Calling all artists, art lovers and people who just love great ideas.
You’ve got one chance to catch The Sketchbook Project Tour in Richmond, and you’re not going to want to miss it.

The Sketchbook Project is a global, crowd-sourced art project and interactive, traveling exhibition of handmade books. The permanent collection at Brooklyn Art Library holds home to over 30,000 sketchbooks from 135 countries.  Anyone, from anywhere in the world, can participate in the project.

Participants from all walks of life are invited to fill the pages of a blank sketchbook and send it back for inclusion in this one-of-a-kind library.

This past November, we shared with you our excitement over The Race to Parenthood and promised to keep you updated when the race was off and running.

We are pleased to report to you that registration is officially open for The Race To Parenthood!
The chip-timed 5k run/walk is stroller friendly and takes place on April 12, 2014 at 9:00AM at West Creek Business Park in Richmond.

7 local couples are hoping to become parents this year with the help of fertility treatments or surrogacy and you can help them in a really fun way.  Choose your team (or opt to have a team chosen for you) and 100% of your registration fee goes to help that couple in their race to fertility.  Each team has a color, so be sure to dress your color and add some flair and celebrate your teams Race to Parenthood.

Of course, no race is complete without a fabulous after party, so after the race, head over to the Virginia Farm Bureau parking lot for food, shopping, and family fun!  Vendors will include: Granny’s Ice Cream, Bellaroma, USANA, Pampered Chef, Harbour Pointe Chiropractic and Wellness Center, Virginia IVF and Andrology Center, with more to come!

Can’t join in the race on April 12? You can still participate  in a virtual race via Facebook, or by making a direct donation.

We love this great way to help real Richmond couples!!

Race to Parenthood
April 12, 2014 at 9:00AM
West Creek Business Park in Richmond.

For more information, FAQs and registration
visit the Race to Parenthood Website

         Join us as Nessa Baskerville, artist, historian, activist, librarian, and truly one of Richmond’s

         Treasures, provides insights into her work “The Jubilo Collection” depictions of legendary Richmond  

         events and mythical characters.

Thursday, November 8^th 4pm – 7pm
Massage Envy – Willow Lawn 804-440-0004

*While supplies last. At participating locations.

Massage Envy is an advertiser on Richmondmom.com

1)      The princess’ mother is not dead or a witch.

2)      There is no adulation or song dedicated to the princess’ beauty.

3)      The movie doesn’t have a ‘wedding’ as its happy ending.

In a nutshell, Merida is a spirited teenage princess who resists her mother’s patient attempts to teach her to act more like a ‘lady.’  The time has come for Merida to choose a suitor and she says “I’m just not ready.”  Feeling trapped, Merida takes matters into her own hands and makes a series of choices to try to change the course of ‘fate’.

She is defiant, frustrated and amazing – literally busting out of her tight-fitting gown to show the world that she wants a different life than her mom’s.  Merida’s choices, however, prove to not be well thought-out and set off a series of unfortunate events that ultimately result in life-threatening situations.  (Yep sounds like a teenager!) .

The true test of Merida and her parents’ courage and bravery is how they respond.

There is a love story at the heart of this movie, but not between Merida and a boy.  It is the first love story any human knows – that between mother and child.  A real relationship between a mother and teenage daughter is rare on the big screen and is so wonderful and refreshing to see.  Any mother and daughter who have traversed the teenage years together (or will in the future) will see themselves both in the sweet interactions and challenging attempts at communication.

Over the course of the movie, mother and daughter each have the opportunity to walk in the other’s shoes, so to speak, and develop empathy.  What they do with that empathy result in perhaps the BRAVEST actions of the movie:  The queen gives permission to Merida to break away from cultural tradition, and Merida becomes willing to listen and have a closer relationship with her mom. This culminates in the iconic transformation moment at the end of the movie (think:  when the Beast turns back into a man in Beauty and the Beast) but with an awesome twist.

Like any reviewer, I can’t help but mention what Merida looks like.  She has stunning curly, red, untamed hair and blue eyes.  A main draw of the movie is that her looks are not mentioned, judged, or linked at all to her virtue or worth.  (Can you think of another Disney movie in which that’s true?) Also, I look more like Merida than any of the other Disney princesses.  Perhaps if I had a Merida in my youth, I would have spent more time embracing my crazy curly hair rather than wishing it away.

Other reviewers have said this movie doesn’t live up to Pixar’s reputation for plot, story line or creativity.  I beg to differ.

In my opinion, the plot is very engaging and what it may lack in cleverness and consistency, it makes up for in its examination of relationship and dialogue.  It is on the scary side and has a PG rating, but I would argue it’s no scarier than the scariest scenes in Snow White or Sleeping Beauty.

Clearly, I loved this movie. 

I relished watching it with my 4-year-old daughter in my lap.  She still fits perfectly in the space under my chin.  Soon, she’ll be too big to fit in my lap, and too soon after that, she’ll be like Merida, trying to bravely distinguish herself from me and become her own independent person.  Thanks to Brave, we have a movie we can enjoy to give us a little boost of hope that we can become separate yet still remain close…. hopefully without witches, poison and bears involved!

 It was such a fun thing to connect with Rachel Reynolds. Right as I was releasing She’s Got Issues, she was releasing Four Seasons for Charlotte. We thought it would be cool to ask each other some questions, author to author. To read Rachel’s interview of me, you can click HERE.

Rachel, your book is about your daughter’s diagnosis with a brain tumor. You chronicle her treatment and her tragic death, but also the power and strength in community. What was one unexpected thing that you experienced from writing and publishing the book?

This may sound funny, but I was truly surprised at how interested people were in hearing our story.  Originally, I put my ideas on paper as a way to process my thoughts and feelings around that incredible year of our lives.  As I shared some of my writing, people kept saying, “You should turn this into a book.”  After hearing it from people outside my closest friends and family, I thought that maybe I did have an interesting story to tell. 

What was the hardest part of the writing process for you?

As I wrote and edited the book, I found myself reliving 2009 all over again.  Those emotions and memories were sometimes difficult to process.  It was great to relive the happy memories of times that we shared with Charlotte but writing also reminded me why I was telling our story in the first place.  That empty place in my heart ached a little every time I edited the book.

Four Seasons for Charlotte touches on the very real process and emotions of a parent losing a child. What would you say to someone who’s experiencing this kind of grief?

Grief is such a powerful and complicated emotion.  Everyone seems to process something like the death of a child in a different way. There are two big lessons I have learned on this journey: No two people grieve in the same way and there are no hard and fast rules for the process.  The grief often comes and goes in waves. Sometimes the waves are tiny ripples and sometimes they are tsunamis.  Navigating grief is about learning to ride the waves.

In your experience, what’s the best way friends and family can support someone who’s experiencing severe or terminal illness (either themselves or their child)?

If a family is living in crisis because of a severe or terminal illness, it is very   important for them to learn how to accept (and delegate) help.  In our experience, the community wants to help but they sometimes need a little bit   of direction.  If you are trying to help a family in need, think about what you can do and just dive right in.  No good deed is too small.  Offer to do a load of      laundry, bring a meal over to their home, babysit, deliver an extra cup of coffee, or just distract your friend with a fun evening out.  Living in crisis is scary but knowing you have a community behind you willing to help makes all the difference in the world. 

So who should read your book?

I think this book will resonate strongly with any parent who has lost a child but I hope that it will give insight to anyone who is also supporting a family in crisis.  While every family’s story is unique, we learned some valuable life lessons in the year of Charlotte’s illness.  Everyone has challenges in their life and has to find ways to manage stress.  There are common threads in our story to which I think almost anyone can relate.

Find out more about Four Seasons for Charlotte and connect with Rachel on her website.

When two Richmond moms visited Spirited Art in Huntsville, Alabama, they fell in love with the concept and had to bring it to Richmond, VA.

This fun new business combines good friends, good wine and paint (yes, paint!) to create some fabulous works of art. Here, local artists guide all ages and skill levels, step-by-step, through the creation of their own masterpieces. The studio hosts an eclectic selection of class themes ranging from college mascots to crosses to wine bottles to Monet’s water lillies.

Dami and Lauren promise that if you know your letters, shapes, and colors you’ll create masterpieces at

One of Spirited Art's non-profit nights will feature butterfly paintings for CJStuf.org

Spirited Art.

Beautiful painting that will be featured with Full Circle Grief Center's benefit night at Spirited Art.

Spirited Art provides all the supplies, so come alone or with friends–all you need to bring is your sense of humor and creative spirit! If you need creative juices a wide selection of wine, beer (as well as non-alcoholic beverages) and hors d’oeuvres are available for purchase from their partner, The Wine Loft (many of you have been there for our Wine Down Wednesday events!)

We love that Spirited Art, like Richmondmom.com, believes in giving back to the community and will be hosting a benefit night once a month. During that night, Spirited Art partners with a local non-profit and donates over 70% of the proceeds (up to $1,500 in one night!) back to the non-profit.

Spirited Art hosts private parties, kid’s birthday parties, corporate team-building and school group events as well. You can choose an existing painting or an artist will create a unique painting just for your event. Visit their website, myspiritedart.com/richmond to learn more, and sign up for a class using their online reservation system.

Adult classes are $35, kid’s classes are $25. For more information please contact Lauren McCormick at spiritedartrichmond@gmail.com. Also visit Spirited Art Richmond on Facebook.

Spirited Art is an advertiser of Richmondmom.com.

Enjoy off-Broadway theatre right here in Richmond VA!

Firehouse Theatre is not only a great place for unique entertainment, but now it’s a bargain too!

The theater is  offering $20 adult tickets /$6 kid ticket (with each paid adult ticket) for this weekend – Thursday and Friday at the 7:00 p.m. shows., and Sunday at 4:00 p.m. — during the weekend of June 10, 2011. These tickets are normally $26 for adults and $12 for students – what a steal!

This weekend’s bargain is for Richmondmom.com readers ONLY so be sure to use coupon code “richmondmoms” when ordering online, or mention Richmondmom.com if calling the box office to purchase tickets. You’ll enjoy:

• Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead/You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
• Directed by Billy Christopher Maupin

The Richmond Times-Dispatch describes the shows this way:

“Director Billy Christopher Maupin has cast smartly, and he moves the episodes along while hitting the occasional emotional notes honestly.”

Firehouse Theatre is contemporary theater that takes place in the former Station House #10 of the Richmond Fire Department. These Off-Broadway shows and original works are engaging, entertaining, and great family fun. It’s a unique opportunity to see magnificent contemporary theater pieces not previously produced in the metro Richmond area.

Future upcoming shows include:

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES by Rajiv Joseph
Starring Molly Hood and Billy Christopher Maupin; Narrated by Cooper Timberline
Directed by Jacqueline Jones
June 19, 7:30PM
Firehouse Theatre Project’s Readers’ Theatre Series

MASTER CLASS by Terrence McNally
Starring Jeanie Rule
with Brittany Simmons, Katrinah Carol Lewis, Matt Shofner, and Anthony Smith
Directed by Billy Christopher Maupin
June 20, 7:30PM
Richmond Triangle Players

A GENDER-REVERSED EXPLORATION OF HAMLET by William Shakespeare
Directed by Billy Christopher Maupin
July 18, 7:30PM
Firehouse Theatre Project Readers’ Theatre Series

HEARTS ONLINE
Book by Rebecca Jones; Music by Paul Bartsch; Lyrics by Jones and Bartsch
Directed by Billy Christopher Maupin
August 14 & 15
Firehouse Theatre Project

BECKY’S NEW CAR by Steven Dietz
Directed by Billy Christopher Maupin
Starring Melissa Johnston Price
Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern
September 23 – November 6

WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM by Christopher Durang
Directed by Billy Christopher Maupin
Firehouse Theatre Project
November 10 – December 4

THE CHILDREN’S HOUR by Lillian Hellman
Directed by Billy Christopher Maupin
Chamberlayne Actors Theatre
March 23 – April 7, 2012

SHAKESPEARE IN THE TRAILER PARK
by Mark Covington
Directed by Billy Christopher Maupin
Richmond Shakespeare’s Second Tuesdays Staged Reading Series
April 10, 2012

OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder
A New One-Man Performance
Starring Billy-Christopher Maupin
Directed by Molly Hood
Dates TBD

Firehouse Theatre Project is located at 1609 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220. You can reach them at 804.355.2001 or visit the website. They are also a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Take advantage of this exclusive Richmondmom.com special discount on tickets the weekend of June 7, 2011 and see what it’s all about. Let us know how you enjoy the show!

Use coupon code “richmondmoms” when ordering online.

Space is limited. If you are interested in learning more about Coolsculpting and Virginia Institute of Plastic Surgery call (804) 290-0909 to reserve a spot today!

Virginia Institute of Plastic Surgery
7611 Forest Avenue
Suite 210
Richmond, VA 23229 (map it)