Kevin L. Nadal, Ph.D

One of my coolest and long time pals is now a published author! Yes, Dr. Kevin Nadal penned, "Filipino American Psychology": A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice.


Kevin is currently on his book tour, and is now in town! He'll be in southern cali through the weekend, making stops in L.A., Long Beach, Irvine and San Diego. You can view his tour schedule here.

His book is available at:
Author House
www.amazon.com
www.barnesandnobles.com
Limited stock available at book signing locations

So pick up a copy, visit Kevin at a reading/signing and tell him I sent ya! Congratulations Kevin! We're so proud of you!

P.S. look for mr. red, the hubby and yours truly in the dedication, thank you's and Chapter 3! How cool is that!

Calendar Tape

Pretty genius right? Now there's no excuse. It's time to get organized and get in order with the very clever Calendar Tape.

Stick it anywhere you want and then use it as a calendar and planner, and stick to it!

Wood Veneer Place Cards

Ok. You know it already had me at the words "wood veneer". I'm loving these clean, minimal place cards with the simple bird punched through them. You can get the veneer cards here. And then the rest is up to you.

I'm already trying to think of when and where to use these.

Images via scissor variations

Cool Notebook

This has got to be the coolest notepad! Unfortunately, it's not for sale. It was designed by Trapped in Suburbia in the Netherlands. I can think of many a days in the office this would've helped me through endless meetings.

{Thanks to Kelly for the cool tip!}

Rad Hatter

Flashback - For mr. red's 1st birthday party last year, we hired The Rad Hatter...










...and have loved the rad hats ever since!

They are based in San Diego, CA, but had local staff come out for our party over in L.A. I just love how much whimsy, color, and fun these hats added to our party and especially the photos of our party!

They basically bring the rad hat station to you and your guests are free to decorate their rad hats to their hearts content! Adults and kids alike had so much fun creating their rad concoctions!

If you can't have the Rad Hatter come out to you, several of our friends have just set up their own rad hat stations. Painting and creating the plain rad hats out of regular brown paper bags, and setting up a buffet of adornments for their guests to decorate and simply be rad!

Tiny Boxes

Good things really do come in small packages!

I loooove sleek and clean packaging, so when I stumbled upon these little boxes at See Jane Work, I was smitten!

The possibilities are endless. I can see tons of party favor options, perhaps dressing them up with a sleek, minimal label, etc...They come in other cool colors as well. So go over to See Jane Work and get to work!

Cupcake Wrappers

I saw these adorable cupcake wrappers in action at a friend's party and had to share. Paper & Cake offers an array of very cool cupcake wrappers perfect for any soiree! Visit their Etsy shop and purchase the wrapper templates, and then print and be merry.

So for our next event, I'm ready to dress up my cupcakes. I'm partial to the green camo pattern for mr. red, but am lovin the retro hawaiian as well.

Paper & Cake also offer a variety of other printable partyware such as invitations, crowns, tags, labels, pinwheels and more. Check out their store and get printing.

Photo Booth to rule them all...

Check this out...





The second I met Kristen* from Bliss Video Productions for our wedding back in May '03, (site designed by yours truly), I immediately knew this gal had wicked style. She was, back then, known as the videographer with pink hair, and the hubby and I knew immediately we needed to hire her! We became fast friends and then a year later, we ended up redesigning her website!

Fast forward 6 years later and her business is booming, and she is now married as well, with the photo booth to rule them all!

Photo booth created by Sasha Souza Events and Kristen*

Photos by Elizabeth Messina

Picture Perfect Event

My picture perfect friend, Kelley Gin, owner and creative force behind Picture Perfect Events, (site designed by yours truly), recently celebrated the grand opening of her new studio with a very stylish soiree!

Oh if I weren't baking another bun in the oven and ready to pop, I would've been there. I am so bummed I missed it! Here are some picture perfect details:

Event highlights included an awesome eyelash bar, seagrams sweet tea served in mason jars, and massages for guests!





Read more about her fabulous fete here. Congratulations again Kelley!

Fat Tie Blowout Sale

You should know by now that I'm a huge fan of Fat Tie Shirts! They're just plain phat!

So imagine my excitement when Mari Gallen, owner and designer of Fat Tie, told me about her blowout sale happening now to clear out inventory and make way for the new season! All shirts are now $10-$15! That's a steal!

Shop on over and be sure to check out the Old School Fat Tie Riley featuring and in honor of mr. red himself!

EXCLUSIVELY COOL JUST FOR YOU!
The very cool owner, founder, & designer of Fat Tie, Mari Gallen, thinks you're all cool too! So she has an exclusively COOL discount just for our COOL PICK readers! Use the code "COOL10" and get an additional 10% off your order! (case sensitive) Expires August 31, 2009.

Layer Cake Shop

Hop on over to the newly opened Layer Cake Shop!

From baking cups, toppers, candles, boxes, labels, cupcake kits and more, Layer Cake Shop has all the goodies a baker or even a would-be baker would love! You can even shop by color - so you know I chose BROWN!

So go check it out, it's a piece of cake!

Baby Shower {details}

Here's a peek at our baby shower.
-The adorable cupcakes were made by my sister's friend, and the cupcake toppers were made by yours truly.
-The favors were my idea and so I put together a brownie mix for all the guests to take home. It was titled, "BIG BROTHERS BAKE BADASS BROWNIES" - in honor of mr. red's favorite brownie recipe and how he'll soon be a big brother
-The favor tube came with the individually packaged badass ingredients and the badass recipe
-and last...the games, also designed by yours truly.

Joovy Ultralight Caboose

I'm still recovering from our baby shower this past weekend. Many thanks to our family and friends who endured the sweltering heat to celebrate with us. Like Paris Hilton says, that's HOT!

I plan to post pics and details as soon as I can bring myself to upload the pics. Or rather, as soon as mr. red gives me some time to.

So one of our favorite gifts that we received is the Joovy Ultralight Caboose. (Given by my fabulous brother!) Yes, I bit the bullet and registered for a double stroller, but hey, it's not a boat! It's a tandem, so mr. red can sit or stand in the back, and get this, it weighs only 21 lbs! That's lighter than mr. red and I STILL carry him around!

After much research, the Joovy Ultralight Caboose just seemed like the best fit for us. We already had mr. red give it a test run, and so far so good.

BUT, we're definitely not retiring our beloved Bugaboo just yet. No way! I love that stroller too much. We're gonna get the wheeley board attachment for it, so mr. red can stand on while baby is in front. We have yet to have mr. red try the board out, and I sure hope he likes it, cause I can't bear to part with my Bugaboo!

I still can't believe I'll be a mom of two soon, and it'll all happen too soon!

Another Little Ham

Tomorrow is our second and what we believe to be our FINAL baby shower. I'm closing up shop after this one ;)

So we're getting ready to welcome another little ham into the world and we're excited and so extremely not prepared! Everything is so different this time around. There's just no time for anything. No time to prepare, no time to clean, no time to organize, no time to nest, no time to rest and relax.

The photo above is of our nursery taken prior to big brother, mr. red's arrival. Trust me, it looks nothing like that now. Nowadays, it looks more like a tornado hit it with all of mr. red's toys everywhere, and clothes, etc.

So today I'm wrapping things up for the weekend, and I'm looking forward to the shower, before the STORM!

Enjoy your weekend and here are some very cool GOODIES for you all:
-MICHAELS 50% Off Coupon
-Buy one get one free at Jamba Juice

SprinklesMobile

You know I love me my Sprinkles. We had em for our son's 2nd Birthday Party, and we have yet to taste a red velvet cupcake that tops theirs. We're big fans and so imagine my excitement when I read about the SprinklesMobile!

Now they'll come to you with all their cupcake goodness. Oh how I want to book them for my next event, but the minimum is $2000! Hmmmmmmm. That's tough since our parties don't even cost that much! So until then, I'll keep dreamin.

Hannah Montana

FINALLY! No, I'm not a fan. But I'm a fan of her site! Designed by yours truly, it has finally launched. The official Disney Hannah Montana website - dedicated to anything and everything Hannah Montana.

I worked on this project AFTER leaving Disney full time. I freelanced with their vendor of choice and got to work with other ex-Disney folks, so it was a great gig. Disney work, Disney brands, minus the Disney politics, at least on my end!

So please give Hannah some love and browse around, click through and enjoy the best of both worlds!

InCase Wood Grain iPhone case

"OH NO THEY DIDN'T!"

Yup they sure did. Designers, HunterGatherer, came out with a woodgrain line for Apple. Now ya'all know my love for absolutely anything woodgrain, and then add to that my love for my iPhone, so now I'm in bliss!

I kinda wish it was in a smaller grain design, but hey beggars can't be choosers right?

Problem is I just bought a spiffy new white case for my iPhone literally weeks ago. So I can't go out and buy another case just yet! Can I? Though my birthday is just a couple of weeks from now. Hmmm...

I better have the hubby take a look at this post, I mean it's just InCase!

Dough-Nu-Matic

Got a minute? Well thats about how long it takes for the Dough-Nu-Matic to form, fry and drain delicious mini-doughnuts! It's like having the Krispy Kreme doughnut assembly line conveyor belt right in the comfort of your own kitchen! Wake-up, set the timer and by the time you’re ready for work, you have fresh, hot, yummy home-fried goodness ready to go. Does it get any better than that really? Finish them off with powdered sugar or dip in chocolate, nuts or whatever your heart and stomach desire.

So splurge some hard earned dough on some delicious dough.

Happy 4th of July

Now I'm not one to brag or anything, but I bake a mean pecan tart. I mean mean. I only do it for special occasions cause it requires a lot of my time, and I just don't seem to have a lot of that these days.

My top secret recipe has a buttery, creamy, flaky dough baked from scratch, and although I could simply use a cookie/pastry cutter to easily form the crusts of each mini tart, I choose to mold it all by hand right into the mini muffin pans. That takes the most time.

Now I can't go and share my secret recipe for my pecan tarts, cause then it would no longer be a secret, and everyone has their little secrets right?

So here's a modified version I picked up from my fave baking blog Bake or Break, that's not as secret, and almost as yummy.

So while the men are out firing up the grill this 4th of July, bake a batch of these and share with the family.

Wooden Utensils

Picnic and Party Perfect, wooden utensils add a sleek touch to any event or outing. I'm already trying to think of an event to plan where I can put them to use! You can get some at Anthropologie, but I always seem to entertain larger crowds, so bulk from Ecoware is better for me. A better deal too! "Sorry Anthropologie!"

The ones pictured above are letterpressed. But plain ones are just as charming!

Frecklebox

Make your gift as cool and unique as the child your giving it to...with FRECKLEBOX! They have everything from books, growth charts, lunchboxes, party favors, placemats, posters, stickers and more. The best part is you can personalize each and every one of them!

We chose the personalized hardcover book about becoming a BIG BROTHER for mr. red. There's even a spot at the end of the story where we inserted our own family pic. Very cool.

So hop on over to FRECKLEBOX and customize your own gift. This time, it's personal!