SHOPPING FOR NEW SPECTACLES

About a month ago I realized I could not read street signs properly when I was driving.  Geoff and I were looking for a street and he asked me to read the street names out for him as he was driving.  We quickly realized that he could read the signs way before me.  Time to get my vision checked!

So last Monday I went in and got my vision checked it changed but not by much at least not enough to make my vision as blurry as it has been.  The culprit was the anti-glare film on my glasses was so scratched up that it's like I am looking true fogged up piece of glass.

As much as I love my Theo's that I have had now for I think 8 years!!!! It was time to get new glasses.

A few pairs of glasses back for Geoff when our regular Eye Glass Shop changed owners we discovered Karir Eyewear.  See we used to shop at Envy in Beach however when the owner sold the shop we found that the new management did not carry any unique frames.  They still have a good selection on contemporary mainstream frames but that is not what we usually look for.

Not only does Karir have great selection; the manager at the Yorkville location is amazing.  He always remembers us by name and "frames".  When we walked in on Saturday the first thing he said to Geoff "How are your glasses treating you?" I would like to point Geoff was not even wearing his sunglasses.

Stay tuned for some pics of me in my new spectacles.

AREA RUGS...

After we moved in we quickly realized we would need an area rug for the C Monster's play room if we wanted to avoid him screeching up the hardwood floor.  I really wish I could now be posting that we only looked at eco-friendly area rugs but well in reality I did not want to spend 1500$ upward on a rug that was going in a playroom.  We also did not want to buy a kid specific area rug, so that if in 2 years our dinning room stops being a playroom and starts being a dinning room, we would not be stuck with a 8x10 kids area rug.

We started by browsing online and found patterns that we liked and work with our space. Narrowed them down to our favourite 4; then we checked them out in-store along with many others. Here are 4 rugs that had made our short list before we started to look at them in person:

Stockholm @$299 from Ikea: I was really disappointed with this one.  It was not our favourite  pattern but the idea of a wool rug at $300 in the right size was exciting.  It is a woven flat rug that mean it has no pile which translates into a very rough surface - not good for playing on.

Gate @850 from Dwell Studio: We never visited a store with this one as this was our back up rug if we did not like the Structube ones, as the price point on this one was a bit more then we wanted to spend. 

Freeport @ $499 from Structube: In person the white is actually light grey; this  caused the rug to look soiled even when it is clean.  However this is a wool rug and I do like my natural fibres. I would like to note that before we saw any of the rugs this was Geoff's favorite.

Juno @499 from Structube: We were a bit concerned with the white and that it would easily stain.  I would like to point out that this was my favourite rug before we saw any of them in person. This one is also wool.

Some of the key points we were looking for were:

• Durability
• Thigh pill count, meaning that the yarn used to make the rug was weaved very tightly and dense
• Natural fibre
• Priced under $1000
• Size: 8' x 10' minimum and 8'-6" x 11' maximum
• Flexible design, wanted an area rug that would work in a playroom or a living room or a dinning room
• C Monster's opinion. This was by no means the deciding factor but we wanted him to feel involved in selecting the rug; it was going in his space after all.

And here is our final choice; so far everyone is happy with it; C Monster particularly enjoys driving his toy cars along the white stripes:

PLAY TABLE

Now that the C monster has a play room we decided that we should get him a nice play table that he can make puzzles on or play games at.  I wanted something on larger size as the room he has is pretty big and this way he could have friends join him at the table.  Below are a few of my favourite choices...

Rectangular Activity Table from Kapland:

Offi Play Table:

Caspar from Perludi:

However we have decided to retrofit a desk my dad made for me when I was about 16 into a kids table stay tuned for some pictures of the transformation.

Non-Toxic & Eco-Friendly Toys Talk in Toronto

On Monday I gave a talk about non-toxic toys here in Toronto at Red Tent Sisters. For the talk I prepared a hand out that I though some of you would be interested in so here is a web version:

Manufacturers:

Exclusively make non-toxic toys

Automoblox - www.automoblox.com
Dwell Baby - www.dwellshop.com
Educo (HaPe) - www.hapetoys.com/Educo.asp
Rich Frog - www.richfrog.com
Selecta Spielzeug - http://www.selecta-spielzeug.de

Makes some non-toxic or eco friendly toys

Brio - http://brio.knex.com/
Djeco - http://www.djeco.com/
Goula
Heros - www.heros-toys.de
Haba - http://www.haba.de/Home.344.0.html
Melissa and Doug - www.melissaanddoug.com
Toys’r’us
Vulli - http://www.vulli-toys.com/

Exclusively make non-toxic eco friendly toys

Anamalz (HaPe) - www.hapetoys.com/Anamalz.asp
Bamboo (HaPe) - www.hapetoys.com/Bamboo.asp
Blabla - http://www.blablakids.com/
Didoodle - (Made in Canada) www.fidodle.com
Ecotronic - www.ecotronictoys.com/
Green Toys - http://www.greentoys.com/
Grimm’s Speil und Holz - http://www.grimms.eu/en/include.php?path=start.php
ImagiPLAY - www.imagiplay.com
Jalu Wood Creations - (Made in Canada) www.jalutoys.com
Keptin jr - http://www.keptin-jr.com/
Lana organics
miYim - http://www.miyim.com/index.html
Noonoo - http://www.noonoodesign.com/p73/playthings
North Star Toys - www.northstartoys.com
Peppa - www.babylonia
Plan Toys - www.plantoys.com
Sprig - www.sprigtoys.com
The Playful World -http://www.theplayfulworld.com/index.htm
Under the Nile - www.underthenile.com
Wonderworld - www.wonderworldtoy.com

Where to shop
The shops below consist of a list of my favorite stores in Toronto or on the web; there are many other store that carry non-toxic toys and eco toys; the list would be too long if I included them all. I do not work for any of these stores nor did I receive anything for mentioning them.

Internet Shopping

Ape 2 Zebra - www.ape2zebra.ca - great selection
Baby Guru - www.babyguru.ca - good selection
Bear Dance - http://www.beardancecrafts.com/creativeplay.htm - great selection of non-toxic toys
Cheeky Monkey - www.cheekymonkey.ca - good selection
Craftsbury Kids - www.craftsburykids.com - great selection
Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/index.php - great selection of hand made toys
Green Cricket - www.greencricket.ca - small selection but all are non-toxic and eco
Kai Kids - http://www.kaikids.com/ - small selection but all are eco friendly and non-toxic
Safety Super Store - http://www.babyproofingplus.com/ - good selection
Natural Pod - www.naturalpod.com - exclusively sells eco-friendly and non-toxic toys, great selection

In Person

Baby on the Hip, 969 Queen St. E., 416-465-4141 - small selection but al are non-toxic and eco-friendly - www.babyonthehip.ca
Craig’s List - great selection of second hand toys - www.craigslist.org
Grassroots, 372 Danforth Ave, 416-466-2841 - small selection but all are non-toxic and eco-friendly - http://www.grassrootsstore.com
Kids on the Hip, 1142 Queen St. E., 416-466-1117 - small selection but al are non-toxic and eco-friendly
Lapin Calin, 1918A Queen St. E., 416-690-1918 - small selection but al are non-toxic and/or eco-friendly - http://lapincalin.com/
Mastermind Beaches, 2134 Queen St. E, 416-699-3797 - good selection Toys “R” Us - limited selection - www.mastermindtoys.com
Planet Kid, 960 Queen St. W, 416-537-9233 - All toys are non-toxic and made in Canada - www.planetkid.ca
Scholars Choice, 1599 Bayview Ave., 416-485-8697 - good selection in store, great selection in catalogue - www.scholarschoice.ca
Ten Thousand Villages - www.tenthousandvillages.ca - small selection but all are eco friendly and fair trade
Treasure Island Toys, 581 Danforth Ave., 416-778-4913 - great selection & custom orders available
Value Village, 924 Queen Street E., 416-778-4818 & 2119 Danforth Ave., (416) 698-0621 - great selection of second hand toys
Paint Depot, 914 Queen St. E, 416-469-5633 - carries lead paint test kits - http://www.paintdepot.com/

Just because it’s for kids it does not mean it’s safe in many toys available on the Canadian market you can find one or multiple of these:

Lead Bromine ( Fire retardant) Chlorine (PVC) & Phthalates Cadmium Arsenic Mercury Antimony Chromium Tin Bisphenol A

Internet Resources

www.healthytoys.org - Online database of toys tested for various chemicals
http://www.ewg.org - Environmental Working Group has been at the forefront of many actions to ban various chemicals in the US
http://www.greenenterprise.net/web/index.php - Online database of green enterprise in the Toronto area
http://www.greenmom.ca/index.shtml - Tones of resources for raising your child green, Green Mom also has a trade show once a year in Toronto.
http://healthychild.org/main/
http://www.healthycanadians.ca/index_e.html - Canadian recalls
http://www.cpsc.gov/index.html - USA recalls
http://europa.eu/rapid/searchAction.do - European recalls
http://www.recalls.gov.au/ - Australian recalls
http://www.toysafetyrecalls.ca/ - List of recalls from around the world

Shopping Trip

Some people call me eco-mom others call me trendy mom and others safety mom. I guess I am a bit all of these. On the weekend we made a trip (by ttc - maybe I should of thought that one out better) to the Safety Super-Store to pick up a baby b'air for our upcoming trip. I have no clue what I will think of using this or what the little guy will think. This purchase is just another reason why I am Safety Mom.

Check out Christophe wearing his safety flight vest, pool hat and new shoes. Yes I was playing dress up with him, but he was laughing so it's ok.

"I am going to conquer you papa. Do you like my super-hero outfit?"

Mall shopping

Today we went to Scarborough Town Center and checked out the various kids stores they have. I tend to buy most of Christophe's stuff at Value Village or small independent baby boutiques so this was a new experience for us. My main purpose was to get him a pair of jeans--yes, even babies need jeans. We picked out a great pair of gaga tagou jeans at the Bay; we got them a bit on the big side so we hope they will last a few months.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that baby gap, baby roots and baby old navy all have organic lines of clothing. Both roots and old navy were reasonably priced considering its organic, however gap was similar in cost to the organic items you can find at little baby boutiques.

By all means, the mall will not replace my typical shopping spots for him but I will definitely poke my head in, once in a while, to see what new organic fashions are available.

Oh! For all you nursing mothers out there, if you are out shopping and are looking for a quiet place to nurse, every Sears has a nursing room near the infant section.

This week

Both Geoff and I have been very busy during the past week.

Geoff has been working hard on the house getting almost all the underlayment for the floors complete. We picked up from friends all the tools necessary to complete the floor, a compressor, a floor stapler, a water saw... (a thank you goes out to Shawn, Kregg, Deanna and Ed)

On Wednesday our new fridge arrived. Yippy for us.

Today I work on my picture wall. At the top of the stairs we are hanging a selection of frames that will end up covering most of the wall. All I need to do now is wait till we put in the corner shelf to hang the rest of the frames to make sure they are all nice and snug to the shelves.

I also spent a large chuck of the week cleaning up the chaos let behind from both Geoff and I being sick. Now I am relaxing while Geoff is finishing up the dishes, I think I must of done 5 loads of dishes during the past 2 days so I decided it was Geoff's turn.

This morning baby finally decided to let us hear his heart beat. We bought this weird baby listening device that was absolutely not working for us now for almost 2 months, but this morning finally we got it. It was like we struck gold after trying for so long. I will take more about this next time.

Saturday morning

Went yard sale shopping today. We found a great dresser, needs a a bit of love, but it was free and it's made from nice solid wood and the shape and style is what I wanted. We also got a shape sorting toy, a french book and a rattle. It was fun making baby's first purchases.