Skip to main content

A Few of My Favorite Things

Who do I think I am, Oprah?

I'm blogging my butt off right now because I have time, which I don't think I'm going to have much of next month when school starts again. This is just for fun.

Food

Kettle valley organic fruit leathers - I have tons of these stashed everywhere, the car, my purse, the stroller, the kitchen...the kids love them and it keeps them quiet, even if just for a few minutes. They are made of organic fruit and no added sugar. Just make sure to brush teeth afterwards.

Life Choices - This company makes all sorts of healthy versions of kid friendly food. Little A loves the meatballs and fish sticks. Big A loves the chicken nuggets and both girls love the pizza. I also just found out that they make all beef, nitrite free hotdogs which are much cheaper than the Beretta Farms nitrite free turkey hotdogs I've been buying Big A (Little A won't touch hotdogs!). Their perogies are good too.

Healthy Handfuls - Organic, whole grain cookies that kids love. Need I say more?

President's Choice Organic Fair Trade Coffee - It is delicious and much less expensive than comparable name brands. The decaf is excellent too.

Stores

Costco - Who doesn't love this place? Aside from being great for finding huge jars of organic peanut butter, cinnamon, and bottles of vitamin D and fish oil at great prices, you can almost always find amazing deals on kids clothes (Carter's outfits for $10), toys and books.

Children's Place - This is my favorite kids clothing store. It's way cheaper than Gap Kids and the stuff is cuter too, in my opinion. They always have amazing sales and the clothing lasts (Little A is wearing all of Big A's old stuff and it is still as good as new.

Bonnie Togs - Also a great kids clothing store which sells lots of Carter's and Osh Kosh at fantastic prices.

Joe Fresh - Great affordable clothes for adults and kids alike. They have everything: lingerie, swimwear, athletic wear, business-casual, etc. Prices are insanely good.

Target - Great for everything...just wish it was in Canada.

Trader Joe's - Foodie heaven, but sadly also not available in Canada.

Beauty Products

Coppertone Oil Free Sunblock - I have very sensitive skin and most products give me an allergic reaction (even Neutrogena!), but this one never does. It also absorbs quickly and is not greasy at all.

Argan oil/Moroccan oil - This stuff is great if your hair is at all dry or frizzy. It's a leave-in conditioning treatment. It is pricey, but a little goes a long way. I buy an organic brand called Dermorganic but there are lots of brands available now.

Maybelline Unstoppable Eyeliner - This stuff doesn't smudge as much as other brands (which is good for a sweat-bag like me) and makes application a cinch for someone who essentially doesn't know much about applying make-up (like myself).

Books

Book of Negroes - I read tons and tons of literature but generally forget the titles immediately afterwards, however, this will always stand out as one of my favorites.

Other good ones I've read recently:

I don't Know How She Does It - Allison Pearson
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit - Lucette Lagnado
The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo - Stied Larsson (Can't wait to read the other two in the series!!)
Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri

I have read a billion other good ones, but I can't remember their names...

Movies

Milk - Adam and I don't get out to see many films but this stands out as the best one I've seen in a couple of years. Sean Penn is exceptional.

Television

Flashpoint - This is a Canadian show filmed in Toronto (yay!) that is carried on CTV in Canada and CBS in the U.S. Check it out, it is so so good.

Music

Take a Minute - K'Naan. I like a wide variety of music genres including stuff from the 70s, 80s, 90s as well as current stuff. Right now I'm loving this song. And K'Naan is Canadian!!



http://www.youtube.com/v/cUKTl2s5oDY?fs=1&hl=en_US">

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday!  We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend.  How was yours?  Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it.  It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children .  One of th...

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies.  Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!!  I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance.  Not to improve their health or athletic performance.  To look their best.  He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ...

Blackfly Coolers: Product Review

Summer is over! Well, at least if you're a student. Officially it doesn't end for a few weeks, and it certainly still feels like summer. Yeah, I hate it. This f*cking hot, humid weather needs to end NOW! We made the most of our last weekend of the summer with our annual trip to the CNE on Friday, with a crowd of friends. It wasn't unbearably lot, thank goodness, and the girls and their friends had a blast on the rides.  Saturday I had to work, and Sunday was errand day. Monday we took the girls berry/apple/pear picking but didn't last long due to the heat. I organized the house to prepare for the construction workers starting back up yesterday, while Adam took the girls for a swim in our neighbourhood pool. Yesterday was the first day of school. Grade 2 and Grade 5. Yep, the girls are growing up.  We are fortunate that the girls don't have much anxiety about school, they are so much more confident than I ever was as a kid! But now, in the midst of our reno ch...