Review & Giveaway: Planet Bike Superflash Turbo

A little while ago, I won a Planet Bike Superflash Turbo rear bike light--it was a draw prize for completing a Momentum Cycling survey. I already had an earlier model of the light & really liked it. If you've been reading the Sprog for a while, you might remember that I included it in my list of Ten Autumn Cycling Must-Haves.

I think Planet Bike is kind of awesome. Making great bike gear isn't enough for these guys. Did you know that they also give 25% of profits to cycling advocacy work? So I decided to contact Planet Bike to see if they'd be interested in giving away other of these great lights to my lovely readers. Before I get into the contest details, I'll give you more info on the Superflash Turbo.

The key to being safe on the roads is being seen. When darkness falls before 5pm, you need a bright light that gets the attention of the drivers around you. Planet Bike Superflash Turbo lights are extremely bright & with an irregular flash pattern, including a one-watt power LED, they're visible for hundreds of metres. They'll make you more visible & thus safer, even in daylight.

The vertical design is compact, weatherproof & durable. I attached my bracket to my seatpost, but you can also attach it to your bicycle frame or rack. I often clip one light to my jacket or purse then the second on our child trailer.

Planet Bike advertises the light as running for up to 100 hours on two AAA batteries. I don't really keep track of the hours I've used these lights, but I don't think I've needed a new battery on my older model yet. Whether you use the steady or flashing mode, it's a fairly energy efficient light.

The Planet Bike Superflash Turbo light retails for about $34. You can find it at most bike shops. UPDATE: You can pick up a Planet Bike Blinky Superflash Turbo 1W Tail Light for just $20 on Amazon.ca! (affiliate link)

Now for the contest: Planet Bike is giving away one Superflash Turbo. You've got until 11:59pm Thursday December 6 to enter. You can get multiple entries for following me & Planet Bike on Twitter & Facebook, as well as tweeting about the giveaway (daily if you like). The more of those that you do, the higher chance you have of winning. :) Just make sure to do the action (tweet, comment, etc) AND tell Rafflecopter that you did it in the form below so your entry will be counted! If you have any questions at all or something isn't working for you, please email me (lisa.corriveau AT gmail.com) & I'll help sort it out. :)

Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fresh Eyes Lead to Some Changes Chez Sprog

Yesterday Sprout & I spent the afternoon at the home of some new friends, Lisa & her little one 'Monita'. Lisa & I got to talking about our blogs. She's new at the blogging game, having recently started Vancouver Under 5, which profiles activities to do for less than $5 with children under five years old. I gave her some tips from what I've learned in the past couple of years blogging. She gave me some useful feedback on The Sprog.

Having fresh eyes look at the blog & hearing about it from a reader's perspective is so valuable to me. I 'live' here at The Sprog, so it's hard for me to see it the way someone visiting for the first time might. I also come up with more ideas when I can bounce ideas off another person.

So after all the feedback, I sat down & rearranged a few things around here. There's more still to come, but what do you think so far? Can you spot the changes? I welcome your comments!




Nothing says “best gift ever” like a caribou!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

Blurb Books 25% Off Deal Extended!

Thinking about making a photo book as a gift this Christmas? Check out Blurb's photo books (note books, organizers, blog books, e-books, etc)! They've extended their Black Friday-Cyber Monday 25% offer until December 3rd!

Offer: Save 25% on Your Blurb Book | Code: HOLIDAYTHANKS | Dates: Now-12/3
Sale Details: This offer is good for 25% off your product total up to a max discount of $250 USD, CAD & AUD, or 150 Euros. Each code may only be used once per user and on books made by you. Offer expires at 11.59pm (local time) on Monday 3rd December 2012. Offer may not be used in conjunction with any other offers, volume discounts or retroactively applied to any previous orders.

If you do make a book with Blurb, you'll be supporting The Sprog, as I'm a Blurb Affiliate. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Just loved the lighting in this unfiltered/unedited shot, taken with my Galaxy SIII phone.

Nothing says “best gift ever” like a caribou!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

St. George Creek

Cars rush over the asphalt, drivers pushing the pedal
down to get through the amber.
Oblivious to the buried waterway below
strata of pavement
packed gravel
sand
then peaty dark soil
sliced through with a corrugated steel culvert
that contains a tiny stream.
Children cross another artery
bright backpacks clashing with the fluorescent vest & stop sign of the crossing guard
pouring into the gravel school yard
contained too by metal, but this time permeable chain link.
The water flows under them
then a few streets downhill,
beyond laundromats & past bathtubs stacked in the yard of Andrew Sheret Ltd.
the stream gains speed in its dark confines
below the traffic circles.
Even before the stream was buried under progress
before cars
before asphalt,
before crosswalks,
before chain link,
the people who harvested its salmon
left it unnamed.
But not forgotten.

Krista the stonemason, who set each stone & piece of scrap plumbing
to create a mosaic in the centre of the intersection at 10th Avenue,
remembers;
The designers of the blue-dominated street mural painted along the patchwork pavement
between 6th & 7th Avenues
& the dozens of people who painted it on the asphalt one sunny July day
remember;
Greta, sharing maps, books & local history on a walking tour,
remembers;
& I, leaning into my turn as I bike down St. George, turning onto 6th
briefly catching the sound of the creek through a manhole cover,
remember.




The False Creek Watershed Society & many local residents are part of a project called the St. George Rainway which aims to daylight the stream. The City of Vancouver seems interested in the idea, so maybe the stream will see the light of day again.

*I wrote this during & after a creative writing workshop, "Four Ways to Write Your Neighbourhood" at the Vancouver Public Library. Kudos to Sierra for letting me know about it.

We Create Change: Penny Drive for Clean Water

Have you got a penny jar in your house? Maybe you've been meaning to cash them in at some point before they go out of production forever. But they're heavy, you don't have time to roll them & go to the bank, the change counter machines take a cut anyway... You've got lots of excuses not to cash them in. Here's a great reason to give the old penny a great send-off: donate it to Free the Children's We Create Change campaign to develop clean sources of drinking water for people in developing nations.

I'm sure you know that clean water saves lives through avoiding disease (80 percent of illnesses in developing countries are linked to poor water & sanitation), but did you know that women in many rural African villages spend hours a day walking to clean water sources? Did you know many girls do it as well & it's a major barrier to their attending school? Every day, women around the world spend a cumulative total of 200 million hours collecting water for their families.

So... what can we do about it? Well, I'm participating in Free the Children's blogger challenge this winter. I'm trying to collect as many pennies as I can for the We Create Change project. 2500 pennies = $25 which is enough money to provide clean water for one person for a lifetime. After going around the house & collecting odd pennies here & there, then finding our penny jar, this is the result. A good start on filling our first bag!

Then I mentioned it to my fellow Mount Pleasant Family Centre Board Members & the lovely Patty dropped off a bag of pennies the next day. Check out the stash now:

For the next step, I need your help! If you're in the Vancouver area, can you help us fill this first bag? & the next one? I have a lot of them... Have you got a penny jar in your house full of these soon-to-be-obsolete copper discs? Please email me at lisa.corriveau AT gmail.com if you're interested in donating some of your hoarded pennies, or leave a comment below with contact info & we'll connect. Thanks!

List #53: 10 Names I Considered for Sprout

This week's great topic for Listicles was brought to you by Jessica, of Jessee's Spot: Ten names we considered for Sprout. Note, I say we, because this list is not entirely my ideas. I vetoed several of my husband's contributions, in fact.

Naming Sprout was one of the hardest things to do. I wanted a name that was distinctive, without being really weird. Something that picked up on some of our ethnic background, though with Welsh, English, French, Belgian, Swedish, German & Polish in the mix, this was a tall order. We wrestled with names all the way through the pregnancy & didn't actually settle on Sprout's official name until he was a week old. We still rarely use it & he's only recently started to recognize it as his name, at the age of two.

Anyway, here's our list, annotated with what I found on the origins & famous people with the same names.

1. Bastien (I prefer the french spelling) - short form of Sebastian, of Greek origin, meaning "revered". The original form of this name referred to those from a particular city or region of Asia minor, whose Greek name was from the Latin imperial title "Augustus". Saint Sebastian, probably a native of that place, was a third-century martyred centurion who became patron saint of soldiers. Shakespeare gave the name to the twin brother of Viola in "Twelfth Night". British use since the 1940s may have been influenced by a character in Evelyn Waugh's popular "Brideshead Revisited". Sebastien is popular in France.
2. Byron (as a middle name perhaps) - of Old English origin, meaning "at the byres or barn". Place name & surname often used as a given name. Lord Byron in the 1850s was a poet famous for his wildness & debauchery. Literary: the variant form Biron was the name of a character in Shakespeare's "Love's Labours Lost".
3. Falco (also "Falcon", the name of "Balloon Boy") - of Latin origin. A surname having to do with falconry. Who could forget the famous Austrian 80s glam-pop artist, Falco? "Rock me Amadeus!" Falke is a German form.This particular name lost because of the initials it would produce. No matter what the middle name was, when combined with our surnames you get: F_C-K. Not going to lay that one on my child.
4. Haldor - from the Old Norse name Hallþórr, which meant "Thor's rock". Hallr "rock", combined with the name of the Norse god Þórr (Thor). Also a character (?) in World of Warcraft: "Haldor the Compulsive". A very manly name. Maybe too manly.
5. Joachim (German pronunciation: yo-AH-km) - of Hebrew origin, meaning "established by God". Short form of the Hebrew name Jehoichin. According to medieval Catholic tradition, Joachim was the name of the Virgin Mary's father. Composer Josquin Des Pres; actor Joaquin Phoenix. Not sure anyone would ever pronounce it the way we would. Also a bit too religious for my tastes.
6. Kiefer - of German origin, meaning "barrel maker". Variant of Cooper. "Kiefer" also means pine tree in German. Celebrity association: the ever-scrappy actor Kiefer Sutherland. Also the name of our friends' giant black hairy dog.
7. Lyndon - of Old English origin, meaning "linden tree hill". Often a surname. American President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Canadian journalist Linden MacIntyre. But not because of Trevor Linden.
8. Maximilian - of Latin origin, meaning "greatest". The name of three Roman emperors & various saints. Popular in Germany. Interestingly enough, there are tons of variants on this name: Mac, Mack, Maks, Maksim, Maksym, Maksymilian, Massimiliano, Massimo, Max, Maxey, Maxemilian, Maxemilion, Maxie, Maxim, Maxime, Maximilian, Maximiliano, Maximilianus, Maximilien, Maximillian, Maximino, Maximo, Maximos, Maxy, Maxymilian & Maxymillian.
9. Oren - of Hebrew, Irish and Gaelic origin, meaning "ash or pine tree; fair, pale". Was somewhat popular in the US about a hundred years ago. Also spelled "Orin", which happens to be one of my favourite varieties of apple. Considering how fair Sprout turned out to be, this would have been an appropriate name.
10. Stirling - a variant of Sterling (English), meaning "genuine, of high quality". Also sounds a bit like the annoying, raspy little starling, an invasive species brought from England. This name felt just a tiny bit too pretentious somehow.

The winner of the name contest ended up being Linnaeus (lih-NAY-us) - The latinized surname of Karl Von Linne, the Swedish biologist who developed our current system of taxonomy. From what I remember, the name originally comes from the Linden tree, like #7 above. We also chose Bastien as a middle name.

What names were in the running when you named your child(ren)? Share in the comments below!


Nothing says “best gift ever” like a gray fox!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

Exercise Challenge: Month 8, Week 3

Sunday we biked to the Eastside Culture Crawl, then Science World & home again. Total riding time was about 50 minutes.

Monday I skipped Fitcamp (I know, I know, that's two classes in a row) but I did ride down to Langara & back for a total of 40 minutes of cycling.

Tuesday I got in some walking while running errands, maybe a half hour all together.

Wednesday we did a minor amount of walking, but SweetSalt Bakery is just too close to our house, so it wasn't ten minutes at a time.

Thursday we got stuck waiting around most of the afternoon for a plumber, so didn't get out at all.

Friday I skipped Fitcamp again (I'm blaming Sprout's wacky sleep schedule. Naps are throwing off his bedtime to too late for even me. More on that in a future post.) No real exercise to be had.

Saturday the weather was (finally) nice, so we biked to UBC & back, about 110 minutes.


Exercise total for the week: 200 minutes. 80 minutes under my goal for the week. ARgh! It's the weather I'm blaming. I haven't been particularly inclined to get myself & Sprout into full rain gear & slosh out on the bike. The cold, I don't mind so much.

This time of year, I'm more likely to use the bike trailer so Sprout stays warmer & dryer. However, the trailer is also a slight disincentive to getting out of the house, as it's a bit more of a hassle to hook up & unhook when we get somewhere, not to mention it's rather large as a stroller.




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What is this Exercise Challenge, you ask? Read my post on Day One for details & how you can get involved too.










Nothing says “best gift ever” like a caribou!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

Bike Shopping: Yuba Mundo

I've been wanting to buy a new bike for years. I thought about having a touring bike put together for me about three or four years ago, but then decided against it, as we were trying for a baby, so I didn't think I'd be riding much. That turned out to be true--I hardly biked at all between the summer of 2009 & the summer of 2011. Then I started dreaming of a new bike again, this time settling on a cyclocross.

I looked around & starting thinking pretty seriously about getting Mighty Riders to build me one, but my old bike is still running fine, now that it's got a new front rim & I've replaced the bars so I can sit more upright. So to the back burner went the cyclocross. I still dream about buying something a bit racy with drop bars, but lately I've started to think a cargo bike would make more sense.

Accessorized Mundo: stoker bars, leg up foot rest & soft spot seat.

The Yuba Mundo attracts me with it's beefy cargo capacity (440 lbs PLUS rider) & range of accessories to make hauling serious amounts of stuff easier. It seems to be really well rated everywhere I've looked, I just need to get my butt on one to test ride it. Of course, I'm also considering the El Mundo, the electric assist version. Having the boost of a motor would make really long trips quite doable & getting up the hills in our neighbourhood a breeze. Not to mention the ability to ride at car speeds with the motor more than doubling my pedalling input. Hard to say if the extra cost would be offset by the savings in Modo bookings & bus fare though. The El Mundo is about double the price of its unassisted sibling.

The El Mundo, naked of accessories.

What do you think of the Yuba Mundo (or El Mundo)? Have you ever ridden one? Would you buy one?




Nothing says “best gift ever” like a caribou!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

Images by Bethany Giveaway: Win a Family Portrait Session & 8x10 Print

UPDATE: This contest is now closed! Head over to One Crazy Kid to try again--Brandee's also giving away a family photo session with Bethany. 

I met Bethany Schiedel at the Vancouver Mom Top 30 Bloggers event when she did my headshot. She has the ability to quickly capture the moment--or many moments, as you'll see with our photos--almost invisibly, without being obtrusive.

I was excited to work with her on a giveaway this fall. Bethany provided us with a complimentary photo session so I could show & tell you about how she does family portraits. You'll have the chance to win a free session too (value $350) as well as a free 8"x10" print! All the details & your chance to enter are at the end of this post, after our photos.

When we went to her studio for our family portraits, I was slightly nervous & frazzled from trying to get us all out the door to arrive there on time looking presentable. The weather had unfortunately ruined our plans to shoot outdoors with our bikes, but I'm very pleased with the photos that came of the indoor studio session.

Bethany made all three of us feel at ease as soon as we came in. With a little gentle direction & some furniture shuffling, we did a lot of different poses, though few of them felt stiff in the way that posed photos often do. Being a natural light photographer, the illumination for Bethany's work comes via the tall glass windows in the heritage building where her studio is. It's a great space & I particularly like the classic urban feel of the backdrop in the shot of the three of us.

A few weeks after our photo shoot, we returned to Bethany's studio on evening to view the photos. Bethany had tea & gourmet doughnuts waiting for us, with samples of the products she offers. After seeing highlights in a slideshow set to music, then numerous rounds of deliberation, we picked out the photos to show you here, as well as some to order for gifts & for ourselves. Many of the photos surprised me because I hadn't even realized she'd been shooting at that moment. There were a series of Sprout when he was a bit upset near the end of the session that were really cute & a great one of us playing where he's upside down, which you'll see below.

I commend you if you've read this far & not yet skipped to the photos. I won't make you wait any more. Here are six of the dozens that we loved, starting with my absolute favourite:

Details: Family portrait session will be done on location (Greater Vancouver area only) and will be 1 – 2 hours long ($350 value). Session must be booked for January – April, 2013.  Includes an in studio viewing session, a month long online viewing gallery, and an 8 x 10 print of your choice ($30 value).

A NOTE ABOUT USING RAFFLECOPTER: don't forget to click on 'leave a blog comment' AND actually go down & leave a comment or your entry won't be valid! I know it's an extra step for you, but it's much less complicated for me to administer giveaways including Twitter, FB & the blog when using Rafflecopter. It also gives you the opportunity to enter multiple times & increase your chances. :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Save 25% on Blurb books this weekend!

Still on the fence about which of the many photo book companies to choose? How does 25% off sound?

Today through Monday, November 26, create a gorgeous book and get 25% Off with Blurb when you use promo code HOLIDAYTHANKS. Blurb books are a great way to make thoughtful gifts for friends & family while letting you unleash your creativity.

Also--did you know that with Blurb you can create a photo book by uploading your Instagram & Facebook images? Don't miss out on these great savings: create your Blurb book today!

Check out the review of my experience with Blurb for more info on the process & the end result.

Sale Details: This offer is good for 25% off your product total up to a max discount of $250 USD, CAD & AUD, or 150 Euros. Each code may only be used once per user and on books made by you. Offer expires at 11.59pm (local time) on Monday 26th November 2012. Offer may not be used in conjunction with any other offers, volume discounts or retroactively applied to any previous orders.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. The opinions above are my own, however. Also, as a Blurb Affiliate, I receive a commission if you make a Blurb book via one of my links.

Nothing says “best gift ever” like a gray fox!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

Green Sprog Tips: 6 Ways I'm Greenifying Christmas

Decorating our tree in 2011.

This year, I'm going to try a few things to have a greener Christmas. I did quite a few last year (here's the roundup) & I plan to keep up with all of them again this year, but there's always room for improvement, so here's my list of new ones:

1. Making an advent calendar felt board--reusable, using felt that's made from recycled pop bottles, thus avoiding the plastic, cardboard & foil in the disposable chocolate ones. Also avoiding the sugar high each morning when he gets his fix...
2. Hand decorated wrapping paper made of reused packing material (newsprint). This isn't necessarily an improvement on the fabric gift bags I sewed last year, but it's a way to use that paper one more time before recyling it.
3. Reduce the number of Christmas cards I send. I still want to send out some real ones to family & a few friends, but this year I'm going to make a nice digital version of our card to email to most people.
4. Baking Christmas goodies myself rather than buying the (usually) plastic-wrapped store-bought kind. I'm hoping to make shortbread, sugar cookies & some peppermint bark. I will try to do some sort of pie too, I think.
5. Going car-free. This year we're hosting dinner at our place, so we don't need to drive to Coquitlam. The money we save on the car booking, I think we may 'invest' in item #6 on this list:
6. Getting a free-range & possibly organic turkey for the big dinner. Not only better for the animals' welfare, but better for the environment because organic meat doesn't involve pesticides in the feed they're given, or the overuse of antibiotics.

What are you doing to make this a greener Christmas for you & your family? Got any ideas to share? Leave a comment & share!


Nothing says “best gift ever” like a gray fox!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

Wordless Wednesday: VIP Edition

Last Thursday my Vancouver Inspiration Pass (VIP) became available at the library. (See their website for more details) & we made a list of all the places we wanted to go. Here's where we've been so far with the VIP. Do you know which places they are? Guess in the comments below!

Linking up with Project Alicia this week.

Nothing says “best gift ever” like a caribou!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

Vancouver German Christmas Market for 50% Off

Breastfeeding at VCM 2010

UPDATE #2: Ethical Deal has a similar 50% off offer that's still available until midnight on Saturday November 24! Here's the link. Their referral system is a bit different: if you click on my link here, I get $5 Ethical Dollars & so do you!
 
UPDATE: Due to an overwhelming response, this Groupon is already sold out as of Tuesday morning! Read through for another way to save on admission.

One of the events we try not to miss during the holidays is the Vancouver German Christmas Market. It's a German style market where you'll find traditional Christmas goodies like giant gingerbread cookies & Glühwein (hot mulled wine), as well as other traditional German food & drink. More on the edibles here. Vendors in cute wooden huts will be selling things like gorgeous handcrafted tree decorations, quality wooden toys & cozy wool hats that make great gifts. To see the full list of vendors, see the Vancouver German Christmas Market's list here. Costumed characters, local & international choirs, bands & dancers perform every day at the market, plus there's a carousel to ride on! Sprout's been each year so far & this year he's old enough to go on the carousel.

Sprout & I at VCM 2011

Now until Saturday evening, Groupon is offering three different deals for the Christmas Market:

• $8 for admission for two plus two carousel rides (up to a $16 value)
• $17 for admission for two, two carousel rides, two hot spiced apple ciders, & two souvenir mugs (up to a $34 value)
• $34 for admission for four, four carousel rides, four hot spiced apple ciders, & four souvenir mugs (up to a $68 value)

If Groupon is new to you, the way it works is you sign up, then you can buy the voucher for the deal, which you either print off or access on your smart phone. Follow this link to buy the Groupon deal. If you're thinking of going, but not sure about the Groupon, you can still save by going to the market weekdays before 4pm for just $2 each. PLUS: Your admission works as a season's pass so you can go back for free the rest of the year! Carousel rides are $3 per person. Also worth noting: children under seven are free.

Frohe Weihnachten!


Disclaimer: if you follow the Groupon links in this post & buy a deal, I'll get $10 in Groupon bucks referral bonus. The words & opinions above are my own.



Nothing says “best gift ever” like a caribou!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.

List #52: Things I Learned in 2012

This week's topic is ideal for my 52nd Listicle: Things I learned in 2012. I'm going to do a really random list, sort of stream of consciousness style.

Just before you delve in, if you read last week's 10 Lies About Me & were wondering which was actually true... it was #4. I didn't actually dye my hair any unnatural colours when I was in art school, but I did indeed have very short purple hair later on when I was in university.

1. That there is a fantastic & supportive community of bloggers out there. You know who you are!
2. Two-year-olds are even funnier than one-year-olds.
3. I'm happier when I have several volunteer jobs in my community.
4. Danish bakers make the best danishes. (Go to SweetSalt Bakery in Vancouver if you want to try for yourself!)
5. Performing in a TV commercial is fun, not because of being on TV, but because of all the time spent hanging out with the other performers.
6. I will survive if I don't log into Facebook at least once per hour.
7. Children are far more likely to get injured or lost when there are more people around. Like at a second birthday party. Not naming any names.
8. Dr. Seuss books are really great to read aloud, even the 473rd time.
9. While I don't really like cycling in the rain, Sprout thinks it's fun.
10. Listicles are awesome.

What did you learn in 2012?





Why Monday lists? Reading the lovely Chloe's blog, Tea Swamp Park, I found an idea I had to 'steal': a list of all her Halloween costumes, with quite a few photos. She got the idea from Hula Seventy's List Project. I've decided to do the weekly lists for a year that Hula Seventy is doing. 

Tea Swamp Park & Hula Seventy are not the only ones doing lists, however. Click on the Listicles badge to the left to check out NorthWestMommy's list & 'assignment' for next week.
 

Nothing says “best gift ever” like a gray fox!
 

Starting at just $40, Gifts of Canadian Nature help protect habitat for Canada’s native wildlife. A Gift of Canadian Nature lasts for years to come and is a gift that gives thrice! Once to the recipient with a personalized certificate and a beautiful calendar, once to the giver with a charitable tax receipt, and once to Canadian wildlife. This year we are featuring the snowy owl, the grizzly bear, the caribou, the gray fox and the Canada lynx. Click the image or follow this link for more information.