you go back to school , it is IMPERATIVE to have the coolest stuff. (Althoug…
I love giving gifts; what kills me is the wrapping. All that wrapping paper getting tossed in the trash -- or worse, those reusable but ugly gift bags. Solution: LivingEthos reusable cloth gift bags . Made of 100% cotton, these bags are …
We are not what you'd call a soda family. While I love a nice cold fountain Coke or Pepsi with a slice of pizza like every other New Yorker, it's not something I keep around the house . But when my older nieces or friends' tween kids com…
With my daughter starting kindergarten, I've been thinking a lot about kids thinking lately. And more specifically: how to make thinking cool to my kid. Part of the problem? Pop culture surrounds kids with celebrations of the body, not t…
I have such fond memories of scoring US Open tickets a kid, roaming the grounds, and sitting slack-jawed in awe of all the incredible talent. (This was the McEnroe days. I'm that old. ) But back then, they didn't have anything like the a…
At two, my youngest daughter is already into dolls in a way that her big sister never was. She pushes them in strollers, shares her dessert with them, and gives them rides on the bulldog--much to the bulldog's dismay. She tucks her dolls…
I used to do the consignment thing with my kids' outgrown clothes, but I've just not found a store in our new locale that has enough stuff I want to buy to make it worth my while to sell there. And I admit that dropping bags anonymously …
Remember the Candy Buttons of your youth ? You know, the ones with absolutely no flavor (save for sugar) that you peeled off the paper strip, trying your best to increase the ratio of candy-to-paper that in fact made it into your mouth? …
When my kid were old enough to stop smacking their cereal bowls with their hands to flip them, I was excited to trade up from the melamine dish set we had. Besides, I was getting kind of tired of the same bright orange every day. I think…
When I was in high school, an artist friend of mine and I wrote a graphic novel during biology class featuring the adventures of our teacher's prominent nose, thus beginning my love affair with random and edgy hilarity. If you adore the …
If there's anything that can give my retired uterus a few pangs, it's a pair of adorable hand knit baby booties , like the new ones from CMP fave Tiny Sprouts. Known for their sweetly embroidered personalized baby blankets and baby cloth…
It's disheartening to support a brand like SIGG for making safer, BPA-free drinking bottles for kids and adults when it turns out that nope, that wasn't the situation at all. Or as the old saying goes, "we was played." News broke this we…
Oh how I love the ability to stock up on next year's summer clothes for my kids at insane discounts. Like a 70% off kind of discount. Especially when they're as beautiful as the lovely selection of girls' clothes from London children's b…
If you are like me and have a ton of photos that need to go on the wall, but you lack the motivation to frame and hang them, Stickr has got something to make the process a whole lot easier. We've recommended their more sophisticated reus…
My kids are fruit-eating machines, which is great except for when we get the urge to make a smoothie and have only a sad spotted banana left on the counter. Short of planting my own orchard, I'm happy to have discovered the new all-natur…
I was clicking around etsy this past weekend and discovered this adorable handmade girls' pencil case that I love for so many reasons. The illustration is beyond precious of course, but the I Heart Books slogan is really the kicker. It c…
