a peek inside the fishbowl

This giveaway is over and we have a winner! Thanks for your entries everyone!

Regular readers have already heard all about terra20; they’re a Fishbowl patron and also happen to be one of my favourite places to shop in Ottawa. To summarize: terra20’s mission is to encourage a healthier, sustainable lifestyle. Check out their holiday flyer. It’s gorgeous, and will give you an idea as to the kinds of products they carry if you’ve never been.

terra20 is committed to a number of key values that are important to me, and one of those has to do with supporting Canadian businesses. I love to buy Canadian products, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do so. I prefer to shop closer to home because I like knowing that my purchase helps our economy, don’t you? There’s a host of great reasons to buy Canadian, which are expertly outlined right here. (I guarantee there’s at least one aspect of shopping Canadian that you haven’t thought of yet!)

terra20 is Canadian (in fact, they’re an Ottawa-based company!) and over a third of the products they carry are made in Canada. There is a lot to choose from, more than any other store I’ve visited in recent memory. And thanks to a smart system of icons, I can see, at a glance, what the product costs, whether it’s sustainable, green certified, and Canadian made. (Yay!)

Some of my personal fave Canadian brands include Cate and Levi and ecojot. I’ve also been eyeballing these Artech recycled beer bottle glasses, and Whitewater Premium eco-soy candles (grapefruit and rosemary for me please!) and I’m seriously thinking of buying a pair of Preloved children’s mittens for the Christmas tree because they’re so adorable I can hardly stand it.

So here’s the good news! terra20 is giving Fishbowl readers a chance to win a $100 gift certificate, just in time for the holidays.

Interested? Please read the following carefully.

• This giveaway is for one gift card with a value of $100.
• This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
• In order for your entry to qualify, take a look through the terra20 online store and tell us how you’d spend your gift card if you won. Leave a link so we can pad our own Christmas lists! :)
• For a bonus entry, leave a second comment with a link to a different, Canadian-made product you’d like to see under the tree this year. (Hint: the best way to do this is to start in the “Made in Canada” category.)
• Please note, the winner of this giveaway must pick up their gift card at terra20 in a timely manner at the location of their choice (Pinecrest or West Wellington).
• If you can’t post your comment for whatever reason you can email it to me for posting at andrea at quietfish dot com. Please note, I cannot be responsible if your entry is misdirected or gets stuck in my Spam folder.

I will draw one name using Random.org at noon EST on December 5, 2014. I’ll contact the winner via email at that time and post it in the comments below. That’s it! Over to you!

p.s. terra20 is very much a local success story here in Ottawa, and I was thrilled to find out they’re participating in the Shop the Neighbourhood campaign. (You can read more about my participation in that here.) The first 50 people in the Wellington West store on November 29 will receive a $10 terra20 gift card. All the more reason to drop by and get your holiday shopping underway!

As someone who snaps an awful lot of photos of my kids, you might be surprised to learn that I secretly love school photos. And despite the fact that a part of me is annoyed at forking money over every fall, I keep doing it. Every year. There is one main reason for this: the posed portrait is a moment in history that’s worth keeping. It’s been so since the dawn of photography.

Photography has changed dramatically since the days of film, hasn’t it? Our eldest was born at the tail end of the film era. Mark and I took lots of photos, even before she was born. I remember how expensive it was, how careful I had to be with the images to which I committed a snap of the shutter. Rolls of 24 and 36, printed 5 x 7 WITH borders via a mail order service; it added up. (What can I say? I had high standards even back then.) The move to digital changed the way we take photos. We are no longer so discriminating. Continuous burst means hundreds of photos can be shot in one single moment. Suddenly, photographs weren’t reserved for holidays and birthdays anymore. This is how we accumulated thousands of photos documenting the lives of our children; not just on special days, but every other kind of day. Yet I still make room for the school photos.

The beauty in the school photo lies in the inconsistent consistencies that arise from year-to-year. On one hand, all of the photos have a few things in common: they are posed, with even lighting and backgrounds, kids facing the camera and sitting up straight. But that’s where the similarities end. The subject might be wearing a favourite outfit along with a smirk or a smile or a funny face. Or maybe the camera caught them by surprise. Maybe the hair got brushed that day, maybe it didn’t. Maybe the collar was itchy or the sleeves were dirty because of a playground incident. Maybe there’s a gap-toothed grin or first glasses or shiny braces. They mark the years, and children’s personalities, in a way I can’t quite give up on.

The prints become a tangible reminder of the passage of time. As those wallet-sized photos collect in our wallets over time, we are able to witness your children’s growth in a way that a scroll through thousands of digital snaps might not satisfy.

These are the photos that will linger in boxes and in scrapbooks, be tucked away in their respective envelopes and eventually divided up and handed down to our children’s children, I’m sure, amid exclamations and squeals of surprise. My kids marvel at my crazy punkish grade ten haircut and they appreciate the story that goes along with it. They find it hard to imagine a time when their father had long hair. We still laugh about how Mark fainted during his class photo one year, although I’m sure it wasn’t funny at the time. (The photo caught him mid-fall if you can believe it.)

I’m glad we have our school photos, and I’m sure they’ll be glad to have theirs too.

Related stories for your amusement and distraction:

• School teacher wears the same outfit for 40 years of yearbook photos
• Four sisters take a photo of themselves every year
• The Goldberg family portraits started in 1976

The answer is yes, in case you were wondering.

I made this salad for lunch yesterday and it turned out really well. BEHOLD:

If you grew up in the era of soggy, mushy, overcooked Brussels sprouts this might be the recipe that changes your life forever.

Here’s the original recipe. Clearly, the trick to avoiding overcooked Brussels sprouts is by not cooking them at all. HA.

I followed all of the directions in the recipe but added bacon on top (because, hello, BACON), used green onions instead of shallots, and added a dollop of honey to the dressing. That’s it!

Also, it is truly a good idea to let this dish rest at room temperature for awhile before serving. The flavours come together and the shaved Brussels sprouts soften in the lemony dressing. Let me know if you try this recipe!