Dear Readers,

Have you missed my tips from the carpool lane in your inbox? I thought so… While I was busy blogging, I neglected to realize that my e-mail blast service was bought by a little company called GOOGLE. Surprisingly, there was a lack of communication and my e-mail list was lost in the shuffle, transfer. I mean. Or maybe they sent me an e-mail telling me that, and I never got it. Anyway, all that is spilt milk. No point crying. It’s working now.
Truth be told I don’t even know what RSS means. I have an awesome tech guy who translates my technically challenged questions and somehow makes sense out of them. Thank you Andrew Skinner! By the way, if you need a tech guy/web designer, I’ve got one for you.
Anyway, you may not even know that LACityMom.com won “Best Local Blog” in The GO CityKids Parent’s Pick’s Awards! Yay! And thanks for voting. It’s very exciting and I’m writing more than ever, and having lots of product giveaways and even our very first LACItyMom event in November in Beverly Hills…save the date, Wednesday the 11th…6-8pm more details to come.
In the meantime I hope you enjoy reading. And as ever, if you have a tip for me, please don’t hesitate to send me an e-mail.
Lee

You probably are very crafty. You probably are already well into the home made dinosaur costume by now, exceptional mother that you are. All you need to do is glue the marbles into the eye sockets. If however, you’re like me, you’ll be buying one, or in my case, two, Halloween costumes, and it is best not to do so at the last minute. I have found a great selection on line at:

Chasing Fireflies (both photos in this piece are from their catalogue)
Lilian Vernon’s Lily’s Kids
Pottery Barn Kids

Amazon
(the other day amazon was offering $10.00 off when you spend over $50.00)
Locally, there are a bunch of Halloween pop-up super stores, or it’s also great to support smaller local vendors like Landis Labyrinth, Jenny Becks, and Flicka and if you shop locally you can check out the costumes before buying them.
One tip:
Make sure your kids is POSITIVELY ABSULUTELY sure that they have decided on their costume choice before your buy. (Or at least check out the store’s exchange policy.) From day to day my son’s fantasies change, basketball player, clone trooper, musketeer, lion, pirate. I’m about to put a cut off date on his creativity, before taking out my Am Ex.
Also, Halloween costumes are pricey. If you have a friend or family member with older kids, you may want to see if they have an overstocked dress up trunk you can raid before you buy. On the other hand, a kid in a costume with a jack-o-lantern grin is pretty darn priceless

This is a test as some of my readers have been saying that they are not receiving e-mail updates from LACityMom.com since the new site was launched.

So I am going to see if this post lands in your in box or mine. Thanks for bearing with me.

Lee@LACityMom.com

Who doesn’t love good old home made brownies? My kids would, if I ever made them. But, how convenient that I don’t have to. Lily LaBonge has just opened a browine store. A former television producer, Lily always gave brownies as gifts and now she is baking brownies as a business. The brownies are out of this world, rich and delicate, plus they come in gorgeous packaging.

What a great teacher gift, hostess gift, or just something great to have as a special family treat. Or even better, take them out of the pretty tin, bring them to back to school night and pretend you made them!

LaBonge plans to open a store in Atwater Village this Spring but for now, they may be ordered by phone or on line.
www.sweetsforthesoul.com
(323) 668-9338.

LACityMom says:
A large box of brownies costs about 2 babysitting hours, not inexpensive, but not having to shop for ingredients, or remember to take them out of the oven…worth it.

Thanks so much for reading! I have upgraded my site, and hopefully made it more reader friendly, especially in terms of finding archived material. For all that is new, please go to www.LACityMom.com from now on to read all my new material. Leave me a comment and let mw know whet you think!

Lee@LACityMom.com 

Also – some of you have said you had a hard time with the link below. It is not too late to vote for LACityMom.com. Please do if you have a minute. 

Go City Kids – LA, has just nominated LACityMom.com (tips from the carpool lane) as the “Best Local Blog” for their annual Parents’ Picks Awards! Of course I know it’s an honor just to be nominated…(but let’s win and have a big party to celebrate!) 

Thanks so much for reading, and if you have a tip for me, or know of a great LA kid or family friendly spot, drop me a note at: lee@LACityMom.com 

TO VOTE CLICK ON LINK BELOW AND IT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE VOTING PAGE!
VOTE For LACityMom,com

I have birthdays on the brain this week. My husband, my son, and I,  have birthdays all in a row, so I’ve been eating a lot of, and thinking a lot about cakes. Now I know you are probably an expert cake decorator yourself, and wouldn’t consider not baking your child’s cake from scratch but, in case you want to take a little break this year, and have someone else do the decorating, I wanted to tell you about Kissy Cakes. These cakes are one of a kind. They are so beautiful and delicious. Often I find a cake is either pretty or tasty; these cakes are both. Any idea is okay by Kissy Cakes. They have a great assortment of flavors to chose from and in terms of design, take a look at their recent creations on their website to see how creative they can be. Kissy will also deliver your cake to your door. Imagine how that might cut down on last minute birthday party stress.

www.kissycakes.com

This cupcake cake is the size of a giant cake.

(818) 515 -7227

A friend had this made for a baby shower….not sure if you can tell from the photo but it is a pregnant woman’s belly.

ALSO IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO VOTE for LACityMom.com

Go City Kids – LA, has just nominated LACityMom.com (tips from the carpool lane) as the “Best Local Blog” for their annual Parents’ Picks Awards! Nominees are selected based on reader reviews so if you have a minute to post a quick and lovely rating/review I would so appreciate it. Thanks so much for reading, and if you have a tip for me, or know of a great LA kid or family friendly spot, drop me a note at: lee@LACityMom.com 

                              CLICK ON THIS LINK AND IT WILL SEND YOU TO THE PLACE TO VOTE:

http://origin.gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/attraction/Blog-LACityMom-Los-Angeles-CA-90012-US

I had heard that these were the rage, but had never been to one  - a kid’s birthday party with puppies. Now I have, and it was adorable. A woman brings puppies to your kid’s birthday party, sets up a pen that the kids go into in small groups where they then pet, play with, and hold the puppies. The puppies seemed quite happy for the attention, and the kids were all so calm and proud holding these sweet animals. This is a great children’s party idea. And the package our friends bought from Galaxy Parties included stuffed doggie party favors that you stuffed and decorated yourself. That was a fun activity too, and so much better than a goodie bag of plastic “favors” that get lost or broken hours after they return home.

Kids and  puppies, what could be cuter? Now if only they could stay that way forever.

Check out Galaxy Parties for pricing and more info, they also apparently have reptile parties.

www.galaxyparties.net

1-877-KIDS -JOY

Earth Day was yesterday, but of course we should celebrate the Earth every day. I try to be as green as I can and I also want to know what is in the products I buy my family. So when I learned that The Find Green was partnering with Good Guide I was thrilled.  I wrote about TheFind.com a few months ago. The Find is a shopping search engine that makes it so handy to find anything you need at the best price with just one click. Now they are launching a new part of their Green shopping integrating Good Guide.com  which rates the products in terms of safety, health and green standards. (Good Guide.com is a very comprehensive site that is worth checking out.) Now that green ratings are  built into TheFind’s search engine,  you can really see what it is your are buying and how what you buy measures up against other products in terms of safety standards.

This  pretty lunch box solution was featured on The Find blog. They are called “lunch skins” and they are a substitute for plastic bags. You just slip your sandwich in them. and later you can wash them out!. These are made by 3GreenMoms.com.

I also found some discount coupons of interest. Partnering with TheFind.com  the  following green retailers are offering discounts on green products to celebrate Earth Day. 

Delight.com is offering a 15% discount and free shipping on orders of products from the eco-delightful collection of $40 or more through May 1, 2009 with online coupon code, TheFindDelight 

Gaiam.com is offering free shipping on purchases over $25 through June 1, 2009 with online coupon code, TheFind4.

Edun Online is offering 25% off of the Spring/Summer 2009 Collection from April 20 until April 30^th, 2009 with online coupon code, TheFind25

Happy Earth Day! And happy Green Shopping!

Okay, Moms, with this heat, we may find ourselves in bathing suits in the near future. Yikes. (Note to self: start 50 crunches a day regime.)  This tip is for you if you are feeling like a furry bear coming out of hibernation. Plan a trip to Stark Waxing Studio in Silver Lake. Whatever your personal preferences are on body hair removal, I bet we can all agree that if you do get a wax of some kind, you want it done quickly, as painlessly as possible, and by a pro. Stark is a great place for a wax, as they use a special European wax that hurts less, as it sticks to hair and not your skin. The staff at Stark is terrific and so professional. The atmosphere is sleek, clean and downright cool. Stark also offers eyelash and brow tinting and shaping. They are masters with eyelash dye, so careful and gentle, and that’s a procedure that can be quite a scary and stinging in the wrong hands. Ah, what we do in the name of beauty.

The other impressive part of Stark Waxing is that their boutique carries a gorgeous array of jewelry, body products, even a few baby items and kids books. Plus, their newest addition is an in house collection of soy candles. I love the “Silver Lake” candle. It has a lovely floral fragrance and yet is so subtle as it burns. Soy also burns longer, apparently, and produces less smoke.  Candles make terrific gifts, or are just a lovely treat for you.

Go to Stark Waxing, get yourself fixed up, pick up a candle and bask in the coming of Spring – the 50 crunches a day can always wait until next week.

It’s National Poetry Month and I thought it would be nice to share what I think is one of the greatest Motherhood poems I’ve ever read.  I love Billy Collins’ work as  it is so accessible. I added the link to his site where you can purchase his books and read more poems.

Also SKYLIGHT books on Vermont, in Los Feliz, has a nice collection of poetry and a wide range of literary journals. The have also added a whole new art/architecture/music book store next to their old store. Support local bookstores if you possibly can. If we don’t they will disappear. 

The Lanyard by Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.


Included in the FORTHCOMING book (OCT 2005), The Trouble with Poetry. Purchase from Amazon (here).

www.billy-collins.com/2005/06/the_lanyard.html

Skylight Books

1818 N. Vermont Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90027

Tel: (323) 660-1175

Fax: (323) 660-0232

www.skylightbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp