Kirtsy/Alltop Party

After the 5MFM interview on Thursday morning, I went straight to Guy Kawasaki's house to help with preparations for the big Kirtsy-Alltop Party. And all the work, work, work paid off. The party was a red hot, super-cool, smash hit — thanks to our generous sponsors and friends like Stephanie from ListenShare and Trae and Jim from YouData.





There was a photo station with a bowl full of fake mustaches acquired by Jordan, and glam dressups provided by Mrs. Kawasaki, and the talented Ms. Juliann behind the camera. There was a button-making booth manned by the highly creative Emily. There was a vintage, red, Italian typewriter where you could type a quick Hello (in lieu of a guestbook). There was amazing food by PSRT Catering. There was amazing swag. The best part: the fabilicious guests of course.





If you get a chance to browse the party photos, you won't be disappointed. And you can see even more here.

Mighty Haus

Did you see what I saw on kirtsy today? The super strong duo of Mighty Goods and Mighty Junior is now a trifecta — Mighty Haus was just unveiled! A daily shopping blog (a clever and witty and just-right shopping blog) that focuses on items for your home. Items like this Paper Potter that I want to own right this minute. Fantastic. Three cheers to Maggie Mason and Melissa Summers on the launch!

Do you know what else is happening on kirtsy this week? A super cool Kirtsy Loves Video Games Giveaway! You have until Saturday night at midnight to get your comments in over at the kirtsy blog. Then. Four Winners will each receive $150 worth of yummy, portable, Nintendo awesomeness. You know you want to get on this. Because you totally wanted to dress up as Ms. Pac Man in the fourth grade and couldn't make it happen. And this will make it all better.

Tasting Party

Spotted on kirtsy. This fascinating article from the NY Times about a tiny fruit that makes everything taste sweet. And now the only thing in the whole world that I want to do is host a Tasting Party.

Also spotted on kirtsy. Goodyblog is having a HUGE Father's Day party. With $5000 worth of prizes. It looks awesome. Don't miss it!

images from the NY Times

Happy Birthday Kirtsy!

I interrupt Ask-Design-Mom Week with an important announcement: It's Kirtsy's Birthday!!!

To celebrate, there is a big, huge contest going on. (I know, I know. No big surprise. Kirtsy is all about big, huge contests.) Go check it out. Wish kirtsy a Happy Birthday. And enter to win over $625 worth of prizes from four fantastic sponsors.



What's kirtsy? It's my other website. That I love. And it's my secret for finding all the best stuff happening online.

Say Hello to Kirtsy!!

I've got some news. Unless you're very new to Design Mom, you probably already know I started another website called sk*rt with two amazing partners. Sk*rt was modeled on a site called Digg and is a place where anyone can share any cool link they find online. It's been up and running for less than a year but is already a pretty darn popular site. I love it. I find cool things on it everyday. And I hope you do to.

That said, we're changing the name. And it happens today. Why? Well, it's because of some unseemly internet drama. The 411: A company with a similar name sued us a few months ago over the domain name. We won. Which didn't surprise us, but apparently surprised them — because now they're back again with an even more massive lawsuit. So. We're changing our name. We have decided to move on. Why fight an enormous corporation with deep pockets and a penchant for sueing tiny companies? And. We don’t believe in skirts fighting. The end.

Which means: we've been working our sk*rts off over the last weeks, and we now have a new name, a new location, and a whole new even more awesome energy!

Sk*rt is now kirtsy.

And I have a favor to ask. I need your help to get the word out, so that no one gets lost and no one gets left behind. Here’s what you can do. You have a number of options. And you can do any and all of the following:

1. Replace your old sk*rt badges with one of these bad boys. Here they are! And go crazy! Feel free to add one even if you didn’t have a sk*rt badge before. Kirtsy badges are the new chartreuse. Which is totally huge.

2. Also, please feel very free to write about it on your blog, or twitter, or facebook, or comment about it wherever you comment, or send out an email, or put up flyers on poles, or chalk it on sidewalks, or do an interpretive dance, or whatever it is that you do, and help us get the word out about the change.

3. Finally, tell anyone you know about kirtsy. And then tell anyone you know who knows people to tell them too. We’ve always said, the more brilliant minds, the better the site. And we don’t want to lose any of those brilliant minds along the way.

To thank you for your help, we've put together a huge contest. If you do any of the above. Let us know about it. In the comments on the kirtsy contest blog post. Or in the comments on the kirtsy entry. Or send us an email at changerocks@kirtsy.com. And you will be entered to win this ginormous Make That Change prize worth over $1,000.

One lucky kirtsy champion will win all of these cool things:

-14 Books from Hachette Book Group
The fantastic Hachette Book Group has published a kabillion great books. And you could win 14 of them.

-A Lands’ End $100 Gift Certificate to buy your new favorite swimsuit.
Lands’ End is known as the long-time go-to spot for the quality and variety (and the best-made swimsuits around). Seriously, a ton of super cute options. How will you chose?

-A Sony DVDirect.
Wow. This is incredible. A quick and easy way to get your home movies and digital pictures to DVD. Very nice. And it can playback on Blu-ray Discs too. For extreme high definition detail of your oh so professional shots.

-An Affirmagy blanket.
We think the Peace blanket is our mantra right now.

-3 cool techy items from Spoon Sisters
A Driinn, the Take Charge, and the ID Pilot Labels. How useful are these products? How cool is this site?

-8 rolls of super cute giftwrap from Hallmark.
And it’s not just giftwrap — it’s adhesive wrap. Brilliant!! If you can operate a sticky note, you can wrap like a professional wrapper of wrappings. You’ll be fancy like that.

-Ten Cases of water from Primo Water.
Primo is the first nationally available bottled water whose bottle is made from plants, not crude oil! A bottle that’s friendly to the environment. What a concept! We love them.

-And finally, a registration to the July BlogHer conference in San Francisco OR a Blogher Reach conference of the winner’s choice. From YouData… a new company that is so freaking smart and fantastic, and you’ll hear much more about them sooner than later. Watch for it. That’s right, this means one lucky winner will be attending a Blogher Conference for FREE. Thanks, YouData!!!

That’s right, kirtsy is having a giant contest with over $1,000 in prizes just for spreading the word and leaving a comment. Easy. Peasy.

And most of all. Thank you for reading Design Mom. And for taking an interest when I post about kirtsy.

kisses, Gabrielle