Concern about the environment has made me look at ways to improve our family’s carbon foot print. One of the easiest changes is to stop buying bottled water.
We have a filter to improve the taste of our water and I bought a couple Sigg bottles for me, Jay and Georgia. They are made from aluminum and don’t leach into your beverage, which makes them a great alternative to plastic. I picked our bottles up at http://www.reusablebags.com/
They also carry Klean Kanteen. The Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Sippy Cup includes a 12 oz stainless steel bottle, a sippy adapter and two Avent sippy spouts. which means you don’t need to worry about your toddler and bisphenol-a, BPA.
Posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Lately, it seems, every time you turn on the television, open a newspaper or magazine, you hear about another pregnant celebrity.
Julia Roberts began the the trend when she became pregnant with twins in 2004. Since then, stars like Jennifer Garner, Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Minnie Driver, and Jessica Alba, have all started their families. The celebrities who have taken family life to the extreme are Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Their ever expanding family includes 2 boys and 2 girls, and if you believe current celebrity gossip, twins are on the way.
I have wondered if this current celebrity boom has caused a baby boom in society as a whole. We are constantly bombarded with stories about the the lives of celebrities. We emulate their lives by following their trends—clothes, cars, and lifestyles—I think that may include children.
Have you been influenced to have a baby because of the celebrity baby boom?
Posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Snug-A-Bug Blankets “What a Hoot” minky baby blanket has been featured in the January 2008 Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine.
I would like to thank the editors at the magazine for picking one of my blankets to be featured, and I would like to welcome the readers to my website.
For those looking to purchase “What a Hoot”, or any of my new Snug-A-Bug Blanket styles, please follow the link to my Etsy shop.
Posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
We have a new addition to the family his name is Mac.
He is a 15 week old Brussels Griffon Chihuahua cross, also known as a Brissel Chiffon.
Mac came to us from Griffon de la Griffonnerie in Quebec. They breed both Griffon’s and Chihauhau’s and Mac and his sister were a good oops. He is a sweetheart of a dog. Very small with a lot of moxie.
Oscar our 8 year old pug is not sure what to make of him, but Georgia adores him.
Posted on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Once again I have to tell you how glad I am that we decided to teach Georgia sign language. She is beginning to use more and more verbal words but I am not always sure what she is saying. Since she does know some signs, she uses them while she is talking—making it much easier to understand what she wants.
I had originally thought that the signing would be primarily for when she was younger and couldn’t talk, but I find that she is using a lot more signs now and using them a lot more consistently than before.
We recently bought Baby Einstein - My First Signs as a supplement to our other Baby Signs DVD. it is a really good starter DVD with lots of basic signs that are easy to follow and remember. She enjoys watching it and the signs are repetitive which is great since it helps me remember them. That is one of the big challenges when you are teaching your baby signs, you are trying to learn them at the same time and remember what they mean.
My favourite sign is for “cereal.”
Read my previous experiences with signing:
Tags: baby, sign language, Baby Einstein, communication
Posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Friday’s Martha Stewart show featured a crafter who made the cutest sweaters for children.
They are made from adult sweaters that are shrunken and then turned into children’s sized sweaters. The instructions and the templates can be found on the Martha Stewart site. The woman who was doing the felting (the applying of the appliqué) also sells her sweaters on Etsy. They are very cute and you should check out her shop, Sweetest Thing Design.
I might try and make a cardigan for Georgia but the felting looked like a lot of work and may take a lot of patience to complete.
Posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Vintage sellers left looking for an alternative to Etsy can see the beginnings of a new website for sellers of vintage items.
The site, which is meant to fill a void on the internet, is aimed at buyers and sellers of vintage, antique and vintage inspired items. The blog has gone up and you can track the progress and leave comments about the site.
Check it out at http://www.futurevintagemarketplace.com/blog/
Posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
My Scooba died unexpectedly last month.
I turned it on to do a quick wash of the front hall and it sounded funny, like the vacuum wasn’t working. It ran for about 5 minutes and then quit and the red service me light was flashing. I took it apart to make sure there wasn’t anything blocking the vacuum, removed the battery, and then put it back together. It started again and this time it sounded right with the vacuum working but it only lasted 5 minutes before it died again.
Since I had purchased it from eBay, I was concerned if iRobot would honour the warranty. I had registered it when it first arrived with no problem, but I wasn’t sure if they might give me trouble because it wasn’t bought at retail outlet and I didn’t have a receipt other than my PayPal transaction.
The customer service rep immediately knew what the problem was and sent out a replacement battery, free of charge. Apparently, the Scooba batteries are sensitive to heat and she recommended that we keep the top open when charging and to keep it away from heating vents while charging.
The new battery arrived within 2 weeks from the US to Canada. The Scooba is back to its old self keeping my floors clean while I do something else.
Don’t forget to check out my original post about my Scooba if you haven’t read it.
Posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 11:00 am
I saw a great idea for a Photo Book
recently. A friend of mine wanted to make a cookbook of all of her favourite family recipes and give to her siblings so she made a photo book with all her recipes. She incorporated pictures she took of the food or put in family photos along side the recipes—it was a nice idea. I have made up recipe books before for friends and family, but this was nice because it was more like a real cookbook.
You can use an photo book company like Picaboo
or, if you have a mac, iPhoto to create it. They have great templates to use.
One thing I like about Picaboo is that they have lots of tips and samples of books people have made. There is a nice one under the “winter” category—it had pictures from an ice storm.
Checking out Picaboo’s site recently I saw that they expect to have a mac version out sometime this year.
8.5×11 custom photo book. Buy 1 get 1 free with coupon code: 1PB1GF-CB
Posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
I am looking forward to watching the Oscars® tonight. I have seen all the Best Picture nominees, but Letters from Iwo Jima.
Best Picture
My pick for best film is The Departed. I am a fan of Martin Scorsese and I found that he kept me on the edge of my seat until the very last shot.
Best Actress
I would like to see Kate Winslet from Little Children win best actress, although I did enjoy both Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren, who were excellent in their films.
Best Actor
I haven’t watched as many of the films that Best Actor nominees are in, but thought that Forrest Whitaker was excellent as Ide Amin in The Last King of Scotland . I would have picked Leonardo Di Caprio had the nomination been for The Departed .
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting actress hands down is Jennifer Hudson, she was excellent in that role and clearly stole the spotlight from Beyoncé. If you havn’t seen Dreamgirls you really should. I really enjoyed the film and I am not a big fan of Musicals.
Best Supporting Actor
For best supporting actor my pick Jackie Earle Haley from Little Children. He is probably best known from his role as Kelly Leak from the 1976 The Bad News Bears. I know that Eddie Murphy is predicted to win and I thought his role in Dreamgirls was excellent but it reminded me of his James Brown caricature from his Saturday Night Live days.
Other Awards
Best Documentary-Long Form
The only documentary I saw that was nominated was Jesus Camp. It was an eyeopener and a little creepy. If you haven’t seen it it is worth a viewing. An Inconvenient Truth is expected to win.
Best Foreign Language Film
I have not watched any of the films nominated for best foriegn film but have enjoyed previous work of Guillermo del Toro and Deepa Mehta. I am rooting for Water to win—Go Canada—but suspect Pan’s Labyrinth will take home the award.
I think the show will be funny since Ellen Degeneres is hosting. My biggest hope is that they keep the musical dance numbers down to a minimum.
Posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
