Just some disclosure off the top: I have not been paid or asked to write this review. I bought a Diva Cup from my local London Drugs for $39.99 about three years ago. You can buy one too, if you want.
Okay, first of all, I have been waffling on writing this review. Funny, I can tell you all about childbirth and breastfeeding and baby poop and ulcerative colitis and whatever else. But menstruation is taboo, more than anything else. Girls tend to think that menstruation is something you don’t really talk about, and although my mom was awesome when my period started and got me a starter pack of all the standard available goodies out there and was happy to show me how to use them or tell me anything I wanted to know about how it all worked, I know I’m not alone when I say I don’t really talk about my monthly cycle with many people outside of my husband, my midwife, my doctor, and perhaps my closest friends. Because really, does anyone actually want to hear about it? Meh, not really.
Don’t want to know what I use to deal with my period? Then stop now, and go check out this awesome site about eating locally.
The Diva Cup is one of a number of kinds of menstrual cup – There’s the Moon Cup, The Keeper (a latex rubber version), and Lunette (not yet approved for sale in Canada, although silicone already is) and probably others I don’t know about.
I ended up buying it because I had it suggested to me to try by a friend, and then noticed it at the store, and read the box and decided to give it a whirl. I bought myself the size 2 (there are two sizes) because of my age, and the same size is appropriate to me postnatal as well. At the time, I was not even pregnant. I tried it once or twice when I did not have my period to attempt to get the hang of it, wasn’t thrilled enough to try again, put it back under my sink and promptly forgot all about it. A menstrual cup is designed for collecting the flow, and hanging on to it until you get a chance to dump it. It’s not absorbent, and is, in fact, a silicone cup, that looks similar to an egg cup, with a stem on the end (for grasping).
Diva Cup
Fast forward to this past few months, where I’m more than ever trying to reduce my impact on the world and am looking at my lady bits in a way I did not look at them before I had a child. I flat our care more about what’s going on inside me. Before, menstruation was a function. Now, I see it as a purpose.
I have started reading all sorts of alarming info out there on the intarnets, some of it pretty well researched seemingly from the house of non-crazy [that link is a PDF to an interesting report written by Canadian nutritionist Meghan Telpner] and and a lot of it flat out false (no, tampons do not contain asbestos). And although the Canadian Cancer Society states that you cannot get cancer from using tampons, there are many people who swear they are toxic to your body on many levels and there is tonnes of anecdotal evidence to support that. But for me, I started feeling guilty about using tampons because they aren’t doing the earth any favours. I’m rethinking the use of tampons and pads from a disposable angle – I am so sick of throwing money literally down the toilet and without truly grasping the consequences of where it goes, and what happens to it when it gets there.
I’m trying hard to find usable alternatives to more or less everything that reeks of consumptive earth dissing, so in my RSS reader these days is stuff like the Glenbrook Zero Waste Challenge, a local group trying to reduce their waste. They put me on to the folks over at the Clean Bin Project, who’ve recently completed a documentary about their project and are cycling across Canada promoting it (hey, Canadian friends, they are looking for places to show their movie. Help them out – check out the trailer, it’s awesome and I can’t wait till they are back in town and we here in New West can watch their documentary.) One of the items Jen at the Clean Bin Project blogs about is the menstrual cup. In her (and my) case, we’re talking about the Diva Cup.
So, seeing the mention for the Diva Cup a while back gave me enough drive to dig it out and give it another shot.
It took me a few tries at insertion despite pretty decent instructions. It feels WEIRD the first few times because the Diva Cup is not designed to go way up inside you like a tampon. It sits more or less at the end of your inner workings so that you can simply reach and grasp that stem with your fingers when it’s time to remove it. Remember, it’s catching the blood, not soaking it up. You are shooting for a horizontal lie rather than a vertical one. Womens’ bits are shaped somewhat like a vase with the small end closest to the real world and so to get the Cup past the smaller neck of the vaginal opening, you fold the cup into quarters and let it pop open once inside. That took a few tries too – figuring out the knack of getting it to pop open at all. I kept having to go in and retrieve it and realign the mark I was shooting for. Also, one complaint? I wish the instructions made mention of potentially pulling at pubic hair. Not everyone grows hair in the same spots, according to my esthetician, but I apparently grow hair in a spot that gets a bit pulled when inserting the Diva Cup. Now that I know that it’s a no longer an issue, but the first time I discovered it, it wasn’t in a way I’d like to repeat.
I also felt the stem of the Diva Cup a bit the first few times while wearing it but now, after a few cycles, I can still notice it only if I try. But it’s a different way of thinking. When you insert a tampon, it’s a no brainer – insert tab a into slot b and you generally do not feel a thing. But I stopped and thought about it. The first few times I used a tampon at 15? I remember it feeling like a giant sub sandwich between my legs.
I practiced with my Diva Cup a half dozen times or so when I did not have my period so that inserting and removing would be simpler and less foreign to me come period time, with the added complication of blood. I recommend doing that as well. You’re going to get intimately involved with what your “output” feels like, so start on a non-period day and get over yourself.
And speaking of blood? What do you do with it? Well, this is how I deal with it, not everyone likely uses the same method. While seated on the toilet, I remove the Diva Cup by grasping the stem, pulling it out sideways, and then once it breaks suction, I tilt it DOWN and let what is collected drain straight into the toilet. Afterward, I wash the Diva Cup in my sink and then clean myself up and then reinsert. Then, when I get up to wash my hands, I give the sink a rinse too. It’s blood. It’s not poison. You can buy Diva Wash, a mild soap, to use on your Cup and your bits, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Because the Diva Cup is made of silicone, you can boil it to give it a good cleaning, and so at the end of my period I do just that. Then it lives in its little fabric sack until the next time. I envision custom made cases on Etsy as soon as I can get my sewing machine back up and running after we move as nothing draws attention to a little fabric bag more than DIVA printed all over a bright purple background. Discreet? No.
You can wear thew Diva Cup over night, and you’ll need to empty it about once every 12 hours or so. The normal entire amount of blood you will shed in your period is 4 ounces (on average, some people it may be more or less!). The Diva Cup can hold one ounce. The chances of leaking because you’ve filled it are slim.
My periods last about 4 days, and at 5-8 tampons a day (we’ll take 6 as an average) I have already saved about 50 tampons from using the Diva Cup. Yeah. No kidding. 50 tampons is more than what’s in the average sized box. And I’ve barely been using this thing! Do the math on a year. Whether you are talking about the money you’ve saved, the bleached cotton you have not used, or the tampons you have not flushed down the toilet, 50 tampons is HUGE and it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
Many users also pair their Diva Cups with reusable panty liners. LunaPads are one example, but you can also sew your own.
To sum up: go buy yourself one of these or order it online. Menstrual cups are likely going to be the norm very soon as more and more people realize it is not icky and it saves money, the environment and our bodies. Practice until you feel like it’s not a big deal. Then clear out some of that space under your bathroom sink for something you really love, like a cocoa butter body scrub or a sea salt bath soak, and stop flushing your money down the toilet.
Friends of mine who are of the male persuasion: you might not want to read this entry. It’s not that I care, but maybe you care. I mean, hey, if I cared, would I be writing it on the intarnets for all the world to see? No, not really. But if you care, and think you’re going to be all blushy weird about this later? Then stop now. Go read this interesting article about a year with bees. Neat stuff.
You see, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk about, and by talk about, I mean “write a blog post about something that’s been annoying me lately”. Yup. Underwear. Is she really going there? Yes, yes I am.
I’ve bought the ridiculously overpriced kind before from the stores like La Senza and have tried pretty much every single cut they make. (And bitterly disliked their service and have vowed to never shop there ever again because they suck). I’ve worn the standard fare Hanes Her Way / Fruit of the Loom /department store cotton kind too and I generally revert back to the plain cotton kind, because they are readily available, inexpensive, and used to fit decently enough. I used to buy the white bikini cut. But since having had a cesarean birth, the re-arrangment, shall we say, of my stomach and lower area makes these kind of uncomfortable. Like my complaint about jeans, I find that the good ol’ white cotton bikini cut style just rolls down under the cesarean “shelf”. Which produces some insane visible pantie line and a gathering of fabric I don’t much care for. I also have lost sensation around the area of my cesarean scar, and so elastic around that area just feels, well, weird. I can’t even put my finger on how it’s weird, but it just is.
So, I’m hunting around online for the latest and greatest in women’s underwear styles, thinking there has got to be something out there I am missing out on. I’ve run across this website which caters to post-surgery cesarean peeps, and I was reading and thinking, hey that’s cool, and then I figured out which style would be appropriate for me since its been, you know, 2 years and all, and I was sold! Until I discovered these are $23.50 a pair. Whoa! Seriously? I wear underwear every day(crazy party animal that I am, yo) and so one pair wouldn’t cut it. So, I guess I know my threshold is considerably lower than that. I found another site and they were even more expensive! What the hecks? I took a look on Etsy – because if I am paying that much money for a pair of fancy undies, I want it to go to a single producer and not some company. And then, I started thinking that maybe I should just design and make my own. I tried that once and I wore them twice and found them so uncomfortable they went to the rag bag. ( I made some of my own amendments to the pattern and now I know why I should not have.)
Anyway, so I got to the point where I was like, “Okay never mind, white cotton bikini cut Hanes it is.” So off I went to Zellers (and yes, I drive all the way to Zellers in Burnaby rather than Walmart because Walmart sucks) and LO! Packaged socks and underwear were buy one get one half price and so I bought me some fresh new cotton socks for the summer and spent about 45 minutes at the packaged underwear rack.
You know you have become an adult when you are sitting there on the floor of a understaffed and dirty department store opening packages of giant sized tent underwear, stretching them out to see their “max capacity” and inspecting their seams because poorly made? I’m not going there. So there I am stretching them out, holding them up, trying to find one package that hasn’t been opened up, mixed with another, and then re-stuffed into the wrong size package. And I’m looking at all the styles – hipster (NO), bikini (NO), boycut (NO), full brief (GOOD GOD NO I’M NOT 90), and finally, I settled on the poorly spelled hi-cut. (Grammar pet peeve – things incorrectly spelled on purpose for marketing reasons – gah). I figured that they’re high enough in the front to come up and over that cesarean shelf, but high enough on the hips and thighs that I still feel well, okay, at least feminine a bit. I don’t wear low cut pants anymore so I don’t really care how much fabric there is in the back.
So! $10 for 6 pairs. Slightly better on the ROI than the $23.50 each fancy pants panties. And honestly, these are working out just fine.
What about you? What’s your favourite brand or cut?
Also, since we are talking unmentionables here, I’m working on a review of the Diva Cup. This is a silicone cup that is a reusable alternative to pads and tampons. I bought one ages ago, tried it, got nervous, and there it sat in its little bag under our sink for a year. Until this past month when I got over myself, pulled it out and started using it in earnest and now am a convert. If you are a Diva Cup user (and I know there are a few of you out there as some of you recommended it to me in the first place), can you email me at jen arbo at g mail dot com? I’d like to compare a few notes with you.
Here’s the thing. I’m not a particularly odd body type and I know it. I’m short, slightly wide, a little sensitive about the kangaroo pouch that I had as a result of having a child, and I am like a million other women out there. But the big jeans makers have us all convinced that you need to be slim, flat bellied, and have hips like a boy to find a pair that fits and wear them comfortably. There’s a few out there that cater to “the rest of us” – they make a short length, they make a “curvy” cut – but like so many other mass produced lines of clothing, petite seems to mean “cut off the legs a few inches shorter” rather than creating a garment that is proportionately smaller, and “curvy” seems to mean wide hipped, but not narrow waisted, so you end up with gape-y jeans.
I’m flat out not paying $300 plus for a pair of jeans. Period. They should be made out of gold for that price. I wear jeans out because I wear them every day and there is no way I’m paying what is essentially 25% of my monthly income on a pair of pants. I was recommended to try all sorts of designer labels – and actually went online and looked up a pair of jeans from PZI Jeans. All they sell is jeans for gals with curves, so I figured they’d at least know what they heck they were talking about. But their shortest inseam is 32″ which to me is a pretty average inseam and so I knew I’d still have to pay to hem the inseam of $100 jeans. Although, props to PZI for using real-life sized models.
On a mass retailer level, I thought I’d found nirvana when I discovered Reitmans made “comfort fit” which are essentially zipperless jean (and other fabrics) pants made for non-pregnant people. But after a few dozen wears I have two complaints – the waist band rolls under the kangaroo pouch when I sit for long periods of time, and the inner thighs are already wearing out. For the price point, however, I think they’re pretty decent. The fact that they have no front pockets is a major fault – I don’t wear anything without pockets, so all I do now is stuff things into my back pockets and forget about how square my butt must look.
I further thought I had obtained the unobtainable when the folks at Riders by Lee sent me two pairs of jeans to try out. And if I could have mashed those two pairs together to create one pair, I might have found the key. After a few weeks of wear though, I find the darker pair has lost some of its shape and I have to wash them after each use or they sag and pull funny, and the lighter pair just doesn’t appeal to me. But at $20, they are good value for the money and are easy to buy and make an excellent utility jean.
So, the time finally came when I decided I needed to foray into the world of custom made jeans.
A girlfriend of mine lives in Brooklyn, and is hooked up to a site called Groupon – the theory is that group buying power makes companies want to give special offers. While Vancouver isn’t ready yet, my New York friend sent me the link to an incredible deal for that day – $145 worth of custom made jeans for $80 (USD). How could I resist?
IndiDenim says it has “A data driven web-based customization interface displays custom options in a user-friendly way (our sweet Jean Builder, of course) and is then utilized to capture customer style and fit data”. Basically, I plugged in all sorts of honest measurements into their sometimes too personal fit questionaire. It took a while but was pretty self explanatory and my only tip is to measure really well or get a friend to help you. Be honest about your body’s measurements. They also claim to have a product visualization aspect, but really it’s just a picture of a model’s bottom half that changes as you add features. It in no way shape or form reflected my shape’s measurements as I punched them in and was still a stick thin Barbie bottom despite my 36″ waist measurement. Tip to IndiDenim – hire some realistically sized models.
I ordered and paid for my jeans on January 26th and they arrived here on March 24th – almost two months. Their website says about 4 weeks to manufacture and about two weeks to ship to Canada. I shop a lot online and I find Canada always gets the short end of the online retail stick. I generally try and buy Canadian, but if I can’t find a Canadian retailer that offers online shopping I branch out. I usually have to pay an obscene amount of duty or shipping because apparently it takes a lot of work to get my packages up here to my igloo in the snowy Artic tundra and most US companies want to use Fedex or Purolator, which, while trackable, charges a clearance fee to bring it across the border. IndiDenim offers free shipping to anywhere in the world and they offer unlimited returns for fit adjustments, although custom made jeans are not returnable unless its a defect and you pay for the cost of shipping them back to Indi’s offices in California.
I’m also a bit disappointed that it’s so hard to find out where the jeans are actually made and it took me ages to figure out their jeans are made in Mexico. Silver lining: I didn’t have to pay duty, go NAFTA! – but most companies who are producing garments at fair labour practice manufacturing plants are pretty dang proud of that, and make a point to tell you all about it and Indi certainly doesn’t – does it mean it’s a sweat shop environment? Not necessarily. But I wish it was easier to find out more.
But let’s talk about fit, because really, that’s why you’re reading yet another jeans review by yours truly.
The short version is: Holy crap I think I’m in love.
IndiDenim jeans
I chose to buy a wide leg pair of jeans – which is a little outside my norm, but I wanted something a bit different. I also elected to get double belt loops, tab pockets with buttons, (and yes, Clara, these have front slit pockets too – full size) and dark, dark denim with a wide bottom hem. They fit sooooo comfortably right out of the box, and even after a wash retained that fit. The waist, thrillingly, actually sits at my waist and despite it’s wide band, actually stays put – no rolling under the kangaroo pouch. They also cut these jeans roomy in the hips, as you can see:
Waist : Hip Ratio
And that has ensured that they aren’t pulling tightly and uncomfortably across my middle section. I feel like I can breathe comfortably in these and they still look nice. See how they are cut so that the waist is curved? That means no gaping, no wardrobe malfunctions if I bend down, and fabric staying where it stinking well belongs.
Fresh crisp jeans
I can’t say enough good things about they way these fit. Sure, they don’t really do much to hide the kangaroo pouch – but that’s something I’m learning to deal with (you know, “badge of honour at having entered motherhood” yadda yadda) and honestly, the fact that they fit properly, without having to constantly adjust and fuss? Well, um, that makes them excellent right there. Most importantly, they are comfortable – I don’t feel stuffed into them.
Am I going to buy another pair? Yes. I’m going to pick a boot cut this time. I’m not going to buy them right away – with a $155 USD price tag I have to budget myself. I’m impressed with the fit of these jeans, I’m impressed with the free shipping and the free alterations. I’m not totally keen on how long it takes to get them – but now that I know I’ll plan ahead. When I ordered these jeans, I tweeted that “I had ordered custom fit jeans online” and someone asked “is that possible?” and the answer is yes. So far, IndiDenim has topped my list for jeans that fit.
Tip: go and create an account, go through the design process, and then save it. In a few days, you’ll get an email with a coupon for $10 to entice you to buy the design you created. IndiDenim also does custom tailored dress shirts, and my men friends tell me that a custom tailored dress shirt is a really swish gift.
About a week later, a representative from Riders by Lee contacted me. Through the magic of the internet, she had found my blog, and read my post about jeans, and then read the comments where I mentioned the brand. She asked if she could send me two pairs of jeans, because Riders by Lee was just so confident that they could fit any woman with a good pair of jeans for a retail price of less than $20.
“Hey, I’m game,” I thought. “But don’t expect me to write about how awesome they are just because you sent me free jeans. I gave her my measurements, my wish list, and told her what I didn’t like about the pair I bought.
I bought a pair of Riders by Lee about a month ago. They are a 12 Petite and the inseam is good. They are a nice dark denim which I like. The first few wears were great – but here is my complaint: the zipper flap stretches out rather than the tummy panel slimming me so you can see the zipper and I constantly get asked if my zipper is low. I think this is one of those situations where the fabric is going to pull where there is the least resistance, and in this case, that’s the fabric of the zipper flap. I’m not sure if this is an indicator that I need to go up to a size 14 or not, but I tried on a 14 and the waist was swimming on me and gaped badly at the back, so I stuck with the 12. I tend to muffin top out of these (and other) jeans as well – but that’s likely a “Jen’s body construction” issue rather than a “garment construction issue” because that happens on most pants…
The representative sent me two pairs of jeans – one a dark wash in a 11/12 medium length, and the other a super light wash in a “slender stretch” fit, in a size 12 petite.
Here’s me in a regular pair of jeans I just happened to be wearing:
Regular Joe-Schmoe Jeans
Here’s me in the light wash slender stretch jeans:
Light Wash Slender Stretch
And finally, here’s me in the dark wash jeans:
Dark Wash Bootcut
The short review? If I could amalgamate the features of these two pairs of jeans into one super pair, I might be on the road to jean bliss. I feel like I’m close. Super close.
Both pairs retail for $19.95 at most mass retailers like Wal-mart and K-mart (and try Zellers, too), feature a slightly wider waistband, and are a “medium rise”. Both are touted as a bootcut although the lighter pair feels more skinny than that. Both are a pretty standard 5 pocket jean design, nothing fancy, no crazy bling on the butt or anything. The leg length of the lighter pair is perfect for me, but I prefer the cut of the dark pair to the “slender stretch” lighter pair. To make them both perfect I need to: dye the lighter pair something darker – black maybe – and get the darker pair hemmed (which I’d normally do myself but my sewing machine is in storage while we try and sell our house).
I muffin top out of both pairs, but I’ve come to the realization that no jean is going to make up for the fact that I need to get off my butt and start doing some serious cardio. Sure, the right cut of jeans can make a huge difference to hide things like c-section scars (and the question mark that is my belly) and they can sure accent features that are still pretty decent, like bottoms, and help make your legs look longer, but absolutely no pair of jeans is going to solve the dilemma of too much jiggly skin to fit in the clothing.
I like them, I think the retail price is decent, and quite honestly, any jean company that is so confident they can fit “anyone” that they will track down little old me and send me two pairs impresses me. I’ll probably buy another pair of these again. And that, my friends, says a lot.
Next up on the quest to find Jen’s Perfect Jeans: the $110 pair of custom trouser jeans I’ve paid to have made. I want to know – are $20 jeans as good a fit as a custom pair can be, AND, is it worth waiting 4 weeks? I should receive them in two weeks or so.
I’m currently planning a small vacation for our family, a vacation that will be all secret until it is actually unfolding. One of the things that I am working on is getting places without a car – and what to do about car seats. Kale’s car seat is the pretty popular Evenflo Triumph (ours is plain gray and black rather than patterned, but has the same features). We selected it, not because of any of the features, but because when we arrived at BabiesRUs to spend a few hours testing out, trying on, and comparing multiple brands of car seats, tiny infant Kale (who actually wasn’t that tiny since his little legs were so long he had already outgrown his infant car seat) decided it was an appropriate time to fill his clothing with an extraordinary amount of poop and Ross and I discovered belatedly that neither one of us thought to bring a diaper bag. You could tell we were new parents that day. So we did what any self-respecting new parent would do, and bought the cheapest car seat in the store, and figured we would return it if it sucked. Fortunately, BabiesRUs has a ridiculously generous return policy (see also: major corporation that throws away more than my annual salary in saleable products) and so we thought “buy the fricking thing and get the heck outta here!”.
The Evenflo Triumph, while large, and heavy, and not really suited to being put in and out of multiple vehicles, and while being adorned with a fairly useless cup holder, has done us well. I like the fact that you can remove all of the fabric quickly and easily for a wash, and that it’s simple to put your kid in it and tighten. Unlike a lot of car seats, this one has a knob you turn, rather than a strap you have to heave on. So, taking this car seat with us without a car, while do-able, sort of, is really something I don’t want to do.
It’s funny, you know? There was a time when I remember that my spot in the family car was sitting, seatbelt-free, on the centre console between the two front seats. I remember only being told to wear my seat belt when we were on the highway, as if only high speed accidents could claim lives of non-seatbelt wearers. I recall some cars I have ridden in that did not have seatbelts at all. In the 80s, there was a Canadian campaign to increase the use of seatbelts in cars, and it was highly successful – the US started copying it, actually. I don’t remember the last time I rode without a seatbelt, actually. No wait, I do. On my 16th birthday I got a ticket for not wearing my seatbelt in my friend’s stupid little Datsun – he told me it didn’t work so I didn’t put it on and we went through a roadblock and I got dinged – $67.
If there is any reason whatsoever why you are not wearing your seat belt in the car, well, you’re an idiot. I’m sorry, but you are. I caught this on Thingamababy, and thought I’d share it because I think it’s great.
When Ross and I moved to our current home, we elected to ditch a traditional landline in favour of just using our two cell phones. It worked for a long time, and it’s only because I am now at home during the day and making daytime calls that I even noticed it wasn’t working as well as it should. And by “noticed” I mean, “$225 cell phone bill since I went over my minutes oops”. We had our internet and cable through Shaw and it made sense to get a hold of them to add a digital phone line to our bill and “bundle” the services. Their current advertising is kinda entertaining, with this big mean old contract being a jerk. I had asked around to friends and the advice was really mixed, so just adding a service to an existing bill seemed easiest.
You should know I paid $95.85 a month for high speed internet and basic cable television. They’d phoned a few times trying to get me to upgrade to a digital package, but with a really old TV we hardly watch (and considered getting rid of entirely) it made no sense. The Shaw customer service rep told me it would be an additional $20.95 plus tax per month on my Shaw bill. Fair enough, I figured, and I asked when they could install it. Because it is a digital phone service, before we could schedule an installation day and time, my address had to be propagated in the 911 system for enhanced 911 – meaning, in order for 911 to know my address, my address had to be linked up on their system. Fair enough, I figured. This propagation apparently would take 24-72 hours, but since I had called on a Thursday, I should not expect a call anytime before Monday.
Monday came and went and so did Tuesday and Wednesday and magically time passed and sure enough we were on Thursday again. So I called to find out what the hold up was. I was assured that there was something wrong in “their” system (not sure if that’s the provincial 911 system or Shaw’s system) but they would put a rush on the order and I was assured I would hear back by the following day.
I’m sure no one is shocked to find out that I didn’t hear from them Friday. I called Monday, and was told that she would put in a new work order to have my address propagated. At this point, it started getting funny.
The following Monday, I called to cancel, regardless of where they were in the process, as it was already 2 weeks and a few days and honestly, get real. Lo and behold, my service was ready, but no one could tell me why I didn’t get the call to schedule the installation. The service rep told me “that’s in the past”, like we are in some sort of relationship and I should just get over all our previous fights because “it’s in the past”. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? So while I was fuming, and trying to decide how to tell the woman to stuff it, she started going ahead with the process and let me know that the next possible installation date was ANOTHER WEEK FROM THEN. I said “Let me get this straight. I’ve been waiting two and a bit weeks, and I’m the one making the calls, and you are now telling me I have to wait another week?” She said yes, and said “there is an evening appointment available that day, I will put you down for it. Now, here is your phone number” and rattled off a number starting with area code 778.
A note about 778 area code. BC used to be 604. Then they added 250 for basically everywhere outside the Lower Mainland, and then in 2001 they added 778. 778 is what they call an “overlay” area code, meaning new numbers that would normally fall into the 604 area code (and as of 2007, the 250 area code) are now being assigned 778 area codes. I HATE the 778 are code, if only because I resist change, and the thought of me having a cell phone with a 604 area code and a home phone with a 778 area code was just too much and became the straw that broke the camel’s back. I told the expletive deleted customer service rep to stuff her phone service down her cake hole and hung up.
I called Telus and because I know how to sidestep the ridiculous automated friendly robot answering machine (“agent agent agent agent agent agent”), was put through really quickly to a VERY friendly and helpful customer service rep named Julie. I gave Julie the brief rundown of how annoyed I was with Shaw and I said “Julie, I need high speed internet, the basic channels of television, and a home phone I can make local calls on. I want a 604 phone number, and I want it installed this week. What can you do for me? Can you make this happen?”
And my saviour angel Julie said “Sure! Not a problem.”
Ding Ding Ding, ladies and gentleman. “Sure” indeed. We have a freakin’ winner.
Not only could I get my wish list fulfilled, I was also given one month of totally free service, three months of free full cable (including, like, a million canned music stations), free installation, and free equipment (the modem is ours to keep, the TV box is a rental) provided I signed up for a year contract. And remember up in paragraph 2 up there where I said that I was paying $95.85 plus I was going to pay an additional $20.95 plus tax a month for Shaw’s services? Um. Yeah. Here’s the kicker: I get MORE channels, I got it installed that Friday, I got a 604 phone number, the tech even rewired our stereo properly so I could get the TV sound through the stereo speakers and it’s $76.00 plus tax per month. NO KIDDING.
The entire process took about 30 minutes to arrange, and I got to SMUGLY call Shaw four days later and tell them to stick their internet and cable where the sun didn’t shine. And the funny part is that when I called Shaw, they put me through to the “department that could help me” (read: the accounts retention department, I’m not a moron, could they be any more obvious) who tried to BLAME ME for wanting to discontinue services because I guess the last expletive deleted CSR I talked to had made a note that I was “extremely upset about a 778 area code”. When the accounts retention gal tried to suggest that, I snorted. “Yes, that’s it. Sure. It had NOTHING to do with the 2 and a half weeks wait to even get a 778 phone number and the $40 price difference. Go smoke another one.”
Justice is swift at Chez Arbo when it comes to our service providers and favorite stores.
I haven’t written a product review in ages, and this one has been on the back burner for far too long. I actually took video footage of this knife block in action, because pictures don’t do it justice about how useful this knife block is.
So, Ross and I, between the two of us, have about 12 different high quality kitchen knives. If there is one incredibly important kitchen tool that every person should buy, I truly believe it is a good quality knife. Ginsu is not high quality. We’ve acquired these kinves over the years, and they don’t match – which suits me just fine. For a long time pre-Kale, we kept all our kinves flat in a drawer all their own, but after Kale was born, the thought occured to us that perhaps this might not be a safe idea.
A knife block was an okay idea, but research showed that since none of our knives matched, and many of them were large, we were going to have a hard time finding one with the right slots. We then turned to a magnet. We actually went to Ikea and purchased those magnet strips although I had done a fair bit of reading that suggested those were actually bad for knives if you weren’t incredibly careful about putting your knives on and off it. Also, where we were going to install these racks was actually a bit of a bone of contention between us – we have a space above the sink that would have been suitable, but it’s tiled, and Ross was against the idea of drilling into the tile. But I bought two of these racks, and brought them home, and was so significantly disappointed with the quality of them, that I returned them both the next day.
I then discovered “Mag-Blok”, a wood-covered magnetic strip, and figured that might not be a bad idea. Again, we would have had a hard time agreeing on where to mount the strip in the kitchen, but at least the fears about ruining the edges of our knives were allayed. I was all set to buy online, and then the new Lee Valley catalogue was delivered.
And there it was. The solution to our problem.
From the Lee Valley website:
Created with 8″ polypropylene rods rather than slots, this universal knife block stores any combination of knives, regardless of size or shape, in any orientation. We found it will hold knives 10″ and smaller anywhere in the block. Unlike with a traditional wooden block, knives will not be dulled by scraping against the wood surface. A shallow cup encasing the rods makes them easy to remove for washing, and a two-step design helps with identifying and sorting knives. Without the limitation of specific slots you can have your own selection of favorite knives accessible at all times.
So we hit Lee Valley, picked it up, and I have to say I am thoroughly impressed with our knife block. So impressed, in fact, that I took this video of the knife block “in action”:
You can shove the knife in wherever you want, at whatever angle. It’s probably one of the most useful gadgets I think we’ve bought in terms of storage devices in a small kitchen space that allows us to have all our fancy knives accessible. I highly recommend this knife block. My only wish is that it came in more finishes. Although “natural pine” is awesome, I’d love to see something that was a darker wood or perhaps even painted or metal-encased. I’m giving the Lee Valley Adjustable Knife Block 4 out of 5 Jens.
Mom pointed out that I didn’t have a link up for Chai By Night. my little chai company in the making, and although I could have sworn I did, she is right! So, I’ve added it to my links menu. If you are interested, have at ‘er.
Anyway, this post is about Raspberry Kids, and while it isn’t a product review, per se, it is a review of their service and company as a whole. However, because of the way I categorize my posts, it’s called a Product Review.
The other day, I posted about how I was increasingly disappointed with A Baby’s World, and how every time I go there they either don’t carry what I am looking for, or it’s ridiculously overpriced, or they are out of stock. While I’m okay with paying maybe a bit more for an item if it supports a local business, there is a point where I say “get freakin’ real” because I am on mat leave and don’t have scads o’ cash just waiting around to be spent.
I had gone there in search of a bowl / plate that suctioned onto the table because Mr. Grabby Hands is into feeding himself things but he lacks the coordination to not knock the ramekins I use to feed him off the table. You’d think it was a fairly simple thing to walk into a baby store and buy that type of item, right? But apparently they are sold out of all the brands they carry. Well, I only get the car once a month, basically, and I’m sure as hell not going to bus out to Coquitlam, and honestly? This gift card balance we have? We will eventually use it on something, but quite honestly, I am DONE with going there and being continually disappointed.
As a sidenote, when I was trying to find someone local who sold the Beco Baby Carrier, I assumed a place like that would want to carry a higher quality, sweatshop-free, versatile, pretty, baby carrier like that, and so I emailed them and suggested they stock them since they are the cream of the crop as far as I am concerned. And I got zero response. So I sent another friendly email just checking to see if they had gotten my suggestion, and I got a somewhat bitchy, poorly composed response letting me know the owner was out of town but that my suggestion would be passed on. I asked that the owner let me know what they decided to do, since I get asked ALL THE TIME where I got my Beco (and “Beco Baby Carrier review” is one of my most common search terms on ye olde blogge here), and I was told that the owner would get back to me sometime over the next week or so. I have never, ever heard from the owner, and they still don’t carry the Beco Carrier. So Gorgeous Baby in White Rock gets all my referrals and I hope she is selling them like hotcakes. (PS: Note to Sue at Raspberry Kids, if you ever carry the Beco, let me know and I will refer people to you!)
Anyway. Enough back story.
So I wrote that I was going to order a Boon Saucer and Boon Snack Bowl from a local online company I had found while searching around called Raspberry Kids. The website is fresh, simple to navigate, and well organized. I like how the categories are arranged along the top and how the main page isn’t all advertising and BUY BUY BUY BUY.
There is a cute story about how it came to be called Raspberry Kids. I really appreciate how honest and personal the story is. It makes me want to see that business succeed and it makes me feel very good about who my dollars are going to. So I was going to get my crap together and buy the bowl and saucer I wanted. Sue at Raspberry Kids saw my incoming link and wrote a very pleasant and nice comment thanking me for the blog mention and offered me (and all who read my blog) a 15% discount on an order. Just like that. I didn’t have to ask, she was super fast, and really personable.
So that immediately prompted me to go online, select the bowl and saucer, and also a set of Eric Carle (who I can’t get enough of) animal alphabet flashcards and press “add to cart” and “checkout”. I got my invoice really quickly, and Sue also sent me a little note to let me know that my order would ship Monday ( I ordered them Friday) and that I should get them by Tuesday.
So when my postie showed up this morning with my envelope I was not surprised. I got my items as ordered, and I also got a lovely card from Sue, handwritten and personalized. She enclosed some coupons for a future order and also for some other mom-preneur companies like Bopomo Photography and Momcafe. And as an added bonus, she also included a Raspberry tea bag, which I am enjoying as I write this. This card was a brilliant added touch!
Like everything these days, Kale was more interested in the packaging than what came in it, but we used the snack bowl for lunch and he LOVED the fact that he could grab food himself, and not just one-at-a-time oatios plopped onto the high chair tray. I busted up a teething biscuit and put it in there and he went WILD reaching in and grabbing pieces. We have to work on not tossing them all over the place, and we definitely need to work on not shoving everything into our cakehole the minute we see it and then gagging and retching for 30 seconds BUT he most certainly enjoyed himself and it is EXACTLY what I wanted when I went to Baby’s World last week.
I’ve stashed the flashcards away for the time being, and tonight we will try out the saucer for dinner. I’m really happy with the entire experience. Things I wish were a little different? I wish there were more things for boys. I realize that most people who shop tend to shop for the pink and frilly brigade, but I looked for some clothes for Kale and didn’t see anything I fancied. I’d also love to see some of those UV protective sun shirts for the summer. One of the few things I am looking for these days is the classic wooden blocks set and not the creepy made in China kind with all sorts of splinters and stuff and I’m having a heck of a time finding a set that isn’t $144. And maybe I’d like to see a forum so that customers can compare notes on things like where to buy a high quality stroller. But otherwise, the entire experience has been absolutely fabulous and it’s one I will definitely do again. I am incredibly impressed with the customer service Sue has offered me, and won’t hesitate to shop at Raspberry Kids again, and will definitely be recommending then to everyone I know.
I’ve bought so many purses over the years it hurts my brain when I do the math on what I’ve wasted. I’ve never been totally 100% happy with one. So, I decided the best thing to do is to just get one custom made. I’d to go leather, but holy man, the prices are just way out of my reach. I had a bit of money in the Mad Money kitty so I asked my friend Gillian, who has just opened up a new store called Pip Robins if she would consider making me one, and she was gung ho. I had a pretty specific list though and I know I am a really picky pain in the butt customer:
wool or wool blend fabric on the outside, grey in colour
lined inside
a strap 40-46 inches long (long enough to sling over me but short enough that I could reach into it when wearing it)
a zipper closure
two pockets inside, at least one with a zipper
upcycled fabric or fabric from a sustainable source
a matching lined zipper pouch for my few cosmetics I carry
a small applique of a bird on the outside
large enough to carry my wallet, my dayplanner, my phone, a diaper and some wipes, a water bottle
I left the design itself up to Gillian, and her and I hashed out the details like fabric choices, what kind of zipper, and whether I wanted the strap lined too. She was great at helping me choose suitable, durable fabrics. We worked out a price within my budget that we both felt was reasonable, and she got to work right away. I think I contacted her on a Friday and by Sunday she was done and sent me pictures before mailing it off.
I got my purse yesterday and am so, so, so, excited and happy to report that it fits all my requirements. Gillian was also kind enough to send me a little chunk of fabric so that I could make a matching drawstring pouch to put a diaper and a wipe into.
My one complaint (and its not a reflection on Gillian’s sewing, its a reflection on how much weight I put into the bag) is that the shoulder strap rolls in half if I have too much stuff in it. If we had thought of this during the design process, I could have asked Gillian to shape the strap in such a way that it fits my shoulder more. Without a tonne of weight, it’s fine, so its a small beef.
I really like this purse. It goes with almost everything I own, and the design with the pleats makes it a bit more exciting than the standard sling tote out there. I like supporting my friend’s business, so I’m glad to have purchased it. I think Gillian was more than fair in price, and her quick turnaround was superb. I’d rate this entire transaction a 5 out of 5 as my only beefs are ones I didn’t foresee in my wish list (like the strap), so I highly recommend Pip Robins.
Update! We’ve had this chair for a while now, and I’ve got some additional thoughts. I’ll add them in blue in the appropriate place. (Jan 4, 2010)
When Kale was born, his Nana and Grandpa (my mom and step-dad) offered to buy Kale’s high chair as a gift when the time came. I put it off for a while since our place is very small and storage is a premium and because I was concentrating so hard on Kale accomplishing things like “holding his head up” or “not puking all the breastmilk up”. But he finally started showing signs of wanting to sit up rather than chill out in his pod chair, so I started my research. I spent a long time reading reviews, product specs, and asking around before finally settling on the Euro II High Chair and Feeding Tray from One Step Ahead Baby.
We’ve had this high chair for a while now, and I held off on the product review for a few reasons: I haven’t yet had the opportunity to adjust the foot and bum rests and I wanted to see how it stood up as far as durability. Sure it looks good, but did it deliver?
To answer that question, I need to give you some more info about how I picked this chair over others. I love the idea of grow-with-you furniture for children – furniture that can be adjusted and tinkered with so that it has a longer life in your house and essentially “grows” with your child. I also really wanted a high chair that was made from wood. I abhor the plastic-y ones that are most commonly available, and I find that most commercial high chairs are adorned with licensed cartoon characters. We all know how much I hate the disney-fication of children’s products. It was also important to me that the chair we selected was able to be pulled up to our table – studies and experts agree that eating around the family table encourages development in a number of positive ways, and besides, establishing a family meal time is important to me regardless of what science tells me. I really was keen on the type of chair that attaches to your table, but alas, our table is too wide. Additionally, most of the sling over the back of a chair style of high chair won’t work because our table chairs are short and wide and upholstered leather. So I had to find a free standing chair.
The Stokke Tripp Trapp was the first chair I looked at. It’s from the same makers as the fancy-dancy Stokke Sleepi, the round-to-oval-to-chairs bed that I fell in love with (but not its $1000 price tag – holy smokes) way back when looking for a crib. I like Stokke products- they are nice looking, made from durable materials, and are smartly designed to last for a while rather than be used and tossed like so many other children’s products. Almost all of them are designed to last through a number of your child’s growth stages. The Tripp Trapp comes in a number of colours, is readily available at my local baby supply store and Canadian retailers (though, not at the mass marketer, Babies R Us), and comes highly recommended from experts. It has add-on features a-plenty – different coloured cushions and trays and what not – and its simple lines and modern aesthetic is pleasing. But just like the Sleepi, the price tag is completely ridiculous. Here in Canada, I wasn’t able to find the Stokke Tripp Trapp for any cheaper than about $300. I did find it used for $150, but it didn’t come with any of the add ons, like a tray, a cushion, or the belt and the ad read “as is” so what that means I don’t know.
There are a LOT of Tripp Trapp knock offs out there – Hippo Smile makes one but it’s not meant to be used till 18 months, and Kettler, which has two different offerings (one converts to a table and chairs after) but has a lower weight maximum (note, prices listed on the Kettler site are US funds). There are others, too, that I am electing not to link to because they simply look poorly constructed or made with inferior quality materials or because of simple annoyances, like “children” is spelled incorrectly on their website. (Seriously, you are selling children’s products, try spell check, it works GREAT). There are also a number of small run productions selling on eBay at greatly reduced prices, but the fine print indicates that the maximum weights of the knock-offs aren’t nearly as high as the Stokke, and they have no warranties, etc and tend to not come with feeding trays or other accesories.
But I simply can’t justify spending that much money on a dinner table chair when I am on mat leave, no matter how many years use we may get out of it. Period.
So I eventually ended up at One Step Ahead Baby, who sell the Euro II Feeding Chair as an exclusive item. It’s made by a company called Badger (who has absolutely no presence on the web) for One Step Ahead Baby out of wood, with a vinyl covered foam cushion that velcros on. The 5 point safety harness is made from standard webbing.
The chair, at $99.95 US, comes in cherry finish or natural finish, and can hold from 18-150 pounds. It’s safe for you to use with your baby once they can hold their heads up. The feeding tray, at $29.95 US, is a plastic two part shaped tray that screws on and off the chair with relative ease. The chair comes unassembled, and includes the hardware you require to put it together.
When I ordered the chair and tray, the US and Canadian dollar were relatively close. The chair, tray, and shipping came to $156 US which worked out to about $170 Canadian at the time.
The only shipping option is UPS, which is a drag because UPS charges an arm and a leg to clear customs. So not only do you pay the One Step Ahead company for shipping, you also pay UPS to clear your package, AND you also have to pay duty and taxes on the chair and tray because of course, they are both made in China. I ended up paying the UPS driver $77 Canadian, so now we are looking at about $240. Not a whole lot different from the Tripp Trapp, right? Dear Hindsight, nice to see you.
In any event, the Euro II chair comes with instructions, hardware, and one of those useless little hexagonal tools that you get from Ikea. I think we have about 50 of these things kicking around the house, and don’t use any of them because we have a screwdriver set with a hexagonal bit. The instructions for assembly are TERRIBLE. I’m the Queen of Assembly when it comes to Ikea furniture but this silly little chair, with no more than 10 pieces confused the hell out of me, primarly where it came to installing the safety harness, which, when you think about it, is likely the most important piece of the thing. The instructions also indicate that you should have approximately 2-3 inches of the foot rest sticking out on either side when assembled, which is flat out impossible when the foot rest is set to the highest level. One Step Ahead sent me a bot-email a few days after I received the chair, asking for my feedback on the product and I was sure to point out how incredibly crappy their assembly instructions are. One Step Ahead didn’t even acknowledge my response. Boo on them.
I eventually figured out how to set the thing up, and once I did, it made sense and was simple. To adjust, you simply loosen two screws, move the bum rest and foot rest to the height you want, and then tighten it back up.
Kale LOVES his chair and some of our best memories so far include this chair. This was the first time trying rice cereal ever.
As you can see in those pictures, he isn’t wearing the safety harness. Why, you may ask? Well, that’s because it doesn’t adjust well and is too big for my little skinny minnie. Someone pointed out that harnesses on high chairs are more valuable when you have a child old enough to climb out and you want to keep them in. So, until then, Kale goes harness free. Although Kale can now get out of the chair, the harness still doesn’t adjust well. We simply don’t use it.
He likes this chair because it puts him high enough to be a part of the action, whereas his pod chair did not. He also likes to bang things on the tray, and enjoys throwing things from the seat. I like this chair because it gives me a few minutes here and there where he is safely occupied and I can do things like take hot stuff out of the oven. I also like it because I like that Kale can watch and observe and be a part of the family, too.
What I don’t like is the seat stains. They use really cheap white vinyl and I’m hesitant to use Comet or some other abrasive cleaner on it for fear of it tearing. It actually tore only a few weeks after I wrote this inital review. I ended up sewing a cover out of waterproof fabric. So, it has splotches of orange (sweet potato), green (avocado), and brown (banana after it oxidizes). I also had to apply those fuzzy felt feet to the bottom of the chair, as the bottoms of the legs are unfinished and it was leaving marks on the laminate. Now that Kale is bigger, he also likes to hang off the back of the high chair when lunch is just about ready. I know one of these days the centre of gravity will shift on the chair and it will come tumbling onto his head. And lastly, two thumbs down for One Step Ahead – not only did they not acknowledge my complaint about assembly instructions (I figure why ask if you aren’t even going to acknowledge what I tell you?) but also thumbs down for not offering any other variety of shipping – like say for example, the US Postal Service who clears customs to Canada for FREE. One Step Ahead has pretty much ensured I won’t be a repeat shopper.
But I do like this chair and I’m happy with it. I’m rating it a 3/5 Jens… the customer service, assembly instructions, and high cost of importing this piece reallycast a shadow on the actual positives the chair offers.
I’m changing my mind on this one. This chair is only going to rate a 2/5 Jens. It’s safety features don’t work properly, the vinyl seat ripped way too easily, the straps of the harness are awful, and it looks like it will be tipping over soon enough. I actually think I’m going to sell this chair, and pick up another strap on booster seat. At least that is portable!
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