Bikey T-shirts & More at Dark Cycle Clothing

My Dark Cycle Grizzly tee

If you've ever read anything on this blog, I'm sure you know that I love cycling & kind of have a bike t-shirt problem. I think N+1 applies to bikey tees because I can go for more than a week without having to do laundry & I'll still have clean bike t-shirts to wear. Heh.

However, most of my cycling themed shirts are from HUB Cycling, sort of a suggested work uniform (I use the term very loosely here). It's great to have a job where I can wear comfy clothes & not have to worry about conforming to business casual, or worse, wearing--ack--pantyhose! But, some of my work tshirts are, well, a bit logo-ey, even slightly dorky. So I'm always on the lookout for cycling themed shirts that feature cool art, or something that's just a little weird.

I was introduced to Dark Cycle Clothing by my friend Anny, who started up a group of riders called Team Mama Bear, in Seattle. This shirt that you see me wearing in the image on the right is their unofficial uniform, & she gave me one when we visited her last year. I love the drawing & can relate to this bear so much. DO NOT MESS WITH A MAMA BEAR, amirite, ladies?!?

The kids' Dark Cycles tees: tabby & axolotl, front & back

When I went to take a look at Dark Cycle's website, I was blown away by the huge variety of animals on bikes that you can get on a t-shirt or sticker. & not just your run-of-the-mill ordinary common animals, like cats & dogs & bears. They've got OVER 75 different creatures on t-shirts, including such things as pangolins, pelicans, & platypus.

Not too long ago, I entered an Instagram contest & won a sticker from Dark Cycles, so when I went to their site to claim my prize, I also bought shirts for the kids. I chose a tabby on a bike for Bronte & an axolotl on a bike for Linnaeus.

The shirts arrived soon after, & they fit my skinny kids well. 5.5-year-old B is in a size 6, 8.5-year-old L is in a youth medium. The fabric is a cotton blend, super soft & the print is made with a lightweight ink, which means it's also nice & soft, not plasticky. Once the kids got them on, I noticed a little bonus: Dark Cycle prints their logo on the upper back of the t-shirt in reflective ink. Makes the kids just a wee bit more visible on warm summer nights. :)

Unicorn on a bike sticker!

Fast forward to this summer & I heard Dark Cycle was starting an affiliate program, so of course I signed up! So, if you're thinking about picking up a bikey t-shirt for back to school season or a gift or just for you, because you need to have a unicorn on a bike on your chest... if you use my affiliate link, I'll get a wee commission & you'll be helping to support my blog. Thanks!

If you don't need a t-shirt or a sticker, Dark Cycle also makes housewares like hats, mugs, pillows, & trivets. So you could geek out your entire home with weird animals on bikes on stuff!

If you really do need t-shirts, you could also consider their t-shirt subscription--the more months you sign up for with Shirt of the Month Club, the more you save.



Disclaimer: As an affiliate for Dark Cycle Clothing, I receive a small commission if you make a purchase via my affiliate links in the above post. Thanks for supporting Spokesmama!

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Stocking Stuffers for Kids

What sort of things do you put in your kids' Christmas Stockings? When I was a kid, there were a few things that I found in there every year: chocolate coins, an orange, & a candy cane. I often got a few useful gifts in there too, like underwear or socks, plus a few other small items. Now that I'm stuffing stockings for my own kids, I like to give them a mix of fun stuff & useful stuff, while trying to stay away from low quality plastic stuff that'll end up in a landfill in a matter of months. But I also don't want to spend a mint on stocking stuffers, so affordable is key.

Here are a few ideas for affordable stocking stuffers for kids (& let's be honest, a lot of adults would like many of these too):

1. Play Tape--masking tape with roads printed on it that can be put down in different ways, then peeled up & recycled after, great combined with a Hot Wheels car or two. Comes in two widths, lots of colours, & is available in store at Walmart for just $5.
2. DIY Kit--felt plus embroidery thread & a needle, or homemade playdough (check out Mama.Papa.Bubba for loads of ideas)
3. Mini Sketchbooks--I generally look at Opus Framing for any art supplies, since the quality is generally so much better. A tiny blank book is portable for entertaining kids at restaurants, or in waiting rooms, & even road trips. Get a 5"x8" book for just $3 at Opus.
4. Bath bombs--if you DIY these there are tons of tutorials online. I bought the citric acid & cream of tartar at Famous Foods for about $8, which will make at least a dozen of them. Or buy ready-made bath bombs at Lush for $6 & up.
5. Blue Orange games in a tin--they're small, they're portable, & they practise useful skills like scanning, math, reading, etc Ring It is one of my kids' current faves, available online for $16 
6. Reflective bracelets or tags--useful for walking & biking in the darker mornings & aftermoons. MEC has a great selection under $5, but I particularly like the reflective pins made by PoCampo--they're a little more stylish & still only $10 for two of them.
7. Ikea stuffies--inexpensive, cute, machine washable & dryable (both important qualities for children's toys!), $1-20. I particularly love the SAGOSKATT line which are designed by children: the proceeds go to children's charity focussed on the importance of play.
8. Turbo Turtle lights--designed for easily attaching to a bike, but they also work great on backpacks & zipper pulls when walking. $7 from MEC

Hope this list helps you save a little time in your holiday shopping. Are you finished yet, or are you more of a last-minute shopper? Have you cut back on the consumerism this year? I'm curious to hear how the holidays are for you. Let me know in the comments below!

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Games Night & Tetris Dual

Our kids are just getting to the board game age, so we generally try to keep things simple when it comes to board games. Snakes & Ladders is a perennial favourite, but the latest one that's getting all the love in this house is Tetris Dual. It involves lots of creative spatial thinking to fit the odd-shaped pieces together, just like in the old arcade game we all know. It's a two player game with a simple electronic display to keep tally of points & whose turn it is.

The kids actually had a lot of fun playing with it in their own way, trying to stack all the pieces in the board, one at a time & fill it perfectly without any gaps.

Though I love the original video game version of Tetris, I prefer this one for my kids. They can play at their own speed & work on actual hand-eye-coordination & fine motor skills using their hands, rather than just clicking or tapping a screen. A bonus for my son is that the game pieces are his two favourite colours: orange & turquoise!

Tetris Dual is great for kids aged 6-10. It generally retails for around $30 in Canada.

If you're interested in finding out more about Tetris Dual, or some other fun board games to amp up your family games night, check out Kroeger Games Night! Kroeger will be hosting a Facebook party & GIVEAWAY on Friday, December 1 from 7:00pm - 8:00pm EST & they would love to have you participate! During the Kroeger Games Night & Facebook Party they will be answering questions, sharing fun facts, showing games night photos & more! So head over to like Kroeger's Facebook page & pop by Friday afternoon/evening for the party.

Disclaimer: I was given copies of the above game to facilitate this review. I was not financially compensated for writing this post. All the words & opinions above are my own.

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Holiday Gift Idea: #Blurb Layflat Photo Books

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links & I received compensation for this post.

I'm still amazed at the things I can make online these days & making beautiful quality photo books is no exception. I've used Blurb a number of times to create gifts for the holidays & this year, they've got a great new option for those books: Layflat! This feature turns any photo book into a layflat showcase with a gorgeous collection of seamless spreads at Blurb. Now you can go corner to corner & edge to edge across an entire two-page spread without losing any part of the image to the center.

I know it's a little early to be posting about shopping for the holidays, but ordering your photo books early means less stress in December, right? Head on over to Blurb's site to take a look at what you could do with Layflat--the website is easy to use & order one or multiples of the book you create. & don't just limit yourself to photo albums. What about an illustrated collection of your favourite holiday songs? Or an archive of your kids' best artwork from the year?

If you do buy from Blurb via one of the affiliate links in my post here, I can earn a small commission from the sale. Thanks for supporting Spokesmama!

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Ten Ways to Have a Greener Christmas

Our fabric gift bags have been in circulation for years!

Let's face it, this holiday season is a time of excess: eating too much, drinking too much, & buying a lot of stuff. Sadly, that means a lot of garbage heading to the landfill afterwards. Even if you recycle all your packaging, it's still a lot of wasted resources in the process of making & then making something else of the cardboard or plastic or whatever material it is. But hey--we can do something about this--Christmas doesn't have to be one giant consumption fest!

Here are my top ten ways to make Christmas greener this year:

1. BYOB. By this I mean bring your own bag. It's a simple way to reduce the amount of plastic coming into your house. I carry a set of reusable cloth shopping bags that fold up into tiny pouches. They are much stronger than grocery bags & BONUS: they're opaque, so easier to hide gifts in too.
2. Buy fun for your friends & family. Get them experience based gifts like museum or gallery memberships (here's a list of experience gift ideas under $25 for little kids) or tickets to something like the Goh Ballet's Nutcracker. Even buying fewer larger gifts instead of dozens of inexpensive stocking stuffers is a lot less packaging & trips to the store.
3. Buy nothing. To simplify Christmas, my sisters & brothers-in-law & cousins started doing a Secret Santa gift exchange. We'd get a friend to assign a random name to each person & email them their giftee. One gift to shop for instead of ten. Simple! Eventually, we dispensed with that & kept the gifting to just the children in the family, donating money to charity in lieu of presents for the adults.
4. Buy quality. Spending the same amount of money on fewer things means you can get better quality items that will last longer & that means less waste. For example, robes & other apparel from Christine Lingerie is high quality, made locally (by well treated & fairly paid staff, I might add) & really beautiful. Here's a little bit more about Christine.
5. Make it yourself. If you're crafty or like to cook or bake, try to set aside some time--I know this is the kicker--to make some gifts this year. They don't have to be huge or complicated--a homemade jar of jam or hand-painted Christmas ornament will likely delight your family & friends more than something from a store. For some beautiful DIY ideas, check out this YouTuber for tutorials.
6. Bundle your errands, especially if you're driving. There's a lot to do at this time of year, from shopping for gifts, to groceries for baking or all the social gatherings. But if you can plan in advance & combine trips you'll burn less fossil fuels & probably have more time to do the fun stuff. Win win, right?
7. Reusable gift wrap. Make or buy fabric gift bags or boxes for your presents this year instead of sacrificing a whole tree worth of paper. We have a set of Christmas print cotton flannel zippered or snap closed pouches in various sizes that I made years ago & we just keep recycling them in our household. When I give gifts to other people, I sometimes make bags or reuse paper gift bags we received in previous years. If you're not into sewing, you can usually find inexpensive tins, boxes, & bags at your local dollar store this time of year. 
8. Get a live tree! We bought a gorgeous potted spruce from Treekeepers last year. After Christmas, it lived on our sundeck for the rest of the year. We're going to bring it back in soon. We'll probably plant it in the spring, as it will likely be too big to fit in the house next year.
9. Make or buy a reusable Advent calendar. The store-bought chocolate version of these create a lot of waste with a sheet of plastic moulds & cardboard wrapping, probably shrink-wrapped as well. It's really easy to make one out of felt--you don't necessarily even need to sew, glue guns are a great way to stick felt together too--& you can customize it to go with your decor or suit however many family members are going to use it. I made ours a few Christmases ago--a simple felt tree with numbers that stick onto it. No candies or gifts.
10. Buy used. Most people would balk at giving a used item as a gift, & I get that. But a lot of things that are bought around this time of year aren't actually gifts--decor items, goofy sweaters or hats, containers for food, tools for baking. If you buy these things from somewhere like Value Village, you can save money, packaging & keep a few more things out of the landfill. Check out the Christmassy decor items I bought & DIYed a bit last year.

There you have it--if you try one or more of these tips, let me know how it went. Do you have any ideas to add to the list? How do you make your holidays more green?

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Review: Ring It! by Blue Orange Games

Ring It! fun with Papa

The weather is getting cooler, wetter & we're heading to the park a bit less often these days. With more indoor play, the puzzles, building toys, & board games are seeing more action at our house. We've recently added a new one to our collection: Ring It! by Blue Orange Games.

Ring It! is a fairly simple game with a set of 90 round cards & a bell. Game play is a bit like War or Snap: you need to match cards with other players, either the numbers on the cards, or the colour.

What makes Ring It! different, & a little more fun, is that you need to do an action (clapping, or you can come up with something else like oinking) before ringing the bell. The game works with two to nine people, age five & up, though I think younger kids who know their numbers could do it too.

Skip the Chocolates for V-Day: Make This

We don't really make a big deal about Valentine's Day around here, so the delicious simplicity of this recipe grabbed me. Instead of buying overpackaged & overpriced chocolates, why not make your own chocolatey treat? Made with quality dark chocolate & a few surprising ingredients you might not think of first when you're planning to make dessert, this one is sure to impress. Here's how you make it:

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