Cool Mom Picks

Make mine a bologna on white, hold the lead.

Now that the Center for Environmental Health is suing makers of vinyl lunch boxes for harmful levels of lead (yikes!) it’s time to invest in a new carrying case for the pb&j.

San Francisco-based Mimi the Sardine makes reusable lunchbags called Lunchbugs, and while they're lead-free and eco friendly, they look more like something you'd find at Barney's than at a Greenpeace rally. The Lunchbugs come in fifteen patterns, and mercifully, not a Dora or an Elmo among them.

Don’t be fooled by the cute exterior; the coated cotton is entirely water and soil resistant, and the interior is lined with black nylon to handle the occasional juicebox gone amok. Now all you have to do is pray the kid doesn't leave it on the bus.   -Liz

You can read more about lead in lunchboxes, how to test for it, and the CEH recommendations here.

Purl with a Purpose

I'm a winter knitter. I have no problem creating toasty scarves and booties when the weather is chilly - but for some reason, when my butt is roasting on a lovely 85 degree March day here in Mississippi, I have a little more difficulty motivating myself to grab my needles and go. Luckily, I am no longer a bad-weather knitter since finding Knitting for Charity, a wonderful organization that provides hand knit, crocheted, and sewn toys and bags for children in hospitals. They offer a variety of patterns, including photos, for beginner through advanced crafters right on their site. Since the toys are reasonably small, you can even use up your yarn stash; if it's anything like mine, it's probably just sitting in the closet collecting dust.

And a little cool mom picks tip: Get your kids involved by having them draw a picture or write a note with the toy, and pass the joy of charitable giving onto them.

~Kristen

The Mod Hatter: Contest for a Cause

mod*mom, that mama with the hippest, most happening retro-modern design blog, is on the lookout for those of you with a good eye and a big heart.

You see mod*mom, also known as Kristen, was diagnosed earlier this year with breast cancer and just this week lost her hair to chemo treatments. While she is kind of digging the free time it's bought her in the mornings, she would prefer to sport a little more happening look. Not a fan of wigs, she opted instead to sponsor a mod hat design contest to help her, and others like her, seek out the coolest haberdashery around. As she puts it, "we can have cancer and be stylish."

Helluva attitude, helluva gal.

So CoolMomPicks is calling on each of you to track down the grooviest mod, modern, futuristic or space-age hat on the market and email a photo of it to Kristen. She'll post it on her blog with a link back to your site.

And for those of you who can knit, sew, crochet, decoupage, work a bedazzler, or even just glue stuff on other stuff, you're more than welcome to create your own and send a photo of that in too. You just might sell it in the end.

The winning photos will be featured on the crazy high-traffic blog, design*sponge, to help raise awareness of breast cancer. The deadline is March 31.

And we'd just like to add that while those of us at CMP remain impartial in this contest, it's really Kristen we're rooting for.   -Liz

NB: The Kristen mentioned in this piece is not the CMP Kristen. However, you can leave your well wishes for her (I'm sure she'd appreciate them) at her blog (see the above link).

This Organization Goes to 11

The brilliant mind that brought us This is Spinal Tap has made a massive--and welcome--leap to the world of non-profits. Parents Action for Children is Rob Reiner's very cool parent advocacy group. The website features the standard fare on topics like schools, safety, wellness, and children and the media; but what really differentiates it from Babycenter and the like is the action section. Here they lay out facts on the issues you care most about, then tell you exactly what you can do to make things better. Whether you¹re concerned about violent videogames, up in arms about junk food in schools, or royally pissed off over budget cuts for Headstart, you'll find a simple way to get off your butt and do something about it. Without actually getting off your butt.

~ LIZ