Summer Eye Wear

Summer time can be difficult for many people who wear glasses. Many of us are driving our cars to work with one hand extended to block out the brightness of the sun. However, after a long tough winter, no one is going to argue with a little bit of sun. Therefore sunglasses in Canada are a must. If you need glasses there are two ways to survive the summer months. One way is to try wearing contacts, and slipping your sunglasses on top of your face worry free, the other is to obtain prescription sunglasses.

Prescription sunglasses are a great option for those who have sensitive eyes and are uncomfortable wearing contacts all the time. Some of us have tried slipping on sunglasses on top of our regular glass and ended up with comic effects, this is why investing in a good pair of prescription sunglasses is a good investment. However, as with everything, there are some drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is that you have to always carry your regular pair of glasses with you and make the sunglasses to glasses transition as you enter buildings. The sunglasses in buildings look should be saved for
celebrities at airports, so don’t try it at home.


Wearing contacts in the summer is a great alternative. With contacts you can enjoy all sorts of summer sports that may be difficult to partake when you wear glasses. One such example is swimming, or enjoying the beach. Glasses and pools, lakes and oceans do not mix well. It worse yet if you take off your glasses to go into the pool, only to get nauseated from blurry vision and have to return to your towel, searching blindly for your abandoned glasses. With contacts you can jump in our out of the pool, without a care or a worry about your eyewear or eye sight. Best yet you don’t have to carry any additional glasses with you as you switch between the buildings artificial light and the sunlight outside.

Today, there are many options for glasses wearers in the summer. You can choose to get prescription sunglasses for the ease, style and comfort they provide; you can choose to wear contacts with regular sunglasses on top; or you can get transition lenses in your frames which will switch between sunglasses and glasses as you enter buildings. Whatever you decide to do, just enjoy your summer.

Teddy in Paris Day 3 The Château de Versailles

We chose Sunday to visit  The Château de Versailles because fountains are activated during weekends only and weather on Sunday was better. We took a RER train in the morning, even though it was a two storey train it was packed to the limit. When we reached the place, we were impressed by the beauty of Palace and surprised by about 1km line-up to get there.

This time museum passes and a little child didn’t work, since every one had to get through security check. It took us about 1 hour to get through security check point and a stroller wasn’t allowed in the Palace.

The Palace is so big and was so crowded that sometimes it was impossible to move forward.

The Hall of Mirrors was the most impressive. The principal feature of this famous hall is the seventeen mirror-clad arches that reflect the seventeen arcades windows that overlook the gardens. The King’s Grand Apartments and the Museum of the History of France caught our attention for a while as well. It was a thrill to walk through beautiful halls with statues of kings and paintings on the walls and ceilings.

After visiting the Palace we headed to a Musical Garden to watch Fountains Show. The classic music was heard everywhere, but with fountains it was a bit of challenge. Every fountain works only at specific time range. Some of them work in the morning, some afternoon and some only 10 minutes before closing.

If to take into account that distance between fountains about 500 meters on average and they hidden among the trees then you need to do a lot of planning, walking and a map checking to be able to see them all working.

For Teddy it was a fun just to listen classical music and dance. We didn’t have too much energy left after fountains, but force ourselves to walk a long distance to Estate of Marie-Antoinette and the Petit Trianon with the Queen's garden. A lot of people rented a bicycle there, but we had a stroller instead, so Teddy was able to sit and relax anytime.

It was a very exiting journey and even 30 min line-up to washrooms and many walking miles didn’t reflect on our spirit. We were looking forward to the next day to visit Arch of Triumph and Champs-Élysées.

Toxin-Free Generation with Shane Koyczan and Seventh Generation #ToxinFreeGen

This spring Seventh Generation and Shane Koyczan, the award-winning Canadian poet teamed up to start the movement towards a toxin-free generation and welcome everyone to join them.

They are launching the campaign with a Koyczan poetic creation, “A Poem for a Toxin-Free Generation”, check it out:


This inspiring message to all of us to be responsible for the future of our planet, where simple actions can lead us to a Toxin-Free world.


Seventh Generation and Shane Koyczan presented Seven Simple Tips to Live Life More Toxin Free, most of them quite easy to follow but the impact is significant:

1. Once a week, open all the windows in your house for five minutes. No matter the season, open all the windows in your house for at least five minutes once a week to release the vapors and bring in the fresh air.

 2. Avoid recycling receipts.
They may look like paper and feel like paper, but they shouldn't be recycled like paper. They could contain BPA (Bisphenol A) that will contaminate the other recyclables in the mix. Either throw receipts into the trash or go paperless to avoid them all together.

3. Use glass containers for lunches and food storage. 

4. Choose a good, old-fashioned mug for your morning coffee.
Grinding trees into pulp, compressing them into paper and then chucking them into landfills after just one use seems, to put it mildly, inhumane. Consider switching to a reusable cup or mug.

5. Your nose knows; trust it.
If something gives off a scent that makes you cringe, it’s probably a good sign to step away. More likely than not, you’re smelling a Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) and the less of those you inhale, the better.

6. Get a plant and improve your indoor air quality.
Plants like what you exhale, you like what they exhale. Symbiosis. It’s a win-win.

7. Beware: “unscented” is not the same as “fragrance-free.” 

Check www.seventhgeneration.ca/toxinfree to find out how to join Koyczan and Seventh Generation in the Campaign for a Toxin-Free Generation.

New Mini Mioche Store Opens its Doors in the Distillery District

At the beginning of May I was invited to mini mioche Media Day, marking the opening of their new flagship location in the Distillery District. This is their second store in Toronto, making me spend my business days at their first location (on 795 Queen St. W. ) and visiting the Distillery one to shop and enjoy our sunny and lovely days with kids.
The new brick-and-mortar store perfectly merged into Distillery District lifestyle: spacious, stylish and with stroller parking – the best place to shop for families with kids.

Mini Mioche is Toronto-based manufacture of organic and eco-friendly clothes for babies. When I saw the shelves of clothes I couldn’t stop myself from touching them to feel how soft they are. Adding the simple but eye-catching design, lovely colours and reasonable prices make you love them at first glance.


The store also presents new mini mioche adult line em + west, women’s capsule collection of basic t-shirts and sweatshirts with beautiful colours – a great addition to mini mioche baby line.


To create a final stylish mom and baby image , mini mioche store also features the products from other brands including footwear from Adidas, Salt Water, Vans, Tip Toey, skin care from Matter Company, lunch bags (for travelling mommies), toys, books, music CDs and still following their initial eco-friendly direction.

It is amazing that mini mioche also re-launched their e-commerce web-site, where mini mioche products are now available for US and Canadian customers offering free shipping with a min purchase and even more exciting internationally too (the flat rate applies, please check mini mioche for more info).

So many times I was asked where to buy Canadian-made products, reasonably-priced and good quality, now I can refer directly to mini mioche. I hope everyone is going to like (or already love) mini mioche products as much as we do.

Teddy in Paris Day 2 Part II: The Sainte Chapelle, The Conciergerie, The Pont-Neuf

On the way to The Sainte Chapelle we were walking around, took pictures near the Seine, and when passing the bridge we met a musician playing the accordion, quite common picture in Paris, you can meet live performers almost everywhere.

The Sainte Chapelle was quite impressive with its Gothic style, stained glass, rich colors and vertical trends, even being under renovation that time. We left the stroller at the entrance to get upstairs, one stairs to go up and another one to go down, a quite interesting circular stairway. Teddy was involved playing with dolls in a boutique on the main level, they had Medieval style queens and kings, knights, horses and other toys.

We continued with The Conciergerie, the former royal palace and a prison during the French revolution. Museum passes did a great job giving us the fast way to enter the historic attractions skipping line-ups, great if you  are visiting with kids.


On the street we also found an artist painting on the road, Teddy liked that so much even offered some help to the guy.

Our last stop for day 2 was the Pont-Neuf, the oldest standing bridge across the Seine, it was more like a mid-river island, you can have great views from it. This bridge was not over-crowded when came there, nice place, Teddy was running there back and forward, looking how boats crossing the river and chasing birds. The bridge fences were covered with locks and Teddy decided they are toys and tried to take them out. This bridge somehow reminded me Toronto Center Island in a smaller version but the feeling is same. At the end of the day we were so tired, headed home after vising the Pont-Neuf to prepare for next day royal treat at the Palace of Versailles.

Little Driver - Wordless Wednesday

One of  the opportunities to be in the driver's seat for a while at Chuck E. Cheese's.