Coast 2 Coast Mom

IKEA Paramus to Host Life Improvement Seminar with Stephen Saint-Onge

IKEA and Family Circle are teaming up this weekend to offer up free Life Improvement Store Seminars and there's two here in the local New Jersey area. Celebrity designer Stephen Saint-Onge will be on hand to share creative tips and techniques on how to refresh and update your kitchen and personally I can't wait to check it out. The spurts of warm sunny weather recently have had us spring cleaning and me dreamily pinning and surfing home makeovers and redesigns. :-) The first IKEA event with Stephen Saint-Onge is this Saturday (April 20th) at the IKEA Paramus, and then again... Read more →

What Else Can We Do With Dinosaurs?

This post is inspired by the From Left to Write virtual book club choice, Dinosaurs On The Move by Cathy Diez-Luckie. I received a copy of the book as part of my participation in the monthly book club. I suppose I should have just started a "dinosaur" category for my blog. Once my son became interested in dinosaurs, we flocked to dinosaur toys, puzzles, exhibits and events like mad. Someone gifted him a book listing 100 dinosaur species and he has learned them all. (Honestly, I am shocked to have learned that there are 100 species in the first place!)... Read more →

Notes from The Sandbox Summit: For Today's Kids, the Medium Is As Important as the Message

Last Monday afternoon I hopped on the Acela and headed up to Boston (Cambridge) to attend The Sandbox Summit, iPlay, YouPlay, WiiPlay, a conference focused on "how play is changing media and media is changing play." It was one of the best conferences I've attended in that it lined up fascinating speakers, offered hands-on workshops, and was intimate in that it was a smaller summit and provided plenty of time for follow-up discussions and networking amongst academics, toy developers, researchers, publishers, marketers and media. It was a summit to share research, discussion, ideas and predictions. I'll touch upon some of... Read more →

When Mom's Away, Spooky Tigers Come Out To Play

So . . .yeah. This is what happens when daddy watches the kid while Mom's away. Yesterday was a busy day in the city starting off with the annual AIDS Walk New York with around 45,000 in Central Park, followed by a BMS afterparty at the Central Park Zoo. Li'l Boo wanted to actually see all of the animals first - not as interested in the food or activities, but then upon return to the party tent, he himself requested a "spooky" face. Now let me stop you right there becaue if I'd have been with Li'l Boo we would... Read more →

We Figured Out How To Make Dinosaur Cupcakes

We did it! After days of searching for online patterns or samples, or locating a nearby bakery to make them, we came up with our own 3D dinosaur cupcakes for Li'l Boo to take into school to celebrate his summer birthday earlier this week. I kept asking him, are you sure they have to be dinosaur cupcakes? How about dogs or baseball cupcakes? Oh no, they have to be dinosaurs mom. I want dinosaur cupcakes. Gah! (I did find that YouCake has a dinosaur design, but alas they're made in Brooklyn and I didn't have a way to get them... Read more →

Kids Home With The Snow? Try An Idea From The Winter Activity Guide

With the additional foot or so of snow falling throughout the Midwest and East Coast today, thought I'd share a winter activity guide I recently received - just in time for winter break, or in this case, snow days! With spring another five weeks away according to Punxsatawney Phil, it would be near torture to spend those weeks stuck indoors. If you can't beat the snow, I guess ya have to embrace it. Unleash the kids' energy and focus their attention on the world around them with winter activity ideas like taking some old stuffed animals or trucks/cars outside to... Read more →

First Ever North Jersey Fiber Arts Festival

I was purchasing some yarn at Close Knit Yarns in Wyckoff last week and picked up a flyer for the first ever North Jersey Fiber Arts Festival. I've been hearing a lot about the "fiber arts" lately - a term which encompasses all of the knitting, sewing, crocheting, quilting, lace-making, embroidering, needlepointing, spinning, felting, dyeing and other fiber and textile artisans. Maybe it's a sign of the times that the fiber arts are seeing a surge in popularity amidst this recession? Or maybe it's a result of the eco-friendly era we're living in this decade? I personally started knitting to... Read more →