More coolness from recent weeks…
Preserving kids’ artwork has never been so pretty (or organized)
You should see my car--or actually, you shouldn't. It's filled to the brim with my daughter's preschool artwork, which gets hastily shoved onto the passenger seat during the always-harried pickup time. It's a mountain of artwork, really, but I believe I've found the...
Announcing the very best Mother’s Day Gift Guide: Ours!
This may be our favorite time of year chez Cool Mom Picks--the time we track down the coolest Mother's Day gifts for all those deserving moms in your life. In other words, time for our seventh annual (wow) Mother's Day Gift Guide! It's always such a labor of love for...
Our own personal necklaces from Elva Fields. Now all we need are those Oscar nominations…
We imagine that it's every jewelry-loving woman's dream to have a special piece custom designed just for her by an amazing designer. So when we were approached by designer Emily Maynard of Elva Fields for just that, we jumped at the chance. As part of her monthly...
Want to meet Anna Quindlen? Well guess what…
One of my literary heroes has always been Anna Quindlen. She's not only an amazing columnist, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, hard working mom, and now incredible author, she's an all-around very cool, very inspiring woman. Next Tuesday in NYC, I'll be...
A Calder mobile? No, more like a Mahler.
I still remember what it was like picking out the perfect mobile for my children's nurseries. I wanted something modern and chic but that still felt whimsical and child-like. I also wanted something unique and original that every other nursery on my street did not...
Coffee talk: 6 amazing iced coffee drinks
With temperatures reaching 80 degrees in New York City in April, it's officially time to make the switch from hot coffee to iced. I've got to be honest, though, in the legendary words of Coffee Talk" host Linda Richman, bidding farewell to my warm morning cup of joe...
Mother’s Day gifts that give back. Thanks, 31 Bits.
One of our favorite kinds of Mother's Day gifts to recommend are those that give back, because we hardly know a mother among us who isn't committed to making the entire world a better place for our babies. Now there's a new one, offering beautiful affordable jewelry,...
Personalized journals at prices as irresistible as the designs
We've been fans of Minted going way back to when we first discovered their gorgeous stationery and support of the indie designers who create them. We can't tell you the number of notes we get from readers (okay, a lot) thanking us for introducing them to Minted. So...
Organize your books from A to Zombie
Run, don't walk, to get your hands on this sharp set of bookends. From Boneshaker to World War Z, you've finally got a place to keep your favorite books about how to survive the coming zombiepocalypse. Not into zombies? That's okay, too. This awesome Etsy shop...
Treat.com: the best of ecards meets the best of real cards
Though I love the convenience of sending e-cards to those near and dear, there is still something special about getting an honest-to-goodness "real" card in the mailbox, especially on holidays like Mother's Day. Unfortunately, I'm never, ever going to be that person...
The cutest baby beanies ever. Or maybe the second cutest…
As a mom, I remember my babies living in the classic white onesie, which is an easy piece to pair with pops of color. So I always appreciate finding beanies for babies that have lots of personality and vibrancy. These brand new handmade earflap baby beanies from get...
5 tech picks you won’t want to miss this week
Personalized stamps that prettify anything. And everything.
Ever since my penpal days (I had 31 of them! At the same time!), I've loved personalized stamps. I was a preteen, so they were of the unicorn-and-rainbow variety--oh, and penguins. I had way too many penguin stamps.My tastes--and time--have obviously changed a little...
From piggy banks to paychecks, one chapter at a time.
I'd prefer one dozen versions of the "where do babies come from" talk with my kids before I'd sign up for even one "and this is how money works" discussions. I can cheerfully rattle off twenty-seven slang terms for body parts, but ask me how something amortizes and I...
The new Dyson Canister Vacuum – Watch the dust bunnies cower in terror
I had never given much thought about the old canister vacuum I used for years and years: It was a fair little vacuum with a dust-belching bag that I never remembered to replace, and a "retracting cord" feature had stopped retracting years before. But once my mother...
A four thousand-foot high classroom
Trish Herr takes homeschooling to an entirely new level. Instead of white boards, we are talking white peaks. Her children carry backpacks with more than just pens and pencils--think emergency supplies, whistles, and trail mix. In this very unique memoir, Up: A...
Get ready to rock your socks off at Kindiefest 2012
For the past few years, I've traveled to Brooklyn, grabbed my editor Liz, and headed to the most fun conference filled with some of the best and smartest people making and promoting kids' music.We do it for love of the genre. And to find great new family-friendly...
The perfect book for a new big sister (lucky thing)
We get a lot of requests for books for kids about to welcome a new sibling into the family. Some of the better known titles are pretty sappy, which isn't such a bad thing, but I never really liked the stories about how perfect it is to have a baby around. I'd imagine...
Burp cloths with a secondary purpose
Two important things for new mamas to know: not everything useful has to look utilitarian, and there will be many, many uses for burp cloths. I can justify buying gorgeous ones--despite their intended use--considering how much time they'll spend on my shoulders,...
Fashion and beauty fans – have we got the new site for you.
We may be beauty and fashion fanatics to some degree, but chasing after kids and working full-time means that we have less time than we like to spend on taking care of ourselves. Why do you think we're such fans of online shopping? The one drawback: experimenting with...
Baby feet, you’ve got the cutest little baby feet…
For some reason, every pregnant friend in my life is having a boy these days. So I'm even more attuned to the limited choice there is in terms of motifs on their clothing. While we've worked pretty hard to track down cool boys' clothes that go beyond appliques of...