Some of my fondest memories of lunchtime as a kid involved reaching into my brown paper lunch bag and feeling around between the sandwich and the granny smith apple for a surprise note from my mom, replete with her trademark curly-haired…
If you're shopping baby names (or just browsing), you have to check out Lorilee Craker's A is for Atticus: Baby Names from Great Books which give you far more erudite options than naming your child for the latest celeb du jour. Or worse,…
Considering I have yet to figure out the formula that will make my son eat even one vegetable consistently without tossing it at my head, I'm willing to try anything, like this Gimme Veggie bowl from London trained clay artist May Luk. P…
There is no shame in cooking with baking mixes or prepared foods, although I have a pretty stringent list of criteria for them to make it into my shopping cart. I am delighted to discover that the Monkey Bread mixes from Lollipop Tree pa…
Frequent CMP readers know that whoo-hoo! is about our most favorite phrase in the whole wide world. Whoo-hoo you won a free stroller! Whoo-hoo we're featured in Real Simple Magazine! Whoo-hoo we just discovered the best ever cupcakes and…
When I got married (the first time... ahem), we received endless items from Crate and Barrel. And don't get me wrong, it's all very useful stuff, but... well... plain. Boring. So color me surprised to see that C&B's younger, hipper sibli…
We've been evangelists for room decor-by-decal (and decal and decal and decal and decal) from the beginning. Just search our site for "decal." There's lots. In part because we know that tastes change faster than you can say ooh, look at …
I had my fair share of hearty chuckles after discovering Motherhood with Attitude's hilarious greeting cards last year. So when co-owner Janalee Chmel clued me in to their new Thank You Card Box Set , it's no wonder I nearly peed my pant…
If you've been pining for the kind of baby book you might still pull off your mom or grandmother's shelves when you go for a visit, why I think we've actually found it. Mother Stork's Baby Book: 100th Anniversary Edition is a beautiful v…
Have you ever entered a room in which the kids have been playing (usually too quietly) only to find that they have rearranged all the couch and chair cushions so that they can walk (tumble, jump) around the entire room without stepping o…
Despite my insistence that it would never happen, the toys have in fact eaten our living room whole. I evidently can't keep the toy animals and crayons and blocks and play silks restricted to the kids' room, so the least I an do is find …
The siren song of convenience is strong, even for a greenie like me, and at times I've been compelled to some of those one-use cleaning wipes. I never feel right about it though, so I switched back to a bright purple sponge to use with o…
I am not of the mindset that children's furniture should be serious - or any furniture for that matter. Give me some bright lime green plastic dining room seats over a set of stern Teutonic stiff-backed chairs any day. Oh wait, I already…
It is not generally cheap to go green. I mean sure, compact fluorescent bulbs can save you money in the long run and hybrid cars make sense with gas prices these days. But we all know that feeding the kids the organic mac n cheese and de…
With my daughter all puzzle-crazy these days, I am adoring the heirloom-quality Cinderella puzzle illustrated by children's book artist Jen Bulthuis of Fidoodle and accompanied by the classic tale reimagined by writer Shannon Gerard. The…
Some of us are party-throwers, and some of us are party-goers. I'm in the latter category; just the thought of planning a guest list has me biting off my nails. However, the custom invitations from 1st Comes Love are so wonderful that th…
As a WAHM/SAHM with a fairly good memory, I'm embarrassed to admit that I've gone without a date book for the last four years. But now that I'm running a business and adding kid number three, my brain just can't hack it anymore. So I've …
As a mom to toddlers I tried that whole organization thing where you put pictures on the toy bins, rather than words, so that the kids know what goes where. The only problem? I can't draw worth a darn. My daughter was afraid of the lopsi…
We moms of toddlers and preschoolers know that the night light is an essential part of an effective bedtime experience. But dare to try to find one without a licensed princess or smiling race car and you're stuck with a boring one from y…
I'm tired of unpacking a picnic lunch and finding that the sandwiches have been squished or the plastic containers have spilled their contents all over the inside of the cooler. Next time, I am putting things in the colorful, streamlined…
While in the great outdoors, someone once said, Take Only Memories, Leave Only Footprints, which is really a polite way of saying, Don't You Dare Throw That Cup On The Ground, Bucko. If only everyone heeded this, my picnics in the park w…
I may have several drawers full of stationery, but that doesn't mean I'm particularly good about keeping in touch ; I rarely get a chance to sit down at my kitchen table and put pen to paper without constant interruptions. But when I've …
Once upon a time I bought a whole bunch of scrapbooking stuff. Because I was going to scrapbook, darn it. I was. I would find my hidden crafty gene and make memories in book form to cherish for a lifetime! Yeah! Um, I still have all of t…
I'm doing my best to teach my daughter as many preschooler friendly environmental practices as I possibly can. And while she's become almost militant about making sure to turn off the water while she brushes her teeth, I'm betting there …