Have Fun Hitting the Books

May 16, 2011 By 20 Comments

The kids and I attended the opening of Books and Cookies, a new children’s bookstore, bakery and enrichment center in Santa Monica.

Books and Cookies is owned by Chudney Ross, who happens to be the youngest daughter of Diana Ross.

After graduating from Georgetown with a double major in English and Fine Arts, Chudney became a teacher within the public schools systems in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles.  This experience gave her the opportunity to see firsthand how important it is to teach our kids to love and enjoy the reading experience.

With the creation of Books and Cookies, Chudney has created a fun, comfortable and engaging environment for children to explore and learn more about reading.

The business that my husband and I created is frequently lauded for our marketing and branding.  From my point of view,  Chudney has created a slam dunk of a successful business for many reasons.  First and foremost, in my mind, is the consistent and fun branding that can found everywhere within the store.   In our goodie bags, were all given a sippy cup with the slogan “Snack. Nap.  Read.”  The branding is quirky, colorful and clever.

Cookie Decorating

In addition, Books and Cookies is a comfortable and calming place to visit.  My kids loved exploring all the great nooks and crannies. 

And let’s not forget the sweet side of Books and Cookies – yum!  Kids can decorate cookies, or snack on them while reading.  My daughter wanted to go back to Books and Cookies on the day after our visit.  Says a lot, right?

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

Filed Under: Best of LA, New Business Review Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thank you notes are the bane of my existence.

December 23, 2010 By 7 Comments

I love to throw parties for my kids.  We have six year-old twins, so whenever we have a birthday party, it’s quite a large gathering.  And that means that there are a lot of gifts to be opened and a lot of thank you notes to be written.

This year, we held their party at Fresh Brothers, Redondo Beach. (Of course!)

Sadly, I was unable to attend the party because I was in the hospital.  (That’s a whole blog post in itself.) My friend, Rose Pierce, an incredible photographer and blogger, kindly documented the party.

I got a hall pass this year on writing thank you notes because I wasn’t at the party.  The kids opened their gifts and of course there were no notes kept on who sent what.

I have a confession to make:  last year, I was at their party.  I helped the kids open their gifts, and still didn’t write thank you notes.  I suck.

Yesterday, two social media mavens, Ciaran Blumenfeld and Ana Roco Castro launched a new Iphone & Ipad app called IGiftThanks.  This app allows you to create digital thank you notes and share them with the recipient via email, Facebook and Twitter.

Initially, I thought it was a cool idea, but thought that digital thank you notes might seem really impersonal.  Or tacky.  But the idea of easily sending 50 or so thank you notes easily was really appealing to me.    I downloaded the app onto our Ipad.  (It’s $1.99, less than the cost of a single greeting card, as the IGiftThanks press release points out.)

To test it out, I used the “Quick Thanks” option.   It allows you to choose a themed frame for your note.

I chose the snowflakes and added a picture that my daughter created on the Ipad of a dreidel.  This image then goes into an email that can be sent to the recipient along with a quick note of thanks.  Hit the send button and it’s off into digital cyberspace.  No stamps needed.  No worrying about your terrible handwriting.

I really like IGiftThanks. It’s easy to use.  It’s very affordable.  And best of all, it’s fun.

I will start using IGiftThanks.  Will you think less of me for sending a digital thank you note?

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