There's really no right way to decorate a baby nursery, but a great tip I swear by is starting with a fabulous piece of art or set of prints as an inspiration --as opposed to something like crib bedding, which babies outgrow super fast. …
I'm having a thing for wooden decor lately; not sure if it's the fall in the air, or the fact that I spent way too long at Bo Concept last weekend drooling over dining room tables. Either way, I keep reimagining my apartment with more wo…
What's cooler than a write-and-erase message board? Well, a lot of things. But for something that's cooler and just as useful, check out the most outrageous message board we've ever seen. This Dedo message board from Portuguese artist Go…
I'm not going to lie to you: When I opened the Morph-O-Scopes Kit box my daughter received for her birthday one year, I was unimpressed. Some crayons. A shiny cup. And a bunch of coloring pages with a hole in the center, the images all s…
As so many of you know by now, in Cool Mom Picks land, Etsy is always the place to look for the nursery decor that won't make you say, "That looks just like that print I saw at the store...." And on Etsy, we're loving Hsin Ping Pan's sho…
I can't tell you how much I admire teachers. My son has had some good ones and some great ones and what separates the two are that great teachers don't just instruct, they inspire. Haring Kids , a website based on the amazing artwork of …
At the NY Gift Show last week, there were so many fabulous things I couldn't wait to run back and tell you all about. (These blisters? All for you, dahlings.) One of the very first booths I stumbled into featured the simply wonderful hom…
People who know me live and in person tell me they often think of me in terms of my jewelry - big, chunky, interesting, often made of glass. Yes, glass. And when they ask where I got it, I find myself saying, more often than not, "It's E…
Just a couple of weeks ago, our editor-in-chief Liz and I were one of 2400 attendees at the BlogHer conference in New York City. And aside from the awesome sessions and fantastic parties, we had the opportunity to be a part of the Voices…
Every few months (okay, every year or so) I take my son into New York City and hit one of the many art museums. After all, who doesn't want their child to have an appreciation of art? Evidently I'm not alone. New Editions believes you sh…
In the '70's my mom went absolutely berserk with wallpaper. It was everywhere; the walls, the ceilings, even the inside of our kitchen cabinets. Then, for a long time, wallpaper was considered very dated. Well guess what, baby, it's back…
I remember vividly the first time I played Atari. The angels sang in a joyous chorus (in my head) as I spent the next two hours rotating a dial to move a single white line up and down the screen as a square ball bounced back and forth. P…
When I first saw pictures of the amazing, whimsical and unbelievably detailed fairy tale houses and furniture by Mike and Debbie Schramer I simply marveled. This brilliant husband and wife team use real flowers, branches, roots, and moss…
With the temperature finally reaching holy mama, it's hot out there --and that's the technical term--I love looking at artwork that makes it somehow feel cooler inside. The popsicle print from LA's Mint Buttercup is giving me goosebumps,…
If you've been living under a rock, you might not know that The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is premiering today. Now, I humbly admit that I've yet to get sucked into the Twilight series, however, that doesn't mean I don't get the obsession wi…
I have a thing for great alphabet posters, as you frequent Cool Mom Picks readers probably know by now. I suppose there's no greater joy to a writer than watching her child find a love for letters and words, and surrounding those babies …
Though I haven't seen the Gulf of Mexico since I was a teen, I'll never forget the color and warmth of the turquoise-blue water that lured me in until I was wrinkled and waterlogged. It's those waters and the creatures most affected by t…
Even after we compile our favorite baby shower gifts of the year in our Ultimate Baby Shower Gift Guide , it's so fun spending the rest of the next year looking for cool new ones . The kind that make you go wow . Which is just what I did…
The ghosts of bad desk tchotchkes of Father's Days past still haunt me: Paper weights, coffee mugs, mini voodoo dolls. Sorry Dad! Sometimes you're hard to shop for. But grandpas and new dads -- not too hard. Especially if they're sentime…
Ecard sites are no longer what they used to be, even a few years ago. I can't even imagine why anyone besides your grandma would still send those digital cards made of stock photography rosebuds and garish wedding type. Well now here's a…
So, aside from the cluster of dirt smears from his heels, my kid's bedroom wall is a little lackluster. And why, by the way, does he feel the need to kick his dirty little feet against the wall every night while he sleeps, anyway? I'm lo…
Imagine a land where the world's hippest Indie designers line up at your door to throw sketches at you for... whatever. Your daughter's birthday party, your best friend's shower , your "I Finally Lost the Baby Weight" champagne brunch. O…
I know, I know. When you get down to it, most boys are just drawn to things with wheels and pointy teeth. In a world devoid of gender-specific toys, they would still manage to nibble a piece of cheese into the shape of a gun. But what ab…
There's a curious trend right now, a vicious but lovely circle in which interior design for adults takes inspiration from art for children, which was in turn inspired by interior design for adults. To put it succinctly, as we mentioned r…