Category: Diversions

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Diversions

Where I spend my money – the 100-mile child

Last summer we bought a house in Riverdale (I really should get on those posts eh?!)  We’re within a short walk of the Danforth to the north and Gerrard East to the south. A little further south gets us to Queen St. East and Leslieville. All very nifty areas.

Broadview subway station is on the Danforth, as is the closest LCBO (for my US friends, this is the government owned liquor store where you can purchase, uhm, booze) and Shoppers Drug Mart and the post office that we have to go to to pick up larger packages or stuff we need to sign for. Plus there are restaurants galore and I’m sure I’ll post more about those as time goes on but the shop I’m focusing on today is called the 100-mile child. I think I only noticed it the first time because it’s right beside the post office and there were sunhats from Snug as a Bug on a rack outside. I have bought a TON of PJs from them for Q, our niece and nephew in PEI and the kids of our good friends. They’re made in Toronto near where I grew up.

IMG_4828The idea behind 100-Mile Child is kinda obvious: sell products made by companies who manufacture their items locally. This is great from an environmental view point and also great for supporting local, and often very small, businesses. Now, it turns out the “100-mile” part isn’t literal. Some of the products are from Quebec for example BUT you can search on the website for the truly local stuff. And they all seem to be environmentally friendly and lots of fun.

We stopped in to buy another sunhat so we could leave one at daycare permanently. We let Q pick his own:

 

He said he liked all the animals and listed them off after having seen the hat for 10-15 seconds!
He said he liked all the animals and listed them off after having seen the hat for 10-15 seconds!

When we went inside to play pay we found a whole range of other items for babies and toddlers and big kids too. Puzzles and trucks and dress up clothes and paper products and more. Q chose this puzzle made in Dunham Quebec:

IMG_4600

We have since acquired two more:

three puzzles and he has to work on them all at the same time...sigh
three puzzles and he has to work on them all at the same time…sigh

One is a penguin on ice and the other is a duck.

And these are definitely going on my wish list for Q: http://www.the100milechild.ca/product.php?id=1068

danish alphabet blocks!

They also accept the LiveGreen Toronto Membership Card. I signed up for one of them a while ago but haven’t used it ever. Apparently it gets me 10% off any products they have labelled as “green.” Nice to get a bit off if there’s something I’m looking for but cannot find on sale!

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Diversions

If I won the lottery…

first in a randomly recurring series….

I am a big James Bond fan. Just know that going in. BUT if money were no object, and clearly if I had found it before Q was born I would have loved this, Silver Cross Surf stroller from Aston Martin.

A mere 2,000 GBP from Harrods. But seriously, how cool? An anodised aluminium and magnesium alloy chassis, leather interior, “performance fabric hood” and only 800 made. AND.IT’S.AN.ASTON.MARTIN.

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Diversions

Where I spend my money – Sweet December Hats

I’m part of an online mommy group where the kids were all born in and around January 2011 (so some in December 2010 and some in February 2011 and a couple of others too). One of the moms in the group is Bethany. She lives in Colorado and has a shop on Etsy – Sweet December Hats. I absolutely love her stuff – and so does Q:

Feb. 2013
Feb. 2013

She often has a sale or something on clearance posted on her facebook page. I bought a lovely band for my niece and was poking about her etsy shop and had to order the santa hat

from sweet december hats

In fact, I ordered two – one for Q and one for my nephew H. One has a sparkly silver thread running through it so I could tell the two apart.

looking pretty cute if I do say so myself
looking pretty cute if I do say so myself

Q at first reacted as he usually does with hats “no momma, no hat” but I managed to snap the picture first. I showed it to him and he beamed “SNOW MAN HAT!” He grabbed it back from me, stuffed it back on his head and ran around the house saying “I want it to snow, I want it to snow.” Yep, he may look like Toby but he often acts like me.

I tried to get him to stop so I could record the desire for snow and he finally did – but what I got was so much better. Quentin’s Ode to Christmas.

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Diversions

Playing tourist at home

Quentin is getting older now and I think will really enjoy doing more than maybe just playing in the park on Saturdays. My folks are great and take him places on Sunday afternoons too – gives me time to get my long runs in – but I thought he and I could really start to play tourist at home now. Toronto in general, our new home in Riverdale more specifically…

Riverdale_map
from wikipedia

And what better way to start than close to home? This Saturday (Sunday too for the art walk) are two events: the Eats & Beats in Riverside and the Riverdale Art Walk – both are along Queen St East in our end of town. The Art Walk starts at 11 am and the Eat & Beats not until 1 pm. Q usually starts his nap around 12:30 – 1 pm though we’ve got a piano repair guy coming by for 1 pm so it sort of makes sense for Q and me to head down to Queen East.

 

Oh and the fact that the Riverdale Historical Society is having a lawn sale in the park Saturday morning? The icing on the cake.

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Things I can’t live without….

THE RUNNING EDITION

These are my current shoes:

Pink Shoes

They’re saucony powergrid hurricane 14s. I love them except that they are so *&^!@ng pink. I hate pink.

They cost me $192.09 (I checked the receipt) at the Running Room. When I went to the Go! St. Louis Marathon expo I bought a pair for $90. Seriously? They only had one pair left in my size so I only bought one pair. Another friend bought me a pair that were on sale at a US outlet. Even with shipping them from the US they still cost less than $100. I have no idea why they’re so much more up here.

I also wonder how much my feet will change as I lose weight. They definitely changed when I had Q. I used to be an 8 – 8.5. Now I’m a 9. And my running shoes are a 9.5.

This is my RoadID.

RoadID

It has my name, blood type, the fact that I don’t have any drug allergies and Toby’s cell number and my parents’ phone number. If anything should happen to me when I’m out running, this will be able to let the paramedics or whoever at least know a little bit about me and be able to contact someone who knows it all.

This is my garmin

IMG_4069

Well. It started out as Toby’s but mine died so he gave me his 🙂 I am slightly addicted to it but man do I love it. I run 10:1s. So I run for 10 minutes then walk for a minute. Not sure why, it just seems to work for me. I always run with water and I drink, even just a sip, during the walk minutes. I download all the runs to the garmin command centre or something BUT I also download them to Running Ahead. My uncle told me about Running Ahead back when I first started to run in 2009. It has easy-to-use features for logging runs, setting out training plans, tracking equipment etc. The forums are really amazing too. You’ll always find someone who is able to help. Often that person also happens to be a sub-3:00 marathoner, or a medical doctor,  or an ultra-runner, or….well you get the idea. There are also sub-groups so if you’re training for a half-marathon or want to find runners in your area you can find a sub-group. I joined a sub-group back in 2009 made up of an amazing bunch of women, without whom, I would have given up this running thing long ago. They put up with me in 2010 and 2011 and heck most of 2012 when I was pregnant and couldn’t run (2010), when I had a baby and was too tired to run (2011), and when, well I thought I was too fat to run and it turns out I was just too lazy (2012). They were amongst the first people I told I was pregnant. They encourage, they goad, they kick my butt. You’ll hear more about them when I get around to writing a race report for my half in St. Louis.

Oh and in case it wasn’t clear Running Ahead is definitely a running thing I can’t live without.

This is my hat. It’s brand new. Actually it’s an internet picture of my hat ’cause I don’t know where my actual hat is.

asics was a big sponsor for the half-marathon I ran at the end of April in Montreal. The race pick up was at a running shop. One of the things in the race bag was a coupon for $25 off if you spent $75 on asics gear. Seemed like a good deal to me and I needed socks and a hat so there you go. My old hat is old. And really smelly. I’ve run in this one twice now. I love it. It fits well and keeps the sweat away from me.