Stretch Mark Massage Oils

Posted on Feb 28, 2013 in Pregnancy | 0 comments

Look, look! A twin egg again!!

I’ve been using a massage oil for the last month (4 months of pregnancy) to avoid stretch marks on my tummy.
And now I feel itchy on my tummy. Is it because the oils might be not so suitable for my skin? No, that’s not it. Now the skin seems to be really starting to stretch. That’s why. I had a big tummy before due to too much eating occasionally, but not this big. So I have to ask my tummy skin to do its best.

At first I referred to this page (Japanese page). “Use a good oil everyday and don’t skip, even for one day. If you forget, a stretch mark might appear.” Oh, that’s scary… Well, not so much, but I don’t want a lot of them to appear if it’s avoidable. So I got the recommended one in the page (on the right). It was sold in Canada, too. It’s a German product. I noticed Germany has good aroma-related products. This is Stretch Mark Massage Oil from WELEDA. It smells like real aroma essential oil, which I used to smell at really nice aroma therapy salons I visited in Hong Kong. Very comfortable smell.
The one on the left was a gift from our HK friend, S. Thank you very much. It’s miracle oil from a British brand, Boo Boo. The nice refreshing citrus smell makes me feel good too.
If I go and join aroma classes, I could make these nice oils in a way I like, but I don’t know how, so I’ll buy them for now.

To avoid stretch marks, taking a lot of liquid and exercise are as important as the massage oil. To stretch the skin nicely, it needs new cells. To create new cells, we need good nutrition, water, and blood circulation.

My doctor says massage oil is a waste of money, but I don’t think so.

Happy Eggs!

Posted on Feb 24, 2013 in Animals, Living | 0 comments

I had eggs yesterday morning and this morning.

Yesterday, I got a twin egg, aka “double yolk”! I think I’ve never cracked a twin egg before. Probably the first time! It means good luck, doesn’t it?

And then this morning, again! It’s rare that I cook eggs 2 days in a row, so it has never happened that I got twins in a row!!!

Super Lucky!?

What kind of lucky things will happen to me!?

And then this morning, my late-rising hubby also made eggs for his breakfast, and it was also a twin! This time I took a picture.
I read young mama hens can lay twin eggs more easily. So these could be from the same mama. But still it’s only 1 or 2 % chance to lay twins.
3 twin eggs in one dozen already. Could be still counting…

Anxiety about how to treat “economic animals” is never ending, and human selfishness makes them suffer so much and they become our food. We still have some choices to treat them better.

One of them is to make hens roam free a bit more out of their cages. If we choose to buy “Free Range” or “Free Run”, demand for that will increase, and encourage farmers to shift to these better conditions.
In fact, in more health conscious countries, people are buying more “Free Range” or “Free Run” eggs. These are a bit more expensive, but when you think of a pregnant woman being caged in her room, compared to a pregnant woman being freely active by going out of the house/getting exercise/getting more sunshine, of course, the latter can produce a much healthier baby. It’s easy to imagine. (I always put myself in the animal’s shoes, and I get a headache very easily.)

In Hong Kong, we saw “Free Run” eggs at the supermarkets, but they are double or triple the cost of cheaper eggs. So we couldn’t buy them all the time. Very expensive.
But in Canada, they are less than double the price. I wonder how it is in Japan.

By the way, I didn’t know the difference between “Free Range” and “Free Run”.

Free-run eggs:
“Free-run” means chickens can move around in open barns, but they don’t necessarily have access to the great outdoors and overcrowding may still be an issue.
Certification: none

Free-range eggs:
“Free-range” means hens see the light of day (depending on the weather) and their feet actually come in contact with the earth.
Certification: none

So, these ones aren’t independently verified!?
When I read the David Suzuki Foundation‘s page, an even better one is “Organic”. To print that on the product, they have to be certified by passing the highest welfare standards. So it’s the best!

Organic:
Hens that produce certified organic eggs benefit from the highest welfare standards. For example, the BC SPCA Certified label assures eggs come from farms that have passed their animal welfare standards. Certified organic labels often require the use of organic feed without growth hormones or antibiotics, too.

Reference: David Suzuki Foundation

Organic eggs… I’ve never seen them at Super Store, I think. Low standard…

To eat healthy food, it costs money… it can’t be helped.

The Creperie

Posted on Feb 23, 2013 in Restaurants | 0 comments

Jan 16

3 of my Japanese girlfriends and I went to The Creperie for lunch.

It was under ground, so it feels dark, but it’s a big restaurant and has a wine-cellar-like nice atmosphere. There were some negative comments on Urbanspoon such as “dusty” or “dwindled”, but I didn’t feel so too much. It was not crowded at all though.

A 3-course (salad, main course, dessert) sounded a good deal. All of us had that.
Nice big selections for salad and main, so it took some time to decide! I decided California Salad, which had nice fruity raspberry vinaigrette dressing on it. There were as much as 3 selections of crepes for vegetarians! Nice! I had a Crepe Ratatouille, which is zucchini,tomato, eggplant,red and green peppers, onion, garlic and herbs, topped with our cheese mix and wrapped with our herb crepe and topped with cheese!
Dessert was also crepe.
We had a really great time eating and chatting.

One week later, I went back there with my hubby.
This time, I had Crepe Florentine, which is creamed spinach with mushrooms sprinkled with mozzarella cheese. He had a seafood crepe.
It would be nice to come for dinner too.

The Creperie
(780) 420-6656
Downtown
10220 103 St, Edmonton

Ice on Whyte 2013

Posted on Feb 23, 2013 in News / Topics | 0 comments

Feb 1

First, fill your belly. We had omelette and blueberry pancakes. Yummy!

We went to see “Ice on Whyte”. This competition started in 2003, because some individual artists wanted to exhibit.
We visited this exhibition last year as well.
I forgot how much the entrance fee was last year, but this time it was $5. This year the volume of sculptures seemed less than last year. I wonder if it depends on the year as the artists are busy traveling from one festival to another and the schedules don’t match or something…

For a few days before this day, it was around -25 c. No worry about melting, but it’s too cold to go out. This day the temperature went up and it was around -2 c. The next day’s forecast was around zero, so it must melt quite a lot. Even this day, we saw some sculptures melting or even falling!

 

This one is called “Chase”, but the deer had fallen and was broken… :

This was the original:

Very beautiful. (I borrowed the image from this official site.)

This day, it was “Dutch Day” at the event, and Dutch artists were carving a  famous Dutch person (?). We think it’s the future king??