When Hot Mama Boutique owner Princess W. Williams was pregnant with her son, she found that all the maternity clothes available were too matronly for her twenty-something years. "I don't see why being pregnant has to be a [fashion] death sentence," she says. "You shouldn't have to wear a muumuu!" A recent Towson University graduate, Williams opened Hot Mama in August to feed her love for style and to offer hip, stylish fashions to expecting moms. The tank tops, jeans, and other clothes sold at the boutique are not your mother's maternity wear-they're brightly colored, embellished with lace and jewels, and look just like the clothes featured in regular stores; plus, the prices are much lower than in traditional maternity stores. Williams also offers skincare for moms and babies, including the popular Palmer's Cocoa Butter products. She puts her special touch on some of the items, like the made-to-order "onesies" with a photo, phrase, or even a sonogram of the wearer on the front. 204 West Saratoga Street (second floor); 410-244-7250; www.hotmamaboutique.com.


Culture …

In 2003, the Maryland Historical Society surprised us all with its sleek modern addition to its existing building. Now they've created a new tour program to match. Specially trained docents guide visitors through two exhibits, giving them a broader and deeper understanding of the items exhibited. Visitors can sign up for tours of Maryland's Most Famous and Least Heard Stories: The Old Line State from Native Americans to the Star-Spangled Banner and Beyond, which features historical objects that speak to Maryland's rich history, like the original Star-Spangled Banner manuscript and H.L. Mencken's typewriter; and Maryland's Finer Side: Portraits, Furniture, and Other Famous Maryland Treasures, which includes the Society's outstanding painted furniture and silver collection. A third tour will open in March 2006 and will guide visitors through an exhibit based on the life and times of Annapolis silversmith, gardener, and tavern owner William Faris. Plus, on the second Friday of every month, The Story Behind the History tours give visitors the opportunity to meet Society curators and librarians to learn more about the artifacts exhibited at the museum. 201 West Monument Street; 410-685-3750, ext. 334; www.mdhs.org; reservations are required.


Podcasting …

This month, the Downtown Partnership (which brought us First Thursdays in Mount Vernon, among other events) launches a newly designed website with an added podcasting section. Podcasting lets users download uncopyrighted music and programs through their computers without an expensive or complicated program. You don't even need an iPod, although the term "podcasting" was created from a combination of "iPod" and "broadcasting." Users of MP3 players and iTunes can also download material. From the Downtown Partnership site, you can download original and previously unreleased tracks from local bands and DJs that spin at popular Baltimore clubs like Red Maple. Public radio station 89.7 FM WTMD has also jumped on the podcasting bandwagon; since July, visitors to the WTMD site have been able to download artist interviews and the show Clear Reception, a media and cultural analysis program. www.godowntownbaltimore.com; www.wtmd.org.


Books …

University of Baltimore professor Kendra Kopelke first became interested in working with older writers when she taught a writing class at Waxter Senior Center more than fifteen years ago. The residents were thrilled with the course, and Kopelke realized that writers over 50 had as much, if not more, to say as younger writers. She also realized that there was a dearth of creative outlets for seniors, so she founded Passager Journal to celebrate and give voice to those writers. Now in its fifteenth year, the journal has received accolades for the quality of its writing as well as its mission. With hopes of extending that success, editors Kopelke and Mary Azrael, along with Christina Gay and Jessica Schultheis, have just launched Passager Books. The first book by the press, A Cartography of Peace, was written by Jean L. Connor, a retired librarian living in the Wake Robin retirement community in Shelburne, Vermont. Connor's first foray into print contains poems, written between her seventy-fifth and eighty-fifth years, that are quietly ruminative works about life, death, solitude, and peace. A Cartography of Peace is available at the Ivy Bookshop, Minás Gallery, Breathe Books, Clayton Fine Books, and on amazon.com. Jean L. Connor will read from her book October 6 at 7 p.m. at the University of Baltimore Thumel Business Center at the intersection of North Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue, Room 003. 410-837-6047; www.passagerpress.com; passagerbooks@ubalt.edu.


Design …

IKEA isn't the only source for Sweden's innovative designs. To prove it, the country kicked off the official Year of Design in January. Since then, the design community has clearly been energized by the initiative, which the Swedish Industrial Design Foundation and the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design launched to encourage businesses and individuals to create and utilize good design in all areas of their lives. Just look at some of the innovations now being offered by Swedish companies. Some are strictly fun, like the cardboard City Hideout that can be carried by the user and unfolded into a small box with vents for observing the world while it can't observe you (oooms.istvan.org); others are more utilitarian, like VoiSec, a small "talking button" created by Libego that can be used by blind or dyslexic (or just plain forgetful) people to record reminders and messages for themselves (voisec.se/pages/careandaid.html). Many singular Swedish products are available for viewing through the companies' websites.


T-shirts …

When Emily Miller created her baltamour T-shirt, she also coined a new term: "accidental art." Miller was terribly homesick for Baltimore while studying abroad in France. After returning home, she came up with the word "baltamour" while doodling and immediately suspected she'd stumbled onto something. Miller screen-printed herself a T-shirt with baltamour on the front and a skull and crossbones on the back-a tribute to the piracy that once ran rampant in the Baltimore harbor. People began to stop her on the street to ask about her creation, and soon she was up to her elbows in screen-printing materials and baby blue tees. Because she didn't start out trying to sell her shirts, Miller has been pleasantly surprised by their popularity. We at Urbanite are so enamored of the T-shirts that we will offer them direct for purchase on the Urbanite website. www.baltamour.com.