Categories
Shopping

Silver Antelope

1231 Woodbine Ave, East York Toronto,
(on Woodbine about 1/2 way between Danforth and O’Connor)

Online at: https://silverantelope.com/

I have followed Silver Antelope on instagram for a while though I had never made it out to their shop. Well – Silver Antelope has only existed since 2021; before that one of the founders – Lichia Liu – started Gotomago. Gotomago focuses on using environmentally friendly materials and has the most amazing (and some very twee) designs:

Some random Gotomago cards from the website:

So back to Silver Antelope – on January 18, they posted an 18% off sale to celebrate paying back their CEBA loan (oh don’t even get me started on how large corporations also got CEBA loans and how some small local businesses lost their business because of how awfully run this government program was) and to build up their cashflow.

Seemed like a good enough reason for me to finally get some stuff. And what terrific stuff! Lots of Gotomago products and they also carry other brands: “small-batch products that are consciously made by small businesses whose values align with ours, emphasizing companies that are also women-led and/or BIPOC-owned.”

brown paper envelope inside a brown cardboard box with a sticker reading "Silver Antelope" on it
Such a lovely package. Simple and clean.

I am trying to use my journal(s) more and I thought some fun stickers might help 🙂

Never one to shy away from a deal – I bought two “mystery card packs.” These are assorted packages of 10 cards (for $12!!) that are either discontinued designs or have slight flaws. If there are any flaws I definitely couldn’t see them. I also bought 2 packs of “imperfect envelopes” to go with them.

A white pencil with I (heart emoji) math engraved on it.

A gift for Q – he loves it! I’m glad I got him two.

Picture of lovely red flowers on long stems with the word fuck written delicately above.

This will be going on my yellow yeti tumbler that I use for coffee 🙂

And they sent along a present too:

They have a load of stuff for lunar new year, and you can shop by brand or look through a list of zero waste and recycled products or “gifts that give back” where they make a donation of partial proceeds to a charity doing important work in local and global communities. Shipping in Canada and the US is free for $125 or more in spending; other countries and less than $125 is charged by weight. Or you can pick up from the shop — funny how far away Woodbine feels though from Broadview lol (it’s about 5 km away).

I got a couple of other cards but I don’t want to ruin the surprise for the people that will be getting them so I won’t be sharing those. Needless to say though it’s a terrific shop – and the online experience was easy and straightforward. It may take me a while to need more cards but they will definitely be one of the shops I check out when I do.

Oh and afterwards I got an e-mail saying that if I would like to leave a review on my purchases I would get a 10% off code to use next time. Now that I’ve opened everything and used some of it I will do that! Oh and I’ll leave a google review too – I think that also helps small businesses a bunch!

Categories
Family

My Review of Shredded Natural Rubber Pillow – Kid Size

This is a review I originally submitted over at Grassroots. They’re a local shop that carries lots of “green” products. Everything from cleaners to toys, from clothing to, well, to pillows. They had a link to automatically post the review to my blog so I thought I’d test it out.

Originally submitted at Grassroots Environmental Products

Features:100% Organic Cotton cover
100% Shredded Natural Rubber filling
Medium support pillow
Removable cover for easy cleaning
Dust-mite repellent
Antibacterial, hypoallergenic and dust resistant

Our toddler son loves this pillow

By whiskybaker from Toronto ON on 4/8/2014
4out of 5

Pros: Keeps Shape, Comfortable

Cons: Heavy

Best Uses: Sleeping

Describe Yourself: Midrange Shopper

We bought this and the wool pillow for our toddler son. He loves the size – they are clearly HIS pillows. I think he prefers sleeping on the rubber pillow but it’s too heavy for him to carry around the house (like he used to do with his old pillow). He carries around the wool one instead.

(legalese)

Categories
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!

Categories
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.