Coast 2 Coast Mom

Celebrating Christmas in August with the Radio City Rockettes

I love summer and I love Christmas, so a week ago I was over the moon to celebrate Christmas in August with the Radio City Rockettes. I took Li'l Boo into NYC to see the gorgeous gals, and we had friends from Chicago visiting us with their daughter Li'l Boo's age and her younger brother, so I was super excited for them to experience the magic of visiting Radio City Music Hall as well! It was Miss L's and Mr. C's first time in the city and we couldn't think of a better introduction than spending it immersed in the... Read more →

Passing Along Info from Eggland's Best

In the midst of all of the news about eggs tainted with salmonella, I'm thinking that it was pretty well-timed that I had the opportunity to meet with one BlogHer sponsor in particular: Eggland's Best. Their presence there was priceless in hindsight, considering 1) the news that has broken since then, and 2) that they just had the opportunity to strike up relationships with the 2,400 bloggers attending the conference, to communicate with about how their eggs are safe to consume and unaffected by the salmonella outbreak. Lucky us we just so happen to purchase Eggland's Best brand, or pick... Read more →

What's Swag? What's Compensation for Bloggers?

Our second Blogging Angels podcast released yesterday on iTunes is a continuation of our previous discussion about BlogHer 2010. In this episode, Nancy, Amy, Rebecca and I chat about what we consider compensation, how we define swag and how bloggers interact with brands on their blogs. Interesting stuff for bloggers, and we hope that it sparks a comment, Tweet or post to keep the conversation going as we all sort this issue out. For instance, Amy views receiving an item that she was already interested in or planning to purchase with her own money as compensation - because it saved... Read more →

What Do You Do When Kids Re-Order the Netflix Queue?

I was sitting at the Englewood Inifiti dealership waiting for a new set of tires to be installed on my car Tuesday afternoon when I burst out laughing in the middle of the waiting room. A loud belly laugh: a mixture of surprise, love and pride. The kind that make the service guys walk over to look inside the waiting room to make sure things are alright or that they didn't miss out on a funny YouTube video airing on ESPN. It started with c2cDad's text message: Did you add Jungle Book 2 to the Netflix list?? My reply (knowing... Read more →

The Birth of The Blogging Angels

It all started with a photo of three NYC-area blogging friends at the Silicon Valley Moms Group New York City brand and blogger event in May 2010. None of us wanted to preen for the camera alone outside of Tribeca Cinemas, and we chose to walk the red carpet together. While feeling empowered and silly, we struck the famed Charlie's Angels pose and thought nothing of it until the photos were posted to Flickr and one of us shared the photo on Twitter. We threw out the hashtag #BloggingAngels and had fun brainstorming how we could solve crime and save... Read more →

Starting the BlogHer 2010 Fun at the Avery SocialLuxe Lounge

As much as I enjoy the proximity and access to all of the beauty, pampering restaurant and entertainment options that exist in the Big Apple, it is a rare occasion that I'm able to take advantage of it and live it up. The Avery SocialLuxe Lounge party that took place the evening before BlogHer gave me the opportunity to do just that: get dressed up - polished, primped and pampered - together with a couple of hundred other female bloggers while a variety of awards were doled out to bloggers. A huge thank-you to the hostesses of the party for... Read more →

Leading a Quietly Risky Life

This post is inspired by the From Left to Write virtual book club, and this month's book, The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson. I received a copy of the book as a participant in the book club. It's the story of young newlyweds moving cross-country from LA to NYC, where the young bride has an affair and the couple survives it by agreeing not to discuss it. . .until she runs into her old flame 26 years later. A couple of years ago while attending my middle sister's wedding, one of our close family friends made the comment... Read more →

Kicking Off BlogHer 2010 with Dyson and Tea at The Plaza Hotel

The annual BlogHer conference schedule begins Friday morning, but festivities have already begun here in NYC! Yesterday I attended a fabulous afternoon tea at The Plaza Hotel hosted by @mjtam, the founder and editor of the Chicagonista network (I contribute to NYMetropolista), and Dyson. Last fall, Dyson launched their cool new Air Multiplier bladeless fan and while it looks like it belongs in a hair salon, it's actually a lovely powerful fan. Li'l Boo immediately said it reminded him of the bathroom hand dryers and liked that he could put his arm through it. I like that it doesn't have... Read more →

Roaring ever since the Walking With Dinosaurs show

It was totally worth the two years we've waited to take Li'l Boo to see Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular. Taking him as a near five year old, after he's become familiar with the DVD box set of Walking with Dinosaurs from the BBC television series, wasn't scary and seemed very age appropriate to us. We could have taken him at three years old, but I know he would have been shaken by the T-Rex roars and a couple of the loud "battle" scenes, back when he was first getting into dinosaurs. Last week, though he loved the show... Read more →